A New Corner of The Earth

"And proclaim the Pilgrimage among men: they will come to thee on foot and (mounted) on every kind of camel, lean on account of journeys through deep and distant mountain highways;That they may witness the benefits (provided) for them, and celebrate the name of Allah, through the Days appointed, over the cattle which He has provided for them (for sacrifice): then eat ye thereof and feed the distressed ones in want." (Al -Quran 22:27-28)


I'm sorry I haven't updated this in so long, but I noticed people were still checking from time to time so I thought I'd update with one of my most recent trips. Despite not being very long, this trip I imagine will be the most important of my lifetime.

I was blessed with the opportunity to take the pilgrimage to Mecca late last year. The pilgrimage to Mecca, more commonly known as Hajj, is one of the 5 pillars of Islam mandatory on all Muslims who have the means and health to take the trip. In 2009 my parents had made plans to go, and I decided to tag along. Many people go in their old age, and I myself thought that I would probably go once I got married, but once I realized it was all being made quite easy for me at this time, I realized this was my invitation to go, and it would only be arrogant to reject such an auspicious invitation.

I won't go into the practices of Hajj, as many websites outline the rituals and their symbolism and importance throughout the pilgrimage. What I can say, is that the whole experience ends up being so much more than the sum of it's parts.

On the day of Arafat the verse above kept running through my head. That if the pilgrimage was proclaimed, that they would come, from every distant mountain highway. And we did. I stood looking at Mount Arafat with tears in my eyes, looking at the millions of people and how the words of Allah had come to fruition right in front of me. Words written more than 1400 years ago that ring true every single year. And that we would witness benefits provided...And we did.

People came from around the world at the time of Hajj. Places I'd never even heard of. And the brotherhood felt there was something unlike anything I'd ever felt before. There was so much love and kindness between people of every race and creed, it was hard to imagine my life back home or being anywhere else. There was a familiarity in people that I'd never seen before, 3 million strangers in which there was no strangeness.

I was humbled to see the number of people who'd spent their lifetimes saving to come on this trip that I'd only made the intention for this year. They slept on the streets, in tents along the roads, camped up in the mountains. Their devotion to Allah was beautiful, and I felt completely unworthy of being among them.

You get a lot of time to reflect while you're there, and in all that reflection and prayer I found that all the mercies and love of Allah became so apparent, even in the smallest things. Things that had happened over my life time, and things that happened over the trip, and the things that brought me to the point of even getting there.

I took away a lot from my trip, so much that I felt like my heart beat differently once I got home. And I see how mine, and my fellow Hajji's lives have changed as a result. Many people will tell you how once they got back from Hajj how they left their hearts in Mecca, and now only that I've gone can I really understand what that means.

Upon seeing how sad I was to be back, someone told me to be glad, and that just as you leave a part of yourself there, you also bring along a part of it with you.

Pictures from Around Phnom Penh

Here are some pictures from some of our visits into the city





Courtyard at the National Museum

Fish Pond

Our fish pond project is coming along. Here are some pictures of us draining and catching all the fish. The fish were relocated to tanks on the other side of the complex. We did this with the help of the construction team at RDI and ended up drawing a crowd from the area...

Rural Education Program

Last Friday we went to visit a school in the area. RDI sends out a group to educate children about hygiene and the importance of drinking clean water. This past Friday they were teaching kids the importance of taking care of their teeth. The kids were very sweet and enthusiastic to learn. Seems the appeal of puppets is world wide. Here are a few pictures...

Cambodia Weeks 2 and 3

Sorry I haven't updated in a while. Things have been busy, and I've mainly just been lazy. I'll try and update the pictures soon.

Week two of our trip in Cambodia was a national holiday, so everyone had the week off for the water festival. This is where the flow in the Mekong changes direction and starts flowing into the lake (I think). It also has some religious significance and coincides with the new moon. Since the rains haven't really stopped, I don't think that the flow actually did change in direction, but no one really mentioned anything. We went into the city for one day to see the festival where there were boat races, lots of people and lots of food. Some areas were wall to wall people and it was hard even to get around. The Royal Palace was all lit up in the evening and there was a beautiful fireworks display. While there, through the crowds I even managed to meet up with a friend from Australia which as exciting.

