Update, Still Waiting on Donations, Good News

Hey everyone, just a quick update on what's going on with the fund raising to help Agii. I've received one more donation since my last update, from my friend Ryan, who's a Peace Corps volunteer in Mongolia, finishing up his last months in the country. Just keep in mind that Peace Corps volunteers make chump change (a few thousane per year) and if one one PCV can make a small donation, plenty of you can afford to make one as well. :) I'm still waiting to hear back from some family members and friends but I did receive some good news from my friend Lauren, who was a Fulbright scholar in Olgii, studying eagle hunting and Kazakh eagle hunters. She was in Olgii for a while and did some other traveling around Mongolia for her studies and work and my site mates, local friends and I spent a lot of time with her in Olgii. While she was living near Deloun soum, a small town south of Olgii, she lived with a family whose child had a cleft lip. Through donations from family and friends, Lauren was able to raise a few thousand dollars to pay for transportaion to UB, an operation, and medical care for the child. Because the whole deal cost less than originally anticipated, Lauren has quite a bit of money left over, something like a couple grand, maybe more. Because Lauren is also friendly with Agii, she has decided to donate the remaining funds to help Agii and Aiman and their family out.

Lauren is in Olgii until until the 23rd and in the meanwhile is trying to find the best way to get those funds to Agii. Hopefully she'll be able to withdraw the cash or make a transfer to Agii's bank account in the next week. I was very excited to hear that Lauren can donate so much to help them out and hopefully, that money plus whatever I can raise will make a big difference in getting the proper care for Aiman and making sure Agii's family doesn't have to give up everything in the process.

I'm still taking donations to my Paypal account, probably going to wait another week if I can, before making the first transfer. If you have anything you can donate, please do, every little bit will help. Thank you.

In other news, our good friend Brian is coming into Cambodia tonight from Mongolia. He just finished his Peace Corps service and will be spending close to two weeks here before flying back to the U.S. to be with his wife and family. We're heading to a beach town called Sihanoukville tomorrow morning to spend the weekend and are planning on heading back to Siem Reap next weekend.

I took on more hours at work and I'm teaching TOEFL ibt classes in the mornings and evenings. I switched classes and now I'm teaching the some of thesame students I had last term, a group I grew pretty close with and had a lot of fun with. I'm teaching them the next level of TOEFL at New World Institute and teaching another group in the mornings. It's nice because it gives me something to do for a few hours in the morning, I still have a lot of free time during the day and I'll be able to save a bit more money before I come back to the U.S.

Just wanted to throw in a quick update before the weekend. We'll only be gone for a day and a half, should be back home by Sunday afternoon. I'll update again with more pics asap. Hope everyone is doing well.

Cambodia: The Khmer 'Riche'

http://cambodiacalling.blogspot.com/2010/01/exit-khmer-rouge-enter-khmer-riche.html

I just found this post/article written on another blog about Cambodia, from January of this year, about the children of the wealthy, unbelievably corrupt, so called "elite" upper class of Cambodia. Interesting read, albeit disgusting and disturbing. How do you get rid of this type of corruption? How about responsible aid distribution? What does that even mean? I don't know. This is just one of many reasons I don't see myself working in development work ever again, it's all but hopeless. The more I've read about this and similar situations in other parts of the world (especially the Middle East, check out "Sleeping With the Devil"), the more I lose my faith in humanity.

Update on 'request for help' (Agii)

I just copied and pasted this from an email I sent out recently, regarding the situation with my friend Agii, who's sister has a very serious, life threatening brain tumor.

Hey friends, family, blog followers,

I originally sent this email to the people who emailed me back or wrote in response to my blog post about my friend Agii in Mongolia, who's sister has a life threatening brain tumor. My good friend Travis Hellstrom, who I trained with as a Peace Corps volunteer in Mongolia, has agreed to help me out in getting some funds to Agii. I worry that there isn't enough time to set up anything really 'official' or more professional, so there won't be any tax benefits to come with this donation, but I hope you can still donate some money. Because it's in Mongolia, our only real option at this point is for those who are interested in donating, to transfer money to my Paypal account. After I receive the funds in my Paypal, I will transfer them to Travis' Paypal account. Once he has them in his Paypal account, he's going to transfer them to his American bank account, withdraw them from an ATM in Mongolia, then deposit the cash in Agii's Khaan Bank (local Mongolian bank) account. If I set up a 'donation' account on Paypal, Paypal takes a 3% fee so I'd like to avoid that.

