Welcome to Anlong Veng

Here is the FHCambodia Anlong Veng staff! International staff included--you can see my pale face shining out from the back row on the right, and if you look closely you can find another white person or two, and two from Japan. Altogether, I think there are around fifty staff--not sure if everyone made it into this picture or not.

I have officially been in Anlong Veng for one week now. Currently, I am living at one of the guest houses, waiting for a bedroom to be built for me in the house rented by another FH staff member from Switzerland. Hopefully soon the room will be completed and I'll be able to move in with her. This will be good for my sanity, by letting me settle in, and for my wallet, when I no longer have to pay for each night at the guest house (although at $6.25 a night, the cost is not too overwhelming).

So--now begins the process of actually beginning to "work" and figure out what my job will look like. Up first are some tasks relating to IT (which I have been declared qualified to oversee based on the fact that I speak English and have used computers previously), working with other staff to develop a better orientation process for new Khmer staff members, and getting to know my fellow co-workers, especially those who I will work with on the Anlong Veng area team (there are four area team altogether). Needless to say, there is lots to figure out in order to get all of that accomplished--also add into the mix continued language study, and eventually work related to my main role, as an advisor for curriculum and training. Anyone want to come help out? :)

Bikes Galore

So, last Friday I bought a bicycle. The old-fashioned, single speed, pedal variety. It's the first bike I've owned since the green Huffy I won from Channel 2 in a contest in second grade. As you can probably tell from that long gap in bike ownership, I'm not much of a bike rider. But, because exercise options here are somewhat limited, and because driving a motorcycle around has gotten me back in the habit of riding around on two wheels, I decided to take the plunge.

Shopping in Phnom Penh involves knowing (or guessing) where in the city you can buy things. There are the classic local markets, which have fruits, veggies, meats, rice, and some common basic stuff--think the Cambodian version of a grocery store. Then you have the slightly bigger markets, which have the basic commodoties and a whole lot more--think Super Wal-Mart. This is where you buy clothes, dishes, bag and backpacks, shoes, dvd's, jewelry, sheets and towels, lightbulbs, moto parts, and so on. There's maybe six or eight of these markets in the city, and they each have the reputation of "specializing" in certain types of goods: gifts and touristy stuff and Western clothes, fabric and more Asian-style outfits, jewelry and gemstones. In general, whatever you need, you can head to a big market and find it.

But there are also plenty of items that are most often sold in shops rather than at the market. Take furniture, for instance, or larger electronics (fans and appliances), or phones and airtime cards. Groups of these shops tend to be located in a cluster in one particular area of the city--there is one street that is lined with motorcycle shops, another with cane and bamboo furniture. So--to buy a bike, we went to the bike section of the city. The older Khmer sister that I live with came along to show me where to go, help me buy the bike, and then to drive my motorcycle back home after the process. Through some manner of reasoning that makes perfect sense to her, we drove past various bicycle shops until she found one to her liking.

Here I had a choice of three styles of bikes, costing $37, 35, or 45, depending on which row I chose my bike from. Bike pedals are not attached until after you purchase the bike, so choosing one (especially for my friend and I who are uninformed about what makes a quality bike) was a matter of seeing what looked nice and seemed sturdy (i.e. thump on bike parts and see what happens). We got to sample the kickstands and sit on the seats, and to take care not to browse among the identical bikes two inches away in the next shop. During this process we also chatted with the auntie who owned the shop, and got barked at by her chihuahua dog, who sat in a box on one of the rows of bikes (chihuahuas in Asia?).

And then finally, bike selected, we made our purchase. Final price: $43, including the previously lacking pedals, a basket on the handlebars, a bell, a chain to the bike up with, and a light that you lean against the front tire so that it is powered by the friction of the turning wheel (if you stop you are in the dark, I guess). I don't know if that's a good price or not, but at least it was less than the $50 another foreigner spent at the shop next door. At this point, I remembered the length of time since I had last ridden a bike, and the interesting Phnom Penh traffic, and decided to take the bike home in a tuk-tuk (a cart pulled by a moto) so that I could take my first ride on quieter streets. This also meant that my first ride was in front of the Cambodian grandma at our house, to her great amusement. And once all of that had been accomplished, my next order of business was to remove all the pre-applied stickers off of the bike frame--I tend not to decorate my modes of transportation with neon flowers and blue eagles. Stickers removed, my new bike looks a little less reminiscent of my second grade Huffy, although I did learn that the decals had done a good job of hiding all the scratches and rust spots in the paint.

