Quick update

To reassure people that I'm still alive (several have been asking), I'm house sitting for a fellow "worker" out in the countryside. If you want to know where, specifically, google a map of Cambodia, look dead-center in the country, and you'll see the provincial town of Kampong Thom. This is truly like the Mayberry of Cambodia - I love it. It's where I taught and worked during summers of 2003-2005.

I'll post again soon with pictures and details of my time here. It's been a blast, including activities like boat races, swimming in the rice fields, long moto rides through the countryside, visiting the local "mountain." Yesterday I went to the market and bought an onion, garlic, tomatoes, and basil (the asian variety) and made myself an awesome pasta sauce. Noodles are easy enough to come by here. When all was said and done I had spent $1.25 and had myself an incredible dinner.

Ok, that's all for now. Peace out everyone!

Bryant

No money no honey...

This is a post that is long overdue. I started it a week or so ago and didn't finish. I'll just pick up where I left off, and I'll add some more funtimes blogging at the end.

My morning, nay, my entire quasi-month of living in Cambodia was made entirely better this morning when I saw a young dude walk by with a shirt on that said, in giant letters I might add, "NO MONEY NO HONEY." After spraying coffee all across the crowded breakfast stall, I grabbed for my camera only to realize in a gasp of horror that I had left it at home. This was not the first time I wanted to take a picture of something hysterical (usually involving Asian use of the English langauge) and didn't have my camera handy, but I assure you it will be the last.

Oh, wait, nope... I lied. It happened again. I was in the same breakfast stall three days later. ONLY THREE DAYS! And I was once again treated to Asian-English gold when another young guy (could it be the same one???) strolled by my breakfast stall - stall is really the only justifiable word for it, hence the continued use - with a shirt that said, in the same ginormous letters, "I COULD BE YOUR DAUGHTER."

............................................

Seriously? That's too good to be true... But I yet again disappointed myself - no camera. And, unfortunately, the google image search did NOT reveal any appropriate examples like it did for the other shirt.

The question I want to know is, "Where are they getting these shirts?" I want one! Funny thing though, this guy probably doesn't even know what it means. It's just cool 'cause it's in English. Well I'm certainly glad he wore it.

Another wonderful use of English waylayed me today at a Chinese restaurant. On the menu, they offered many delectable items such as roast duck, sauteed noodles, and real sesame chicken, oh and steamed dumplings, can't forget those. There was one item, however, that caught my attention. I think it deserves a return visit with a camera - "Stirfry with rape mixture."

Hmmmm I'm not sure if I want the rape mixuture stirfry or the steamed domestic abuse sampler....

Well, these things happen to the best of us. Ok, so they don't; they only happen to Asians, but you just gotta roll with it man! It's awesome, and I thoroughly enjoy laughing and smiling. I've been laughed at enough with my use of the language here. Yes, indeed I've done my time. It's my turn.

It's hard to have legs here...

This will be a straight-forward update on what I'm currently doing, but first I want to tell you about how hard it is to have legs here in Cambodia. I'm not making light of people who have no limbs - there are tons here who have lots a leg or both legs to land mines... Their plight is not a joke to me. Fortunately there are NGO's (Non-Government Organizations) established to help them get established and cope with life.

Ok, so back to my point about how hard it is to have legs here. I feel like mine have taken an absolute beating and then some. I haven't stepped on a mine, granted, but I've definitely taken a beating. In my first moto "incident" I scraped the skin off my left calve (not badly). That's pretty much healed up. But, in trying to jump-start the moto for the first time I had to really kick it, and my foot slipped and the kick stand totally ate up my right shin. That is still red and scabbed over. I mean the kick stand dug in good....

Then, in a soccer match, I was trying to slide tackle a guy and ended up scraping my left knee up really bad. The funny thing is, I did it again on the exact same spot in the next match. Moving on, I pronated my right foot in a soccer match - you should have seen the "field" we played on...try cow pasture instead - and now I think I may have planar fasciaitis or something like that. It hurts really bad. I need to stop playing soccer for a month but just can't let go. Then....let's see.....oh yeah the constant heat here makes my ankles swell for some reason. I think it's combined with lack of water or too much salt in the diet or something like that, but by the end of the day I got some major cankles going on.

