It is nice to be back in Cambodia. Heavy monsoon clouds have greeted us here in Kampong Thom. Warm rain is falling this afternoon, trees are shaking with the wind and the fields have become finally green now that farmers are planting the new rice. At the exit from Pochentong airport yesterday evening the dump warm air filled me its tropical-Asia-flavour. I kind feel at home as here is where we have the house and our life. I know it is temporary, but the other day while being in the train to Helsinki I clearly felt that the place doesn’t really matters. Home is where the family lives and where we try to make our place feel ours. Indeed it can change and it will, but what matters is that the three of us are the one who make a place home.
Thirty Years
Thirty years have passed since the North Vietnamese troops entered Saigon, marking the end of the American war, as it is called in this part of the world. That event has been remembered in these days with speeches and concerts in Ho Chim Min City (today’s Saigon) and Hanoi. However, I believe that with three million Vietnamese and fifty-eight thousand Americans who died in that war, there aren’t winners, in a war, there are only losers.
On the 17th of April, another 30th anniversary was remembered here in Cambodia: the fall of Phnom Penh by the Khmer Rouge. That day officially marked the defeat of the Republican army. The Khmer Rouge were greeted by thousands of people who joined in the streets with clothes to demonstrate their happiness for the end of the war that lasted almost five years. That day also marked the beginning of three years, eight months and twenty days of suffering and deprivation for the Cambodian population. The political agenda of the Pol Pot regime was to rebuild the nation on equity against individualism, common property against private property, rural life against urban corrupted life, abolition of money, self-sufficiency of agricultural production, dissolution of religion and family ties, and international isolation. It also resulted in the death of almost two million Cambodians.
I would like to remember those events through the story of one of my colleagues: Bun Chan Lyla.
“My name is Bun Chan Lyla, and I am 47 years old. I am born in Kampong Thom. I was about 12 when my family we left and went to Siem Reap. I remember that it was 1970, and the Khmer Rouge were fighting the Government troop of General Lon Lon. The war was all over the country at that time. I left for Siem Reap with my mother, one brother and two sisters. My father, who was a teacher, stayed in Kampong Thom. We lived in Kbal Speu, a village near Siem Reap that was under Vietnamese-Khmer Rouge control and with little fighting. We stayed there until 1973, when the situation worsened so much that we had to leave. We took a boat to Phnom Penh across the Tonlé Sap Lake with many other people. The lake is huge, and in the middle of it it is impossible to see the shores. At one point, just in the middle of it, we were spotted by two fighter planes that plunged towards us, shooting with their machine guns. I saw the water jumping up on the side of the boat. People were screaming, seeing that the fighters plunged a second time. We opened part of the boat’s roof to show that we were refugees. I remember that my mother gave me a white cloth and told me to go on the roof and show it to the pilots, so I did. Fortunately, the plane left.
It took us three days to reach Phnom Penh. During the night, we had to sleep on the lake shores in hidden places, and we were all very afraid. Me and my family when we arrived in Phnom Penh, we had nothing: no money and only the clothes we were wearing. A relative who had a good position in the administration hosted us for some time. I remember that we had only one set of clothes and looked really as impoverished people look. It wasn’t easy to get work in Phnom Penh. Thousands of refugees arrived every day in the town. After some time, another uncle offered us one room in his house for the five of us. We stayed there for about one year. I had a job, waking up very early every morning I was selling bread (French baguettes) in the streets of our neighbourhood, shouting “Nom pan! Nom pan!” (Bread! Bread!). When the bread was sold, I went to school. My sisters were also selling some food so that we were able to buy food for ourselves.
Then April 1975 arrived. At that time, Phnom Penh was full of refugees from all over the country. The Khmer Rouge had surrounded the town and mined the main rivers. The town fell, and they came in on the 17th of April. In the following two-three days, they immediately started the evacuation of the town. They went around the streets with microphones saying that American planes could bomb the town at any moment and that everybody had to leave. Who delayed the departure or tried to hide were shot. Together with my relatives, we left Phnom Penh on the 21st. We were in large groups of people that the Khmer Rouge made walk south to Kampong Speu. I saw many bodies on the side of the road: military, Khmer Rouge, civilian, many many bodies. There were also burning houses, and shootings could always be heard. I remember sick and injured people pushed onto their hospital beds and forced to walk with us. I saw the corpse of a woman lying in the grass a few meters from me with her baby, trying to get milk from the breast.
