Not Goodbye... I <3 Pontoon!

Today is Tuesday… and it’s my last day. My last day in Cambodia. Maybe if I say it again it’ll start to make sense. Appropriately enough, I spent my last weekend in Cambodia largely the same way I spent my first weekend in Cambodia: Quality time at the Pavilion, Pontoon, and the Russian Market. I got my hair cut and nails done…

I moved back into the Program Office when I got back from my last trip since my lease on my apartment was up. And it’s been a lot more painful than it was the first time around: the room seems hotter, the water is colder, the water pressure is awful, and I found my first cockroach in the bathroom! Ugh.

I saw all my friends last night for a “Going Away and Birthday” party, only this time around the birthday was Nono’s. The VSO girls got me a T-shirt that said “I <3 Pontoon” which was so sweet of them. And it fits me too! I’ll really miss small sizes when I get back to America… I’ve come around full circle. It was the first night it really started to hit me and I wanted to cry.

My co-workers are so sweet... They threw me a going away party yesterday at the same place we went to for New Years. This time genuine Khmer-only Karaoke was included in the day's activities so of course we had even more fun. Today they gave me a gift and insisted on taking pictures with the whole staff and having some sort of lunch... it was the second time thus far I've been so moved I almost cried. We haven't gotten to lunch yet but I can't wait to see what's on the menu!

The Office

It’s hard to believe that I’ve been in Southeast Asia for over 3 months now. Originally, my placement was set to end on June 4th and I was planning to travel for a few weeks after that. Fortunately and very happily for me, my parents agreed to come visit me for this trip, but they had some timing constraints so I ended up traveling with them earlier than expected and then returning to work for a couple weeks to wrap everything up before I go home. So if it seems like all I’ve been doing out here is traveling and enjoying myself, you should know that I will literally be working at the office until the day I leave! In fact I’ll be at the office all day TOMORROW and then my flight is at 11.30 PM to arrive in the states at around 10:30 AM the next morning! I know my entries have been less than reliable lately, so instead of waiting to write new entries until I’ve caught up with my travels (it’s hard work!), I’m going to post these last entries and then go back and turn my memories and jotted down notes from Kampot, Kep and Rabbit Island, Laos, Thailand, Siem Reap, Malaysia and Singapore into blog posts after I have returned.

On that note, even after 3 months, Cambodia never ceases to surprise and amaze. Returning for a few days to show my parents around after a week of travel to Thailand, I decided to meet up with my friends one Saturday night on the rooftop of Chow on the riverfront. I knew the general location, but wasn’t exactly sure where it was, so after riding up and down the street once, I let the motodop go and pulled out my phone to call Erika to get specific directions. In that instant, the phone still ringing before she had a chance to pick it up, a moto whizzed by, knocking me in the head as it flew down the street. At first, I had no idea what had just happened and was just thankful that I had not been hit harder. I thought the moto had not seen me or had misjudged the distance between us… before I realized my phone was gone. The m*%^f(*#er stole my phone! In the 2 or 3 seconds that it took me to realize this, all I could do was scream “HEY!” after it; obviously completely futile and helpless. A cyclo driver who happened to see the whole interaction rode towards me, repeating “crazy motos” and offered me a free ride home or to a shop to buy a new phone. At first I got in, thinking that I should obviously just go home now, but after a few seconds, I thought, “Why should I go home!? The phone wasn’t worth that much… Why let it ruin my night?” So I told the cyclo to go back, figured out where the place was and went up to see my friends. Upon leaving an hour or two later for a different venue, the cyclo driver was still outside and he had the nerve to ask me for money! For taking me on a 1 minute ride in a circle… when he had claimed the entire 15-20 minute ride back to BKK would be free! I must admit, I'm still a little scared of the riverfront, but I still force myself to get up the courage to go, even if I am guarding my belongings and self with a hawk's eye the whole time.

Upon my more quasi-permanent return after another 2 weeks from “tourist lala land” to “serious volunteer mentality,” I noticed that quite a few things had changed in this short span of time:

• Central Market’s renovation is moving along with a nice looking newly painted bright white and yellow exterior.
• The trees all long the entire stretch of St 63 have been robbed of their branches, which have been chopped at the base where they connect to the trunk. Would this ever happen in a developed country? I guess I should just be thankful they didn’t chop entire trees down…
• I still feel like I'm going to die every second I'm on the streets... but nothing new there.

As if spurred by my leaving, more interesting things have been happening at the office this week, things you probably would never see at your office…

• On a weekday afternoon, a man with just a kroma (scarf) wrapped around his waist like a skirt sits on a step in front of a water spout in the office courtyard next to the bathrooms, scrubbing his head lathered with shampoo. Next to him on the sidewalk are a pair of glasses and a cell phone. By the time I come back out of the bathroom, his hair is shining wet and clean, he is now scrubbing his body with soap. A guard walks by and they have some sort of exchange of words but the guard just continues to walk off.
• The cleaning woman at our office is a very kind woman in her 40’s or so who generally spends most of her time sitting in the very small cubicle of a kitchen in the corner of the main room. She is the only one in the office who says “hello” and “how are you” to me in Khmer, which I like very much, but I realized the only reason she does this is because she speaks no English… so that is the extent of our conversations. Over the last few weeks, she has started bringing her granddaughter, a very small and quiet 4 year old to work with her everyday. The girl's parents both work... jobs where you can't bring your kid to work with you apparently. The girl spends most of her time sitting with her grandmother in the kitchen, being very good, eating or sleeping on the kitchen table. She doesn’t seem to have too many things or companions to play with, but incredibly, she rarely makes very much noise or cries or disturbs the office at all.
• On another trip to the bathroom, I see a man in a wheelchair exit the men’s room on his way back to the main building. The bathroom is handicap accessible and there is a ramp leading down to the courtyard and another from the main building to the parking lot, but between the bathroom and the building there is a small step. Another man is walking by and the man in a wheelchair is forced to ask him for a favor, to push the wheelchair over the step. The whole exchange only takes a second but it summarizes a core issue in Cambodia: Remarkable progress is being made at the cost of important details. But my outlook has changed since I first got here and I am confident in Cambodia’s development; over time it will all come together.