Monday, September 22, 2008
Caught Off Guard
There are always small bits and pieces of random days that catch you off guard. Mostly just small things that make you chuckle inside your head – but it’s enough for you to take note and remember that, “oh yea- this is Asia, and this is how it is here”.
BLACK SHINE. One day I wanted to buy a small packet/trial size of shampoo that they sell at every stand in the market. I wanted one because they are very small and easy to pack if you’re trying to pack light for an overnight trip. They do have many brands you can find in America here. I picked 2 different Sunsilk versions; one that said it’d keep your hair soft and another one was called ‘black shine’. I was intrigued. I have black hair. And who doesn’t want shiny hair? On the following Sunday of the trip I decided to break out the trial size of black shine. Sure enough – the shampoo was actually colored black. It just made me laugh for some reason; only in Asia.
SONY STORE. So we all were checking out Soria mall in Phnom Penh this last weekend when we were there. It’s the only true mall in Cambodia; it’s got clothing stores, electronic stores, food courts and a kid’s carnival arcade AND 6 or so levels with an escalator going to each one. I walked into the sleek new Sony store with its huge flat screened TVs, loud music, plentiful cameras & cell phones and then found myself caught off guard when I spotted a monk in his true bright orange garb bellied up to the counter talking to the sales assistant about cell phones. I really wanted to grab a picture of it because that image just totally for some reason seemed out of place. I guess it shouldn’t – as I guess you see priests at stores of the like, but the whole mix of monks (which in my head prior to travelling to Cambodia, seems like they should be stuck back at the temple meditating and then actually seeing them out in public looking at cell phones) Not a bad thing by any means– just once again caught me off guard. (I decided not to take the photo – because 1. I thought it’d be inappropriate and 2. I didn’t want them to think that I stole a camera from their store.) Oh well – the mental picture will always be in my mind.
MONKS. Speaking of monks & technology; at our very first day at our training village we were welcomed by a ceremony at the Wat in which the monks chanted and blessed us. During the middle of one of the chants one of the monks cell phones rang. Again. Caught off guard. I thought that, that type of thing was only happening in America. Nope. At a peaceful wat in the middle of a rice field; the monk’s cell phone goes off in the middle of a ceremony. How rude, right? Ha. Oh well.
Small images go off in my head – such as instead of using a sun-dial or something like that to tell what time it is for the monk to bang the drums at 5 o’clock so everyone knows when to come in from the rice fields to get ready for dinner; I envision a monk who has set his cell-phone to go off with an alarm at 4:59pm to remind himself to bang the drum at the appropriate time. I mean – what are under those orange robe thingy’s? Do they come with cell-phone pockets now-a-days? Ha. I don’t mean to sound too cynical but these are the kinds of mental images and ideas that my head thinks about when I observe such things.
I guess, what I do need to do is just remember where I am. I’m in Asia, which has some amazingly, complicated but beautiful ancient history; BUT I am also in Asia – which is one of the world’s leaders in many of the technological devices that much of the world is addicted to.
Anyhoo- those are the small things that I’ve thought of tonight. I know there are more and perhaps I’ll add to this post when I think of more OR when more happen. Hope all is well back home – we miss you.
BLACK SHINE. One day I wanted to buy a small packet/trial size of shampoo that they sell at every stand in the market. I wanted one because they are very small and easy to pack if you’re trying to pack light for an overnight trip. They do have many brands you can find in America here. I picked 2 different Sunsilk versions; one that said it’d keep your hair soft and another one was called ‘black shine’. I was intrigued. I have black hair. And who doesn’t want shiny hair? On the following Sunday of the trip I decided to break out the trial size of black shine. Sure enough – the shampoo was actually colored black. It just made me laugh for some reason; only in Asia.
SONY STORE. So we all were checking out Soria mall in Phnom Penh this last weekend when we were there. It’s the only true mall in Cambodia; it’s got clothing stores, electronic stores, food courts and a kid’s carnival arcade AND 6 or so levels with an escalator going to each one. I walked into the sleek new Sony store with its huge flat screened TVs, loud music, plentiful cameras & cell phones and then found myself caught off guard when I spotted a monk in his true bright orange garb bellied up to the counter talking to the sales assistant about cell phones. I really wanted to grab a picture of it because that image just totally for some reason seemed out of place. I guess it shouldn’t – as I guess you see priests at stores of the like, but the whole mix of monks (which in my head prior to travelling to Cambodia, seems like they should be stuck back at the temple meditating and then actually seeing them out in public looking at cell phones) Not a bad thing by any means– just once again caught me off guard. (I decided not to take the photo – because 1. I thought it’d be inappropriate and 2. I didn’t want them to think that I stole a camera from their store.) Oh well – the mental picture will always be in my mind.
MONKS. Speaking of monks & technology; at our very first day at our training village we were welcomed by a ceremony at the Wat in which the monks chanted and blessed us. During the middle of one of the chants one of the monks cell phones rang. Again. Caught off guard. I thought that, that type of thing was only happening in America. Nope. At a peaceful wat in the middle of a rice field; the monk’s cell phone goes off in the middle of a ceremony. How rude, right? Ha. Oh well.
Small images go off in my head – such as instead of using a sun-dial or something like that to tell what time it is for the monk to bang the drums at 5 o’clock so everyone knows when to come in from the rice fields to get ready for dinner; I envision a monk who has set his cell-phone to go off with an alarm at 4:59pm to remind himself to bang the drum at the appropriate time. I mean – what are under those orange robe thingy’s? Do they come with cell-phone pockets now-a-days? Ha. I don’t mean to sound too cynical but these are the kinds of mental images and ideas that my head thinks about when I observe such things.
I guess, what I do need to do is just remember where I am. I’m in Asia, which has some amazingly, complicated but beautiful ancient history; BUT I am also in Asia – which is one of the world’s leaders in many of the technological devices that much of the world is addicted to.
Anyhoo- those are the small things that I’ve thought of tonight. I know there are more and perhaps I’ll add to this post when I think of more OR when more happen. Hope all is well back home – we miss you.
So Many Things
091708
So many things… it’s hard to keep up! Everything is going pretty well. Last week was an exhausting week with our co-teacher’s conference, our site visit, our provincial town visit and a weekend in Phnom Penh – it’s hard to take in all that travelling and get back into the groove.
Overall our site visit went well. You saw what our neighbors raise. (Yes, crocodiles)- and yes Beverly, those really are in our neighbors backyard. There are 12ft brick walls but I think I’m going to feel best pretending that those don’t live so near us, and maybe just never go visit them again.
