joni overSEES

Sunday, April 18, 2010

my new set of eyes

A new way of seeing things...

I was recently sent by my company to be part of a Corporate Social Responsibility event in Cambodia, to build houses with Habitat for Humanity. We were a team of 11, who took 5 days out of office work to do brick-laying and cement-mixing under the Cambodia sun. Not all of us knew each other very well, except for the colleagues we came with from our countries. Some of us only knew each other through emails so it became very exciting for us, knowing we will not only get to know some local Cambodians, but also get to know some of our colleagues from the rest of the Asia Pacific region. I was tasked to take care of the team, keep tabs on each one, basically to make sure we all go back home in one piece. Proved to be challenging, knowing these bunch were brewed in a fast-paced working environment, who were workaholics and strategy-driven individuals. But needless to say, each one was all set and ready for a new experience. All of us left office work behind and just stopped... to slowly be part of the other side of reality.

Everyday we would travel to the work site, which was an hour away from Phnom Penh, totally out of the city and a totally rural area. Each day we would wake up very early to prepare for 8 hours of intensive manual labor. First few days were horrible. Our bodies were just not built for physical work, not to mention, under the very, very, very, VERY hot sun. Each day I just turned from brown, to browner, to brownest. All of us were aching all over, eating like a construction worker, and craving for sleep.

But each day, progress was evident. The bricks became walls, and eventually we were already making preparations for the roofing.

Our last day came and finally the skies decided to rain. But, the rain only gave us a more challenging last day, which gave us doubts on whether the house will be done in the afternoon. But, the team spirits were up the roof finally tiled in.

We had a little ceremony to give the giant house keys to the 2 families. We exchanged a lot of thank you’s and appreciation for each other’s presence. The parents were very grateful that they now have a house to call their own and it is now secured for their children. The team was indeed grateful to see they have just become part of someone else’s future. It was a very meaningful ceremony for each one of us, including the families as it wrapped up the whole experience.

We went back that night filled with joy to have seen the houses completed. And of course, being the Asians that we are, we just took endless photos that we feel will never be enough to capture all the emotions felt that afternoon, moreso, it will never be enough to describe the whole experience.

What I picked up from this experience is a new set of eyes, eyes that see beyond words, even more, eyes that understand even without words. More evidently, language did not feel like a barrier to communicate and understand each other. Even if it needed some extreme body exaggeration, extra head nodding or extra jumping up and down, just to get the point across, we were not at all inhibited by any of these. Each one of my colleagues stretched themselves to understand, stretched themselves so they are understood. It was extra patience that was key to stop...look...and listen.

Stop...to take in the experience and accept the realities of poverty, of opportunities, etc...

Look...to understand more what cannot be explained in words, but observed...

and Listen...to understand more deeply that the core of the experience lies in how we have lent ourselves to it. It wasn’t important that we knew zero of manual labor, but it was instrumental that we all had the heart to commit.