Notes from the Road: Visiting Families in Cambodia

Traveling with Better Lives offers special opportunities to get to know people and places in a personal way that would be impossible without local hosts. Better Lives works with local partners who have a strong connection to the communities they work in because they are from the communities they work in. It is a blessing to drive through the Cambodian countryside meeting with families and learning about their efforts to improve their children’s lives.

“Family Visit Days” are days to look forward to. These are the days when local partners visit with families in their programs to understand their achievements, challenges, and dreams. I’ve been lucky to tag along on a few!

The days start by riding motorbikes along curvy roads, through rice paddies and past palm trees, houses on stilts, hammocks, and meandering cows. Before long we see the orderly fence and trellis structures that signify a Better Lives organic vegetable garden.

Despite annual flooding, many families in both Battambang and Siem Reap have successful organic gardens full of veggies like morning glory, lemongrass, long beans, bok choy, gourds, and sometimes even fruits like mango and palmello. These families are often able to feed their entire family from their garden without ever having to purchase additional produce at the markets, and many families choose to sell whatever left over produce they may have to neighbors or friends for additional income.

After a few hours of family visits we ride our motorbikes to a local lunch spot. Even in villages you are never far from a quick and delicious local lunch of rice topped with fresh vegetable stews. After filling up, it’s time to get back out to see more families!

During my time in Cambodia, Better Lives’ partners have seemed genuinely excited to share their culture and communities with visitors. Many families also seemed excited to have visitors and offered small gifts like fresh pomello or bark that supposedly makes you lose weight when boiled into a tea (nice for after lunch).

I see many tours in Cambodia offering a chance to “meet real local villagers”. I have never been on one of these tours but I feel traveling with Better Lives has offered me a unique opportunity to get to know people in a very genuine way and that is a rare and valuable opportunity in life!

Alli Barns is a teacher in Nashville, Tennessee. She is spending a year traveling to visit Better Lives projects across the world and is sharing some of her experiences here.