Siem Reap town (our provincial town) is pretty amazing. Well – I guess it’s more or less just catered to the tourist types ~ but that means that we have access to many American amenities at a much closer distance than the rest of our fellow volunteers. In some aspects I don’t feel like I’m getting the true ‘Peace Corps’ experience being that close to everything; but it is somewhat comforting knowing that we can get some really good pizza that’s not too far away should we ever have the craving and want to splurge. PLUS being so close to Siem Reap means that Will and I could do a lot of exploring via-bicycle. We could practically bike to Angkor Wat (one of the wonders of the world) for a weekend trip should we want to. (I’m really looking forward to that).
Today Will and I went on a short bike ride, but had to turn around earlier than anticipated because the rain was coming on and we had a bunch of things out on the line. We made it JUST in time to get everything before the downpour started.
After that we had some extra time and we promised the family that we would make an American meal for them. The menu of choice was fried chicken, mashed potatoes, green beans, onion rings and garlic bread. Everything turned out pretty well AND the family did seem to like most of it. (I was just happy that they were open minded enough to try it all!) A few small things though that make me chuckle inside: When Will was cutting up the chicken, our host mom Sopeap wasn’t going to waste a thing. Will was separating the pieces of the chicken for us to put breading on and sure enough the head and the feet made it into the pile. Ha. Good stuff. BUT when it came down to it- no one ate the head or the feet – and we ended up giving those pieces to the dogs. (We threw it out back and lo and behold one of the chickens started going after it {if it only knew, right?} – but then Ki-ki the dog steadfastly grabbed the chicken pieces away and ate it happily.
This Saturday we have a language proficiency test – so we’ll see how that’s going. I still struggle on the sentence structure. Adjectives usually go after the noun instead of before – and there are a few other things that are flip flopped with how English is. Overall though- I’m pretty happy with the amount that we’ve learned so far.
Today was the coolest day thus far. I actually wore jeans, a long sleeve shirt and socks and pulled away from language class without pitting out. (I mostly wore the long sleeves to help w/ the mosquitoes – but it was nice not to actually sweat.) I guess we are in the heart of the rainy season and there has definitely been more rain. I’ll take it – esp. if it means that we’ll be cooler for a while.
Anyways- that’s about all I’ve got for now. More when it comes!
So many things… it’s hard to keep up! Everything is going pretty well. Last week was an exhausting week with our co-teacher’s conference, our site visit, our provincial town visit and a weekend in Phnom Penh – it’s hard to take in all that travelling and get back into the groove.
Overall our site visit went well. You saw what our neighbors raise. (Yes, crocodiles)- and yes Beverly, those really are in our neighbors backyard. There are 12ft brick walls but I think I’m going to feel best pretending that those don’t live so near us, and maybe just never go visit them again.
Siem Reap town (our provincial town) is pretty amazing. Well – I guess it’s more or less just catered to the tourist types ~ but that means that we have access to many American amenities at a much closer distance than the rest of our fellow volunteers. In some aspects I don’t feel like I’m getting the true ‘Peace Corps’ experience being that close to everything; but it is somewhat comforting knowing that we can get some really good pizza that’s not too far away should we ever have the craving and want to splurge. PLUS being so close to Siem Reap means that Will and I could do a lot of exploring via-bicycle. We could practically bike to Angkor Wat (one of the wonders of the world) for a weekend trip should we want to. (I’m really looking forward to that).
Today Will and I went on a short bike ride, but had to turn around earlier than anticipated because the rain was coming on and we had a bunch of things out on the line. We made it JUST in time to get everything before the downpour started.
After that we had some extra time and we promised the family that we would make an American meal for them. The menu of choice was fried chicken, mashed potatoes, green beans, onion rings and garlic bread. Everything turned out pretty well AND the family did seem to like most of it. (I was just happy that they were open minded enough to try it all!) A few small things though that make me chuckle inside: When Will was cutting up the chicken, our host mom Sopeap wasn’t going to waste a thing. Will was separating the pieces of the chicken for us to put breading on and sure enough the head and the feet made it into the pile. Ha. Good stuff. BUT when it came down to it- no one ate the head or the feet – and we ended up giving those pieces to the dogs. (We threw it out back and lo and behold one of the chickens started going after it {if it only knew, right?} – but then Ki-ki the dog steadfastly grabbed the chicken pieces away and ate it happily.
This Saturday we have a language proficiency test – so we’ll see how that’s going. I still struggle on the sentence structure. Adjectives usually go after the noun instead of before – and there are a few other things that are flip flopped with how English is. Overall though- I’m pretty happy with the amount that we’ve learned so far.
Today was the coolest day thus far. I actually wore jeans, a long sleeve shirt and socks and pulled away from language class without pitting out. (I mostly wore the long sleeves to help w/ the mosquitoes – but it was nice not to actually sweat.) I guess we are in the heart of the rainy season and there has definitely been more rain. I’ll take it – esp. if it means that we’ll be cooler for a while.
Anyways- that’s about all I’ve got for now. More when it comes!
Wednesday, September 10, 2008
The Rain
The Rain 091008 3:59AM
So I was sleeping well for at least the 1st six hours of the night, I’ve been awake for an hour and haven’t been able to fall back asleep, so I thought I’d write. (yes… Will is sound asleep.)
While a lot of the things I’ve encountered here make me wonder and think how similar things are here as they are to my mom’s home country of the Philippines…tonight when the rain woke me it made me wonder what it was like to be in the jungle during the Vietnam war, during the rainy season.
About 9 years before my father volunteered to be in the Peace Corps, he volunteered to be in the Marine Corps and served as an infantry soldier in July of 1969. He started out as a math major his first year of college. He didn’t feel it was right that he was in school while other men were getting drafted to fight in a war that he believed in. I sometimes forget how close he was to where I am now; and how similar the landscape probably is here to where he was. Actually I think we were looking at distances while I was back home, and Phnom Penh is only some 350 miles from where he spent one year of his life, working a small area of the jungle.
Anyways--- the rain has awakened us the last 2 nights in a row, and it did the same tonight. Last night there was REALLY, REALLY loud thunder and bright lighting. The lightning was really close. You know when you do the 1-one-thousand count after you see the lightning to see how far away it is? Well yea; it was right on top of us because as soon as you’d see the flash of light an enormously loud crash of thunder would shake the whole house and rumble throughout the dark sky. It was quite the storm. Kind of cool, maybe a bit closer than we’d like, but definitely a good storm.