We could not help. We could not help anyone. If we did, we would have been killed on the spot. Now and then, we could stop and rest, but never too long as other groups were pushing behind us and the Khmer Rouge were shouting at us and ordered at gunpoint to move on. We were ten people in my family and relatives when we left Phnom Penh and only four when we arrived”.
Kampong Thom 3. May 2005
Arnaldo
Tiredness
An Italian journalist who lived for more than twenty years in Asia once wrote that traveling and living abroad makes you tired, it makes you older. After three and half years in Cambodia I start to believe that this is true. I feel a bit tired, though I am not sure I feel older yet.
Signs of this tiredness are more evident after a trip to another country, having the opportunity to observe another way of life a different culture. I am just back from a short trip from Malaysia where I spent together with Katja and Olga about 10 days. When planning the trip we have been thinking about our destination and decided to go to a country we did not know yet and that had good facilities to make it easier to travel around with a baby. Malaysia was our choice. Kuala Lumpur is just two hours by plane from Phnom Penh, and we heard that infrastructure and communications were quite developed.
The presentation of what Malaysia is today starts immediately at the new international airport. Marble everywhere, people in orderly queues, electric mini-train that links the two terminals and that arrives and departs next to the coffee/restaurants area. Station with train service to downtown Kuala Lumpur that is located three levels directly below the luggage claim area. At the departure track electronic ticketing machines. Kuala Lumpur is a very modern town and it presents itself after twenty minutes by train with the view of the huge Petronas towers. In between the seventy kilometers that separate the airport and the town there is just one plantation after another of oil palms.
As soon as we reach the central station again we are immersed in our Western world as the train station built on various levels is basically a shopping centre. After Cambodia however I felt a kind of relief to be able to have an ice coffee where the ices cube where safe to drink. It was also a relieve to have a ticket counter where to ask prices and get information and having almost everybody around able to speak English.
Kuala Lumpur (KL) as Malaysia itself is a mix of cultures, languages and religions. Around KL there are mosques, churches, Hindu temples and pagodas. The building reflect also the style and the culture they belong to and it is amazing to see the change by walking in little India with all the sari and silk shops and stepping into China town with hundreds of small shops selling almost anything still making business in bricked old colonial houses.
KL surprised me in being relatively small (just over 1 ml people) and having so many green areas and parks where people go an jog or walk in the early morning and evenings. One interesting exercise along the health path in the park was for the foot massage. On the floor a path of cement is covered with small stones that the cement keep together, walking slowly on the stones seem to be a popular exercise that help to improve the fitness of other part of the body. Stones are grouped according to sizes to produce a certain effect and pressure a certain part of the feet. I tried as well and felt only pain.
The few days we spent in KL have been good and have also helped us to learn how to accommodate Olga’s wishes. She wakes up very early, needs a short nap in the morning and another in the afternoon and goes to bed at around 7:30 in the night. The first evening a bit inexperienced with the distance in the two we manage to get back to our hotel only at 9:30 but Olga did not complain too much and slept in the taxi that brought us back.
The next destination after KL has been the Camerons Highlands and the town of Tana Ratah at about 4:30 hours north by bus from KL. We really wanted to escape the heat of the dry season in Cambodia and wanted to see some hills if not mountains. We found what we were looking for. The rainy season had just started in the mountains so we enjoyed the nice mild temperature, and the noise of the monsoons showers on the trees. We did some short jungle walks that have been made easier by a nice rucksack to carry Olga. She has been amazed by having plants and trees all around her and above. She used to sit just watching above her, in the web of leaves of all kind of shape and size. The Highlands are famous areas of tea plantations so we did our very touristic tour to observe how tea is processed to be sold. Because of the tea plantations the Highlands are an area with very strong Indian influence and actually it seemed that the majority of the people were India. It seemed at some point to be somewhere else, in the tea growing area of northern India.
