Update from Cambodia

Hello again!  I’m finally getting a chance to sit down at a computer and thought I’d send a reflection your way via this blog.

I continue to have a really great time seeing the good, the bad, the ugly, and the hopeful here in Cambodia.  It’s been an slightly overwhelming time with so much to take in in the short week I’ve been here, but really great overall.

Instead of giving you the play by play on all I’ve seen and done, I’m just going to share some fun tidbits along with some other thoughts on my brief time here.  Please note that I realize that I’ve only been here one week and I am a clueless American.  Being someone who loves to experience new cultures and knowing that our culture is equally foreign and strange to those who visit it, I hope these comments do not offend anyone and the non-expert source will be considered while reading.

• Gas bottles are sold on the side of the road in old Coca Cola and other clear pop bottles, but they also have regular gas stations.  I rode a moto up a mountain to a temple and cave and the guy had to stop for gas. He  filled it up with a coke bottle of gas and we were on our way in about 10 seconds!
• They use US dollars here and their bills for small change (no coins).  I’m a pretty big fan of not exchanging money and knowing how much things are.
• Walking around a foreign country with a pregnant friend has its advantages:  when people stop, stare, and talk about us, I can just assume that they’re talking about the pregnant foreigner and not me.  🙂
• It’s REALLY hot and humid here
• People wear pajama sets as normal clothes here…  and you can wear flipflops with everything.  This is my kind of place!
• Angkor Wat is actually a temple complex of many temples built in the 12th century and covering tons of land.  We explored three temples and barely scratched the surface.
• Khmer is not a tonal language (I thought it was since Thai is tonal.  I was wrong).
• Siem Reap, Battambang, and Phnom Penh have many NGO projects that are helping provide livelihoods for Khmer people.
• It’s been a privelege to get to see some of those projects in action.
• The Green Mango Cafe & Bakery in Battambang not only helps train young women in culinary arts, but it also has really good food… I had the fried pickles everyday I was there.
• Today I went to the workshops of the Daughters’ Project and byTavi (www.bytavi.com), two sewing projects of the Center for Global Impact(www.centerforglobalimpact.org).  It was so great to see the place where my ID holder and my mom’s purse was made (Buy their stuff, it’s great!).
• Seeing projects like this and seeing women learning about God’s word has been an experience that has left me encouraged and hopeful for further progress in this country.
• A cultural thing that people do here is to get their picture taken at these studios… basically Khmer glamour shots.  Since it’s super cheap, I decided to jump in to said cultural experience.  Let’s just say that fake hair, fake eyelashes, and a tiara were involved in this process.  One of the funniest experiences I’ve had in a very long time.
• Tonight my friends had teachers from their Khmer language school over for dinner.  I had a great time talking with three of the young women (in English) about teaching a language and their perspective on refugees as they asked me about the refugees at my school.
• When your main purpose in being in a country is to take pictures to document it, I’ve discovered that you end up without many pictures of yourself due to your big fancy camera being too big and fancy to give to other people for self pics.  However, due to the climate’s effect on my outer appearance, I think that I’m ok with this fact.  The Khmer glamour shot is the best I’ve looked all trip, so maybe that’s all I need to prove I was here.  🙂
• Have I mentioned that it’s REALLY hot and humid here?

If you made it through the list, thanks for allowing me to share a few pieces of my experience.  Tomorrow is going to be a tough and heavy day as I visit the Killing Fields and S21 museum to learn about some of Cambodia’s darker Khmer Rouge history.  Tough stuff that I’m not sure how to take in, but I’m thankful that it’s something people are willing to learn from today in hopes that history will not repeat itself.

Thanks again for reading.  Until next time…

jenni