I know this process sounds a bit complicated and maybe unprofessional but I can assure you, this is our only option at this point, especially given the seriousness of the situation. I am donating $100 to Agii, which I just transferred from my bank account to my Paypal account. I will evaluate my money situation again soon and see if I can donate more. I don't know that I can raise enough money to buy his sister a plane ticket or not but I think at this point, anything will help. Agii has already expressed to me that he is willing to sell everything he owns in order to help his sister.

Please feel free to email me back if you have any questions. For those who don't have Paypal and would still like to donate some money, email me and I'm sure we can work something out where you could maybe use a friend or family members' Paypal account. My email address for my Paypal account is matt98ta@yahoo.com. If you transfer money to my account, email me or send a message to let me know.

I'm going to make another blog post about this to see if I can find more people interested in donating and brainstorm with Travis on other ways to raise money and transfer it to Agii. I will probably also make a guest post on Travis' blog as well.

My email: matthewbecker82@gmail.com

Travis' blog: http://blog.advancehumanity.com/

Thank you for reading and thank you for anything you can donate to help a great friend of mine,

Matt Becker

UPDATE: So far we've raised $450 to donate to help Agii !!!!

Koh Chang Pictures, Angkor Wat Story and Pictures, etc.

I added a new album of photos, a little late, from my birthday weekend in Koh Chang, Thailand.

http://s16.photobucket.com/albums/b3/matt5058/My%20Birthday%20in%20Koh%20Chang%20May%202010/

A couple weekends ago, Hanna and I took the bus up to Siem Reap to spend a nice weekend. The bus ride was about six hours, overnight, so we arrived in Siem Reap pretty early in the morning and hired a tuk tuk to help us find a guesthouse or hotel to stay at. We found a decent place pretty quickly and prepared to enjoy a nice weekend away from Phnom Penh. The first day was pretty lazy, mostly spend wandering around the town of Siem Reap, avoiding annoying tuk tuk drivers, eating good food, enjoying 50 cent draft beers (after a month of not drinking any beer), and just relaxing. We checked out the night markets, some restaurants and bars, played pool, and even got a "Dr. Fish Massage". Basically you pay a couple bucks, sit down with your feet in a pool or aquarium and a bunch of tiny fish nibble at your feet for 20 minutes. It tickles and feels really good, it's almost impossible not to laugh and smile. The fish basically eat the dead skin off of your feet. Also, the 'massage' comes with a free beer. Heck of a deal if you ask me.

The second day in Siem Reap, we rented bicycles and rode the 5 or 6 kilometers from the town to Angkor Wat. We spent the next six hours checking out the vast array of temples, riding the bicycles from temple to temple, just enjoying and appreciating the beauty and history of the whole experience, taking pictures and stopping for a cold drink or some fresh fruit here and there. The whole experience of riding bicycles around one of the seven wonders of the world was so surreal, just absolutely amazing and beautiful. It's difficult to find the words to accurately describe the experience, but I can easily say that it's one weekend that I will always remember. Despite my frustrations and inability to understand/accept the many problems in Cambodia, I still believe it's a beautiful place to visit and I think anyone who has the chance, should definitely take a trip to Angkor Wat. We are considering going again before we leave the country. Here's a link to my Facebook album of pictures from Siem Reap and Angkor Wat.

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2083243&id=72206395&l=45d954d660

Speaking of leaving, I've booked my travel arrangements to come back to the U.S. I'm coming back in early September, spending a week in Los Angeles before flying back to Colorado. I've been to the U.S./Colorado twice in the past two years since I left but neither trip was very long. I feel like, after being away from the U.S., my family, my friends, my dogs, and just life back home for so long, I need to come back for a lot longer this time. I legitimately feel homesick and eager to be back in Colorado for the first time in over two years and I am excited about spending more time at home while I plan my next moves in life. More on that as the time gets closer. In the meanwhile I am going to continue to teach part time, work on reaching my personal fitness goals, read, and enjoy life. More posts and pictures to come, as always.

Work news, reflections, etc.

Just a quick note before my next blog post: I have received a few emails in response to my post about Agii’s situation, with generous offers to donate money, I’m just waiting to hear back from a friend in Mongolia who I hope can help me. As soon as that’s figured out, I should have a way to take donations to give to Agii and his family. Also, I’ve taken hundreds more pictures that I have yet to post and/or upload to my blog so I will try to put some more up or at least put up the links to my Facebook albums.

