forgot to add this story... it took longer than i thought to find a place to live, and the hotel was booked for the 5th night. so the owner tells me she has an air-con room available (which was great because i thought i would get tossed out on the street.)
i have 5 giant bags and a dog cage. i moved them out and waited to see my new room. next thing i know she yells something in khmer to the guys working at the hotel and they start hoisting my bags on their shoulders and heading for the door.
i ask the owner where the room was, and she said, "it in my house. the room belong to my parents. it very close."
next thing i know i am dragging my poor dog percy on his leash and following my train of luggage boys across the road in raging traffic like some sort of maharajah. sure enough, there is a house across the street and down a bit, and i am lead to a room in the back past the shiny family altar and the piles of flip flops at the door.
a giant picture of a dead relative looms over the bed. shiny massive wood furniture is crammed into every corner, piled with dusty toys, books, and other crap. looks like its been a while since grandma and grandpa were here. maybe they're dead, who knows.
speaking of dead people, i've seen two funeral processions now and they're fascinating. first you hear the gong of drums and some music which is hard to describe. oriental bagpipes perhaps?
anyway, a large rolling platform decorated with dragons (like in a parade) rolls by with the coffin. there are folding chairs with people dressed in white with white cloth around their heads and orange robed monks. rice is thrown from the back, and sometimes more people dressed in white follow in a procession.
Monday, August 6, 2007
Sunday, August 5, 2007
one week in pnh
favorite moments in phnom penh thus far...
orientation for new teachers, direct quotes from the orientation staff:
"maybe you go down waterfront after 11pm and some gangsters try to take you money. maybe you just give them one dollar, maybe two."
"if police try to stop you when you on motobike, you just keep driving. you pretend you not see them, it's okay, they do not have gas to give chase."
tuk tuk driver named Lucky says,
"my name lucky because my mother have me during pol pot time. i alive. i lucky. i have two children, age 4 and 6. they too much funny."
my new house is in a dead end street off of Mao Tse Tung Blvd. Very cute, typical Khmer wooden house on the top, cement on the bottom. White tile floors, white walls. not ecru, not eggshell-- but Clorox Bleach Insane Asylum from hell white. i am hiring one of the guards/drivers here at school to paint it. the cost to paint the entire place, you ask? including paint, brushes, labor, etc...$200. sweet.
spent the weekend cruising the markets for household stuff. i hired a car and driver for the day to carry all the stuff around. driver was a young former monk named Po Po. he clearly misses being a monk and has a photo of himself with the orange robes and bald head on his cell phone.
he bought his car with a loan from the bank-- a 1991 Toyota Camry with curtains on the windows. His other car is a tuk tuk, and he takes english classes in the morning and drives foreigners for the rest of the day. he supports his mother in the countryside-- his brother works at a garment factory seven days a week for pennies.
he also drove another teacher here around a few months ago, and he is keen to take us both out to his village in the countryside to meet his mother. he is also proud of the fact that his village has a zoo, so we will probably go there. god only knows the condition of the animals there, not exactly the free range zoos they have in the states.
orientation for new teachers, direct quotes from the orientation staff:
"maybe you go down waterfront after 11pm and some gangsters try to take you money. maybe you just give them one dollar, maybe two."
"if police try to stop you when you on motobike, you just keep driving. you pretend you not see them, it's okay, they do not have gas to give chase."
tuk tuk driver named Lucky says,
"my name lucky because my mother have me during pol pot time. i alive. i lucky. i have two children, age 4 and 6. they too much funny."
my new house is in a dead end street off of Mao Tse Tung Blvd. Very cute, typical Khmer wooden house on the top, cement on the bottom. White tile floors, white walls. not ecru, not eggshell-- but Clorox Bleach Insane Asylum from hell white. i am hiring one of the guards/drivers here at school to paint it. the cost to paint the entire place, you ask? including paint, brushes, labor, etc...$200. sweet.
spent the weekend cruising the markets for household stuff. i hired a car and driver for the day to carry all the stuff around. driver was a young former monk named Po Po. he clearly misses being a monk and has a photo of himself with the orange robes and bald head on his cell phone.
he bought his car with a loan from the bank-- a 1991 Toyota Camry with curtains on the windows. His other car is a tuk tuk, and he takes english classes in the morning and drives foreigners for the rest of the day. he supports his mother in the countryside-- his brother works at a garment factory seven days a week for pennies.
he also drove another teacher here around a few months ago, and he is keen to take us both out to his village in the countryside to meet his mother. he is also proud of the fact that his village has a zoo, so we will probably go there. god only knows the condition of the animals there, not exactly the free range zoos they have in the states.
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