Finding a store that carried bike helmets was another story altogether, but--that has been accomplished as well, and I am now ready to hit the road!

Rainy Season

The rainy season has officially been here, in full force, for the last two weeks or so. Typically it starts in May, so mid-April was a little early--although the hot season came early this year, too, so the rainy season was more than welcome to start when ever it felt like it. We've had some big stormy downpours, and a few lighter rains as well. The downpours do a good job of flooding anything that happens to be lower lying that what surrounds it. Sometimes this means flooded streets or sidewalks, sometimes property. On the lot where I live, there are three houses. Two of these (mine included) are smaller and newer, and are built up a foot or so higher than the rest of the lot. The third house is actually sunk a few inches lower than the rest of the lot. And in general, all the land surrounding out lot is higher than we are--our lot is sort of at the middle of a "bowl." So--yes, guess where all that flooding rainwater goes? Right onto our property! (And plenty of other properties as well, we are by no means the only ones.)

Therefore--the two lowest areas of our lot, the ground floor of the large house and the "yard" in the back of the lot, have turned into two small lakes for the duration of the wet season. Other areas of the lot flood or dry out depending on how much rain we have. This morning they are basically dried out, although over the weekend we had the most standing water we've had so far. There was enought water that Tol, the younger sister of the Khmer family I live with, caught an 8-inch fish swimming around the front yard. Said fish has now been passing it's time in a water-filled garbage can until Tol decides to cook it up for dinner. It is a little disconcerting wading into the flooding and wondering what else is lurking in the muddy water besides just fish. The lake in the back yard is now home to scores of black water snails. Where they came from, I don't know, but there are plenty of them. The biggest ones have shells about an inch and a half long. The water also means that some of our residents ants have abandoned their wetter homes and now spend their days tramping in lines across my front porch. And of course, there are always the choruses of frogs that croak away day and night--a whole range of sounds from baby to grandpa frogs. I kind of like it.

Thankfully, my little house has been up high enough to stay high and dry. However, I do get to wade through whatever water is in the front yard to get from my house to the big house or to the road and back. Also, we park out motor bikes on the ground floor of the big house, where they can be locked in so they are not stolen during the night. So--between going to and from my house, and driving my bike in and out of the lake that is the ground floor, I have been hanging out in lots of water. I try not to think too much about what all has washed into the water--just rinse my feet off when I get a chance. And so far so good--no wierd skin funguses or anything :)

But--flooding and wading aside, the rains do cool the weather off, which is MUCH appreciated. Plus a good storm is enjoyable when you are dry and inside, and even if you are out and about in it--life goes on. Packable plasic ponchos were made for just such an occasion.

Travels

So.

Today is my first day back in the Phnom Penh office after three weeks of travelling to and fro. I spent one week, give or take, in each of the following places: Anlong Veng, attending a training for the FH staff there; Siem Reap, a mid-Cambodian city, meeting with my contact person from FHUS; and in Phuket, Thailand, for a vacation with two friends. At the moment I am glad to not be on a bus, plane, or taxi, even though occasionally those forms of transport were air-conditioned and quite comfy. I was even actually cold on the airplane, imagine that. I enjoyed it; I don't get to have goosebumps very often anymore. During some of my hotel stays I also got to enjoy luxuries like hot water. And television. In English. And being cool enough at night to sleep under a blanket. I walked on a carpet.

And then there are moments like landing in the Bangkok airport to transfer to our flight to Phuket, and realizing that there is an Auntie Annie's soft pretzel shop. I've never wanted to laugh and cry all at the same time just because I get to spend ten bucks for a pretzel and some lemonade. Thailand also has world wonders like Burger King, Pizza Hut, Au Bon Pain, Starbucks--I don't even drink coffee, but I was still happy to spend some time at Starbucks. The wonders didn't stop there--at the grocery store, I bought cereal for only two dollars a box, not eight. The mall sold real live Nike and New Balance and Reef shoes. Every road we drove on was not only paved, but smoothly paved. We played frisbee on the beach.Those may seem like small things, but if you have never spent extended time out of your home country, it would surprise you what what things can take on a happy, meaningful poignancy.

