Biscuits and vegetable juices

After a busy weekend being a surrogate grandfather I thought today would be quiet and relaxing - but I thought wrongly. I was hardly home. Vuth, across the road at the travel office, has been reading a book entitled "Rich Dad, Poor Dad". It's all about running businesses, using money wisely, having expert advice etc. He and Cina have just been told by auditors from the government that they must pay a whopping amount in tax. Vuth is therefore keen on finding ways to reduce the amount. Cina's point is that no matter what you do, the system is totally corrupt. Vuth's feeling is that expert counsel could reduce the impact.  He asked me to read a chapter, summarise it and then tell his wife. He said, "I want it to come out of your mouth because she always blames me."

 We're having a youth exchange programme between students from Cambodia and some from Thailand. Friends are going to speak to university students to encourage them to apply to participate. I was told I had to attend the meeting. I hate speaking so I said I wouldn't be going. Thornin said I didn't have to speak; I just had to sit on the stage and look serious. Pi You, who will be speaking, is a student at the university so the idea is that students won't take her seriously as she's the same age. If I'm there, even if I don't open my mouth, it adds legitimacy to the programme. Isn't it lovely to know that I can influence people without even opening my mouth or doing anything?

I  had lunch with the family. Today it was a lovely coconut soup with baby eggplant and pork; it's one of my favourite dishes. The dreaded Prohok was on the table and I had dollops of it put onto my plate, along with cucumber and other bits of greenery. There was also dried fish, persimmon, pineapple, mango and snake fruit. Finally, I was given a bowl of coloured jellies in a coconut milk. 

It's always a bit of a let-down when I go westwards and my plate has potatoes, one or two veg and one kind of meat. I came back home, with Phearak and Srun trailing behind. I didn't have any English class prepared so I got them talking about what they did on the weekend. Phearak always breaks into a fit of giggles and looks at Srun for support. After they left I settled into a relaxing afternoon but it only lasted half an hour and the Vuth asked if I'd like to join him to meet two young friends in a coffee shop. What would we do without coffee shops?

 Heang is a young man who has set up a business making juices from vegetables. They are organic and very good; he generally uses sweet potato, corn and yam. The lady has a business making cakes and cookies. Heang has all the contacts and so he'd like to link up with the lady so that they can benefit from each other. It was fun sitting together and brainstorming about ways of promoting their products. One good thing about Cambodia is that it's a newly developing nation and so there are lots of opportunities for younger people if they want to have a go.

It’s exhausting being a grandparent

For some strange reason Ponleu woke me up around 6.30am. There was no point in trying to stay in bed so the day started early. I did some indoor exercises and then settled down to doing some catching up with computer work.

Ponleu is enjoying the Lego so he kept building more and more structures and, every time he made a new one, I had to take a photograph. He doesn't want me to destroy anything but on another weekend his brother, Oudom, will come over and he'll want to use the bricks.

We had a conversation about dying and I was relieved to know that Ponleu says I'm going to heaven where I will become an angel and I'll have wings.

For the past few days he's been singing a song about a snowman. He often creates songs and he can rap like a professional. I asked him to write down the song and I'll send it with this blog. One line talks about eating a door and I suggested it was a bit silly. He said, "It's only a song and it just has to sound good." I suppose he's telling me it doesn't have to make sense.

I got into a shouting conversation with Oudom who was in the hammock of his home across the street. Oudom wanted to come over yesterday but Ponleu kicked up a fuss so his parents said I should take him alone. I think the three brothers enjoy coming over alone so there's no competition. Ponleu's the youngest so he has the added problem of being told what to do by the other two.

This evening I went over to their home and sat in the office as Cina was working on booking flights for people. She'd ordered pizza so I joined in with the meal. Later we had snake fruit, which I think is most common in Indonesia. It's skin looks like the brown scales of a snake. Afterwards, I took Ponleu to the riverside as he wanted to feed the pigeons. There wasn't a pigeon in sight. I think they'd gone off for the day as there were so many people around.

I'm constantly giving Ponleu heck because his eyes are everywhere instead of in front. He's always looking for insects and watching the birds etc. I keep pulling him to one side as he's nearly banging into people. He said, "If I look straight forward, people walk around me." He's too smart at times for his own good. I don't want him using the computer all the time so I introduced him to my Alberta library which allows me to download books. I downloaded three children's books and he read all of them. I can't keep up!