Tonight however it wasn’t the thunder and lightning that awoke us; it was the wind and pouring rain that came through the side window in our room and drenched Will, me, the mosquito net and rice mat that we are sleeping on. We were able to get the shutters closed quickly and I handed Will the micro-fiber camping towel I brought along so he could dry off, then we re-arranged the blankets and of course, Will fell back asleep right away.
Back in the states, I think some nights I’d be glad when I got 6 hrs. of sleep. I’ll be fine tonight too- and maybe I’ll still crash, but sheesh. It’s not fair that some people are able to fall asleep as soon as their head hits the pillow.
Anyway, when my head hit the pillow, I sat and listened to the rain pour down. I do like the sound of the rain; there is something so nice about it. But then, that was when I began to wonder how much it must have sucked to be sleeping (or maybe not sleeping) in the jungle during the rainy season while in the war.
I mean really. First, you’re in a war, and having that constant fear all of the time which I’m sure was exhausting to an unimaginable point already – but secondly the rainy season? I’m sure it was cold wet and dirty and really must’ve just been awful. (Dad – I hope it’s okay that I’m writing about this, let me know if there is anything that you want me to remove OR if you have anything you’d like me to add). Anyways- there are many times I wonder how you dealt with all of it. …… I guess you just deal. Other questions that came to my head were, did you try and catch rain water into your canteens? Was your poncho enough to keep you dry? Because it sure does pour down really hard here.
Anyhow . . . those were a few things that the rain brought to my head.
So yes. The rain didn’t last too long tonight but it’s also amazing what you can hear during the night. It’s like a whole other world at night. All of the animals, bugs and creatures sing this (oop hold on, Man—I just heard the 1st rooster crow… is it that time already??? Damn. It is. Sigh.) – anyways- ALL of the creatures sing in this chorus of noises, the chirping crickets, the birds, and there is this new noise tonight that I believe is maybe frogs croaking? Or maybe it’s all the geese that are sad b/c they are sopping wet. (Both Will and I have agreed that the neighbor’s geese are probably more of a ruckus than they are worth. They are so darn loud squawking all the time. And they don’t taste Nearly as good as chickens or other foul. I have daydreams where I envision sitting upstairs stealthily perched next to the window with a sling shot, knocking them down one by one, just to have some peace and quiet. Bun Thon, our host dad back at training village has a sling shot that he uses for the stray cats that come near his house) sorry. Tangent. But yes the geese are loud).
Back to the nighttime. Yes soooo many new noises and sounds. It’s almost sort of loud. I guess maybe it’s just a heightened sense of awareness. Just another one of the small things that are all a part of this experience.
Okay, it’s 4:23am now, and I just heard the sound of the first big truck drive by the house. Sigh. Maybe I’ll have some Pringles (have I mentioned that you can buy Pringles in this village? ALSO you can buy nestle chocolate ice-cream bars. It’s a spendy snack, but it’s sooooo worth it).
Anyways, maybe a snack and then maybe I’ll try and catch a few more zzz’s before we head into Siem Reap for tomorrow.
. . .
Ha, Will just woke up and said, “Maybe you should try and get some sleep Stephanie.”
I sigh and say, “I’ve already tried babe.”
Over and out.
So I was sleeping well for at least the 1st six hours of the night, I’ve been awake for an hour and haven’t been able to fall back asleep, so I thought I’d write. (yes… Will is sound asleep.)
While a lot of the things I’ve encountered here make me wonder and think how similar things are here as they are to my mom’s home country of the Philippines…tonight when the rain woke me it made me wonder what it was like to be in the jungle during the Vietnam war, during the rainy season.
About 9 years before my father volunteered to be in the Peace Corps, he volunteered to be in the Marine Corps and served as an infantry soldier in July of 1969. He started out as a math major his first year of college. He didn’t feel it was right that he was in school while other men were getting drafted to fight in a war that he believed in. I sometimes forget how close he was to where I am now; and how similar the landscape probably is here to where he was. Actually I think we were looking at distances while I was back home, and Phnom Penh is only some 350 miles from where he spent one year of his life, working a small area of the jungle.
Anyways--- the rain has awakened us the last 2 nights in a row, and it did the same tonight. Last night there was REALLY, REALLY loud thunder and bright lighting. The lightning was really close. You know when you do the 1-one-thousand count after you see the lightning to see how far away it is? Well yea; it was right on top of us because as soon as you’d see the flash of light an enormously loud crash of thunder would shake the whole house and rumble throughout the dark sky. It was quite the storm. Kind of cool, maybe a bit closer than we’d like, but definitely a good storm.
Tonight however it wasn’t the thunder and lightning that awoke us; it was the wind and pouring rain that came through the side window in our room and drenched Will, me, the mosquito net and rice mat that we are sleeping on. We were able to get the shutters closed quickly and I handed Will the micro-fiber camping towel I brought along so he could dry off, then we re-arranged the blankets and of course, Will fell back asleep right away.
Back in the states, I think some nights I’d be glad when I got 6 hrs. of sleep. I’ll be fine tonight too- and maybe I’ll still crash, but sheesh. It’s not fair that some people are able to fall asleep as soon as their head hits the pillow.
Anyway, when my head hit the pillow, I sat and listened to the rain pour down. I do like the sound of the rain; there is something so nice about it. But then, that was when I began to wonder how much it must have sucked to be sleeping (or maybe not sleeping) in the jungle during the rainy season while in the war.
I mean really. First, you’re in a war, and having that constant fear all of the time which I’m sure was exhausting to an unimaginable point already – but secondly the rainy season? I’m sure it was cold wet and dirty and really must’ve just been awful. (Dad – I hope it’s okay that I’m writing about this, let me know if there is anything that you want me to remove OR if you have anything you’d like me to add). Anyways- there are many times I wonder how you dealt with all of it. …… I guess you just deal. Other questions that came to my head were, did you try and catch rain water into your canteens? Was your poncho enough to keep you dry? Because it sure does pour down really hard here.
Anyhow . . . those were a few things that the rain brought to my head.
So yes. The rain didn’t last too long tonight but it’s also amazing what you can hear during the night. It’s like a whole other world at night. All of the animals, bugs and creatures sing this (oop hold on, Man—I just heard the 1st rooster crow… is it that time already??? Damn. It is. Sigh.) – anyways- ALL of the creatures sing in this chorus of noises, the chirping crickets, the birds, and there is this new noise tonight that I believe is maybe frogs croaking? Or maybe it’s all the geese that are sad b/c they are sopping wet. (Both Will and I have agreed that the neighbor’s geese are probably more of a ruckus than they are worth. They are so darn loud squawking all the time. And they don’t taste Nearly as good as chickens or other foul. I have daydreams where I envision sitting upstairs stealthily perched next to the window with a sling shot, knocking them down one by one, just to have some peace and quiet. Bun Thon, our host dad back at training village has a sling shot that he uses for the stray cats that come near his house) sorry. Tangent. But yes the geese are loud).
