I have company for two nights - a friend from India whom I've not seen for about 10 years. Vuth, a perpetually gracious Cambodian, offered to drive to the airport to meet Parthiban. We arrived in good time and stood outside the airport watching the travellers appear from inside. In this part of the world nobody's allowed inside the airport unless they are travellers. Nowadays, there are so many flights coming from China and so we stood and watched droves of Chinese looking people emerging. Parthiban is from the south of India and was coming via Kuala Lumpur. We joked that we'd know when his plane load were coming out as the nationality of the people would change and the Chinese look would switch to a Malay/Indian look.
At my age I'm finding it a bit tiring taking care of travellers who need a lot of care. I'm not technically savvy but the first thing they want to do is connect with family back home. That means finding a place that sells SIM cards, putting money on their phones etc - all of which I've never done on my own. It wasn't easy finding a phone shop either as most of them were closed. Parthiban doesn't walk well so I found myself turning around and not being able to see him - he was still coming along and was still around the corner. We thought we'd break him in gradually so we took him for an Indian meal at our favourite restaurant owned by Pakistanis. He immediately attacked his food with his right hand, which we said was all right in this particular restaurant but elsewhere he'd better stick to fork and spoon or chopsticks.
I settled him in and then invited him to go for a walk along the river with the boys - he declined so I told him I'd have to lock him in the apartment while I was out. We went down to the riverside, had a bit of a walk, and then we looked for a place to have a drink. We chose a table and then the boys started talking to a lady at the next table - she turned out to be their teacher from their time in the middle school. She gave both of them hugs - Oudom stiffened and pulled a face. She's from Sweden and I've been to her school and knew about her. I said, "Are you the Swedish lady who has blond hair but prefers to be black?" She laughed and said, "If you look at the roots you'll see some blonde hair." She was with a couple of friends from Sweden and the man worked for Volvo. She said, "If you are excited about Volvo you can have a conversation with him." Apparently, that's all he got excited about. I wonder if he knew it had been bought by the Chinese?
She was obviously very fond of the boys and even though she knew they were often in trouble she thought they were super intelligent and lovely, caring kids, which was nice to hear. She said, "I know all about you. I always kept hearing 'Peter says' but I used to say, 'Well, he's not here is he!" She gave each of us a Swedish candy but we had to eat them after our drink. On our way home the lads put them in their mouths and immediately spat them out. I thought mine was delicious - they were some sort of hard liquorice which I knew Cambodians can't stand. If I'd known they were liquorice I'd have asked the lads not to bother trying them but to give them to me.
Parthiban wanted to eat so I had to choose a place that wasn't too far away to walk. Samnang loves food and tries anything so we ordered a pizza that had lots of cheese. Oudom is a challenge; he's almost a total carnivore and so he ordered fries and chicken legs. There were two pieces of raw carrot on his plate which he did eat - he won't eat them cooked. The lettuce sat there. He can list on one hand the vegetables he can eat. It's not just the taste he can't stand, it's also the texture in his mouth.
Sleep didn't come easily. My two bedrooms are in the centre of the apartment and so the windows either look into the kitchen or the living room. There are curtains and the glass is dark but, when lights are on I can't sleep as I need darkness. Parthiban, for some reason, kept getting up, turning on the light and waking me up. I set my alarm for six a.m. and hoped for an easier day.
