new record: 2 days

I may have caught up with my reading plan! Just finished The Road of Lost Innocence in two days. So it's a quick read, but I am feeling good about myself. :)

That said, much of it was difficult to read. Somaly Mam has an organization in Cambodia (and now in surrounding countries) rescuing and restoring women and children in the sex industry. This was her own story of being sold into a brothel as a child, the abuse and violence she suffered, and how she used her experiences to help other women and girls with her same plight.

It was good to learn more about the beginnings of her foundation and what they are doing in this region of the world, and though I'm familiar with the industry and the violence and exploitation, it's still hard to read the terrible and unbelievable stories of little girls being sold by their parents into prostitution, their virginity being sold, and even some situations where parents fight to get their kids back from the shelter so they can sell them again. In this culture, a woman's value is nothing except what profit she can bring to her family. It's still really sad for me to think about how whole cultures can hold such wrong views. As a Cambodian, Somaly can speak to this fairly and in an unbiased way. (Our own cultures have wrong views too, of course.)

It is an engrossing, quick read if you want to learn more about this situation.

Chab Dai & Greece

most common form of transportation in Phnom Penh

I realized I never talked here about my visit with Chab Dai in Phnom Penh, Cambodia last month. I think it was fruitful, and I got some good contacts and a few useful resources. Helen, the director, had some great ideas for building up our resource center here, and I was able to meet and establish connections with a lot of the staff there. The world is small in the anti-trafficking circles. :) Now back in Athens, it's been interesting to compare and contrast the situations in Greece and Cambodia (and Thailand).

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To avoid the general suspicion (feelings of being threatened, territorialism, you name it) that is so common here in this country when a new group comes in, we've developed a "resource timeline" to more clearly outline what we want to do. (I'm learning a few lessons in humility here, as I wrote the timeline and people are now asking to use it in California, where Lydia Today used it at a conference. Hey! That's mine!! Anyway.) As we outline specific needs that victims/survivors of trafficking or other commercial sexual exploitation encounter at each phase (rescue phase, restoration/rehabilitation phase, long term aftercare, repatriation/reintegration into society, self sufficiency), we can begin to plug in local resources and/or trained individuals. Many of these organizations already exist; it's a matter of connecting them all.

Anyway, it's quite different from what Chab Dai does (I think it's different from what anyone has done, actually), but I think many of their ideas are great ones. They have forums specific to areas of care (shelters, child abuse, law enforcement) that run themselves and meet regularly, and they have two big meetings per year with everyone. They have a required commitment to continued learning and sharing information, they are heavy on community education, and they have a great resource center & library available to the community.

We're still trying to think of a name for this project, so we can register it as a Greek NGO. We're trying to hammer out things like mission statement and vision, and later will present it to several churches in the area to establish a core group to go through the Hands That Heal training, and then beyond the church.

There, I've given away all my secrets. I was inspired by what Chab Dai has been able to accomplish - a coalition of over 40 (only Christian) organizations in just a couple of years. I keep getting these ideas of things I'd like to try here in Greece, from the coalition, to business ventures for survivors, to a music project involving some of the girls on the streets. Ha ha. I need to keep my focus on what I'm doing at the moment!

Phnom Penh, part 2

It is clear that the city of Phnom Penh is still recovering from the loss of so many lives under the Khmer Rouge Regime and from the lasting blow to its economy. As a result, the streets don't seem as crowded as they do in other big cities, and the population is noticeably poorer. Tuk-tuk drivers and motorbike "taxis" aggressively pursued me, and once delivering me to my destination, they would often insist on waiting for me in the hope of a return trip - which I soon realized may be one of their only chances for business for the day with tourism having taken a recent downturn. (This picture was an accident, but hey, it shows my view for a better part of the day)...I felt slightly out of place here as a female tourist traveling on my own; at one point I walked down a road toward a temple I could see in the distance and quickly noticed I was the only female in sight. Worse, there were monks everywhere, and they, along with the other men, were accutely interested in my activities (which only happened to include walking down the street). I saw monk robes hanging in doorways, drying from recent laundering, and hordes of monks congregating all down the street. I finally saw one old lady, a vendor trying to sell her product to a few men who were busy avoiding being struck by a group of teenage boys playing with a hackey sack. However, I decided the temple wasn't worth it the weirdness I was feeling; I've seen plenty of temples on this trip! So I turned back.

