Getting Closer, and D for D....

So--on my official support report from earlier today (I get them once a week), I am now at exactly 70% of my monthly support needs! And in a close second, I have 68% of my one-time funds. So what does this mean? It means that I need another $702 pledged each month, as well as a little over $8,000 more in one-time funds. Compared to my total needs ($2330 each month, and $25,600 one-time), these remaining needs are a little more palatable. So, while I still have some progress to make, it is encouraging to be this far.

And D for D...that would be Discipling for Development, the approach to development that is in the process of being implemented in Cambodia. Community development seems like a simple concept at first glance: some communities do not have their basic needs met, so through "development" these needs are provided for. Upon seeing the problem of an unmet need, the most obvious solution seems to be the following: those who have give to those who have not.

However, while simply providing for a need (giving food, water, shelter, education, healthcare, etc.) does meet the need for the moment, it rarely addresses the longterm nature of the need.

This is where D for D comes in. Discipling for Development is an approach that was constructed by Mission:Moving Mountains, which is a ministry of the Navigators, a well-known Christan evangelistic organization. This is how M:MM describes D for D on their website : "Discipling for Development® is a ministry that helps people in community to become all God intends them to be. This is a God-empowered, relational process, in which experienced facilitators assist the people of a community to grow in their ability to solve problems and to reproduce this process in other communities. Ongoing transfomation of individual and collective thought and behavior results in personal growth and improvement of community (health, agriculture, water, and relationships) for the glory of God" .(http://www.navigators.org/us/ministries/movingmountains/)

Did you catch all that? :) Traditionally, development has simply been the process of providing resources (which a community may not want, feel they need, understand how to use, or feel ownership of). With an approach such as D for D, the process of meeting needs is different. The community is enable to define and recognize their own needs, and decide on how to meet these needs. Then the community is able to meet their immediate AND future needs.

Lots of big concepts to try to grasp! It's a lot for myself and the Cambodian FH staff to grasp as well. So, several individuals from the Navigators will be doing ongoing training for the FHCambodia staff in D for D over the next few years. One of these training sessions took place when I was in Cambodia in April. The following pictures show some FHCambodia staff during these training sessions.

Say Hello!

So the tidbits from Cambodia continue...just like in any culture, Cambodian culture has typical ways to greet people. For us Americans--we have the "Hey, how's it going?," a smile, maybe a handshake and some small talk. In Cambodia, a greeting is often accompanied by a gesture (as seen above) called a sampeyar. Similar gestures are used in cultures in India and elsewhere in Asia. In Cambodia, the hands are held flat, with palms together, in front of the center of the body. This is done by both the greeter and the person or people being greeted, often at the same time, and often while words of greeting are spoken (the equivalent of our "Hello, how are you? I'm fine"). There are many subtle variations of the gesture: holding the hands at chin level, at nose level, at forehead level, bowing the head slightly or bowing to a greater or lesser extent from the waist. These variations are meant to convey differences in respect, based on the relative positions of the greeter and greetee in society. You show more respect to those who have a higher position than you, and less to those below you. In general, the higher the hands are held and the deeper the bow, the more respect is being shown. For example, an child greeting an adult would hold the hands higher on their body. The variations are subtle and take time for an outsider to learn. This may seem complex, but consider our own culture: we greet people differently based on whether they are old friends or new aquaintances, our boss or those we supervise, family members or restaurant wait staff. These differences are subtle as well and are difficult for outsiders to categorize: how brightly should you smile? give a handshake or a hug? a delicate hug or a bearhug? should the person be addressed as sir or m'am, or not? do you greet an individual differently than a group? what variations are acceptable for personal preferences?

One of the challenges of entering a new culture is realizing just how much of our lives and actions are dictated by culture--and how differently things can be organized in each culture. Entering a new culture requires one to relearn all their cues for how to live--from the subtleties of how to greet someone or say goodbye, to traffic laws and shopping etiquette. Adjusting to the loss of familiar cultural cues and struggling to learn a vast set of new ones leads to what is commonly called culture shock or culture stress. This learning goes deeper than learning a new set of behaviors--values and worldviews are vastly different in each culture as well. Entering a new culture brings these deeper differences to the forefront, and brings up many questions as well: do I value something only because of my culture? Does my original value mesh or clash with the values of my new culture? Is either of these values consistent with Biblical values, or both, or neither, or something in between? and so on.

Dance, dance...

For your viewing enjoyment...a little video of Cambodian dancing! This was the last night of the FHCambodia staff retreat, at the end of my second week in the country. After a big and tasty banquet, it was time to party! Karaoke and dancing are a common way to celebrate in Cambodia--at events such as this one, at weddings--we even danced a few times as a fun break during our staff training the week before. The hand gestures you see here are based on traditional Khmer dance movements. Called "apsara," the movements are highly controlled and symbolic when done formally. Less formally, if you want to join in--walk around the room in a circle with everyone else, and copy the hand and feet movements, and you'll fit right in. Khmer dancing is similar to dances done in Thailand and Laos, and representations of the movements are found carved in the ancient Cambodian ruins at Angkor Wat. If you are curious, you can check out:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Khmer_classical_dance

Another video clip with more dancing and the karaoke setup:

Twister...

