Women of Development -Part one

To phirak for her calmness , patience and beautiful smile

What does gender and development means to her ?

Her name was Phirak , me and Phirak sat in one office together for almost 14 months. There was only a small rattan wall between my table and her table ! She ignored it and I did the same .

I disturbed her many times by carrying my wild middle eastern heritages and loud voice into the office and she always laughed at me.

We started our relashionship by saying hello Madam, good morning , Choomribso , Akhun Cheran , Do you have a boy friend ? Can I see his picture ? Are you getting married with him? How many brothers and sisters do you have ? Are they married ? Can you show me in the map where is your country?

And then I asked what about you ? Do you have a boy friend Phirak ?? Silence and smile , NOOOOOO , ? How old are you ? I am 24 years old , my brother did go to university , Why you did not go to the university ? Laugh .....I do not know

And this flirtation ended us to talk about what gender and development means to her ?

It is the name of the organization that I am working with ??? Why you ask this question , I do not understand !!!

What I know is that after I started working in Gender and Development for Cambodia , my life is much better , I earn more and I get more respect from my family . To me this means development.

Gender and Development ?? Pause and Laugh , She said we can talk about it later or you can talk with Sopheap , she knows about these things better than me.

Then I understood that the meaning of development is more complicated that can be explained in few minutes. Then I understood also that the meaning of gender and development is even much more complicated.

Then I thought Why I am asking these questions ? What Do I like to hear from her ? Am I also become part of that paradigm "excluding differences by imposing samness" ?

Talking To Strangers