Familiar Places with Fresh Thoughts

To go to Phnom Penh, I have to travel for about 2.5hours and also gota cross a river via a vehicle ferry. I have done that many times because I gota run errands and settle official matters in Phnom Penh.

On this particular day that I was on the way to Phnom Penh (via the public bus) and thereafter to travel to another village resort in another province, I saw things in a different perspective. Perhaps it is because I was traveling without work pressure at that time.

When I reached the ferry station, there was this throng of hawkers running towards our vehicle trying to sell their stuff. I used to ignore them and sometimes find them irritating. This time, as I watched them, I found that they were also very pitiful. Somehow I could pull myself away from being irritated and pitied them instead. It was like seeing things in a bigger picture, maybe it is something like a bird’s eye view and somehow reckon that their pestering to sell was survival for them.

And the view of overloaded vehicles are common on the road in Cambodia, especially vehicles going back to the provinces from Phnom Penh. Overloaded with people and goods vehicle are the norm and sometimes I cannot but feel that our vehicles in Singapore are all under used. A motor bike can take up to five people (with one child, inclusive). A Toyota Camry can take up to eight people, four in front and four at the back (and this is the norm) and sometimes they squeeze more than eight in a Toyota Camry!!!

Sometimes I wonder if I should be thankful to Singapore government for keeping law and order and make Singapore into a, ‘everything also cannot’ country or I should be frustrated with Cambodia government for being a, ‘everything also can’ country or be glad that Cambodia has a lot of freedom to do their things their way…..?

Yes, they have so much freedom that corruption is perennial and rampant! And also ‘legal’! The school teachers could outrightly ‘give’ the students exam questions before the exam and in return get an agreed ‘reward’. Students in the school can upkeep their first position in class with ‘special arrangement’. And governing authorities charge mercilessly for a building permit. And somehow, I have to ‘participate’ in this act of being charged mercilessly as my organization is undergoing a new construction for Hope Training Centre. I have been wondering, ‘What would Jesus do?’ I am left with no choice because this is the system, and if I do not comply, I cannot get the building permit! I realize that it is a lot easier to keep ‘righteousness’ back in my country in Singapore than in a third world country. I somehow feel that I am encouraging corruption…. Or perhaps this is just a different way of doing things in different countries? I do not know. WWJD…..?

As the bus journeys, vast expanse of padi fields are common sights. As I continue to gaze at the humungous stretch of land, my response (and I believe many Singaporeans’ response as well) was, ‘what a waste of land!’ But to the Cambodians, this is survival! Rice is of supreme importance to them. In my orphanage, we eat rice for breakfast, lunch and dinner. 365days of three meals – rice, and that is 1095 rice meals!!! And this is Cambodia.