Meeting the Minister

Just when I thought I had experienced the last of Khmer New Year and was almost ready to get out of the office on Friday afternoon (April 10th), the Executive Director asked me to accompany him to the home of the Minister of Social Affairs, Veterans and Youth Rehabilitation. I was a bit flustered because in typical Cambodian style, no one had told me anything about this until the last minute. This sounded like a very important man and I wasn’t exactly wearing my best outfit nor was I prepared at all, but I went anyway.

We drove to one of the many houses of the Minister with a huge bouquet of yellow flowers. The large courtyard was full of beautifully dressed women in white lacy, ruffly blouses and traditional long colorful skirts, men in suits. The minister’s house was huge and gorgeous, with intricately carved ceiling decorations and immaculate wooden furniture that reminded me of my relatives’ homes in Iran. There were several separate living room type areas, with the Minister and his wife sitting in the center of one while another was being used as a “waiting room” to meet with them. Official looking people and guards were standing and hovering everywhere, ensuring the smoothness of the process.

We only sat and waited for a few minutes before we were ushered into the main area. I thanked the Minister and his wife for their hospitality and praised their beautiful home in the choppy FOB English I’ve adopted here so as to be more easily understood by the locals. They responded in fluent English, which was embarrassing, as I realized for the first time that I was interacting with an entirely different class of Cambodian people. They introduced me to their two young sons who have both gone to high school and college in the States and Australia. I was so excited to meet Cambodians that I have more in common with that we dominated the conversation. One of the Minister’s sons who is now a high official in the Ministry (can we say nepotism, anyone?) even gave me his card to contact him afterward. After only a few minutes, however, we all stood for a very official-looking photo and had to move on to allow for a group of 15 who were waiting for their chance to wish the Minister a happy new year. A few days later, to my dismay (I was wearing a black top and dark skirt on the happiest occasion of the year and looked awful, a fact made only more obvious everytime the Minister's wife tried to tell me I was beautiful and that I look very similar to Cambodian people except for my nose...), the photograph showed up enlarged in a beautiful frame over the door of the DAC Executive Director’s office.

I felt very special, not only for the opportunity to meet a member of the Prime Minister’s cabinet in a small, intimate group, but also for the meaningful conversation and bond that I was able to have with him and his family. It made me realize why Westerners give up the comforts of home to stay in countries like this. Because while back home you may be nothing, here you are VIP, rich in comparison, privy to the highest upper class and almost like a celebrity to people who stare at you in the streets... even when you look like crap.

Nono has told me before that Cambodians just think of us as "crazy barangs" (word for the French that has adapted to encompass all foreigners) no matter what we do, so it's like we can do no wrong.

Khmer New Year

With the advent of Khmer New Year, everything in my newly settled home and schedule that I was starting to get used to was suddenly turned upside-down. Things got crazy at work, I started traveling, and even more time-consuming, I started planning lots of travel. So I apologize for not posting at a time when I have the most to post about, but I'll try my best to catch up!

Khmer New Year is celebrated in Cambodia, Thailand, and Laos during the week of April 11th, though I think it goes by different names in the other countries. Regardless, it’s an all-out week-long celebration during which most Cambodians go home to their villages to celebrate with their families. I was torn on whether to travel in rural Cambodia to partake in the celebrations or to take advantage of the week off to explore another “must-see” country on my Southeast Asia wish list. In the end, four other volunteers and I decided to take advantage and embark on a trip-of-a-lifetime (more for the company than for the sights :) to Vietnam. Luckily, before I left, I got to experience some laid-back Khmer celebration during our half-day office party at a riverside restaurant…

We left around noon on Wednesday (April 8th) and drove for over an hour, crossing the river to the outskirts or even suburbs of the city. This was my first opportunity to finally see rural Cambodia, and I must admit, it was a bit of a shock. Rural Cambodia, with its remedial dirt roads, is nothing like the capital city. Most of the homes are stilt houses, which are actually really cute, but there are some more pathetic-looking slums as well. The cows are sickeningly thin and bird-flu roosters, geese, and chickens run rampant. Some of the countryside is green and beautiful, but most of it is just muddy and dirty, overflowing with garbage.

The place we went to was absolutely gorgeous. It was a large open wooden structure with hammocks instead of chairs separating each square eating area on the floor, no tables. It was also empty save for us so we spread out and lounged in our own hammocks drinking fresh coconut juice out of coconuts. We played cards (universal entertainment) during which I learned some new games and lost a dollar or two. I learned that you can’t play cards in Cambodia unless you play for money and that everyone slams cards down in an exaggerated manner; it’s just how they play. We had some corn and delicious lychee fruit for snacks and ate a not-so-amazing lunch mostly consisting of fish, rice, and vegetables. There was also a whole chicken, which I had a few pieces of, being very careful to avoid the head, beak, and feet that others were eating like a delicacy.

