ANV in Cambodia

Cambodia is a beautiful country filled with natural resources and amazing people. But many communities are under attack for their land, fisheries, forests and other natural resources. Cambodian communities are learning to make use of active nonviolent resistance and this video shows a small part of their journey.

Hungry for Justice

"Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled"

Earlier this week I spent two days with thirty community nonviolence activists from around Cambodia. In the evening of the first day I sat aside to read some Scripture. The passages I'm meditating on these days are the Sermons on the Mount, in Matthew and Luke, as well as Paul's version in Romans 12. I was surrounded by poor Cambodian farmers, fishing folk, foresters, day labourers, and villagers. Their homes, fishing grounds, forests, lakes and water ways are all under intense risk of destruction or appropriation. If anyone could be described as "poor in spirit", mourners, meek, seekers of righteousness (justice), builders of peace, and persecuted, these folk fit the bill. My eyes grew wide in awe as I sat amongst these blessed ones and watched Scripture come alive.

But how are these folk blessed? Regardless of current advocacy and legal efforts there are no concrete resolutions in sight for activists and their communities. A number of these folk have already lost everything.

What I saw, however, was a spirit of joy and thankfulness amongst them. Joy of being with others who know their struggles, pain, sacrifices and mistakes. Thankfulness that their story was being heard by each other, and one tall white foreign guy with a video camera on a tripod.

There is hope in togetherness. It is a fruit of the kingdom of heaven, it is comforting, it is an acknowledgement of an inheritance worth more than land and economic development. Their time together affirms their struggle for justice and the truth of their cause, an opportunity to show mercy for those in small acts amongst themselves, such as words of encouragement, promises to visit one another's village, and small acts of financial support.

And while I saw this hope, joy and thankfulness I know it is not enough. To stand aside resting in the assurance that God loves these folks is to turn aside from the gospel message itself, of liberation, freedom, concrete hope in a renewed reality. And so myself and many others work in supporting, advising and training in nonviolent tactics and strategies.

Mango Count

Yesterday (Thursday 15th): 43 mangoes
Today (Friday 16th): 33 mangoes

Menu:
Yesterday: plenty of smoothies, and we tried our first dish of chicken in mango and soy sauce. With very large macaroni pasta. Delicious! (Though Sam reckons it needed more soy sauce ... too sweet).

Tonight: mixed veggies in mango and soy sauce (and a dash of white wine) on rice.

Tonight's Mango Menu

We all enjoyed mango smoothies throughout the day, making use of the blended pulp I made up last night - and which when frozen our family refers to as mango ice-cream. It kind of tastes like mango gelato ...

Then I had the 35 or so mangoes from today's drop to deal with.

I very nearly ignored the problem, or wondered if I should ask if anyone needs 35 mangoes. But I finally found the energy to deal with the issue. It's not like they'll go away. And there will be 35 more tomorrow to deal with.

So I figured I go with Sam's mango sauce idea.

Mango & Soy Sauce

1 large bowl of cut up mangoes
1 cup soy sauce
1 garlic 'pod' - what do you call the whole garlic thing?
2 onions
2 red peppers
1 tbsp oil

So basically, fry up the onions, add the garlic, then the peppers. Once they look done I threw in almost all the mango (enough so it wouldn't fall out of the frying pan) and then added the soy sauce. I was a little scared I'd thrown in too much soy sauce, but the taste test seems to suggest a winner.

I tried canning them, but the jars were too big for my big pots, so I'm not sure it worked properly. We'll just have to eat them quick.

Mango Count for Wed April 14th

25 Mangoes. Twenty-four from the tree behind the water tank. One from the tree near the train station.

Tonight's Mango Menu

Tonight I finally pulled myself together enough to battle the growing mound of mangoes in the kitchen. I think nearly 10 more dropped from the tree since 9am this morning.

