My Menagerie

This lizard is one of two who lives on the wall by my front door. At night they come out to guard my house! They seem to be quite friendly, although they keep a respectful distance. Their markings are beautiful, and in the daytime the blue and brown colours change to pink and orange. They can make quite a lot of noise. There are also two large frogs who appear by my door most nights, and my garden often has visits from chickens, cats and sometimes dogs! Fortunately, I haven't seen any more snakes lately.

One Wedding and a Funeral (and New Year’s celebrations to boot)

After my holiday, I returned home to a busy social schedule. On Monday lunchtime (yes, really!), I was invited to the wedding party of the sister of Sovann, one of my colleagues. All the women who attended were dressed up to the nines in gorgeous traditional bright coloured silk gowns, big hairstyles, white make up and pointy shoes, making me feel a complete frump. None the less, the men all wanted me to dance with them (big white Western novelty that I am), which involved parading in a circle making bendy wrist movements! Great fun!

The mother of another colleague, Sopeap, sadly died at home at 2 a.m. on Thursday after a long illness. By 7 a.m. (only 5 hours later) I had joined the “wake” at the house. Breakfast of rice porridge was being served to around 35 people who had come to pay their respects, most of whom were already dressed in their funeral clothes. A PA system had been hired and set up, along with a canopy, tables, chairs, crockery and cutlery, and funeral paper, candles, incense, food and drinks had all been bought. I was amazed at the level and speed of organisation. Everyone helped in some way, either by cooking, serving the guests, shaving the men’s hair or collecting the monks from the wat. My contribution was to fold pieces of gold paper into cones, which would be thrown at the funeral procession the next day. Three monks arrived mid morning, and they led the assembly in a ceremony which involved a lot of chanting, bowing, giving offerings and throwing water.

Easter weekend marked the Khmer New Year, which is the biggest festival in Cambodia. CoDeC celebrated by holding a Buddhist New Year service in the office (see photo). We spent most of the day decorating the place with tinsel and flowers and preparing presents for the monks. Three monks led the service, which again involved lots of chanting, bowing, giving offerings and throwing water.

Six months on

I have been in Cambodia for six months now, and I must say it seems a great deal longer! By now I had expected to:
· be fluent in Khmer
· have got used to the heat
· be doing useful things at work
· be thinner
Sadly, none of these have come to pass yet, but I am still hopeful...! One thing I did not expect was that my two Kompong Thom friends, Rachel and Bram, would be moving to Siem Reap in June. This means that I will soon be the only westerner in town. Now I really need to learn Khmer!

Welcome Visitors!

I've just said goodbye to my first two sets of visitors. On March 13, I met my parents in Siem Reap and joined their tour group for a few days, including a visit to Ankor War, before we all decamped to my home in Kompong Thom. A week after they left, Ken came over for two weeks, and we toured around the country on buses. We managed to see rare water dolphins on the Mekong river, went on an elephant trek in remote hill tribe country, relaxed in a French colonial seaside resort, went clam digging. We visited ancient temples, pagodas, museums, palaces and lots of wonderful places, plus some very grim places, including the killing fields of the Pol Pot regime. It was lovely to see the folks from home, and to catch up on news. I really enjoyed being a tourist in Cambodia; it's going to be very hard to go back to work on Monday!