....and what a week that was.........

Asia » Cambodia » South » Phnom Penh
October 16th 2011

Published: October 16th 2011

This really has been a big and challenging week..............full of good, bad, and a few uglies........grab a coffee and read on...

I guess part of the bad/ugly component started last Saturday night when I realised I had my first tummy bug for the trip, oh joy – though I was hoping that I’d avoid them and I guess I’m pretty pleased that I survived 3 weeks before getting one (I have mentioned in previous blogs about the market where cook buys our food...). Anyway, I laid low on Sunday and just tried to ride it out, but sad to say that I got progressively worse so opted to start taking Imodium. It helped somewhat, but by that time, there was a secondary infection and I came very close to calling the Projects Abroad staff and asking them to get me to a hospital on Monday. Thankfully the medications that my doctor gave me to bring, have done their job and I’ve started feeling human again. Don’t mind telling you that I was really scared on Monday night – hygiene is not the biggest priority in this neck of the woods, and being stuck in a hospital for awhile or evacuated out, was not high on my Cambodian “bucket list”. I’m pleased to say that I’m very much on the mend now, yea.

Being sick made living in PP more of a challenge as most of my strength was taken up with fighting the infection and getting through my classes (though I did stay home on Tuesday as I simply couldn’t get up), and it’s been really tough on my emotions as I was pretty concerned on Monday and Tuesday about what the options were if I couldn’t get the infection under control. As a consequence a couple of pretty minor matters through the week have felt bigger than they really were, and for awhile it was a challenge to put them into perspective. Again an element of homesickness crept in ......only minor though, and it was more about needing to be in a place where I understand most things and feel like I have some control over outcomes, because you don’t feel a lot of that here.

Last night Mel and I were discussing the overall claustrophobia of living in this city. She said she now understands my panic attack on my first day (after feeling very confined in the super dark room, in a house surrounded by bars and huge gates), as sometimes she feels so hemmed in that she can hardly cope. In PP there is NO privacy.....we live in an apartment with 4 other people, which is also the main transit apartment for the volunteers heading to the island for the diving project, and also where people from another apartment eat lunch and dinner. The Projects Abroad staff are nearly always here, and we have a cook and cleaner most of the time. So you walk in and there is never a moment that you feel truly alone. The terrace is my haven, but you still get the noise from the street (have I ever mentioned the Never-Ceasing honking of horns?), you can see people in the apartments beside, behind, next to, and across the road, so it feels like a gold fish bowl. The moment, and I kid you not, you walk out the door, there are either tuk tuks sitting in front of the gate, or 20 metres down the road and the moment they see you, it’s the familiar “tuk, tuk madam” or “moto madam”..... The guys outside our apartment and down the street know our routines, so for goodness sake, why do they bother asking?? One day I swear I’m going to agree to let them take me the 50 metres to the internet shop and give them 100 riel (a few cents). Once you escape them, the enquiries are constant from every other driver in town – you CANNOT walk down any street without being hassled a hundred times, and sometimes you get really sick of the constant demands on your attention.
A group of us went to Riverside for breakfast yesterday and the guys were like vultures, a few in particularly were really bad, and one guy would not take No for an answer and followed us to the restaurant and sat outside until we were finished !!! That’s stalking at home.

Anyway, these things all contributed to what Mel and I have discovered is the “4 week wall” and we both slammed into it pretty hard over the last few days of this week. We found out yesterday, that this wall is as common as the “first few days meltdown”, so it’s good to know we’re not actually going insane, and are in fact, pretty normal. Gosh, I knew there would be tough times up here, so I’m not complaining, just explaining that this is in no way plain sailing and a piece of cake. Everyday is a mix of emotions and can go from high to low in the blink of an eye. You simply never know what is around the corner. You never seem to be alone (we’ve even discovered that the guy in the apartment across the road, watches us when we’re in the shower, though thankfully the window is high enough, so he only sees our heads).....I do love Cambodia, but sometimes wish there was a “pause” button so that I could just stop the noise and the crowding for just a few minutes of peace.

