Cambodia Problems

I have decided there is no way I am going to drive a moto here.  I like my head and limbs just the way they are, attached and in one piece.  That said, I have to rely solely on others for my day to day transportation needs: getting to work, the market, the restaurant my friends are waiting at, Shine to volunteer with the girls, etc.  I have a fairly good system set up, but there are always glitches, which leads me to the subject of my post: moto and tuk tuk drivers.

As far as problems go, these are pretty minor.  Absurdly annoying, but in the whole scheme of things, minor. In the mornings, I have a few drivers to choose from.  At one point, I tried to set up a daily agreement with one, but he wanted an absurd amount of money, so I started using Mr. Smiley (I never did get his name, even when I asked him in Khmer, he just smiles.) Mr. Smiley was pretty good.  He was a careful driver, but not a turtle.  Things were going well.  Then he decided that driving down durian street and by the stinky market every morning wasn't enough of an assault of my senses.  So he added the stinky river and the worst road in the city.  Ot joe jet, Mr. Smiley, ot joe jet.  Wanting to give him another shot, I showed him the way I like to go.  It bypasses the stinky market, goes nowhere near durian street, and the roads are nicely paved.  He went that way for a day, before he found a way to again take me by a new stinky market, and along the second worst road in the city.  I was getting more and more irritated every day, telling him to turn, while Mr. Smiley just smiled and ignored me.  Then one day, a wonderful thing happened.  He wasn’t there in the morning.  I was free to pick another driver, and not feel guilty.  Then a second wonderful thing happened, the new driver charged me less.  It was glorious.  But it only lasted for two weeks.  

For the past two days, Mr. Smiley has been back.  And when I apologize, and say other driver cheaper, he, you know, smiles, nods his head, and then looks like I kicked his puppy as I go with another driver.  I wish my Khmer was better, so I could explain that a) he doesn’t go the way I like, and b) he charges me more than I want to pay now.  It doesn’t look like he will ever understand either of those factors, so I am left with apologizing to him every day for the foreseeable future.  Awesome.

Then there is Mr. Beep Beep, my tuk tuk driver.  At first I was calling him Mr. Honky in my head, then realized that just doesn’t sound right…

He takes me to my volunteer job and home after, and it is quite nice and relaxing to sit back and enjoy the sights of the city.  And to figure out a way to try not to focus on the fact that Mr. Beep Beep is trying to kill me.  I am fairly certain that he thinks honking his horn emits a force field, thereby protecting the tuk tuk from oncoming traffic.  It really is the only reasonable conclusion after driving with him.  That, or he thinks he gets paid extra for each honk.  It has now become comical, and I am waiting for the day that the horn sticks, a la “Little Miss Sunshine.”  I just hope I have either my camera or my phone around to document it when it happens…

Other than these minor problems, life here is wonderful as always.  

Long Time, No Post

Oh life, why must you get in the way of, well, my LIFE?? The past few months have flown by, it is hard to believe I have been here for 7 months already!  I'll write a reflective post later, this is a quick story that has all of my friends using the phrase "but it is not delicious..."

At my new school, they host a camp night, a sleepover if you will, for the elementary students.  In the morning, as everyone was eating breakfast, they kept running out of pretty much everything.  Towards the end, many of the students didn't get much of a breakfast, as we were out of juice, rice, eggs, and hamburgers. (Because, who doesn't like a hamburger for breakfast?) As people were complaining about the lack of these major breakfast items, I noticed a table of girls, with 8 full cups of juice, just sitting there, as they were getting up.

I went up to ask why they were not finishing their juices, and they looked at me, and with completely sincere faces, told me that they could not finish the juice because, "Teacher, it is not delicious."  I was dumbstruck.  And irritated, because I had 100 little kids tugging on my sleeve to tell me that they didn't get juice because we were out, and yet here are the girls, not drinking theirs, because it was not delicious.

Later, as I was drinking a beer, and nowhere near small children, I thought about it some more.  And I realized that those girls have the right idea.  Why should they be forced to drink non-delicious juice?  Why should people have to eat food they don't find utterly mouth watering?  So from now on, I will no longer force down food to be polite.  When I am offered durien or balut or any of another foods I find bizarre and repulsive, I will try them, and then kindly refuse to eat any more, with the lovely phrase, "but it is not delicious."  I encourage you to do the same!

I blame LMFAO

What I knew was a possibility, and a reality of life here, finally happened to me.  Walking home from dinner last night, my purse was stolen.  And it was all LMFAO's fault.

