A Change of Guard

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Thursday 4 August 2011

Year in Cambodia for 'non adventurous' [American] local resident

By Mary Lou Aguirre
maguirre@kingsburgrecorder.com
Kingsburg Recorder

As a student at Tabor College in Hillsboro, Kan., LynAnne Wiest had the opportunity to visit Western Europe and India on two and three-week trips. Those trips were mere jaunts for the Kingsburg resident compared to traveling to Cambodia's capital, Phnom Penh, and spending a year living with a host family. Wiest worked in Southeast Asia as a volunteer with the Serving And Learning Together (SALT) program for the Mennonite Central Committee or MCC. The program is a one-year, cross-cultural experience open to young single adults ages 18-27. Wiest returned to the United States on July 18. "I had applied to the program before but a lot of the jobs were for teaching or social work," she says.

The next time Wiest checked out the program, she found a position for a designer and marketing adviser. She has a degree in graphic design from Tabor.

"I saw the volunteer position listed on a Tuesday, emailed my information and the next day it was offered to me," she says. "The path just opened up. I knew it was where I was supposed to be."

Wiest, 24, follows in the footsteps of her parents, Kathy and Steve Wiest, and sister, Stephanie Eckgren. All have volunteered their skills, including helping to build homes, for MCC service projects.

Wiest worked with Cambodian artisan groups on product design and marketing campaigns. Two partners, the Rajana Association, a local nonprofit and Rehab Craft Cambodia (run by Cambodians with disabilities) produces fair trade traditional Cambodian crafts.
Items include messenger bags, purses, clutches and wallets.

Both organizations are artisan partners with Ten Thousand Villages.

"I thought I was going to do more design work," she says. "As it turned out, I was working with a designer to help her learn more about design principles and computer skills."

She taught the Cambodian graphics designer how to appeal to Western consumers. "Teaching her how to do a Google search was significant," Wiest says.

Her host family, a mother with two daughters, lived 20 minutes from the office where Wiest worked. She'd go around the city on a "moto" or motor bike.

"My parents visited me last May for a week," she says. "They were surprised by the chaotic traffic. To me, it didn't seem as scary while I was driving in it. But I always wore a helmet."

Wiest's host family were very accommodating.

"I did have my own bedroom," she says. "They know that Americans like to have their own space. The livingroom was more of a multipurpose room. We would have our meals sitting on the floor."

Her host sisters spoke English as did her co-workers.

"I could communicate to my host mother through the sisters," she says. "That was a blessing."

Wiest, who graduated from Kingsburg High in 2005, wrote a blog about her Cambodia experience. One excerpt reads:

"I went to the market to buy oranges with my sister Khema, and as we were wandering through the maze of fruits and vegetables, dead chickens and live fish, all of a sudden I felt at home. In this foreign land, in which nothing is familiar. I had the strange sense of belonging. I have been through markets here before on my own, but I always felt like a tourist, an outsider looking in. But now I have a family and that changes everything. They have accepted me into their family. When my host mother introduces me, she often calls me 'mak koen,' which means mother's child. I love that."

She found the Cambodian people very welcoming.

"People would come up to me and smile," she says. "They treated me like a guest in their home country. They were more welcoming than we treat foreigners visiting our country."

And in a "small world" twist, her host mother once served as a housekeeper for a Kingsburg family who had lived in Phnom Penh years ago.

Wiest, a member of Kingsburg Mennonite Brethren Church, attended services with her host family, listening to the English translation on headphones. She helped teach Bible school and marveled at how young people there were like American teens.

"The students were texting and trying to hide it," she says.

She communicated with her parents using Skype and Facebook.

Understandably, the first month in Cambodia was difficult for Wiest.

"I'm not a naturally adventurous person," she says. "I generally do not adapt to change well. Not only did I learn it's possible, but it's good to get outside my comfort zone."

Wiest will be leaving Kingsburg for a volunteer position as assistant manager at a fair trade store named Plowsharing in St. Louis, Mo.

"I feel a sense of God calling me to this assignment," she says. "No booming voice or anything. Just a tug."

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