Saturday, November 28, 2009
Treading Lightly
I (Keith) recently had the chance to interview a soon-to-be college graduate with a unique career choice ahead of her. For best viewing watch in full screen mode.
Tuesday, November 24, 2009
What we didn't expect
Cambodia has surprised us a few times since we arrived. I thought I would share a few of things we didn't anticipate, and maybe pass on a little bit of advice for those who show up after us.
1. 70 degrees is freezing. It became winter last Wednesday. Overnight, the temperature dropped from 93 degrees to the high 60s in the morning. I know I'm from Maine and 70 degrees is supposed to be the balmy height of summer, but I'm seriously chilly. Out with the skirts, in with the jeans and cardigans. At this exact moment, I have the AC set to 79 degrees because anything lower is too cold (sorry to offend the environmentalists, but with the windows open I get eaten by mosquitoes so AC it is). I should add that the Cambodians are suffering much more than us. They walk around bundled up in fleece jackets looking miserable.
2. There is Western food here. DON'T EAT IT. After days and days of rice, stir fry, curry, rice, amok, rice, rice, curry, rice, you start to think, wouldn't a toasted ham and cheese sandwich with french fries taste delicious? And you eat one. And then your stomach hates you for two straight days and all you can fathom eating is plain rice. It makes sense once you've been here for a while. The Khmer ingredients are local and the chefs have been cooking these dishes since they were kids. The Western food is all imported (deli meat is not in the Cambodian diet) and the bread is uniformly bland, sugary baguette. That stuff is packed with chemicals your body isn't used to anymore because you've been eating mostly.... rice. I guess if you only come to Cambodia for three days to see the Angkor temples and survive solely on beer and sandwiches, you won't notice. But we notice. And we are now on a strict Khmer-only diet (except for dessert. Ice cream knows no hemisphere).
3. No plaque, no B.O. See above description of Khmer food. No chemicals, all local meat, vegetables and rice. Flossing and deodorant essentially become obsolete. Interesting side effect.
4. You'll get your food. Eventually. If you stay at a guesthouse in Cambodia, it will probably have a small restaurant. But it's not really a restaurant, it's a tiny kitchen out back where the owner's female relatives are cooking as fast as they can. Foreigners seem to think everything should appear instantly and they can get quite feisty. The other day I saw a girl day grab two coffees off the tray when a server passed and say "these must be mine, I've been waiting too long." Not hers. Coffee requires boiling water. And no one here is going to waste fuel by constantly boiling water just in case someone wants coffee. Her response to this explanation was "well, things should come faster." And you should go back to Germany. Servers here almost never forget things. You might think your pancake was lost in the mix, but it will appear, just 40 minutes after you ordered it.
5. Feather dusters are made of feathers. More specifically, chicken feathers. The first time I saw one, I was shocked. And then I felt really stupid. Of course feather dusters are made of actual feathers. No one made a duster straight out of electric blue synthetic fluff and just happened to name it a feather duster. But still, it makes you reconsider whether you really want your room cleaned.
6. Our lives are easy. Even easier than I could imagine before I arrived here. Last week, we spent the night in a tiny village two hours north of Siem Reap. Imagine camping. Not car camping, but actual camping where you don't have electricity and you have to build a fire to cook anything. You don't have a shower, you don't have a toilet. Add in the fact that you've been working in a rice field all day and you're not sure if someone has caught fish to eat for dinner, and that's Khmer village life. Our guide was Panavuth, a bubbly Khmer woman in her twenties. While we were on a walk, Panavuth asked me what I do in my free time at home. I said I like to read, cook, exercise and spend time with friends. She nodded and said, "easy." Pretty much. Cambodians don't have free time. For the most part, they're subsistence farmers. In Siem Reap, young restaurant servers work 14 hours a day, six or seven days a week. Cambodians are exhausted. American life is, in very basic ways, extraordinarily easy.
