people are frightened about fashion.
because it scares them or it makes them feel insecure
they put it down
people that say demeaning things about our world…
its usually because they feel excluded so as a result the just mock it.
just because you like to put on a beautiful Herrera dress
or a pair of j brand blue jeans instead of a basic from kmart
it doesn’t mean that you are a dumb person.
there is something about fashion that can make people very nervous
-Anna Wintour
(editor-in-chief of American Vogue,
since 1988
the year I was born.
As in my whole lifetime combined)
Thursday, June 2, 2011
The September Issue
Fashion is not about looking back.
It’s always about looking forward.
-Anna Wintour
Monday, June 28, 2010
thmarda health center visit
I went with a government official from the ministry of health (MOH) a doctor and a RACHA representative to an isolated village to carry out the health centers opening. this is a one of a kind Health Center (HC) in Cambodia. its i one of 2 that is open 24 hours and the only extra HC in an operational district.
in cambodia, the government has a health center in each operational district run by the MOH. RACHA, an NGO works with this existing health structure to support and add program implementation, training services, etc.
here are the basic facts:
* 80% of Khmer people live in rural areas and are supported by agriculture
* 35 % of khmer people live below the poverty line, Cambodia's poverty line is just under $1 a day: it is estimated to be closer to 45%.
* Cambodia is divided into provinces, which are divided into operational districts (OD), which are divided into communes, and then villages
* Vealveng OD serves 19 villages, about 10,000 people. the 2 furthest villages in this OD are 50 km away from the HC.
* Kandal village is in the VealVeng operational district, which the Pramoy Health Center services. This and other surrounding villages make up the Thmarda commune. this area is so removed and the geography of the area makes it almost impossible to travel to the area during the raining season. this makes it literally impossible for people to reach a health center. not to mention that people are usually in emergency situations when going to a health center. when it takes 4 hours on a good road condition day to get to the closest HC, the person is most likely not going to survive the travel to the HC. for this reason, RACHA pushed the MOH to open a HC in the Thmarda area. this is an exception to the one HC per operational district, and took alot of concentrated efforts to accomplish. also, this is 1 of 2 HC that are "trials"for 24 hour clinics in Cambodia.
sunday june 6th 2010- Jake and I left from RACHA headquarters with Dr. Sophea, khmer man and Operational Director for RACHA, 4 hour car ride to pursat city, pursat province. once we arrived at the pursat RACHA headquarters we met with the RACHA director for the province of Pursat. we then piled everything, all the supplies we needed for the ceremony into the 'safari' truck...and got it! as were pulling out onto the road im thinking in my head "well this is going to be a long drive, and its a snug fit between Dr. Sophea and Jake back here. we then were stopped at a corner for about 12 min when another man approached the car. The driver helped him in the truck, so now there were 4 people in the space of 3 seats, a tight fit! we drove for 6 hours, all on unpaved roads of course, like everywhere in cambodia except phnom penh and Siem Reap. through dust, mud and lots of maneuvering we finally made it. our driver was an absolute pro. i honestly didnt think we would make it through many situations: for example, we approached a bridge, only to see that it was collapsed, with a hauling truck on it still.. in other words, the oneway bridge on the oneway road was broken, and a truck was stuck on it. so, what did the driver do, he 4 wheeled down the face of the incline and took us through the river! good thing we were in the 'safari' truck. Once we arrived we got straight to work to do the things to prepare for the next day. there were 2 other women there. it was nice to have them, to help me understand how to live the village way: shower etc etc. all of us team members slept on the the floor of the health center, i shared a mosquito sleeping net with these 2 other khmer women, they were both about 50 years old. this area has the highest rates of malaria in all of Cambodia, thank goodness i took my anti malaria ls and used a net :) I showered outside as they showed me how to do it using khmer sarongs to try to keep covered. I found a scorpion in the corner of the room! and there were literally 100 plus flying bugs on the floor that had been attracted to the light. this area still has many land mines, left over from the many years of gorilla warfare; khmer rouge, thai border conflicts, vietnam war etc. many areas in cambodia have been successfully removed of "all" land mines, but its impossible to know if all have been removed, but this area has not been worked on yet. this health center serves at least 2 people a week on average inured by land mines.
