I thought I'd use a photo I had taken in the restaurant when I took the three lads for dinner. I now understand why parents love to have their children in school. I was only with them for an hour and I had to put up with the two older ones arguing with each other. Ponleu, the 9 year old, just sat, smiled and ate. After the photo was taken, Samnang the oldest said, "And don't tag me if you put it on Facebook." He's on safe grounds as I haven't a clue what he's talking about.
It's amazing what a one hour difference in time can make to my internal clock. In Bali we were just one hour earlier than here but it's really having an impact on my daily life in Phnom Penh, even though I was only away for four days. Before 9am I'm ready for bed and I'm awake before daylight comes. This morning I woke up in pitch darkness and decided, if I wasn't asleep in five minutes, I'd get up. I ended up getting up because there was a clap of thunder at 6am and the heaven's opened. My apartment is a loft type place so there's no ceilings except in the bedroom which is in the centre of the apartment. The noise of the rain, bashing on the roof, keeps me awake so there was no point in staying in bed.
Moving around the globe I've noticed the different smells that come from people's homes. In Nigeria the foreign teachers couldn't stand the African "smell" and I suppose the locals felt the same way about the foreigners. When I first came to Cambodia I used to wake up around 5am with a nauseous feeling in my stomach. It was caused by the smell of food being cooked below my window by neighbours. It was mainly bbq'd pork covered with home made sauces but there were also other smells such as rice, soups and vegetables. I really didn't appreciate it. Nowadays, I'm in a bedroom with air conditioning so I have to keep the door closed but, when I move into the kitchen, the smells waft through the door and window. I don't mind now, it's all a part of living here.
As usual, I marched up and down the apartment listening to the BBC. My Bluetooth lady is still speaking in Chinese so I presume it's going to be permanent. This morning I listened to an interview with Jason Taylor who is an artist specialising in installations under the sea. He has created human figures, made of metal, and they are sitting on the seabed. You have to be a snorkelling person to see them. He was describing the fish who come to the figures to nibble food from the algae growing on the figures. It made me laugh because last year I took three of my sisters to Siem Reap and we dangled our feet in a large tank to have fish nibble at them. My sisters thought it was totally weird but you get used to it and it's fascinating feeling the little nibbles the fish make. I moved into another tank with larger fish and they chomped rather than nibbled; my sisters declined. I had an embarrassing time when I did it in Indonesia. I joined a group of young people, who were enjoying having fish around their feet. As soon as I put my feet into the water, all the fish left my friends and had a feeding frenzy on my old skin - they were left without a single fish on their feet.
In one interview a guest said her parents "made do" during the war. Looking around this apartment I would say that I'm still doing it. Most people I know in the West have stoves and ovens; some have enormous stoves with different ovens and lots of places to put pans. I have a single hot plate and no oven. I do have a microwave and so, if I cook more than one dish, I can heat things up again. Cambodians are lucky in that they don't care if their cooked food is hot or cold. It certainly makes life more simple when you know you can't do anything complicated.
In the same interview the guests were asked to say what music they were raised on. An American said it was the marching high school band he belonged to, a lady from New Zealand said it was Maori songs. Another said it was Johnny Cash songs as his parents didn't understand each other's language when they met and it was the songs that brought them together. For me I think it would be the brass bands in the North of England - every factory, coal mine had one. I still love brass band music and the film "Brassed Off" is one of my all time favourite films.
8pm and I've just got back from the meeting. They tried to have it in English but, when more than two Cambodians are together it invariably goes back to Khmer. When it happens I just switch off and go into my own world; they'll let me know if I need to know what's happening. At the moment they are planning an exchange programme with Thai youth and a local outreach weekend with around 40 Cambodian university students. I'm always impressed with the way they operate and I always have a good time with them.
When I arrived home I passed the kitchen of the family downstairs. The husband is from Cambodia and the wife from the Philippines. The husband is cooking fried fish and, because the kitchen is open to the staircase, the really strong smell is drifting upstairs into my place. I've opened the kitchen door and closed the bedroom door so I hope to get rid of the fishy smell before bedtime.
As a reminder, there are a number of ways to read my writings. If we are friends on Facebook you can find it. If I forget to post it, you can get it at peterheyes.blogspot.com. Another way is to go to this feed and register by entering your email address.
