"I'll take the Yunnus Burger with cheese, please"

Last night I went to a restaurant near the National Museum called Friends. It's not just a restaurant, it's an NGO. The purpose of Friends is to take children off the streets of Cambodia and train them in the food service industry so they have a marketable skill with which to make a living. All of the staff are either teachers or students in this program; apparently many of the former students have gone on to found new restaurants.

This restaurant was fantastic. It was all tapas (small dishes that are shared by everyone at the table, for those of you not inundated with Spanish restaurants in DC), and had all different types of food. As an added bonus, they ensure that their ice and vegetables are bacteria free. Anywhere else I'd be avoiding ice and any vegetables that aren't cooked or peeled, but here I got to just pig out on all the stuff I've been missing at other places. Any of my friends who are familiar with my hummus obsession won't be surprised to hear I ate the entire hummus plate I ordered without sharing. It was selfish, but I've missed hummus something fierce.

By Cambodian standards this place was definitely expensive. But I should point out that expensive meant that after a massive incredible meal and a pretty elaborate drink, it cost me $14 (including a tip). But the great thing is, of course, that not only are you paying more for high quality food you can't/shouldn't get elsewhere, but you are funding an extremely good cause. I love the concept of mixing gluttony with altruism. It seems like a business model that has "America" written all over it. I'm not sure if it would be possible to replicate something like this in the U.S. in a sustainable way, but there certainly are a lot of enterprises over here that operate along the social business model that I'm such a fan of. It's probably more a result of Phnom Penh being saturated with NGOs, but it's still great to see. Places like Friends are out there telling people what I want to spend a career telling them; that it's entirely possible to build businesses and markets in a way that earns a healthy profit AND helps the poor.

And, apparently, makes a delicious mango and nectar margarita. My heart was as full as my stomach.

http://www.streetfriends.org/

maybe it's the third world, maybe it's his first time around

One thing I love about my new apartment is that it has a balcony; this affords a great view of both Sothearos Boulevard as well as the Phnom Penh skyline, but what I really like about it is that it gives me a chance to watch the city while being removed from it at the same time. It's true that the most accurate impressions of Phnom Penh come as you're fighting your way through the streets on foot or careening around corners on a tuk tuk, but as a white Westerner, even in a town as Western-friendly as Phnom Penh, I still feel like an anomaly. Sitting four floors up and watching the city move along somehow makes me feel like I can spectate what it's really like without interfering.

Sitting up there and watching the city also makes me more introspective; I remember saying in an earlier post that I was going to wait until I had adjusted and gotten more comfortable before I related my impressions of Phnom Penh. I'm both adjusted and comfortable (relatively speaking), but I'm still at a loss for a description of this country that would come off as anything but rambling and counterintuitive.

Before I left, my friend Alicia tried to prepare me for all the contradictions and inconsistencies that somehow seem to coexist, even to thrive, at the same time in Phnom Penh. She was completely right; I'm in a town where English is often spoken poorly if at all, but dollar bills come out of the ATM machines. Even then, you get your change in Cambodian riel; if you handed someone a quarter they'd hand it right back to you. This is a country that has just recovered from a civil war and a genocide that eradicated one third of the population, yet the people show a kindness that extends far beyond basic pleasantries or the requisite good manners of a customer service employee. A city where the most amazing Thai food is only a couple of dollars, but people are still so poor that barefoot children will beg for money when you leave a restaurant or supermarket. I consider myself decent at describing things in writing, but I'm not sure I'll ever be able to put this city into words that do it justice.

The other day I had just finished signing the lease with my roommate and two people that spoke little to no English, and I was kind of flustered. I told Pete that I was starting to get sick of this language barrier, to which Pete replied "Eh, it is what it is." I found that phrase popping back in my head as I stood on the balcony; as of now it's the best description of Phnom Penh I can muster, and I'll be genuinely surprised if I'll find a better one between now and August. This city mixes a million contradictions together and makes it work, all the while not even acknowledging how crazy or impossible it appears to someone the likes of me.

