INTERVIEW 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 good thing . The way it is being done , because of the choices and associations of the present government means that the Khmer 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 .
27