Continuing, here’s another update on other things that have been going on in Cambodia. As previously noted, I wasn’t particularly happy teaching at the private school during the days and as the days went by, I found myself increasingly miserable and no longer enthusiastic about teaching. I dreaded going to school most days and I had a really hard time motivating myself to prepare for lessons, to even care whether or not the students learned anything (not than many of them cared, especially the 10th grade students). One day I just decided I’d had enough and I informed my principal that I’d no longer be teaching at Sovannaphumi school. He was a bit surprised and disappointed but was understanding. After I notified him he asked me to stick around for one more week while he looked for a replacement. I agreed and spent one more week teaching before I happily finished my last day. The past couple months, in addition to my time spent in Mongolia, have made me realize that I have no desire to be a teacher ever again. At first it was fun, I’ve had good experiences and I’m glad I’ve been given the opportunities I’ve had and I’ve met some amazing students, teachers and friends, but teaching is not something I will ever do again once I leave Cambodia. I no longer have the passion or patience for it and my experiences have lead me to a new found respect for all the good teachers around the world, especially my teachers growing up that had to put up with my nonsense.

These thoughts and reflections have lead me to further thought on development work, something I always thought I’d be interested in and passionate about. Admittedly, my experiences in Mongolia and Cambodia have had me reevaluating which direction(s) I want to take my life. For the longest time I always though I’d finish Peace Corps, get a masters in international relations and go work overseas as a Foreign Service officer, USAID officer or some other similar career field. The more free time I’ve had to think about my future (especially since I just recently turned 28), the more soul searching I’ve done and I’ve also realized increasingly that I’m not sure if development work or even international aid/diplomacy is something I am interested in continuing/pursuing. I feel in a lot of ways that I’ve lost my motivation and my once strong idealism has been crushed, leaving me lost and unsure of where I want to go and what I want to do with my life. This is not to say that I’m in some state of emotional disarray, just that I’m trying to find my way and in the next few months/years I am interested in trying new things, experimenting, and learning about and studying things that I’ve always been interested in but was maybe too afraid to pursue in the past. Right now I’m reading some books on personal fitness and health/well being, trying to learn more about exercise, weight training, physical and mental health, and I’m taking much of my free time to work out. I’ve been working with dumbbells, a jump rope, Taebo and Pilates workout dvds, jogging early every morning, doing a lot of pushups and crunches, and making changes to my diet to improve my overall health. I don’t know that I’d ever learn enough to become some type of personal trainer but it’s definitely something I find fun, interesting, and of course healthy and I’d like to continue to learn more and focus on spending the rest of my life living an active and healthy lifestyle. I figure since I’m here for a little over two months and I’m only going to be working part time, I’d like to take advantage of all this free time to focus on my personal fitness, learning as much as possible so I can continue and learn/experience more when I get back to the U.S.

I have some ideas that I’m interested in trying out and pursuing after I leave Cambodia (and I’m sure I’ll discuss them in more detail in the near future) but in the meanwhile I’m going to continue to teach at New World part time, focus on my personal fitness, and read as many books as I can get my hands on. I just finished “Sleeping With the Devil: How Washington Sold Our Soul for Saudi Crude” by Robert Baer, a very interesting, albeit disturbing book, about the United States’ relationship with Saudi Arabia. I have been slowly working my way through Howard Zinn’s “A People’s History of the United States” and am also alternating between Ernesto ‘Che’ Guevara’s “Motorcycle Diaries” and “Hunting Down Saddam: The Inside Story of the Hunt and Capture” by Robin Moore. Oh and I just started reading "The Body Sculpting Bible for Men" a pretty interesting book on fitness/exercise/bodybuilding.

Last weekend Hanna and I made a weekend trip to Siem Reap to see Angkor Wat, which was one of the best weekends of my life. I will write more about that trip and put up some pictures in my next blog post. In the meanwhile, here is a link to one of my Facebook photo albums, with 135 pictures from the past two months in Cambodia.

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2079259&id=72206395&l=bb8e7c154a

Cambodia, two months later

It’s been a while since my last blog post and the main reason for that is my concern over my inability to put my thoughts and feelings from the past two months accurately into words. After countless hours lost in thought and struggling with what I want to say exactly and how I want to say it, here goes.

When I first came to Cambodia, I had a great impression of the country and the people. It was new, it was interesting, and it was so different from Mongolia. I wish I could say that my feelings haven’t changed drastically, but unfortunately that is not the case. The more time I’ve spent in Cambodia, the more I’ve learned about the country and the more I’ve learned about the country’s vast and disturbing problems, through interactions with locals and other foreigners who live here, through the limited work I’ve done and through my own observations.