Back to the nighttime. Yes soooo many new noises and sounds. It’s almost sort of loud. I guess maybe it’s just a heightened sense of awareness. Just another one of the small things that are all a part of this experience.
Okay, it’s 4:23am now, and I just heard the sound of the first big truck drive by the house. Sigh. Maybe I’ll have some Pringles (have I mentioned that you can buy Pringles in this village? ALSO you can buy nestle chocolate ice-cream bars. It’s a spendy snack, but it’s sooooo worth it).
Anyways, maybe a snack and then maybe I’ll try and catch a few more zzz’s before we head into Siem Reap for tomorrow.
. . .
Ha, Will just woke up and said, “Maybe you should try and get some sleep Stephanie.”
I sigh and say, “I’ve already tried babe.”
Over and out.
Alligator Alligator Eat em up....
090908
Hrmm. What to write. Things are going well! We’re currently on our site visit in the permanent town we are to be stationed in. The trip was a long one – and I’ve come to realize that many Cambodians are probably not used to riding in big vehicles. This is the 2nd bus ride (on regular large sized bus comparable to a greyhound) that we’ve sat next to people who’ve gotten car sick. Good stuff. Well not really; we do actually feel bad for the people and it most certainly isn’t fun sittin’ next to them when they’re getting sick in a plastic bag next to us; BUT what are you gonna do. The bus does have air-conditioning and it’s better than sitting with 4 people in a seat made for 3 in a mini-bus.
We’ve been touring our town which seems pretty cool – but it’s on the national road- and this part is NOT paved; but is currently under construction which is VERY loud and noisy. Tons of really big construction trucks/machinery on the road ALL day long; they are super loud and kick up extra dust. It’s not ideal. But development happens.
The school is huge: 5600 students from grade 7-12. They’ve got a new school director who actually seems really great. He’s young, got 2 daughters and seems pretty laid back but like a very nice, respectable man. Our co-teachers are also great – and have been good to us. Today is our last day here and tomorrow we’re headed to the big Provincial Town to assess what it has to offer. Should be good. We’re meeting up with the rest of the volunteers in the province, AND are pretty excited that our particular town DOES have western food. Pizza….. here we come! One more thing about this town- we have noticed that the temp here DOES seem to be a bit cooler; especially at night – which is a huge bonus. I guess a tad bit up on latitude does help. One point for the north.
All for now…over and out!
WHooa whoa- WAIT:
p.p.s. Ooops, I forgot to mention a pretty interesting part of our visit. Soo…..the host family that we are staying with has neighbors who have a crocodile farm. Yea. No kidding. Like 30ish big huge crocs with really big mouths. A nephew took us back to look at them. Actually at the time I didn’t know where he was taking us; he was like “do you want to see?” We were like “sure” without knowing what it was that we were going to see. So we head into the neighbors back yard. We see a tall brick wall w/ stairs leading up to it. After Will climbed up them, I heard him say “oh gosh… Steph, get up here.” “I’m coming, I’m comin” I say. And as soon as I step up “blankety-blank-blank #@&&!” goes through my head as I gaze down to these very true, VERY real, ugly lookin creatures right below me about 11ft down. Holy schrapnel. Like 30ish ugly looking crocodiles below my feet. Anyhow; I guess I know where NOT to go wandering in the middle of the night. Sheesh. Take a look at the pics under the picture link to get a glance for yourself.
Okay. For real over and out.
s
Thursday, September 4, 2008
090308
090308.
Can you believe it’s September? I can’t really. I guess my usual climate has been off kilter for a while now. If we were still in Big Sky, we’d already be scraping the frost off our windows in the morning. South Dakota it’s still pretty much summer. Duluth – well, who knows what the temp is there. It’s probably cold and a little windy. But here in Kampuchea, it is still hot. I sit, while I type on my bed directly under the fan praying that the electricity won’t go out, as this room is too hot to stand at this time of day without the fan running.
Our host mom is cooking up some sort of curry dish. We’re sort of excited about this, as this will also include ‘nom-pang’ = bread. She is a good cook to begin with, so we’re excited to see what kind of curry dish she’ll whip up.
Tomorrow we leave our training village for a whole 10 days! We go to the hubsite, Kampong Chnnang for 3 nights and we are going to find out where our permanent placement is. The hype is up. Everyone is really anxious to find out where everyone’s going to be for the next two years; and Peace Corps is doing NOTHING to let us know anything about anything one moment too soon. We also will be meeting our new counter-part (most likely the English teacher’s that we will be co-teaching with)—and then on Sunday we are going to our new site to spend 2 nights with our new host family and check out the town. So as you can imagine, we’re all really pretty excited to find out. The suspense is killing us.
After that’s all said and done we’re headed to Phnom Penh for 2 nights. We’re meeting the ‘acting ambassador’ for the U.S. embassy. I guess she’s invited us all to dinner – and apparently she’s got a spectacular house in PP and also has a swimming pool ~ so we’re all invited to swim and have dinner at her crib. We shall see how that goes, but we are all excited to take a dip in a pool.
Not toooo much else is going on… I need to think about packing for our 10 day getaway. Plus I told our host mom that I’d down some coconut milk after I was done writing about my experiences in Cambodia.
Anyhoo—sorry for not posting for a while but it has been busy. We hope this finds you all well—and keep us posted on any of your news back home! (I did pick up a short wave radio for Will for our anniversary, so we are able to tune into the BBC every once in a while which is nice) but news on everyone back home would be great!!
Take care & all the best…
Steph & will
Can you believe it’s September? I can’t really. I guess my usual climate has been off kilter for a while now. If we were still in Big Sky, we’d already be scraping the frost off our windows in the morning. South Dakota it’s still pretty much summer. Duluth – well, who knows what the temp is there. It’s probably cold and a little windy. But here in Kampuchea, it is still hot. I sit, while I type on my bed directly under the fan praying that the electricity won’t go out, as this room is too hot to stand at this time of day without the fan running.
