Sunshine and smiles on Cambodian adventure
NOT knowing whether to laugh or cry was one of the blessed side-effects of hearing about Ray and Amelia Prince’s recent trip to Cambodia.
Far from being a traditional holiday, the father-daughter adventure was a foray into country and culture with helping others at the forefront of their travels.
Mixed with stories of chaotic traffic, horrendous heat and heart-wrenching grave sites were tales of happy, gracious people, tremendous memories and the gift of giving.
Reflecting on her time overseas as she packed up for Charles Sturt University, Albury where she will study speech pathology, Amelia said the experience has set the tone of how she hopes to live her life.
The 19-year-old wants to use her knowledge to continue helping others, sponsor an underprivileged child and travel to other countries to keep doing what the pair started in Cambodia.
As part of the Student Volunteer Placement International (SVPI) program, Ray and Amelia undertook health promotion and assessment visits to various villages. They met local people, heard their stories and helped them seek further medical aid.
“It was amazing. We well and truly saw the real Cambodia,” Amelia told Dubbo Photo News.
“It was a real ‘warts and all’ experience,” Ray agreed.
One of the first stops was the infamous Killing Fields, where more than a million people were killed and buried under the infamous Khmer Rouge regime.
With mass graves filled with unknown victims, a designated killing tree, skull house and stories of torture chambers, Ray and Amelia agreed that the area was haunting.
“It was incomprehensible,” Ray said, as he described the genocide of a quarter of the population under a ruler who stated that it was ‘better to kill an innocent person than to allow traitors’.
“They broke their spirits, it was brutal.
“The torture beds are still set up,” Amelia said.
After a few days visiting important sites like these in Phnom Penh and Siem Reap, the pair embarked on the second leg of their journey, conducting health promotion on everything from prevention of rabies and spinal cord injury to hygiene practices like hand-washing and teeth-brushing.
Describing the people as ‘fantastic and friendly’, Ray said they were 100 per cent grateful for the support they received.
For Amelia it was at once heartening and heart-breaking, witnessing small children with blackened teeth and seeing the soothing qualities of something as simple as tiger balm helping to heal the adults’ aches and pains.
“It would make them painfree for their whole day,” she said.
At the same time, Amelia and Ray also thought of all the people who missed out on the clinic.
“Some days were tough, and I would think, how many people aren’t here. But if you don’t do anything, how’s it going to improve at all?” Amelia pointed out.
With the prominence of health issues such as tuberculosis and heart attacks, Ray and Amelia experienced a health system which was completely unfamiliar to them.
“The sad thing about the hospital system was if you don’t have a carer, you can’t go to hospital,” Ray explained.
“It’s not like any hospital I’ve ever seen before. I felt bad walking around there, it was quite confronting,” Amelia agreed.
“Seeing the locals benefit from the health education was rewarding, it was just so eye-opening to see. In the homes, whole families lived in one room with everyone sharing the same bedroom and bathroom.
“I felt guilty all of a sudden when I thought of all the stuff in my bedroom. All the things we have here, our sense of entitlement, it just feels like showing off. Helping them was so humbling.
“Entire families on a motorbike, children playing with a single marble as a toy, using a plastic bag on a string as a kite and marvelling at the wonders of Polaroid pictures really emphasised the culture divide between here and there.
“As poor as they are, they are happy,” Ray said. “We could really learn something from them.
“They are just beautiful people.”
Amelia agreed, adding that her attempts at speaking Cambodian were met favourably.
“It shows respect to them. Everyone says ‘hello’.
“They are just enjoying life and it created a whole dynamic that became infectious. We lack that sense of connectivity. We want to communicate with one another but it’s not the same.”
Ray added that Australians could learn a lot through the Cambodian way.
“Australians should be jealous of how happy and contented they are with nothing.”
Amelia wants her life to have a charitable focus.
“One of the biggest realisations is that there’s more value in experiences like this. My money is better spent than having the latest fashions or iphone.
“It’s important we give to other people and improve their lives in a positive way. It’s not just about donating. It means more to go there and know where to help. Hopefully I can spread the word.”
Amelia hopes to do a similar trip to Uganda in the future and Ray will most likely accompany his second eldest daughter Victoria to Nepal in a couple of years’ time.
“I got a lot more out of this trip than travelling to New Zealand where we did touristy things,” Ray said.
“I learned about different, people, cultures and values. It was a great start to the year and pathway to the world.”
The sparkly shoes
WHILE she didn’t go on the trip herself, Ray’s wife and Amelia’s mum Alexandra had her own connection with Cambodia. A pair of shoes which had sat by the front door of her home after youngest daughter Matilda outgrew them had been left behind for various reasons.
She had planned to give them away to a relative or friend, then to charity, but for some reason, they remained.
Featuring glittery rainbow colours, the shoes were the kind that any little girl would treasure. When Amelia was packing for Cambodia back in January, her mother suggested taking them along on the trip and re-gifting them to a little girl there. Amelia did just that, and the delight on the Cambodian girl’s face was plain to see. Her smile could have lit up the darkest winter night. At the end of a day of wearing the pretty shoes, she took them off, not realising they were meant for her to keep. Instead of taking them home, she put them in her school dress-up box so that everyone could play with them.