I mentioned previously about the noise from the karaoke brothel next door – well, thankfully it’s been pretty good since Pises spoke to them, so that’s great. I will take some pictures in the next week or so and post them, so that you can get a mental picture of this fine establishment. They even have “carpark attendants”, which in itself is a joke because there are only spaces for 8 cars out the front, but I’ve just walked past on my way home and there must be 20 cars parked every which way in front of the building, and squished in like sardines in a can. The attendants have done a mighty job, as they have also parked cars down either side of the street - so much so that the street has become a single lane thoroughfare – where are the police when you need them? A – probably in the brothel. The restaurant/brothel down the street has done a similar thing with their guests’ cars. It’s such a charming street!!! Tim, Aussie expat that I’ve been hanging out with, likens the suburb I live in here, to Darra or Inala in Brisbane...........so if you cross that with the seedy side of New Farm, you’ll have a close mental picture.....actually, you know what? That doesn’t even come close to what it’s like.

I’ve also mentioned the Cambodian mindset of “what’s yours is mine” - so if you’re neighbour needs to use your terrace to dry her rice (they dry out any excess cooked rice and feed it to pigs), or fish, or clothes, then it’s accepted that that’s what they’ll do. To expand on that and give a clearer picture of life here, I should mention that there also appears to be a lack of understanding of the concept of “personal space” here. In the poorer areas, they also tend to not crave privacy like Westerners do and therefore live so much of their lives in full view of everyone and often on the street outside their apartments / houses / shacks / shops etc. I also suspect they live outside so much because it’s somewhat cooler than inside their houses. I feel a bit voyeuristic as I walk down our street and watch everyone going about their lives, right beside the street, as if it was their lounge or dining room. The bigger houses in the richer areas are shut up tight behind big fences and gates, so their privacy is assured. I’ve actually started taking photos of some of the fences and gates, as there are some very interesting ones around....will load them up when I feel that I have an interesting collection.

On an amusing, or should I call it creepy note, is the “royalty” status I seem to now have at Greetings cafe. I go there most days to use the free WiFi, as the internet cafe just down the street is full of kids gaming and competing against each other, so it’s Very noisy. About two weeks ago I had a meeting at Greetings with Sophan (Projects Abroad Placement Co-ordinator) and when we were leaving I asked him to tell the staff that I appreciate their friendliness despite our lack of common language. I felt at the time that the amount of Khmer he used was way more than the English words I’d used, but everyone smiled and I left without a second thought. Ahhhhh, but since then, every single time I walk in I’m treated like royalty. Nice, good service, I hear you mutter, yes, agreed BUT the manager now watches everything I do, and again, I have no privacy – it used to be my haven from the insane world outside their door. The other day I was brushing flies away, so the next minute he had a gadget out that zaps flies (looks like a tennis racket, and the European volunteers all know about them, but I’ve never seen them). Again, good service. Last Thursday I arrived, and the cafe was packed downstairs, so I went to the relative quiet of the first flood. The internet connection was really slow and frustrating, so I did what I needed and started packing up to go home. I hadn’t realised that the manager had come upstairs and was again watching my every move and realised that the internet was slow.......so as I’m packing up, he’s apologising for the bad connection and was heading downstairs to rectify the situation. Ok, now I’m starting to feel really uncomfy. Often times when I look up from what I’m doing, the staff are watching and beaming massive smiles at me – you don’t get that at home, in fact it’s hard to get service sometimes. Then Friday, he commented to me that I hadn’t been back in with all of my friends for a few days. Turns out Sophan had explained that we were volunteer teachers and that we should be made to feel very welcome, as we’d probably tell all of our friends to come and it would be good for business.....aggghhhh. Sophan has a commercial marketing degree, so is always thinking business. All I wanted him to do was say thanks, and now I’m stalked with full-on service and want to find another quiet place to be anonymous.....and I probably only spend a maximum of $1.50 there each day, I’m not a big spender.

Thankfully there have been some really enjoyable moments also in this week and they’ve helped to keep things in balance.

