Monday, 24 May 2004
So last week I spent a few days out on a field trip to a fishing village in Kandal province.
Arriving back in PP late Thursday evening, I reflected on the difference between my nice 2 bedroom apartment within the ‘nice ex-pat’ area of Phnom Penh and the wood/bamboo house I had been living in at the side of Boeung Chunlen lake and fish reservoir.
My hosts while I was staying in Boeung Chunlen were farmers and fishermen. They ran a small shop from the small room underneath their stilted house, selling odds and sods that are needed in the village – petrol, cigarettes, oil, rope, bread, et cetera.
While there we ate rice and fish 3 times a day – somewhat monotonous but fresh and tasty.
Back to Phnom Penh I have a very wide choice of foods – Khmer, Chinese, Indian, Italian, Mexican. I can get a double bacon cheese burger or a full fried English breakfast for $3 US.
While I struggle very hard each month to keep within my VSO allowance of US$380 your average Khmer struggles to feed his family for $20 US a month.
Yes, you read that correctly. Government employees, Teachers, Policemen, receive a salary of 20 US dollars a month. This is why so many of them have second jobs, or in the case of the police, ‘spot-fine’ us Westerners for the most bizarre things – it cost me $2 a few weeks ago for the crime of riding my bike during the day with my headlights still on………..
Strangely enough it is not against the law for a Khmer to drive his car at night without headlights ?!?
D
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