As I was staring down at the city I heard a crashing sound, and looked over to see a Cambodian biker who, for reasons that had nothing to do with traffic, had fallen off his moto as he was driving down the street. The bike went skidding down the road, sending sparks flying everywhere, and the the driver went rolling onto the pavement. He got up in the non-chalant way a football player might after a tackle, and walked over to his bike. He got back on it and rode off as if nothing had happened, leaving a piece of his bike in the middle of the street. About 15 seconds later a couple guys on another moto drove by, looped around, and picked up the bike piece as if they had been sent by some third party and expected a random piece of moto to be sitting in the street. They drove off and casually as the guy who crashed, and the city moved on as if nothing abnormal had occurred. And I suppose nothing had by Cambodian standards; only the white guy on the balcony four floors up, standing there with his jaw wide open, was any evidence that something had just happened that could be construed as out of the ordinary. I guess it is what it is.

Get out of my dreams, get into my tuk tuk

Monsoon season my ass, it's barely rained since I got here. And it's hot, miserably hot. I hear all these stories about it raining so much that the streets flood and you practically have to swim home, but aside from some random freak showers there hasn't been much. And I do mean freak showers, yesterday it rained for a good 20 minutes in broad daylight. It was sunny, bright, and hot, and rain was pouring down. Considering how relatively windless this town is, I don't really get where the rain was coming from.

The reason I had to deal with the heat so much more than usual yesterday was that I finally moved into an apartment. I got a place with Pete, the aforementioned boyfriend of my classmate Emily. It's a pretty sweet place; not too far from where we were before and still located in the area known as "NGO-ville". We're above a Korean barbecue that I'm stoked to try out, and very close to a very cheap and very tasty Thai restaurant. I must say doing a leased contract signing was less than fun with the language barrier, even with Pete being a law student. We also had to pay the first month's rent and security deposit in cash, which is of course an amount of money that we don't usually have on us. I'm sure my bank is wondering if my identity has been stolen since it's probably not normal to see over $400 withdrawn from an ATM at a convenience store in the middle of Phnom Penh. Still, the apartment is nice. My coworker wasn't lying about how hooked up this town is with cable; we get the freaking Disney Channel for crying out loud. Any town where I can sit and watch MythBusters without using a satellite that I power by pedaling a bike isn't entirely Third World in my book.

I also visited a couple places that were on my list; the Foreign Correspondents Club and the Heart of Darkness (best bar name ever). The FCC is the expat hangout for Phnom Penh; it's on the riverfront and is very comfortable/casual and just a cool looking place to grab a drink (which, unfortunately, is a bit expensive for PP). From there my friends and I went to Heart of Darkness, which is the most notorious bar in Phnom Penh. It supposedly was, or is, frequented by Cambodian mafia, and a number of shootings have occured in its past. I wasn't quite sure what to expect, and I was even less sure when they patted us down just to get through the door. It turned out to be ridiculous; it the nicest bar I've been to in Cambodia. Nice decor, indoor with lots of air conditioning, plus a dancefloor and plenty of tables. I'm pretty tuned in to avoiding dangerous situations, and this wasn't one at all. Besides, one guy getting shot years ago isn't exactly sketchy. Those are better odds than DC.

Another hallmark moment came for me on Saturday night when I broke my record for seeing the most people on a moto-bike (basically a small motorcycle) so far. Five people. Five freaking people. Three adults, an infant and a baby. Sure, what the hell, pile 'em on! It's amazing what people will transport with these little bikes; they think nothing of hanging on to 15 feet of piping and just scooting off down the road.

OK, I'm rambling now so I'll stop. Me and some of my UN friends are planning a trip to Kampot this weekend; which is supposed to be a quiet little beach town with national parks and old French buildings. There are these bungalows up in the mountains a few minutes walk from the beach that we can get for cheap, so we're organizing a quick weekend out there. You can check it out at:
http://veranda-resort.com/Index.html

By the way, Happy Memorial Day everyone. Turns out that's not a Cambodian holiday (who would have thought), so I get to work. Have a beer for me and remind an immigrant that These Colors Don't Run.

Say what?

