the Nom Lab.: August 2014

Wanderlust: Cambodia

By Passionthy 12:05 AM Musings

“Everything looks different. The houses are all these wild colors. The light is strange. It smells primeval. You're on Mars."

"You are talking about driving?" Lin attempted to clarify.
"About wanderlust," she answered.”

― Nicole Mones, Lost in Translation

First day in Siem Reap, Cambodia. The airport is fairly small so we have to walk from the airplane. Would you look at that cloud-dappled sky? :)

It's already been 5 weeks and it feels like the days flew by.

I first came to Cambodia expecting to have to walk around with pepper spray and a mini taser in a belly pouch hidden under my shirt and emergency money bills folded in the soles of my shoes (Thanks, Mom and Dad, for the enlightening kidnapping, organ trafficking and hijacking murder articles and anecdotes). The closest thing I've found for pepper spray was the spicy sauce popularly used at mealtimes, and I believe I've imagined the worst-case scenario where I'd have to squirt the bottle into my potential rapists' face and dive into the Siem Reap river Indiana Jones-style before swimming away into a romantic fading sunset, but thankfully that storyline never materialized itself.

Streets of Siem Reap; Nighttime at the Old Market. Expat biker breaking at one of the numerous food stalls lining the sidewalk.

One of the omnipresent tuktuks, Batman-style.

During the first week, as I strolled on Pub Street or the Old Market, I distrusted all the ubiquitous tuktuk greetings that swarmed around my every step. ''Where are you from?'' ''How long are you staying?'' ''Where are you staying?'' and the classic ''Have you seen the temples yet? (yes, yes I have)''. My relationship to all those hailing often-monologuous small talks have since then evolved to feeling comfortingly welcomed and realizing that the streets are not all that predatory, to slighly annoyed, to downstraight exasperated and seeing the light for the meaning of those touristy T-shirts branding ''No Tuk-Tuk today, no Money, no Massage". Ah, I also forgot that climatic point where I was super creeped out because all the tuktuk drivers whom I had asked to bring me back remembered my face, my guesthouse and how long I was staying, and they proudly greeted me with that information and the brightest "'MY OLD FRIIIEND'' smile when they saw me walking down the alley. Granted, they were just being very nice and friendly. I was flattered, but also creeped out. Mostly creeped out.

...But they were so friendly.

(creeped out).

After 5 weeks of living in Siem Reap, I must say that the city is, by far, one of the safest touristy spots I have been at (not that I have been in that many touristy spots). I mean to say that you can have a certain feel of how a city is when you explore it. The urban, buzzy vibe of a San Franciscan metropolitan, warning for basic common sense caution, the welcoming, curious vibe of intrigued 6 years-old children when you first arrive in a rural village, the peaceful, warm vibe of a hosting monastery, or the sketchy, scammy vibe of a VISA run point. Sketchiness leaves a dusty veil on your skin, as if you had just walked into a mildewy spiderweb. It's the same sense that you get when you can feel that there is a second purpose underlying some conversation. Only, instead of surging from inside as the realization hits you at a certain point of your chitchat, it's draped all over you.

At a village with curious children around this perplexing conception that is a laptop.

Cambodians are very kind-hearted and mean well at the base. If you ask for directions, any tuktuk driver will happily show you the way even if you're not asking for his driving services (a word of caution: if you do ask for their services, a lot of tuktuk drivers will nod when you ask about your destination, but end up having no idea where to go. I have noticed numerous tuktuk drivers call their friends to ask about the location or just asking his way to a neighbouring motorbike at a red light. 9 times out of 10, they will then turn around and flash you a smile to assure that everything is okay (if any of my friends got that sentence out of their mouth, I would have all the more reason to be worried). Siem Reap is a fairly small town, however, so they always end up getting you to your wanted destination. In Phnom Penh, on the other hand, they may drop you at a random spot in the city).

One of the most striking traits that I have noticed is the generous, very open-hearted and giving philosophy that most Cambodians seem to practice. Following some of my courses in International Development, many cases that we had studied concerned the lack of education in rural villages due to the impressive travelling distance, and a lack of infrastructure and of resources, both human and economic. Either the government did not provide enough support to motivate a qualified teacher to accept a teaching position, or it did not provide the adequate guidance and regulation that the teachers who accepted to teach did, indeed, teach. Furthermore, if there were any inspections to ensure teaching, simple monitoring was not enough because some teachers would still find a way to go around it. If the governmental inspection was in the morning, teachers would show up and teach for 1 hour, then dismiss the class for the rest of the day.

In Cambodia, the government does not provide enough economic resources to open teaching positions, but the number of graduating teachers are growing in scales. Hence, a lot will find themselves jobless or will be in a position completely unrelated to their area of studies.

This was a long introduction to my topic of interest, but here we go. A lot of the rural villages that I have worked with run with volunteer teachers. Many schools are built from donations, the host village brought to attention by a passing Cambodian who wishes to create some lasting changes. Some other villages are partnered with one of the many NGOs run in Siem Reap, such as the one I am working with. In one village, a Cambodian teacher came by from his home village on the way to Siem Reap but, seeing the lack of schooling and the presence of many illiterate children in this village, decided to stay and teach in a small unused, overcramped building that looked more like a hut. As he asked for help to build a new, bigger school, he quit his teaching position in his home village and then decided to permanently stay in this new one, bringing his entire family with him.

Village hut in Sre Robong, in the middle of lush green nowhere. It may seem peaceful, but most of this green (or lack of presence of huts) is caused by a severe land grabbing problem in this village. See these bushy trees? These should be rice paddies for the rural families, but they belong to a government-funded company which cleared all the surrounding land for their own plantations.

Cases like this happen often, although not enough, as many rural village are still without any educational means. However, just the fact that it is present adds a beautiful facet to the gem that is this culture.