Six Months Already - pram-moie kai howee

Acclimatisation

One of the strangest things about having been here for six months, I think, must be the level of acclimatisation I seem to have achieved.

Walking down the street, things that made me stop and look six months ago now just pass me by as perfectly normal.

* Four Buddhist monks, orange silk robes flapping in the breeze, crowded onto the same 50cc motorbike.

* Five 12 year olds all piled on to the same 50cc motorbike swerving in and out of traffic the wrong way around a roundabout.

* Crossing a road by just walking into the traffic and trusting that people will drive around you

* Taking four hours to have a 30 minute job done

* Eating things that you would normally just stand on and throw out the window [cockroaches, locusts, water-beetles…]

* Eating rice and bacon for breakfast

* Street children, beggars, amputees, et cetera although these do still usually make me stop and reach for my wallet

Of course it has not all been so strange, I can pop round to the local ‘supermarket’ and buy toothpaste and loo roll, even Gordon’s gin or Red wine. But that has to be for special treats, it is far too expensive to shop there every week.

Being able to check my Email everyday at work is another bonus, as is getting messages and news from family and friends back home [hint, hint]

There have of course been some real highlights during the first six months:

* Having friends here on holiday being the top one of them. Including a week at the beach relaxing and also a fair number of shopping trips to the Russian Market - P’sar Tool Tum Pong

* The other volunteers in my outgoing group, fantastic people, friendly, intelligent, all love a gin and tonic !

* Treating myself to the utter luxury of buying a DVD player – not too mention DVD’s (US$3 each for the latest releases – Russian Market)

* Buying a motorbike (Honda KL400) to get myself around, and out of, the city

* Sampling some great Khmer food [not including the items on the list above!]

* Seeing Angkor Wat

* Visiting the National Museum

* Sitting up in a riverside cafe, drinking a coffee and watching the general street theatre that is Phnom Penh unfold before me

* Karaoke

* Only joking about that last one, I could not sing to save my life and go into a panic every time anyone suggests that I do!

Also, my visits out to the provincial projects are usually both entertaining and interesting Spending time with local Khmer families, eating in their homes, getting up at 5am to sit on a fishing boat to catch breakfast…..

- Oh and we do some work as well !!!

Taking language lessons have mastered numbers! Which is actually one of the most important things to know here, all the roads and streets are numbered, plus haggling for your groceries at the local market………

Moving out of VSO accommodation [after 7 weeks] and into my own flat was another milestone, that I think was the point at which I felt ‘yikes, I really am here for 2 years!’ But actually having my own place was a wonderful feeling. I could relax, buy my own food, watch TV in my boxers…

Socially Phnom Penh is quite active, lots of bars and restaurants. But they tend to fall into 2 categories:

1 Ex-pat bars/restaurants full of westerners earning a UK scale salary – with bar/food prices to match…

2 Khmer restaurants/karaoke bars with blue plastic chairs, tin tables, cheap food and drink, but you are ankle deep in chicken bones by the end of the evening and deaf from the full volume ‘singing’

The odd place [e.g. the Peace Cafe falls into a more neutral area, but they are few and far between and tend to be quiet and not very busy

But, all in all, I have had a good six months, know my way around the city fairly well, am starting to make friends with some of my colleagues, have home, cleaner, transport and a small social circle.

All things that will hopefully build and grow during the next six months.

Happy August everyone

Love to all

Darren