Our host mom is cooking up some sort of curry dish. We’re sort of excited about this, as this will also include ‘nom-pang’ = bread. She is a good cook to begin with, so we’re excited to see what kind of curry dish she’ll whip up.
Tomorrow we leave our training village for a whole 10 days! We go to the hubsite, Kampong Chnnang for 3 nights and we are going to find out where our permanent placement is. The hype is up. Everyone is really anxious to find out where everyone’s going to be for the next two years; and Peace Corps is doing NOTHING to let us know anything about anything one moment too soon. We also will be meeting our new counter-part (most likely the English teacher’s that we will be co-teaching with)—and then on Sunday we are going to our new site to spend 2 nights with our new host family and check out the town. So as you can imagine, we’re all really pretty excited to find out. The suspense is killing us.
After that’s all said and done we’re headed to Phnom Penh for 2 nights. We’re meeting the ‘acting ambassador’ for the U.S. embassy. I guess she’s invited us all to dinner – and apparently she’s got a spectacular house in PP and also has a swimming pool ~ so we’re all invited to swim and have dinner at her crib. We shall see how that goes, but we are all excited to take a dip in a pool.
Not toooo much else is going on… I need to think about packing for our 10 day getaway. Plus I told our host mom that I’d down some coconut milk after I was done writing about my experiences in Cambodia.
Anyhoo—sorry for not posting for a while but it has been busy. We hope this finds you all well—and keep us posted on any of your news back home! (I did pick up a short wave radio for Will for our anniversary, so we are able to tune into the BBC every once in a while which is nice) but news on everyone back home would be great!!
Take care & all the best…
Steph & will
Kampuchea Adventure | Aug. 29-31st
So we just got back today from our weekend getaway "Kampuchea Adventure". This was our chance to get away without our Peace Corps parents holding our hands every step of the way. We were to practice travelling on our own, using the Khmer language skills we have acquired and get away for the weekend without any meetings, classes or anything - and just have a little fun.
We were done with our sessions at 3pm on Friday so a few of us from our village decided to get out early and leave for Phnom Penh for the night and get a head start on our Adventure.
There were several of us who had the same idea to get to the big city that night.... we admit, it was nice to get out of town and see other foreigners and most of all grab some American (well almost american) food. As stated 2 posts ago we had some amazing french fries, onion rings and a burger (which wasn't quite the tasty beef I'm used to from the prairie) BUT it still tasted pretty darn good. Like really pretty darn good. Don't get me wrong, our host mom makes DELICIOUS food. But, stir fry and rice everyday, even with variations can get a little old.
After dinner a few of us hit up the internet cafe, made some calls and then we all hung out for a while at the restaurant/lounge at our guesthouse.
The next morning Will wasn't feeling the greatest (jock pooah = stomach ache). -We still don't know if it was from something he ate the night before- or just a quick little stomach flu... BUT he decided he was well enough to continue on the adventure. Another kid, Matt, from our training village decided to tag along with us because his travel partner was too ill to go with him.
So we grabbed some breakfast and then checked outta the guesthouse to grab a tuk tuk (a tuk tuk is a moto that pulls a covered little trailer with seats that carries passengers) to the Central Market to hop a minibus/taxi to be on our way to Kirirom National Park.
It was a bit of an adventure in itself just taking the tuk tuk to the central market. Apparently this market is a main hub for where many tourists hop different buses/taxis' to some of the main tourist spots. AS SOON as our tuk tuk driver slowed down and stopped, we were SURROUNDED by taxi drivers allllll asking us if we needed a ride somewhere. "Where are you going? You need taxi?" "I can give you ride". It was overwhelming--- they all were shouting, competing with each other trying to get us foreigners to spend our money with them.
Ha. I probably could've been a little nicer, but I raised my voice and told everyone to "Just settle down and quit shouting!! Otherwise we will not ride with any of you." We finally just told them "No" we don't need a ride...and began to walk away and pretended to head to the market, and finally they left us alone.
After we snuck away for a while we were able to stealthily find the guy who was going in the direction that we were headed.
It's amazing how their transportation system works here in this country. Well how traffic works and goes is marvel in itself, as I don't understand how there aren't more traffic accidents than there are. Their rhymes and rules of driving really aren’t much of rhymes and rules at all.
But above that, somehow the transportation system works. Different markets are hubs for going to different places. And all the minibuses (small vans that are taxi's) are somehow organized by which national road they travel on. After we found a guy who'd take us to Kirirom, we waited inside his empty vehicle until it began to fill up. The taxi's won't leave until they've got a full load; so just because you've found a ride, it doesn't mean that you'll be leaving right away.
Finally after about an hour- and after our minibus was full to the max (including a few live chickens in the back) we were on the road. We got off at a town called Treng Tryeong (sp?) and we were responsible for finding a different set of wheels up to the national park on our own as the rest of the minibus was to continue down the national road.
We grabbed some lunch and after much asking around, everyone was telling us that the only way up to Kirirom was by a moto (which we are forbidden to ride due to peace corps policy) or a taxi. The thing about the thing was that the taxi's are super expensive (well by the budget we're expected to live on) if you hire one only for yourselves and not a shared ride.
Our waitress helped us out by calling her friend who was a taxi driver. We chatted with him using the limited Khmer we knew, and he said for a round trip ticket up to Kirirom and back down the next day was going to cost us $50.
We were like, "What!?!? FIFTY DOLLARS!??" We each were given a budget of $16 for transportation for the entire weekend, and this guy wanted $50 for the last leg of our trip. We paid $3 to get from Phnom Penh to Treying Tryeong, and now he wanted THAT much money to get up the hill. It’s a good thing Matt was travelling with us, as that made the trip a little less expensive had it been just Will and I.
Anyways… Peace Corps did allow us an “emergency fund” of $10 each. They gave it to us in advance but if we spent it we had to have good justification of why we spent it. With that in mind we talked down the taxi to $23 and he took us on our way.
Not long after we were driving up the hill to Kirirom we began to realize why this guy wanted $25 to get up the hill. The road was paved, but it had several pot-holes and lots of bumps. NOT the easiest terrain for a minivan. Had we had the Tacoma- no problem, but the minivan wasn’t the best ride.
After about a half an hour and $28 later (admission to the park was $5) we finally made our way to “Kirirom Guesthouse”. I asked our taxi driver for his cell phone number in case we needed to arrange a ride down the hill in the morning with him. The owners of the resort pulled a fast one and kindly asked us if we needed a ride back down to Treying Treong. We said, “Yes”! With excitement thinking that maybe we could catch a ride for free back down with them since they were going down anyways. After the taxi driver left...they asked us what time we wanted to leave, and we said 7:30am after breakfast. They said they’d take us for $20. We were like, “$20??? Thlaiy Malay! (expensive!!) They said gas is expensive. We concurred, but still. We paid $3 to get from Phnom Penh which was a 2hr trip and now they wanted $20 for a trip back down the hill when they were going to go anyways.
