February 10, 2015
We boarded a sampan this morning, to visit a floating village. There are more than 120 floating villages along the shoreline of the Siem Reap river. These clusters of ‘houseboats’ form communities that include markets and schools. The people are primarily Vietnamese [Buddhist] and Cham [Muslim] refugees from Vietnam. The two groups do not mix. Both migrated from Vietnam to escape the war. This way of life is permanent because Cambodia prohibits non-Cambodians from owning land.
On board to visit floating villages
A floating village house
Life on a house boat
House boat kids watching us pass by
Mother and child on a floating village houseboat
The floating villages relocate periodically depending on the season, the type of fish available, and the water level. Their primary source of income is fishing. These people are below the poverty level of $120 per month. Sanitation by our standards is non-existing. The river is the source of drinking water, the place to wash clothes, bathe, and dump sewage and garbage. After learning this, many of us were somewhat hesitant to eat ‘locally caught’ seafood. While life expectancy in most of Cambodia has increased to 65 years for women and 62 years for men, the floating village people remain at a 50 year expectancy. Cambodia’s medical services exist, but are not available to people unless they have money to pay for it. There is no government support. We’ve heard several stories of mothers and children being turned away from hospitals and doctors because they had no money, and subsequently dying. They live each day with the understanding and acceptance that should they get sick, they will die.
Going onshore to visit the silver and copper village
Local pagoda
Girls studying algebra at the village’s private school
Learning in school
Examples of silver products they made
One of the crafts people producing a copper item
Further down river, we stopped at a small village that specializes in silver and copper goods. They are very skilled. They use very primitive techniques and tools, but produce some beautiful items. We visited the village’s private school where the girls were learning algebra. The boy’s session would start later that afternoon. Their teacher is 80 years old. His story about where he was and what he did during the Khmer Rouge era didn’t quite hold together. While his private school was just an outdoor school with a thatched roof, his personal house located immediately next to the school was very large and palatial, which is characteristic of government officials. It was suggested that given his age and his dwelling, it is likely that he was Khmer Rouge, who benefited by shedding his uniform like many others, then fading into the post-Khmer Rouge government.
Family fishing on Siem Reap river
After returning to our ship, we headed to Phnom Penn – the capital and largest city in Cambodia. I decided to sit near the bow and just enjoy the serenity of the river. The quiet, periodically shattered by a passing sampan with its noisy 2-cycle engine. A man and his son or wife in the sampan, gliding by our ship – watching us, waving. Both of us from vastly different cultures, passing each other 20 feet apart. My viewpoint of his life is framed by watching him in his surroundings, what I learned in school, the books I’ve read and even the movies I’ve seen. His viewpoint of us most likely came from watching a TV program or observing foreign visitors in his city or village. But I believe we share aspirations – not the specific instances; we share wanting health, and happiness with family and friends.
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