A little break from Cambodia news...as you have probably heard, a series of tornados went through several Western/Midwestern states the end of last week. The first of these touched down just outside of Gilcrest, CO, where I am currently living. Right in town we had some pretty crazy wind, but we didn't even know there had been a tornado until after it had passed. A few houses, barns, electric poles, etc. were damaged, but we did not have any of the major damage that other towns did. But--we did get to drive around a few hours after the tornados and take some pictures. Here's a link if you want to check them out:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/25585897@N04/sets/72157605215301524/

BBQ

I figure I might as well stick with the food theme--get ready to learn all about Cambodian cuisine! As you can see in the picture, yes, we often ate with chopsticks. Although using a fork and spoon--one in each hand--is just as common. Typical meals start with white rice, to which is added various soups and stir-fried dishes. Cambodian food is not spicy, although sometimes it has a little kick, and you may add chopped red peppers to your meal if you desire. Fish and shrimp are common, as well as beef, pork, and chicken. As for spices and flavors--unfortunately, I am no culinary expert, so my descriptions will be lacking--but I do know we had dishes flavored with lemongrass, Cambodian curries, cashews, white and black pepper, and fish sauce.

Once night we got to eat barbecue, Cambodian style--check it out in the picture above. In our regular meals, soups were always delivered to the table in an elevated bowl that had a flaming Sterno-type heat source below--kept the soup warm throughout the meal. So having something burning on your table is not unusal. The BBQ apparatus above was something along those same lines. Underneath the food cooking on the top, you can just see the hot coals through the slits on the pedestal. The hot pot and the raw food arrived at our table, and we proceeded to cook away: beef went in the center, on the top of a dome right over the fire (the Cambodian name for this meal translates as "cow climbing the mountain"), and the veggies surrounded this in a sort of trough that we filled with oil. Pretty tasty, once it all cooked...

Tropical fruits also abound--small bananas, mangos, limes, coconut, watermelon, pineapple, and others you may or may not have heard of: manogsteens, durian, lychee, jackfuit, and more. Soft drinks and desserts are sugared right up, so if you like things sweet, this is the place for you!

Yum Yum...

As of Saturday night, I am back in good old Colorado, enjoying the spring weather after managing to go to Cambodia during their hottest season of the year...And so, my plan now is to give you a virtual tour of what I saw, complete with photos, a few video clips, and plenty of factoids :)

Say you're in Cambodia and want a snack, local style--one option is to buy a few of the round, green things on the head of the girl in this picture. These are lotus flower seed pods, about as big around as a big saucer. Your goal is not to munch on the pod, but on the seeds inside. If you look closely in the pic, you'll see bumps on the top of each pod--each of these bumps shows you where a seed in enclosed. So--buy a seed pod, crack it open near a bump, and pull out a seed. Each seed is shaped like a grape, but slightly smaller. Peel off the outer green skin of the seed to reveal the white munchie inside, and pop it in your mouth! Lotus seeds are firm but moist, with a mild flavor. Best of all, because the seeds are dug out from inside the pod, they can be eaten without any special cleaning or preparation--good when you want a snack on the go.

If the seed pods are not harvested to eat, but are left to grow, eventually they'll grow into lotus flower blooms, like those in this second picture. Lotus flowers can be white or pink, and grow in many of the ponds and lakes in Cambodia. The pink ones are the most common, and in fact, the Khmei (Cambodian) word for "pink" is the same word as "lotus flower." Lotus flowers hold significant meaning in Cambodian (and Buddhist and Southeast Asian) culture. The petals may be used as dishes to hold food, while the shapes of the closed buds and the open flowers are re-created in traditional architecture and dance.

The Official First Cambodian Post....

Well....I am now posting from Cambodia! Which of course is exciting, but also means that I have a slow internet connection, and to my pictures would not upload :( So--those will have to wait until I'm back in the States. But--you are lucky enough to be able to to read about how things have been.

I've been here a week tomorrow, and after a day and two nights in Phnom Penh (the capital city), we headed by car to the northwest part of the country. This region is where FH Cambodia is currently working, in the villages around a town of 10,000 people called Anlong Veng. The purpose of the time here: to attend a training for the staff . Led by a group from the Navigators, this training is working to better equip the staff to facilitate programming in the villages. For me, it's been a chance to meet many of the staff, be in the loop about what they are learning in order to reinforce it with them later on, and start observing the dynamics of the group. And, of course, to jump into Cambodian culture and start figuring out my way around.

This weekend we'll head south to Siem Reap, Cambodia's second largest city, and lucky for me, a very touristy place (i.e. somewhere near where I'll be living to stock up occasionally on good old American food). For this week it will be the site of the staff retreat--more good opportunities to start connecting with people and getting a feel for the country and culture.

So--that's the brief overview! More details and stories will be coming later--this trip should provide plenty of blog fodder for a while to come.