We were cornered. There was nothing we could do but accept the ride – because at least it was $3 less than the other taxi driver. Sigh. Well all we can hope is that Peace Corps will reimburse us for picking such an expensive spot to get to (which we will find out tomorrow). Not only was transportation expensive, there were signs on the doors of the guestrooms which said those were $20/night too. They had two beds in them so to save on money, Matt stayed in our room too. It all seemed soo expensive since we could get a room w/ a T.V., Air-conditioning, a fan, and bathroom with warm water in Phnom Penh for $10/night. BUT what were we to do. I guess it was all a part of the ‘Kampuchea Adventure’.
After we got over how much we had just paid to get here (well actually I don’t think we ever got over it) BUT after we were able to settle in; it truly was a pretty nice place. Did I mention on the ride up that we felt the drop in air temperature? We also saw right when we were high enough for pine trees to be growing.
We found a trail to walk on and it led us through this nice meadow with tons of pine trees and we literally felt like we were back in Minnesota in the forest. It smelled sOOoooOoo good AND we were walking without breaking a sweat. Like….. we weren’t sweating. What!?
We read in some materials that this mountain area has been completely cleared of landmines. The Khmer Rouge were finally removed from this mountainous area in 1996, which is when the resort started up again.
Anyway, knowing that we were safe to walk on all the trails in the whole park, we saw a sign (written in Khmer) with an arrow. We thought, what the heck, we might as well walk that-a-way. So we followed the sign, then came to another one with an arrow, followed that and continued on. Then we saw some people and tried to ask them about where to find the waterfall (which was interesting b/c none of us knew the words for waterfall--- SOoo we just asked them where the “water pretty pretty” was in khmer.) They did seem to understand and told us to go straight ahead and on the right. Sure enough there was another sign with more arrows. Then we got to this small area where there was a little food stand w/ a few ladies selling a few items. We asked them too about water pretty, pretty. She pointed to these steps that went down a ways. We started walking down them and sure enough heard the sound of water. Then we heard the sound of laughter. Our hopes finally started to rise after this long walk (well the long day that it was turning into). And then we got down farther and the choirs from the angels above began to sing the most harmoniously, heavenly song. Well not really, but that’s what it felt like.
That was the moment when we saw the waterfall. It wasn’t enormous. It wasn’t gushing or the most impressive waterfall I’ve seen by far. BUT it was a waterfall. It was cool. People were swimming in it and it was the most beautiful natural spot I’ve seen while in Cambodia thus far. Ahhhh….. finally the sound and feel of water. I’ve always loved water and loved being by lakes, rivers and streams—and finally we were here.
Khmer people don’t typically wear swimsuits, so when they swim, they just go in with their clothes.
It didn’t take long for us to follow suit and walk up to the falls and let the water douse us until we were soaking wet. And boy did it feel fantastic. It sure beats our bucket shower that we take. It was this cool water just gushing down all over us, cooling our bodies and it just felt magnificent. It kept coming and it was amazing.
We found ourselves enjoying the rest of the afternoon just sitting by the water, getting in every once in a while and relaxing on the nice afternoon.
All good times must come to an end unfortunately. So we grabbed our things and in our wet clothes we started the hour hike/walk back to the resort.
We made our way up there and it was about time for dinner. They had these little huts with tables that we could sit at. It gave us a pretty nice view of the area and surrounding mountains. It also gave us a decent view of the sunset, which we enjoyed while eating some fried rice, fried pork & pineapple, and ginger chicken with white rice. A pretty good meal (AND it wasn’t too overpriced). We ate it to our content. Headed back to the room (it gets dark around 6:30pm in these parts) and played some cards and I think we crashed around 8pm. Actually, I do recall asking Will at one point if he was warm enough, and I think that was the first time I’ve said that without being sarcastic here. At nightfall the temp even dropped more and it felt Sooooo nice.
We all slept really good that night… not to mention it was really quiet up top that mountain… we didn’t wake to any dog fights, OR the roosters crowing at 5am.
We gathered our belongings and went to the restaurant to order some breakfast. We decided to go for the omelet. Which turned out to be pretty tasty, (it only had onions inside) but it actually tasted pretty good. After that they got their truck out – a small Toyota truck (dad I’d say it’s about the same size/circa as yours) J and then we hopped in the back.
The ride down was nice as we were able to catch a few nice views since we were in the open air. It was still cool out and the sun was shining over all the trees quite picturesquely. The owner’s wife and two daughters were riding down with us as they wanted to catch a taxi back to Phnom Penh as well. When we got back to Treying Treyong we paid them their $20, and then they helped us get a taxi to Phnom Penh which only was going to cost us $2.
We were kind of confused because we knew they wanted to go to PP but they didn’t hop in our taxi. I didn’t know if it was because they had arranged something else, or if it was because they were embarrassed of what they had just charged us for the ride back down or what. But thanks we said goodbye and we were on our way. Again, we had to wait for the taxi to fill up with enough people to go. After about 20 minutes it wasn’t completely full but we had enough for the driver to decide to start going. All of us in back were like “sweet. This will be a pretty comfortable ride back to PP with only 3 of us in this row” as they seem to fit in 4ppl when they can. Then maybe a mile down the road, our driver slows down to pick up some more passengers in need of a ride. Low and behold-- who do you think it was? It was the owner’s wife and the two daughters trying to hail a taxi to get to Phnom Penh. Once they realized that this was the same taxi they sent us off in, I think they were quite embarrassed. It was sort of funny because they were offered to sit in the middle back part of the van but they asked if they could all squeeze in the front. There was just this sort of awkwardness about all of it. Here we were in the back of the van squeezed in nicely, waiting patiently to get back to Phnom Penh, and up front was the owner’s wife and daughters riding the same taxi to Phnom Penh, but now with our $20 in their pocket.
Go figure. I guess that’s how it is sometimes. Take the money and run. They knew we needed a ride. They knew how much we paid to get up there. They knew we weren’t walking down, so they took advantage of us. Live and learn I guess.
Nonetheless ~ the actual afternoon that we spent at Kirirom was really great. The waterfall was amazing. The cooler temperature was truly a treat AND we got a really good night’s sleep in the cool air and quiet surroundings. The wind rustling through the pines was a familiar sound that until then, I didn’t realize how much I missed.
