Answers to Three French Students

27 January 2006
by Arnaldo Pellini
Cambodia / Journal and Diary

Julie, Marie and Victor are three students at ISA in Lille who joined the intercultural week about living and working abroad conducted by David Hoffman of the University of Jyväskylä (Finland). They have posed me few questions about living abroad that I am happy to answer through my Ubatuba blog.

With my wife Katja and our daughter Olga we have just moved back to Finland after spending 4 years in Cambodia working in development and cooperation projects. We are just in the middle of the process of adjusting to Europe, its climate, the people and the rules, while a part of us is still in South East Asia still waiting to leave.

Here are the questions.

How close was reality to your expectations about living and working abroad?

Cambodia was not new to me as I did spent a period of 5 months in the capital Phnom Penh in 1998 working as a volunteer for local Non-governmental Organisations (NGO). More new to me has been the experience of living in a small provincial town, Kampong Thom, in the middle of the country. There are only 15.000 inhabitants and the whole province is pretty rural with its economy based on subsistence agriculture. One is never prepared enough to see poverty and directly observe the extent of the struggle that some people face every day to survive, the lack of health care service, the lack of safe drinking water, and so on. I think that even though one can expect these things, it is not possible to picture them as the reality we have seen in some villages. But ultimately this is the work I want to do and I like to experience extended periods of life abroad with its positive as well as negative side.

One more important issues being a couple who decide to work and live abroad in a small place as we were is the importance for both the partners to have a fulfilling and challenging job. Even though I had the working contract while moving to Kampong Thom, Katja soon got in touch with local NGOs did some volunteering work and after one year was also contracted by DED (German Development Service) to advise and expand the environmental projects of Mlup Baitong, a local NGO with office in Kampong Thom

What is the most important thing you have learned from your experiences? What do these experiences bring to you? Was it worth it?

The decision to go to Cambodia was definitely positive and worth it under various point of views. Professionally it gave me the rare opportunity to work at the grassroots level on issues related to participatory local governance and involvement of villagers in decision making project and development activities that could improve their life. I had the privilege to learn a lot about the role of traditional institutions such as pagodas in community development and see the value of traditional social capital as a means towards the end of improving people’s livelihood. Staying for a longer period has also given me the chance to learn a bit the language and establish good working relationships with Khmer colleagues: This allowed to build to some extent trust between me and them and I learned their personal stories about the terrifying years of the civil war and the Khmer Rouge regime. With a short term assignment in the country this is normally very difficult. It is difficult form me to differentiate between professional and personal point of view as the two things are linked. Development and change is what I am interested and what I want to do and research. From a personal point of view I have had two very strong moment that have shaped in my mind and feeling Cambodia: the birth of our daughter and the death of my younger brother. These two extreme of life have showed the essence of life itself and in a way it has been positive for me to be in Cambodia where basic needs are the every day reality in order to cope with them and grow out of them.

Do you still feel Italian?

My background is of two nationalities as my mother is German and my father was Italian. I have been used to travel between these two countries since I was very young. Though I feel for a great part Italian as that is the place I grew up and I my roots are, I never felt totally Italian. This has not change and I believe it will not change in the future as well.

Or for both of you, do you think you have more than one identity or possibly multiple identities?

I try to keep one identity. I come from Cremona, Italy. That the place I grew up and where the family is. I have been living abroad since 1996 and stayed for shorter and long period in Scotland, Spain, Finland, Nepal, and Cambodia. But I still feel the one I was, though maybe my world view may have benefited from these experiences and to would be difficult for me to go back.

What has been the most interesting challenge when you were abroad? (Family, friends, way of life, integration…)

I think living is a small pace like Kampong Thom. Where besides the work, there is very little to do than going to the market or riding the bicycle along the rice fields in the later afternoon when the temperature drops a bit. During our first months there in 2001 I remember that we used to go for weekends to Phnom Penh as both of us felt the need to see people and go out. But this urgent need reduced with time and later we liked more and more the idea of staying the weekends in Kampong Thom, trying to get back from meetings and work in Phnom Penh. This showed to me how I personally adapted to a new kind of life. The hot season from March to June was indeed very hard to stand. But Kampong Thom or Phnom Penh would not have made a big difference. Now being back in Europe, one thing that I miss or that has disappeared is the smile of the people.