I decided not to use all the mangoes from today, just the large bowl - so about 35. I have been searching the web for different mango recipes, and there's some interesting ones out there. Mango chutney and mango sauce look pretty good. I'm going to give them a try soon.

Today I couldn't get around to the hassle cooking a major mango fantasy - although last night I pulled together a pretty tasty mango chicken with soy sauce (if I may toot my own mango horn). Sam (wife) thinks I should come up with a mango bbq sauce of some kind.

Back to tonight. Well, we'd used up all our mango puree / ice cream yesterday so I decided to replenish our stocks. So after peeling (it's more like flaying) 35 mangoes, I blended and have a full medium-sized tuppaware (or Lucky Supermarket equivalent) of mango puree. Probably close to 2.5 litres. I'll freeze it tonight.

But I decided I couldn't really stop there. I had to enjoy the fruit of my labour (!) and asked Sam if a mango smoothie was in order. She readily agreed. I spooned about a cup and a half of mango puree back into the blender, another cup and a half of chilled milk (the carton straight out of the fridge, that is) and added my secret masala spice mix - about a teaspoon and a half - and blended till it looked mixed up well and good.

The result? Well, in my opinion, it was a rather muted flavour. Not the full-bodied sweetness of a straight mango smoothie, and the spices started off with a kick and then faded a little. I think the spice mix needs a little work. Perhaps just stick with cardamom.

Mango Count for Today

As of 9am this morning there are 35 mangoes (all of which fell from the tree).

Here's a picture of the ant's nest I mentioned in yesterday's blog. (photo courtesy of friend, Simon). Each tree has three or four of these natural disaster areas in them.


If you ever wondered what ants sound like I can tell you. Like rice bubbles. That "snap, crackle, pop!" sound of breakfast cereal fame. It's weird walking past a tree and hearing that sound.

Mangoing Around

It's hot season. Let me repeat. It's HOT season here in Cambodia. There is little to do other than mope around feeling hot, sweaty and itchy as the heat rash works it's way into every sweaty little crevice - elbows and backs of knees usually!

The benefit of hot season in Cambodia is, of course, MANGOES! I've lived in Cambodia a little over 6 years and we've only recently moved to a place where we have a real mango tree - five of them. And every day I pick up somewhere between 10 and 20 mangoes. It's getting a little overwhelming.

The first week we kept up - cutting, peeling, eating those freshly ripe mangoes. Then it got to be a little too much. Not to mention the mango allergy rash from the sap. Very itchy (adds to the heat rash). The other thing you have to watch out for is the nasty red ants that make their home in our mango trees. They pull several leaves together, stitch them up with what looks like spider's web, and make a nest. Bump one of those babies and you'll find thousands of angry acid biting ants crawling down the back of your shirt. Ouch!

So today I decided on a slightly different course. I had been cutting out the pulp, using the blender and freezing it - making really great mango ice-cream, which then goes into mango smoothies very well. Today it was time to take it to a new level - mango jam!

Not just mango jam, but spiced mango jam. I hit a winner on this.

I found a simple an interesting recipe on the web from eCurry (http://www.ecurry.com/blog/condiments-and-sauces/mango-jam/). And a few hours later, voila!, mango jam. I even was able to can them in old jam jars, which amazingly sealed! Awesome. 7 jars of spiced mango jam ... thats a lot of jam. What will I do with tomorrow's mango's?


Re: Recipe
> There are no lemons in Kampot, so I omitted the lemon juice.
> I had WAY more mangoes than three - I didn't count them, but 20 is a conservative estimate. It came to 10 cups of mango pulp.
> I estimated one mango equaled one cup of pulp and added one cup of sugar for every 3 cups of pulp
> I also included star anise to the spices

Re: Canning
> I washed old jam jars then heated them in the oven for a few minutes
> then I followed the instructions from the Wycliffe recipe book for sterilising the jam jars, which also seals them. I wasn't sure this would work (this being my first jam-making attempt) but 6 of 7 jars sealed. Cool.

leadership

Two and a half years ago I was asked to take on leadership for InnerChange's Cambodia team. I don't think anyone can be offered such a thing and not feel a measure of pride. I certainly experienced that. But simultaneously I felt fear of such a task. At the time we numbered around 14 team (plus kids). From my perspective at the time there were a lot of challenges for team leadership.

