We have officially been "in" for four months. It sounds like a prison sentence, doesn't it? To be brutally honest, sometimes it feels like one too. However, we have left the "shattered" stage of culture shock and we are reentering our host country through more realistic spectacles than during our honeymoon period.
Reentering means discovering things all over again after losing our bearings for a while. Our routine has certainly helped us in leaving the distress of adjusting here in the past. Greg's routine is to rise at 7am, get ready for work, have breakfast and off he goes on his moto to work. He isn't a huge fan of the moto and feels rather unsafe on it, but we all know it's better him than me. He was riding around with a mere bike helmet on but once he realized even the locals were laughing at his expense, he spent the whole $20 for a real helmet. Well, real for Cambodian. He splurged for a helmet imported from Thailand, which we can only hope is a little better quality for his noggin.
Greg is on active surveillance for his prostate cancer diagnosis. He was finally able to meet with the Thai urologist at the best hospital here and have his PSA testing and physical exam. His PSA was down 3 points, which is either a result of cutting sugar entirely out of his diet or a different system of calculating the reading. He will have this test every three months and will have another biopsy in June to be sure the cancer isn't growing.
He continues to be enjoy learning the role of M&E and is looking forward to a trip out of Phnom Penh soon to meet with a project. The projects that Ratanak is involved with are diverse and can be read about here. If you are interested in supporting justice work abroad, Ratanak is long established in Cambodia, well respected in the NGO world and is involved in world changing justice mission. His trip out of town means I'll be sleeping in this big ol' villa by myself, which I'm not too thrilled about. There have been a few robberies in our borey as of late, which makes me nervous.
Living here means daily life is filled with the unexpected. The unexpected continually entertains me, which helps in adjusting to our change in life. Today an entire herd of cattle was coming at me, head on, while driving in the city. Some traffic lights are to be followed, others not. Drivers get mad and drive around you at some red lights. However, Greg was stopped by the police for going through a red at a broken traffic light. He was following the car directly ahead of him and he wasn't stopped but Greg was. Well, you make a decision. You go down to the police station, go through the paper work, try and explain the traffic light wasn't working, pay a potential fine, or you pay the police officer $5 to make your troubles go away. Some people say if foreigners would stop paying the officers off, the traffic targeting of foreigners would decrease. Others accept this is how it works. What would you do?
Life with my house helper is incredibly entertaining. Some people have house helpers who speak English, have some education and are literate, but I don't. My helper, Chenine is older, a survivor of the Khmer Rouge and very poor. She lives in a slum and I was introduced to her by a wonderful Cambodian man who helps Chenine out. If you've seen the new Gilmore Girl's series on Netflix, Chenine and I are a bit like Lorelia's mother and her house helper. I carry on in English thinking she will understand something and Chenine talks a mile a minute in Khmer and I don't get a word. Not a single word. Over Christmas, I forgot to tell her we were going away. When we returned, she carried on with great animation about something that had happened. So, I phoned our mutual friend for translation, and apparently, the water from our pipes was red. She thought we had been murdered and the water was pouring red with our blood. At first, I couldn't believe she could be so naive to think such a thing, and then I remembered that she has witnessed unfathomable sights that she will probably never share with me. She lived through the years of genocide where a good majority of her population was wiped out.
Today she asked me, via a game of charades, to teach her how to do the laundry. I am a bit protective of my laundry and don't want my clothes ruined by someone who has never used a washing machine. I felt an inner rebuke that could only come from the Spirit of God, questioning how I could come all this way, live with a new people and not be willing to teach a new skill to someone who wants to learn. She was amazed by the process, examining the machine. She felt so valued bringing down my dirty laundry and learning to sort it. God forgive me for my pride and selfishness. I usually just leave the clothes in sorted piles outside on the patio tiles because the area is covered overhead. But, she put the sorted piles in plastic bags. Smart one, my Chenine.
So, we continue to be humbled and to learn from our host country. Greg begins language training very soon. I likely won't learn the language as in depth as he will, but rather take a survival course. He studies the language every night with an on line program and has been interviewing private tutors to help him.
We have booked some upcoming trips. We are planning to head out to Chiang Mai, Thailand for a week during the Khmer New Year holiday. We have been there before and really enjoyed our time, but we will miss not having T and J with us. I booked my trip home to Ontario and arrive on June 14 and stay until July 31st. So, we're four months in and it's four months until I'm out for a home visit!
