What did you do on your lunch break?

I don’t usually have much time to read the new paper, and the time I do have during my lunch breaks, I spend reading my book, studying French, Spanish or Italian verbs or shopping at the Russian Market. But today I had time to read the Cambodia Daily and shop for winter clothes at market for my upcoming trip to Beijing. The temperature difference is going to be a real shock! It’s a real unique experience being in the poorly ventilated sauna also know as the market trying on long pants and knock off puffy North Face jackets. Sweaty doesn’t even begin to describe it. However I find that if I go in with intention its easier to find what I need, otherwise one can easily get overwhelmed with the narrow lane of stalls packed with a smorgasbord of goods. Today the intention was winter clothes. I half accomplished the mission coming out with 2 pairs of jeans and 2 new dresses. I just cant resist the dresses, and at 5 dollars a pop they are a steal. I will delve into the markets again next week to find a jacket and some warm sweaters, and try to not come out with any more dresses.

Ok back to the newspaper. I was really filled with sadness reading numerous articles about people dying. Today I read about an Argentinian train crash and the further recovery of bodies from the Italian cruise ship. It really saddens me. But there was one hopeful article about children getting free corrective cleft palate surgery from the Smile Train. Apparently its fairly common in this region with 1 in 500 Cambodians being born with a cleft palate. Reading the stories of those served really put a smile on my face. The I was drawn into another story about worms. Since I’m deeply entrenched in all things agricultural, I read about the burgeoning worm production business Cambodia. Rural farmers are starting to raise worms to help with soil fertility and to produce fertilizer. When I shared the article with my coworker she taught me the khmer word for earthworm- phonetically pronounced “Chun Lin” I can honestly say that it is a word I haven’t learned in any other foreign language.

Working in the office

There is a cacophony of Khmer around me. Cell phones ringing and things being discussed, and now we are having a very interesting conversation about speaking with and without an accent and the cambodian and western perspectives on the matter.

What I saw today

On my bicycle ride back to work, I saw somethings that you might only see here. I feel like Phnom Penh is the only place where you would see a large pink and orange wedding tent taking up half of a major street while 4 cement trucks take up the other half, all the while cars, tuk tuks, motos and cyclists weave around these obstacles. Then there was a Lexus and a Range Rover driving down the street without license plates. In another part of town, I had to wait while a motorcade of unidentified diplomats in shiny cars passed by. Then there was the moto carrying 2 people and a handful of chicken upside down, one guy with a flat screen tv on the back of his moto a bunch of other girls on motos with their jackets on backwards to protect their hands and arms from getting tanned, all this, while its 88 degrees out with 60% humidity.

Island Adventures continued

Nursing monkey!
Me at the cliffs of Ulu Watu- Bali

The towers at night!


This text was supposed to go with the previous post but here it is - more pics to come in several following posts

I went on a whirlwind trip to Malaysia and Indonesia. It was fun, some times tiring, other times exciting and occasionally relaxing. Having Christmas away was hard but I did get to skype with family! I think I need to find a balance between overplanning and doing no planning at all. This trip was very last minute and I did very little planning, which is probably why some parts of it didn’t live up to my expectations. But I did see some very cool things.

Trip highlights- Seeing the Patronas Towers in day and night, from up high and below. Going to the Kuala Lumpur bird park, seeing feisty monkeys at Ulu Watu temple, seeing beautiful beaches and scenery, scuba diving and seeing sea turtles!! Meeting nice travelers, seeing a balinese cremation ceremony, hanging out with an Indonesian medicine woman, doing some shopping, seeing Indonesian traditional dances, eating lots of yummy food, sleeping in my own bed when I got home to Phnom Penh!

Malaysia and Indonesia

Me and my towers!!
Me and a peacock
Me at the Batu Caves
Not so pretty, but very tasty food!

I love the fact that theres a lion in this ad in Kuala Lumpur on the phone!
Wonderful guesthouse in KL- The explorers gueshouse

On the move again

Where to start… So I haven’t blogged in far too long. I start with the most recent, and then maybe fill in some of the past as I go along. Tonight I am taking the night bus to Siem Reap. Fingers crossed for a pleasurable bus experience! I am going to spend 3 days seeing the temples, I can’t believe that I have been living in Cambodia for 4 months now and still haven’t seen them! Then I will do 3 days of fieldwork talking with farmers about their selling techniques of seeds and fertilizer, and talking with clients about their thoughts about the farmers that sell them farm inputs. Fingers crossed again that if and when things go wrong that I am able to adapt and figure out how to roll with it and still get some good field data. When I was in the field a month ago with 4 other people, when things went wrong – meaning there were scheduling miscommunications- they were able to figure it out and I just followed along. But this time its only me and my coworker/translator Pisith. After that I am back to Phnom Penh before I am off to Kep for the weekend to celebrate a friends birthday!

A Cambodian shopping experience

We have an Americanesque grocery store here called Lucky Supermarket. They have the widest variety of dried goods, cereals, frozen goods and snack foods around. I went there today to refill my kitchen with food since I was out of town for a few weeks. For months now, I have been meaning to get my Lucky store loyalty card, but I always forget to get one until I am at the cash register and its too late, because have to go to an office outside and around the corner from the actual grocery store to get the card. Today I FINALLY remembered before my shopping trip and went to the office to ask for the card. The lady sitting at the desk exclaimed “they’re finished come back in 20 days.” I explained that I wanted a card today tho to start earning points that are used for freebees and coupons, but she insisted that there it was not possible to get a card and I must return at the end of January. Its instances like these that make me laugh! I finally remember to get the darn card and I am denied! Wanna bet if I go back in 20 days they’ll tell me to come back again in 20 more!!

Heres the link to where is the where its located if your curious! I live not far from the grocery store!