Olga seemed to enjoy the place, but we also learned that the place she liked to most has been the guesthouse room. There is were both of us are and were her toys are, so jungle walk are ok but they must not last too long. Going out to eat is also ok, especially if there is a high baby chair form where to drop systematically all kinds of food and paper towels, leaving to us to say we are sorry.
Next destination, direction West from the highlands, the island of Pangkor. We decided to go there to have also a chance to see how the seaside in Malaysia is. The best snorkeling and diving islands re on the east coast, nevertheless it has been good to be there. Olga definitely likes more the seas than the mountains. The island s was not busy as the monsoon season is starting and this year there are fewer tourists anyway. Good seafood, nice beach, white sand, easy to travel around with funny pink taxi-vans.
Back in KL we visited a Japanese friend, Yamico, working for UN. We met her in Cambodia before she moved here for the work and was good to see her and hear from here how is expat life in KL. Very different from Cambodia, she said. Malaysia is a developed country, in KL in full of shopping centers and you can find almost anything. She does not miss anything of the Japanese cuisine for example. Outside KL is of course different. There are villages and ever tribes that live in poverty, but the government tries to improve the situation. She finds that meeting people was easier in Phnom Penh. In KL many most of the foreigner work for companies, very few of them are involved in development work, therefore it is difficult to join and meet people in this field. In Phnom Penh everybody is involved in one way or another in development and therefore it is easier to get in contact with people.
In Italy we have a say: the grass of the neighbor is always greener. By that we mean that what we tend to consider more positive things that relate for example to another country. This is particularly true when traveling abroad and coming form a longer period in a country like Cambodia, I found myself looking at the bright side of Malaysia. But I am aware of that and I guess I also needed to feel a bit of comfort and not having to bargain for prices and fares. Though I know that Malaysia has much more resources than Cambodia, I needed maybe to see that development when there is commitment and will is possible and can succeed. I am sure that after a longer time over there also the problem will become more apparent: too much consumerism, too much logging, conflicts and tensions between the various ethnic groups. But for the meantime was nice to be surprised by the country.
We know we will be living at the end of the year and move back to Europe. Knowing that gives the impression of walking downhill. I feel less involved with the problems and try to avoid more discussion about the poverty, corruption, development. I feel this tiredness inside me. There to many problems in this country, at all level, involving everybody. Corruption and low education are to me the key elements. Corruption show they face as soon as one arrive at Phnom Penh airport in the area for the visa and passport control. Often there are queues because several planes land at the same time. In this areas there are more custom officer than needed and several of them just walk around seemingly spotting people, however by handing out a 5$ note, the passport can be discreetly taken by an officer, stamped, brought to the other side of the custom where one will be called jumping the whole queue.
This was our short trip to Malaysa. One more surprise at 00:09 of March 29th has been the tremor that woke us up and that linked us for a moment that seemed never ending with Western Sumatra and the second big earthquake that hit there.
arnaldo
Kampong Thom, 6.3.2005
Cambodian Story by Katja
Dear all,
After a long break,
here you are.
Again the hot time, it is never cold though, but now it is hot and it is
only the end of February the two next months are the real hot season, it
is now the fourth hot season for us in Cambodia and maybe the last.
Thermometer reached 37 degrees inside the house yesterday. It is a bit
like holiday feeling on Saturday afternoon going around in your house in
underwear and drinking soda with ice… We were first annoyed that the
road work on our village road has been standing again another month, no
progress for several weeks, but now I am happy to have a bad road, this
keeps the traffic slow and cars minimum, so it means also much less
dust. Hot is still OK, hot and dusty is not. One year ago I was facing
the hot season and the dust, Olga in the belly, now it is much easier to
carry on.
She is lovely now, so enthusiastic about everything, world is so full of
wonders every moment when you are eight months. Or, I say lovely, but
yes she can also be quite annoying, this is the time that she loves mum
(aiti), me, so much that sometimes she can not leave me alone. She needs
to keep on eye every move I do and eat my nose and pull my hair whenever
she gets close enough. Of course I still can escape to the work, which
is my strong card. Anyway Chan (Olga’s nanny) is almost the second
important person in her life. But Arnaldo might be the second one. At
least she loves dancing with him.
