http://www.thinkchildsafe.org/thinkbeforevisiting/

To the many foreigners visiting Cambodia:

 If someone speaks a different language than you…

The best thing is to enunciate,

NOT to speak LOUDER or to speak like you are talking to a child. 

The best thing is to use basic words,

NOT show off your education with long and complicated words.

The best thing is NOT to get frustrated and wonder “why the he** doesn’t anyone around here speak ENGLISH.”  Get a clue, you aren’t in England anymore, Dorothy.

Love,

Just Another Foreigner

Always, always, always in a hurry. Do you even remember why you were in such a hurry to begin with?

It is more important to know where you are going than to get there quickly.
-- Mabel Newcomber

Don't let life pass you by while you're waiting and searching and planning and dreaming.
It is today.
Right now.
This very moment.
Yes, make goals, but maybe one of those goals could be:

I will take the time to say hello to the next person I pass on the street.

I will make eye contact and I will never turn away in shame or pity from someone different.
Whether they are missing a limb, their entire face is scarred from burns, or they merely do not have the means to eat or shower.  God's eyes are not jaded like our eyes.  They see through the exterior.  He does not pick and choose who to befriend or who to love.  It's not the ones that can or will improve Him.  It's the ones that He can improve.  What about us?  Do we choose relationships for our advantage?  Do we seek to gain? Or to give?


Give when no one else is watching.

Don't forget that goals and resolutions can be small.
A small thing to you may be someone else's Mount Everest.

Slow down and remember the widow that gave all that she had.
And remember the 'Good Samaritan' who cared for his enemy.

Who is your enemy?
Who do you hate?
Would you be willing to give that very person a ride in your car, $70 for a room, your medicine, would you tear your clothes to make your enemy a bandage?
Or will you pass him by, your eyes turned, your heart hardened, and your mind saying
"He is only getting what he deserves."

As Mother Theresa said
"If you give what you do not need, it isn't giving."

"What actions are most excellent? To gladden the heart of a human being. To feed the hungry. To help the afflicted. To lighten the sorrow of the sorrowful. To remove the wrongs of the injured. "

Did you know that 21,000 children die every day?  Every day.  STOP.  Whatever you are doing, there is nothing MORE IMPORTANT than this.

And yet we are stressing out about what to get someone (who already has EVERYTHING and more) a Christmas gift, stressing about finding the ideal job or sending our children to the BEST schools. 

What is wrong with this picture?

Why do we care far more about ourselves than our neighbors?

What is wrong with the headlines?  Why don’t we see and hear these facts?

The majority of these deaths are preventable, they are a result of malnutrition or malaria or measles. 

The DRC (Democratic Republic of Congo) is a mineral rich country and yet one of the poorest countries in the world. 

And just like ‘we’ trained and armed Bin Laden, we trained and armed former Congo President Mobuto just because he opposed Communist Russia.  He ruled Congo for over 30 years and is largely responsible for the state his country is in today.  How can we back, both financially and physically, these evil abusers of men, women, and children?  How can we bring them into power, aid them in killing their opponents, and turn our backs while they slaughter thousands? 

Over 5 million people have died since 1998.

I find it ironic that we don’t see that in the news. 

Maybe it has something to do with the fact that we are addicted to one of their minerals – the infamous coltan, which is used in:

Laptop computers

Cellular phones

Jet engines

Rockets

Camera lenses

X-ray film

Ink jet printers

And many other important devices such as hearing aids, pacemakers, airbags, video game consoles, video cameras, and prosthetic devices.  NO, we aren’t causing this situation by using these products, but we sure aren’t helping either.  We use them regardless of the consequence to others.  The issue is complex, but it’s real.  And without the demand, there would be less mass murder in the DCR.  This resource is available from multiple other places, just not as economical of course. 

I am not being a hypocrite, I cringe when I consider how my choices could be affecting an innocent child.  But what can we do differently? We have to figure out something.  We cannot allow this to continue - 45,000 people dying every month in Congo.  Don’t kid yourself, this is not a result of a country of brutal and evil people.  This is a result of selfishness,  and of rich people trying to get richer, of powerful people seeking additional power.  These people are victims and we cannot stand by and turn our heads and inadvertently support this injustice.  We cannot put evil dictators into place in countries and then walk away while they wreak havoc for decades in the name of freedom and the good of all!

So if you wonder if there is more to life…there is.

And if you are stressing out about ‘celebrating a holiday that isn’t even close to the day of Jesus’ actual birth’ by buying unneeded things for undeserving people, open your eyes.

Take a walk outside, there are people hurting and dying, not just in Africa and not just in Cambodia.  All around you and me.  They crave not only food and nutrition and health but love and relationship and support. 

This is the day that the Lord has made, I will rejoice and be glad in it.

And I will not turn my back on my brother or sister in need.

If it is the last penny in my pocket, I will not avert my eyes and lose my soul.

rant for the month...

Every day perspective changes

I don’t think that many of the things you learn by going to seminars and visiting popular websites and reading books are necessarily true.  At least regarding trafficking and slavery.  It seems that ‘fighting trafficking’ or ‘ending slavery’ has become quite the trend.  But in the scheme of things how much do we really know about these issues?  How much do prevention outreach measures actually help?  Are we basing ideas, beliefs, and passions off of some shocking statistics without getting the entire story. 

WHY are we spending so much time, resources, and money on rescue and story telling of survivors (it IS inspirational and heart-breaking, I know), when there are hundreds and thousands of girls heading in the exact same direction?  Where one girl is pulled out, five more will be shoved into her place.  Awareness is growing, and that is awesome, but is all the awareness actually making a change?  How you can smile and laugh and cry with joy for a girl that escaped when her own sweet cousin is being sold to fill her empty bed?

Everything I thought I knew, it’s all out the window… ‘Fair trade’, condemnation of factories, only buy made in the USA, thinking that children should not work until a certain age, basing actions on statistics, thinking that my way or the way of American culture and thought is the only way.  Do these things that we think support freedom even matter to the ones we are trying to help?  Did we even ask them what they need? We have based these decisions and fads on what we think is right and justified.  What if export and tourism are a bridge, a temporary job, to be able to afford a bit more education to then fulfill a lifelong dream.  If buying something that says "Made in the US" makes you feel better, by all means do it.  But don't pretend you are doing it to 'save' someone else.  (I am NOT against buying things made in the US, all for it actually.  But not because it's ending slavery, that is ridiculous.)

Until women and men are viewed in equal light, of equal value, this problem will remain.  Until people are able to access education and training and jobs, this problem will not go away.  Every girl that gets rescued from the brothel could still be forced into some other situation, whether it’s an abusive marriage or something else.

DOES IT MATTER IF WE SHUT DOWN ALL THE BROTHELS if the women and children are still being abused at home?

This problem is so much more than a government averting their eyes.  It’s more than something we can fix in a few years even with lawyers and investigators and law officers on our side.

 It’s lifetimes of inequality, abuse, degradation.  If a man is raised to abuse and if a woman is raised to accept, they aren’t going to even have the capacity to teach their children differently.  This has to be tackled from the inside out.  Not from the people driving around in the Lexus’ honking at all of us little people on bicycles or scooters J  This problem cannot be fixed by throwing money at it or by expecting the police to intervene.  

I don't really know what to do or what to say.  This is just what I have been thinking about in the midst of trying to figure out what to do next.  Needing some inspiration.