Chom Reap Su-A!

Hello, friends! 

Can you guess who is Khmer?

“Chom reap su-ah” is one of the ways that people greet one another in the Khmer (or Cambodian) culture. One of the things that was so great about this missions trip was getting to interact with the Khmer culture and see areas of beauty and brokenness.

I don’t think there was one Khmer person on the whole trip who wasn’t a joy. They were incredibly polite and warm, definitely making us feel like we were at home. I’m not sure how much of that had to do with us being westerners but either way it made the transition easier.

One of the things that was interesting was that between 2-3 times a day, I was mistaken for being Khmer! I guess that my natural Southern Californian tan made me fit in a bit more. Well, at least until I opened my mouth and trying speaking the language. =0).

We encountered all sorts of different people in Cambodia. There were our neighbors, super friendly and simply living people who always waved hello to us as we were walking down the street. There were the merchants who were much more in your face, trying to make deals and make a sale but did it in such a friendly way that I wasn’t really bothered by it. There were the students who had such a passion to learn English, if for no other reason than because it would help them get a job. There were the folk who had lived or studied in the US before returning to Cambodia, men and women who had an obvious love for their country but were also so glad to converse in English. There were the folk who live out in the provinces, living on rice farming and fishing, people who don’t really have a lot but are pretty content with their lives (for better or for worse).

There is also a HUGE ex-pat population in Cambodia. There are literally thousands of NGO organizations in the country, most of whom are run by missions organizations and based outside the country. With so many ex-pats in the country, it was interesting to see the interplay between the local Khmer people and the people who have chosen to make Cambodia their home, at least for a while.

Phnom Penh, where we spent most of our time, is a city without any zoning in terms of buildings and such, which made for an interesting landscape. A store front could be right next to a house, that would be next to a mansion that would be next to a salon. Add that the fact that the house numbers do not seem to have any sort of order and walking around the city was a trip in of itself.

Honestly, I still haven’t figured out what to make of the culture there. I loved the slower pace but was bothered by the lack of desire for upward mobility in most Khmer people. I was super thankful that there are so many people from all over the world who care about the country but had trouble with the relative lack for Khmer people we saw who were part of the leadership of these groups. It seems to be a country of contradictions; a beautiful, broken country of contradictions.

Have an excellent day!

~Adam

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