"Things"

  Living away from a first world country for a little while allows me, at the very least, to understand some things I took for granted being raised in fact-paced American society with the world at my fingertips. 

Things I Will Never Do in the US Again

1. Complain about doing laundry – wish a washing machine.  What was I thinking? You put clothes in with some detergent and push a button, perhaps two.  Then maybe an hour later put them into a dryer and push yet another button (O the energy required).  Here I do laundry by hand in a big tin bucket while Cambodian squatting and then hang my clothes to dry on the line – which takes a few days because it’s the rainy season and dampness pervades the air. Needless to say the smell test rules my laundry chore.
2. Say, “I don’t care” when someone asks me what I want to eat. I do care – anything but rice.
3. Take a short/cold shower.  Bucket showers will cure you of any unnatural urge to do this.  Take a long hot shower and don’t let anyone try to convince you otherwise. 
4. Throw just anything in the garbage.  For Pete’s sake, recycle. There is no waste management system in Cambodia and people just burn piles and piles of trash in front of their houses.  Yes, I worry about my respiratory health as well as the stratosphere.
5. Underestimate the importance of toilet paper.  And everything that implies.

BUT having lived here for longer than “a few months,” there are some things that I really appreciate about my home away from home:

Things I Really Like About Cambodia

1. Using facial expressions and a year-long game of charades to understand and be understood in this country.  It can get old but is ridiculously fun and who can’t use more entertainment in their lives?
2. The lack of information – I don’t mean ignorance, I mean that in America there is an information overload that contributes quite nicely to procrastination and it’s kind of cool to be unconnected for a little while.  I would not recommend it for two years straight…but still.
3. Life is an open invitation.  Literally.  Everyone in my village knows each other and each other’s life stories, and while that can seem invasive to someone raised in American culture where privacy is a key part of our lives, I have found that Khmer people are genuinely interested in everyone around them.  They are super friendly and when they ask me about my family, or why I don’t have a husband yet, it is in no way a malicious implication, they really are interested in my reasons.  People come and go at my house, wander up and off, into and out of conversations, and it’s all very normal here.  There is an open invitation to sit and chat and (usually) partake in whatever is being nommed on at the moment during most parts of the day.  If you were to take a slice out of my life in the village here, you could use it to define the word “community.”  Really.  It’s nice to be involved, even when you’re not.
4. My health center staff.  They are super.  Not only did they open their arms to me when I walked to work the first day, they help me with my Khmer and are always willing to not only teach me new things but learn new things that I am able to teach them. 
5. My host family.  They are hands down the best part about living here in my village so far away from everything I know and love in the States. 

And for good measure:

Things I Think About and Have a Neutral Opinion Of or Otherwise Cannot Locate Anything to Make A Passionate Plea About.

Or,

Pointless Things To Complain About

1. Mismatching chopsticks.  Are chopsticks not hard enough? Come on, chopstick-makers of the world, can we all just agree on a generic chopstick length so that there is a balance?
2. Those little kids who know only one English word (HELLO) and feel the need to scream it in my direction at every opportunity they can.  Every day I go running along the same road. Every day I pass the same children playing outside of their houses. Every day they drop what they are doing and yell at the top of their lungs “HELLOHELLOHELLOHELLOHELLO!!!!” to me both on the way down the road and on the way back.  I have been here running almost every day for 10 months. What are they trying to accomplish?  I’ve turned it into a game though, only the ones who really put effort into it get a response.
3. Khmer People who think I look Khmer.  For anyone who has not met me or looked at the photos I post, I am not Khmer.  Khmer people, for the most part, think I look Khmer – and they get confused when I open my mouth and butcher their language.  I am not offended by this because I think Khmer people are unattractive (I don’t), I am offended because I am under the self-induced illusion that everything about me screams, “AMERICAN” and those who find themselves around me should be overwhelmed by my Americanness.
• This goes along with 3b - . Europeans who think I look Khmer.  This astonishes me, mostly because I am not Khmer.  True story: one day at my health center, an Italian doctor came to visit with some NGO based in Sihanoukville and in the process of saying hello to the rest of the staff, said hello to me and proceeded to speak to me through a translator.  Let me be clear – she spoke English to the translator (who could tell I am a foreigner), who spoke to me in Khmer.  What did I do? Obviously I played along. Wouldn’t you?
4. KhmEnglish.  I generally understand English, and for the most part I can understand Khmer.  What is the most difficult thing in the world is when people decide to interchange the two and mix the languages in an attempt to show off their knowledge…or maybe just because their brain is used to using both languages and it’s easier to express using both.  I’ll admit, I do it from time to time and when I realize I am doing it I try to just stick to one or the other.  There are some people who maybe they think it sounds cool (?) when really it’s just confusing.  Are you speaking English? Did I forget my language? Are you speaking Khmer? Why haven’t I heard those words before? Usually I am just like, “Listen buddy, pick a language, any language, and stick with it. Thanks.”
5. The endless bowls of rice. No, they are not filling. Yes, I will have just one more bowl.  Maybe this time it will taste different. 

xo-Amanda