It’s been about a week since I last updated. I’m back in Calgary, CA, and I can’t believe the Cambodia part of the summer is already over. However, I’m not done talking about the trip yet. Let’s rewind.
Tuesday through Thursday was pretty much sitting in our house and working on the design of the home, like I said last time. Unfortunately, Leon and I couldn’t really do much structural analysis because the architects kept changing things and moving things around, making it hard to just buckle down and calculate that stuff. So instead I worked on the powerpoint. Even though I wrote ‘Proficient in Microsoft Powerpoint’ in my resume, I can’t say I’m very good at it. I usually take a back seat on the powerpoint aspect of presentations and the last time I contributed substantially to one was in high school for a Child Labor in China project.
Not very impressive. But, I’d been itching for some responsibility all week so I worked on it. The picture I showed a couple posts back was actually one of the slides, but that featured Ernesto’s model more than any skills I had. Below are some more shots of the building. Tall building, eh? By the way, our team is staying in the small building to the right, so it’s been nice living on the property and going out and doing measurements or whatever at any time we please.
I have also included the plans for each of the four stories of our house, drawn by Edward, our lead architect. I dare you to tell me you wouldn’t to live here, if you were an orphan and didn’t live in a nice home wherever you are checking your internet :P. Designing a house is fun in that you play around with different layouts of rooms and space to make the best possible arrangement. I think we did a pretty good job. From the 3d models you can see that it isn’t a big plot of land, and we couldn’t quite meet the vision of housing 45 students on this property in our new building. (The house we designed will hold about 22 students + staff, but Marie has been very open about building another property elsewhere in the future to house more students as they come).
You may notice that the 2nd and 3rd floors share the same plan, and they are meant to be a boys floor and a girls floor. I was surprised at how important Marie and Co. thought keeping boys and girls separate was, because it’s the first thing they mentioned when asked what they wanted in the Transition Home. I’ve always thought that such rigid rules and restrictions about keeping genders apart and severely cutting off their interactions can backfire and cause rebellion. However, I don’t think it will be too much of a problem with these orphans, who were raised the right way and I think are really chasing after God’s heart.
On Friday, we went back to the orphanage to do our presentation for Marie and the directors of Rescue. Our team covered the vision, master plan, layouts of each floor, structural considerations, and future considerations, but the only part of our presentation that really mattered was the 3d models. It was amusing how all they really wanted to see was the beauty of the final product, and I don’t blame them. The work that goes into it and the minute details and reasoning behind every decision can be unnecessarily pedantic. For example, the iPhone is probably one of the coolest gadgets in history, but I’m sure not every layman wants to know the code behind it all.
It was a wonderful feeling sitting up front and watching the directors smile and chatter in Cambodian as they saw what the future could hold. There’s something special about not being able to understand what they’re saying to each other as they hug and embrace each other. When we were done, one of the directors who had never spoken to us before stood up and addressed us through our translator. She was very, very grateful, and had an interesting remark about our project that no one on our team had considered. She said that now with such an amazing building for students pursuing college in the city, a lot more kids will want to study harder and be better students for the opportunity to live there. If in fact that becomes true, Praise the Lord!
We spent the rest of the afternoon around the orphanage. I saw all the kids I met during my first visit, but the younger ones were preoccupied with Leon because he had brought presents for all of them. Before he came on the trip, his son and daughter (6 and 7) had volunteered to talk to their classes to see how many toys they could donate for this orphanage. He had a whole suitcase for them! That was an awesome story to hear, that all these kids were willing to part ways with their toys to give to those less fortunate. Anyways, he was Santa Claus and basically got mobbed by the really young kids. I didn’t have anything to offer, so I walked towards the volleyball courts to see what else was going on. Guys from 14-19 were playing volleyball, and they were pretty skilled. I’ve never really played volleyball, so I was hesitant to ask to play even though I was at least half a foot taller than the tallest guy there. However, I had a heavy conscience regarding these older kids. Most visitors – me included – don’t give these older kids the time of day when they visit orphanage because it’s hard to resist the little guys who constantly pine for attention. I had noticed the teens were just doing their own thing in the corner during the birthday party the first Sunday we visited, and it seemed unfair to spend all my time with kids who probably won’t remember me in the future because they’re so young. I eventually asked if Leon and I could play, and I’m so glad I did. None of us really screamed or giggled in laughter, but there was a sense of satisfaction just hanging out with the teens, and they even flashed a smile or two in between their typical blank countenances. They didn’t get any presents from Leon, but I’m glad we didn’t ignore them completely – they’re also orphans, and they need love too.
After Friday we finally had time to relax and check out the city. I think open markets in Asia are interesting, so I’ll talk about them. Marie took us to the Central Market, which is a huge maze of shops with females trying to sell you what’s in their little booth, whether it be souvenirs, shirts, fake watches, etc. These women are FIERCE, man – if you have a little softness in your voice when you say “no thank you” after they ask if you’re interested in their products, they can pull you in and make you spend money or at least 10 min trying to think of how to get out. I didn’t want to get anything, but since we had 40 minutes to walk around, I had my fair share of encounters.
“Hello Sir! Come in sir?”
“No Thank You”
“We have your size sir!”
“No Thank You”
I had to repeat this to literally every woman I walked past. I wish I was 300 pounds. Then they wouldn’t have my size.
(Leon and Marie checking products out and bargaining)
I think my kind demeanor also negatively affects my negotiation skill. The general rule of thumb is to suggest a price half of their quote, and work from there. You can’t be afraid of losing the product by walking away and showing that you don’t need them – generally, this attitude causes the storeowner to say “stop!” and negotiations reopen. If you do this delicately enough but with some authority, you can get very reasonable prices. I SUCK at this. It’s not that I can’t stand leaving without buying the product, but I always feel like I’m screwing people over. In another occasion while we were sightseeing, we walked past a bunch of wolves kids with baskets of goods who immediately got in our faces. We shook most of them off after Leon bought a couple things, but I was bogged down by a girl who wouldn’t take no for an answer. She was at oldest 8, but she kept walking with me and telling me to buy a fan or a postcard to send to my girlfriend. I don’t have a girlfriend, but I’m glad a lot of Cambodians think I do. Eventually, we walked so far away from her other friends but she had continued to walk with me for a couple hundred meters. I finally said ‘fine, I’ll buy a fan.’ I couldn’t negotiate it down from 2 dollars (which I thought was fine, but when Ernesto and Greg heard it, they howled in laughter at how badly I got ripped off), so I just bought it to get her off my back. Well that was quite the purchase heard around Cambodia, because about 10 of her friends smelled blood and ran over and tried to sell me scarves, flutes, books, and the works. My fellow North Americans were already way in front so I couldn’t call for help. I was all alone and I could barely move because they were closing in from all sides. My knees were weak, arms were heavy. There was vomit on my shoulder already. I think I built a lot of character from that experience. I’ve never said no more in my life or walked so confidently. No wonder they think I have a girlfriend.
You may be wondering why I talk about markets, but it’s just the tip of the iceberg of me seeing my personality in so many different contexts. This trip definitely provided many new ones, and with that I’ve thought more and more about my identity. In my next post, I want to provide my complete thoughts on the trip. Sorry this is taking so long…it’s easy to be lazy after a hard day’s work. Stay tuned.
Brian
what am i gonna do with this fan?
