Lent 2011 has arrived. Lent is a special time to think. It doesn’t even have to be “religiously themed.”For this Lent season, I find myself thinking extensively about Cambodia and what it means to live and work here. A phrase repeatedly comes to mind…grasping for droplets of hope…
It’s hot season in Cambodia. We won’t see a single raindrop until June or July. Every day I wake up and the sun beats down on me from a cloudless tropical sun. I just want to see rain.
Every day I wake up and hear about some form of injustice in Cambodia or around the world; the pending Cambodian NGO law which will make it easier for the government to regulate our local partners, trying to find funding for truly good peacebuilding, trying to convince people that change is good, trying to encourage critical thinking and questioning, and learning that it’s okay to be indirect in every way which is just inefficient. I was never an idealist, and even the most hardened realist can be discouraged but the mountains of systemic problems facing not just Cambodia, but the entire region.
And then it’s so hot, and I want to see rain. I want to see family. I want to be with my friends. I want to ride my bike. I want to tell people point blank exactly what I’m thinking.
But this Lenten season, I’m trying to give up hopelessness. Hope is magical. Hope never dies. Hope is what fuels people through any situation of any injustice. Hope motivated protesters in Egypt, Tunisia, and Libya. Injustice moves us but it’s because we hope for something better. Change can never come if we don’t hope and plan for something different and better.
In June, I will see rain. And sometimes within the remaining two and a half years of my time here, I’ll see bits of the change I’m hoping and praying for.
1 comment:
We must be getting all the rain over here! I love what you write about hope. Sometimes it's frustrating to have hope, and then not have anything you'd hoped for come through - but then again, just having the hope can help you get through a day. Keep on hoping, Grace - even if things seem hopeless. By doing what you're doing, and being who you are, you are working - and hoping - for the change in the world that we all want to see. <3
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