One of my favorite foods

Just before leaving Switzerland Anne-Clare told me that my Cambodian diet would consist of rice and lemon grass one day and the next day I would have lemon grass and rice. She was very close to the mark.

Have you ever lived away from your home country for a long time or been on an extended vacation and longed for familiar food? That is happening to me.

In Kampong Cham there are markets with stalls but nothing you could call a supermarket. The two large gas stations have the best selection of products. This does not say much for the overall selection.

Right now I am in Phnom Penh, the shopping Mecca of Cambodia; there are shops of every size, selling almost everything. This afternoon I explored the “Lucky Supermarket”. When I walked in, I was hit by a blast of refreshing cold air. It was a little too cold because I have been sweating walking along the street in 35 degree heat. I am not complaining, with this heat I will take cool wherever I can find it.

Lucky is very much like a medium size U.S.A. Safeway supermarket. The clientele are half ex-pats and the other half is wealthy Cambodians.

On entry, there is a wine rack, a pastry display, a cold meat section and cheese counter. Very up-scale for Cambodia. I wandered past the selection of Australian beef, fresh and rotisserie roasted chickens, fresh papaya and, the ice cream freezer (thinking that my freezer in Kampong Cham is too small to hold anything but an ice cream bar). I turned down the kitchen utensil isle and found plastic containers for storing food and in my case, some of the parts and pieces of photographic equipment that are currently cluttering up my closet.

Then I turned down THE aisle, chips. There were Doritos chips with several flavors, Fritos and other familiar brands. Then the BIG Find. I found Export Cheetos. I held my excitement, Keith Daily had told me back in Belgium not to purchase the European Cheetos, and they were not the same an American Cheetos. Should I chance it? I picked up the bag and fondled it. They felt the same but how would they taste? I spent a long time thinking about this purchase. My first thought was they are $2.70 which is about one third of my daily food allowance. The other thought was they do have “EXPORT” on the bag. Could they really be REAL Cheetos? I put them in my basket and went to check out.

I hurried back to the hotel with my prize. In the room, I opened them, I knew that the first whiff would tell me if they were the real thing or not. I carefully opened the bag and placed my nose in the bag. A deep sniff. WOWWWWW, they are the REAL THING!!

If you know about Cheetos, you will know that the keys on my computer are now yellow.

Moto ride in Phnom Penh

I was shopping near the central market and needed to take a moto (motor scooter) back to the guest house. I asked the price. It started at 4,000 real ($1.00) way too much, we finally settled on 2,500 real ($0.62).

I hopped on and we started off. The moto was quite old, the needles on the speedometer and gas gauge were gone. We were headed to a street that had a divider down the middle. I knew that the driver would go left, that means that he will go the wrong way in lunch hour traffic. That is quite normal here.

We went about half a block against traffic and the driver turned off into a pagoda. Yes, we could use a blessing in this traffic. The reason he turned left was he saw a police vehicle just ahead. We bumped through the pagoda; the suspension on the moto was just like the needles, gone. Several sharp turns and large bumps over sidewalks and broken up cement and we were back onto a street. We ended up again on the divided street, going the wrong way. What a surprise (NOT). We came to where the divided street crossed another street. The driver moved next to the divider and then skillfully maneuvered into traffic going our way.

It is quite a site, seeing three lanes of motos and two lanes of cars coming at you.

I wish I would have had my camera with me.

Packed in like sardines

Tomorrow all of the volunteers need to travel back to Phnom Penh for the last three days of in country training. I had discussed hiring a taxi to Phnom Penh with some of the group but no one seemed interested. Tuesday afternoon I purchased a bus ticket to Phnom Penh.  Later in the afternoon, I had a call from Sara; she was trying to arrange a taxi to Phnom Penh. I said I was interested, even though I had already purchased my bus ticket.

Later in the day Sara called to say that she had arranged a taxi, there would be five people and lots of space. Great, the taxi only takes two hours, the bus three hours.

Wednesday the taxi came to pick me up at 13:00. It was a very old Toyota Camary. It was already with four ladies in it. I thought that I would put my things in the trunk and squeeze in. The trunk was already full. My bag with clothes, helmet and my computer would have to go in my lap.

We put two ladies in the front seat and I was in the back with two other ladies. It was a tight fit. I thought “they give sardines oil when they are packed this tight”.

We drove non-stop to Phnom Penh, we thought if we stopped and got out we would not be able to get packed back in. We crossed the bridge over the Mekong into Phnom Penh. We were lucky, there was not much traffic, some times, and we have been waiting in traffic to cross the bridge for an hour.

