Hello from a new city!
After a very hectic morning ride to a difficult-to-find boarding area, I got on the Blue Cruiser and "cruised" north to Siem Reap, the city that supports Angkor Wat. (Go ahead and google Angkor Wat if you don't know what it is, its pretty cool.)
I was totally elated to be on a boat as the sun rose, watching the city fade and the countryside appear. I had good tunes and the breeze was heavenly. I had my guidebooks out, sunscreen on and a little baggie of pineapple for a snack. But for all these good things, and all that i know lies ahead, I was also incredibly sad to go.
I'm glad to be traveling alone because I have so much to process now. The long boat ride was just what I needed for remembering, praying, writing and rejoicing over the experiences I've just had- the kind I've been hoping to have for so long.
More than once I thought "I can't believe this is my life!" And that's a pretty big change from my outlook when I said goodbye to snowy Mass.
The last night in PNH was lovely. The staff at the day care cooked a special goodbye feast for me and we sat on mats in a circle over steaming plates of lemony beef and chicken and piles of sticky rice. People who had only waved at me all week summoned the courage to speak to me in broken english and two women gave small speeches, which translated, amounted to a lot of thanks for coming to their poor country and working in their small, poor day care center. These people do every day (for very little pay,) what I did for a week and they were bending over backwards to thank me? I think the word the australians use is gobsmacked. That's what I was.
But now, the present. I've checked into a sweet guesthouse called Popular Guesthouse. It was a Lonely Planet recommendation and as usual, they were right on the money. It's great. My room is small but clean, I have a private bathroom and a fan that cranks up to about 1000 RPM and there's a roof top deck where they serve food and delicious cold Angkor beer, where other whiteys from around the world mill about between seeing temples and markets and rice fields and villages. Aaah.
Tomorrow I have an 8 am tuk-tuk date with the guy who drove me from the boat to the guesthouse today and I bargained him down from FIFTY DOLLARS (!!!!) to 25 for the day tomorrow. Now, maybe some of you are thinking that $50 for a days work sounds fair, but remember where I am, please. That glorious guesthouse I just described for you is running me a whopping $5 per night. I fear that even at $25, my little driver is laughing at me, but oh well. I like to think maybe he has a family and can use the money.
Ok, the heat has won. This internet cafe has no a/c and the fan is not oscilating in my direction and I can't wipe any more sweat out of my eyes when the Popular Guesthouse is calling my name like this!
Tomorrow I will try to post again, and will get some more pictures up, too. Until then: cham reap lia! (Good bye!)
Saturday, February 13, 2010
Friday, February 12, 2010
Since I'm at least a thousand words behind...
Today was my last day at the day care and also my last full day in Phnom Penh. I'm so sad, it's hard to make plans to leave, which is saying a lot since there are several things on the horizon that I'm really excited about. What a surprising feeling, really.
I found a computer that has a working USB port so I'm going to post some of my favorite pictures of my days here. Hang on to your hats...
At the market at noon on a Thursday. Roughly a million people. Roughly a million degrees out.
Yes, I'll be applying A-Lices tonight since my days at the day care are behind me.
I wish I could rotate pictures. This is by the river front. The Mekong River river front. So cool.
At the Royal Palace
Across from the Cambodian Genocide Museum
Uh oh...my moto ride is here. More to come...this weekend I'm off to Siem Reap vai speed boat (six hours on a speed boat? go figure.) where I hope to ride an elephant and spend a little more time on the internet, among other things!
Man, these posts are so inadequate. Hope everyone's doing great!
I found a computer that has a working USB port so I'm going to post some of my favorite pictures of my days here. Hang on to your hats...
At the market at noon on a Thursday. Roughly a million people. Roughly a million degrees out.
Yes, I'll be applying A-Lices tonight since my days at the day care are behind me.
I wish I could rotate pictures. This is by the river front. The Mekong River river front. So cool.
At the Royal Palace
Across from the Cambodian Genocide MuseumUh oh...my moto ride is here. More to come...this weekend I'm off to Siem Reap vai speed boat (six hours on a speed boat? go figure.) where I hope to ride an elephant and spend a little more time on the internet, among other things!
Man, these posts are so inadequate. Hope everyone's doing great!
Tuesday, February 9, 2010
Monday
Monday was my first day at the Day Care.
I went to Bonnnie's school where Bill Rhea, the Day Care owner/founder guy picked me up.
He brought me to the building, introduced me to Micheal, the guy who runs the thing on a daily basis and then said good bye.
Woah.
