Landmines, Sad Orphans, and Creatures in my Pants

It's 10:00 am in Siem Reap and I'm at an Internet cafe having just finished packing for our home stay visit for the next five days. We leave at 12 for a nearly five hour drive to the villages of our home stay. So, we had this morning free to ourselves which has been nice to walk around the old market section of town. I ended up buying two gongs that are made out of recycled bomb shells collected and made by local villagers.

Yesterday, we went to a war museum. It was a small yard full of old, rusty tanks, guns, bombs, landmines, etc. The "guide" only had one leg and lost his wife three years ago as a result of stumbling on a landmine while she was searching for mushrooms in the forest. He said it happened about 20 kilometers from here. He also said most of his family was killed by the Khmer Rouge. I've heard the figure of 500 deaths a year occur from landmines left over from 30 years of war in this country.

Also, yesterday we made our final visit to the orphanage. They literally came running on our bus when we arrived-so happy to see us again. We played a really fun game with them where two people are blindfolded and placed in the middle of circle of people and one c laps while the other tries to catch him/her. Everyone in the circle will yell and shout when they are close to each other. It seemed like a favorite of the orphans. We had a great time with it. We also handed out pencils, notebooks, and some candy to them. It was amazing how they were really polite and appreciative of the gifts. They were patient, not reaching and grabbing, as we went around and passed out the materials, and so polite in accepting them. They would be great role models for my affluent students in Atlanta. In the end it was really sad when we had to leave. Many of them cried. It was horrible! I could hardly stand to see it. I can't imagine the people that come and go in their lives. It has to leave a huge scare that they carry with them for the rest of their lives.

Last night, I went back to visit and talk with the German lady and her Cambodian husband at the night market. She runs a non-profit during the day that has two preschools and has the shop at the night market in the evening. She started the non-profit nearly 12 years ago. Since I interviewed her husband earlier about his father being killed by the Khmer Rouge he said that he read in the paper that the Khmer Rouge Tribunals were asking for more money to carry on the war crime trials. 56 million has been budgeted for the Tribunals, but it seems like more will be needed. Many people question the purpose of these expense trials when many villagers do not care or have any confidence in the government (the trials are a collaboration between he government and the UN) that the leaders of the Khmer Rouge will be shown justice. Also, many of the current government members were once Khmer Rouge members.

The prices here are ridiculously low. What is even more startling is that in Phnom Penh, evidently they are even more low. It funny because even though the prices are low, I seem to be spending a lot of money.

The heat here has been horrible! No breezes-just humidity. I can't even imagine what it is going to be like sleeping in our home stays without air conditioning. I'm not looking forward to that aspect of the home stay.

Last night while I was walking around town I came upon an accident in the road. A bus had hit a man on a scooter. The ambulance was approaching as I came upon the scene. I didn't see the injured man because there were many people surrounding him in the street. There are not many cars here (because people can't afford them) and tons of scooters. I'm surprised there are not more accidents because there are not lanes in the streets, everyone just drives wherever they want or need to go without hitting anyone. Also, motorized vehicles have the right of way. Pedestrians have to yield to cars, scooters, etc. Then throw in tuk-tuks and it is a huge mess! Crossing the street is a high-risk adventure.

We were having a meeting yesterday morning and suddenly I felt something aggressively crawling up my leg, underneath my pants. I instinctively jump up and screamed and started to try to kill the perpetrator prancing its way up my leg to my crotch area. Well, everyone in the program was just as startled as I was when I jumped up in the middle of the meeting as Gwen, one of the leaders, was talking and started to jump around like a possessed demon. So...I said something is in my pants and crawling up my leg and darted off to the bathroom so I could find the creature that was getting way too comfortable with my body. Now, by the time I reached the restroom I could feel it digging into my underwear. And it was big! I was a bit nervous because of its perceived size. The notion of a gecko in my pants was running streaking through my mind. Or, a scorpion...maybe a giant cockroach...or a baby cobra! I ripped my belt open and flung my pants down in the restroom and out jumped the biggest, baddest, ugliest cricket I have ever seen smiling at me as it hit the ground next to my foot. My immediate reaction was to stomp on it, but as it smugly smiled at me, I wished to leave this predominantly Buddhist country with good karma so I just threatened to eat him if he didn't leave me alone. I then ran out of the restroom to escape his reach. When I returned to the meeting everyone stopped in mid-sentence anxiously awaiting a description of the perp. Hopefully, that will be my last encounter with creatures invading my personal space.

I will try to post if my village has Internet connections. If not, my next post will by on the 17th or 18th. Did I mention that Cambodia is 11 hours ahead of Atlanta?

An American in Cambodia Interesting Fact of the Day: Bridget (a.k.a Beth, Sam, Betty) ate a silk worm at our visit yesterday to the Angkor Artisans.