Steven has suggested I blog about the language barrier in Cambodia. It sounds like a great idea, and not only because I have absolutely no work to do today. My week here so far has shown me the difference between speaking in English and saying English words. It seems like an unimportant differentiation, and it often is when all you're doing is ordering a meal or saying hello. But whenever any sort of basic comprehension is needed, or anytime you're forced to communicate using less-than-common English words, you're most likely screwed. For example, I needed to find a plug converter so I could use my three-pronged plug in the two-pronged wall sockets that plague this country. I went to a couple stores and had no luck conveying what I meant; I guess "prong" gets spoken less than "dollar" over here. Once I explained what I was looking for to an employee at my hotel (often the best English speakers around) they helped direct me to a computer shop that was able to understand what I was looking for. Also, I had to buy a cell phone and I went to a Nokia store. Let's just say "SIM card", "add minutes", and other phone speak don't translate well. I had no idea what they were trying to tell me; thankfully Pete was with me and was better able to comprehend them.

People at work can speak English to varying degrees. Our IT guy, who had to learn a good bit of English to get his computer science degree, is one of the most fluent people I've met here. Even then, when I asked for bottled water at lunch the other day he apparently asked the waiter to bring me a pot of tea.

I think that this town's English is well-equipped for the average tourist to get by fine with little to no trouble. The problem is I'm not a tourist, I'm an expat NGO worker, so I find myself running into the language barrier from time to time. But it's not a huge barrier, it's just tall enough for me to trip over from time to time. And to be fair the only words I've learned in Cambodian are "hello", "yes", "no", "thank you", and "instant noodle", and all that qualifies me to do is be a tourist or run around like a raving lunatic screaming "Hello instant noodle! Thank you!". The next test will be apartment hunting this weekened with Pete. Maybe I should learn to say "rat"in Cambodian...

My new national anthem:

"North American Scum" by LCD Soundsystem

Oh, I don't know
I don't know, oh, where to begin.
We are North Americans.

And for those of you,
Who still think we're from England. We're not, no.

We've been on planes, been on trains
Till we think we might die,
Far from North America.

Where the buildings are old
And you might have lots of mimes.

I hate that feeling,
When you're looking at me that way,
Cause we're North Americans.

But if we're acting all shy,
It will make it okay, makes it go away.

Oh, I don't know,
I don't know, oh, where to begin
When we're North American.
But in the end, make all the same mistakes again.
Come on North America.

We are North America scum.
We're from North America.

And all the kids, all the kids they want to make a scene
Here in North America
Well now your kids get to read it your magazines
We don't have those.

So where's the love, where's the love, where's the love, where's the love,
Where's the love, tonight?
But there's no love, man,
There's no love and the kids are uptight.

So throw a party,
till the cops come in and bust it up.
Let's go, North America.

Oh, are you planning it?
I didn't mean to interrupt,
Sorry.

I did it once, and my parents got pretty upset.
Freaked out, in North America.
But then I said, "The more I do it the better it gets."
Let's rock, North America.

We are North American scum.
We're from North America.
We are North American scum.
We're from North America.

New York's the greatest,
If you get someone to pay the rent.
Wahoo, North America.
And it's the furthest you can live from the government.

Some proud American Christians might disagree
Here in North America.
But New York's the only place we're keeping them off the streets, boohoo

Now we can't have parties
Like in Spain where they go all night.
Shut down in North America.
Or like Berlin,
Where they go another night, alright.

You see, I love this place that I have grown to know,
Alright, North America.
And yeah, I know you wouldn't touch us with a ten-foot-pole
Cause we're North Americans.

We are North American scum.
We're North Americans.
We are North American scum.
We're North American.

Take me back to the states, man.
North American scum.
Where can we be, one of a billion.
North American.
Where the dj gigs aren't as fun.
Here in North American scum.
Don't blame the Canadians.
Let's go, North America

Start of the internship

So I've officially started my internship. For those of you I haven't told about it I'm working with the Cambodian office of International Development Enterprises, an NGO that helps provide productivity improvements and enhanced market access to rural farmers to help lift them out of poverty. IDE's two big focuses are water potability and irrigation, which it approaches through market-driven solutions (hence my interest as a student of private-sector led development). You can check them out at http://www.ide-cambodia.org/.

The office is a bit of a haul from the central part of town where I'm staying. This would be less of an annoyance if it weren't for the fact that streets are poorly marked (if at all), taxi drivers don't know maps, and you basically have to guide them by your own impression of where you are (easier said than done on day 5 in a country). Still, I'm learning. The office is in a modified colonial house/villa, which is pretty awesome. Everyone is really nice; they bring up coffee and tea several times a day and I have good internet access as well as my friend/fellow intern Chris to share a room with.