First of all, I had a meeting with the monk on Friday and he’s approved the trip to the animal sanctuary with the kids. He told me we could go on Friday 28th October, so I have two weeks to get this planned. He said he’ll organise the bus, so that’s good and it will be cheaper if a local does it (I’m still paying for it though), and the teachers are going to organise food parcels locally for the kids, as they’re concerned it will cost me too much money to take them to a restaurant in the area. Just have to organise guides, snacks, and entry tickets and we’re off. The teachers are so excited, and one of them told the kids that we might be going, so they’re all excited also. It’ll be such a great day. The monk’s main concern was for the safety of the kids, and you should have seen his face light up when I told him that I work as a safety adviser at home, and that my first priority is safety of the kids and teachers etc. Yea, I’m so glad that he’s approved the trip. Apparently the kids have never been out of PP.

I also had dinner with Tim on Thursday night and we went to a great restaurant, appropriately called “Lost” (as you’d get lost trying to find it, it’s so well hidden). The restaurant is owned by an Aussie couple, and the two other tables there on that night, were filled with Aussies and other expats, all of whom knew Tim, so it was very social and I really enjoyed meeting everyone. The food was fantastic also...will go back before I leave.

After breakfast yesterday morning, Kylie and her son, Rylie 10yo (both Aussies from Adelaide) joined me for a fish pedicure. I could very well become addicted to these and will miss them when I get home, but I would imagine my feet will be in better condition once I get home and treat them better. Rylie took a few minutes to join Kylie and I with our feet in the fish tank, but when he was roaring with laughter. Kylie also did her fair share of squealing to start with as the feet started their nibbling, but both settled in and fell in love with it after five minutes and plan to do it again before heading home.

Last night I caught up with Suzanne (one of the volunteers from Denmark) and Sophan at the Drink Mart at the end of our street. Apart from the name, it sounds like a pretty normal activity. The one thing that always amuses me about this place is that it’s basically like a very small Seven Eleven convenience store that also sells beer, and has a few chairs and tables out the front. At night though, tables and chairs come from everywhere and it’s the local hangout where everyone gets together. It’s positively crowded with people drinking, and there’s a lady that makes food from a hole in the wall behind the Drink Mart, and there are motos lined up on the footpath and everyone has a nice, social night. It’s the weirdest thing.

Talking of transformations......there’s a long park running between the two sides of the main road just near our street. The road in itself is unusual, in that it’s often dual carriage-way on both sides of the park, and other times it’s one-way traffic each side.....still haven’t worked out how people know when it changes.... Anyway, at the end of the day, if it’s not bucketing down with rain, the park gets really crowded. On sunset, there are a couple of aerobic classes that people join in on, and it’s very funny to watch....not an ounce of lycra, but plenty of long, baggy cotton pants, Mao-style tops, and PJs. Just down from them, there’s usually a couple of games of badminton going on – sans nets – and people power-walking. After dark, all the couples arrive and park their motos along the street, and then have picnics etc. The park is really just a very large median strip, that through the day looks like a nice, green strip of land, to being the social hub of the area when it cools down. The thing that really amuses me, is the maintenance of this strip....we have torrential rain here most days, with flooding, yet every day when I’m on my way to school, I see that the sprinklers are on in the park.........why they need to water it, I don’t know. It also amuses and disturbs me to see the gardeners sweeping the park with their wicker brooms, after the grass has been cut – do they not know about grass catchers on mowers? Or would that be depriving someone of a job and income??

On Friday night I watched the old movie, “The Killing Fields”, with Regina (a German volunteer). I saw the movie after my last trip here, but now that I’ve lived here for awhile, I understand it so much more. It really is a disturbing, yet relatively honest, account of the situation here when Pol Pot and Khmer Rouge were in power. They were a sick bunch of individuals !!! You see the impact of the events here on a daily basis, when you see that a large majority of the population are under 30 years of age. I wish I could sit down with some of the older folks and ask them how they survived.

Well that’s about it, will head around to Greetings, get greeted way too much for my comfort level, and post this blog. Then I’m heading over to Tim’s for a bbq and watch the rugby (Aus Vs NZ) with him and a bunch of Aussie expats. I need to feel somewhat normal for a few hours, then I’ll come home and do some lesson prep for the week, and settle back in to the new week....my fifth !!

Love to all from Cambodia, xx

....and what a week that was.........

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