Love is The Seventh Wave
One of my most powerful (and pleasant) experiences on this trip was to chance into the acquaintances of a couple of young Spaniards who are volunteers for what is called (if a bit lugubriously) ‘The Apostolic Prefecture of Battambang’. Henceforth I’ll just refer to it as ‘The Mission’ (as opposed to ‘My Mission’!).
They are on the Right Bank (as, I suppose, you might expect) of the Sangkter River just North of the town of Battambang. As elsewhere in the world, these Catholics have found the nicest piece of real estate in the region; and it’s not small. But here the tongue-and-cheek stops because, and, mind you, I’m a soap-box atheist, the GOOD they do is formidable. And not once in my multiple visits here, was I hit with a bible, see a crucifix or, for that matter even hear the words ‘saviour’ or ‘sin’. They are just simply and effectively all about the very hands-on business of helping downtrodden brothers and sisters. It’s so CLEAR, and these guys get it.
There’s plenty of proselytizing in Cambodia, and it pisses me off to no end. But these people are faithful, but soundly and quietly good. Sadly, a rare combination. The Grand Poo Bah there is an actual Bishop nicknamed ‘Quique’ for Enrique, I believe. I also believe he’s been running the prefecture in Battambang for over twenty years, despite the fact that he’s now only in his fifties. He’s totally, and it seems joyfully, devoted to improving the lot of Cambodians. Chapeau!
They run a bewildering number of programs out of the mission in Battambang. The one young Spaniard, a volunteer by the way, is Yago and he runs a school for disadvantaged kids within the mission. Among the students are 39 handicapped kids who live there. Maybe half to 2/3s polio and the rest amputees, from a variety of causes. All these kids are schooled, tutored, counseled and loved and finally encouraged into either college schooling or a vocation and then set free, in most cases, with an education and, for sure, a sense of pride or destiny.
‘Outreach ‘ another program and another young Spaniard, Ramon, is in charge of it. Several times a week they send a small team in a truck out to the ‘provinces’ to get face-to-face with the disadvantaged to check on them, assist them where necessary and, as I came to see, just rap with them, hug them, hold their hands and show them some care. Honestly one of the most touching of my experiences here to see the peeps running (or hobbling) in from the fields when they saw the mission truck bouncing down the dirt road. Not for cash, or god, or handouts. Just for care, warmth, concern.
In the district of Rattanak Mondol they have a ‘project village’, one of many they have built throughout the NW and NE of the Kingdom. This is a small one, just 6 houses, they have built other villages of 20 and 25 houses. They start from the ground up; buy a fertile tract of land and apportion 1 full hectare to each house. Each house gets a private herb/vegetable garden, clean water and a functional loo. Additionally, each village gets a school and a community center and a large parcel of communal cropland. Each house is given to a handicapped person(s) and their family and the mission selects them from all over Cambodia, particularly up North where matters are worse. It’s sounding pretty good, isn’t it?
The Apostolic Prefecture of Battambang assists, on average, over 500 families on any given year and their budget, again on average, is in the neighborhood of 50,000 bucks. That’s some pretty good math if you ask me.
I want to thank both Ramon and Yago and ‘Quique’ (in his absence – he’s a very busy man) for this glimpse at their ambitious, courageous and sound humanitarian efforts. Vamos!
