Monkeys!

In an earlier post I mentioned seeing two monkeys near Wat Phnom. On the tour of Phnom Penh this week we went to Wat Phnom and while there we spoke with some food vendors at Wat Phnom. They said that the monkeys come out to eat everyday at 2:00. Well, since learning about this on Thursday I have been eager to get back to Wat Phnom at 2:00 so I could see the monkeys. Today was the day. I got there about 10 minutes before 2:00 and there were no monkeys. I scanned the grounds and the trees, but there were no signs of any monkeys and then just like clockwork right at 2:00 a group of about 10 monkeys (including a few baby monkeys) appeared across the street and were eating coconuts, leaves of some sort, and hunting the grounds of scraps. They are so agile - sitting on top of the fence and using both "hands" to hold and maneuver food, crossing on telephone wires, jumping from one place to another high up in the air, and even sitting on a van's windshield wipers. They seemed a bit camera shy.

Today's Sunrise

Monkey descending wire to get food below

Agile monkey balancing on the fence while holding two coconut
shells and about to jump to the rooftop

Wat Phnom - hire wire monkey

 

 

 

Phnom Penh Tour

Today Neth and I took a tour of Phnom Penh with the Hard Places​ Community Punlok Thmey tour company. “Punlok Thmey” translates as “new growth” and is so named because of the transformational changes that Hard Places Community helps to facilitate in the lives of the young men who come to HPC from a life of living on the streets with no family. When these young men come to HPC they are received with unconditional love and are treated with dignity and respect, not judgment and condemnation. These young men are given free language instruction English and then are given the opportunity to use this newly acquired language skill to have a job working as a guide for the tour company. As our guide, Rotha, told us today – he now has a family; he is in God’s family. The tour is not a typical tourist’s tour of Phnom Penh, but this tour shows people places that locals go to and the guide gives a personal perspective on what it is like for Cambodians living in Phnom Penh. One thing that I learned today: the word “Phnom” translates “mountain” or “hill”. “Penh” is the name of a woman who, as legend has it, found a hollow log floating near her home during a flood and in the log she found 4 Buddha statues. She saw this as a sign that she was to build a new temple, which she did and she carved the piece that is behind this Buddha in the Wat Phnom temple from the wood of the log.  One way that symbolizes the respect to Buddha is to place money, flowers, incense, and food at the temple. In the market today we saw that you can buy fake money to do this – some resembling USD and there are also other kinds of fake money that has gold foil on it. In the temple, there is not a square inch that isn’t painted (including the ceiling). It is quite remarkable to see. There are lotus flowers in vases all over the place and also a large bowl of water with lotus petals floating in it that visitors use to wash their faces. On the hillside leading up the temple there is a large clock built into the ground and surrounded by a huge serpent that I think is made out of bamboo. There is a sign by the clock that reads “Keep off the watch”. One of the benefits that Employment Services Cambodia (Neth’s and my new business) will offer clients is to have access to HPC Punlok Thmey tours at a discounted price. We see this as a win-win-win as it will help clients get to know Phnom Penh better, it will support the HPCPT guides, and will support HPC to be able to reach and support more young men and women.

LadyPenh at Wat Phnom

 

Wat Phnom Temple

 

Lotus Flowers at Wat Phnom

 

Wat Phnom - giant clock

 A couple of pictures from the market:

 

 

 