I'll explain.  My roommate and I had a just enjoyed a really good, and very cheap dinner, at what I am fairly certain is a mob hangout.  I mean, $2 jugs? How can you do that unless you are a front?  Just sayin'... But back to the story.  After joking about which parts of the city we wanted, we were walking the 4 blocks home, talking about our days at school.  Jaxon was telling me how his students were great at identifying which song he had stuck in his head.  Yesterday he had walked in with "Everyday I'm Shufflin'" stuck, and had sung one line, and then his class had burst into the rest, some even doing the entire dance.  I had stopped to laugh at his impression of them, and due to my laughing, wasn't standing totally straight, when I felt a tug on my bag. I stood up, and as I did, the two men on the moto gassed it to break the strap on my bag, and sped off.  It was over in 5 seconds.  Jaxon thought they had hit me with a belt or something, and his first thought was that the SOS hospital was closed, and where was he going to take me.  When he realized what had really happened, he ran after them.  Pretty awesome.

While he ran off after them, I walked to the main street, and began to look at every moto that drove by, convinced they would drive by.  But trying to find a dark moto with two men on it here is kinda like looking for a specific cab in New York, a white guy on a bike in Amsterdam, or a green Subaru in Colorado.  Impossible.

They got my 2004 Nokia, $4, my keys, and the biggie, my camera.  But in reality, all replaceable.  I wasn't threatened, not really hurt (my shoulder is kinda sore from where the strap was), but overall, it's the least violent crime you can have happen to you here.  Except for maybe someone cloning your ATM card, but that would have been way more costly, and a much bigger pain.

And it was totally preventable, and mostly my fault.  I had been lulled into a sense of security, I consider myself fairly street smart, and even convinced myself that I could scare off someone if they tried to mug me.  But the reality was, I was walking on the street, with my bag on the outside.  I wasn't paying attention (again, all LMFAO's fault), and I could have pretty much avoided the whole incident.  Most crimes here are crimes of opportunity, and I made myself a fairly easy target.

And I am pissed at the two guys who did it, but really, mostly at LMFAO.  I will not be shufflin' for quite  a while.

Saturday Morning in Phnom Penh

I don't know if you have heard or not, but there is a huge blizzard in Colorado right now.  Over a foot in Denver, and it's still snowing.  I am somewhat homesick, I loved me a good snow day.  But instead of wallowing in what will never happen here, barring some act of Buddha, I decided to take a walk this morning, and appreciate what I do have here.  For a bit I tried to relate how far I walked in Denver terms, from my apartment to the Independence Monument was half the distance I would walk to Goosetown.  Walking to the Royal Palace was about as far as the Capitol, and so on.  With my head phones on, I was oblivious to the constant "Hey Lady, tuk tuk?'s" I am normally bombarded with, and with the most random mix my iTunes genius has yet to come up with, I walked around and fell in love with the city all over again.

yes, they are pushing that car to make room for another. the parking dance, i like to call it.

now that is what I call I tombstone.  

I am obsessed with this building. I have no idea what it was, but wish it could talk.

Two monks walk into a wat...

I wish this tree could talk too.

So you can have your snow, I'll take this colorful place!  (But I still miss a good snow day...)

ARGHHHH!!

So I left my charger at school today, so no computer for me tonight.  But I wanted to let everyone know, if they want a post card, I need your address by tomorrow this time.  Some of you sent me addresses earlier, which is good, and you will get postcards soon!  My friend is going to mail them for me from the States, so hopefully everyone will get them this time!

Volunteering is going fantastic, I love my new school, and overall life is good!  Chinese New Year was OK, I had to work, so didn't get to partake in all of the festivities, but I did have noodles on the right day, so I've got that going for me (symbolizes long life) and waited around for someone to give me red envelopes of money, but none came.  Oh well, there is always next year!

So email addresses, and I'll get you a postcard!

Happy New Year!!

This post is long overdue, but things here in Cambodia have been busy.  Fun, amazing, exhausting, and very busy.  For those of you not on Facebook, I am no longer working with the little kids, at the end of the day, it's just not for me.  It didn't help that the school cared more about appearances than the education, but no matter what the reason, I wasn't really happy there.  So, since I am a native speaker, light skinned, and have a US teaching certificate, I was able to find another job in a day.  I'm telling you, all my unemployed teacher friends, come here!!

At the new school, I teach English (but English like I learned in high school, with literature, and essays, etc), History, and Geography.  I also teach an SAT prep class, since many of my students are diplomat's kids, they will likely attend university in the US.  I really only work mornings, and have my afternoons free to plan and grade, etc.  It is not a bad gig!

I am also really excited, because my new schedule and location will allow me to work with the girls at Transitions more!  I will now teach 2 classes twice a week, which will really benefit the girls more than just meeting once a week.  Tomorrow is the first day of the new schedule, we'll see how it ends up!

For New Year's I went up to Siem Reap with some of my friends, and it was a great time.  We went to the floating village on the Tonle Sap Lake.  Not really floating so much as built on stilts, but interesting and beautiful nonetheless.   The rest of the weekend was a blast, and we'll leave it at that...

I hope that 2012 is the best year yet for you.  I'm pretty sure it is going to be for me!