Dear Angelina Jolie...

---

Dear Angelina:

I hate to admit it but I was doing a bit of celebrity bashing and made a joke about your adoption(s) with a fellow traveller. But now, after having spent nearly a week in Cambodia, I GET IT.

This is a lovely country and the people here are capable of both warming and tearing my heart apart. They are the gentlest people I have ever met. They have beautiful smiles, are very thankful when you give something and bow their heads so pitifully after you have done a "service" for them. At times, the begging is overwhelming and even annoying. It is almost as if the children have adopted a specific soft whimper sound when they are asking you to buy their pathetic trinkets as you try to run on and off of the tour buses at various destinations. At one point, we were visiting a "floating village"-a pathetic and somewhat mournful "community" of houseboats that live off of the waterways and the tourists who come to gawk at their unusual setting. Little children have been trained to jump on and off of the tourist boats offering cold drinks, massage you and even provide a photo opportunity with a sickly boa constrictor...any effort possible to get you to shed one of your dollars.

The landmine victims, the Pol Pot victims, the victims of years of war and strife...it is all right in your face everywhere you go. Security at restaurants ensures you can enjoy a tasty and incredibly cheap meal but they are always out there...the taxi drivers, the tuk-tuk drivers, the street vendors...the desperation at times is exhausting. Travelling to and from various destinations is an endless trail of bumpy roads, rickety houses raised high on stilts and droves of people in threadbare clothing peering curiously at the side of the road at the busload of people that DON'T wonder if they will eat tomorrow.

Don't get me wrong, Angelina. These are a proud people and rightly so. The history of the "Khmer" civilization is vast and brilliant. After exploring the temples of Angkor Wat I was particularly intrigued by one of the temples, lovingly known as the "Jungle" temple. Its exotic location, surrounded by mammoth banyan trees, vegetation overgrowing the temple site, tarantula nests all burrowed on the walls and birds squawking up high made it particularly breathtaking after exploring so many marvellous structures throughout the Siem Reap area. Angkor Wat is just ONE of nearly a hundred temples built nearly one thousand years ago here. My pictures will never do it complete justice...the intricate carvings in the stone and the ingenious way they have been assembled continue to astonish. The "Jungle" temple is where your movie, "Tomb Raider" was filmed. It was also during this filming that overcome by the poverty of the region, you ended up adopting your first child, Maddox.

This country is steeped in magnificent history and has much to proud of from a historical point of view. Their silk and wood handicrafts are exquisite. Cambodia has much to offer. The events of the twentieth century have devastated them. It is almost as if Cambodia is the bullied child in the playground, and it's our responsibility to assist this tired little infant.

My personal goal after leaving will be to figure out what small step I can make in helping such a needy but lovely country. And again, don't get me wrong. These people have so little, yet they have so much. They treasure family, simplicity and are grateful for the things that they have in their lives. I loved my time here but at the same time, I am shell-shocked.

Angelina...as the Australians would day, "Good on you mate!". You saved one person and made a difference. I apologize for my indiscretions of the past and salute you.

Sincerely,

Kevin Finlayson

P.S. I offer you my babysitting services as compensation for being so judgemental. One condition though: Brad has to drive me home!!!

---

Comments

[Jude]

Dear Angelina Jolie...
Ahhh love it all Kevin, How beautiful, but yes I too can feel the gentleness of these people, the warmth and the poverty. I salute Angelina also! I just can't imagine their day to day lives. When the boats come in they depend on the tourists and do anything, make things of all sorts, trinkets, food, photo opportunities to survive. I can understand the torn feelings one would have, so YES salute Angelina, she made a difference and changed the life of one forever! I get it now too. Thanks for sharing, makes me want to do something too...... Enjoying the trip with you Kevin. Take care now xo

[sorinp]

You are so right! I bow to you after being there and sharing the exact same feeling. I still think about what can I do for them...

[Mike]

Home safe
Hi Kevin, Thank you for your friendship and companionship over the past 3 weeks. We too suffered the Angelina syndrome. We would have loved to have taken one of those beautiful children and done something to make their future happy and secure - but what. The swiss doctors hospital? intrepid foundations? the shelter and abused women? victims of mines? the tuk tuk coorperative? one of the NGOs? I think probably support to one of the local teachers who give their time to tech english and enpower Cambodians to build their own future in a commercial world dominated by our language. PS - don't wash your intrepid bag with your cloths unless you are very fond of wearing blue.

[Lauren Dunn]

So glad to hear you are safe!!!!!
Oh Kevin what would I do without your heart-rending insights. Makes one think of how selfish and petty we are and can become in our daily grind. So glad to hear you are physically safe. Wondered how the situation in Japan affected you and your travels. As always, take care, Love, Lauren

[Joan]

I love your photos Kevin. It has been awesome sharing some of the wonderful and not so wonderful places on this earth.