Just shortly after the bridge, we pulled over into a parking area. We still have a way to go. I said “why are we stopping”? Come to find out, we could not have two people in the front passenger seat. We all got out, I moved quite slowly after sitting in the same position for two hours. I switched into the front passenger seat and all four of the ladies squeezed with a little help of the driver pushing on the door into the back seat. We loaded my lap with luggage. The driver kept pushing the luggage down so it did not show in the front window.

We finally arrived at the guest house. When he opened the back door, people and luggage popped out like opening a container of Pillsbury Crescent rolls.

New Motor Scooter

After dreaded language class I went to KAPE to ask the administrative manager to help me purchase a motor scooter. There were two reasons for this. First my Khmer language is not good and more importantly, I cannot own the motorcycle, only Cambodians can own cars, motor scooters and houses. So KAPE will be the name on the title.

Purchasing the Honda motor scooter was relatively simple. It cost about $1,600 (€1,187). Most of the motor scooters in Cambodia are Honda Dreams which is what I purchased. Also, most of them are black. I purchased one in blue so I could find it in the line–up in parking. After purchasing it, I took it for a spin. I headed out on the open road. It was fun and more importantly cool. Riding a bicycle always had me sweating in 20 meters. The scooter by comparison was air conditioned.

I went about 10 kilometers east and then turned around. When I got home, I broke it in. I picked up the 20 liter water container and took it to a shop to purchase a new one. I put the jug on the back of the scooter like a real Cambodian. Well that is not completely accurate, Cambodians usually put much more on a scooter than a 20 liter jug see below.


 


Figure 1 An average load


 


Figure 2 The family going for an outing


 


Figure 3 Did we forget anything?


You can see my scooter's parking space. It looks like it is parked in the living room. Yes it is.



Figure 4 Parking space



Figure 5 Ready to go in the morning

Language learning

Khmer language class was the same today as always. Words bouncing off of my head like hail stones bouncing off of concrete. About one word an hour words made it through my protective skull, then almost as soon as it makes it in it's forgotten.

My learning process

The teacher says the word, explains the word and writes the word on the board phonetically. Some of the time, I can understand how to pronounce it and sometimes not. The room has cement walls and the instructor's voice bounces off the walls. I cannot tell the difference between a "T", "B" and "P". Sometimes, I have to wait for two or three of the students to say the word before I can understand how it sounds. I look at what the instructor wrote and think of what I heard and I write it down. Good (sort of) so far.

The instructor has other students in the class use the word in a sentence that he has written on the board. When it comes my turn, I go BLANK. Talking to others, I am not the only person with the problem.

I had the word "yesterday" in my head and was using it. For the past two days it has completely disappeared. I could not think of it or find it in my notes.

This is driving me crazy and making me very depressed.

I know that we have supposedly learned enough words to carry on a simple conversation. I try to think of a word to make a sentence, I can remember several things around the word but NOT the word.

Four hours of this a day is more than I can take. For the first two weeks I was doing my homework. Homework is so depressing that I have stopped doing it. I am thinking of cutting class.

Knowing that some of the people I will be working with do not speak English and that I need to build a relationship with them make speaking Khmer very important and my failure hugely depressing.

Yesterday I checked the VSO application form. It asked for my "Language Learning Ability". I put "VERY WEEK". Yes, i spelled it wrong, that should have told them everything about my language ability right there. Me sitting in this class is a huge waste of money for VSO.

New Years Eve in Cambodia

Cambodia has two New Years celebrations. One is the standard New Years for the Gregorian calendar and the other is the Khmer New Year which signifies the end of the harvest season. This year the Khmer New Year started on 14 April at about 07:35.

Being the only person in the volunteer group not living in a hotel, I offered my house to the group for a New Years Eve party. There was a small group of five volunteers that volunteered to help set up the party.



Figure 1 setting up the games



Figure 2 preparing the food

Cambodians would celebrate the New Year on the 14^th in the morning. We decided to have a traditional western New Years Eve party. A Cambodian party has a lot of food and beer. Volunteers in Cambodia are living on $343 a month, even here that's not much. So we opted for simple fruit snacks and to provide ice, people would bring their own drinks.

My landlord pointed out that on the 13^th of April there should be an offering in front of my shrine. He placed a nice bunch of bananas there for me. For the party I plugged in the lights on the shrine and we had flashing lights.



Figure 3 The shrine with offering

I told my landlord we were having a party. About 10 minutes later he came to the door with two stacks of plates and a pile of silverware, and then his son came along with a sack of chopsticks. We were set. Two of the volunteers had purchased party lights in Phnom Penh and the brought them along.

We had a great evening.



