Time has flown really quickly. Experiences of life always offer us an opportunity to learn. It likes a few days that I have been over here in Billings, Montana for three weeks. Tomorrow is the last day of my fellowship with Western Native Voice (WNV). Every single day during my fellowship has passed with new experiences and adventures. My stay with my host family, working with the host organization, and meeting new people all provided me with an opportunity to have new experiences and special moments. In this article, I would like to share my personal impression, experiences, and lesson learned that I have absorbed within these three weeks from this wonderful exchange program.

During my professional fellowship, I have learned about my host organization’s works and their struggle to promote native’s rights of Native American (indigenous (native) peoples of North America—lived in these lands for thousands of years before 17th Century of European Colonial)through its civic engagement, leadership development and advocacy program. Native Americans still live in poverty, are marginalized and faced with discrimination such as access to health, education, justice and their resources. For instance, I had an opportunity to visit the Lodge Grass reservation area of Crow Tribe where I witness by my eyes to see the poverty situation of the Crow Tribe community. Moreover, I have attended the second Indigenous Movement Interchange Conference, organized by my host organization. What I have learned from this conference is the history, culture, and struggle of Native American to protect their reservation and sovereignty for tribes. I also had an opportunity to meet U.S. Senator Jon Tester of Montana State at the conference. The present of Tester at the conference was to make a statement and addressed the questions related to his supports and works to promote the rights to vote and native rights of Native American. Besides this, under the support from my mentor Ms. Marci McLean and her colleagues Allisa Snow, Leah Berry and Ta’jin have arranged more meetings and appointments for me with different resource persons who help contribute to making me meet my professional goals. I would like to share three main points that I learned most from my fellowship: 1). Campaign Planning: the process how to develop the campaign plan more holistically and strategically, how to develop the SMART goal and objectives of the campaign, 2). Community organizing: the role of community organizer, organizing tactics, strategies to assist the community to have their own decision power, 3). Finding and Developing Community Leader: people who bring out the best in other, communicate well, are accountable and responsible and understood how to be a team player. It is undeniable that the social and political context between the U.S. and Cambodia are differences. However, some best practices, the creativity and innovative methods/approaches that I learned from here surely has benefited me to apply at my work after returning home.

Beyond my fellowship experience, I would like to share an experience of living with a host family for three weeks which provide me with an opportunity learned more about the American family and culture. Tracy Heilman and Michael Mulberry is Pasteur family, with a son and a daughter. Their son is not staying with them as he is in mission for American Peace Corps volunteer in Africa. They are a sweet family and good at caring. Since I have been staying with them, they treated and cared me as their family member or as a son. Every single day, they always asked me about my experiences and learned from the fellowship program during our dinner times. They accompanied me to go to the Cinema watching the Hollywood movie “Avenger: Infinity War”, do shopping, going to the gym…etc. Besides exchanging the culture, we also have talked about American politics, the history of Cambodia and its politics and other regional and international issues. Moreover, the unforgettable moment on my birthday day, my host family took me to visit the amazing Yellowstone National Park–the largest and first national park in the U.S. that reaches of natural resources, wildlife species and wonderful scenery. I also was inspired by the meaningful message at the north entrance of the Yellowstone: “For the Benefit and Enjoyment of People“. After visiting the Yellowstone National Park, it made thinking of many potential places in Cambodia such as Prey Lang Forest, Areng Valley, and Protected Area of the Cardamom and the forest area in the northeastern part of Cambodia that can be established to be a national park similar to Yellowstone for attracting the tourists, sustainability of the environment and livelihood of local communities. This is what I want to see in Cambodia.

Actually, I still have many things more to express my feelings and experiences and share what I learned from this fellowship, but I don’t think that I could describe all things in this article. Finally, I would like to extend my gratitude to my great host organization and family for their kindness, supports, caring, efforts to make me with meaningful experiences.

By Sar Mory (Professional Fellow from Cambodia) | Publish date May 21, 2018