Three and half years in Cambodia, goes fast, but still the first year
here seems so far away. I guess having kids makes life so intensive that
it is difficult to remember how it was before. Now the scope of life is
a bit different, we are still here, we are in Cambodia, among these
people and in this environment. Everyday facing the difficulties and
also the pleasures of being here, but still in the first place is our
little family, and now we also have our mind that is sometimes full of
thoughts about the future after this year, after Cambodia.
I remember when we first came here the people (foreigners) that had been
here a long time seemed quite pessimistic about the future of this
country. Are we the same now? Maybe we do not have many illusions and
not that much idealism (which is good to have in some quantity), and
maybe I am now living more my own life and not thinking the life of the
people here so much. I am still doing fundraising in my organisation
although there would be many other things that I would prefer to do.
..They (Cambodian staff) still did not learn how to do it. And there are
many things that are not so right, not so effective and not so clear in
my work and in the work of our staff, and I am here to advice them. So
maybe I have not given the right advice and maybe they have not tried
enough. There are still poor people here which is not a surprise. If
there is any less poor because of us being here I do not know. And these
are not the lines you write to the project proposal.
But then again there are little moments with the people I am working
with and people that are involved in our projects that I feel proud of.
I am happy to see that some things happen. Few weeks ago, donor
representative came to see our project and we brought her to the target
pagoda. Key monk was delivering environmental lesson and everything went
quite well, some things were not right, the monk was delivering lesson
of the garbage and placed a coca cola can in the sack that was supposed
to be plastic waste…. (I think only I noticed that something went
wrong…) but anyhow there was good atmosphere, many people and monks
were joking in the end so that everyone was laughing and it is also
important to have fun when learning about waste management isn’t it? So,
but this was not the thing I wanted to tell, but the key farmer of our
project that asked us to come to see his garden in the village after the
lesson was finished in the pagoda. It was wonderful, I was amazed myself
what a great garden he had managed to make in the village where water in
the dry season was so scares and almost nobody else had a garden. He was
very proud to present his eggplant, tomatoes, grafted fruit tree
saplings, compost and water pond. And I was so proud to be the advisor
of the project where he was involved, for the people like him I keep on
doing the fundraising…
And the second thing, a small thing the monk counterpart of our project
wanted to participate on the English and Environment lesson that I try
to organize every now and then in the office for our staff to learn some
basic environmental concepts and at the same time learn some new
vocabulary in English and he participated last week. The topic was seed
diversity, and we put the words that they did not understand on the
board after they had red the background text for the lesson. One of the
words was /survive and/ he did not know this word. And because our staff
speaks good English it was one of them that explained that survive means
to stay alive, and after a moment the monk counterpart said:
“survive…like some of the people in the Tsunami disaster, they
/survive/”. Yes, right, good, he understood! But later after the lesson,
I still thought about the whole thing him being there on our lesson, he
trying to catch up with our staff that has been learning English since
they were in the secondary school. And he, three years ago when I met
him first time he did not speak a word in English, he was quite shy and
did not express his ideas…..and now three years later, he can connect
the new English words that he is learning to the events of the world.
His world must have changed a bit since we met first time and since he
started in our project. It has been a long process for him to collect
the courage and to take his place as a monk counterpart of the project
and to really start acting as a teacher in his community, but that day
and also today I feel proud to have such a monk counterpart in our
project, and privileged to witness the change.
Small things you might say, yes they are, only small things. But I
suppose these are the small things that give me the feeling that it has
been a good thing to be here, I suppose we need to justify our chooses
in some way. And then again move on, make a turn or choose a new path.
It is warm here, ventilator is humming high on the sealing and I still
feel sweat dropping down on the back. I said to Arnaldo this morning,
when we were having lunch in the kitchen with banana trees glimmering in
the sunshine, this is what we will miss one day sitting on the veranda
of our summer cottage in Finland. It is cold and cloudy and millions of
mosquitoes humming around, we will say, “yes, but the weather was so
wonderful in Cambodia, it was so hot and always sunshine.”
