6. $500 to give to people in Cambodia
Three days after our wedding, we decided we had time to squeeze in some good works for the very local people in Kom Pong Thom province, Muylen’s home town. There’s a road about ten minutes from the main town, where some of the houses are just shacks made from a collection of materials. it’s very obviously a road of two sides, one side is the wealthy one, with gated detached houses, the other side is as described and shown here in the photos. Strange how that divide exists in Cambodia as well as in the UK, the poor and rich living within meters of each other, but, I suspect, having little to do or say to each other on a day. The people on the poor side scratch a living from various occupations, maybe collecting plastic bottles for recycling, maybe selling a few eggs from their chickens. We decided to give $50 to ten of the poorest people, in an envelope, saying Happy Christmas. It was just a few weeks away after all, and we wanted to give them a present, some money, to spend on whatever luxuries or necessities they chose.
This lady was quite frail, even coming down the steps to greet us was hard for her.
It’s a blessing to be able to give.
Some time after we visited, we heard back that one of the families we gave money to had no food that day, and they were just about to go out and borrow money in order to buy some. Then we arrived, and handed them an envelope with 50,000 Riel in, enough money to buy food for a month. I wonder, can any of us imagine and appreciate how impactful that was?
In total we handed out ten envelopes of 50,000 Riel, $50, and they were received well, no one opened them to see how much was inside, but it was clear that it was a meaningful amount of money for them.
Perhaps they will treat themselves to one of the roast ducks on a rotary spit, bought from the little shop at the end of the road that also serves as a nail and hair salon. Or perhaps they will take a few days off work, whatever that is, some of them collect plastic bottles for recycling. Or perhaps they can just stop worrying.
As poor a dwelling as one could imagine, the walls are just blankets and the roof is old corregated metal. The materials of the house are worth less than the money in the envelope. Would that we could do more.
Each person and family will be impacted differently by the financial gift we were able to give. Maybe they will buy something for their children, or perhaps just save it, a bit of security for them, knowing they will always now have money for rice, they will never need to go hungry. Maybe they will pay off a debt, maybe buy something from the pharmacy, to take the edge off the pain of old age, or maybe they’ll buy a couple of chicks from the lady with the chickens. When people are so poor, $50 is a life changing amount. Even if the change is knowing that there is enough money tucked away to buy rice, so they are secure in knowing that, and can relax a little.