As I was exiting the street, a young monk caught up with me and started talking. Is that allowed? In Bangkok we were told repeatedly don't touch the monks, they can't touch women. I guess I assumed that meant they wouldn't be talking to us either. :) But he wanted to try out his English and be seen talking to me in front of his friends, who were waiting down the street in a tuk-tuk, grinning at him. I had to laugh.
I was also intrigued that they use US dollars as their currency; all prices are listed in USD and my familiar green bills came shooting out of the ATM. In fact, when I arrived, I had to change my Euros into dollars. I don't even know what their actual currency is called; I only saw it when my change was less than a dollar. Rather than use coins, they give you thousands of their Riel (I just looked it up); one dollar is around 4200 Riel.

My hotel was great - minus the 15 mosquitoes I killed in my room upon arrival and also the power outage in the morning - and I had the best night's sleep there on the whole trip. It's only too bad I didn't have more time to enjoy it:

Walked down near the river and around the city a bit...I didn't take too many photos here, but this was priceless...

Why not have an aerobics class in the park? I also saw one in a large u-turn lane on a busy boulevard. What fumes?

Two days in Phnom Penh (part 1)

So, early Monday morning I flew from Bangkok to Phnom Penh, Cambodia's capital and largest city. Phnom Penh is a city that is very much shaped by its relatively recent history. There is a lot of great architecture, with French colonial influence and traditional Buddhist palaces, and the people were very warm, but it is still recovering (along with the whole country) from the brutal policies of the Khmer Rouge regime that ruled Cambodia for four years starting in 1975.

In April of 1975, Communist Party leader Pol Pot implemented a radical scheme to turn the country into an agrarian collective, leaving the cities mostly empty from forced relocations, imprisonment, and executions. The entire population of Phnom Penh was ordered to leave the city and take on new lives as working peasants in the countryside. Under Pol Pot's directive, the Khmer Rouge tortured and executed nearly all educated people, including teachers, doctors, writers, and their entire families. Many more Cambodians died due to malnutrition or starvation. By the end of the Khmer Rouge's four-year rule, between two and four million Cambodians lost their lives.
I visited the Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum, a former school that was used as a Khmer Rouge prison. It is quite a heavy place, as you can imagine; it still houses torture devices and extensive blood stains remain all over the place. Room after room of photos depict victims before and after their torture and death. There are mugshots of each victim that were taken before (or sometimes after) their execution: men, women with their babies in their arms, young children.
I didn't have time to go out to the killing fields, but saw a video and many photos of the mass graves, skulls, and a memorial monument. It is really a horrific and terribly sad place. You can feel the weight of what took place as you walk through the buildings. It's a sobering way to spend an afternoon, but I think it's important; there are so many things that we hear little about in the west because it doesn't affect us financially. Yet you can't be in Cambodia without facing the reality of what took place - it affects every level of society.

I didn't particularly enjoy my time in Phnom Penh. I don't think it was Phnom Penh's fault; traveling alone finally got to me, I think. I saw what I wanted to see, but I didn't feel 100% comfortable being there on my own. Also, it could have been the heaviness and overall feel of the city. Anyway, I was sure glad when that taxi came to take me to the airport, kind of...

I'm ready to go home.

I think I have experienced some sort of culture confusion these last few days. Two weeks is no time at all, but in the very-short-term mindset, it's plenty of time to start learning your surroundings, directions, obvious culture patterns, etc. After this trip, I will return not to my own culture but another different one (Greece, doy). I was learning that one, now I've been in this one - can't remember parts of that one at the moment. And Voula is going to kill me; I haven't studied Greek once.

