Just one more journey...

Time to connect before too much more happens and I either get long-winded or avoid blogging at all. I love the feedback from all of you and need to say that I am so fortunate to have so many lovely friends. You are such a wonderful group of people. What a privilege it is to know so many awesome folks!!! (Okay, it may sound a bit schmaltzy but I can't help it! Being alone in a developing country does that :-)

Angkor Wat in the background

Yippee!!! I had my first visitors from Canada a few weeks ago. I can't express how awesome it was to have guests, great company, and see Angkor Wat with them. Lauren, Curtis's cousin (a former student of mine) and Jennifer, young friends from Toronto, stopped by on their SE Asia travels. I so missed their company when they left and the one week they were here came and went way too quickly. They arrived by bus, for an overnight stay before we headed to Siem Reap and one of the wonders of the world, Angkor Wat. We cycled 36 k that day, not to mention going up and down the steep steps of the temples. Exercise, hum, I have been lacking it big time in the heat of Cambodia. I must say Jennifer with her Asian background caused quite a stir. Apparently many of the Cambodians (especially the younger males) consider Jennifer to be one of the most beautiful women they have ever set eyes upon. And, no one hesitated to mention it. Males and females would look at her and openly express that she was soooo beautiful. Jennifer commented that this is the first time she had experienced anything like it. Both Jennifer and Lauren are beauties inside and out but I may be biased. You be the judge:-)

preparing to venture out in the deluge of rain for our 20 minute walk home

Below are shots of Angkor Wat through the lens of Jennifer's camera. Enjoy.

And now from the lens of my camera.

Then back on the home front, FLOODING!! The thunderstorms are amazing with horrendous crashes and booms and flashes of lightning everywhere. They happen almost daily. This particular day, the rain flooded the streets within seconds. The water began coming into my house so I got bucket and mop trying to stay ahead of it all until it was actually flowing in. All I could do was go upstairs and be grateful I had an upstairs. Others aren't as lucky.

Sorry about the blur...this is my living room!

My courtyard

A scorpion that came in with the floods

The trick is to wait until the water subsides, let all the muck dry, then sweep it out. Fortunately, the landlord was here the next morning and created a place for the water to drain out of the courtyard. However, the floods have brought some frightening creatures into the house. Moving my shoes irritated a centipede which not only startled me but got my bare feet a hopping trying to get out of the way of its poisonous bite. They are fast!!! All's well that ends well as I took out my fear on the creepy crawly smashing it into pulp once I caught up with it, shoe in hand. (A hammer would have worked but the shoe had a bigger smashing surface Anna W.)

Lauren and Jennifer did get to see a Cambodia that tourists don't usually see. They participated in an enrolment campaign. The event takes place two weeks before school starts to encourage the community to enrol all the school-aged children. Here are a few pictures of the event.

Waiting out the downpour

This kid is like about 7 years old and no one bats an eye!

More waiting

May as well shop while waiting

Ah yes, the "fiddle-dee-stick

Time to get started rain or not

And the band plays on

And then they left...so sad!!!! Sob, sob. The thing I miss most are the hugs from home!

Off to visit Vomith's English class.

A different day...school is now in session in spite of the flooding. So a few glimpses of what I ride my moto through or wade through to get to my schools. This is nothing!

Sharing a small bag of white rice for breakfast

There is a beauty to the flooding don't you think?

I'm off to Vietnam for a holiday in 5 days and am excited about a break and new adventure. I'm sure you will hear all about it in the next blog. Stay well, enjoy the lovely fall colours, Thanksgiving dinners, and the fresh dusting of snow.

Much love and thoughts from afar!

Hello everyone,

I have actually had people requesting another blog! I'm thinking not much has happened since the last blog but as always, I do have things to say and pictures to show. So, here goes...

It seems that some of the content of my blogs, doesn't really encourage visitors. (Thanks for pointing that out Ed.) However, life is an adventure here and what is an adventure if not facing things that, shall we say, show a different side of life. It is difficult not to mention things that shocked me at first, so I will start the blog explaining how I have "adapted".

Scenes from my bike ride today.