And today it is.
Katja
After a long break,
here you are.
Again the hot time, it is never cold though, but now it is hot and it is
only the end of February the two next months are the real hot season, it
is now the fourth hot season for us in Cambodia and maybe the last.
Thermometer reached 37 degrees inside the house yesterday. It is a bit
like holiday feeling on Saturday afternoon going around in your house in
underwear and drinking soda with ice… We were first annoyed that the
road work on our village road has been standing again another month, no
progress for several weeks, but now I am happy to have a bad road, this
keeps the traffic slow and cars minimum, so it means also much less
dust. Hot is still OK, hot and dusty is not. One year ago I was facing
the hot season and the dust, Olga in the belly, now it is much easier to
carry on.
She is lovely now, so enthusiastic about everything, world is so full of
wonders every moment when you are eight months. Or, I say lovely, but
yes she can also be quite annoying, this is the time that she loves mum
(aiti), me, so much that sometimes she can not leave me alone. She needs
to keep on eye every move I do and eat my nose and pull my hair whenever
she gets close enough. Of course I still can escape to the work, which
is my strong card. Anyway Chan (Olga’s nanny) is almost the second
important person in her life. But Arnaldo might be the second one. At
least she loves dancing with him.
Three and half years in Cambodia, goes fast, but still the first year
here seems so far away. I guess having kids makes life so intensive that
it is difficult to remember how it was before. Now the scope of life is
a bit different, we are still here, we are in Cambodia, among these
people and in this environment. Everyday facing the difficulties and
also the pleasures of being here, but still in the first place is our
little family, and now we also have our mind that is sometimes full of
thoughts about the future after this year, after Cambodia.
I remember when we first came here the people (foreigners) that had been
here a long time seemed quite pessimistic about the future of this
country. Are we the same now? Maybe we do not have many illusions and
not that much idealism (which is good to have in some quantity), and
maybe I am now living more my own life and not thinking the life of the
people here so much. I am still doing fundraising in my organisation
although there would be many other things that I would prefer to do.
..They (Cambodian staff) still did not learn how to do it. And there are
many things that are not so right, not so effective and not so clear in
my work and in the work of our staff, and I am here to advice them. So
maybe I have not given the right advice and maybe they have not tried
enough. There are still poor people here which is not a surprise. If
there is any less poor because of us being here I do not know. And these
are not the lines you write to the project proposal.
But then again there are little moments with the people I am working
with and people that are involved in our projects that I feel proud of.
I am happy to see that some things happen. Few weeks ago, donor
representative came to see our project and we brought her to the target
pagoda. Key monk was delivering environmental lesson and everything went
quite well, some things were not right, the monk was delivering lesson
of the garbage and placed a coca cola can in the sack that was supposed
to be plastic waste…. (I think only I noticed that something went
wrong…) but anyhow there was good atmosphere, many people and monks
were joking in the end so that everyone was laughing and it is also
important to have fun when learning about waste management isn’t it? So,
but this was not the thing I wanted to tell, but the key farmer of our
project that asked us to come to see his garden in the village after the
lesson was finished in the pagoda. It was wonderful, I was amazed myself
what a great garden he had managed to make in the village where water in
the dry season was so scares and almost nobody else had a garden. He was
very proud to present his eggplant, tomatoes, grafted fruit tree
saplings, compost and water pond. And I was so proud to be the advisor
of the project where he was involved, for the people like him I keep on
doing the fundraising…
And the second thing, a small thing the monk counterpart of our project
wanted to participate on the English and Environment lesson that I try
to organize every now and then in the office for our staff to learn some
basic environmental concepts and at the same time learn some new
vocabulary in English and he participated last week. The topic was seed
diversity, and we put the words that they did not understand on the
board after they had red the background text for the lesson. One of the
words was /survive and/ he did not know this word. And because our staff
speaks good English it was one of them that explained that survive means
to stay alive, and after a moment the monk counterpart said:
“survive…like some of the people in the Tsunami disaster, they
/survive/”. Yes, right, good, he understood! But later after the lesson,
I still thought about the whole thing him being there on our lesson, he
trying to catch up with our staff that has been learning English since
they were in the secondary school. And he, three years ago when I met
him first time he did not speak a word in English, he was quite shy and
did not express his ideas…..and now three years later, he can connect
the new English words that he is learning to the events of the world.
