Culture Changes Everything

Culture changes everything. I have numerous embarrassing, comical, and even tragic stories from my previous visits to Cambodia that can support this fact. Every year is a cultural learning experience and this year has been no different.

Visiting the garbage dump was one of the most sobering experiences of the trip. Hundreds of people live amongst the mounds of garbage. They spend their days wandering through the waste in search of plastic or anything valuable that can be exchanged for money.

The thought running through my head that day and for the rest of the trip has been, “No one deserves to live like this.”

Learning what these people think about their living conditions has moved me to tears. In a culture that accepts a religion that believes in reincarnation, the Cambodian people believe that the life they were born into is a direct result of a previous life. Each time I see a beggar with a missing limb, a child with a swollen belly, and a family that has made its home on a lake or on a mound of garbage, my heart is broken. It is impossible for me to understand that these people dare not to hope of a better future.

I have found little comfort for I know that no matter how much I wish to change the life of each of these people, it is impossible for one 18 year old girl to reach out to every person in this impoverished country. In my devotions this morning, I was reminded of a verse that I have read many times. In light of the things that I have seen the past few weeks, Jeremiah 29:11 has a new meaning to me. “’For I know the plans I have for you,’ declares the Lord, ‘plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.’”

Imagine what this verse would say to people that believe they deserve to live in a garbage dump. Imagine what it would be like for these people to learn that God, the creator of the heavens and the earth, has a plan for their lives – a plan that includes prosperity, a hope and a future.

My comfort is in knowing that God changes everything.

Melissa Minay traveled in June 2008 to Cambodia with People for Care and Learning. People for Care and Learning (PCL) is a Non-Profit Humanitarian Foundation, chartered in 2001, to provide "Care and Learning" opportunities around the world to give the poor a "working chance.