I am always aware of the constant poverty in Cambodia, and on this trip, covering some 8 provinces on the western side of Cambodia I found myself unable to help time and time again. The one thing that gives me comfort while living among such poverty is that I was able to help about 100 kids this week have an opportunity to get education, eat good food, and have opportunities that all the other people I met could probably never even imagine.
A few days ago we had a birthday party for my son Paul. He got wonderful gifts and had most of his friends come and play to their hearts content. After the party the group of 10 year olds could only manage to eat one cake so we had another full cake remaining. Why don’t my son and I go out at night and give big pieces of cake away to poor street kids. I asked my son and he thought it was a good idea. So at night we headed out.
Last week I was in the Philippines and during that time I was able to attend the Love Community Baptist Church which I had constructed more than 20 years ago. It was so wonderful to be with Roger and Rosie Rico, the pastors of the church.
Do you know how they treat poor people in Cambodia? They give them a bottle of soy sauce and take their picture. I am not sure who is supposed to be the one feeling blessed, the photographer or the impoverished villager.
True poverty. “Om” is a widow. She came to Poipet, Cambodia many years ago and barely survives, but has nowhere else to go that offer any better prospects. She has no family to help her, so each morning she cooks rice and tries to sell it to people. When I met Om, she was just washing the dishes from the morning breakfast. Yes, in the same water, that she is living over. I just pray that the people she feeds don’t spread cholera. Her house is the little hole directly in front of her. It is made out of rubber insulation from discarded shipping containers and bamboo. Her toilet is behind the white rice sack wall and her clothes line, for her other set of clothes, is a bamboo pole.