His world must have changed a bit since we met first time and since he
started in our project. It has been a long process for him to collect
the courage and to take his place as a monk counterpart of the project
and to really start acting as a teacher in his community, but that day
and also today I feel proud to have such a monk counterpart in our
project, and privileged to witness the change.
Small things you might say, yes they are, only small things. But I
suppose these are the small things that give me the feeling that it has
been a good thing to be here, I suppose we need to justify our chooses
in some way. And then again move on, make a turn or choose a new path.
It is warm here, ventilator is humming high on the sealing and I still
feel sweat dropping down on the back. I said to Arnaldo this morning,
when we were having lunch in the kitchen with banana trees glimmering in
the sunshine, this is what we will miss one day sitting on the veranda
of our summer cottage in Finland. It is cold and cloudy and millions of
mosquitoes humming around, we will say, “yes, but the weather was so
wonderful in Cambodia, it was so hot and always sunshine.”
And today it is.
Katja
Picture
Today I received an email from a friend from Finland. It was a forwarded message that found its way until my PC here in Kampong Thom, Cambodia click after click, along a strange and unforeseeable sequence of connections. It had an attachment a picture of a young child, of two year of age who has lost his parents in the Tsunami that hit Thailand almost two weeks ago. He has a Scandinavian face, blond hairs, almost white, blue eyes. scratches in the face, a bandage around his right had. he looks down, not in the camera. It made a strong impression on me, it is like the effect of thee disaster that hit this part of the world has reached also this place, has become all of a sudden more real that the news and picture we can see in TV.
The boy is just two years old, he does not speak and in the hospital they do not even know from which country he is from. Hopefully the message and the next forward of the email will help to find at least some relatives of him. Let’s hope.
Angkor 1/2 Marathon
As every year, the beginning of December has brought the International Half Marathon of Angkor here in Cambodia. I decided last year to prepare myself and join for the first time such a run. The concerns were many: the distance, the humidity, getting enough stamina with training, and the early departure time of the run. About three months ago I googled the web searching for sites that helped me to make up a training schedule. Eventually I found one who provided a full preparation for a whole marathon in four months. I printed it our and displayed in our kitchen here in Kampong Thom. It is not easy to find a place to practice although we live in a rural areas. The rainy season from May to September leaves the rural roads with a lot of mud and not enough time to dry between one shower and another. The dry season, means also a lot of dust along he laterite roads in the fields. Luckily I found a one mile stretch not far from our house between two villages. It is an old Food for Work roads build in the mid of the 1990s and now in bad conditions. Though it is a bit bumpy it has the advantage that there aren’t cars or trucks, just slow carts with oxen or water buffaloes. So that has been my practice distance coming ad going, one mile after one mile.
Initially I could really follow the schedule I printed from the web, but later more important things took over: most importantly the birth of our daughter Olga in June. I could still practice after her birth, but I felt also that I wanted to have time with her after the work and before the sudden sunset of the tropics. So I slowed down nod manage to run a max distance of 13 km.
Then the race day came. We left to Siem Reap on Saturday, the day before. We stayed at the usual guesthouse and had a nice day in the town: the market shopping for souvenirs and handicraft and a nice pasta plate at FCC in the evening. Went to sleep early but could not sleep. I guess I waited for long time this moment and now it was there, very close. Just one night away.
I dreamt of a marathon somewhere else, provably in Milan. I arrived at the start line with half an hour to go before the gun shot and I realised I had not with my jogging shoes. I immediately realised that the I had not enough time to go back home and get them as the whole town had been closed to traffic because of the race. So that was it. No shoes, no run. I woke up. Olga next to me was making some noise while sleeping. The faint light of the day was coming in from the windows, and the ceiling ventilator was going round and round. I realised it was just a dream and that things were ok, I was in time. Woke up and had few bananas for breakfast with some tea. I put on my jogging shoes and drove to Angkor Wat temple were the start and finish line had been drawn.
