Just Go Places Magazine Cambodia Cambodia | Page 26

I N T E R V I E W
driving tuk tuks and being guides
around the temples. Now they
want be to lawyers and doctors
and journalists, etc. and they
believe they can. This is how the
middle class will be grown from
poverty and how the posttraumatic legacy of Pol Pot’s
regime can be ended. My
program is just one of the ways
that Anjali House helps to
accomplish this result in their lives.
JGP. What is your new project
with the French NGO?
SG. The 50-year-old French
NGO, Enfants du Mekong,
(www.enfantsdumekong.com)
learned about my program and
asked me if I could do the same
with some of their kids. So I am
travelling further up North to an
area called Banteay Chhmar
where I will run a 1 week version
of the workshop.
JGP. What do you love most
about Siem Reap?
SG. Siem Reap is a combination
of little provincial city and World
Heritage Site tourism. It is now
developed full of big hotels and
great restaurants, but it is still its
own real self, a real, living part of
Cambodia, with its inescapable
sorrows and beauty. It is also full
of foreigners from all over the
world sharing a commitment to
helping this country that people
tend to forget about. We all do
it in different ways, but our
impulses are th e same. I love
to meet and talk to them.
JGP. You indicated that Out of
the Ruins was inspired by the
history of Angkor and its
surrounding areas. What is your
experience with regeneration in
Siem Reap/Angkor?
SG. Bringing the world to
Cambodia, helping them to
learn about what was once a
magnificent and powerful
culture, is an essential and
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good thing. The way it is being
done, because of the choices
and associations of the present
government means that the
K hmer people are generally not
benefitting from the
development. Wealth grows all
around them [to a select few],
but the percentage of people
still in poverty is still horribly
high. This is still a country that
works, to the extent it does
work, because foreign NGO’s
make it work. Of course, not all
NGO’s are created equal, and
that can be a problem too.
JGP. As someone who has lived
extensively in Siem Reap, do
you have any favourites places
to recommend?
SG. Tourists tend to come to
Siem Reap, sightsee around the
temples for three days and then
leave. But Siem Reap is full of
other things to do, from visiting a
traditional silk making business
to flying in a hot air balloon.
There are great restaurants and
great shopping. There is a
butterfly centre, crocodile farm
and unique craft centres. You
can see performances of Khmer
dancing. The world famous
Phare Circus now has a
permanent performance space
in Siem Reap. You can learn
about the more recent history
in the Landmines Museum.
Spend a week in Siem Reap and
you’d never be bored. Plus you
get a taste of what Cambodia is
really all about – wonderful
people proud of a beautiful
culture full of music, dance and
art that is still thriving.

Out of
the Ruins
By Sue Guiney

This is a companion book to
Sue’s first book on Cambodia,
A Clash of Innocents. You need
not have read the first book to
enjoy the second one. The
book was released in January
2014 and published by Ward
Wood Publishing.
Out of the Ruins begins with
one Cambodian doctor’s
frustration over how the poor
women in his country are
dying needlessly. He reaches
out to friends to help him
create a new clinic for the local
villages around Siem Reap’s
world famous temples, and
they answer his call.
Irish Dr Diarmuid arrives
with his English assistant,
Dr Gemma, and Canadian
administrator Mr Fred.
Together they create a place
where the poor women of
Cambodia can find the basic
care that so much of the
world has long since taken
for granted. The young and
ambitious Cambodian nurse
Srey acts as interpreter and
doorway into the trust of the
local community, but her
idealised view of western
medicine will be seriously
shaken. Tradition collides
with science as East meets
West, and though the doctors
are all too eager to help,
they have much to learn
about their own personal
demons in this desperate
and seductive society.
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