Cultural Connection

Michele Biasucci

Hello, Friends! I enjoy the double honor of being Mark Hyman's wife and a teacher with the Paramus, New Jersey Schools! And, so, I am on this trip in both a personal and professional capacity. At school, I co-advise the "Cultural Connection Club." Our club strives to develop in ourselves and others an appreciation for our human similarities and differences so that we might all get along together peacefully on this planet. I am thrilled to be part of this extraordinary experience and would like to share with you a copy of the first email I sent home to my family, friends, and colleagues:




Dear Family, Friends, and Colleagues,
Greetings from Cambodia!!!
It is hard to sum-up my impressions of Cambodia so far. We have done so much and seen so much in such a short time; it's kind of overwhelming. Well, the plane ride was long to say the least-- 21 hours in the air, about 28 hours altogether. We stopped over in Seattle & Taipei. My first observation upon stepping out of the airport in Phnom Pehn was that it was hotter than H-E-double hockey stick here! It's been so hot and humid here I've been taking three showers a day, and this is the dry season! As we drove by bus to our hotel I just couldn't believe what a different universe I had been dropped into-- the third world that I had seen in magazines and on TV was right before my eyes, living and breathing! Phnom Pehn is really a mish-mosh of classes and visual images. There are "motos" (mopeds) everywhere, and nobody seems to be following any traffic rules whatever! There are few traffic lights, and people don't heed the ones that are there, anyway! The roads are (or seem to be) pure anarchy! We all hired what are called "tuck-tucks" to take us to the marketplace on our first day here. Tuck-tucks are little 4-seater wagons pulled by a person driving a moped. What a ride we had! Our guy was weaving all over the road, passing other vehicles (large & small), going the wrong way (several times) on the opposite side of the road... And this was all enhanced by the colorful sights & sounds we passed as we weaved: a makeshift lunar New Year parade, raw meat hanging on hooks in the sweltering heat, a Buddhist monk walking down the street talking on his cell phone...
The marketplace was bittersweet, as I'm finding out that much of Cambodia is. There were some amazing deals on everything you could think of; Mark bought some fabulous sandals (like you'd see at Campmor) for 13 bucks! And I'm sure we could have paid less than 1/2 that amount if we had bargained with the vendor. The really sad part is that the conditions in the marketplace are terrible--hot, dirty, cramped-- and there seems to be much more stuff than could ever be sold. The vendors seem so desperate to make a sale. Some of the vendors were so old and decrepit. It was really sad to see such old, frail people practically begging to sell their wares. And, wow, what a shock to see food sold the way it was being sold there. I really need to send you all some pictures because I can hardly do justice to the sensory experience it was... in a nutshell, it was filthy. Women were cutting up raw meat and fish as they sat right on the table off of which it was being sold. The smell was horrific; I don't know how anyone could eat that stuff. There was garbage in puddles on the ground all over the place and all kinds of interesting foods & things hanging anywhere there was space... (I'll show you the pictures & video.) By the way, I'm not judging, just giving you my observations.
The most memorable part of the marketplace was also the saddest part--the beggars. What a pathetic state of affairs those poor people are in! A very small man whose face looked like it had melted (because of a burn) and whose eyes were glazed over with white came up to me and was begging for money, saying "Please, please!" It had been suggested to our group that we focus our aid on the organizations we were visiting and that we not give to beggars, but, how do you refuse someone like that? I gave him a dollar, which is enough for a resourceful person to live on for several days here, I think, but that act only drew more beggars. A tiny, weary, and weathered woman with a sick, undersized baby came up to me, rubbed my arm, and asked for some money... How do you say no to that!? As the trip has gone on I have learned that there are throngs and throngs of people in the same condition and that you could spill out your whole bank account in ten minutes and still have millions of more people asking. It's so sad, and, despite the fact that it doesn't make sense to keep giving out money, it's painful to say no. (Especially to child beggars!) I am not giving any more money to the beggars at this point, though.
Later on we walked to a Buddhist temple, called a pagoda. The temple itself was ancient (restored after Khmer Rouge) and beautiful, and the places where the monks lived surrounding the temple were also quite beautiful. I will tell you more about the pagoda and the monks later.
That night we went to the most beautiful restaurant I have ever been in. It was super exotic with breezes blowing lightweight (I can't remember the name of the material) curtains and candles and lanterns... The colors of deep, dark red and gold cloth blended with the wood and bamboo furniture... We ate in a semi-outdoor section. It was such a sensual experience lying on the oriental-carpeted floor, leaning back on pillows with the breeze blowing through... And the food was really unlike any I had had before. You might say it was a sort of a cross between Indian and Chinese food, but it was still unique. And the whole thing was really cheap-- I think about 5 dollars per person. I have to say I had not a guilty feeling but just a bad feeling that here we were enjoying all this luxury while people were outside begging. It's not fair.
That all was Day 1. Day 2 was incredible, too, and I'm not using that word flippantly. Arn Chorn met us at the pagoda and then escorted us by bus to the site of his Master Musicians' program...................... I have to stop writing now as the group is meeting. Next time I will tell you about the Master Musicians' program, the slum, Arn Chorn's house on the Mekong River, the Genocide Museum, and the Killing Fields, all of which we visited over the past two days. I will also talk about the students' reactions.
Thanks for reading & talk to you soon! Don't forget to check out the blog for the trip at www.cpi.org !
Love,
Michele