Things I've learnt:

Riding a motorbike in Cambodia...
1. Traffic can come from any direction, going in any direction, on any part of the road.
2. People never shoulder check and expect everyone else to look out for them.
3. There is no such thing as road rage, one just accepts that it takes all kinds of driving to make traffic
4. Cows, pigs, and chickens have free range everywhere so expect them to be on the road
5. Potholes are deep, steep, and people swerve to avoid them every 2 metres
6. When it rains, the roads are impassable for trucks and cars,with line-ups of them stuck in the mud, but motorbikes slip and slide through. (One does arrive at one's destination with blocks of mud on one's feet, and up to one's knees.)
7. Bigger vehicles have the right of way regardless of where they are on the road.
8. People courteously honk their horns many times to warn you they are "coming through".

One of the better roads on a good day.

Still a good road on a good day.

The environment:
1. Plastic is a way of life.
2. All sorts of liquid edibles come in thin plastic bags...even ice coffee, soup, tea, amazingly colourful drinking liquids, whatever.
3. People just drop wrappings, bottles, containers, etc. on the spot.

4. There are sinks with running water but the water drains out of the sink onto the floor because there is no other plumbing.
5. I prefer squat toilets when travelling.
6. Few can afford garbage pick up so everything gets burned...everything! For smells see below.
7. People in rural areas drink from the same water that livestock use.
8. Scorpions can fall from the rafters and sting you without even seeing them
9. Ants are everywhere, in everything (even my computer at times) and hurt when they bite.
10. Mosquitoes are tiny and you don't feel them biting ever. They also find the spots you miss with the repellent.

Just an example of ants on my counter

Everyday life:

A family in the catchment area of one of my schoolsEvery day life:

1. At night, the dogs howl endlessly, and yelp, and bark
2. The roosters can't tell time nor shut up after dark
3. Motos can carry all sorts of paraphernalia...like 50 live squawking chickens hanging by their feet, 5 live pigs squealing from their crates, high racks filled with plastic, or pots, or glass windows, not to mention 5 children and a driver.

4. One experiences life with all of the senses and I think smell is the hardest...decomposing "things", sewage, most bizarre and foul odours from burning.
5. Very loud music from loud speakers be it wedding music, or funeral music, that goes on for days.
6. Streets getting taken over by tents for the above events
7. Driving motorbikes right into and though the market and making your purchases without getting off the seat.
8. Small horses are still used as a mode of transportation for pulling carts
9. Strange looking tractors are used for everything, not just farm work
10. People have been on motorbikes here from birth and so start to drive them when they are like 8 years old (it is hard to tell how old people are!)
11. Every 10th moto has a pole which is supporting a drip for a person on an IV, usually an infant or child.

The horrors:

1. Haunting thoughts of the terror these endearing people have had to endured.
2. How deeply ingrained the "fear" factor is in the psyche of the people here (and for good reason).
3. The way people were tortured and killed for crimes such as being ineffective working in the fields, caught stealing a few grains of rice when they were starving, being able to speak English or French, wearing glasses, being educated.

Sorry this is sideways! This is known as the killing cave. During the Khmer Rouge regime, people had their legs and arms bound and were dropped into this cave head first. If they didn't die from the fall, they starved to death. Thousands were killed this way. (1977)

4. Never challenge authority and do as you are told
5. Corruption is a way of life
6. I could go on but won't. However, an excellent book is "First They Killed My Father" if you are interested written from the perspective of a young girl during the Pol Pot era.

The delights:

Mangostine (sp?)

1. Fresh produce picked every morning and in abundance at the market.
2. Children yelling hello from every household as you go by
3. Everyone is cheerful and friendly, and very sociable...I have yet to come across someone who is cranky.
4. The poor accept that their neighbour is richer and therefore has much more
5. There is no sense of "entitlement" at all.
6. No one tries to short-change you, ever.
7. Everyone is trying to practise their English.
8. Laughter come so easily.
9. An acceptance and tolerance of everything in life it seems...religion (Buddhists never try to convert anyone), customs, beggars, poverty, wealth, erratic driving (usually mine!) ...
10. Khmer eat everything, and can laugh about it
11. No one complains about the road conditions or weather
12. THE SMILES!!!! I JUST CAN'T SAY ENOUGH ABOUT THE LOVELY WARM SMILES!!!! Just about everyone takes the time to smile back at you regardless of what they are doing. And, I have to say, that it is the smiles that keep me going when times get tough.