I had a personal best today. I walked 7km, washed all the floors of the apartment, showered and had breakfast - all before 9.30am. I'm not into breaking records so this is most likely a one off.
I had an unhindered few hours because Oudom didn't get up until nearly 11am; he said he'd had two cans of Coca Cola yesterday and it kept him awake. It's strange how cultures can be so different. His grandmother puts a can of Coke in his lunch box every day; she thinks, as long as it's not one of those energy drinks, then it's all right. Oudom drinks it, even though he doesn't want it, simply because his Grandmother put it there. On the other side of the world from here, kids are constantly giving away what their parents put in their lunch boxes because they don't like it or they don't want it.
A few years ago we could find a Bubble Tea cafe on every corner; now they have almost disappeared and they have been replaced with coffee shops. I'm not a great fan of Bubble Tea but it was nice of Samnang to come over with a Milk Tea for me and a Passion Fruit one for Oudom. People here love Passion Fruit but I find it a bit too sour. I think my Milk Tea was just that except it had some round, squishy things in it so I had to use a large straw. I can't understand why people insist on using straws here whenever they have a drink - even a glass of water needs a straw. The folks across the road have got used to me so they don't offer me one but everywhere else I am given a drink with a straw in it; often two. When the lads came over for English I gave them each a bottle of water; Srun said, "Do you have a straw?" I may have but I said I didn't.
Samnang told me the knife sharpening man was in the back alley so I sent him off with some of my knives. A few minutes later he brought them back, razor sharp and the man charged $1. People often knock developing countries for their deficiencies but I definitely appreciate these little conveniences.
Kannan, my Indian friend in the US, sent me a report of his time with his Master - it's something to do with Karate and other martial arts but it goes much deeper than the physical stuff by bringing in the mental aspects, health etc. I was supposed to say what I thought of it but it was so full of shorthand English I couldn't get the hang of it. I decided to correct it, and it took me almost two hours. In the end I had a better understanding of what he was on about. I did learn two things; the importance of focusing on one's breathing and being aware of it all the time. I'm like 99.9% of the planet, when it comes to breathing, it's just there. Now, it crosses my mind when I'm reading, sitting etc., and so I make an effort to breathe properly. The other thing the Master said was, "Don't give any complex answers; keep them simple, even if the question was complex." I like that one. Kannan is constantly analysing his emotions and trying to understand why he reacts in certain ways to situations. It sounds very challenging to me but he's so much happier than in earlier days so it must be doing some good.
I'm continuing to type my Nigerian notes and at the moment I'm re-visiting exam time in school. Talk about chaos; people cheating, people writing a paper for another person, invigilators disappearing. Three of us Canadians tried a test that was set for 1 1/2 hours for the 18 year olds. We took over an hour to do it and none of us could agree on the right answers. How the heck the Ministry expected Hausa speaking Nigerians to be able to complete the exam, which was in English, is beyond me. One teacher couldn't be bothered marking the papers so he gave them to two students. They altered answers, marked wrong answers as if they were correct, filled in blank spaces with the right answers. We nearly had a riot when the 5th form students found out they were expected to sit together with the 4th year boys.
Coming from Canada we drove ourselves to distraction trying to keep a lid on things but after a while we realised the system was against the students and so our attitudes changed. One of my Christian students missed the exam because his daughter had been injured in a traffic accident and so he went home. The principal told me he'd therefore have to repeat the entire year, in all subjects, because of missing the exam. I went back and forth from classroom to Principal, like a chicken with its head chopped off, trying to find a solution. Finally, one of the students said to me, "Don't worry sir, it's taken care of." What a relief. Later I found out that another lad had sat the exam for him. Hurray! One up for the students.
Thornin asked me to hurry up and check his CV as he needed to send it to the university he's now going to teach at - or should that be 'the university at which he is going to teach"! That's along with his work with micro finance and helping his wife run a restaurant. It was a mile long. He's taken countless courses offered by various NGOs had a chance to travel to a variety of countries to join international conferences. It made me a bit jealous as I'd done nothing by his age - apart from two years serving Her Majesty in the army.
I ended the day with Luc, a friend who is a retired Canadian nurse from Quebec. His wife is from Thailand so they agreed, on his retirement, to move to Thailand. Her home is only 10 minutes walk from Cambodia so he spends his time working with children here. We had a meal together and watched the world go by. Across the street was a beauty parlour, right on the sidewalk, and people strolled up and down. I'm positive that a very tall, slim, elegant young lady was actually a bloke. One thing I don't understand is the number of men, of Indian extraction, who come here to sell stuff. They seem to come out at night time. They look alike - dark skinned with thick, black hair and the inevitable moustache. Over one arm they have a layer of mats or towels and in the other hand a bag of clothing. It's almost as if I'm seeing the same person but I know I'm not as they were wearing different shirts. They always stopped at the same corner restaurant and would show articles from their bags; they never seemed to sell anything. Over the years I've seen them in very isolated places in the countryside and people just can't figure out why they are here - some say they are spying.
