Crafting smiles...

Going to Svay Rieng always inspires me to post a new blog entry. Maybe it’s because being in a small sleepy provincial town gives me time to really stop, look around and think. But also, consumed with the hustle and bustle of Phnom Penh; it’s clear, as with all capital cities, you don’t experience the “real” Cambodia. About 85% of the population live in rural provinces, and the contrast in lifestyle is stark.

Gazing out the window of the overloaded taxi, I was wondering if being poor in the countryside, might be a better existence then on the dirty, dangerous streets of the city, where so many rural people end up in their search for a way to scrape a living. Overtaking 4 huge camo green World Food Program (WFP) trucks laden with bags of rice bound for one of Cambodia’s poorest provinces; I realised that the reality of acute poverty in the countryside is starvation.

Even though my friend works for WFP, I somehow overlooked the fact that many people in the provinces rely on food drops for their immediate subsistence. It took seeing those bulging trucks to comprehend that even 30 years after the war and country-wide famine and with no recent natural disaster; whole villages are still living on hand-outs. Having never felt hunger pains for more then a couple of hours, its clear that I have nothing to go on when considering the pros and cons of living in different environments with the same struggles. But when you are starting to feel jaded about working in development, these images put things into perspective.

Anyway, this week was not consumed by melancholy daydreaming; rather it was so full of creativity, joy and inspiration, that clearly this was why I had to write this blog. My wonderful (and too soon departing) housemate Geerteke, received the special treat of a visit by her mum Odette, who happens to be an amazing artist and jewellery designer. She turned up from Holland with a suitcase loaded with beads of all shapes, colours and sizes, wire, tools, craft magazines, crayons and all kinds of other treats. We were going to do a jewellery workshop with the girls that live in the trafficking shelter near the Vietnam boarder.

Odette is someone who knows few boundaries, and once an idea is planted, determination takes over. Having heard her mention bamboo in the guest house in Phnom Penh, the waiter got excited.
“I live in Kandal province, I can bring you some bamboo back tonight!”
And sure enough 4 hours later he produced a huge green stem of bamboo, smiling proudly. This was the start of the bamboo journey that became a running joke over the week. Jumping in the tuk-tuk by the bustling market underneath my house, we made it just 100 metres before having to turn around and pick-up Odette’s forgotten treasure.

The bamboo arrived safely at the shelter in Svay Rieng, and was an instant source of curiosity (“why has the Dutch lady brought bamboo from the city to the countryside?”) amongst warm greetings and big smiles from the girls and staff. Our first project was crafting beautiful necklaces from brown coconut shells. Scraping, filing and sanding coconuts, the girls sporadically broke into beautiful Khmer song, and the occasional intermittence of the mandatory “heads, shoulders, knees and toes” (a song that volunteers from all over the world have imprinted on Cambodian youth).

Throughout the workshop, the girls made earrings, necklaces, bracelets and belts which they could all keep for themselves. Convincing the shelter manager that this workshop was for fun and not for income generation, was a bit outside his comprehension. Cambodian’s are extremely practical people and arts and crafts for pleasure is not something that most have experienced before, but the benefits were clear to all. On the final day the girls sat dripping in new jewellery not being able to contain their pride and joy as we presented them all with certificates for completing the course.

The atmosphere in the shelter was magical, and I learned that therapy was not just about the consulting room. It was right there when we hammered, filed, sanded, sawed, strung beads, sang, bickered over the best beads, women working together, with no need for words.

Oh, and for those wondering what happened to the bamboo? Hours before we left for the city again, Odette disappeared on the back of one of the enthusiastic staff members’ motorbike, and after convincing a carpenter that $2.50 might help his “bad” arm cut the bamboo into rings, she returned to complete her mission. One of the girls that struck me with eyes revealing a great burden quietly worked one-on-one with Odette making a beautiful mobile from a bamboo ring. For the first time she smiled deeply from her heart, and I think it was site that we will eternally remember.