Over the last few weeks, the continuously surprising, interesting and unfathomable experiences have taken place under the guise of "normal activity" here in Phnom Penh. I will share some of them with you, because some are funny, some are scary, but all are true.
I got pulled over by the police, yet again, for not clearning an intersection on the light. Now I will not enter an intersection with anything less than 3 second remain on the timer (which we can see). People regularily and blatantly ignore red lights here, but I get stopped for entering the intersection on my green turn light, but not quite making it by the change of light (we're talking fractions of a second, here.) Anyways, They ask to see my licence, which thankfully I have, but was not renewed this year, so it was expired. We are clear off the story of a co-worker who was pulled over and when could not produce any licence, was stopped for nearly an hour, charged $50, and the cop took his key for the moto, and locked it into his own motorcycle seat. (The exasperated teacher eventually gave him all the money he had, around $20, and was released.) When my police man recognized the expiration date, he charged me $10. I said no way, I didn't break the law on my turn, but was polite about it. Within one minute, he said, "Ok, $2.50, no, a dollar for me, and one for him," motioning to his partner. I paid the $1.50 each and left.
I sat early the other morning for my quiet time, in our upstairs room, where I saw a flash in the corner of my eye, and thought, "that is one BIG gecko!" Sorry, once I saw the long tail that followed, I couldn't believe my eyes to see an actual rat in our house, running along the floor. I chased it downstairs, and saw it running in behind the stove. It definitely did not leave the house, but please enjoy picturing me in my housecoat, first thing in the morning, all crazed looking with a broom in my hand, ready to KILL this thing before I leave the house! Unfortunately, i couldn't fish it out. We can buy these "pizza pans" I call them, covered in really sticky glue, and they are rat traps of the finest kind. We set one up that night, and sure enough, the cutest little guy was stuck to the glue the next morning. Dean then drowned him in a plastic bag of water. (We have done this before, when they get into the car but NEVER dreamed we'd have one in our secure house--it must have gotten in an open door.) The next morning, the dogs in the back yard had caught another rat in the night and swiftly beheaded it, leaving the decapitated body outside out back door for us. That night, we caught another one in the trunk of our car (seriously!). That was 3 rats in 2 days.
We were driving away from school on a holiday this past week, after we finished playing volleyball. On our main road out of school, we right away noticed a huge crown at the end of the street. A huge crowd around a road usually means an accident of some kind. As we passed, it was chilling to see a slumped body of a man, lying on the road. This accident looked fatal, and it was more than sobering. As we drove away from the scene, we heard an ambulance coming. Yes, a normal sound for you first world people, but for here, this sound is still very rare, and very new. With people not knowing how to drive safely here anyways, please imagine what dangers will prevail when a flying ambulance is around, driving at speeds double and triple of what the rest of the traffic is doing. Dean was on his moto a ways behind me, when I heard the screeching on the ambulance brakes! Sure enough, someone was not getting out of his way, and both car and ambulance braked heavily, slid around and as Dean explains it, sort of bumped off each other's sides. The ambulance continued on to the scene like nothing had happened, and the stunned driver of the other car, slowly made a u-turn to, we assume, go talk to the ambulance driver and settle the score. All this, while that man lay dead or dying.
The dogs in the back yard have ticks. SO many of them this past weekend, that the ticks were swarming all over the ground, up the walls, all over the laundry--it was gross & weird! I don't know where they came from, as we have a big mango tree in the back, but no grass. There is a slew lake behind the house, but something ecologically had thrown the balance off, and they were literally swarming all over the back patio. Our back door is not sealed well, so they were starting to crawl in through the cracks. That's the last thing we need in this house, too! I took the lighter to start burning and popping them, but eventually the raid worked and the landlords took care of the outside. None anymore, but the poor dogs are red and raw from chewing themselves to get the pests off. They must have been so uncomfortable. NO problem for our landlord, though--he just straight "raided" the dogs. Not kidding, just sprayed them with Raid!
Maya continues to learn and absorb like a spong. She had to write her first set of SAT tests, that are administered at Logos every year from Gr. 1 to 8. These standardized, American tests help Logos with their long range planning for educational needs at the school. Anyways, for the Gr. 1's, things were really built up so that they were prepared for how to properly take these tests, etc. After two weeks of tests almost every day, they were tired out of them, rightly so, but it didn't seem to phase Maya too much. However, on the MOnday morning of the second week, she woke up and announced during breakfast that she had a headache. I asked if she was ok, and she replied that she was still ok to go to school, she just wouldn't think!!! Priceless.