we woke up early, as i always do here in cambodia, to get dressed and prepare for the ceremony.people from the community and all the school children came for the occasion. here in cambodia, even in this most remote village, children wear a white button up shirt, and a black or navy blue skirt/pants to school. they all found their seats, and i went and sat next to a girl that was a student. Some of these people had never seen a white person before, they were whispering and pointing and staring, staring in a way i had almost never experienced before. the girl beside me was very timid, and seemed to know less english than the others, (some of them had memorized phrases like my name is... etc) after about 45 min of the ceremony, i felt a light brush on my hand and when i looked over she quickly stopped touching me, the same thing happened again but this time i didnt look i just placed my hand on her lap. she started examining my hand, every little part. then a boy behind me started doing the same with my hair. during the middle of the ceremony it started pouring rain, not surprising because its raining season. after the ceremony we packed everything up and went and ate lunch, at the same house :) and then we were off. or at least we were trying. the roads were awful on the way into the village, but they were worse on the way out. It had rained all night, and rained alot during the morning, so the roads had all turned to mud, almost like quicksand in some parts. the trip home consisted on helping pull out a car and having to clear some trees and branches to get around a truck that had broken its axle. it was a long ride home!!! but i honestly loved it, the scenery was so beautiful.
Our next stop was the main health center for this operational district: Pramoy Health Center, that the health center above is a branch off of. here i helped conduct a "spot check": quality improvement, checking all registers and gathering data to input into the electronic system, and check and restock the inventory of the health center and especially the medications.
this was a really great experience. just like everything i do here, i learned so much!
in cambodia, the government has a health center in each operational district run by the MOH. RACHA, an NGO works with this existing health structure to support and add program implementation, training services, etc.
here are the basic facts:
* 80% of Khmer people live in rural areas and are supported by agriculture
* 35 % of khmer people live below the poverty line, Cambodia's poverty line is just under $1 a day: it is estimated to be closer to 45%.
* Cambodia is divided into provinces, which are divided into operational districts (OD), which are divided into communes, and then villages
* Vealveng OD serves 19 villages, about 10,000 people. the 2 furthest villages in this OD are 50 km away from the HC.
* Kandal village is in the VealVeng operational district, which the Pramoy Health Center services. This and other surrounding villages make up the Thmarda commune. this area is so removed and the geography of the area makes it almost impossible to travel to the area during the raining season. this makes it literally impossible for people to reach a health center. not to mention that people are usually in emergency situations when going to a health center. when it takes 4 hours on a good road condition day to get to the closest HC, the person is most likely not going to survive the travel to the HC. for this reason, RACHA pushed the MOH to open a HC in the Thmarda area. this is an exception to the one HC per operational district, and took alot of concentrated efforts to accomplish. also, this is 1 of 2 HC that are "trials"for 24 hour clinics in Cambodia.
sunday june 6th 2010- Jake and I left from RACHA headquarters with Dr. Sophea, khmer man and Operational Director for RACHA, 4 hour car ride to pursat city, pursat province. once we arrived at the pursat RACHA headquarters we met with the RACHA director for the province of Pursat. we then piled everything, all the supplies we needed for the ceremony into the 'safari' truck...and got it! as were pulling out onto the road im thinking in my head "well this is going to be a long drive, and its a snug fit between Dr. Sophea and Jake back here. we then were stopped at a corner for about 12 min when another man approached the car. The driver helped him in the truck, so now there were 4 people in the space of 3 seats, a tight fit! we drove for 6 hours, all on unpaved roads of course, like everywhere in cambodia except phnom penh and Siem Reap. through dust, mud and lots of maneuvering we finally made it. our driver was an absolute pro. i honestly didnt think we would make it through many situations: for example, we approached a bridge, only to see that it was collapsed, with a hauling truck on it still.. in other words, the oneway bridge on the oneway road was broken, and a truck was stuck on it. so, what did the driver do, he 4 wheeled down the face of the incline and took us through the river! good thing we were in the 'safari' truck. Once we arrived we got straight to work to do the things to prepare for the next day. there were 2 other women there. it was nice to have them, to help me understand how to live the village way: shower etc etc. all of us team members slept on the the floor of the health center, i shared a mosquito sleeping net with these 2 other khmer women, they were both about 50 years old. this area has the highest rates of malaria in all of Cambodia, thank goodness i took my anti malaria ls and used a net :) I showered outside as they showed me how to do it using khmer sarongs to try to keep covered. I found a scorpion in the corner of the room! and there were literally 100 plus flying bugs on the floor that had been attracted to the light. this area still has many land mines, left over from the many years of gorilla warfare; khmer rouge, thai border conflicts, vietnam war etc. many areas in cambodia have been successfully removed of "all" land mines, but its impossible to know if all have been removed, but this area has not been worked on yet. this health center serves at least 2 people a week on average inured by land mines.