I have told a couple people that if I had come to Bangkok nine months earlier, it's quite possible that I could have ended up in Thailand instead of Greece. The culture is so much different (something about a SE Asian culture vs. a European culture seems so foreign to me), and the weather is insane (permanent sweating, ick), but the ministry is already thriving and there is already community in Bangkok. I'd definitely like to come back. I have a feeling my involvement with NightLight is not finished. (Don't freak out - I'm confident Greece is where I'm supposed to be for now.) :)

It's been so interesting to me to compare the sex industry in Athens vs. Bangkok. I know, it's weird that I think about these things! But really, in Athens it's still kind of a back alley, seedy side street thing. Sure, they may have trafficked in close to 60,000 more women in 2004 for the Olympics to meet the need of the huge tourist influx (shocking but true). But you don't go to Athens for sex. You go for the Acropolis, Greek food, and all the other amazing things to do in Greece. Sure, it's easy to find, for those who want it. But in Bangkok, the sex industry IS the tourist attraction. It is the reason the "tourists" come. It's just a totally different mindset. The popular streets, the famous areas, are the ones with the bars and the girls. It's the so-called "sex capital of the world." Lovely reputation.

Anyway, I'm in Phnom Penh now. Not my favorite. I'm really eager to go home tomorrow. It's been a long two weeks. Really good, but long.

In just a few short days...

Wat Arun, Bangkok. Image borrowed from here.

I've got just two full days left before I leave on my trip! I don't get Monday, because I've got a little excursion planned. So this weekend I'll be doing all those last-minute things to get ready to go to Thailand and Cambodia on Tuesday.

It's a little weird going overseas from already being overseas. But, as this is home now, I shall be trying to figure out where to get bug spray and other necessities from any pharmacy that I can find that is open on Saturdays (how's that for planning ahead?).

So - I am really looking forward to this trip!! I loved, loved working with Charity last year during my job with the Salvation Army. Partnering with her organization, NightLight, to do outreach and prayer and other events, was definitely a highlight. I am excited to see her, catch up, pray together, and hear about the ways she has been fighting human trafficking literally all over the world the last few months.

We'll be in Bangkok and I think Pattaya (a city known specifically for its sex industry!), etc. for about nine days. I've mentioned before that Thailand gets 59% of their nationwide income from the sex industry. NightLight started in 2005 as a business employing women coming out of prostitution. As of last summer they had 72 women employed, and over 120 women have come through the program. I'm so excited to see their business model and meet these amazing women. We will be doing outreach in the red light district and I know I will see things I've never seen before - it may be the same "trade," but it looks different in every part of the world. I am praying for a really meaningful, stirring, maybe even shocking (I'm not easily shocked) time there.

And then onto Phnom Penh, Cambodia. I am looking forward to my meeting with one of the directors of the Chab Dai Coalition, a Christian organization that is made up of over 40 agencies and organizations fighting sex trafficking there. Last year I was helping teach a segment in a Hands that Heal course in Long Beach and I met one of the girls who works for them. We got to talking and this visit is the result of that. I have many questions - I hope to learn a lot of things that I can bring back here to implement in Greece. They have bi-annual meetings with all their members, and they do community education, trainings, offer resources, and have a research center and library. So much of what I'd love to see happen here! The Greek mentality about working together is so different...

I will have two days there, so I might have time to visit some of the sights there - I've made a list. Near the top would be the genocide museum; the city is still recovering from the Khmer Rouge regime of the '70s, so it will be interesting (and sobering) to see the effects of that and learn more about the history.

Wow! Should be an amazing experience. I'd say my self-confidence about traveling solo has skyrocketed in the past year, so I feel ready, and I'm really looking forward to learning and absorbing everything I can!