In the past 3 days, I've spent 24 hours rolling over rough terrain on the back of a moto, talking to clients, and just generally being very hot. Each time we moved from client to client, I had a bit of time in between ruts and potholes to think about poverty, development, and life in general. Unfortunately I didn't manage to write it all down each day, so here's my best shot at a brain dump for all three days.
Roads are just so important when it comes to convincing people that it's worth it to make a trip to the "outside" world. They're key in helping motivate people to step outside of their comfort zone. They're critical in determining the rate that a community can grow at. And they are so bad in the countryside in Cambodia. There were so many potholes and trenches that riding on the back of a moto required my full attention, as well as considerable muscle usage. From what little I saw of "muddy roads," I honestly have no idea how
anything gets done during the rainy season. Pavement is truly magical
Savings are critical when it comes to dealing with family emergencies. It was really surprising how many families I met that told me they had
no savings whatsoever. When people in these families get ill, the have the following options: try to borrow from someone else, sell something like a cow (a productive asset!) to get money, or just don't treat it and hope it turns out OK. Amazingly, I think the last option seemed to be the most common amongst families without savings that I met, but I didn't get a very large sample size.
I've started to become obsessed with food-borne illness after having a few of my own. I think the most amazing part is that some people have problems but don't even realize that their condition is abnormal. Interestingly, Siem Reap seems to have a ton of donated wells, even in the villages. Very few people reported problems with FBIs among those with wells. Definitely seems like something that works.
The face-processing center in my brain noticed a lot of blank/bored/irritated faces as we whizzed by on the moto. Maybe this implications for the happiness levels of poor people.
I saw the way a lot of parents of multiple children handled the young ones. Usually the tactic was to distract the child or put it to sleep. I saw some that had bag-like mittens on their hands so they wouldn't do anything. I wonder if that's a good way to raise a child to be curious and always looking for solutions to problems (instead of just accepting them with a blank stare)
There was one village where some of the residents owned land that was bought out to create a golf course. The people who owned the land had somewhat serious-looking businesses with machinery and storage places and workers. That was a big contrast with the palm-frond house of the borrower I was visiting next door. Interestingly, the whole village seemed to have more activity compared to villages that didn't have a big influx of cash from the outside. It made me think about the self catalyzing nature of development, and that capital is so critical in "making it happen"
I talked with my Kiva helper about corruption. It's such a tricky subject because even if people have some idea about the extent of corruption in their government, they don't realize how much it stifles their country's development (and by proxy, their own). Without rules to disconnect the rulemakers from access to the nation's funds, the magic of that self catalyzing cycle will never start. Cambodia could be doing so much better....
Back to the talk of donated pumps. I saw an unbelievable number of signs that said "this person from this country donated this pump through this organization" in the middle-of-nowhere countryside. It was great because most of the people that had the pumps didn't have stomach problems. However, I wonder how much it's related to the fact that they live less than 30km from Siem Reap, the tourist capital of Cambodia. (I think it has A LOT to do with it)
Clean water is so important! I think a big part of it is making sure that the people understand how important it is. If I were a poor rural farmer, I don't think I'd realize that the reason I was always getting diarrhea was because my water source was too close to someone else's bathroom. I'd probably blame it on spirits or something.
I asked a lot of borrowers where they thought they ranked on the poverty scale among members in the village. People's first answer was pretty much invariably "we're pretty average." I found it really surprising considering some were obviously much better off than their neigbors, and some were much worse. It's an interesting bit of psychology that I'd like to know more about.
There are always naked babies (or children) at the borrowers' houses. I realized that I didn't really know what a baby's genitals look like. Now I'm pretty familiar with it. It's just amazing how much we try to hide the fact we have genitalia in America. It's just kinda strange...
Poverty is such a relative term. It makes it that much harder to understand who needs the most help, and where energy would be most usefully applied. So many people seemed "comfortable" or at least "accepting" of their situations. It probably slows the pace of development when everyone is at about the same level (purely based on psychological reasons)
The fruits here are crazy. So many different kinds of amazing jungle fruits. I think we have the monkeys and elephants to thank for them.
there are about 1000 other things on my mind, but I've already lost them. I'll make an effort to post more of my thoughts right after I think them. I'll probably put a part two to this post
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