Next few days in Phnom Penh behind us. We spent them mainly on meetings with local changemakers. Some of them do things which are far beyond my imagination. Particularly impressive is PSE, which created huge center for the poorest kids, with aim to give them back to society.
Right now they are helping around 7 thousands kids, organizing vocational trainings, preparing them to come back to public schools, helping in finding the job. We spent few hours in their center, observing classes, meeting teachers… Amazing, breathtaking energy. Especially if you have in your mind hard to describe tragedies which happen in their houses.
This point leads me to next thought: how fast one can be used to new things, new reality. Poverty is so common here that in fact I stop to notice it. It’s not surprising anymore even if still touching. But in other way than before. And this works not only with poverty. Traffic, which was extremely stressful at the beginning, become the daily routine, I’m not thinking anymore before crossing crowdy street full of vehicles. I’m used to hot spicy, the view of still alive animals in markets, killed in front of clients. I don’t pay attention anymore to rubbish on the street, rats and insects huge as my hand. Even tuk tuk drivers, asking every seconds if we need a ride are less irritating. Of course in the moment of stress or tiredness a lot of those things start to be frustrating again, even more than at the beginning when everything was new and fascinating. Generally though, what was difficult to accept at the beginning, become a norm today.
Unbelievable, to how many things we can be used to. For good or for bad.