I miss you Kampucheea

I’ve been working really hard on my Research from Cambodia today (Saturday), and for a break I thought I’d write up an entry or two from the narrative portion of my field journal…read it if you’d like. This is Cambodia through my eyes. (this is unedited except for spelling and punctuation).

Thursday 19-05-05 (Written 23-05-05).
I want to quickly talk about my first impressions the evening I arrived in Phnom Penh. Sue met me at the airport with the document that I needed to get an NGO visa. She was a great sight for sore eyes. I was really happy to know that someone was there to pick me up as I hadn’t received final conformation of this. When I got my bag we went outside and had a quick drink where she gave me my phone and gave me a really quick security orientation, which basically was, “don’t carry more than 40 dollars, cause people get held up by gunmen quite regularly and they WILL shoot if you don’t give them all your money.”

Then she took me in her “tuk, tuk” and loaned me Kristin’s helmet. When I arrived in my neighbourhood it was all a bit surreal, it was dark but there were a few lights on which gave the place a sort of mystical/magic/romantic feel. I was definitely in a slum, a very foreign place, but I had a real peace and it didn’t feel intimidating. I laughed as one of the first things I saw was a naked little girl run up the path, I thought “how typical” for a third world slum, it was like something from a World Vision ad.

I came into the “house” the downstairs was only enclosed by some metal wiring and not even completely. They ushered me directly upstairs to my room. After a few minutes, Sue left with a look that seemed to say she was really sorry for me. I went back upstairs to “unpack” but really more to catch my breath. The whole household (nearly) came up into my room and told me their names which I couldn’t pronounce and forgot almost immediately. Serey was there and translated a bit. I found out later that night that Terum (actually Teraa –edit 14-07-05) was going to stay in the room with me. I thought that was great (even though they got craig’s directions pretty wrong, ah well). I went to bed early that night-around 8:30, partly cause I was tired, partly cause I was a bit overwhelmed and didn’t know what else to do. It was loud and noisy but eventually I got to sleep - did I mention it was hot? Yeah it was an oven, and I was swimming in my own sweat.