So the day care has about 50 kids. And about 4 teachers. And the kids are beautiful and hungry for love and food and don't speak any english. Neither do the teachers. Just Michael.
I started in the classroom where Micheal was teaching and brought out the puzzle I had for the kids. They were very excited and all asked me lots of questions while clamoring to touch it. Of course, I didn't understand them and felt rather helpless in the crush of dirty, curious little bodies.
Once we regained some control, we used the puzzle to teach the kids the words for TIGER, ELEPHANT and MONKEY. Basically i'd point to the picture, say the word and they'd repeat it back. Very advanced teaching method, I assure you.
I won't go into the nuts and bolts of the day too much here (perhaps on another day?) but the things I won't forget are as follows:
The kids remove all their clothes, get soaped up, sprayed down, shampooed, brushed, dried and redressed in new, clean clothes while their rags are washed during the day. This is the only shower most of them get, period. This is also the only time most of them wear clean clothes.
At the end of the day, they all get showered again and redressed in their now-clean rags before being sent home again.
The kids also get a big, hot lunch of rice, potatoes, broth and veggies at lunch. They eat like you wouldn't believe and you can tell who's been there a while and who is new based on how skinny they are. This is not an exaggeration.
After lunch, they all lay down for naps. It starts as a giggle-fest and then the littlest ones drop off, followed by older and older kids until they're all asleep. Its so quite and they're clean and full and safe and they sleep for an hour and a half. I wonder how long they could sleep there if we didn't wake them?
So those are my big observations of my first day. Not being able to communicate with anyone at all was terrible and made me feel rather useless. But now that it's actually Tuesday, I can look back and give myself a little slack because it was the first day and I'm already way better.
The last big thing is that I rode home on a moto. And I freaking loved it. Its been a highlight of my trip so far and I'm not sure what will bump it from the top. Sorry, Mom. I know you won't like this, but at least today I borrowed a helmet? Anyways, it was such a good, breezy, cool and wonderful way to end a long, hard day. I could ride on the back of a moto through Phnom Penh for hours and not get bored. I love it. Seriously.
Dang. Look at the time. I can't write about today at all. This is the biggest thing I was going to write: I have lice.
And apparently that's normal around here.
Welcome to the wild, wild west.
I went to Bonnnie's school where Bill Rhea, the Day Care owner/founder guy picked me up.
He brought me to the building, introduced me to Micheal, the guy who runs the thing on a daily basis and then said good bye.
Woah.
So the day care has about 50 kids. And about 4 teachers. And the kids are beautiful and hungry for love and food and don't speak any english. Neither do the teachers. Just Michael.
I started in the classroom where Micheal was teaching and brought out the puzzle I had for the kids. They were very excited and all asked me lots of questions while clamoring to touch it. Of course, I didn't understand them and felt rather helpless in the crush of dirty, curious little bodies.
Once we regained some control, we used the puzzle to teach the kids the words for TIGER, ELEPHANT and MONKEY. Basically i'd point to the picture, say the word and they'd repeat it back. Very advanced teaching method, I assure you.
I won't go into the nuts and bolts of the day too much here (perhaps on another day?) but the things I won't forget are as follows:
The kids remove all their clothes, get soaped up, sprayed down, shampooed, brushed, dried and redressed in new, clean clothes while their rags are washed during the day. This is the only shower most of them get, period. This is also the only time most of them wear clean clothes.
At the end of the day, they all get showered again and redressed in their now-clean rags before being sent home again.
The kids also get a big, hot lunch of rice, potatoes, broth and veggies at lunch. They eat like you wouldn't believe and you can tell who's been there a while and who is new based on how skinny they are. This is not an exaggeration.
After lunch, they all lay down for naps. It starts as a giggle-fest and then the littlest ones drop off, followed by older and older kids until they're all asleep. Its so quite and they're clean and full and safe and they sleep for an hour and a half. I wonder how long they could sleep there if we didn't wake them?
So those are my big observations of my first day. Not being able to communicate with anyone at all was terrible and made me feel rather useless. But now that it's actually Tuesday, I can look back and give myself a little slack because it was the first day and I'm already way better.
The last big thing is that I rode home on a moto. And I freaking loved it. Its been a highlight of my trip so far and I'm not sure what will bump it from the top. Sorry, Mom. I know you won't like this, but at least today I borrowed a helmet? Anyways, it was such a good, breezy, cool and wonderful way to end a long, hard day. I could ride on the back of a moto through Phnom Penh for hours and not get bored. I love it. Seriously.
