I arrived in Phnom Pehn on Saturday. I was taken by a reach-out leader to a hotel where I would wait for the other volunteers. I met up with two other people and we wanted to explore the city a little. We got a tuk tuk, which is a motor bike attached to a carriage and can hold about 4 - 12 people depending on how insane the driver is. The first thing I noticed was all the garbage. I might be pessimistic or maybe I noticed it because thats what I immediately wanted to help clean up. Jordan (one of the other volunteers) mentioned it was sad how poor they lived. To me, I did not find anything about their culture sad, apart from the masses of garbage along the streets. Sadness is defined by lack of happiness. But then what is happiness defined by? Is it defined by money and status cause if so then yes this culture is sad. To me, happiness has nothing to do with money. Of course a starving family is suffering and therefore a certain degree of security is necessary for happiness but security does not necessarily come from money. In my opinion stress and un-fufillment are the biggest factors which would lead to unhappiness in my life. Stress meaning not having time to enjoy the moment because of constant worries about other to-do’s that take your mind out of your experiences. Un-fufillment in my life is by far the biggest reason of why I might feel unhappy. If I am not bettering myself or progressing myself into who I want to be then I feel like a complete waste of time and space. I find fulfilment from doing things like this trip that change the world for the better.
For this reason, I dislike the notion of Westerners coming to change third world countries so they can be more like us. To have our cars, jobs, mansions, houses, status and money. Who are we to say our world is better than theres. Unfortunately, happiness or wellbeing of a country is often measured by GDP which puts third world countries at the very bottom of the list. I would like to see wellbeing measured more in terms of the HPI Happiness Index measurement where it takes into account more then just money but also overall happiness of the citizens and ecological footprint. The HPI places third world countries with a much higher degree of wellbeing.
I think us westerns can learn from them rather, we can come here are learn their culture, their traditions, their interconnectedness with the environment around them. Of course there are things that could definitely help their well-being such as cleaner water, a better system for waste treatment and cleanliness of the environment so that they can continue to live off the land in a cleaner and safer way.
My intentions on this trip are not to change their way of living into our modern way of life. My intention is to come here and to conserve the environment around them that is so rapidly being destroyed so that they may be able to keep living the way they have been for decades.
It is funny how only once you experience the loss of something do you want to preserve other places that are headed for the same loss. If only there was a way to show these people why littering and destroying their environment is disastrous to their exact culture and way of life. Unfortunately for most they will never understand till it has been destroyed.