Things are starting off slow; our director Mike is out of the country for the week and left me perhaps a day's worth of reading to cover my first four days here. I'm hoping to get tasked with something more substantive when he gets back in the office; for now I'm just getting settled and taking my time on the readings.

The more exciting news is that I think I've finally beat this jetlag. I passed out at 8pm, woke up at 2:30am for a little over half an hour, then fell back asleep until the morning. Hopefully tonight will bring normality to my body clock, and I'll be sleeping through the alarm like I used to in DC. At this point, being grumpy and groggy in the morning may actually make me homesick.

I'm beginning to apartment hunt this week/weekend, so hopefully I'll be moved into some more permanent digs soon. I'm trying to stay near the central part of town, rather than get a place close to work that would be near absolutely nothing. As a DC resident I can stomach a bit of a commute, and it will be worth it to be near all the bars/restaurants/etc.

That's all for now; everyone feel free to let me know what's going on in your lives...

Bring Me Two of Every Animal:

http://www.weather.com/outlook/travel/businesstraveler/tenday/CBXX0001?from=36hr_topnav_business

Laika

For those of you back home, you should know that I'm not just there with you in spirit, apparently my body clock is with you as well. I managed to fall asleep and wake up at a normal time my first night, but after being up for a few hours I passed out for most of the day. I've been up all night watching TV (which is surpisingly good and American) and reading. I got maybe an hour of sleep; I feel fine now (9AM my time) but expect I will pass out unexpectadly at any moment.

Things here are going well. Yesterday took a walk around town, but not too far since I don't yet know the town well and it would be easy to get lost. I walked up the street to Lucky Supermarket, a Western style grocery store that has just about anything I would need or could get back home. I then took my first moto ride up the street to my hotel, filled up on plantains and peanut butter from Lucky, and promptly went unconcious.

Later on I met up with Chris; a fellow IDE intern and all around awesome guy, and Pete who is the boyfriend of my classmate Emily (and, oddly enough, at a hotel right across the street from me). We grabbed some Khmer food and Cambodian beer which, as I've been told, was tasty and cheap.

So far everything is fine. I start the internship on Tuesday, and my two biggest concerns are finding a place to live and a power converter so I can use my laptop without fear of frying it (if any of you techies out there can assure me a HP laptop can take 240 volts the way Apple laptops can, let me know). I'm headed with Pete out to a couple markets in a little while, hopefully to see more of the city and solve at least one of those "problems".

It's weird to be in a place so foreign, so clearly developing, but at the same time with so many amenities. I have trouble knowing how to react, and I'm curious to see how I continue to take things as I get more comfortable here. I guess we'll see...

Touchdown...

I've been in Phnom Penh for probably a little over an hour. I'm set up in my hotel room (aka my home for the next 2 weeks at least) and I've got an internet connection for as long as my battery lasts (I still need to purchase an adapter for these crazy Cambodian plugs). The flight went quite well considering how long it took, and everything has been relatively uneventful. It's been a long day and I'm at that point where jetlag runs right into sensory overload and I wouldn't want to make any comments yet about my impressions of the city. I'm just going to leave it at that and put in some posts after I've been able to get some rest and meet up with a couple of friends to see the city.

Back when I did my semester in London I spent a weekend by myself in Nice, France. I remember thinking how crazy it felt that I didn't know a single other person in the entire country. It kind of makes me laugh considering the current situation, just like it will make me laugh in a few weeks when I think about how I experienced "culture shock" in London (oooohhhh, she said 'cheers' instead of 'thanks', brave new world!). Anyway, more to come as I have something more coherent to say.

I'll leave you with this last comment. My hotel room has cable and HBO; when I came in Gigli was on (or a clip of it), and promptly after that the Wayans' Bros. abomination "Little Man" came on. Don't ever think Bush/Iraq is the only reason the rest of the world has the opinion of us they do. That would certainly make for an interesting masters thesis: the relationship between horrendous movies and international conflict resolution...

Four days and counting...

I wouldn't be a stereotypical "world traveler" if I didn't create a blog to relay stories of my summer in Cambodia. So here you go; I'll try to keep this updated regularly so everyone knows shenanigans what I get myself into this summer. Hmmm, I wonder if there's a word in Khmer for shenanigans.....