I ate ants (and water snakes and sheep brains…)

I’ve taken a bit of a vacation from blogging, so I’ll briefly give you the highlights of the last couple weeks.

I had a bad case of food poisoning shortly after my last entry. It was rough. It was so bad that I willingly went to the doctor the next afternoon, and I had an IV inserted into my arm. The IV revived me, and I felt good enough to go to Siem Reap the following weekend.

Siem Reap was incredible. I’ve never seen anything quite like Angkor Wat—not only is it magnificent and beautiful, but a feeling of peace and tranquility transcends the entire complex. We visited many, many temples during our weekend, and all had something different to offer.

The following weekend, I accompanied some LAC staffers to Battambang Province while they were conducting workshops on children’s rights. All the staffers worked in the Juvenile Unit (JU) at LAC. We had meetings with the commune leaders to discuss problems they were facing and solutions. The village chief, deputy chief, and police chief were all present along with about 20-30 volunteers who want to help children. A major focus of these meetings was to educate the commune leaders so they could take their new knowledge to the community. We also met with children from the commune to educate them about their rights and to talk about solutions to problems they were facing. Vibol, the head of JU, pointed out that most NGOs in Cambodia help only “good” children, but LAC works with all children and tries to give them all a fair chance.

We held a particularly interesting training session for police chiefs and deputies from about 12-13 communes. One of the officers argued with Vibol about Cambodian law. Under the Convention on the Rights of the Child, a child under the age of 12 cannot be punished for a crime. However, this officer believed that anyone who commits a crime should be punished, regardless of his or her age. This officer was arguing against one of the most fundamental laws in Cambodia regarding children’s rights, and he firmly believed that he was correct. Vibol explained the law to him. Cambodian police officers never receive formal training, so there is very little uniform knowledge amongst the officers. During most of the training session, the JU staff seemed to be educating the police about the most basic elements of the law and simple human rights. This workshop reminded me of why I chose to work with LAC over other NGOs. At this workshop, Cambodian lawyers were educating local police officers. Real and lasting change has to come from within Cambodia. Foreigners and foreign NGOs can help shape the new Cambodia, but Cambodians must be the ones to make real change.

I really enjoyed my time with the JU staff. I shared a room with Mealea and Meng Ing, the two female lawyers in JU. Mealea is a 30-year old lawyer, and Meng Ing is a 24-year old lawyer. We spent a lot of time together in our hotel room. The training sessions and meetings were quite tiring, and we were very exhausted at the end of the day. Mealea and Meng introduced me to a lot of Cambodian soap operas and Chinese movies. I had the pleasure of listening to even more Khmer karaoke videos.

I also tried some Cambodian delicacies while I was in Battambang. In the countryside, restaurants rarely can serve fresh vegetables during the dry season, so we were forced to eat what they had on hand. Most notably, I sampled water snake (not my favorite), sheep brains (which I had the honor of adding to our cook-your-own-soup pot), and ants (which were actually quite good, as long as I didn’t look at their little legs...) When I returned to LAC in Phnom Penh after five days in Battambang, the receptionist exclaimed that I had lost a lot of weight—maybe I should eat Khmer food more often. :)