Dang. Look at the time. I can't write about today at all. This is the biggest thing I was going to write: I have lice.
And apparently that's normal around here.
Welcome to the wild, wild west.
Sunday
After sleeping for a glorious 10 hours, I awoke feeling human once again. The googly-eyed narcoleptic, greasy-haired monster from the day before was gone and I was ready to take a look at my new surroundings.
Bonnie and I enjoyed some cereal, icy cold milk and bananas for breakfast and she told me about their usual routine. She drops the kids off at a Khmer church, goes and gets coffee while they sing (because the music is too loud there,) and then joins them for the sermon. Did I want to go with them? Well yes, I did.
So we got in the car.
And then my life changed forever because I lived through my first experience driving through the streets of Phnom Penh. I've been thinking, every time we go anywhere, of ways I could describe driving here. The best I can do is to get you all to imagine everyone on the road playing the "I'm going to drive as long as I can without ever stopping the vehicle" game. And then play it with motos, tuk-tuks, bikes, cars, trucks and people on foot, all also in on it.
In this game, somtimes the best open space to drive (and not lose by stopping the vehicle, remember) is in the lane of oncoming traffic. Sometimes the sidewalk is the answer and sometime it is the shoulder. Dive through a small gap in traffic to cross? Well, yes, if it means you can keep going!
The best part about this game is that because everyone's been playing it for so long, they're really good at it. Everyone is very intentional about where they're going and everyone on the road with them sees this intent and allows for the manuever. It is awesome to behold. Intuitive driving at its very best. The biggest dance you can imagine.
Anyways, in a very brief and unfair-t0-the-great-day motion, I will now tell you what I saw on Sunday, after church. Oh - at church I got earphones and a little radio so I could tune in the english translation of the sermon. It was hilarious.
Right, so after Church, Bonnie sent her son Petra with me to see some sights. We started with lunch at an NGO where they teach poor, uneducated women to work in the hospitality industry as an alternative to the sex industry. I had hummus and fresh bread and was in heaven.
Then we went to the Russian Market where we were immediately plunged into this dark, twisty, hot and smelly maze of stands selling everything from school supplies to basted pigs heads (complete with teeth and tongues, yum.)
From there we went to the Cambodian Genocide Museum (oh wait, have I already written about all of this? I'm going crazy.) which was horrible and moving all at once. From there I had my first tuk-tuk ride. I was so happy...grinning like an idiot, much to the chagrin of Petra, a very nice but bashful 17 year old boy!
After the museum, we went to the Royal Palace (I think I must've already written about this. I'm sorry to repeat myself.) It was great. It was hot, sparkly, crowded and beatifully kept and I took many pictures which I would upload if I wasn't getting "device malfunction" from this computer when i plugged in my card-reader. Grr.
From there, we walked by the Mekong River which was smelly and full of trash but still cool because it was, afterall, the Mekong River.
The adventure ended with a very long Tuk-Tuk ride back home and a delicious dinner of white-bread, PB and banana with a heaping side of dragon fruit, mango, banana, "dragon's eyes" and something else I can't recall but didn't hesitate to wolf down.
I was again narcoleptic around 8:30 pm, so I went to bed. Stevo said I should fight this urge... ha.
Bonnie and I enjoyed some cereal, icy cold milk and bananas for breakfast and she told me about their usual routine. She drops the kids off at a Khmer church, goes and gets coffee while they sing (because the music is too loud there,) and then joins them for the sermon. Did I want to go with them? Well yes, I did.
So we got in the car.
And then my life changed forever because I lived through my first experience driving through the streets of Phnom Penh. I've been thinking, every time we go anywhere, of ways I could describe driving here. The best I can do is to get you all to imagine everyone on the road playing the "I'm going to drive as long as I can without ever stopping the vehicle" game. And then play it with motos, tuk-tuks, bikes, cars, trucks and people on foot, all also in on it.
In this game, somtimes the best open space to drive (and not lose by stopping the vehicle, remember) is in the lane of oncoming traffic. Sometimes the sidewalk is the answer and sometime it is the shoulder. Dive through a small gap in traffic to cross? Well, yes, if it means you can keep going!
The best part about this game is that because everyone's been playing it for so long, they're really good at it. Everyone is very intentional about where they're going and everyone on the road with them sees this intent and allows for the manuever. It is awesome to behold. Intuitive driving at its very best. The biggest dance you can imagine.
Anyways, in a very brief and unfair-t0-the-great-day motion, I will now tell you what I saw on Sunday, after church. Oh - at church I got earphones and a little radio so I could tune in the english translation of the sermon. It was hilarious.
