The King’s Birthday and Ploughing Day

Dear Friends, Family and other notable companions on this journey through Life.

Whew! I finally became aware of my serious lack of communication and in an effort to regain some of the trust and confidence you have in me to regale you with both fact and fiction, I will try to regain my former writing output. While my writing has been described as a physical ailment akin to Montezuma’s revenge or some other form of uncontrollable output, it does allow me to share my views and gain some feedback from all or any of you. I think my lapse is probably due to a set of conditions known more formally as “routine daily occurrences” or simply not necessarily of a nature to be described as “interesting”. I shouldn’t make those decisions myself since it is my task to report and yours to criticize. I leave it to your judgments as to whether there is any merit in what I report.

I am gaining a huge collection of DVDs and music. I have a favorite little shop where I get my stuff. Although it is more expensive I have more confidence in them and if I ever have any trouble I can always take it back. The cost as I say is more, $1.50 a DVD or CD as opposed to $1 and over time it all adds up. I am rewatching some of my favorite movies I saw before I left for Cambodia like “You Kill me” with Ben Kingsley and some older ones like “Raging Bull”. The music is thoroughly eclectic and covers all of the genres because I have no specific taste (or competence). I just keep adding to my collection.

Work is fine. We are in the month devoted to holidays. The King’s birthday is this week and that alone accounts for three days off. I am not sure if it is the father king or the prince guy. I think it is the father. The Queen gets one day off. At the end of this week is “Ploughing Day” which as you can guess is an agrarian festival observation and gives us time to reflect on the nature of crops. Khmer New Year was in April and that was another three days off whereas International New Year is only one day off. Chinese New Year’s in February was another three days off. In the event you are thinking, “Does this guy ever work?”, I do, but too not often in these months. I am allowed 20 days annual leave a year plus the national holidays, which is about another 20 days. I am saving most of them for when the kids come over but occasionally I get anxious about a whole four or five day work week and so I might take a few days to seek refreshment and relaxation.

Religious observations. I have noticed a decidedly formal procedure to the Khmer or Buddhist religious observances both here in Phnom Penh and in the provinces. Almost every home and every business has a small or large shrine or altar with joss sticks or fragrance sticks for burning in front of them. Often these are supplemented by some foodstuffs or tea. The construction of these altars or shrines varies greatly. Some are very primitive and consist basically of a small shelter enclosing a vigil light and some incense sticks. Then they can range to a large wall hanging made of pictures and offerings. They can be plain or festooned with lights. One I saw literally looked like a Las Vegas one-arm bandit with flashing lights and pictures. Stalls or stands specialize in the construction of these religious artifacts and on some roads there are whole areas given over to these altars.

The Chicago White Sox are in First Place according to the Internet and the temperature in Phnom Penh is 93°` but it feels like 108° or so says the weather chart on my.Yahoo.com. I am pleased about the White Sox and agree completely with the weather summary. It is bloody hot or “k’dao nah” in Khmer. The rainy season has almost officially started (end of May) but almost daily around 3:00 or 4:00 PM we get a downpour. The streets fill up and I take off my shoes and put them in my basket. Then I pedal joyously through the rain with my raincoat flapping madly in the wind, spraying water in the direction of the motos who are spraying water at me, and arrive home in a very excited condition knowing I have reached the level of the other Khmei who seem to enjoy whatever Mother Nature sends to them.

I am now living in a new place, which is smaller than my old place but far more elegant. I have a 24-hour security guard, an exercise room that I do not use very much, a laundry room with three machines and a dryer that my cleaning lady uses quite efficiently. This regimen of living in a third world country sacrificing for the greater good and all of that “Yatta Yatta Yatta” is getting me down. Seriously though, while I certainly have many advantages materially and it seems that there are many holidays in the monthly calendar, I am contributing something although I still am not quite sure exactly how much or what good it is. I will try to reflect further on this and give you a performance rating in the future. In the meanwhile I have to go and plan my upcoming holiday to honor the King.

Love and kisses to all of you. I remain your distant representative for world peace and love, Richard.

A flipped computer, language training, and gender equity

I am finally updating this note while spending a leisurely afternoon in the Freebird Bar which is a wifi and American type bar. I am drinking gin and tonics and while the internet is free I am rapidly going into chronic debt drinking and eating the spring roll appetizers at the final calculation of probably $6 or $7 dollars. God, life can be so tough!I am very sorry about the delay in updates, but I have been going through a series of adjustments due to the loss of my computer. Not the actual loss, but an “oweee” inflicted by a maid during my workshop in Kampong Chnam. I thought I was being clever by sliding my computer under a pillow to keep it out of sight but when the maid came in to clean the room I am sure she just grabbed the sheets and flipped them. Of course my computer got flipped as well and that night when I returned I could not get it to power up. I tried and tried but nothing.

Later in the week I returned to Phnom Penh and went to a computer store to see what they would tell. I was not hopeful, as a matter of fact I was pleased that I had as much backed up as I did since in previous episodes I had lost everything. The fellow at the store was helpful but he said it would possibly be better to go to another store on the riverfront since it was a Mac. I did, and to make this long story a little shorter, they worked on it, sent it to Singapore and this weekend it was returned to me safe and sound.

The purpose of this long discourse is not to burden you with the routines of computer repair but to emphasize the psychological impact of losing what has come to be a very important part of my life. My music is here, my financial accounting is here, and all of my thoughts and correspondence is here. Granted this time I had a backup but even still, I was a loss without my laptop. I was actually depressed. I am aware that it may only have been the trigger for other issues but since I am not in psychoanalysis yet, I am not sure what those other issues are yet. My distance from home and loved ones, a strange and challenging country, and a ton of other factors could all play a part but I was focused on my computer. So now, all is better if not perfect, and I am a happy pilgrim again.