My friend the enemy...

Dear friends,

The Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU.com) released their findings that includes rating Cambodia with a very high risk of social instability (fourth out of 165 countries) due to economic challenges, underpinned by other social factors such as unemployment, inequality, lack of trust in institutions, etc. Also predicting social unrest (not addressed in the report) are factors like the presence of a large number of youth compared to the population overall, low levels of education, and the presence of lucrative natural resources like oil and minerals, trees, arable land, gems and precious metals. Rising nationalism is also of great concern to Cambodia.

Lent - a reflection from Cambodia

Lent always seems to come around too fast. Each passing Easter I say to myself, "I'm going to prepare myself for Easter better next year", and next year comes and it's the same old scramble. It's not just a calendaring thing, but a head and heart thing. This year, at least, I've been jolted into a somewhat earlier preparation as CRM, my parent organisation, is sending out a devotional guide for each day of Lent. Just having these, often unread, emails filling my inbox is enough to initiate some introspection.

Intro letter for prophetic current quarter

Draft. Dear staff, the last year and a half has been a huge learning
experiment for me, to which i owe a huge debt of gratitude to many
people - not the least, Samantha, my team here in Cambodia, and many
patient human rights workers. Its been a journey of learning how to
deal with evil in it's specific manifestation of violence. A good
friend recently asked me what's my vision for Cambodia? My response
was

Fwd: DK update - February 16

From Lee...

Sorry for the delay in updates. Internet access has been sporadic.

Today, we went to court to get the verdict for the three DK representatives regarding one of the bogus criminal cases against them. The courts found them guilty of 'assault' and 'destruction of property', and sentenced them to 1.5 years SUSPENDED sentence, with 5 years probation. The 7NG company asked for over $60,000 in damages but the court decided on $500 from each defendant. Just to spell it out for you, this is the best news we could have hoped for. Despite being innocent, nobody expected an innocent verdict but still hoped to keep them out of prison as the best-case scenario.

I just need my morning coffee

After all these years ordering a coffee still gets me in a pickle.

To get an iced coffee with milk is quite a trial in the morning. To start I'm barely conscious without the ante meridian infusion of caffeine. My communication skills - in any language - are severely hampered. My patience for stunned waiters and waitresses at a foreigner speaking khmer is very low. And then I try to get the order out as fluently as possible. It rarely works. But I'm usually so desperate for my fix that I take whatever caffeinated beverage they decide I asked for - usually NOT what I thought I asked for.

For several naive years I asked for iced coffee incorrectly. One is supposed to say, 'coffee, milk, ice' in that exact order. It doesn't help that the khmer phrase is a tongue-twister at the best of times, the difficulty level upgraded by the lack of current caffeine supply in the blood-stream.

Once I realised I'd been saying, 'coffee, ice, milk' and not the correct order, after a kindly khmer friend corrected me, I thought my troubles would be over. Not so.

I would say my chances of a correct order have increased twenty per cent. But no more. There are mornings where I forget the correct order, or my tongue refuses to operate under direct instruction from the cerebral command center. There are plenty of times when my servers refuse to believe I'm even speaking a language they understand. And so I get a blank stare, then a polite shake of the head and a softly spoken, 'I Don't understand' to which I reply, 'you don't speak Cambodian'? Another smile and shake of the head. I repeat myself. This time my interlocutor turns around to find his/her eldest child who is studying English at school from a Cambodian teacher who learnt English from a non-native speaker. Then there is a brief tussle over who's second language skills are better than the other. If my Khmer is better we finally discover together that I really do speak Khmer and I want an iced coffee with milk, thanks very much.