Annapolis resident Suzanne Cary suddenly sees her life in a whole new light.
Diane M. Rey — For The Capital Suzanne Cary of Annapolis Cove smiles as she displays some of the photographs and mementos from her recent trip to Cambodia, but the journey to help impoverished children brought a wide range of emotion.Tasks she once considered mundane, like driving around in the family minivan, doing laundry or waiting in line at the grocery store, now seem extraordinary.
With her chin-length bob and broad smile, the 41-year-old stay-at-home mother of three may look the same as always to friends and neighbors, but inside, she's changed as a result of what she witnessed on a humanitarian trip to Cambodia last month.
Suzanne sat down recently in her spacious and well-appointed home in Annapolis Cove, with pictures and mementos from the experience spread out before her on the dining room table, and tried to sum up her thoughts and feelings about the 10 days she spent in Phnom Penh working with officials from the Cambodian Children's Fund.
"It's hard to communicate the trip to someone who wasn't on it," she said. The 23-hour flight took her not just to a new time zone, but to a different world far outside her normal comfort zone as well.
Her journey actually started more than a year ago.
A yoga devotee, she accepted a challenge by an organization called Off the Mat, Into the World to raise $20,000 by the end of 2008 to qualify to make the trip. Through donations, fundraising and help from the Annapolis yoga community, she exceeded her goal by $3,000 and joined 14 other women in Cambodia from Feb. 6 to 15. All together, the women raised $350,000 to help children living in squalor and to provide clean water for their families.
The Cambodian Children's Fund was founded in 2003 by Scott Neeson, a former Hollywood film industry executive who now devotes himself full-time to the plight of Cambodian children, who are among the most impoverished in the world.
Currently, the organization provides food, shelter, medical care, education and vocational training for 400 children who come from a makeshift village built on top of a garbage pile.
"I am so grateful to have had the opportunity to personally travel to Cambodia and see first-hand where this money is going," Suzanne wrote in a letter to supporters.
The Seva Challenge was led by nationally-known yoga instructor and activist Seane Corn.
The visiting group toured the Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum, a former high school that became a notorious prison, and viewed the grounds where some of the mass murders took place. Today, the area looks as peaceful as a park; however, teeth, bones and bits of clothing still rise to the surface during heavy rains, Suzanne said.
"We were fortunate to meet with a few of the genocide survivors who shared their stories with us, asking us to never forget. In that moment, it was hard for me to breathe," Suzanne wrote.
The next stop was what the visitors came to see. They donned tall boots to wade through the 11-acre Steung Meanchey garbage dump, where hundreds of families eke out a living by sifting through the loads of trash that arrive each day to find recyclables.
"I will never forget the smell or the faces of the children who were desperately following us looking for help," Suzanne said. "They live in unimaginable circumstances that are beyond words . . . It took all of my strength to continue walking through what felt like a war zone."
The day's events stood out in sharp contrast to the group's elegant accommodations at the historic Raffles Hotel Le Royal in Phnom Penh, Cambodia's capital city. There they were served sumptuous meals featuring French and local Khmer cuisine. "We drank coconut milk from the coconut," during some of the trip's lighter moments, Suzanne said.
She spent Valentine's Day at the CCF complex, teaching English and yoga to children who had been rescued from the trash heap and showing them how to make valentine cards. The group handed out lollipops, Beanie Babies, and 200 toothbrushes. They also brought new clothes for the children in the center's daycare facility, which generated a lot of excitement, Suzanne said.
The Cary family, including Suzanne, her husband, Miles, and their three children, Austin, 10, Shannon, 7, and Patrick, 4, have decided to sponsor one of the children at the CCF center - an 8-year-old girl named Sam-Oeurn who was born in the local Kampong Cham Province to a farming family with eight children. They could not afford her care, and she moved to the garbage dump with her brother, where she earned 50 to 75 cents a day finding bits of plastic and metal. To make up for the income they lose when the children are in school, the CCF pays their families in rice, Suzanne said.
Now that she's back home, Suzanne also is trying to find retail stores to sell colorful tote bags made in Cambodia from recycled rice and flour bags. The cottage industry raises funds for the CCF and helps young adults ages 18 and up, who fall outside the CCF's regular programs, gain valuable skills.
Amidst it all, Suzanne is trying to reconcile her experiences in Cambodia with the rest of her life.
She said the trip has inspired her to do more in her own community. She'll soon begin teaching yoga at Sarah's House, an emergency shelter located at Fort Meade. The trip also has given her a new outlook, she said, one filled with gratitude and a desire for living more simply.
"I try not to sweat the small stuff," she said.
For more information about the Cambodian Children's Fund, visit their Web site at www.cambodianchildrensfund.org.
To read the trip participants' blog, go to http://blogs.yogajournal.com/cambodia/.
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