Ah, Cambodia: the land of smiles, humidity, the Khmers, Watt temples, and (ah, yes) the Lexus.
And man is it hot.
Thankfully, I’m in a two-bedroom apartment that’s just downstairs of Katherine, my “host UMC missionary,” which has a fan in most of the rooms and a small AC unit in my bedroom that works beautifully (my saving grace!). I’m living in the apartment by myself for the time being, but I hope that I’ll get to have a suitemate soon. The apartment complex in our neighborhood is four stories tall and connected on the third floor to the neighboring apartment by an outdoor balcony, so I basically have Katherine as my upstairs housemate and easy access to my neighbors, which is infinitely better than living all by myself. I live in the bottom two stories of one apartment, Katherine lives in the upper two stories, Anita and Angela (ex-pat professors who teach Khmer/English to highly vulnerable girls) live next door to Katherine, and Heng (my sweet Cambodian landlady who recently became a Christian) and her many nephews live under them. To keep ourselves centered and to give Heng daily opportunities to learn about the Bible and Jesus, we all get together at Anita and Angela’s place for devotions in the morning before work and sometimes vespers (evening devotions) at night. We’re the only ex-pats on our street, which is awesome, because there are always tons of little Cambodian kids running around shouting “Hello! Hello!” morning, noon, and night. No annoying roosters waking me up at 3am, though…God must have heard my prayers. :)
So despite my fans and even moderate air-conditioning at the office, I’m still experiencing these lovely hot-flashes, major fatigue, and headaches. I’m hoping I’m just getting used to the weather and have prolonged jet-lag, but there’s a pretty high possibility that I’m allergic to MSG…which happens to be in everything local and that I don’t prepare myself, unfortunately. So I’m being careful over the next few days to see if I see much of a difference. I’m just glad I don’t have to make myself sick from taking malaria medication!
The heat and MSG aside, I really think this internship is going to be amazing. I work closely with the CHAD (Community Health and Agriculture Development) team who focuses on providing health care access, agricultural training, water purification techniques, and microfinance loans to communities in Phnom Penh and out in the province (Cambodia’s version of the Zambian “bush” or Peruvian “jungle”). There are only seven of them: Katherine (my “host missionary” from California), Vannak (23-year-old Cambodian office assistant), Daneth (Cambodia), Sophal (Cambodia), Mr. Thy (Cambodia), Mr. Ken (Cambodia), and Mamí Irene (Zimbabwe). I can understand Katherine and Mamí perfectly, but I’m having serious difficulties understanding the Khmer (“Kah-my”) accent. Apparently, in Khmer, the subject is often dropped and the verb is always unconjugated but hierarchical (you use a different verb for when a child eats, a monk eats, a king eats, a woman eats, a man eats, women or men eat…the list goes on and on). Once I figured that much out, it’s a bit easier to understand native Cambodians. Still, it’s kind of like interpreting “jungle Spanish” in Peru…I’m hopeless! Since a bunch of my time is going to be spent communicating, I’m praying for the gift of tongues or interpretation or something. Kidding (well, sort of). :)
The rest of the GBGM team at the office are working with the Methodist Women’s division, Street Kids (outreach to educate and improve the standard of life for kids in Phnom Penh), and other programs are from all over – Helen, our financial girl, is from the Philippines; Esther, the volunteer coordinator, is from Kenya; Marilyn and Joseph are survivors of the Khmer Rouge and lived in the US for 20 years before they returned to Cambodia to be missionaries in their home country…the list goes on and on. Such cool people! I’m so incredibly blessed to be able to work with them so closely this summer!
In other news, I’m going to be going to a taize service this afternoon after work (kind of contemplation meets meditation for an hour or so…I think? We’ll see how it goes!) and I’m invited to an all-day wedding this Sunday. Cambodian weddings are supposed to be nuts with all these cool rituals and fun dances, so I’m so excited! :)
So many hugs and besos, and more updates (and pics - see the tab up there that says "cambodia pictures!") to come!
Blessings,
Stephanie
PS - You know you’re settling into Cambodia when...
13. The water is shut off in your apartment for a day and a half…oh wait, no, the little kids outside were just playing around and turned the valve to divert the water flow.
14. Mangoes are as popular as rice.
15. Beans are for dessert. Sorry, I still can’t get over that…!
16. You’re served cold tea when you sit down at a restaurant instead of iced water. The water you’re gonna pay for.
17. You start to think “TIC, TIC, TIC” (“This is Cambodia”) on a regular basis.
18. All your food is crammed into your mini-fridge because the ants will get to it otherwise.
19. MSG is in eeeeverything. They like the flavor (!?!).
20. A mouse joins you in your morning shower. Glorious.
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