What could be the reasons for you to stay in the same country for a longer time or even forever?

I can’t really think in terms of for ever. That seems to me too definitive and I still enjoy the idea of change, though it can lead to positive or negative experiences in coping with new environment. In the development and cooperation work 4 years are a good time in a project. This could be stretched up to, say, 6. But if one stays too long in a project he or she may loose objectivity and energy. Cynicisms can than break in and an experienced advisor working in Cambodia once said, Cynicism is a very contagious disease that must be avoided, maybe by changing country and project now and then.

Arnaldo

Tampere, 27. January 2006

Colombo Rain

13 January 2006
by Arnaldo Pellini
Journal and Diary / Travel

It is afternoon. Raining here in Colombo. We have packed our things and tonight will fly out. We will fly home. During this trip here in Sri Lanka I always knew that it is a one way trip and that it will end in Europe. BUt this feeling never got so real as now. To me it has been a journey in anothe rtropical country, and coming from Cambodia we would also go back there. Stay in the warm climat, feeling the moonson rain over the roof of the house as in this moment. The winter, the clear cut Europe have been far from me. But tomorrow we will be there. Another strange thing happened in this trip and is related to the realisation of how quickly Cambodia seemed far in the time although we have been out for just three weeks and I remember and my last presentation in Phnom Penh took place barely one month ago. However Cambodia, Kampong Thom, the projects in which we have put so much effort were quickly distant, faster than Europe getting closer. Maybe it is easier than I thought to say good bye to a place where we have lived for so many years and the excitment of starting something new has taken soon my thoughts.

Sri Lanka has been a good break, the right place think about Cambodia (I found myself comparing all the time this country with Cambodia) and start to figure out how to organise the life of this little family in Finland. As I wrote yesterday the part of the trip in the South made us see the effect of the tsunami of one year ago. The national road to Colombo as well as the main railway track follow the coast and it is possible to see the damages and to some extent the reconstruction effort. We could see that the houses built too close to the shore have been wiped out by the sea, we could see several temporary settlements made by wooden shacks that risk to become too much permanent, to of three tents, roads and brithadges that have been rebuilt, and twisted rail tracks and a damaged train that gave some idea of the power of the water. Tourist are getting back as well and in Mirissa where we have spent most of the time on the coast, sereval people came to our guesthouse while we have been staying longer. It is a beautifull small bay, with nice beach and great waves for surf. The water is clean and it is amazing to think that in front< of us there wa just ocean all the way down to the South Pole.

Colombo and the New Year

12 January 2006
by Arnaldo Pellini
Journal and Diary / Travel

We are back in Colombo. The idea of this diary was to follow with short stories the various stages of our trip in Sri Lanka, but it did not work out very well. One reason is that during the Christmas and New Year we ahve been in very small places and tried aslo to choose guesthouses not directly in the town or village. Access to internet has therefore been reduced and so the possibility to update this diary with what we sawa nd what we did. Tomorrow night we will fly out to London and the Helsinki. We checked in the web and a temperature of 0 C if waiting for us. Not too bad I must say. Olga will see and experience the snow for the first time as well as the cold air entering her lungs and making the nose dry. We will see how she will take it.

We have had some cold weather in the mountains in Neuwara Elaya (1.800 m) and Haputale (1.000). We needed jackects and Olga put a wollen hat (pippo). We had great views during the train journey of the tea plantations that the British started in thsi country about 150 years ago and that still today represent a large share of the country exports to the world. The green hills and the white mist that covered them in the early morning will remain in our memories.

The trip down to the coast went well and smoothly, feeling the air getting warmer and warmer and the sun stronger and stronger. Familiar feelings for us. We reached the coast and this also meant to reach the effects of the Tsunami of last year (26.12.2004 9:20 am).

