Happy almost-Thanksgiving, everyone! I suppose that is the theme of this entry...
It’s been a bit of time since my last update; these things just aren’t coming as easily as they once did. It’s hard to write about what you cannot accurately explain, even to yourself. And that is my life in Cambodia… hard to explain even to myself. The best way I am able to understand it right now is… I love Phnom Penh, somehow. Somehow I am able to love everything about this place. There is just something about this city and I grow to love it more and more each day. Each second, actually. Each day here seems to be better than the last. So I guess I can write about that, but that just seems like some sort of sickening exploration of personal joy, and who the hells wants to read a long blog entry about someone’s happiness?! It’s so much more interesting when things go wrong, isn’t it? Well, as I sit here and write that, I have to realize that nearly EVERYTHING goes wrong all the time here! It’s difficult and hilarious to complete even the simplest tasks, like visiting an ATM or getting a cup of coffee. But the weirdest situations slowly become… normal. Life in Cambodia is just Life now. So that might be why it’s hard to write about it. I am reluctant to simply share my life via my blog when, to me, things are routine here.
That being said, I suppose I can update a little bit on the actual goings on around here. The Water Festival has come and passed. I didn’t catch much of it as I was sick with a nasty cold in bed most of the week, but what I did see was a scaled down version of what was once the second-most exciting time of the year in Cambodia (the first being Khmer New Year in April). Last year at the Water Festival (held every year in November), several hundred people died in a stampede. Add that element in with the highest waters Cambodia has seen in ten years, and the Prime Minister had due cause to cancel the boat races down the Mekong this year. So, because of the cancelation of the races, and because of the tragedy of last year, far less people descended unto Phnom Penh than in normal years.
School is going better, which I suppose is relative given how bad it really was in the beginning. My boss said, point-blank, she was “surprised I hadn’t quit yet,” given I am a new teacher and have the “worst class she’s ever seen in seven years teaching in Cambodia.” The principal of the school refers to my students as the “insane asylum children.” I wish I were making this up. But after a month of absolute hell, my kids are slowly realizing I am NOT someone to be messed with or ignored. They are coming around, beginning to listen in class, and are even… sort of… growing on me. ☺
My work with the theater group the Phnom Penh Players is going well. Our Christmas pantomime family show, which I co-directed, is going up at a local venue in a few weeks. It is weird to be a bit less involved in production, namely, working as solely co-director, not writer, director, producer, promoter, actor, etc, etc, of a work. I can’t complain too much, it is a fun show and I’m looking forward to the week of production. Hopefully I can get my own work up through the Phnom Penh Players later this year. We shall see where this road takes me!
I have mentioned before in this blog that I had been going out at least once a week to an orphanage in the city to volunteer. Well my roommate, Shae, who introduced me to SFODA (Sacrifice Families and Orphan Development Association), has been going out there to volunteer for over a year, and because of her long hours and our collective interest in the organization, the Chief of Child Care offered us last week a voluntary position of the board of directors for the orphanage! We are officially going to be helping the orphans find sponsors to provide medical care (many of the children are HIV positive), school supplies, and adequate food. We will also attend board meetings to make sure we feel SFODA’s (and the children’s) needs are met. I am so honored to be a part of this organization. I am so happy to be actively helping something, someone, a whole group of people! It isn’t often we can ACTUALLY be helping people directly, is it? Or maybe it is, or it should be, I’ve just never experienced it so directly before. The eight-year-old girl I’m closest with, Sabath, officially has a sponsor as of today… ME! She is an angel with the curliest hair I’ve ever seen on an Asian person! I am so humbled and excited to be able to help her on her journey… And, as I said earlier, who knows where this road can take me? I know that I will be involved with SFODA for the rest of my life now. It is a beautiful thing to commit to something like that. I realize I’ve never committed to something for essentially my whole life… WOW….
As I bask in this thought, I’ll sign off with thoughts and wishes for a Happy Thanksgiving to everyone in America. I’ll be doing it Phnom Penh style. I pray I can find some decent pumpkin pie in this crazy city. I certainly have a great deal to be thankful for. I am thankful every time I dodge a near-moto accident. I am thankful every time I am able to play with the children at SFODA, and, although my students are in a completely different world than the orphans at SFODA, I am, in turn, thankful to spend time with them as well. I am thankful to have graduated from one of the best universities in the world. I am thankful to be American and to be a native English speaker. I am thankful for my family and friends, here and abroad. And I’m so thankful that I get to travel! And to do, right now, exactly, literally, completely what I want to be doing. Without doubt or hesitation.
I’ll be back with more, probably after another stint in Siem Reap for the annual Angkor Marathon. No, don’t worry, I will NOT be running, I’ll be cheering on the sidelines, sitting in the shade, with a cold beer in hand. And I’ll be avoiding the temples and the markets and simply basking in this glorious country I am so fortunate to live in. A few more weeks until Mom joins me! Really, seriously, so many things to be thankful for and to look forward to! Until then… ☺
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