Life in Cambodia

Long time...

No writing. Yup, I’ve gotten caught up in the la vida loca here in Svay Rieng. Not only is work keeping me preoccupied (but I’m getting better with that) but I’ve had an honestly fantastic reason why I haven’t been writing, my man arrived! He up and moved here last week and well, we’ve been exploring all things Cambodian and discovering new places I hadn’t imagined yet. Mostly have to do with food of course, but that’s the way we roll, you know. Although, we did do some tourism finally…I’ve been here for 3.5 months and hadn’t yet visited The Killing Fields or the Genocide Museum/Prison, which were both trying places to visit. I was glad to have done this part of Phnom Penh with him, as to go through those places without an outlet or person to reflect on it with would be fairly tortuous for me. They are as disturbing as they sound, although, quite disturbing as well is how they are overrun and have garnered the attention of every hawker and large tourist-shop establishment in the area. I won’t go into it, but rent the DVD or read one of these books:
-The Quality of Mercy
-The Gate
-Sideshow
etc…

On to a lighter note: life is getting more normal here in Svay Rieng. Really. Settling in, buying porch chairs and kitchen supplies; I’m trying to figure out things still but I wake up, go to work, come home and have my honey here with me. Life is good. He’s heading out job hunting tomorrow, maybe some leads at the local university so we’ll see. Plus, we’ve got a nice trip to Kenya coming up in just one week. My organization is hosting a conference and I was asked to attend. Don’t know how I won that, but I’m not complaining. So, I convinced (wasn’t hard) my man to join me and we’ll have two days together to explore a bit of Nairobi and it’s outskirts. Neither of us have been to Kenya so send your suggestions if you have. Even though our time is short, we’re still going to try to see some wildlife—I hear there is a giraffe park/sanctuary-type place, which I would love to see.

We also hosted a bit of a welcome party for his arrival (see picture attached) with some friends and ate quite well at the Svay Rieng Restaurant, only the best: deep fried pork, seared beef salad, tomato-coconut soup, beef and vegetable stir fry, whole fried fish and rambutan and bananas for desert. Not too bad, plus, of course, several cans of Anchor beer, lots of ice and then a gathering at our place where our Khmer friends were convinced that Champagne has more alcohol content than rice wine (no way) as they oogled the trashy US Weekly magazines we just received. Angelina was a highlight—“ooooohhhh, she has come to Cambodia, her son….” Yeah, yeah, we had heard it all. Anyway, the party went late for Svay Rieng (10pm) and everyone started to get worried they wouldn’t make it home unless they had one or two more beers. We said enjoy it at home and sent them on their way with unopened cans to enjoy upon their arrival. I think they were all quite happy and most happy that there is now another strange, kind barang to visit, practice English with and with whom to share their culture. We are taken care of here, it is a good place.

So, with that, we send our greetings and love and more stories (probably from our Kenya experience) to come…

posted by Life in Cambodia @ 1:44 PM