Electricians, changes and baguettes

Gosh, here it is August. That would mean its . . . . . way too long since I last wrote. I was up at 5.40 this morning throwing on some running gear ready to meet Kiao who gives me a lift to the Olympic Stadiumhis on his moto. There’s a group of about 5 or 6 of us who meet twice a week to run and do strength work. Its torturous fun as each person has a turn at running the session and mixing up the exercises. I don’t think we’re happy unless we're sore a day or two afterwards. The Cambodians, I’m sure, think we’re nuts as they stare at us amazed while we lay on the grass performing all sorts of weird postures and positions. They’ll catch on one day – they’re still busy doing 1980’s aerobics at the moment. I’ve got a fair amount of free time at the moment so it’s nice to get some exercise in to start the day. This is a public blog so I wont be specific but will say that the volunteer organization I work with, after some investigation, have deemed it unsuitable for myself and the other volunteer working with me to continue to do so with our current Host organisation. It all happened pretty suddenly, within a week of me getting back from leave. It was a hard week with most people saying that they were sad that we were leaving and while everyone knew the real reason we were leaving but no one was talking about it. I miss the majority of the staff, they’re lovely people and it's unfair that they don’t have the luxury of being able to walk out like we did. It makes me feel all sorts of guilt, once again the westerner has the power and the choices. I'm still helping some of the staff with editing of English and it makes me happy to still be able to help out even if it is in such a small way. I try not to think that my 7 months has been a waste of time when I came here with such high notions of blazing a trail for development and progress. I produced some work I am proud of and some Cambodians have gained new skills and knowledge as a result of my work so that’s not so bad. I’ve gained some friends both inside and outside of work, Cambodian and Western and hopefully we’ve all gained something out of the brief encounter in each others lives. So my time out at Toul Kork with the goats and the $2 lunches has ended along with my dare-devil 20 mins rides to and from work. I need the runs to replace those heart starters each morning. :o) My next steps are still a little unclear but with only 4 months left until I return to Australia there really isn’t enough time to start all over in another volunteer role of the same type. It takes 2 months at least to build the relationships and begin to do some kind of solid work. Instead my thoughts at the moment are to do some more hands-on type of volunteer work. Perhaps vocational training or work in an orphanage, when and where I can. A few anecdotes: Rent on my apartment was due last week so I headed off to the cashpoint and drew out the $300us to cover the next month then poped into my landlords who run the pharmacy at the bottom of our building. They hadn’t asked me for electricity in two months so I had checked the metre, worked out how much I owed them and took that money in to them as well. It was all smiles and “thank you’s” and I even got presented with a purple dragon fruit for my efforts. I suggested they might want to come up and check the metre but they said there was no need. That’s paying the rent in Cambodia – makes me think about how much human contact we’ve eradicated in our sophisticated electronic world. I’m not saying that in all cases it’s a bad thing – I’m sure there’s landlords you’d rather not meet. Getting back from a run last Friday morning I stood out on my balcony to try and cool down and watch what was happening in my neighbourhood (you have time to watch when you’re not rushing off to work). A truck dropped off some men, some ladders and a whole heap of cables and they proceeded to get to work, you see these are the phone/electricity men. Not a cherry picker in sight, these guys scramble up their ladders that lean precariously against the existing cables. They get leverage for themselves by standing on the existing cables to do what they need to do and if they need help the guy that’s supposed to be holding the ladder scurries up the ladder and lends a hand. One guy had the shoe lace of his imitation Allstars undone and I felt sick as I watched him running up and down the ladder. Finally, he realised himself that it was undone and much to my relief, did it up nice and tight. They ran new cable down my whole street by binding new cable to old with a basic piece of wire that they twisted them together with. I didn’t watch all day but I hoped they all left the job in one piece. When I leave for a run at 6am there is always a guy across my street selling baguettes. Some days, I come home from being out around say, 7 or 8pm and the same guy is always still sitting there selling his baguettes. Can you imagine sitting in the same spot with nothing to occupy your mind other than watching the street traffic ebb and flow, and the occasional distraction of a sale for 13/14 hours a day? I couldn’t. Maybe it’s an example of true contentment and peace right there! I’ve never even seen him reading a book but that’s typical of Cambodians. They don’t seem to read for pleasure, instead reading is for study. They much prefer to watch tv and the louder the better! Anyway, he’s a lovely cheerful fellow but unfortunately I don’t really like his baguettes and more often than not go to his competition about three shop fronts down. The traffic is still driving me crazy so much so that I lost all reason a few weeks ago and took on a 4x4 on my pushbike. I was waiting patiently for the lights to change to green so I could cycle sedately through, when a motorbike, and bus and then a 4x4 tried to turn into my street on a red light. I wasn’t game enough to take on the bus but pushed myself forward between the bus and the 4x4. The driver luckily enough wasn’t in the mood to run me down and when I gestured that I had the green light he gestured back something that said “well if the bus can do it so can I”. The logic is interesting. Anyway I left him sitting in the middle of the intersection while I led the charge of through traffic, onwards to victory and a great sense of satisfaction! Let us hope he wasn’t a mate of anyone important otherwise his cronies even now could be hunting the streets for a mad, blonde Barang on her iridescent white bike ready to let her tyres down, or alternatively pull out her fingernails one by one with a set of pliers whilst dowsing them in alcohol. I few weeks ago I was lucky enough to get leave and met up with my Mum and sister in Bangkok where we spent a few days mostly shopping before flying up to Chiang Mai for another few days. Its 12 years since I’ve been to Chiang Mai and it had a really lovely feel to it. Bit like a village but with the advantages of a decent sized town. We did all the touristy things, like Tiger Kingdom and the Elephant farm – they were both amazing. From there we flew to Saigon, which unfortunately I really didn’t like. Gone are all the smiles and friendliness of Thailand and Cambodia instead you receive blank stares at best and aggression at worst. I’ll caveat this by saying that last time I was in Saigon (three years ago) I didn’t feel the same. Has it changed or have I? Maybe I’ve just been spoilt by living in Cambodia. We travelled across the border back into Cambodia by bus two days later much to my relief and Mum and Jane got to spend a week of seeing what I’ve seen and sharing a little bit of my life in Cambodia. I’m looking forward to the rest of my time here and aim in my 4 remaining months to try and get to see all the beautiful parts of Cambodia that I haven’t gotten to yet. The volunteers from the intake before mine are all due to leave shortly and there should be a few nice weekends away in farewell to them.