A week ago Friday, Steph had a basketball game after school, followed by the senior boys having a game. I was busy scorekeeping, and at around 4:30, into the boys game, I head this crackling sound behind the gym wall, right where we are all sitting. Sure enough, the neighbor right next to our gym, decided to burn his grass right then and there, while our gym was FULL of people, and students running, and playing sports! The smoke was billowing all around, as his yard and grass literally butted right up against our gym wall! Thankfully, the wind was blowing just enough, that it was going the opposite direction of our gym , otherwise we'd have all been literally smoked out. Unbelievable timing.
This past week was Khmer New Year, so we had our "spring break" out here, although considering the start of hot season out here to be "spring" is still a funny concept. We had the priveledge of going to another Beach area in Cambodia, called Kep. Oh, it's only 2 1/2 hours from the city, and seeing as a taxi is "expensive" during the holiday, we didn't know if our car could make the trip, we decided to take the bus. Note to everyone: If you EVER have an opportunity to take a taxi or a bus in Cambodia, during Khmer New year where every city Cambodian goes out to the provinces to visit family and take gift and celebrate, ALWAYS choose the taxi! (By the way, a taxi is just some guy with a car, who drives people from one place to the next, for a random fee decided upon based on so many fluctuating factors, that you never know if you;re getting a deal or totally hosed!) We waited an hour for our bus, at the "bus station" which was really the sidewalk beside a very busy market, where the bus company had a storefront where they sold tickets and organized luggage. Most of our family was in bad spirits as the wait was just jammed with people, and stuff, and buses just kept pulling up on the street (I don't know HOW those drivers could manipulate those huge vehicles with the amound of traffic flowing around them), filling up with people and packages, then pulling off, leaving room for the next bus to pull up and do the same. They came from different directions, and some worker would tape up a hand printed "destination" sign on the side, and none of them seemed to be going where we bought out tickets for! After our bus finally arrived late, we were literally squeezing our way to get on it, and withing 2 feet of entering the door, Maya throws up! I couldn't believe it! She was tired, but not sick when we left, but I think that is how the heat and fatigue affects her. Anyways, after she lost her stomach, she was totally fine, slept a bit and was no worse for wear. If she had been sick just 2 minutes later, it would have been all over the bus! So Blessed we are! Oh, and by the way, there is no concept of "pick me up at the bus depot" out here--the driver simply kept dropping people off along the way--stop here, stop there, stop in the next 100 metres to let Joe off at his granny's house.... 6 hourse from leaving out house, we arrived at our hotel, only to have to wait another 2 hours until check in. Needless to say, we booked a "taxi" to take us back on the return trip and for a mere $20 more for our family, we arrived home in under 2 1/2 hours! Amazing.
We experienced Phnom Penh as a "ghost town" at the end of Khmer New Year, as we've been told, the city empties out over the festival, and literally, there is virtually no one in the city, the shops all close down, and things are so quiet. The streets are empty of drivers and it's easy to get around. So interesting; we have always been away over this break, and never experienced it first hand until this year. A surreal sort of eerieness. We also took a drive to the infamous "Koh Pich", or "Diamond Island" where the horrible stampede tragedy took place earlier this year, where hundreds of people were crushed and killed on the bridge. We drove over that bridge and that was eerie, too. The Island is an event centre, really, with stages, event grounds, a huge expo area and a large fair grounds! Yes, like rides, amusment park! We didn't know this even existed and there it was that night, all lit up, with people having a great time. It was so cool! We even went on a few thrill rides, one where Steph, Julia and I got thrown around a seated ride. I had paid $1 for each of us to ride with a $10, so I had change in my pocket. At the end of the ride, I checked my pocket and it was empty--thrown out with all the jerking! I had noticed someone reaching through the gate that marked off the ride, to pick up some money, and that's when I'd checked my pockets. I right away said that was my $7, as best I could in Khmer, and right away, they gave me back the money! I was surprised! The funniest was the girls wanted to play the dart/balloon game, to win some prizes. We each got 7 darts for 5000Riel ($1.25) and all took a turn, hitting about 3 balloons each! S & J took forever picking out thier prizes, and Steph felt pretty good about getting a bottle of her favorite Head and Shoulder's shampoo. We get home to hear Steph exclaim that it's not Head and SHoulders in the container! Sure enough, the sealed, packaged with celophane Head and Shoulders bottle, had been filled with some cheap liquid soap!
What a place this is! We'll know better for next time. Cheers and talk to you all soon! L :)
Recently Pari fractured her foot when she fell off a ladder while in the province of rural Cambodia. She is hobbling around but she is in good spirits. At first she had no money to go to a doctor but when some of our staff found out about the accident, they gave her the $80 to cover the costs to get it looked at and taken care of. She is all casted up.
To be born, to grow, and to live in a family with a loving dad and a sweet mom have always been the desires of my heart. The necessities of life are not all about oxygen, water, food, or shelter, but love and care from the ones who a person expects to be closest to him. All these I did not have. 
