My wife Siobhan is 50 years old this year and I am 48 years. When we tell Cambodians they think it is terribly funny. You see the man should be older in a marriage because then the woman can show appropriate respect to her elder husband. We do not deliberately mean to disrespect the culture here but often seem to do things that are different from the cultural norm! We have recently noticed how when people reach fifty they often talk about how they are ‘old’and how it is time to start slowing down. This seems rather odd until you realize that the life expectancy in Cambodia has risen lately to 58 years so people over 50 years are really in their twilight years. Sometimes when I meet some of my Cambodian colleagues who have been doing this intense work of justice for the vulnerable for many years you can see the struggle in the lines of their faces and I wish there was a way we could provide them with a way to at least experience some serious rest. Caring for the caregivers is a vital consideration in this organization. On the other side if we consider the life expectancy of us westerners is more likely to be around 78 years it makes us wonder what Siobhan and I will do with the potential extra 20 years God has given us? Who knows what will happen but we know that we deeply want to use it for justice- how about you?
‘Grant me the senility to forget people I never liked, the good fortune to run into the ones I do, and the eyesight to tell the difference’ (quote from my dear friend Shantanu Dutta of the India network).
