Doing what we are supposed to do

We are doing what we are supposed to be doing during our first two weeks at our site.  We are getting familiar with the village and its people.  We are meeting the locals, buying from the market, cooking with local ingredients, and eating and drinking at local establishments.  We are becoming integrated into the community.  Our looks may not say that we belong, but our behavior will soon.

Host Sister Heang

Hot peppers here are HOT!

The sellers at the market are starting to know us and who we are.  Yesterday, Gary went to the market alone and they all asked him where I was.  We usually go together -- trying to navigate the new language, currency, ingredients, etc. is a challenge best tackled when there are two heads.

Fortunately, the pork seller that we prefer is our host sister, Heang.  And the chicken seller that we go to is her older sister.  (There are 11 brothers and sisters in the family and they all live around here.  And there is always someone that has whatever we need!)

  

 All we have to do is ask our host sister where we can have (blank).   We ask her about where to buy something, where to eat or drink something, where to find transportation, where to meet the school directors, etc.  She knows everything.  She has the most honest and delightful smile, so I know she is a happy person.  I also think that she is well regarded in this community.  Nice to be connected, right?

Breakfast noodles with our cook.

Sister Heang recommended that we eat breakfast at the noodle place right behind her chicken-selling station.  The store owner/cook is delightful.  She has a great smile and she is always dressed like a model.

Kuyteav is Rathi's specialty.

Kuyteav is a common breakfast food here consisting of broth, rice noodles and toppings.  Toppings can include thin slices of meat, bean sprouts and other chopped herbs.  We also like to add chili pepper.

We can see Rathi driving a moto or a bicycle around town with a beautiful large brimmed straw hat and flashing her delightful smile at everyone.

Yesterday, Rathi introduced us to two young ladies.  These are 15 and 16 year old sisters that live and go to school in Siem Reap.  They are in our village visiting with their aunt.  The sisters and Rathi were hanging out at a small restaurant on the main street of the village.  The restaurant is just a small hut where the owner makes and sells soup.  Here in the village, people specialize in one thing.  The noodle bowl lady sells only that. The fish soup lady sells just that.  The pork seller sells only pork. The chicken seller sells only chicken.

When we saw Rathi, she immediately pulled out chairs and had us sit down and visit with them.  We are doing what we are supposed to be doing!  Meeting people, explaining to them that we are volunteers, making friends, finding out more about life in the Bode.

Anyhow, about these two beautiful sisters.....they speak pretty decent English, which they have learned at school, and they were very glad to practice it.  They are both smart and have aspirations to study beyond high school.  The older one wants to be a doctor and the younger one wants to be an IT engineer.  They both said that they also would like to be teachers - probably because their aunt and uncle, who live in town are teachers.  Rathana and Chandy invited us to join them for lunch today.  They know of a place nearby that sells great roasted chicken and they would like to show us around. So we will all go there for lunch today, including Rathi, the noodle queen.

The one thing about Rathana is that she was born without knees.  Somehow, she gets around on her own two feet, albeit with difficulty, but both sisters were eager to ask us if we knew someone who could help her have some surgery to give her knees.   If any of you, who are reading this post, have any ideas, please let me know!

Rathana, top left, and her sisters (and a cousin).  The little sister in the middle also has no knees.

We have also gotten to know our neighbors.  When we walk from the house to the market and back again twice a day, it's easy to run into our neighbors -- specially since they are so curious about us.  Somehow, they are outside to say "hello".  We make it a point to stop and greet them and to introduce ourselves.  I don't think we are giving anybody any new information, just a personal confirmation that we are here.  One of the people we have met is Mr. Hoksly.  Mr. Hoksly drives a tuk tuk.  He told us that he could take us to Siem Reap and bring us back for a fair price.  Of course, at the time, we didn't know what a fair price was.  However, we have found out that his quote is quite good. The other day, we visited Siem Reap. We got there by car - a car that was arranged by our sister Heang for a good price.  We had been running errands in Siem Reap for many hours and were very tired when we saw Mr. Hoksly wave at us from across the street.  At first I thought he was just another eager tuk tuk driver looking for the next ride.  But then we recognized him as our neighbor.  We asked him for a ride back home and we was more than happy to call it a day.  Normally, he rides home (about 15 miles) with an empty tuk tuk.  If we can give him business for a fair price, why not help our neighbors, right?  From now on, we will rely on Mr. Hoksly as much as possible for our rides into town.

The Icee man

Next door to the tuk tuk driver is the hair salon.  The children at this home love to buy a treat from the icee man.  He comes around daily, with his moto that has a cooler as a side car.  There he sells shaved ice with flavors for the kids for 500 Rial, which is equivalent to 12.5 cents.


Another friendly neighbor that we have met is a grandma who lives right next door. She was outside with a tiny baby (I would guess 3 months old).  Being that I am a sucker for babies, and that we are out to meet people, we stopped to meet her as well.  What a beautiful woman she is.  With my limited Khmer I understood (or misunderstood) that she is helping her son or daughter because things are not going so well for them.  This grandma had five children and has five grandchildren.

Yesterday, she visited our home to buy some freshly cooked pork rinds from our host family.  She saw that I was doing laundry and came to talk with me.  Of course, laundry in Cambodia is done very differently than laundry in the USA or even in Spain.  However, it seems that everybody in Cambodia does the laundry the same way.   This neighbor-grandma noticed that I was hanging my clothes a little bit differently than the standard, and she didn't hesitate to show me how it's done.  As it turns out, I was securing the pants on the hangers with a belt loop that was not the one on the center-back of the pants. She gave me this tip with all the good will that she could muster.

I have found that most of the people in the village are thrilled that we are here.  They love to see us and to talk with us.  This village has lots of tourists riding through, however, we are here to stay, and they know it.  They have seen us day after day for 12 days and they are getting used to us.  And we are also feeling like we belong. This is our home for the next two years and these are our neighbors.   We have felt very welcome here - not only by our own host family, but also by the neighbors.