Figure 4 Happy New Year






The party closed down about midnight. That is very late for Cambodia. Because of the heat, people are at home by about 20:00 and they get up early, 05:30 or 6:00.

House cleaning

Just stepped on a bug. Within 5 minutes the clean up squad was there. 1,000 tiny ants that run seemingly randomly everywhere had arrived for work. The clean-up team has a trail of from the dead bug off down the space between the tiles. I cannot see where the peloton of ants goes. I will just let them take care of the bug.

In the morning, I walked into the kitchen, the cleanup crew was done. They had left behind just small reminders of the bug; I assume it was parts they could not eat.

Retreat in Siem Rep

Kampuchean Action for Primary Education (KAPE), the organization I will be working, for held a retreat, for all employees, in Siem Reap. It was a great opportunity for me to meet my new co-workers in a setting outside the office. The organization has doubled in size in the last year and the leadership organized the retreat to present new administrative policies to all employees.

It was interesting to observe group dynamics and think about the differences between what I was seeing and what I know from the US and Europe.

The group broke into small groups to discuss the new policies. When someone had to write on a piece of unlined flip chart paper, they put guide lines on the paper, using an ingenious method, to help align the Khmer characters. They rolled the paper into a tube about 1-½" in diameter and pressed the tube flat. The result was guide lines across the paper at even intervals. What a great idea.

Employee association officers were elected in a very open election. Each person wrote the number of their candidate on a small piece of paper, which was collected in a box. The number of pieces of paper were counted and written on a whiteboard. Each piece of paper was then drawn from the box, the number read to the person marking on the whiteboard and the paper shown to the group. The person marking the white board used Cambodian style markings.

In the US, we indicate the number "five" with four vertical bars and a slash from the upper left to lower right. How many times when tallying like that have you had to count the vertical lines to see if there are three or four? In the Cambodian method you do not need to worry, it is obvious:

One	is a vertical line.
Two	is a horizontal line that connects to the top of the vertical line and is drawn to the right, like the top of a small box.
Three	is a veridical line the looks like the right side of a box.
Four	is the bottom of the box and.
Five	is a slash from the upper left corner of the box to the lower right.

 
Using the Cambodian method it is easy for everyone to see that all of the numbers, one to five, are complete. Nothing left out.

Another Flat Tire

I was riding my bicycle to KAPE for a meeting. On the way I noticed the bicycle was quite hard to peddle. Another flat.

I stopped at a motorcycle repair shop, and the man put air in the tire. He sent me on my way. I knew it would not hold air but I could not explain that, so I went on. A few meters further along, the tire was flat again, just as I had anticipated. I walked the bicycle for some distance. As I passed a small shop, and a woman motioned me in. She turned out to be an expert.

She took the tube out of the tire without removing the wheel from the bicycle. She put air in the tube and submerged the tire in a pan of water. When she found a hole, she inserted a small stick to mark its place and continued to look for other holes.

When she had checked the complete tube she started to patch the holes she'd found. First, she dried the tube with an old dirty rag, then roughed the tube surface with a hacksaw blade. After she was satisfied it was ready she took spread glue on the surface. Then she lit it and let it burn for a moment and blew out the flame. She applied the patch and beat it onto the inner tube with a heavy metal rod.

When she was satisfied the patch was secure she put the inner tube back in the tire and put the tire on the rim. Then some air and the bicycle was ready to ride.

My bicycle expert charged me 1,000 real ($0.25). I gave her 1,200 and I overheard her telling someone that I had given her more than she asked.

I hopped on my bike and rode off to KAPE.

My house in Kampong Cham

My home in Kampong Cham is a free-standing house with three- bedroom two-baths. It's very typical for Cambodia. It is made so you can drive your car in to the living room for its security (note the ramps). The front door is a metal gate that opens up the entire front wall. By the way, I don't have a car.

When I moved in, there was a small shrine in the living room. I added a Japanese cat that continually paws at the air. I now have incense to burn, so my shine is completely functional.

The interior of the house is light, spacious and clean. There is one bedroom on the ground floor behind the living room and another above that (behind the blue windows).

The kitchen is simple and utilitarian. The water in the tap looks and seems fine but everyone tells me not to drink or cook with it. That is why there is a 20 liter jug of bottled water on the counter. It looks like I have a bank vault in my kitchen. It is just the back door. I don't think there is any way that someone could break in through that door. It has three large dead-bolt locks

 

My office is a table on rollers and can be put under the stairs to save space. I pull the table out to work and then I can sit directly under the fan.

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The best part is the landlord and his family. They're great! For ancestor's day, I received a try of food. From time to time I find fresh mangos or other fruit in the refrigerator. The landlord teaches sign language and has helped me with my Khmer language lessons.