I was supposed to find out that there were several hundred maybe one thousand and five hundreds people already there ready to start of the various races of the day: 21 Km, 10Km, 5 km. The race has been sponsored by various Japanese companies so that after Khmer the official language was Japanese and not English. Disabled people and mine victims were also there ready to start in the fresh air of early morning.
The opening ceremony did not take too much time. Brief speeches in Khmer and Japanese and the start of a olimpic flame while the participant warmed up doing stretching. Then the shot of the gun, everybody pushing hard to get ahead. I choose a slow pace since I do not have much experiences in these long races.
What I remember then is the shadows of the high trees of Angkor, the long walls of the monuments, the huge entrance door of Ta Prom, the four faces sculptures of Bayon and the Elephant terrace. In the end 21 kilometres did not seem so long, probably it was because of the scenery.
For the one who are interested in this, my time has been 2h 00m 23″. Next year I will try to do better.
Arnaldo
————————————————
Arnaldo Pellini
Civil society advisor
DED / GTZ CBRDP Kampong Thom
012 791572
DED
PO Box 628
Phnom Penh – Cambodia
PO Box 628
Phnom Penh – Cambodia
Siem Reap Half Marathon
Yesterday has been the day. My first half marathon among the beautiful monuments of Angkor. I made it and finished in 2hrs 0min 23sec. It was really worthwhile. More on my next message.
Arnaldo
It has Been Sometime
It has been sometime. I know. Anyhow we are here. Last 12 months in Cambodia before moving back to Finland. I will come back soon with some more stories from this unique country.
Arnaldo
Child
How it is to go to Cambodia with Olga, one month old child? Of course not for traveling. Holidays with one month old child are not exactly the thing that every parent wishes for. There is enough new world to get used to inside the walls of home, going to other side of the world is not really necessary at this stage.
But now that our life and home happens to be here, on the other side of the world, it is also the home for Olga and here is where she will have the walls of her first home, inside which to learn the wonders of the life. Of course first she has to face the change of temperature, light and noises. It is quite different world here compared to Finland even if you keep your eyes closed. Temperature during the midday is from 30-34 degrees (30 is still very fine, but over 33 starts to be difficult….). It comes pitch dark at 18.30, (this is the time when house is full of shadows and contrast of dark and light is threatening for her little mind), and that is a bit different from the early summer nights in Finland that are full of light. When there are no glasses in the windows it is like being outside whole day, and although our road is only quiet village street it is hundred times more full of life and noises than village road in Finland. There is man selling ice cream with loud music from the portable stereo, there are pigs screaming, party announcements from loudspeakers in the passing van, trucks and ox-carts. There are some things for a little girl to get used to.
Now we have been much inside the walls of this house. I myself do not remember spending so much time at home since the first weeks we came here. I still have two weeks of my very short maternity leave left, then the real reality starts. And even now my life seems full enough! Although I do not need to cook, wash laundry, clean house…which of course I would have to do if we would be in Finland. Yes I feel now it would be OK to start working few hours a day, but eight hours a day, where that time will come from? I’ve been drawing timetables already “the day of Olga and day of Mum”, with feeding, sleeping and working, but somehow these tables still keep on changing every day…and in two weeks, Olga will have to face a new change in her little life. First the environment and then even the presence of mother…Of course there are again things that I probably could not do while working in Finland. Like coming home every 2-3 hours to feed her. And not going at all to the office if there is a bad day…I will have as good opportunity as possible to work full time and be with my baby. Of course less field work, but I do not think there is problem for Cambodians to accept that.
And how is she coping then? First week was actually quite exhausting, not that I was really tired though, Olga slept well the dark and cool nights (in the evenings we were watching with Arnaldo movies after the demanding day). During the day Olga did not sleep and then this means that she was also crying a lot…” But she is crying a lot.” was one of the first comments of Chan who will then take care of her when I have to work.