For those of you who have trotted all over the globe, this list probably seems obvious. But this trip is my first time in a developing country, and the smallest things seem extraordinary.
For tomorrow: I'm going to find a friendly woman who will let me photograph her feather duster. Stay tuned.
1. 70 degrees is freezing. It became winter last Wednesday. Overnight, the temperature dropped from 93 degrees to the high 60s in the morning. I know I'm from Maine and 70 degrees is supposed to be the balmy height of summer, but I'm seriously chilly. Out with the skirts, in with the jeans and cardigans. At this exact moment, I have the AC set to 79 degrees because anything lower is too cold (sorry to offend the environmentalists, but with the windows open I get eaten by mosquitoes so AC it is). I should add that the Cambodians are suffering much more than us. They walk around bundled up in fleece jackets looking miserable.
2. There is Western food here. DON'T EAT IT. After days and days of rice, stir fry, curry, rice, amok, rice, rice, curry, rice, you start to think, wouldn't a toasted ham and cheese sandwich with french fries taste delicious? And you eat one. And then your stomach hates you for two straight days and all you can fathom eating is plain rice. It makes sense once you've been here for a while. The Khmer ingredients are local and the chefs have been cooking these dishes since they were kids. The Western food is all imported (deli meat is not in the Cambodian diet) and the bread is uniformly bland, sugary baguette. That stuff is packed with chemicals your body isn't used to anymore because you've been eating mostly.... rice. I guess if you only come to Cambodia for three days to see the Angkor temples and survive solely on beer and sandwiches, you won't notice. But we notice. And we are now on a strict Khmer-only diet (except for dessert. Ice cream knows no hemisphere).
3. No plaque, no B.O. See above description of Khmer food. No chemicals, all local meat, vegetables and rice. Flossing and deodorant essentially become obsolete. Interesting side effect.
4. You'll get your food. Eventually. If you stay at a guesthouse in Cambodia, it will probably have a small restaurant. But it's not really a restaurant, it's a tiny kitchen out back where the owner's female relatives are cooking as fast as they can. Foreigners seem to think everything should appear instantly and they can get quite feisty. The other day I saw a girl day grab two coffees off the tray when a server passed and say "these must be mine, I've been waiting too long." Not hers. Coffee requires boiling water. And no one here is going to waste fuel by constantly boiling water just in case someone wants coffee. Her response to this explanation was "well, things should come faster." And you should go back to Germany. Servers here almost never forget things. You might think your pancake was lost in the mix, but it will appear, just 40 minutes after you ordered it.
5. Feather dusters are made of feathers. More specifically, chicken feathers. The first time I saw one, I was shocked. And then I felt really stupid. Of course feather dusters are made of actual feathers. No one made a duster straight out of electric blue synthetic fluff and just happened to name it a feather duster. But still, it makes you reconsider whether you really want your room cleaned.
6. Our lives are easy. Even easier than I could imagine before I arrived here. Last week, we spent the night in a tiny village two hours north of Siem Reap. Imagine camping. Not car camping, but actual camping where you don't have electricity and you have to build a fire to cook anything. You don't have a shower, you don't have a toilet. Add in the fact that you've been working in a rice field all day and you're not sure if someone has caught fish to eat for dinner, and that's Khmer village life. Our guide was Panavuth, a bubbly Khmer woman in her twenties. While we were on a walk, Panavuth asked me what I do in my free time at home. I said I like to read, cook, exercise and spend time with friends. She nodded and said, "easy." Pretty much. Cambodians don't have free time. For the most part, they're subsistence farmers. In Siem Reap, young restaurant servers work 14 hours a day, six or seven days a week. Cambodians are exhausted. American life is, in very basic ways, extraordinarily easy.
For those of you who have trotted all over the globe, this list probably seems obvious. But this trip is my first time in a developing country, and the smallest things seem extraordinary.
For tomorrow: I'm going to find a friendly woman who will let me photograph her feather duster. Stay tuned.
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