My place is now a miniature Legoland

It's been Ponleu's turn to spend the weekend with me. His parents always jokingly ask me to take all three boys but I decline the offer. They are so competitive, and they are constantly fighting at home, so why bring the trouble to my place? Right now he's trying to fix his Lego village which did a wobbly and fell.

We went for a walk along the riverside before breakfast as it gets too hot later on. With Ponleu it's always a stop start walk as he's constantly stopping to look at some creature. Today he found the pupa case of some kind of insect. Near the riverside he picked up dead worms and hurled them at the sparrows. He wanted to feed corn to the pigeons so I took six 1,000 riel notes with me. He found a little girl selling corn so he took a bag and gave her the 6,000 riel without asking how much it cost. The bag only cost 1,000 riel. His parents don't allow the boys to handle money so they've no clue how to deal with it. I got the money back before the girl had time to leave. I then took pity on her friend and bought another bag. Within seconds we were surrounded with children holding up bags. We took off for the park and Ponleu enjoyed himself chucking the seeds all over the place and trying to get the pigeons to eat out of his hand; it didn't work.

On the way home we stopped at a French place to buy some bread. I'd never eat there as it's too expensive; they want $9 for a fancy breakfast. I can survive all day on less than that. We took the wrong turn and ended up in a market. The stalls are so crowded together that the path is much less than one metre wide. Ponleu was fascinated with the fish; some of them are able to survive out of the water so they were jumping all over the place. One lady was chasing two of them that had managed to escape. Ponleu stopped and asking questions of the sellers and they happily pushed the fish towards him so he could touch them. We were following a foreigner who got really angry when a man on a motorbike came down the path. They do this all the time and people just move out of the way. Not this foreigner; he let forth in French and the one word I understood was "idiot". I get a bit fed up when foreigners bring their culture here.

A while back a friend, who has worked at a children's home for many years, came out of the dormitory with some of the young boys. He'd spent the night with them as he used to live there as a child. There were some French volunteers staying at the centre and they reported this incident as if it was a case of child sexual molestation. The story got all the way to France where people are major donors to the home. My friend, and the boys, had to go to a number of psychologists to make sure that everything was OK. He decided it wasn't worth working there any more as he didn't want to have an impact on the money coming from France.

I took Ponleu home for a while and in the evening I went over to collect him again. His parents asked if Oudom could come as well, which was fine by me. Ponleu did a dicky fit - he wanted to come on his own. Maybe I'll get Oudom tonight.

I'm typing my old Nigerian diary notes each day and yesterday I saw that I'd made a note about being fascinated seeing Nigerians with more than two people on the motorbike. I had seen people carrying bicycles on the back of a motorbike and even a bed. Now I'm in Cambodia I don't take a second look at such things as it's a daily occurrence.

We had a violent storm yesterday evening, just before bedtime. I dashed outside to remove the cushions from my furniture on the balcony as it would have got soaked. In bed, I was trying to read to Ponleu and the power kept going off. We finally gave up as the noise was too loud to read. So the rainy season hasn't ended yet.

Polycarpe found something he could eat

It's the end of the day. Stoicism says I should write something every evening, so here goes. I've got Ponlou for the night and he's threatening he's staying until Sunday. Right now I've got him playing with Lego so it's keeping him quiet for a while. During the summer I visited friend Norma in Calgary. For years she'd gone around garage sales looking for things that would entertain her grandchildren. She ended up with a ton of Lego and grandchildren too old to play with it. Norma offered her collection to me and I brought it to Cambodia. I normally travel with only one suitcase but for this trip I filled one suitcase with a Lego table and all the bits and pieces.

I had lunch today with Polycarpe and Mick. Vuth and Soubert joined us. Soubert has a grand title; he's the High Privy Counsellor to his Majesty the King of Cambodia. Soubert's father used to be a Prime Minister in Cambodia when he put together a coalition after the Pol Pot years. As a young man he travelled everywhere with his father and he often tells stories of meeting Mao Tse Tung and other world leaders and being at the Paris Peace Accord which brought peace to Cambodia. He teaches the history of art at a local university, founded a home for children and is a leading member of the opposition. Sadly, most of his friends in the opposition have escaped to other countries because of the political situation in Cambodia.