But then there is time to adjust and it seems that with little kids it does not take that long in the end. Almost every day has been better after our first weekend in Kampong Thom. Now we have already reduced the horrible crisis cry for once or not at all per day. More sleeping during the day and little less in the night, but much more smiles and playing, much more time that she is also happy by herself, not only on the mother’s or farther’s shoulder walking around under the ventilator. We were very afraid about the hundreds of visitors that will come to see her as soon as we arrive here and start to shout and carry her all around…but there has not been that many, last weekend we were also completely alone, our little family. I am very grateful for all our Cambodian friends for that. I know they are very curious, but they have been very kind not to disturb us much now that Olga first have to get used to this place. And she will make this place her home too, actually we have not given her many alternatives.
Katja, Kampong Thom August 2004
It May be True
It may be true: life becomes more serious the more we grow older. Work commitments make us have more responsibilities and have less time to enjoy time for ourselves or with our friends. Moreover distance may come in between and we live more apart from friend and family. I myself live far away from family and friends and though I have made new friends living far away, I miss the friends back home and the relaxed feeling of being around a table in a countryside restaurant where we are linked by the memories of the past and the friendship we have now.
Then one evening we had friends over for dinner. He is German and she is from Philippines and they told us the story of Paking. Paking is an old man today, he is a carpenter who lives in the same islands in Southern Philippines where the two friends have their house. Actually is Paking himself who built the house. He is a very thou rough worker, they said, maybe a bit slow and taking breaks now and then disappearing for some days , but when he is back one can be sure that he will do a good job, paying attention to details and quality of the work.
Paking comes from a family of carpenters. Originally from the North of Philippines, his family moved to Manila where his father could find job as carpenter. The family was poor and Paking had to learn the job quite young in the beginning helping his father and learning the right skills. This was during the 1960s and at that time there was enough work in Manila. Then came the 1970s and the oil shocks, the situation was no more good, people started to look for jobs abroad. Paking did as well and went to Saudi Arabia getting a loan form a local money lender to pay for the flight.
So Paking went off. He got a first job in Saudi Arabia, probably Riad and then another one. Starting from simple carpenter he got more responsibilities and became the supervisor of several workers at the same time. He did not find too difficult to find jobs as one building after another was then build in Saudi Arabia. So time went fast and year after year he collected nine years in Saudi Arabia earning a good salary, repaying his debt, sending something home and saving for the day he was going back. Finally that day arrived and he was in the plane that brought him back to Manila. He was probably looking at the sea down under from the little windows of the plane, then the thin line of the coast and the slow decent towards the airport that make the tiny details of the land, his land, growing more familiar. He landed and finally could breathe the air of home. He was again in Manila, time to meet the friends again.
He phoned around and collected some people and gave them appointment to a famous pub in town: Ekuna. He went there met the friends and family friends and offered to drink paying with the savings he was still carrying with him. Then he offered another round and another one. Another one. Things got a out of hand and he decided to rent the all pub for the whole night, everybody could be his guest. The pub got full very fast and the rumours spread around fast about a party going on there. The Paking decided to rent the pub for the whole week. Everybody his guest, he got also some girls and dancers to come to the pub, then more girls and the pub rented for second week. Follow of people kept coming for days and nights, girls, young men, old men, friends of Paking and many unknown people. Music was playing loud, the air heavy of alcohol and smoke. But Paking did not gave up and rented the pub for a third week. And then the third week ended and Paking, like awakening from a sweet dream, realised that he had finished all the money he had saved in the years he worked in abroad. He was broke.
He went back to his island down in the south and started again with small carpenter jobs as people remembered well about his skills and had also heard about the great three weeks in Manila. Today one can hear Paking still telling this story, without regret. He is doing nicely, working for himself and slowly bringing up houses and buildings. Our friends told us that he sometime still feels the flame of the youth and goes for swimming. For swimming, I asked? Doing some sport in the nearby beach? No, swimming means, they said by moving the two harms in front of the like swimming, to play majung a Chinese gambling game made with stones like domino that have to be mixed on the top of a table moving the two harms like swimming. He goes there, makes some debt and come back to work the money he needs to repay them. His wife in the beginning was upset, then decided to follow him to one of the swimming session and now is more addicted than him. It is easy to spot them around the swimming table, in that island in the south of Philippines.
Arnaldo
7. February 2004
arnaldo.gtzkthom@online.com.kh