Also, I've burned my leg twice on hot moto exhaust pipes. Once on that of my own... Oh yeah, and at all-country training I rented a moto to check out the surroundings. Turns out the front brake didn't work - thanks for telling me, Kep Lodge! - and the moto went flying down a gravel-covered embankment, ejecting me at just the right angle to run a half-inch gravel burn down my left leg. Oh yeah! And then on the way home from all-country training our taxi broke down (read two blogs previous), and we had to stand on the side of the road for an hour-and-a-half and my legs got tore up by the Cambodian version of fire ants. There are red whelps all over them, some on top of previous injuries.

I supposed the moral of the story is don't play soccer and don't ride motos if you want nice-looking legs. Otherwise.... I dunno... I forgot what I was going to say.

On to more important things.... I've been playing the waiting game with my school. The school year was pushed back a month because of the elections, I found out. I can understand why; two elections ago they had tanks in the streets. We really can't relate to that kind of uncertainty. Lots could be said about that, but in realtion to me it means I don't start teaching until November 15th. We've been living in a team member's house - by we I mean my two team mates for the NPIC campus - and it turns out we will continue staying in his house on the weekends. I've made a sweet pad out of the roof-top room. I'll blog just about that soon, with photos for sure. I love it and wish I could stay there permanently. But alas, to stay there would violate my #1 rule for Southeast Asia: If it's convenient and/or would make you happy, it's probably not gonna happen. Many would chide me for my pessimism, but you'd be surprised how true that rules holds. Besides, if it's occasionally broken then you're pleasantly surprised.

So back to what I'm doing. Tomorrow, the Peters and I will - fingers crossed - move all our belongings onto campus. We bought some cheap, wicker furniture a couple days ago, and will take that along with clothes, groceries, and household supplies to our little campus apartments. My first night there will be interesting, to say the least.

In other news, this week begins the Khmer festival of P'chum Ben. It's basically their version of Halloween. To learn more, google it. I'll try to take some pictures this coming Monday when the big event takes place and maybe blog about the goings on. My point in mentioning P'chum Ben is that I'll be taking the holiday weekend to visit the town I used to work in here - Kampong Thom. This is one of my favorite places on earth, and it will be interesting to see how it is after three years. To see Sue and the orphanage again will do me worlds of good. Or, actually now that I think about it seeing Sue and the orphanage might make things worse. I could end up wanting to stay.

Well...that's all from this end. Lift up my soon-to-be students and our move to campus. Keep me in mind and don't hesitate to email! pmeredith@elic.org

Grace and peace,

Bryant

To kill a dog...

Today on the way back from the coast we piled into two taxis. I was in taxi number two, and we were a little late leaving because I left my iPod at the guest house. That misfortune delayed our departure by about fifteen minutes. The ride, for the first hour, was really enjoyable albeit bumpy. I mean, the thing had AC so there's nothing to complain about.

Half way into the trip, I hear the driver honking and fussing about something and feel a sudden swerve. Looking up, I had just enough time to see a large dog disappear behind the front bumper - thud clunk rattle rattle clunk clunk - the dog goes under the car... Driver pulls over to check the damage... I was thinking, "Eh...It's just a dog. We'll be fine. Let's get going." You may think me heartless. Believe me I didn't like seeing the dog get hit, but there are dogs EVERYWHERE here, and as you can see from the picture above, they all look like dingos. In fact our dog looked exactly like this one only tan like a dingo. In fact, I call them the dingo dogs. Does that make their untimely death any easier? .....I have to say yes. Trust me, they're nasty.

So picture a road much like the one above and a dog like the one in the pic (only tan) getting bowled over by a late 90's model Toyota Camry. I got out with the driver to check the damage, mostly to stretch my legs thinking there couldn't be anything wrong. Well....turns out this dingo packed a punch. He totally smashed the front end up and busted a hole in our radiator, water spewing everywhere all over the road.

Now, keep in mind, we are an hour away from the coast, which is remote jungle despite being a tourist destination, so we're really, really remote being this far down the road. It's like rice fields and...well...that's it. I knew we were in for a wait. Fortunately, like everyone else in Cambodia, taxi driver dude has a cell phone and, like every spot in the country no matter how out-of-the-way, he has a clear signal to call. (How many spots in Mobile can I NOT get a signal????) Anyway, having dealt with lame taxi rides before in this country, I knew we'd have to sit it out and wait for a replacement. (Laura, it didn't even approach our taxi experience in '05!)


