Head is spinning. Mind is blown. The conference is organised by the Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre based in the UK and was held in the iCAN British International School in Phnom Penh. First of all, most amazing school I’ve ever seen! Small but very well equipped and well designed.
Second and most importantly, amazing people there. The trainers are International Child Protection Network big wigs from the UK and they got the British Ambassador and special folks to open the session. Quite the affair. Quite the place to network too if I knew how to network. Also, conference has drawn people from all sorts of organizations, schools and ministries. Got the people from the Ministry of Education – don’t really care for them honestly because they’re older Cambodian men who seem more interested in the free food than the conference actually. There’s the policemen with their uniform. Foreign teachers, local teachers and lots of NGO personnel. Now, those are the interesting folks.
When I first came to Sihanoukville, I noticed a sign for a gallery at the beach for art that beach kids made. The organization is called Cambodian Children's Painting Project. That got me excited because it was exactly what I was interested in. Turns out the Director of that organization was in the bus with us from Sihanoukville and I got to meet her. She’s Canadian, from Edmonton. Tall, tanned lady – the kind you look at and think: she’s one of those cool, adventurous grandmothers who have decided this is how she will spend her retirement. But somehow, I also get a sense that this lady is looking for something more. Something that will satisfy her more than just doing humanitarian work…
Met a whole bunch of people from other NGOs that work with street kids. Village Kids, Riverkids Foundation, M’Lop Tapang… The guy from M’Lop Tapang, connected with various international players including the International Justice Mission, is particularly interesting. M’Lop Tapang is an NGO based in Sihanoukville and focusing on beach kids so their strategy is very particular and localized. And if you’ve read my previous blog posts, I have had an interest in beach kids and how to interact with them. So the presentation from M’Lop Tapang was such an eye-opener and an answered prayer. Praying, too, in the next few days that God would connect me with the right people to help with implementing programs in my school and, personally, maybe even getting into more community development stuff in the future. Got some name cards – people like to give me name cards when they find out I’m foreign I think. That is, if they find out I’m foreign.
So I’m usually quite honoured when people say I look Khmer. But after a while, it gets REALLY FRUSTRATING. Why? Because I CAN’T speak Khmer! I just get pushed around and people speak over me and look at me weird when I don’t laugh at their jokes or acknowledge them. And I can see that they think I’m dumb or something because I’m always looking lost. But I feel so arrogant every time I declare that I don’t speak Khmer and that I’m not Khmer – like I don’t want to associate with them. For the first time, today, I wished I was white. Man, sometimes it’s so much easier to stand out as the foreigner. I was looking at all the white people in their little cliques speaking English and I was so jealous. Wasn’t one of them so I couldn’t join them. Not one of the Khmer people either. So there I was during break time and lunch time – the awkward little Asian girl who can’t speak Khmer. Today was tiring – had a million people come up to me and speak Khmer, had to explain a million times that I wasn’t Khmer and see their puzzled expression of “but you look Khmer so you must speak Khmer”. Oh, the adventures of me.
However, all in all, a very, very exciting opportunity. In the middle of June this year, I decided in my room in Toronto that I wanted to get into international development and that if it was God’s will that He would open doors. I had no clue where to begin, and no contacts. 2 weeks later, I find myself interning for a not-for-profit that does development and community awareness through art. 3 months later, I’m on a plane heading for Cambodia for a year. And now, I’m in a meeting with NGOs, government officials, social workers and UN personnel from Cambodia, UK and all over the world really. Wow, maybe if I ask God for a moto, I’ll get one for Christmas! Kidding. God is no genie in a bottle. No, definitely not. He is way more gracious, way more powerful and way more amazing. He’s not only a good God but a just God. He is a God of justice.
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