Living Conditions Health Concerns

The Khmer Rouge destroyed everything in this country. The economy, the educational system, the respect for the law, and other institutions that had existed previously. There is no longer a public education system that is free. There is no sewer or public works water system and the roads are marginal.

The team has had to push the van out of the mud on several occasions on the road to the village. Their drinking water will be whatever standing body of water is next to their house, a loose term for their bamboo hut. They wash their clothes and their dishes in this water with detergent, their animals use this water, it is standing not moving so it is not healthy. So even if they bring the water in and boil it there is still the detergent chemicals in it. So there are many who complain of stomach pains and headaches. The whole family is drinking and cooking with this water.

The only well in the village of Doun Lep is the one at the church. The only toilet at the village is the one at the church. They eat very little meat. They have 3 meals of a thin rice porridge every day. They are very thin and frail. Most of the children are thin and have bad teeth.

In the city of Phnom Phen families string their hammocks between trees on the street corners and live on the street selling what they can and begging for the rest of their marginal living. Garbage is along the streets and the men urinate in public. We saw them gambling not far from the royal palace.The youth have no education and no place to work because their industry was destroyed. They need to be encourage by ideas that use their resources. The night we arrived we saw about 100 youth get on the plane for South Korea looking for work, hoping to find jobs that will send money home to their families. Any education they get they have to pay for, so if they are able to go to school they have to pay their teachers and buy their supplies when they do get there. This kind of ignorance is very hard for us to imagine.

Yesterday during the conference for the adults, many of the prayer requests were for education about sanitation so that they could have better health for their villages and themselves. They want to learn English, the currency of trade is the dollar, everything is priced in dollars here.

Today we go to Siem Reap to see Joseph Chan's agriculture and technical trade facility. He has a mission there that we are looking forward to seeing.

We have been in the south close to the Vietnam border so we go to the north to see how the country side changes around the great inland lake. We are supposed to meet the boat people and we are all looking forward to that meeting.

When we come back through Phnom Phen to catch our flight home, we will meet what is known as the dump families. There are 10000 families who live at the dump sifting through the garbage to find what they can to make a living. I will report on that later.

Stay tuned