But here I am back in Cambodia, catching up on e-mail and convincing myself to ramp back up to start language tutoring again tomorrow. It is an interesting feeling to have left the country after being here five months, but only to have gone elsewhere in Asia and come back.Even so--Happy Easter to you all, and here are a few pictures of happy vacation memories: a few beach shots, the lights and sights of FantaSea (think a toned-down Asian Disney World, minus the rides but plus lots of elephants), and water fights on the street in honor of the Lunar New Year (celebrated in many SE Asian countries).

Now Official

I’m assuming that everyone reading this has, probably more than once, had the experience of getting something done at the DMV. Keep that DMV encounter in mind as you keep reading—you may soon appreciate it a little more!

Today I got to experience the Ministry of Transportation—DMV Cambodian style. Before today my most exciting DMV story involved trying to find parking, walking through some sidewalk dice games, and people-watching at the Denver Five-Points DMV office. The Phnom Penh MOT may be giving Denver a run for its money.

Although I bought my motorcycle in November, I have until now been driving it around sans license plate. And while traffic laws here are a little more open to interpretation and a lot less often enforced, these laws do exist—one law being that vehicles should in fact have license plates. I have been pulled over by the police twice for not having one, and each time had to call a Khmer friend on the phone to help be bargain the officers down from the extortionary fine originally quoted to me ($10-15) to a more reasonable price ($1-3). I could easily have been pulled over more often, but a few facts about Cambodian law enforcement worked in my favor. One, police officers pull people over who are driving towards them, rather than following you and having you stop. So they are facing you as you drive by, and do not see the rear end of your moto—with or without license plate—until you are already past them, and it is too late to be pulled over. Two, Cambodian officers are nine times out of ten on foot. Their preferred method of catching traffic offenders is to stage a stakeout of five or six policemen, who wait on the far side of a traffic light. When the light turns green, the traffic begins to flow through the intersection, and the officers jump into position, stretching themselves out in a line across the lanes of oncoming traffic. They act as a human net to catch whichever motos are not able to slip through the gaps. In theory, there may be a law about needing to pull over when an officer asks you to do so, but—there is no penalty or police pursuit if you do not. Thus—unless an officer is particularly daring and steps directly in front of your moving bike, this is not the most effective means of asking people to stop.

So—while it would have been good to get a license plate before now, it was not a big problem that I did not. The first step in getting one requires establishing proof of residence in the city. This is done by getting letters from your village (neighborhood) leader and your district leader that state you do in fact live in those places (although how they determine if you actually live where you say you do, I don’t know—luckily, this step was taken care of for me by my Khmer friend/coworker/roommate). Palms must be greased at each step, although as with the police, there is room for bargaining.

Once you have the official letters, you can take them along with your moto ownership papers to the Ministry of Transporation, like I did this morning. This is where the steps start to get a little fuzzy. Again, luckily, I was accompanied by my Khmer friend, who took care of things, and even though I was there, I’m not entirely sure what all happened or why. I do know we opted for the “fast” version of getting a license plate, meaning we paid more money so we could actually receive the license plate today, and not a few months from now. I also know that the place was a busy beehive of activity, with various desks and windows and lines and people with bullhorns. The day proceeded something like this: we waited at one desk, I wrote my phone number and put my thumb print on some forms, I got told to wait there while my friend and the staff person left for awhile, they came back, they talked, I stood around, we left so my friend could have noodle soup for breakfast, we waited in a seating area in the middle of all the mobs and lines while watching karaoke on tv, went back to wait at the original desk, had my picture taken, paid, made the unusual request for a receipt, got the license plate, waded back outside to get my bike from the parking area, wheeled it back across the street and into the building, waited for my friend to return to the original desk to see if she could exchange my plate for one with "a bigger number," turned in backwards to get in line with a hundred other motos, finagled our way to the front of the crowd to have the plate pneumatically attached to the bike—this last under a sign that says “plates attached for free”, where we paid the men who performed this service. Also during this process, we were hot and sweaty as a happy little bonus….:) Then we went back to work.
So, hopefully no more getting pulled over for me! Here’s a picture of the “line” for getting the license plate screwed onto my moto:

The Language Saga Continues....