Mirissa

1 January 2006
by Arnaldo Pellini
Journal and Diary / Travel

So we are now in the South. In a small fishing village called Mirissa. The new year has come and we want to wish to all of you all the best. Electricity is now out and the PC will shut down in few minutes. I do not have the time to update you about the Christmas in the mountains, the train journey to Neuwara Elya and the great views from Haputale. I will do so in the next days.

Kandy

23 December 2005
by Arnaldo Pellini
Journal and Diary / Travel

Kandy. The name of this town in the hills of Sri Lanka reminds me of a young woman and in some way does not seem to fit with the country other towns name. We are at about 500 meters of altitude. The town is spread over several hills covered by jungle. The houses seem to dissapear under the thick layer of trees. In the middle of the town an artificial lake borders the Tooth Temple, one of the most important pilgrimage places of Buddhism. It is said that in side the golden shrine at the center of the temple is kept a tooth of Lord Buddha. People come from all over Asia to visit this temple and have a quick glance, as we did the at the other day, at the shrine which is shown for few minutes every evening at 6:45.

Yesterday we had our tourist day: Royal Botanical Garden and elephant orphanage. At the Garden it seems that we either are in London during a very hot summer day or that the British have just left the place. The grass is green, perfectly cut, tree of all species grow high towards the sky. We found one that was planted by the latest Tzar of Russia in 1891. This reminded us of the quiet pace of time. An old man was our guide yesterday, Samuon. 65, he is the father of the lady running our guest house, he is a known naturalist here in Sri Lanka who has worked for the government for 40 years, training public servants working on environmental conservation. While driving one hour to the elephant orphanage, he had a lot to tell about the history of Kandy and the various countries that took control of the place: the Portuguese, the Dutch and last the British. But one story has caught my attention more than others. He belongs to a large family which along the years has spread in various countries: India, Britain, Australia, Italy.

This year he felt the risk that the ties that kept the family together for long time would become thinner and thinner. So he decided to set up a Family Society, for the welfare of the family members. He is the elected president and will oversee that every family contribute about 500 Rupees (5$) each months to a fund that can be used by the one who get sick and needs treatment, the ones who gets too old and need home care, the ones who face some financial difficulties and are in need of a small loan. I found it a very nice idea. Sri Lanka as every other country is exposed to market economy that through competition can cut loose the links between extended families or make people concentrate on their business only. Solidarity is normally in danger in this game, but his Family Society will certainly strengthen the bounds between families and relatives.

While listening to his story, I had to think to our countries where, despite treatment provided (almost) for free to all and functional public services, we are ending up being more and more alone while life is getting faster and faster. Sick people in the hospitals and elderly in home care houses or in their homes. I believe that there is always a trade off between solidarity, welfare and market. The difficulty is in finding the right balance.

Colombo

19 December 2005
by Arnaldo Pellini
Journal and Diary / Travel

So here we are. This is warm and humid Colombo. We thought to have left the moonson behind us in Cambodia, but here it is again. I am writing from the home of a friend, Denis, whom we know from Phnom Penh. He has recently moved here with his wife Olga to work on peacebulding issues a sector which is quite relevant in this country. Our Olga is sleeping upstairs. A long morning nap after the flight from Bangkok of yesterday night. We had a short walk this morning to see what is around this house and I had this nice feeling of deja vu. Reports about Colombo are usually not nice and tourist tend to spend here as little time as possible before heading to the coast or the hills. To me it seemed to be back in Kathmandu (without the views of the mountain of course). Old and noisy busses run in the streets, tuktuk (also called three-wheelers) approach the side of the road to ask your destination and are ready for the negotiation of the price. It is noisy and bustling here, but not so crowded and people have a gentle approach to us tourists.


This is the other nice feeling: the three of us are now tourists as most of the foreigners on this island in these Christmas and New Year holiday. We travel on local means of transport and started to read variuous guidebooks in order to decide without rush our itinerary for the next 28 days: Kandy, Ella, Galle, and other nice places.

On Our Way Home: Bangkok to Colombo

18 December 2005
by Arnaldo Pellini
Journal and Diary / Travel

“If you don’t know where you come from, you don’t know who you are”. This is an old saying that I suppose has been coined by travellers long time ago. The need to keep a link with one own place, to feel roots and identity is in human nature. For some more than others, but it is there. I am thinking about this while in Bangkok, waiting for the taxi to pick us up and bring us to the airport to catch the flight to Colombo this evening.