So that was our Kampuchea Adventure. It was good and we learned a lot, used Khmer, had a good time and also were taken advantage of. I guess what is a foreigner to expect?
We were done with our sessions at 3pm on Friday so a few of us from our village decided to get out early and leave for Phnom Penh for the night and get a head start on our Adventure.
There were several of us who had the same idea to get to the big city that night.... we admit, it was nice to get out of town and see other foreigners and most of all grab some American (well almost american) food. As stated 2 posts ago we had some amazing french fries, onion rings and a burger (which wasn't quite the tasty beef I'm used to from the prairie) BUT it still tasted pretty darn good. Like really pretty darn good. Don't get me wrong, our host mom makes DELICIOUS food. But, stir fry and rice everyday, even with variations can get a little old.
After dinner a few of us hit up the internet cafe, made some calls and then we all hung out for a while at the restaurant/lounge at our guesthouse.
The next morning Will wasn't feeling the greatest (jock pooah = stomach ache). -We still don't know if it was from something he ate the night before- or just a quick little stomach flu... BUT he decided he was well enough to continue on the adventure. Another kid, Matt, from our training village decided to tag along with us because his travel partner was too ill to go with him.
So we grabbed some breakfast and then checked outta the guesthouse to grab a tuk tuk (a tuk tuk is a moto that pulls a covered little trailer with seats that carries passengers) to the Central Market to hop a minibus/taxi to be on our way to Kirirom National Park.
It was a bit of an adventure in itself just taking the tuk tuk to the central market. Apparently this market is a main hub for where many tourists hop different buses/taxis' to some of the main tourist spots. AS SOON as our tuk tuk driver slowed down and stopped, we were SURROUNDED by taxi drivers allllll asking us if we needed a ride somewhere. "Where are you going? You need taxi?" "I can give you ride". It was overwhelming--- they all were shouting, competing with each other trying to get us foreigners to spend our money with them.
Ha. I probably could've been a little nicer, but I raised my voice and told everyone to "Just settle down and quit shouting!! Otherwise we will not ride with any of you." We finally just told them "No" we don't need a ride...and began to walk away and pretended to head to the market, and finally they left us alone.
After we snuck away for a while we were able to stealthily find the guy who was going in the direction that we were headed.
It's amazing how their transportation system works here in this country. Well how traffic works and goes is marvel in itself, as I don't understand how there aren't more traffic accidents than there are. Their rhymes and rules of driving really aren’t much of rhymes and rules at all.
But above that, somehow the transportation system works. Different markets are hubs for going to different places. And all the minibuses (small vans that are taxi's) are somehow organized by which national road they travel on. After we found a guy who'd take us to Kirirom, we waited inside his empty vehicle until it began to fill up. The taxi's won't leave until they've got a full load; so just because you've found a ride, it doesn't mean that you'll be leaving right away.
Finally after about an hour- and after our minibus was full to the max (including a few live chickens in the back) we were on the road. We got off at a town called Treng Tryeong (sp?) and we were responsible for finding a different set of wheels up to the national park on our own as the rest of the minibus was to continue down the national road.
We grabbed some lunch and after much asking around, everyone was telling us that the only way up to Kirirom was by a moto (which we are forbidden to ride due to peace corps policy) or a taxi. The thing about the thing was that the taxi's are super expensive (well by the budget we're expected to live on) if you hire one only for yourselves and not a shared ride.
Our waitress helped us out by calling her friend who was a taxi driver. We chatted with him using the limited Khmer we knew, and he said for a round trip ticket up to Kirirom and back down the next day was going to cost us $50.
We were like, "What!?!? FIFTY DOLLARS!??" We each were given a budget of $16 for transportation for the entire weekend, and this guy wanted $50 for the last leg of our trip. We paid $3 to get from Phnom Penh to Treying Tryeong, and now he wanted THAT much money to get up the hill. It’s a good thing Matt was travelling with us, as that made the trip a little less expensive had it been just Will and I.
Anyways… Peace Corps did allow us an “emergency fund” of $10 each. They gave it to us in advance but if we spent it we had to have good justification of why we spent it. With that in mind we talked down the taxi to $23 and he took us on our way.
Not long after we were driving up the hill to Kirirom we began to realize why this guy wanted $25 to get up the hill. The road was paved, but it had several pot-holes and lots of bumps. NOT the easiest terrain for a minivan. Had we had the Tacoma- no problem, but the minivan wasn’t the best ride.
After about a half an hour and $28 later (admission to the park was $5) we finally made our way to “Kirirom Guesthouse”. I asked our taxi driver for his cell phone number in case we needed to arrange a ride down the hill in the morning with him. The owners of the resort pulled a fast one and kindly asked us if we needed a ride back down to Treying Treong. We said, “Yes”! With excitement thinking that maybe we could catch a ride for free back down with them since they were going down anyways. After the taxi driver left...they asked us what time we wanted to leave, and we said 7:30am after breakfast. They said they’d take us for $20. We were like, “$20??? Thlaiy Malay! (expensive!!) They said gas is expensive. We concurred, but still. We paid $3 to get from Phnom Penh which was a 2hr trip and now they wanted $20 for a trip back down the hill when they were going to go anyways.
We were cornered. There was nothing we could do but accept the ride – because at least it was $3 less than the other taxi driver. Sigh. Well all we can hope is that Peace Corps will reimburse us for picking such an expensive spot to get to (which we will find out tomorrow). Not only was transportation expensive, there were signs on the doors of the guestrooms which said those were $20/night too. They had two beds in them so to save on money, Matt stayed in our room too. It all seemed soo expensive since we could get a room w/ a T.V., Air-conditioning, a fan, and bathroom with warm water in Phnom Penh for $10/night. BUT what were we to do. I guess it was all a part of the ‘Kampuchea Adventure’.
After we got over how much we had just paid to get here (well actually I don’t think we ever got over it) BUT after we were able to settle in; it truly was a pretty nice place. Did I mention on the ride up that we felt the drop in air temperature? We also saw right when we were high enough for pine trees to be growing.
We found a trail to walk on and it led us through this nice meadow with tons of pine trees and we literally felt like we were back in Minnesota in the forest. It smelled sOOoooOoo good AND we were walking without breaking a sweat. Like….. we weren’t sweating. What!?
We read in some materials that this mountain area has been completely cleared of landmines. The Khmer Rouge were finally removed from this mountainous area in 1996, which is when the resort started up again.
