Going with the flow

I have just finished a full week at the annual conference of VSO volunteers in Cambodia. It was a fun week but it didn’t resolve many of the questions I had going in such as what should I be doing? Yatta, yatta yatta. It did give some insights as to how I should be going about my job, which is to say, go slowly, work, but don’t get frustrated when your ideas and/or efforts are either not listened to or ignored entirely.

I have developed a really enjoyable relationship with my bicycle. It is a functional one-speed with handle bar brakes. It has a friction light for driving at night, although its main purpose is to let others see me rather than illuminate anything for me. The front tire tends to lose air over time and every week I have to reinflate it. But I love riding the streets, even the really busy streets like Sihanouk, and Mao Tse Tung and Monivong. The Russian Confederation Boulevard is still waiting for my entry but I look forward to the challenge.

Everyday, at least three or four times and sometimes every hour I am reminded of the Cambodian proverb about life being a river. Bike riding is so much like that. When I first arrived I thought that I would never ride a bike because I would not be able to handle the traffic. It is horrendous. But like a river it flows. It flows around, next to, over and under everything. There are accidents of course, but not as many as you would expect with the literal lack of systems in place. There some intersections were there are traffic lights and they even have numbers counting down. But you get the feeling of Indianapolis and the start of the “five hundred”. If there is not a lot of traffic, then the lights are totally ignored. Traffic flows in all directions literally. If I come to an intersection and I want to turn right, no problem. I don’t even have to look, though I do, I just turn right and traffic flows around me. If I want to turn right, that is another story. I turn into the lane of traffic coming at me. As long as I stay close to the curb, traffic will continue to flow usually to my right but sometimes around me. When a gap or break in the traffic occurs I then move over into the other lanes ostensibly going in the same direction I am. When I am coming down a street, I don’t wait for the intersection before making my move to turn across traffic; I do it as soon as there is a gap and then go against the traffic until I reach the corner and then turn. It takes some getting used to but once you discover the pattern it works.

So, using the river as my metaphor, traffic, work, cooperation with colleagues and life in general takes on a different meaning. I try to flow, and when an obstacle comes up, I accept and flow around it. If it is a big obstacle, then I wait until it moves or it gets dislodged or I take it in my flow. It is working. I don’t have it down to a philosophy yet, but I see where it is going and I like it. I would seriously recommend it to anyone. It is not Buddhist but it seems to have some of the hallmarks of that philosophy without the baggage. Plus no reincarnation to worry about.

For any of you considering a trip to the exotic southeast Asia, my flat has a spare bedroom always open. Great views and wonderful neighborhood.

So, great and noble creatures that you are, remember the river. Think occasionally of me following the current and just checking out the landscape as I float by. I think of all of you often and it is as though I can see you when I drift by. Take care, until my next communiqué, this is your wandering pilgrim heading downriver. No storms in sight.