On 25th July I
received an email from Leigh Ramsay that reads:
Dear James
I
have received your correspondence. Just wondering if you are in
Cambodia at the
moment as I would like to catch up with one of my
Cambodian staff members and
have a chat about the recent letter I have
received from you.
If you could let
me know so we can arrange a meeting place and time.
Regards
Leigh Ramsey
Leigh Ramsay
Citipointe church
322 Wecker Rd
Carindale QLD
4152
26th
July 2012
Dear Leigh
Following on from my
letters of 22nd and 24th July. And thank you for your
email of yesterday regarding my meeting up with a representative of Citipointe
to discuss R and SM’s future with Citipointe and with their mother and family.
I have not heard back as yet regarding when would be a good time to meet and I
am a little concerned that my time in Cambodia is running out.
Today, C has been to see
her Village Chief to ask him to draw up a formal document requesting that R and
SM be returned to her care. She is making this formal request because she
believes that Citipointe has no intention of ever returning her daughters to
her. I doubt the veracity of C’s belief but I have seen no evidence at all this
past 4 years that Citipointe has been working towards re-integration of the
girls back into their family and community so I can understand why C believes
as she does.
C also claims that
Citipointe has informed her that if R and SM are returned to her care that the
church will no longer provide any support at all for the girls or for the
family. I take all that C tells me with a grain of salt knowing as I do that
she often gets confused or misinterprets what she has been told. The same
applies the other way as well. I was more than a little shocked when, last
Saturday, the Citipointe representative accompanying R and SM (her English
good) informed me that she believed me to be R’s father and that I wanted to
take R to Australia with me. This confusion had arisen, it seems, because C
calls me ‘Papa’ and has also, to Citipointe staff, referred to R’s father as
‘Papa’.
It is most unfortunate that
misunderstandings such as this should arise and it is to be hoped, in the next
couple of days, that a face to face meeting with a representative of the church
can occur and a new ‘contract’ be drawn up with C. Given the significance of
C’s Village Chief I think it appropriate that the contract be signed in his
presence so that he can validate it in whatever way is appropriate. What C
needs now is certainty. She needs to know precisely what she needs to do to
have R and SM returned to her care. Two years ago what Citipointe required of
her was a home and an income. As it happens she had both at the time but
Citipointe did not return R and SM to her care. If something other than a home
and an income is required C needs to know. And I would like to know also before
I leave Cambodia.
I will check my email every
couple of hours over the next couple of days in expectation of learning from
Citipointe a time and a place where the meeting you have suggested can occur. I
don’t mind where it occurs, though down by the river would be good so that C
can be appraised of the outcome of the meeting as she is there each and every
day.
best wishes
James Ricketson
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