A Blessed Weekend

[This is posted a little late - I was waiting for the picture.] This has been a really nice weekend. Yesterday, I played tennis with some friends at 7:00 in the morning and then Skyped with my dear friend, Madge. It was such a great blessing to see her - even if only on a computer screen. Then I went to the gym for a nice workout followed by a refreshing swim; and then went to Neth and Ata's house for a thank you dinner for those who helped with their recent wedding. They served my favorite Khmer food to date: a delicious chicken with Khmer noodles and Khmer curry (prepared by Neth's father). Today at church we had the most amazing worship time. I wanted to take a video of it because the energy in the room was so high with people literally jumping and holding hands all throughout the congregation. I really felt yielded to God's Holy Spirit. But I didn't take any pictures. There are some things meant to be remembered only in our minds and not to be photographed. At the end of the service when the call for people in the congregation who wanted to newly commit their lives to follow Jesus was made about 50 people came forward. My heart feels so incredibly blessed to be here and see the Holy Spirit so alive and God's church growing so fast and strong here. After church I went to the hospital to visit a dear brother, Deth, who is recovering from his second surgery within a month. He looked good and strong though in the past month he has lost 14 pounds from the surgeries. He was telling me about his ministry work and he said something that really stuck in my mind, "the Word of God is rare". This led us to talk about the Word of God also being truth, and light, and a might sword. As he lay on his side I read to him that rare truth from Romans 12. The words cut to my heart and seemed to be just perfect for the moment we shared together. Then, to round out the day, I went to the Inter-Continental Hotel to meet some friends for a Christmas Fair followed with dinner at the Khmer-Thai restaurant. Most of us who went are people who by virtue of our decision to live as foreigners in Cambodia will not be home with family for Christmas. For me, this will be only the second time that I will not be with my brother to celebrate Christmas. It was a wonderful evening - filled with laughter, great fellowship, and delicious food. I was so encouraged by the people around me: Grace, a young attorney from Ireland (a new Employment Services Cambodia client); Mollie, a young medical doctor from England who has a beautiful spirit of joy and a deep love for God and for Cambodia; Ryan, a young man from Kansas who has already served missions in Napal and Cambodia at an age where many people do not even have their first job yet; and Yvonne, a young woman from the United States who is not only serving as a leader with a great ministry, but is also writing a book about the history of the church in Cambodia - such a fascinating topic and so timely. And we were also joined by other expats (Timmy, Steph, and Steve - Mollie's husband and a deep man of God) and by Neth, Ata, and their friend, Aron (sp?) who always make one's heart happy to be with. It was a really nice Christmas celebration before Thanksgiving. I also learned that a lot of people from different countries celebrate Thanksgiving! (Because of the late posting, I am able to also share a picture of the group from IRIS who kindly invited me to share Thanksgiving dinner with them tonight. Such an incredible feast and even more meaningful was the great fellowship we shared.)

Khmer-Thai Restaurant - Christmas dinner before Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving Dinner with IRIS team
 

Our New Website!

Employment Services Cambodia now has a website! ESC is the business that Neth and I just opened 14 days ago. You can get a sneak peek at what our website will look like by going to our Wix host site at: http://dennisescambodia.wix.com/escambodia# Let me know what you think of it; it is the first website I have ever designed and so it is pretty exciting to see it up and running. Please let me know if you like the picture of the hands on the homepage. Neth and I were the professional hand models for that picture.

In the future, our official website address will be: www.es-cambodia.com

Cambodian Rain

Having been born and raised in Seattle I know a thing or two about rain. But to my Seattle friends (and friends from other cities too) let me tell you about a type of rain that you may not have experienced before. In Phnom Penh it is sunny and very hot for most of the year, but when it rains here it rains like nothing I have ever seen in Seattle. Today, Neth and I had an appointment down by Independence Monument and when we were inside working we could see through the windows that clouds were coming in. It started to rain before we ended our work and when I went outside to begin my moto trek home there was a full-on Cambodian style downpour. What is this like? Well, imagine if you went swimming wearing a pair of jeans, a long-sleeve shirt, and your shoes, and then you stepped out of the pool. Now imagine being just a little wetter than that and that is what I looked like after riding my moto home tonight. It is the kind of wet that when you walk you feel and hear the water sloshing around in your shoes. It is the kind of wet that when you lean over even just a little bit a small stream of water flows off of some crevice in your body or clothing that has been holding a reservoir of water. It is the kind of wet that when you take off your shoes your socks stick to the floor. I learned that riding a moto in this kind of rain gives one the experience of being rained on from all different directions. Rain poured down hard from above and being behind a car it also rains up at you (from the car tires) and then also getting rain from the back (off my own tires) and the sides as other motos pass and splash up rain water from the puddles. It is kind of like going through a car wash, but without the car (and without the dryer at the end).

The business that Neth and I have started together, Employment Services Cambodia, is now 10 days young and it is such a great honor to work with Neth. We begin each work day with fellowship, worship songs, and prayer together; and God has blessed us beyond measure. We have also been tremendously encouraged by many people who when we share with them about our vision and mission they get excited about it along-side of us. At the end of our first two weeks we have gained the trust of 2 expat clients and 2 Cambodian businesses. Being so young we are in the exciting state of evolution where each step is into new, uncharted territory for our business. It gives us the opportunity to be creative, to really develop our work in alignment with the values we have, but even more importantly it humbles us and brings us to our knees before God – deepening our trust in Him.     

By the way, I tried taking a "selfie" to show how wet I was, but the camera kept slipping in my wet hands.