Just one more thing before I continue: While I was a Peace Corps volunteer in Mongolia, I chose to put my words on my blog through a sort of ‘filter’, one because of me being a Peace Corps volunteer and trying to maintain a certain sense of professionalism and two because for a period of time, albeit a short one, Mongolia was my home and I of course wanted to present as positive an image as possible to my friends, family, and people back home. I tried not to focus on the negative so much and my frustrations with my work, the people, the culture, the country, etc. As I am no longer a Peace Corps volunteer and I feel more comfortable writing about certain subjects, I am not going to filter my words or hold back my thoughts about Cambodia and future travels/experiences.

As I started to mention above, my impression of Cambodia has changed drastically over the past couple of months. I have learned so much more about the country, the people, the culture, and problems. Cambodia is a very poor country, with a GDP ranked somewhere between 132 and 155 out of the almost 200 recognized countries, depending on which source you rely on. When you walk around Phnom Penh, there are signs of development everywhere, cell phone and mobile provider shops on every street, travel agencies, nice restaurants and bars, shopping malls, and countless convenience stores, small businesses, arts and craft shops, and NGOs. It’s also not uncommon to see massive, oversized Hummers and Toyota and Lexus SUVs, pushing their way through narrow streets crowded with motos(scooters that most of the population rides around the city on). I have seen countless Mercedes, BMW, Lexus, and Land Rover vehicles cruising around the city, in addition to the occasional Porsche (we’re talking brand new vehicles, cars that typically run 90 to 120k in the U.S.), on the same streets where numerous impoverished families beg for money while holding their malnourished children. Walking down many city streets you can find massive villas owned by Cambodia’s wealthy elite class, homes that would easily cost millions back in the U.S. Take a turn onto another street and you can walk past virtual shanty towns, crowded with large families or public parks where homeless Khmers convene and sleep. The contrast between the poverty of much of the city/country and the wealthy elite upper class is very obvious the more you walk around the city. The more you see, the more signs there are and the more obvious it becomes. The people who have money seem very determined to show it off here, with ‘designer’ clothes and ridiculously large, expensive and unnecessary luxury SUVs that crowd the streets, and of course the massive, lavish villas surrounded by gates lined with concertina wire.

In addition to the incredible disparity in wealth distribution, there are reportedly over 3,600 NGOs operating in Cambodia. I haven’t found a source for this online but I’ve been told this by a few teachers and NGO workers who’ve been in Cambodia for a few years. Everything I’ve seen and heard points to this being pretty accurate. Also from what I’ve been told, many of these NGOs are corrupt and/or incompetent, often just a shady business set up under the guise of an NGO name to increase profits and ‘credibility’. Before I came to Cambodia I was very interested in looking for some work or volunteer work with an NGO but the more I’ve learned, the more I’ve become disenchanted with the idea of NGO work, especially here. This is not to say that there aren’t some good NGOs doing good work in Cambodia, it’s just been really frustrating and disturbing to learn more about it.

Perhaps the most disturbing thing to learn about and/or witness in Cambodia is prostitution, sex workers and ‘the virginity trade’ and just the way women are treated in general. Because of poverty and limited work opportunities, many lower class women are forced to work as prostitutes. Prostitution is technically illegal in Cambodia but you can see the signs of it everywhere. Cafes, massage parlors, clubs, karaoke clubs/restaurants and hotels are all used as covers for brothels or available prostitution ‘services’. Both Khmer men and foreigners frequent these facilities and it’s not uncommon to see many of these ‘clubs’ packed from 4:00 in the afternoon until very late at night. I’ve been propositioned numerous times by girls who are clearly ‘working’ walking around the streets of Phnom Penh, by myself and even when walking with my girlfriend. At first it was kinda funny, reminding me of jokes I’d heard or of stereotypes portrayed in many movies about Southeast Asia. The more I learned about the ‘trade’ here and how things work, the less funny and more disturbing it became. From what I’ve heard and witnessed in films documenting the intricacies of the Cambodian sex trade, prostitution is treated as the same type of problem as sex/human trafficking. Apparently, Cambodia was under pressure from the U.S. to crack down on trafficking in order to receive some support of aid and the Cambodian government’s response was to treat prostitution and sex trafficking as the same problem. Because of this, ‘legitimate’ brothels were closed down and women who worked as prostitutes were forced to go more ‘underground’ and work at these institutions that act as fronts. Women were arrested and fined just for carrying condoms in their wallet or purse, leading to more prostitutes having unprotected sex and contracting various diseases, including HIV. Also, these women are treated very poorly and are often abused by their customers and those in charge of them at ‘work’.