we woke up early, as i always do here in cambodia, to get dressed and prepare for the ceremony.people from the community and all the school children came for the occasion. here in cambodia, even in this most remote village, children wear a white button up shirt, and a black or navy blue skirt/pants to school. they all found their seats, and i went and sat next to a girl that was a student. Some of these people had never seen a white person before, they were whispering and pointing and staring, staring in a way i had almost never experienced before. the girl beside me was very timid, and seemed to know less english than the others, (some of them had memorized phrases like my name is... etc) after about 45 min of the ceremony, i felt a light brush on my hand and when i looked over she quickly stopped touching me, the same thing happened again but this time i didnt look i just placed my hand on her lap. she started examining my hand, every little part. then a boy behind me started doing the same with my hair. during the middle of the ceremony it started pouring rain, not surprising because its raining season. after the ceremony we packed everything up and went and ate lunch, at the same house :) and then we were off. or at least we were trying. the roads were awful on the way into the village, but they were worse on the way out. It had rained all night, and rained alot during the morning, so the roads had all turned to mud, almost like quicksand in some parts. the trip home consisted on helping pull out a car and having to clear some trees and branches to get around a truck that had broken its axle. it was a long ride home!!! but i honestly loved it, the scenery was so beautiful.
Our next stop was the main health center for this operational district: Pramoy Health Center, that the health center above is a branch off of. here i helped conduct a "spot check": quality improvement, checking all registers and gathering data to input into the electronic system, and check and restock the inventory of the health center and especially the medications.
this was a really great experience. just like everything i do here, i learned so much!
Thursday, June 3, 2010
The Killing Fields
Tuol Sleng -----S 21.
The Killing Fields----Choeongek Genocidal Center
The Khmer Rouge, the Communist party of Kampuchea, 1975-1979…a time of about 4.5 years where a leader name Pol Pot and his enterouge- Leng Sary, Son Sen, and Khiey Samphan to name the ‘choice’-tried to enforce communist government in Cambodia. What is this party known for? A mass Social Engineering project starting over with year zero, and the GENOCIDE that followed. Oh and I can’t forget to mentions the forced agricultural reform, which resulted in famine, as they continued to rely on “self sufficiency”, which obviously failed. With the complete evacuation of Phnom Penh and the force of all people to work in agriculture, all other industry was destroyed, literally. All medicine, hospitals, factories, EVERYTHING destroyed. As a result, thousands died from starvation, and treatable diseases.
There are still feelings here in Cambodia, and around the world, of resentment and pain concerning America’s involvement in Cambodia during the Vietnam war, which many people believe led to the weakening of government in Cambodia which allowed Pol Pot to take power.
The Genocide took place because Pol Pot wanted to ‘eliminate’ anyone who was involved in free market activities: all professionals, educated people, many urban dwellers, those connected with foreigners, foreigners, artists, etc. basically, he killed all these people and their CHILDREN off.
One motto of the Khmer Rouge party “To keep you is no benefit, To destroy you is no loss”.