Yesterday I had a similar conversation with an Italian friend living here and again the theme of our roots, how to keep them while working abroad is one that takes always our conversation. I am thinking about it also looking at Olga, who is now one and half years old and so far has been twice in Finland, once in Italy, has lived in Cambodia and has visited Vietnam, Thailand, Malaysia. She is starting to speak and uses a strange language which si a mix of all the sounds she hears daily: Khmer, Finnish, Italian and English. We are going back also for her, to give her some roots and a mother tongue, but at the same time make her relaise that she is not just from one palce, but she’s from several and that all these places with all their differences, are part of the same world.

On Our Way Home: Phnom Penh to Bangkok

16 December 2005
by Arnaldo Pellini
Journal and Diary / Travel

So we left Cambodia.

In these four years I have often thought about an article I red while I was in the preparation course with DED in Berlin in the summer of 2001. The article was written by an Italian doctor who had worked in Battambang at the hospital of Emergency, an Italian NGO. He wrote about his feeling while sitting at the departure hall of Phnom Penh airport: relief. Relief after the hard work in the hospital and poverty. Yesterday, I was sitting in the departure hall of the same airport and felt that a new page was going to start. I also thought about the people and things we have left behind. So no relief after all, but the feeling that while it is good to start a new page now, the previous one is not fully turned yet and maybe will never turn completely. I believe that we will always feel a bond with Cambodia, the country that has hosted us for four years and where I have learned so much about development and the difficulties to overcome poverty with change. We also left people behind, Cambodian friends with whom we have shared many moments in our work and in our daily life. People who have taken care with love and affection of Olga and with whom our life would have been more difficult.

Now we are in Bangkok. One hour flight, a world a part. We are staying near Siem Square. It is really Christmas here, all the malls that have grown along Rama 1 show that the economic crisis is behind and thata new page has started also for this country or at least a part of it. But again it is interesting to note that these malls and shops and centre resmeble eachother. The Siem Centre whcih is 5 minutes walk from here , has many shops that can be found in the huge Paradom centre, which again are similar to the malls I have seen in Shanghai and Kuala Lumpur this year. It seems that diversity is slowly dissapearing. But this si the surface, in reality these places are populated by people from many countries: tourists, locals, immigrants, temporary workers, who make thes places really international with their languages.

One hour flight and a world a part from Kampong Thom, Cambodia; our home for four years.

Shanghai for Olga

22 August 2005
by Arnaldo Pellini
Family / Journal and Diary

My dear Olga,

I am writing this email from Shanghai, in China. Sorry for writing to you
in English but I want to post this also in my blog and therefore it must
be in a language that also other people can read. Our friends from abroad
for example.

So this is Shanghai. Someone at the conference I am attending described it
as the gateway of China and maybe it is so. This large town with about
14.000.000 inhabitant (more that the whole Cambodia where you are now) is
close to the sea, at the end of long river and has a large harbor where
foreigners have used since a very long time to enter this country.
Therefore many people have got the first impression of China from this
town and its people. For me it is the same. This is the first time I am in
China and will only stay in this town for one week. Thus the impressions I
get here, though I tell myself all the time that this is only a small part
of this country, will remain in me as the ones of China. At least until
the next time I will come here, maybe with you and mum.

So they called it a gateway. I’d rather call it the window. Like the
windows of the many malls that you can find here downtown and that display
luxury goods from Europe for example. As those goods do not tell what
really Europe is, Shanghai does not tell what China is. But is there
something like China? Probably not. There are instead many Chinas that are
all united together under the red flag or the red star. There are dialects
and languages in this country. Also walking in Shanghai I can recognize
Chinese with Tibetan look like we used to see in Katmandu, Chinese from
the north with more dark skins, Chinese with lighter skin. The country
itself has desert, mountains, forests, industries, planes, huge rivers and
gorges, so it is very diverse.

But what about this town? I am not sure how to describe it. What are the
right words? Do not forget that I came here from Kampong Thom not exactly a
large place.