Indeed we did wait. Driver said an hour, but I knew better. We waited for nearly two. In the mean time, I mulled over the destroyed radiator with the driver. He had no idea what he was doing. Another taxi stopped to offer help - unprecedented here, I assure you - while we wasted away in the tropical heat, our lower extremeties being devoured by the Southeast Asian version of fire ants. He and I actually managed to get the radiator detached, only to find what I told him already, "The bottom corner's missing." I mean, it's not like the guy was gonna weld a new bottom on the thing out there. And he certainly didn't have enough chewing gum to plug that crater. What threw my mind for a loop was when this guy continually went into the rice paddy to collect water to fill the radiator to watch it all leak out - he must have done that ten times. Um...dude...it's got a hole in it. I'll admit, however, that I did have fun playing around under the hood. It reminded me of the good ole days with my grandpa, workin on cars. Here's an insight for you ladies. We men really like doing things like looking under hoods of cars, even when we have NO idea what we're looking at. It makes us feel manly and somewhat in control. Ridiculous, perhaps, but true.


Anyway, the Peters and I waited. They are troopers. How many pregnant ladies do you know willing to sit in the hot sun for two hours without complaining? To pass the time, Ben and I played a game called, "See who can throw a rock between those two palm trees." Neither of us ever did, but it was fun. I think it really confused the rice farmers in the adjacent field; we already gave them something to gawk at merely by our presence, much less by chunking rocks at trees for no good reason.


All in all, I'd have to say it was a typical Cambodian day. "Does that happen to you often???" someone might ask. I'd say, "Well...yes and no." Things LIKE that happen all the time. Now have I ever been in a taxi that hit a dog and busted a radiator? No. Yet it was still very, very unsurprising...


I wonder if they ate the dog??? (seriously...)

RETREAT!

This weekend has been an in-country retreat for orientation and getting to know the team. We're in the coastal town of Kep. I've never been here, so it's refreshing to be in a place in Cambodia that's new and different.

It's also beautiful. Kep is the least disturbed town I've been to in Cambodia since 2002. The absence of development and things western makes it feel like you're genuinely in the middle of nowhere. It also provides a nice perspective for Phnom Penh - as overwhelming as it may seem at times it's way more convenient than living in the jungle.

Speaking of Jungle. I've been getting to know the natives. For a full photo record of my encounters check out the MY PHOTO GALLERIES link to the right. Here is one of them. This guy to the left lived in my room for a day. We hung out for a bit, took some photos... I named him Buster.

Other roomies included a tarantula behind the toilet, a giant gecko in the thatch roof, and 8 inch long milipedes - or millipedes - however you spell it.


So our in-country orientation has been fairly productive as far as getting to know eachother and realizing where we'll be going as a team this year. Ben, Andrea and I constitute the team at the National Polytechnique Institue of Cambodia. We discussed some avenues for connecting at the school and for reaching out to our students.

Mostly, this weekend has been good as a time to relax and take a breath from city life (and smog) and just chill. I like Kep better than other parts of the coast I've visited here for the simple reason that it's remote; you don't find much of that anymore, and it's a much-appreciated quality for this Southern guy.

Are we there yet?

I so wish I could start teaching. It would give me something specific on which to focus. I'm the kinda guy who likes a routine. Seriously, I wouldn't mind, for the most part, doing the same things at the same places at the same times day in and day out as long as A) It's productive & B) It's enjoyable. Here I take a certain amount of pleasure in frequenting the same breakfast place, and using the same money exchanger, and getting my moto tuned up at the same mechanic, and using the same internet shop, and knowing that on Saturday's I'll be playing soccer. I just wish that I could go ahead and incorporate full-time English teaching into the schedule. But who am I to argue with the Buddhist calendar?

If you need an update, I haven't started teaching yet because the school year (this year) doesn't begin until Nov. 15th. We discovered that school schedules here are very flexible things. They may start earlier or later depending on the Buddhist calendar and on the politics/enrollment numbers going on within universities. For example, the administration may say, "Hmmm... Buddhist holiday such-and-such is rather late this year, let's start school late." Or they may say, "Well...we haven't got a full enrollment yet. Let's start school a month later to see if we can get some more students." I know this is bizarre to our Western way of thinking, but it's totally normal here, and I assure you no Cambodian gives it a second thought.