The ‘virginity trade’ is another thing I learned about initially through a documentary on Cambodia. Apparently many Khmer men (this isn’t just limited to a certain class) believe that having sex with a virgin will make them more attractive and allow them to live longer. Because of this so called ‘cultural’ belief, many men will pay hundreds to thousands of dollars to sleep with a virgin. Wealthy men will do this frequently and the less wealthy men will save for months or years just to have an opportunity to sleep with a virgin. These virgins are typically young women who come from very poor families and are usually in desperate need of some quick cash to help their family or pay for treatment for a sick relative. In other cases, these women are tricked into it by a ‘friend’ or family member. Needless to say, learning of this made me sick, angry and frustrated. This, in addition to learning more and more about the way Khmer men view women and their ‘cultural norms’, has left me very disenchanted.

Similar to many countries/cultures in the Middle East, men are allowed to have sex and sleep around before marriage and nobody cares. Women, however, are expected to remain virgins until marriage (doesn’t this seem very odd in a country where men pay to sleep with multiple virgins?) and are considered to be tarnished or damaged goods if they are sexually active prior to marriage. “Men are like gold, women are like a white cloth” (an old Khmer proverb). When soiled or tarnished, a white cloth is not easily cleaned. Gold on the other hand, is easily cleaned(disturbing and disgusting? I couldn’t agree more). If a woman is raped, it often isn’t reported because the woman will be blamed and it will bring the woman’s family shame. I’ve heard about this happening in Turkey and other areas of the Middle East but also in Cambodia, if a girl or woman is raped, she is encouraged to try to marry the man who raped her to save her family from shame. Now, as I’ve done some traveling and lived overseas for a couple years, I am one to often do my best to understand and respect other cultures and their norms but I draw the line in places where women are treated as second class citizens, under the guise of ‘cultural norms’ and/or religion. I don’t believe it’s a coincidence that the most developed countries in the world, the United States, Canada, Western Europe, Australia, Korea and Japan, etc., women are treated with respect for the most part and are given equal opportunities and equal rights. While I still believe that corruption is probably the biggest obstacle to developing countries making significant progress, I also believe that a society that educates its women, treats them as equal to men, and gives them the utmost respect, is a society that will progress and evolve. As long as certain countries continue to treat their women like shit, under the guise of culture and/or religion, they will continue to remain undeveloped. (I know that some people might nitpick about certain details and say that women are not all treated as equal to men in the developed world, but I would encourage those people to spend time in the developing world to understand where I’m coming from.)

I have more to say and I will continue in my next post, as soon as possible. I also will continue to post pictures and write about my experiences living here, as I will still be here until September. If you have any commentary or questions, please feel free to leave a comment or send me an email.

Sad News, Request for Help

I have been delayed in writing my newest blog update but I need to make a different post in light of recent sad news I've received from my good friend Agii in Olgii, Mongolia. His younger sister Aiman, who just recently gave birth, has a brain tumor. Agii and I have been exchanging emails back and forth over the past week and it seems to be pretty serious. She needs to get an operation as soon as possible and the doctors in Mongolia can't perform the necessary operation safely. Agii is in contact with doctors in Korea and trying to look into doctors/hospitals in Thailand or Germany. Because of the high transportation costs, the high cost of the procedures/medical work, Agii might have to sell his jeep, his home, and his private learning institute to try and cover the costs. I am going to donate some money to help him out and I'd like to see if any friends, family members or followers of my blog would be interested in donating some money to help. I am in contact with some of my friends who are still in Mongolia about how I can get the money to Agii, maybe through something like Paypal and then transfer it from a Peace Corps volunteers' bank account to Agii's bank account. I'm trying to get the details worked out on that but I just wanted to put up some info and see if anyone is interested in donating some money and helping out a great guy. Those of you who've been following my blog for a while have seen numerous posts about Agii and the work him and I did together. He's a great guy, he was one of my best friends in Olgii and I really want to do whatever I can to help. If you are interested in helping out in some way and would like to donate money, anything would help really, please email me at matthewbecker82@gmail.com and I'll get back to you asap with details on how we can get some money to help Agii, Aiman, and their family out. Thanks.

-Matt