The last time I was at the airport I was there for over four hours waiting while Vuth dealt with customs officials who wouldn't let Polycarpe, from Burundi, into the country. Today, Avikuo, from Northern India, breezed through. He's an interesting person. He has only one name - no family name and given name. It's very long and he said his parents gave it to him when he started school. Luckily, Avikuo is a nickname and it's a heck of a lot easier to deal with.
I'm fascinated by signs. When I was in India I would make notes of all the funny signs I saw. "Ladies have fits upstairs", on the door of a tailor's shop. "Teeth removed by the latest methodists." I loved one on a park gate in Mumbai, "No organic pleasures allowed." That got my imagination going. The best one from my time in Nigeria was, "Jesus Christ, Son of God, Motorcycle Spare Parts." The Muslims played it safe - on their vehicles they always put, "Only God is great." In the new toilets at the Phnom Penh airport there's a sign showing how we men are not supposed to use the sit-down toilets. There's a picture of a man squatting on top of the toilet with a big X through the picture. Then a picture of a very smug looking man using it the right way with a tick by his picture.
We took Avikuo for lunch to the local Taj Mahal Indian food restaurant, which is actually owned by Pakistanis, and had a good meal. Tola, a Cambodian, joined us and had Indian food for the first time; he said he'd go again, which is good news as I enjoy eating there. On a Cambodian table there are always slices of lime. We were flabbergasted when Tola took a slice, complete with skin, popped it into his mouth and merrily ate it - I've never seen it done before.
While Avikuo was sleeping I took Ponleu to the riverside. He's fascinated with nature and this time he decided he was going fishing. He hunted all over for a worm; I told him he wouldn't find any as they only come out when there's heavy rain. He did manage to find one but it crumbled in his hand. Picking things up off the ground doesn't bother Ponleu one bit. I didn't stop him because he rarely is able to run freely because of living in a typical Cambodian city home with no outdoor space. He decided to make a fishing rod using discarded drinking straws, which he put together and then put a thin stick in the end. Then he hunted around for bait and found bits of bread. When his rod fell apart he found a large clump of vegetation that had fishing line wrapped around it. He worked at it for about half an hour to untangle the line. Then he was all set. I don't like his being near the river as the banks are steep and the water is fast moving but he was long gone so I had to follow. His bait kept falling off so we ended up sitting on the ground watching other fishermen. A grumpy man said we were sitting on his line so we had to keep moving. Now he's looking forward to next week when we'll spend a night at a nearby seaside resort.
He and his older brother have decided they are coming over and so I'm doubly exhausted by the time they leave. Both of them never stop asking questions and they are always intelligent so I can't ignore them. Back home in the old days our parents would say, "It's for me to know and for you to find out." Another pet expression I never fully understood was, "It's wigwams for ducks to perk on." That was a favourite Yorkshire expression and it just meant, "Shut up, I'm tired of your asking questions." If we kept asking our parents, "Where are we going?", they'd often say to shut us up, "Tickhill lighthouse and Waddeth docks." Both of these places are over an hour from the sea so we knew to shut up.
My Dad had the best idea. If he was trying to make something, and we kept talking and bothering him, he'd start to make a growling sound. It meant, "I've had enough!" We always made a hasty retreat. At home, in the evening, there were often more than a dozen of us sitting in the kitchen. Dad loved to listen to boxing matches as he used to be an amateur boxer in his pre-marriage days. Because of the noise from the children he had installed the radio high up the wall on a tiny shelf. One day he couldn't hear anything so he threw a temper tantrum. He picked up the radio and slammed it down so hard it blew up. The next day he happily took it to a shop to be repaired. He wasn't one for holding grudges.
For some reason, Ponleu is now interested in the Titanic. He destroyed his Lego town and now we have a Titanic in pride of place.