In my haste to have something "more productive" to do, I think I'm forgetting that people/situations/opportunities are being placed right in front of me right now for a reason. My soccer team is such a highlight during the week, and I want to make an effort to get to know those guys better - yes...even though they're French. Today we played in the monsoon rains. It was killer. I'm so into soccer right now. Ben and I will have tons of fun on our campus, as they have a really nice field (in our backyard!).

There are other things going on that make my time productive. I'm teaching Spanish and piano at a student center. That's really fun and makes me feel useful. There are some other things too, but they're too sensitive to discuss over a blog.

Here's some random info. Today I got into a moto accident. I was driving Ben and me to our match when this guy pulled out in front of me. I swerved as much as I could without totally laying the moto down, but I still clipped him. What killed me is he not only pulled out in front of me, but was looking at me the whole time like, "GET OUT OF THE WAY!" It bent my foot brake back onto the foot rest, so now that's totally unusable. I'll have to get it fixed tomorrow. Another funny thing: When I hit the guy, he toppled over slowly, but I kept going albeit a little wobbly. The rule in Cambodia is the foreigner always loses. If I had stayed he would have insisted that I pay for the "damages." Other people nearby started yelling at me to stop as soon as it happened, but I kept going. I knew he would accumulate a crowd of "witnesses" who would attest to the foreigner's guilt. Running away from an accident seems atrocious to a Westerner, but there are no police to speak of here, and if you can get away it's in your best interests. Ben kept looking to see if we were being followed, but we weren't. I kept thinking, "If I can just get to my team they'll be able to back me up!" Fortunately we didn't reach that point. I can get the brake fixed for about $3 - no biggie!

So...Ben and I are sitting in Freebird's American Bar & Grill. It's less glamorous than it sounds, and far less American. It is, however, a nice reprieve from Asian life outside, and there's free wireless and Johnny Cash and something that approaches a cheeseburger.

Tomorrow I think I'll go to my breakfast spot, get some noodle soup, buy some postcards in the market, and see if I can't find a post office. Be checkin your mailboxes folks!

Grace and peace,

Bryant

My day-to-day scene

Today was a rather exciting day. Instead of meandering around the city in endless cycles of sweat, food, more sweat, language faux pas, and more sweat, you get the picture... Instead of all of that, my two team mates and I moved the first bunch of our stuff out to where we will live and teach. I'm now considering how best to communicate the significance of this event. Oh, wait, first let me say the picture above is the main highway out of the city, towards the airport, that takes us to our school. This is the last vestige of anything urban before we hit the real Cambodia.

Ok, now on to why this first move was so significant. Let me start by saying I've been living out of suitcases for about a month-and-a-half now. No large sacrifice, I know. It's not like I was climbing a mountain barefoot in zero degree temps. But...such things get old. It would be different if there was a really good reason, but as of now a really good reason eludes me.

Why can't I move in yet? Many factors come into play. First you have to consider that I'm going to a new school with a team that is the first foreign-teacher team at the place. The school administration has been doing the best they can with the information they were given by my organization. Something got lost in translation... At any rate, our apartments on campus weren't ready today, so we had to come back to the city.

Two good things came from the quasi-move today: 1) We learned what we'll need to really settle in and make it home, which is great because it will be home for a long time to come. 2) A small attraction for the place was kindled inside my, as-of-late, indifferent heart.


The scene to the left here is what I see from my balcony, only imagine a small mountain off to the left. Seriously, how many people get to see something like this every day? Ok...so...100 million Southeast Asians get to... I guess I should say, "How many guys from Alabama get to see something like this every day?"


Most of you are probably thinking, "Hmmm... I'll take suburbia any day." Granted, rural Cambodia isn't for everyone, but I can't help admire the beauty and simplicity of it all. It rains, people plant rice, they till, uproot, replant, harvest... It's hard work, but the cycle continues and something about it makes me envious.


Until I have more stories and pictures, I will say adios. Or, as they say here in Cambodia, "Lia sin hauy!"


~ Bryant

Motorcyles & Museums

I've spent the past week wandering around the city, getting my bearings, honing my language skills, and trying not to kill small children with my moto (or myself for that matter). Ok I need to clarify something from the start: What you see me on in the picture is called a "moto." It's not a moped; much to my mother's consternation it's not a scooter (she still calls it that) and...........ok..........it's not a motorcycle. I'll admit it. It's not a motorcycle. It has a basket on the front for crying out loud. But it's definitely NOT a moped. I call it "Fun On Two Wheels" cause I have a blast on it (with helmet, of course).


