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Published: February 8th 2015
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I started this final update in the Hong Kong airport. I'm finishing it in my office in Florida. We're glad to be back. I was thrilled to see my house and my dogs and they were thrilled to see us. I had coffee made with the coffee I'm used to in the drip pot I'm used to, not the Vietnamese or Cambodian coffee made in an espresso machine. Their coffee is good but our's really packs the caffeine. It was wonderful to be able to brush my teeth with the tap water. Bottled water tooth brushing is not my preferred method. It was great standing in the shower and letting the water pour over my face with my mouth open. Damn am I spoiled.
Thank you for putting up with my ramblings on politics and culture. When I last posted I threw in some statistics, none of which I verified beforehand, but I believe them to be true at least as to order of magnitude. Here are a couple more. There is this lake near Siem Reap called Tongle Sac. It's the Great Lake of Cambodia. 40% of the protein consumed by Cambodians come from this lake and our guide
at least, was well aware of how precarious that is for their country.
We noticed that we saw very few old people in Cambodia and Gary asked our guide about it. He told us that 67% of the population of Cambodia is under 32 years of age. During the Khmer Rouge period there was a lot of starvation and the population decreased. With a growing young population, a terrible education system, and not a lot of GDP growth all spell big problems now and in the future.
I want to say something about our guide Bunchai (I've spelled it wrong in earlier posts). He is a very smart man and well-educated. He knows and does his job very well. His English is excellent. He's been through university and has what is considered a very good job. While he makes good money by Cambodian standards, we didn't realize until yesterday how poor he really is. He has a wife and two children. He sends his children to a religious school, and pays $45 a month for each of them. He's not religious though he was a Buddhist monk for one month. He has a house. His wife takes care
of the children and the household as his job requires him to be gone late many nights and leave early many mornings. The family enjoys seafood but he says, they only have it on special occasions because it's expensive. And his wife goes to the local market twice a day to buy fresh food because they do not have a refrigerator. Bunchai is a man with great capacity and good values but his opportunities in Cambodia are so limited. Gary asked Bunchai if the people are happy in Cambodia. He asked that I think because they were so friendly and warm to us. They smile easily. Bunchai said that this is a hard question. They find happiness with their friends and with their families when they can. They are very happy not to be at war. But they know that their situation in life is not within their control. They believe that their situation will never change. Very few can choose their careers. Very few.
Anyway, enough pessimism. There are folks that go to Cambodia and see things to be optimistic about. Tourism, a population becoming increasingly frustrated with their corrupt government and determined to do something about it,
and an economy that does still continue to grow. But even the optimists know that the future of this country is going to be difficult and the brunt of every challenge is on the people that have no say in the decision-making.
That's it on the commentary. I'm enlisting Fran and Gary who have taken some great photos to help populate this blog entry.
David
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Tom Drum
non-member comment
Thanks
Hi David & Fran, and welcome home!!! I thoroughly enjoyed your commentary, and I felt like I was on vacation with you. Thank-you for your wonderful journalism and witty presentation!