Anyway, knowing that we were safe to walk on all the trails in the whole park, we saw a sign (written in Khmer) with an arrow. We thought, what the heck, we might as well walk that-a-way. So we followed the sign, then came to another one with an arrow, followed that and continued on. Then we saw some people and tried to ask them about where to find the waterfall (which was interesting b/c none of us knew the words for waterfall--- SOoo we just asked them where the “water pretty pretty” was in khmer.) They did seem to understand and told us to go straight ahead and on the right. Sure enough there was another sign with more arrows. Then we got to this small area where there was a little food stand w/ a few ladies selling a few items. We asked them too about water pretty, pretty. She pointed to these steps that went down a ways. We started walking down them and sure enough heard the sound of water. Then we heard the sound of laughter. Our hopes finally started to rise after this long walk (well the long day that it was turning into). And then we got down farther and the choirs from the angels above began to sing the most harmoniously, heavenly song. Well not really, but that’s what it felt like.
That was the moment when we saw the waterfall. It wasn’t enormous. It wasn’t gushing or the most impressive waterfall I’ve seen by far. BUT it was a waterfall. It was cool. People were swimming in it and it was the most beautiful natural spot I’ve seen while in Cambodia thus far. Ahhhh….. finally the sound and feel of water. I’ve always loved water and loved being by lakes, rivers and streams—and finally we were here.
Khmer people don’t typically wear swimsuits, so when they swim, they just go in with their clothes.
It didn’t take long for us to follow suit and walk up to the falls and let the water douse us until we were soaking wet. And boy did it feel fantastic. It sure beats our bucket shower that we take. It was this cool water just gushing down all over us, cooling our bodies and it just felt magnificent. It kept coming and it was amazing.
We found ourselves enjoying the rest of the afternoon just sitting by the water, getting in every once in a while and relaxing on the nice afternoon.
All good times must come to an end unfortunately. So we grabbed our things and in our wet clothes we started the hour hike/walk back to the resort.
We made our way up there and it was about time for dinner. They had these little huts with tables that we could sit at. It gave us a pretty nice view of the area and surrounding mountains. It also gave us a decent view of the sunset, which we enjoyed while eating some fried rice, fried pork & pineapple, and ginger chicken with white rice. A pretty good meal (AND it wasn’t too overpriced). We ate it to our content. Headed back to the room (it gets dark around 6:30pm in these parts) and played some cards and I think we crashed around 8pm. Actually, I do recall asking Will at one point if he was warm enough, and I think that was the first time I’ve said that without being sarcastic here. At nightfall the temp even dropped more and it felt Sooooo nice.
We all slept really good that night… not to mention it was really quiet up top that mountain… we didn’t wake to any dog fights, OR the roosters crowing at 5am.
We gathered our belongings and went to the restaurant to order some breakfast. We decided to go for the omelet. Which turned out to be pretty tasty, (it only had onions inside) but it actually tasted pretty good. After that they got their truck out – a small Toyota truck (dad I’d say it’s about the same size/circa as yours) J and then we hopped in the back.
The ride down was nice as we were able to catch a few nice views since we were in the open air. It was still cool out and the sun was shining over all the trees quite picturesquely. The owner’s wife and two daughters were riding down with us as they wanted to catch a taxi back to Phnom Penh as well. When we got back to Treying Treyong we paid them their $20, and then they helped us get a taxi to Phnom Penh which only was going to cost us $2.
We were kind of confused because we knew they wanted to go to PP but they didn’t hop in our taxi. I didn’t know if it was because they had arranged something else, or if it was because they were embarrassed of what they had just charged us for the ride back down or what. But thanks we said goodbye and we were on our way. Again, we had to wait for the taxi to fill up with enough people to go. After about 20 minutes it wasn’t completely full but we had enough for the driver to decide to start going. All of us in back were like “sweet. This will be a pretty comfortable ride back to PP with only 3 of us in this row” as they seem to fit in 4ppl when they can. Then maybe a mile down the road, our driver slows down to pick up some more passengers in need of a ride. Low and behold-- who do you think it was? It was the owner’s wife and the two daughters trying to hail a taxi to get to Phnom Penh. Once they realized that this was the same taxi they sent us off in, I think they were quite embarrassed. It was sort of funny because they were offered to sit in the middle back part of the van but they asked if they could all squeeze in the front. There was just this sort of awkwardness about all of it. Here we were in the back of the van squeezed in nicely, waiting patiently to get back to Phnom Penh, and up front was the owner’s wife and daughters riding the same taxi to Phnom Penh, but now with our $20 in their pocket.
Go figure. I guess that’s how it is sometimes. Take the money and run. They knew we needed a ride. They knew how much we paid to get up there. They knew we weren’t walking down, so they took advantage of us. Live and learn I guess.
Nonetheless ~ the actual afternoon that we spent at Kirirom was really great. The waterfall was amazing. The cooler temperature was truly a treat AND we got a really good night’s sleep in the cool air and quiet surroundings. The wind rustling through the pines was a familiar sound that until then, I didn’t realize how much I missed.
So that was our Kampuchea Adventure. It was good and we learned a lot, used Khmer, had a good time and also were taken advantage of. I guess what is a foreigner to expect?
Electricity | Sept. 1st
Electricity
September 1st, 2008
The electricity went out in Big Sky, MT much more than I really thought it ever would. Here we were, living in this small but luxurious ski resort town, and every once in a while... the power would go out at the Members Only resort that I worked at. It would catch us off guard, but usually it was a nice break from the computer. Then, one time - actually on Will's birthday, I was baking him banana bread, and it went out right in the middle of the bake. It was out for 4 hours. Needless to say that batch of b-bread had to be tossed.
Time warp to right now.
The power just went out here in K-Tralach, Cambodia. This isn't the first time or anything. It goes out every from time to time during the days or evenings and we don't have electricity from 12ish-4 or 5am.
Anyhow, I JUST got done batheing. I was cut short from my usual clean-up time as the electricity went out right in the midst of sudsing up. It gets dark early in these parts (7 in the evening) and when there's no electricity. It gets REALLY dark.
There I was, all soaped up from head to toe, and now it's pitch black.
Our host mom was bathing in the other wash room next to me, and she ran out and got the flashlight and all was back to normal. I finished up, brushed my teeth, headed upstairs to our bedroom, lit a candle and plopped down on the bed to type. We'll see how long this computer battery will last.
And that was that!
Next story. (which you'll see above this one, b/c that's how they're placed in this blog)
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