As it snows, and I again have an exam tomorrow and mountains of "important" things to do, I can't resist opening my Cambodia journal. More, by anonymous popular request.
Saturday July 14, 12:04 am
"I was at the netcafe lesson planning until 11:30 and still thinking and agonizing over plans for next week. It's so hard. Ed did Mass tonight. Gospel was on the Good Samaritan. Ed challenged us with the question the smart lawyer (as Ed was as an NYC DA) asked, "who is my neighbor?" All are our neighbors, as the children believe. Children raise the bar of compassion Ed spoke of. How far AM I willing to go in compassion? When I want nothing, no feel-good and no recognition, in return?
We went back to Stung Meanchey, the garbage dump, this morning. This time, the lady Kevin works with arranged to have 5 kg rice for each of the 70-95 families in that area. Everyone huddled as they started distributing rice. Meg & I brought candy, which we gave to the kids. A random ice cream cart went by (right next to a dump?) so for $5, we bought ice popsicles for dozens and dozens of kids.
They were all jumpy and clingy and wanted to play. I loved it. I basically wrestled with and gave piggy back rids to a brother and sister for an hour. Held a beautiful little girl with a rash around her face and sores on her arms. An older girl, maybe 11, wearing the dirtiest old McDonald's shirt, taught me hand slap games AND "If you're happy and you know it, clap your hands" in Khemi. Not kidding.
Some of them led me back through their shack homes.
I had so much fun playing with them.
But at the end, we saw the girl with the McDonald's shirt headed out to the dump to work in the filth.
She is my neighbor.
Meg and I had thought about giving the community water filters. Doy, a lay missioner, didn't recommend it--the people might sell them. We then turned to the idea of bednets and roofs. In Khemi, Kevin was talking about this with a group of St. Vincent de Paul society people. I stood nearby, hugging a little girl to my side. She said something to me I didn't understand. I asked Kevin to translate.
"Please one bednet and one roof."
Christ, this little girl asked me for a bednet and a roof.
I will make sure we do it. Roofs and bednets to the group, all the families in that cluster of hellish shacks. They are my neighbors. She's my neighbor. I am responsible for the inhumanness of her life.
I later found she lives outside that little area we were in, and I don't have a picture of her or anything. Please let me be able to find her.
Do I really have compassion for my neighbors, for her?"
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Now on to the less important things I'm supposed to do.
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