To start at year zero, the children had to be re-taught. So most were separated from their parents and brainwashed to socialism as well as taught torture methods with animals. They were given assignments and leadership positions with the torture and execution part of the genocide. In other words, Pot Pot and his men had the children kill their fellow Khmer people.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tuol_Sleng_Genocide_Museum
the whole history of it all is so disparaging,
the feelings i had there were so hallowing.
i thought often on the Holocaust, and related many emotions to those i have felt in reading about the massacre of the Jews. specifically how i felt while reading the book Night, by Elie Wiesel. I was looking at pictures of the dead at Tuol sleng, and there was the checkered tile that the corpses were lying on, and i looked down, and i was standing on that same tile. it was just so surreal and heart wrenching, and i just thought, how did God stand by and watch his children suffer, I cannot imagine the pain and suffering. I cannot imagine how the Father felt looking down on his children suffering like that. and it made me so grateful for the Lord, the Christ laid his life so we can use the atonement and resurrection, knowing that all those souls are with our heavenly father now made me feel some peace. I cannot repeat all of the gruesome details of which I saw/read/heard, but it is just a testament to the power of free agency, that as humans we have to respect the power that God gave us to create life, and that it is not our place to destroy life.
Friday, May 28, 2010
18 days
i have now been in Cambodia for 18 days.
No, i really am not counting, but i did sit down and count today...
So this post, Im going to write about where I live, and how I get around
I live in an area of Phnom Penh called Khan Chamkarmon
‘Mon’ is this kind of tree that used to be really abundant in this area
Norodom and Mao Tse Tuong are the main streets that make the intersection that my ‘neighborhood’
(why is there still a street here called Mao tse tuong, ? I just don’t get it, after all communism has done to this country)
I own a bike, and its an old school good khmer style bike, probably a few borrowed parts from other bikes, through its many reincarnations… yes, most people here are Buddhist, including my host mom who is a level 5 (I’ll get back to this) and so they believe in reincarnation, I’ve managed to have a few interesting conversations about this, as my friend Martina is paralyzed and in a wheelchair, and the belief that many here have that this is due to some ill behavior (such as touching a bad animal etc.) in a previous life. My point is, that almost everything is ‘reincarnated’ here, I think the Khmer people have this amazing gift of giving things new life. Making something work again is like an art form here. you rarely get ‘new’ things (and even when you do, is it really new?) you just ‘reincarnate’ it when it breaks or wears out (by the way this general use of the word reincarnate is totally my doing, just an observation of mine).
Okay back to my bike, I use this to get around. But, I do sometimes utilize a ‘moto’ or a ‘tuk tuk’. This is how you get about the city… a moto, is a random person (this is their occupation, but most people here have at least 4 occupations I swear) that is driving on their scooter and sees you and asks “Moto?” and if you want it, then you bargain a price with them depending on your destination, if you don’t want it then you say “at'e” (I don’t know how to spell it). same thing for a tuk tuk but this is like the taxi version, it’s a moto with a carriage hooked on back. The streets are crazy, no one obeys the laws, and you have to drive like everyone else, or you will be smashed, oh… and pedestrians/people on bikes, they don’t have the ‘right of way’ power like they do back home, if you are in the way of a car you better move or they will run you over. Then probably back up to make sure you are dead, so they don’t have to deal with paying you off, just depends on how nice the car is.
So on that note. I have become really good on my bike, and I wear a mask (like everyone else) namely my bandana to keep me from inhaling So much pollution, and love exploring the city when I get the chance on my many times reincarnated bike, which I haven’t named yet, but will sometime soon.
Thursday, May 13, 2010
Cambodia- May 13th 2010
- Many Cambodians believe that Diabetes is a worse disease than AIDS
- Cars here have steering wheels on the left side, or the right side, american style cars and european style cars, but drive on the same sides as in america... or they are supposed to... but this leads me to my next observation
- people do not obey traffic laws, and the police stand and watch, and often times tell people to go against the traffic lights
- i never knew i could sweat this much
- I like the food
- my 3rd roommate is a Gecko- i woke up and found one crawling all over the walls
- there are little ants all over everywhere, the smallest insects i have ever seen
- i rode a bike, and didnt die
- i call my host mom om, which means old aunt, and thats exactly what she feels to me, i love her already,
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
Posts
