Vietnam and Cambodia
“How does the government allow you to talk to us so openly like this?” asked one mother in the group as we were getting shown the S21 museum in Cambodia (it was once a school, but was turned into a prison used to torture and detain people during the war). Our tour guide Vanthy was telling us all about the government and its past and present corruption. “Do you ever fear for your life?” someone asked. “Oh, yes,” he replied. “And I could lose my job at any time. Sometimes I might not say so much to you about this, especially if there are a lot of people around the museum. Or sometimes I might tell the group while we are still on the bus.” Vanthy told us all about how the people in Cambodia don’t like the government, and the elections are completely corrupt and pointless. He also told us that during the war between 1975 and 1979, everyone lost someone. “I lost three of my brothers, an uncle and many close friends. Everyone lost close friends and family. There is not one person in Cambodia that can say they didn’t lose someone. That doesn’t exist.”
Cambodia and Vietnam both had shocking reminders of the very recent past. But what do you really say about two countries that have experienced such devastating losses so recently? Cambodia is more than just a country where Angelina Jolie adopted a child from. Vietnam is more than a war. These places are real countries with real people and real culture. They also have real problems and real histories.
I have never in my entire education, from elementary school up to my junior year in college, learned anything about Cambodia. I had no idea that there was even war there, let alone that it was just 30 years ago. Perhaps I am just ignorant, or took the wrong classes. I had learned about the war in Vietnam, but definitely not to the extent that I should have. Our current government might do well to learn more from that specific war as well. Of course it’s impossible to learn everything about every country in the world, but it is also hard to believe how much we don’t know, when we have access to so much information.
A couple of my friends and I went out the first night in Cambodia, when we were in Phnom Penh. We didn’t want to go out and party, since we had to wake up early for a full itinerary, but we did want to see the city. We got a rickshaw driver to take us on a little tour around town and he would just stop wherever we wanted to. At one point, I got a chance to talk with him about a couple things. “You are students, I am student too,” said Serendad (something like that). “What do you study?” I asked. “Whenever I have some time, I study English so that I can communicate better with my customers,” he replied. He even reached down in a little compartment under the seat and showed me an English dictionary and another book used to learn English. He spoke very good English, by the way. “I always stay nearby your hotel so I can take care of the customers. A lot of people, they rip off tourists. But if I rip someone off, there would be a problem between me and God.” This seems like something that a driver might say in order to get paid more money, but I really think he was being serious. After going around with us for more than an hour, and even letting Casey drive for a little bit, he didn’t set a high price and even asked us what we would like to pay. He seemed actually like a genuinely nice guy, which was good to find after some of the drivers we have encountered.
It seems so amazing to find out how many people in every country speak English. I personally found many people working in low paying jobs that speak two or three languages. Most students traveling on this ship around the world, with the resources to learn pretty much any language we want to, only speak one. In the United States, learning another language is by no means a necessity. Sometimes it seems frustrating for us students when we go to other countries and a person might speak only very little English, or have trouble understanding us. But we are the ones in their country; it should be frustrating to them that we waltz in there knowing maybe a word of their language, and then have the nerve to get angry at them for not speaking perfect English. But instead, many of them thank us for going to their country and bringing money to it. I hope it’s not just me that finds this whole concept sort of sadly silly.
Speaking of bringing money into countries, Semester at Sea dropped a hefty amount in Vietnam. Everyone had been talking for the whole voyage about shopping there, since it would be so cheap. Even with the low costs, some people did some serious damage. Everyone got dresses and suits made for low prices compared to what they would be in the U.S. They also bought Northface backpacks, hundreds of DVDs, and souvenirs and t-shirts galore. I was part of this craze as well, I bought a lot of stuff, but I tried not to go too crazy. I thought I was doing pretty well with being frugal before I left for this trip, but it is a real test to go to a country where everything is so inexpensive that you can buy tons of stuff. I know that people in Vietnam want us to be spending our money there, too, and that this money will help their economy.
I just feel like there is a huge problem with the idea that buying more stuff is the way to help people out. Are the American tourists who go around speaking only English and being little money droppers really doing what is good for themselves and the economies of other countries? I believe there must be a better way to help people than accumulating more and more stuff, mostly for status, just because you can. The frustrating thing is that I don’t have any answers and my personal buying habits are not really going to affect the growing global economy. I just can’t help but wonder sometimes what the world is really rushing towards.