Right, so after Church, Bonnie sent her son Petra with me to see some sights. We started with lunch at an NGO where they teach poor, uneducated women to work in the hospitality industry as an alternative to the sex industry. I had hummus and fresh bread and was in heaven.
Then we went to the Russian Market where we were immediately plunged into this dark, twisty, hot and smelly maze of stands selling everything from school supplies to basted pigs heads (complete with teeth and tongues, yum.)
From there we went to the Cambodian Genocide Museum (oh wait, have I already written about all of this? I'm going crazy.) which was horrible and moving all at once. From there I had my first tuk-tuk ride. I was so happy...grinning like an idiot, much to the chagrin of Petra, a very nice but bashful 17 year old boy!
After the museum, we went to the Royal Palace (I think I must've already written about this. I'm sorry to repeat myself.) It was great. It was hot, sparkly, crowded and beatifully kept and I took many pictures which I would upload if I wasn't getting "device malfunction" from this computer when i plugged in my card-reader. Grr.
From there, we walked by the Mekong River which was smelly and full of trash but still cool because it was, afterall, the Mekong River.
The adventure ended with a very long Tuk-Tuk ride back home and a delicious dinner of white-bread, PB and banana with a heaping side of dragon fruit, mango, banana, "dragon's eyes" and something else I can't recall but didn't hesitate to wolf down.
I was again narcoleptic around 8:30 pm, so I went to bed. Stevo said I should fight this urge... ha.
Saturday
I am going to travel backward in time to try to capture the things I've missed writing about here. This will be impossible...first, because one cannot travel through time any direction but forward and second because it would be impossible to tell you about this place in a way that does it justice, even if I wasn't three days behind. But try I will, because I said I would.
I left JFK on a Thursday night and landed in Bangkok on Saturday. You do the math...even if I hadn't crossed the international dateline, that would still be a long time up in the air. The plan was to meet Tom, a friend of my Aunt's, in at the airport, leave with him, grab some lunch and then return for my 6 pm flight. Tom's flight got in later than we realized and I didn't go anywhere. But I did sit in the BKK airport for 8 hours in a crazy jet-lagged state and enjoyed some of the craziest people-watching I could have imagined. I made the following notes in my journal:
Also, when I was sitting, talking to Tom (not going anywhere,) he told me, "Oh, Phnom Penh, you're going to the Wild Wild West." To which I sagely nodded, as if I knew. But now I know. See the next few posts for more on this subject.
After 8+ hours at BKK, I boarded my flight for Phnom Penh. I was, by this hour, so tired I was experiencing that panicky cross-eyed sensation I thought was reserved only for sitting in class after all-nighters during college. I took my seat on the plane and didn't have another concsious thought until the wheels touched down on Cambodian soil.
After I got my visa (for $20 USD, the perferred currency here,) I went through customs hoping to see someone who looked Bonnie-esque. I saw no one and continued walking out of the airport where I saw a few more people standing. There, in all her "welcome to PNH, I'll be your guide" glory, was Bonnie and one of her boys, Petra, with a sign reading SARAH. I could've cried.
We rode home through darkened streets. Through the car window I saw trash, dust, dirt roads and people on motorcycles ("motos") and bicycles absolutely everywhere. All I could think of was tomorrow, when I'd get to see it by daylight.
Oh, and laying down.
I left JFK on a Thursday night and landed in Bangkok on Saturday. You do the math...even if I hadn't crossed the international dateline, that would still be a long time up in the air. The plan was to meet Tom, a friend of my Aunt's, in at the airport, leave with him, grab some lunch and then return for my 6 pm flight. Tom's flight got in later than we realized and I didn't go anywhere. But I did sit in the BKK airport for 8 hours in a crazy jet-lagged state and enjoyed some of the craziest people-watching I could have imagined. I made the following notes in my journal:
- I love asian babies
- Thai women have a way of wearing high heels like they're nothing. Slippers.
- I saw a fat white guy wearing a silver drag-queen wig, pushing an empty baby carriage
- Tom didn't take me anywhere
- Fanny-packs are alive and well. Rest easy.
Also, when I was sitting, talking to Tom (not going anywhere,) he told me, "Oh, Phnom Penh, you're going to the Wild Wild West." To which I sagely nodded, as if I knew. But now I know. See the next few posts for more on this subject.
After 8+ hours at BKK, I boarded my flight for Phnom Penh. I was, by this hour, so tired I was experiencing that panicky cross-eyed sensation I thought was reserved only for sitting in class after all-nighters during college. I took my seat on the plane and didn't have another concsious thought until the wheels touched down on Cambodian soil.