After the meal, some took naps while others played more cards or just hung out and chatted. I had an amazing time getting to know my co-workers better and finally got the opportunity to take some really good pictures of them that you can see with their descriptions if you click on the link to my Picasa photo gallery to the top right!

Rain

This week I’ve gotten a little taste of what rainy season must be like. It’s been raining almost every night, usually very late or early in the morning when I’m at home sleeping. This makes me happy because it makes the weather slightly cooler and means I don’t have to water my plants (the only downside of having a private balcony, I have lots of plants and no hose so I have to go back and forth with a watering can. Who knew this could be such an annoying chore). Of course it only rains on the nights when I have already watered my plants, never when I've been too lazy.

The one time the rain really got in my way was on Wednesday night when I was at a dinner party with a bunch of Kiva fellows (fancy word for volunteer) that I met last weekend. I had heard of Kiva, an innovative micro-lending start-up, back when I worked in the Technology Labs, so I was super excited to meet real people who work there.

So I'm at my friend’s house when it starts raining at around 10 PM. I was ready to go home, but thought I would just wait it out for another 15 minutes, since the rain usually doesn’t seem to last much longer than that. Well, I ended up waiting 2 hours and it had only gotten worse… So I biked home through a torrential tropical storm and a flood in the streets that was almost up to my calves. This is nothing, as I’ve heard it will get up to your knees in rainy season (because the drains just can’t handle the pressure), but imagine biking through a shallow river, hoping you won’t have to hit the brakes the entire way home! Luckily my friend let me borrow a North Face rain jacket and I only live about 4 blocks away, so I got home safe and dry, at least from the knees up.

PS. I forgot to mention in my last post that Cambodia has no postal system or public transportation system. No local buses or trains, not even private mini-vans like they have in Africa. I expect most of my friends who are in love/hate with the CTA in Chicago to balk at this idea.

Sustainable Development

Last Saturday night, Nono introduced me to a few girls in the Peace Corps. The Peace Corps has only been in Cambodia for two years, most likely because it was considered too unstable before that. I learned that the Peace Corps is much stricter than VSO. While VSO vols are required to bring certified helmets with them from their home country (you can’t even buy a decent helmet here) and wear them on motos at all times, Peace Corps aren’t even allowed to ride motos. I can't imagine how difficult it must be to get around, especially in the more remote and spread out provinces, without motos! Peace Corps and US Embassy employees are also not allowed to go to a sketchy club called the Heart of Darkness that everyone has been telling me about. Apparently this place is famous for shootings and violence… A must see? Also, Peace Corps does not place any vols in PP or even in any of the provincial capitals because there are too many NGOs.

This is true. There are so many NGOs here that there are whole NGOs whose work is just to coordinate other NGOs, including DAC in the Disability sector. There are so many NGOs that there is a whole neighborhood called “NGO Land.” There are so many foreigners that I see them every time I step outside... I can’t imagine how much more crowded it must get during tourist season when the economy is good. I also can’t help but wonder what all these NGOs are doing here and whether or not they are able to make a positive difference?

Cambodia is a country that is getting ahead of itself and struggling to keep up. While every amenity is available here, there are cuts on a daily basis. I’ve been told that there are more power cuts this time of year because it is the hot season and too many people run A/C. The first night I experienced a power outage was in my first week when I was riding my bike to meet up with Meghan for dinner and the whole street suddenly went dark. Somehow, Meghan still found me but it was terrifying riding through pitch-black streets and we couldn’t eat at the restaurant we were planning to go to anymore; though it wasn’t too hard to find another place with a generator. The weirdest power outage I’ve experienced so far was just this last weekend in the supermarket, which is as large, modern, and brightly lit as any Super Wal-Mart in the US. I was like, what!? How is this possible? Couldn’t I just run out with my groceries right now? Will I still be able to buy them because I really don’t want to have to come back and pick out what I want all over again!

The internet operates on a satellite, so no matter how reliable your network is, if it’s a cloudy day, it’s going to be slow. My first few weeks at work the internet would go out for at least an hour or two every morning and again every afternoon… it was SOO frustrating. Since we’ve moved, we don’t have a generator, so on top of the internet going out, the power in the entire office goes out on a regular basis. I’ve just learned to deal with it by saving reports I have to read or offline documents I have to write for these times. I also take it as an opportunity to read the newspaper and chat with my co-workers, learning more about Southeast Asian life and culture.

In my apartment, my water even goes out! At least a few times during every shower, it will stop running for a few seconds. It’s very odd, but not too disruptive.