Experiences and lessons

I knew this trip would be life changing but I didn't realize how life changing. Spending time in a different country really gives one a perspective on one's own life. A few days ago, I was talking to my girls about the seasons and about how cold and snowy Boston is and one of them commented that she had never seen snow. None of the girls have seen snow unless they studied abroad. Out of the 80 or so girls in Harpswell, perhaps two have seen, felt, experienced the thrill of a snowy day. It's little things like this that make me appreciate what I have. I have never experienced a hungry day (unless I was dieting), I don't have to worry about whether my family will have enough food or enough money to make it through the year. I've traveled to 14 countries and 25 states; by the end of this trip the number of countries will reach at least 20, if not double.

On Sunday, I gave a seminar on budgeting and saving. I told the girls that I started saving when I was 20 and that's why I could come on this trip. I gave them information about basic saving techniques; budgeting by determining their expenses versus income and creating a monthly budget so they could save; savings accounts in banks; and emergency funds. The girls are only 17-21 so most of them do not have jobs yet, but I want them to start thinking about how they will manage their money when they do start a job.

This does give me pause for thought though. I have saved and scrimped a lot to go on this trip, but my take home salary from my job at Stanford was more than 30 times the salary that the girls will start with, if they are lucky. They will start with a salary of $80 to $100 per month and from that they have to pay for rent, food, clothes, transportation, cell phones, etc. My girls will not be garment workers because they have the opportunity to have an education, but the average garment worker in Cambodia makes $62 per month, which is the second lowest in the world, higher only than Bangledesh. Most people can spend more than that on a single weekend out back home. In Napa Valley, I can spend more than that in a single night out!

The garment workers have gone on strike multiple times saying that $62 is not enough to survive on and the factories are saying they have no incentive to pay them more and the $62 is enough to support one person. They are not supposed to be supporting their families on their meager salarie because they supposedly don't have families. I'm not sure how they get away with these lies, but they do. How many of your clothes have "made in Cambodia" on the label? I know many of mine do. Free trade has a whole new meaning when you drive past the factories on a regular basis and see busloads of Khmer women leaving their hard jobs.

"Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness, and many of our people need it sorely on these accounts.  Broad, wholesome, charitable views of men and things cannot be acquired by vegetating in one little corner of the earth all one's lifetime."  ~Mark Twain