Everything is big here. While coming with the bus from the airport to
downtown where the hotel is, I have been amazed by the number of high
raises houses you can see. They seem to be everywhere. More than Bangkok,
less than Manhattan probably but I did not expect to see so many here. I
thought to find also a larger crowd of people, but instead it is easy to
go around and also in the metro so far has not been particularly crowed.
I told you about the malls. There seem to be hundreds of them. One can
walk one bloc find a high raise building and find a mall. Then walk yet
another bloc, another mall in another high raise building. Now that I have
walked for several days around, I can also see that the shops also never
change. Same multinational brands: Starbuck Cafe, McDonalds, etc. Things
repeat themselves after a while and are not so interesting anymore. After
all how many mall can you visit in three days without getting bored? Not
many.

Shanghai leaves me with mixed feelings. It is amazing to see what is going
on here and that so little is known in Europe. This country, at least from
this window, is rapidly catching up. Shops are open 7 days a week.
Restaurants and cafes are busy. You do not see many old cars in the
streets. This is happening since years and yet it is so unknown in Europe.
At the same time I looked from the window of my hotel room at the 13th
floor and I see a forest of high raises buildings, grey air and not for
one days o far blue sky. If this is the future it is not a nice one.
The nicest thing I do is in the morning. I wake up at about 7 and put my
runners on and go to walk in the small park just at the corner of the
hotel. At the time is full with elderly people doing exercises. Some dance
at the sound of traditional music from small battery powered loudspeaker,
other follow the order of a woman in charge to show exercises, women in
group of 5 or 6 perform choreographies with “ventagli’ (I miss this word
in English), other follow the guidance of old Tai Chi masters and perform
in slow movements ancient martial arts moves. Every morning these old
people reminds that within the shopping malls, the high raises buildings,
the cars and fashion boutiques there are traditions that remain strong and
that come form far back in time. The only question for me, as I see mainly
elderly people doing these exercises, is where are the young people? Will
they take the place of the elderly when they will be elder themselves or
will these arts and traditions fade in time?

Strong hug,
Iskä

Bicycle Shop

18 July 2005
by Arnaldo Pellini
Cambodia / Journal and Diary

Every morning, when I cycle to the office, I cycle along the laterite road on the Stung Sen riverbank. I pass the village; see the women working in the garden and watering the vegetable and plants, pass the kids in school uniform (white shirt and blue shorts) walk to the local elementary school. At the end of the road, just before turning left to pass the bridge on the national road that cuts through Kampong Thom, I pass in front of a small bicycle shop. Six month ago it was not there. The owner of that shop started it few months ago. In the beginning you could not call it a shop; it was basically four wooden poles and a plastic roof that hardly protected against the unbearable heat of the sun in the dry season. I recall that he had a hand pump to refill with air empty tiers and few tools that may have helped him to fix a flat tier, but hardly more than that. One evening, cycling back home, I stopped to put air in my wheels and noticed that he was not along in that shop. It was just before sunset and a young woman has lit a small fire in the traditional Khmer pots that burn charcoal and was preparing a rice soup. I realized that not only he was using this small shack as his workshop, but also as the house he shared with his wife. On the ground they had a board made with bamboo sticks that served as table and probably as bed. To wash themselves they went down to the river. In the dry season dust is all what you can see when you go along these red laterite roads and his house-workshop was just on the road side. I have stopped several times there to put air in my wheels and gave a glace at his place; the wife was sometime sitting, other time preparing some food. He is a thin man, looks Khmer and has a low voice. His movements are slow and also his eyes move slow glances around.

This morning I stopped again. The shop has enlarged since last month. Four second hand bicycles are on sale. He also has more tools that can help him to fix a whole bicycle. Spare tiers are on display together with other accessories. His shop has enlarged and he built a wooden to protect against the rain. I looked at his slow movements while he was pumping the air, looked at his shop, his house. I could not see the wife this time. Probably she was at the market to buy some vegetables for the soup. I looked at all this and though it was in front of my eyes I could not grasp the real meaning of his poverty. The difference between my life and his life. His future.