This week I begin language training. This is a serious point in my stay in Cambodia and hopefully it will allow me to become more effective in my daily work. I have some phrases and vocabulary that I depend on a great deal but I would surely like to converse with people even at a low functional level. I don’t think I have a very good aptitude for languages. I did enjoy Latin in high school, Spanish in college and personal efforts at learning more Spanish since school. Tagalog was a disaster since I basically blew it off after learning that everyone spoke English in the Philippines and while they said they would help me with Tagalog they always keep speaking English. So, now I am in a country that basically has been exposed to their own native language, Khmer, but also Vietnamese, Thai, Russian, and now English. The nationals know that the one constant is Khmer and if they are going to be understood, the barang (foreigners) are going to have to speak Khmer.

I have been involved in several workshops during my short tenure in Cambodia. I have been a observer in Kampong Speu for Accelerated learning, a semi-involved observer in Kampong Chnam for Accelerated learning again, and last week, a participant in the reviewing the Child Friendly School Policy in Sihanoukville, where I had had my annual conference for VSO two weeks before. This last one was my most active participation since I arrived and while I was pushing for more involvement of children with disabilities, particularly physical disabilities, I seemed to have received a reputation for advocating for gender equity. In one small working group, I had mentioned the need to focus on the recruitment for more girls in the school population, especially disabled girls. I also mentioned that the focus could not just be limited to girls in school but also on women in the teaching and administrative ranks, hopefully women with disabilities. There has recently been a letter from MOEYS (Ministry on Education, Youth and Sports) stating that it was no longer permissible to deny women with disabilities teaching jobs because of their disabilities. But time moves slowly in Asia and in a Buddhist culture everything is explored at depth and repeatedly, even government communiqués. During a summary session where all of the discussions of the small groups were collected, Mr. Richard was mentioned at least twice as advocating gender equity and most people nodded wisely at this radical idea. The fact that it is a key component of the UNICEF and World Bank programs in education did not seem to diminish its wisdom.

That is it for now. I am happy to back in the communication links with all of you and hopefully my future notes will be a little more interesting. For the time being I remain your loyal and loving far eastern companion.

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.

Rainy season

It is pouring rain as I write – not an uncommon experience in Cambodia during these six months of wet weather. It is expected to last for about an hour or two and during that time, the streets in Phnom Penh will be flooded for the most part. Some streets will have water up to an adult person’s knees. When the rain stops however, the streets empty and very soon all is back to normal. Phnom Penh does not seem to get as much water or rain as the other provinces do. The various mountain ranges account for that. There are two of them closeby: the Elephant mountain range in the far southwest and the Cardomon mountain range in the west just above the Elephant range. Each of these two ranges protects Phnom Penh during the rainy season to some degree. In the dry season – the other six months –it is just basically hot everywhere.Tomorrow morning I leave for my first trip out to the provinces. I will take a bus to Kampong Speu, which is the next province over from Phnom Penh. I am traveling with another fellow from my department. His English is not very good and my Khmer is non-existent except for numbers, Good morning, afternoon and evening which is different from what they use, and a few other minor words. This should be a great adventure, three days speaking in numbers and salutations.

This note will focus on one of the stranger sights I have ever witnessed. When I first arrived in PP (Phnom Penh), Liz Webber my program officer mentioned that I might be interested in going to the Olympic Stadium around 5:00 sometime. That was as much as she shared in the suggestion because she didn’t want to say too much. Based on this cryptic description I was very interested but it took some two weeks before I could get over there. When I arrived it looked like any other big stadium with the exception that there were a lot of people around, most of whom were playing soccer (football) on the dirt outside of the building. There were vendors in several different places and I made my way into the stadium after buying a coke for $1.

Have I mentioned how American dollars are used for everything here? The Riel is the Cambodian currency and is worth $1 = 4000 riel. It is used for everything that is cheap or under a dollar. When the price gets above a dollar U.S. currency is used. The entire country operates on this system.

Anyway, back to the stadium. Once inside I was immediately impressed by the size. It is truly an Olympic sized stadium and the scoreboard looks as though it could be used for American football games with lighting and labeling for downs, lines that the ball is on, etc. The notable image is however, the number of people inside. There must have been at least a thousand, most of whom were on the top stand of the seats. The space up there is much wider than the seating area, 12 to 15 feet. I was seated on one side of the stadium looking across at the main sections. It was simply continuous action as there were different groups all engaged in dancing. It appeared as though there were twenty different “dancercise” classes going on with huge speakers separating the groups. In addition to all of these people engaged in dancing there were hundreds more just walking around the infield or on the steps of the stadium. Several had their dogs with them and the dogs would just trot along with their owners. I also saw several mothers who had their small children with them and it felt like a family park.

I finally made my way over to the other side and went up to the top. Here there were more vendors and in one area, which was like a central receiving or entrance/exit place of the building, there were Tae Kwan Do classes. These kickboxing classes covered all ages and were very impressive. Training seemed to consist of matches with the referee also serving as an instructor. He would occasionally stop the action and show one or both contestants how something should be done. Finally I had absorbed all I could for the time and left. I definitely will return but I don’t think I will enroll in any of the classes. I don’t think they have memberships; it looks as though one just shows up and joins in.

I hope those of you who are looking for more cultural and sophisticated descriptions will be patient with me. Right now I don’t believe I know enough about the sect of Buddhism they practice here to describe it. I also have not seen enough of the Wats (temples) to describe them or explain them in any detail. I plan on saving them for a future note.