It is hard to believe that March is already here! I have now been away for over two months, already longer than Cambodia part one, and in that two months have traveled around five countries...not bad. In my upcoming five months I have decided to enact a policy of leaving the country once a month. This sounds over the top and extravagant, but with occasional $15 flight deals to a weekend in Malaysia, or Thailand, or Vietnam, anything is possible.
This past weekend we went down to Sihanoukville, Cambodia, for the weekend. A weekend at the beach sounded lovely (and for the most part it was) for a now city dweller.
Since I am now an expat aid worker and thus forms of injustice are constantly on my mind...I should mention that Sihanoukville is also home to some of the most blatant forms of child labor and trafficking. Children sell bracelets, fruit, food, post cards, all sorts of things up and down the beach front. They are not paid for what they do, but their parents, aunties, uncles, basically pimps, take the proceeds. They are not able to go to school and it is heartbreaking to have to keep saying no to a seven year old looking up at you.
I've been told that buying from street children or giving money to beggars is just putting money back into the system. The street children will still be trafficked, or in many cases just rented by their parents, to do work if there is money going into the system. The key to ending this form of child labor would be to either enact sustainable laws or commit to somehow alleviate poverty enough that this type of desperation would not exist. Minor challenges for me to solve in the upcoming years.
Other thoughts on Cambodia include customer service. I noticed this because in Sihanuokville, which was catered almost exclusively to Westerners the idea of customers server was entirely different than back home in Phnom Penh. In the US, we focus a great deal on customer service whereas here things move a little slower. It is not for better or for worse, it is just very different. It is not unusual for a person to pick up their phone in the middle of checking you out of a store, and then glare at you as if you are eavesdropping on a private conversation. This drove me crazy when I first arrived, but after a great, great deal of consciously trying to accept it, it is finally coming together. Perhaps this will need to be unlearned if I end up in NYC next year.
My bike riding has slowly been improving as the days go on, I have only run into two cars (yes, you read that correctly- I ran into the cars. They may or may not have been parked and entirely stationary). My thought is that after another month I will consider a moto, but until then am up for the challenge of getting around solely by bicycle. In fact, the major deterrent came when I bought my first rice maker and could not fit my rice maker in my bike basket- another moment when I realized that the fact that I had that problem meant I was in Cambodia.
Other difficulties include trying to stay focused on where I am and what I am doing, even while choosing a law school. It’s a difficult and important decision and one that should not be taken lightly, but this is probably the only time I will be living in Cambodia and thus it is an experience that should be focused on and enjoyed. Finding a balance between the two is an ongoing struggle.