Kitihara Clinic

Saturday, 16 November 2013

I was invited to an event for the Japanese Kitihara Clinic at the Cambodiana Hotel. It began with a very heartfelt greeting from Dr. Kitihara who spoke about opening his clinics in Japan to focus on providing exceptional holistic care for patients suffering from serious neurological deficits. At present there are 5 Kitihara Clinics in Japan and as of December 2012 one in Cambodia. Dr. Kitihara shared with us about some of the testimonials from patients whose lives had been changed and saved through the clinics and he stated that healthcare is a very important part of the infrastructure of any country, just as much as electricity, water, and roads are. But healthcare is more than hospitals and medical facilities. It is about basic needs like healthy food, education about nutrition, and disease prevention. Therefore, healthcare is not confined to a hospital, but must be open to the community. Agriculture, education and housing all contribute to healthcare. Dr. Kitihara then introduced the event’s guest lecturer, Dr. Takeshi Kawase, the Honorary President of the World Federation of Neurosurgical Societies.

Dr. Kawase spoke on the topic, “What is Stroke?” and lectured about the diagnosis, treatment, and prevention of Stroke. It was an absolutely fascinating lecture – even for someone like me who knows very little about medicine. One of the main things that Dr. Kawase said we could do to prevent Stroke is to “not Westernize our diet” particularly regarding salty foods. He stated that the best diet is a plant-based diet. Following the lecture, there was a question and answer time and then a short break, which turned into a longer break; and I saw the Kitihara staff running around very nervously as we waited – a conference room full of people waiting, with no program, facing an empty stage. Then after about 20 minutes several security staff walked in and surveyed the room – pulling curtains shut, moving around some chairs and the podium on the stage. Then the doors behind me opened and I turned to see 20 security officers packed tightly together. Everyone in the room stood up and the guards moved toward the stage, remaining tightly packed  together, they moved like a cloud, and in the middle was Cambodian Minister of Health and Japanese Prime Minister, Shinzo Abe.

When the Minister of Health spoke I was kind of surprised by the softness of his voice. He seemed, in fact, to be rather timid. My ears perked up, though, when I heard him say “socapeup laah”, which I recognized because the vision of the new business I am starting with Neth is “socapeup laah, pahniek setakek kunong protae Kampochea” (Healthy economy, healthy workforce in Cambodia). As the Minister spoke I noticed that the entire room was in absolute silence – like the air has been sucked out of it. I wondered if this from respect for him or fear of the group of guards, standing erect, lining the perimeter of the room, eyes scanning left and right. The Japanese Prime Minister finished his comments (I did not understand his comments because they were spoken in Japanese and translated into Khmer) and he then gave a few minutes to pose on stage for some photos, then he left as he arrived – walking in the middle of a tightly packed large group of guards. He walked by me (not even two feet away) and I snapped a blurry picture on my phone. As soon as he left the sound in the room returned – scattered conversations, the low bustling sound of people shifting about in their chairs, and some laughter.

Sign at The Peace Palace on Russian Blvd

 



Prime Minister Abe on stage with the Cambodian
Minister of Health and distinguished Japanese doctors

A New Business

My New Business Card

I am excited to announce that on 11/12/13 Employment Services Cambodia began operations. The development of this business idea has been in the works for a couple of months and I am honored to be one of the co-founders with my good friend and brother in Christ, Neth Kong. This business will support the evolution in Cambodia that will bring a healthy economy and healthy workforce in Cambodia. For businesses who are looking for new employees we will help them to find the best candidates. For Cambodian nationals who are looking for employment we will provide them with training and we will match them with employers who have openings that are well-suited for their experiences, skills, and values. Once these clients are in the workplace we will also offer on-going training supports and will maintain regular contact with them to help ensure their continuing growth and success in the workplace. We will also serve foreigners who are considering moving to Cambodia (and expats who are already living in Cambodia) by helping them with the logistics around relocation, finding work in Cambodia, learning about Cambodian history, culture, and language. As with the Cambodian national clients we will also maintain regular on-going contact with our expat clients to support their transition to Cambodia and the new workplace.

In Cambodia, 46.4% of the workforce make less than $0.29/hour (the minimum wage for garment, textile, and shoe industry workers). Less than half the workforce (40%) have employment contracts, and only 5% are members of a union or association.  Twenty percent of the Cambodian workforce makes less than $0.63/day and 26% make less than $1/day. The education, training, and experiences of expats can help to make the Cambodian economy stronger, but for expats there is about a 40% failure rate in the workplace - generally not due to lack of experience or skill, but because of inability to adjust to the different culture. ESC will be a part of changing all of this data for the better - improving the skills of the workforce, improving the conditions in the workplace, improving wages for Cambodians, and providing supports to our clients in the workforce to help them be successful in their work.

The costs of poverty are too great.