Bringing change to a 'sad spot under the sun' - by Carolyn Younger, St Helena Star.
When Tobias Rose-Stockwell stands on a dirt embankment bordering a Cambodian village outside the city of Siem Reap he doesn’t notice the dust swirling around his ankles or see the expanse of dried, cracked mud that makes this a “sad spot under the sun.” In his mind’s eye are a functioning water gate, a glittering reservoir, restored water-filled canals — some built 1,000 years ago — and flourishing family rice fields and mango groves. And when his imagination really takes hold there is a fishery, a bird sanctuary visited by birders from all over the world, and in the villages served by the canals, communal cement filters providing clean, parasite-free water. [continued]
This is the opening of a newspaper report of the work of Tobias Rose-Stockwell and his non-profit 0rganization in Cambodia called Human Translation. You can read the whole report in the comments section. For more information on dam reconstruction and related projects visit their website.
Thursday, August 16, 2007
Rose-Stockwell's Human Translation
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Bringing change to a 'sad spot under the sun'
Opera in the caves is Aug. 17 at Clos Pegase
By Carolyn Younger, St Helena Star
When Tobias Rose-Stockwell stands on a dirt embankment bordering a Cambodian village outside the city of Siem Reap he doesn’t notice the dust swirling around his ankles or see the expanse of dried, cracked mud that makes this a “sad spot under the sun.”
In his mind’s eye are a functioning water gate, a glittering reservoir, restored water-filled canals — some built 1,000 years ago — and flourishing family rice fields and mango groves.
And when his imagination really takes hold there is a fishery, a bird sanctuary visited by birders from all over the world, and in the villages served by the canals, communal cement filters providing clean, parasite-free water.
Rose-Stockwell has worked for three years to turn this dream into a reality and now others more than 7,000 miles away are joining in the effort. A number of Napa Valley residents now serve as board members of Rose-Stockwell’s non-profit organization, Human Translation, and on Aug. 17 mezzo soprano Meghan Scheibal and three classically trained singers — all former classmates — are presenting an evening of opera in the caves of Clos Pegase winery. Proceeds from the fund-raiser, which sold out earlier this week, are specifically earmarked for the Trav Kod Reservoir project in Siem Reap’s Prasat Bakong district — a project whose success will affect the lives of 9,000 people.
“These are the kinds of problems that can be solved with the right application of time and patience and endurance,” Rose-Stockwell said last week during a brief trip back to the Deer Park home where he grew up.
Unusual invitation
Three years ago Rose-Stockwell was backpacking through Thailand and Cambodia. His involvement in the reservoir project began the morning he climbed on the back of a motorbike for a hair-raising ride to a remote village in northeastern Cambodian at the invitation of five orange-robed monks. They had invited the Napa Valley resident and a friend to visit their temple. Once there, they were welcomed by a group of village elders and leaders who got up one by one to thank them for coming.
“I had no idea why I was there,” Rose-Stockwell recalled. “They said ‘We’ve been waiting for you,’ and I had no idea what they were talking about. So I said ‘Thank you very much, why am I here?’”
It became clear when he was led to the spot where a small river had broken through an ancient dirt embankment 10 years before destroying the livelihood and year-round access to water for surrounding villages.
Half of $120,000 has been raised
Although Rose-Stockwell was a backpacking “farang” or tourist, in the eyes of the villagers he had the potential to help.
He accepted the challenges, and there were many, and started by attacking the problem by applying what he calls, “lateral thinking.”
“I’ve never professed to be an expert on dam building but I felt what I had was a level of critical thinking and connections to qualified people who can help,” he said.
What he doesn’t mention is the nonprofit he founded, Human Translation, whose Web site includes essays about the project illustrated by his photographs of the region and its people. There are also his initial efforts at fund-raising through the sale of his charcoal portraits of the people he met during his travels through Thailand and Cambodia.
Now Human Translation assists with assessment, oversight and logistical coordination for several related projects as well as fund-raising for dam restoration. Construction costs are currently estimated at about $120,000, Rose-Stockwell noted, and nearly half that has been raised over three years.
At the grassroots level there is an elected and trained council of villagers that includes women leaders, local monks and village elders, all dedicated to ensuring the future of the dam and canal system.
Paradox of water
But like most projects, what seemed at first to be a simple matter of repairing the embankments to harness the torrential monsoons and install a gate to regulate the flow of water, has exposed a number of other issues.
The 26-year-old Rose-Stockwell has come to understand the paradox of water — life-giving and life-sustaining though it is, in rural Cambodia it is not only elusive but often the carrier of microbes and parasites causing illness and death.
Working with a full-time paid staff of five Cambodians and “super volunteer” Will Haynes-Morrow from Chicago, Rose-Stockwell, who is also a volunteer, embarked on a campaign to install long-lasting and relatively inexpensive high-capacity cement water filters in each village, the red filter project. To date there are about 60 of the durable filters in place, each shared by four or five households. An estimated 70 or 80 more are needed, Rose-Stockwell said.
Then they discovered that the region — where government troops and the Khmer Rouge regularly clashed until as late as 1998 — had never been cleared of landmines. Rose-Stockwell immediately applied for help from the Cambodian Landmine Action Center. It took four months to clear the western embankment where work on the water gate will begin, and mine-clearing is ongoing on the southern and northern embankments of the reservoir, he said.
Projects tied together
More recently, circumstances forced the firing of the dam’s original contractor. Instead, the community will take over construction, managed by a Cambodian structural engineer.
“We’ve tied all our projects together,” Rose-Stockwell said. “The reservoir itself is an enormous project ... and we’ve learned that the community needs to be completely prepared for this so we’ve decided to implement a community cohesion strategy, working directly with community leaders on a large scale and training individual community members to be technicians, skilled laborers and team leaders. When we re-start construction in October we’ll have about 200 community members who are not only trained but advocates for the project.”
In the years since, Rose-Stockwell has been supported in his efforts by New York -based Engineers Without Borders, noted Cambodian human rights activist Loung Ung and Marist Mission Centre, Australia, as well as Rotary Club of St. Helena, the Grace Family Vineyards Foundation and the Grace GO Committee.
When he considers the dam project when he first took it on compared to the size of the project now, Rose-Stockwell laughs and shakes his head.
“It requires a lot of patience and Cambodia has taught me a lot about patience but I’ve learned to accept that the general pace is less direct than the way I deal with things.”
“It was never scary, always exciting,” he added. “That little twinge of uncertainty and fear back in the day, that wasn’t actually being scared, it was about having enough courage to open my eyes and go out there and find the solutions.”
For more information on dam reconstruction and related projects visit www.humantranslation.org.
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