Eating by the riverside

Dear all,

Poverty is almost everywhere in Phnom Penh as you may have guessed: from modest people who have a hard life to penniless children begging and collecting garbage. The feeling is not overwhelming though as fortunately you see many more people with a job like mototaxi, waiter or waitress in restaurants, small shopkeepers selling cold drinks, gas, telephone cards, etc. than you see people having to beg for food.

I earn $500 a month which does make me wealthy by the local standards. But overall I don't have too bad conscience since I don't have such a high living standard and since I work for Cambodia and redistribute the money I earn here (as well as investing money from foreign donors on the project).

Nevertheless, eating on a terrasse on Saturday night by the riverside did give me bad feelings: I ordered a pizza and a lemon juice for $5 but the riverside is a tourist place and beggars know that foreigners come there to eat. Three children under 10 came to our table to try to sell us books about Cambodia (travel guides, books on the Khmer Rouge), two handicapped beggars came by as well. I felt it was undecent to eat a $5-meal in front of them when their families live on less than a dollar a day. "Bli neder", I will not do it again.

We were with a volunteer of the United Nations who works for the HCR. I was impressed by how she could talk to the children, when I would not have thought that some chat and playing could do them some good, I had thought the only choice was to buy a book or not to buy one. She let them play with her moto helmet and they enjoyed it, feeling like grown-ups. She has been interviewing for several months refugees coming to Cambodia from Vietnam on behalf of the HCR to check their refugee status and it's a hard job for anyone, let alone for a young woman. She's off for an African country tomorrow and I must say she has a lot of courage.

All the best,

Joseph