During the weekends we usually try and go into the city which is a nice break from the bungalows. There's a lot more to do and gives us the chance to do some sight seeing. So far we've gone to see the Silver Pagoda and Royal Palace as well as a museum which is one of the converted prisons that was used during the Khmer Rouge regime. Displays at the museum showed evidence of the brutality people had been subjected to. Their cells were there, as well as torture machines, and pictures of many of the prisoners including the elderly and small children. These included before and after pictures of people who had been tortured and starved. It's hard to believe it was such a short time ago and you can see a lot of the devastation of the Khmer Rouge is still being felt in the country today. During this regime the cities were emptied and doctors, intellectuals, government workers, artists, musicians, basically anyone with any education was executed. Even people who wore glasses, because this was seen as a sign of intelligence. People were forced out of the city into the villages where they worked long and hard hours for no pay and were subject to food shortages much of the time. Despite farming so much food, they sent the food away to China where the KR (Khmer Rouge) exchanged food for ammunition. They were often moved from village to village so people did not get to know each other well enough to form any sort of rebellion or revolution against the government (known as the Angkor). It's estimated that about 2 million people (although this number is debated) died in this regime started in April 1975, many from starvation. So today you see that much of the population are under the age of 25 in Cambodia. From what I've heard from those living here, things have rapidly been getting better in the last 10 years and the infrastructure is improving and tourism has gone way up. It's seems there is still a long way to go though.

As for our project, we're finally getting things under way, we've been doing a baseline of whats happening in the pond after not really being maintained for a while. We've been testing different parameters in the field and the lab. This week we're going to test out the rock bed filters that are adjacent to the pond and make sure they're even working. Eventually we'll have to drain the entire thing, and restart the whole process so monitoring can begin from the very start to test all the different variables going on in the fish pond. We've been starting to learn some of the different challenges involved with any kind of development work. I'm sure we've only really hit the tip of the iceberg but we've been learning to be creative with what we do have and have a whole new appreciation for duct tape.

Other then the fish pond we've been working with the students here three times a week on their english lessons. We've been using the TOEFL book as a basis for their classes since many of them want to go abroad to do their masters.

Adjusting to life in the village has been interesting. The heat has been one thing, the mice, geckos and ants have been another. But you just get used to it all. The people are extremely friendly and warm which pretty much has made a lot of the other stuff not matter so much. But that's just as long as the mice stay out of my bungalow!

I'll try to update with pictures soon

sy

Cambodia Week 1

Hey Everyone,

So far Cambodia has been an eye opening experience. Everything is so different from Canada. These days I'm living in a revamped shipping container in a rural village without the modern conveniences of hot water, television, air conditioning and my blow dryer. But it's all good, it's not to bad making do without them. I guess we'll see what I have to say about it in a few weeks though.

Yesterday we were taken on a tour of all the different projects that RDI is involved with and I had no idea all this was going on right here for the past few days in this sleepy little village. We saw all the processes involved in the ceramic filter production where RDI is able to make a unit to produce drinkable water using a ceramic filter inside a food grade plastic unit. All for just 10 dollars. These filters are also how everyone at RDI gets their water.

As well, they have a project that involves shallow wells and rope pumps, an agriculture program where families can get livestock to produce meat and milk, and a studio where they are producing a sort of Cambodian Sesame Street to educate children. And many more that I'm not even mentioning.

Typical days start at the coffee shop at about 7:30 (ya, unbelievable, I acutally wake up for that on my own) where you can get a nice breakfast for just over a dollar. Cambodian breakfast food isn't much like it is in Canada, they don't eat eggs or waffles or toast. So far it's been chicken and rice and different soups that are kind of like pho, but aren't quite pho.

Then we go on with whatever projects we're involved in. Ashley and I are working on a Tilapia farming pond, teaching some technical seminars and some english classes. We had our first English lesson and it went well. The students seem enthusiastic to learn. The internet has been down lately so researching for our project has been kind of slow going.

The evenings are really chill, and that has to be my favourite part about being here. The hustle of everyday life in Canada does not exist here. People are pretty laid back and the only reason I even use a clock is to figure out when it's time for lunch or dinner.

So far it's been pretty rainy during the evenings, I'm told that it's suppose to be the dry season so that might stop pretty soon. But when it rains here it really pours. The roofs are tin, so it's pretty loud and sometimes it's hard to even hear people talk. You really start to respect the structural integrity of the buildings are here when it rains that hard.

For the weekend we went to Phnom Penh (PP) and took in some of the sites. We've decided to hold off on some of the sightseeing till another friend comes in from Canada and just relax a little. PP is a cool city and most people speak at least a little english so I don't think it should be too bad to make our way around when we want to come into the city.

I've uploaded pictures to Picasa for everyone to take a look, if you follow the link we've taken pictures of the village, and our weekend trip into the city so far.

Cambodia Pictures


I'll try and keep that album updated and send the links to anymore we create. Uploading takes a lot of time in the village cause the internet is pretty slow so forgive us if it doesn't happen too often.

Tomorrow is Cambodian Independence day and then the water front festival is all week so hopefully we'll update you on that next week.

sy

This is not a story of heroic feats, or merely the narrative of a cynic; at least I do not mean it to be. It is a glimpse of two lives running parallel for a time, with similar hopes and convergent dreams. - Che Guevara, Motorcycle Diaries