So...ongoing language study. I'm still doing it. And it still wears me out. Lately I've been learning grammar, and trying to figure out the ins and outs of Khmer sentence structure. In a lot of ways the language is very simple. For instance, there are no verb forms. In English, we change the verb "to cook" depending on subject and tense: I cook, I cooked, I am cooking, he cooks, they will cook, etc. In Khmer, the word "to cook" is exactly the same in all of those instances. Nor does it change, like in French or Spanish, based on gender. There is a slight variation for putting a verb into past or future tense. To do so, you simply add the "past word" or the "future word"--like saying "I DID cook" or "I WILL cook." Past and future tense can be expressed in other ways as well, but the word "cook" itself does not change at all--simple.



Until things start to get a little more complex. Sentence word order in Khmer can be similar to English, or it can be very different. There are also differences in how many ideas one word encapsulates. For instance, there are some things in English that we express with only one word; some of these concepts are expressed with more than one word in Khmer. Take the word "know". We use this word in English to express a variety of meanings. In Khmer, however, there are different words depending on what it is you are talking about knowing: "know a fact/information," "know a person/word/location," or "know how to do something." Or take the English word "carry." You will need different Khmer words to say carry on your back, carry slung over your shoulders, carry on the back of an animal, carry on your head, carry in your arms, carry a light object in your hands, or carry a heavy object in your hands. This works the other way too--sometimes English has multiple words where Khmer has only one. In Khmer, "ree-un" covers the concepts of both "study" and "learn."



And then there's the Khmer word "owie." Depending on how it's used, "owie" can be translated into English as: to, from, give, cause, for, let, tell, ask, and probably something else. It can also be added to a phrase to mean "I promise I will do this." Or in some cases, it can be added to an adjective to turn it into an adverb (from "quick" to "quickly"). This is the grammar that I mentioned I have been trying to learn. Needless to say, it is a little confusing! I'm still working on exactly when and where to insert an "owie" into my sentences.

A Few New Relationships

While I've been busy learning Khmer, I've also been in the process of building new relationships here in Cambodia. This, of course, is important on a number of levels: relationships are a great way to practice language and learn about culture, they are good for my sanity, they are the means through which I will hopefully be able to impact people's lives (and have mine impacted in return), and so on. Navigating how to build relationships in a new culture can be a little interesting, but it is also enjoyable. At some point down the road I'll maybe have some deep insights into how Cambodian's interact with friends, family, coworkers, shopkeepers, strangers, and everyone else--but today my head is tired from my language lesson. So this post will be a little lacking in the deep insights department.

Instead, here are a few pictures. This is me and a few of the Phnom Penh FH staff at one of the local night markets, where you can get a meal for fifty cents or a dollar--soups, fried noodles, creamy coconut drinks, fried sweet breads. Eat at the market, where there is a communal pot of tea and set of cups on the table, or have your food put into plastic bags and take it home. Your food will be made to order, quickly and piping hot. Grab some utensils from the bin on the table, give them a wipe with the kleenex or toilet paper provided for this purpose, add soy/chili/fish sauce as you like, and enjoy! Note on the pictures--I promise these friends were enjoying themselves; smiling is just not necessary in Cambodian picture taking! In the photo on the left, from left to right: Sothea, general office administrator; Sarith, daytime office guard; and Ouk, office "cleaner."

A few other types of relationships--lately the froggy friends have been coming out in full force. I usually disturb a few of them in the evenings when I'm watering the plants around my house. I probably blinded this poor guy who found himself perched on the armrest of a chair with a flashing camera in his face. Most of the frogs I see (and hear!) are small, two or three inches long. Kind of fun to have them around. Bigger frogs than this make a good food source--grilled frog legs are readily available in the markets next to various other meat-type products (no, I haven't tried any). According to my tutor, toad legs are also quite tasty, but not very appetizing due to their bumpy skin. And last picture--recognize these guys??? They are always around but there seems to be less of them some weeks and plenty of them other weeks. Either way, mosquito repellent has become a part of my daily morning routine!