Polycarpe scrutinised the menu closely and finally ended up having fries and a fried egg, along with some beef. He looked quite happy. We got together again in the evening so the visitors could meet some young friends and once again he headed for the beef. I'd like to be a fly on the wall when he gets to his new home tomorrow as he'll be eating food cooked on the street.

A friend wrote from India and asked if other people were getting the blog. He said it should just be for him, and personal. I don't think he understands how it works. As usual, he asked when I was going to India. I haven't been for a few years and I really should go but going through the visa process here is so painful. One year I filled in all the forms, which even ask if I have Pakistani grandparents, and took them to the Embassy with my British passport. I was shocked to find out the price and the officer said, "The British are charging Indians more so we charge you more." He said I should come back with my Canadian passport as a visa was much cheaper for Canadians. I took it and was happy to pay about $40 less. A few days later I was looking for my Canadian passport as I was going to Vietnam and my visa was in that passport. I realised it was at the embassy.

I was leaving on the day I was to get my passport back with the Indian visa so I went to the embassy. It was in the morning and they would not give me my passport back until the afternoon. I pleaded with them and they said I could have it back if I wrote a letter of apology. I wrote a "Dear Sir, I'm very sorry I made a mistake etc". Because they hadn't put the Indian visa into the passport they said I had to forfeit the fee and go back again, after my trip to Vietnam, with more money. The only way to feel good about the whole affair was to keep telling myself that paying twice for a visa using a Canadian passport was still cheaper than using my British passport.

I think I'll go to Thailand where I don't need a visa!

A mucked up day

I listened to a depressing programme on the BBC this morning.  It was all about the opioid crisis in Louisville, Kentucky.  The BBC people followed local people for a month, meeting teachers, addicts, law enforcement people etc.  Louisville’s figures for opioid problems are double the national average.  They interviewed a school teacher who said that Health Education in their area need only be one lesson a semester.  I was shocked to hear that the school had 3 sheriffs and 80 security guards.  It must feel more like a prison.

The statistics for babies being addicted to substances while in the amnionic fluid are horrendous.  The lady said that over the years there’s been a 700% increase in substance induced babies, and that’s the national average and not the figure for Louisville.  Even the editor of the local newspaper said his 28 year old son had been in and out of prison and had drug related issues.  Doctors prescribe opioids willy-nilly.  One pharmacist told a man bringing a prescription, “If you take this medicine you will die.”  The man took the prescription to another pharmacy and died within the month.

I’ve had a day of absolute flexibility and patience.  I was supposed to go to the airport to meet Mick this morning but eventually that was cancelled.  In the afternoon I left at 2pm to go to the airport to meet Polycarpe from Burundi.  Vuth carried letters and documents that guaranteed his entry into Cambodia.  We waited outside the airport for an hour and there was no sign of Polycarpe.  Luckily Vuth knew a man working inside the airport and he found a way of getting Vuth inside.  I then stood outside for another 1 1/2 hours.

The problem with Africans coming here is that they have a reputation for getting involved in bad things, such as internet scams, gambling etc.  Most of these are from West Africa but the authorities put all Africans in the same basket.  Vuth was told the visa people hadn’t been advised properly about Polycarpe.  Eventually, they let him in but Vuth had to sign a declaration that he would be totally responsible if Polycarpe did anything wrong while here.  That’s made Vuth’s wife angry and worried.

On the way to the hotel we asked Polycarpe what he could eat.  Africans are so fussy - in India I worked with one Kenyan lady who spent six months eating meat and ice cream.  He said he liked fish.  At the hotel we ordered a fish dish; he took one look at it and said he couldn’t eat it.  He took some plain rice and then said he didn’t like it.  Then he complained about the size of the spoon.  I honestly don’t know why they come if they won’t eat the food.  I’m glad he’s going to be based in another town from the 3rd!

The Canadian dentists stay at this same hotel so I know the staff quite well.  I discovered that the hotel restaurant has been taken over by Chinese people.  The desk clerk said they learn Khmer but only to listen - never to speak.  She said they are rude and walk around the place as if they own the hotel too, which they don’t.  I’m now thinking we need a different hotel for the Canadian next January.

I’m going to have to find something else to drink when I go to a coffee shop, which is almost daily because of it being the favourite meeting place for people.  They make excellent coffee but my stomach is rebelling.  Maybe I should try the latest craze, avocado shake!