The problem is we won't start teaching until MUCH later than we thought. Such is the nature of Southeast Asian culture. Things like school schedules are seen as flexible. The students will always study the same length of time, but when that length begins is up to interpretation. Things like weather patterns, the lunar calendar, and plain-and-simple bureacracy come into play. We won't start until the end of October.


What will I do until then? I'll learn language, make friends in the city, meet some summer students, teach a couple seminars.... I'll be as productive as possible, you can believe that. A friend - Will Rope - and I are memorizing the New Testament together. That's been crazy encouraging to me. I enjoy doing that during my mornings and evenings.


I've also been spending time with the new teammates who are going through in-country training under the capable tutilage of Trisha, a 3-years-accomplished English teacher here in Phnom Penh. She has been getting the new guys acclimated to Khmer culture and oriented around the city. She's made my readjustment so much easier, so props to Trish.






One thing the team did lately that I got in on was the Toul Sleng Genocide Museum. I've been four times already, but I really wanted to go and see what's been updated and maybe this time take some serious photos (as serious as photos from yours truly can be).


I was onced again moved by the humanity on display at this place. Thousands of photos of the victims plead with you as you walk the halls of this school-turned-prison-turned-memorial. You somehow have to come to grips with the fact that they were all murdered; they're all dead. I don't think I've ever really given it the amount of thought I did during this recent visit. I decided to focus on the faces individually. There are too many to count - you have to look at a section and focus on the few that jump out at you.

There I was in this solemn place staring into the faces of the dead, wondering what they were thinking and feeling. What were their last moments like? Do they have family still alive? Which were the ones that made it out alive?






Out of the some 17,000 prisoners, only 14 made it alive. This is only the prison where political targets were taken. Out of the country's 8 million + population roughly 2 million were either exterminated or died of starvation, disease, and malnutrition.




My big problem is how to process all of this as an American. I've undergone NOTHING in my life approaching the total upheaval, violence, desperation, and destruction that these people have experienced. I've not experienced any hardships at all....period. The only medium I have for relating to this is a movie. How pathetic is that???



All I can do is be here and try to contribute to the rebuilding and regrowth of this nation. I feel like, in many ways, the United States is responsible, even indirectly, for what has happened here. (I'm still patriot, don't worry.) But....that's for another time and another blog.



If you'll look at my links page up top and to the right, you'll see one that says "My Photos." There you can view all my pictures from the museum as well as other photos from Cambodia. To see the museum look under "Phnom Penh - Genocide Museum."



Grace and peace,



Bryant

Bienvenidos a Cambodia!

So we finally made it! I'm in Phnom Penh once again, and ready to get going. The only problem is I can't get going just yet. The past couple weeks have consited of some orientation and acclimation and, for the most part, just waiting.
Classes don't start until the middle of October (possibly later). You may ask, "So why are you there so early?" That's a very good question, and I would answer it by saying my organization does their training based on the earliest semester date. In other words, some teachers in other areas will begin teaching in the next week or so. ELI/C can't do three or four separate trainings. Therefore, those of us who start teaching later in the year come to our respective countries/cities and do things like learn language, get used to the food, set up our living spaces/apartments/houses/what-have-you... We begin to make connections with locals and learn our environment. It's good to have a large space of time in which to do this, but at times it gets really lonely and monotonous. I'm being fruitful with my time, though.



I don't have much time left for this blog, so here is a list of things that have happened since I've been here. I'll try to comment on them individually later. I'm a big fan of lists...

1) Met the Korean staff from my school
2) Had impromptu acupuncture in a public place
3) Joined a French soccer team
4) Played in my first ever soccer match
5) Bought a moto
6) Had a moto accident (not my fault and nothing drastic)
7) Relearned the streets of Phnom Penh
8) Attended a Khmer "service"
9) Memorized the first two-and-a-half chapters of Philippians
10) Created an international incident just by showing up to to local Cambodian gym
11) Went to two birthday parties
12) Eaten a baby duck (it was gross) to prove my manhood (don't know how much I actually proved...)



There's my update. I invite you to check out my photos on phanfare.com. I'm guessing the easiest way to do that, for now, is to either look at my phanfare application on facebook, or to sign in to phanfare directly. I'll try to put a link on here, but such skills are not my strongest. You can always email me at pmeredith@elic.org.

Grace and peace,

Bryant