Cambodia Calling

Cambodia Calling is Richard Heinzl’s book recounting a year that he spent in the town of Sisophon. But it is also a lot more than that. It is full of anecdotes and little details that serve to give us, the readers, a sense of what life in the frontlines of conflict is like. The harshness, hardship and the humanity of the town residents and the Cambodian doctors is rendered with wonderful little examples.

The author has made a great choice in not hitting the reader on the head with examples of violence or gore, and instead focuses on the many aspects of the lives of anyone volunteering in the frontlines. But this is Cambodia and the past does seep through from time to time – the doctors lose beloved patients, people temporarily lose their minds.

The book actually starts with the author wandering around in Uganda in 1985, a few years before his Cambodia stint. Then there is a small section of Richard’s life in Canada and then the bulk of the book is based in Cambodia. Because of this, I read someone calling this is a disjointed book – but the Uganda and Canada chapters served as background for me and I had no problems with the geographical shifts.

One reviewer points out that the author doesn’t go deep enough, doesn’t really try to assimilate himself into the lives of the Cambodian people and that he actually views these field trips as opportunities for travel. While all of this could well be true, it is not for us to make moral judgment on someone who did much more in one year than what most of us would do in our whole lives. I loved the fact that the author didn’t fit some preconceived notion of what a humanitarian aid worked should do.

While this book may not perhaps make you learn as much about Cambodia if you were reading it for that, the book is full of wonderful stories and serves to give us a flavor for what life in SE Asia was like, for this author. If you love travel books, memoirs and are curious about volunteering abroad, this book is a must read.