After I got my visa (for $20 USD, the perferred currency here,) I went through customs hoping to see someone who looked Bonnie-esque. I saw no one and continued walking out of the airport where I saw a few more people standing. There, in all her "welcome to PNH, I'll be your guide" glory, was Bonnie and one of her boys, Petra, with a sign reading SARAH. I could've cried.
We rode home through darkened streets. Through the car window I saw trash, dust, dirt roads and people on motorcycles ("motos") and bicycles absolutely everywhere. All I could think of was tomorrow, when I'd get to see it by daylight.
Oh, and laying down.
Sunday, February 7, 2010
I'M HERE
Hello all - I made it!
This is not going to be the post you've all been hoping for because I'm sitting in my host's office, typing furiously before I get picked up to go to my first day of work at the Daycare. The Rheas, who run the daycare, are going to be here in ... 3 minutes, eek!
After spending days on airplanes and in airports, I made it here to Cambodia at 8 pm on Saturday, to find Bonnie and one of her kids, Petra, holding a "sarah" sign outside the airport doors. I could've cried I was so happy to see them because seeing them meant they would take me to a place where there was a bed, and at that point, well, I would've done almost anything to get horizontal.
Bonnie and Co are a friendly, fun crew and have just moved to this beautiful new house that is clean and huge and located in a place called "New World 2," which amuses me more than I can explain here. It really is like a new world, based on the things I've seen from car windows or from the sides of the tuk-tuks and in it, I have my own little bed and bathroom complete with a shower (heaven!) and western style toilet that i can throw tp straight into (see future post on squat toilets...) Oh the luxury!
Hey, my ride is here! I'm going to find an internet cafe soon and upload pictures and use the notes I've been taking in my journal for some really good posts, but for now, from Bonnie's work computer just before I fly out the door, this will have to do!
if I could speak Khmer, I'd say "bye" that way right now, but again, perhaps in a future post?
This is not going to be the post you've all been hoping for because I'm sitting in my host's office, typing furiously before I get picked up to go to my first day of work at the Daycare. The Rheas, who run the daycare, are going to be here in ... 3 minutes, eek!
After spending days on airplanes and in airports, I made it here to Cambodia at 8 pm on Saturday, to find Bonnie and one of her kids, Petra, holding a "sarah" sign outside the airport doors. I could've cried I was so happy to see them because seeing them meant they would take me to a place where there was a bed, and at that point, well, I would've done almost anything to get horizontal.
Bonnie and Co are a friendly, fun crew and have just moved to this beautiful new house that is clean and huge and located in a place called "New World 2," which amuses me more than I can explain here. It really is like a new world, based on the things I've seen from car windows or from the sides of the tuk-tuks and in it, I have my own little bed and bathroom complete with a shower (heaven!) and western style toilet that i can throw tp straight into (see future post on squat toilets...) Oh the luxury!
Hey, my ride is here! I'm going to find an internet cafe soon and upload pictures and use the notes I've been taking in my journal for some really good posts, but for now, from Bonnie's work computer just before I fly out the door, this will have to do!
if I could speak Khmer, I'd say "bye" that way right now, but again, perhaps in a future post?
Monday, February 1, 2010
Stream of Consciousness
Here it feels like this:
I would like to go now, please.
Also, I typed "practice pack" into Google and clicked on images
to see if I could find something suitable for breaking up the
chinese wall of words that was yesterday's post and I found this:
A non-sequitor to be sure, but I couldn't resist sharing.
Also, over the weekend, Emily and I saw When in Rome. I'm not
recommending you run out and see it, but having gone in with
lower-than-low expectations, I was pleasantly surprised when the
movie turned out to be way less bad than I anticipated.
I lured Emily into the theater (which was full of assorted single
women, from middle-age downward,) with the promise of eye-candy
in the form of Josh Duhamel. He was, I assumed, why anyone over
the age of 15 was in the theater with us.
Now that I've bored you all with that story, here he is, in all his
boyishly charming splendor:
*swoon* I was really just looking for an excuse to
post a picture of him on my blog. He is married
Fergie (the puffy-faced lady from the Black Eyed Peas)
but I think if we could spend a few minutes together,
he'd see the error of his ways. I also think if I was savvier
on the old computadora, I'd photoshop my face over
Fergie's in a tabloid picture and post that for all to behold.
It would be splendid. Let me assure you.
But who that kind of time on their hands?
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