What a day; dining out for all three meals. Sophiep and his wife, Keav, have opened another restaurant so they invited me for breakfast. He told me it was near a pagoda so I told the rickshaw driver to keep on going until we reached it. After phoning Sophiep I realised we'd driven past the place so I ended up walking up the road to find it. The problem here is that nobody knows street numbers or names; they go by favourite landmarks. The rickshaw people don't understand maps so finding a place is not always easy especially when the drivers don't speak English. The restaurant is called "Chicken Porridge" so I looked for the big yellow building, which I found but couldn't see any restaurant of that name. Fortunately, Keav came out of the restaurant so I was able to find it - the restaurant's name is on show but it's in Khmer. I haven't seen them for six months so it was nice to have pork and rice and to catch up on what they are doing. They open for breakfast from 6 to 10 and then from 3 to 10 for dinner. In the afternoon they only serve rice porridge with various other things in it such as chicken and fish.
I was back home for an hour and then I set off for dinner with Vuth, Thornin, Soubert and the Indian visitor, Parthiban. The main topic of conversation was the missing money. Julie, who is in Malaysia, had sold a bit of land for around $30,000 and she'd given it to Eang, a Cambodian, to bank and use for a programme called Apsara I Care. It's a training programme to help people learn more about themselves through introspection and other exercises and to be able to free themselves from the things that hold them back. Parthiban and three others have been here doing a bit of volunteering with the programme. The problem is that Eang has run off with the money and nobody knows where she is. Vuth said, if we notify the police they'll find her in no time, but they don't want to go that route yet. It's causing problems for so many people. Polycarpe, from Burundi, has run out of money and isn't getting his allowance, money was spent creating space for the volunteers and the man who financed it hasn't been paid. The owners of the building haven't been paid their rent and meanwhile Julie's in Malaysia and too far away to be involved. I warned her about Eang because she's done this in other years - even with me. Why have only one name on the bank account? Culturally, younger people find it almost impossible to criticise those who are senior and so nobody is telling Julie what is happening; they tell me and then I become the bearer of bad news for Julie. I've told her I'm sick of it and I'm not writing any more. So let's see if I can keep my word.
Other than that, we had a decent lunch. I had a bowl of wanton with noodles and Parthiban tucked into fries and a huge piece of meat. He really does eat too much and it shows with his size and the fact that he has problems walking.
Back home I did more tidying up and filing away and then we set off to Relax Cafe for our dinner. Thornin had put the message out that it would be on the 3rd. We arrived at 6pm and gradually more and more came until there were around 20 of us; the staff kept adding more tables. It's a buffet place so each table had a hotplate and a pot of broth and then we wandered off to find food to put into it. It costs $7 which is expensive for me because, after two bowls, I'm full. Meanwhile the skinny Khmer ladies merrily eat and eat. I told them when I first knew them they were students and single - now most of them are married with children. There were four children with us but I counted that the people around the table had 14 children between them. There'll be a wedding in December and another lady is pregnant so I'm sure the numbers will increase. It was nice to see Tay as she was visiting from the USA where she lives in Washington State. Everyone's busy and spread out so it's great to have this chance to see so many at one time.
I arrived home after 9pm but decided to go for a half hour walk around the area to unwind a bit. My flight tomorrow is at 12.35pm so I have some final putting away to do. Depending on the situation in Taipei and other airports I may have a chance to write something - otherwise it'll be "Greetings from Alberta".
