It’s amazing how quickly you fall into a routine – even when you are thousands of miles from the comforts of home.
I’ll admit that I have fallen into my own groove here in Pursat, enjoying the Cambodian lifestyle.
I wake up at 7am – without an alarm clock I might add. (Anyone who knows me can attest to how miraculous this truly is.) As we get ready, you hear the beat of khmer music and kids playing in the yard. Sometimes you can hear faint chants of monks echoing through the streets. Jamie and I walk about a half a kilometer to our favorite breakfast place, where the family knows exactly what meals to prepare us. Mine is “Koi-tee-oo, Bon Lai”, noodle soup with vegetables. Jamie orders three fried eggs. We both get “Café tuk-dak-cou tuk-kaa”, coffee with ice and condensed milk.
We pound down our breakfast and cringe as 18 wheeler trucks rumble down highway 5, their drivers leaning on the horns at every intersection. Students pedal on their bicycles and rush off to school, monks walk bare foot, house to house on their daily commute to gather food; men buzz by on motos catching a surprised wide-eyed stare at the “Barrangs” (white people) as they head off to work, and of course, Ratana, prepares his daily cow or two, hogtied to a “Cambodian rotisserie” at his popular restaurant across the way.
Walking back to Sustainable Cambodia’s office, we hear children’s uproar “hello’s”, running and giggling behind us. I arrive at SC and greet all the staff I run into on the way to my office. I plunk onto my wooden chair and turn the fan on – relieved after the hot, sweaty walk. I pull out the bug spray and soak my legs and ankles. I had found out the hard way that mosquitoes like to find solace under our dark desks during the heat of the day, snacking on our flesh whilst we are hard at work.
I open my laptop and ants scurry across my keyboard. I sigh, sweep them off with my fingers, squishing and smearing most of them on the way.
I look forward to all my emails, especially the ones from my family and friends; it’s always such a great way to start my day.
In Cambodia, all offices shut down from noon till 2pm because it’s usually the hottest part of the day. Our cook will make us lunch for 5,000 Riel – equivalent to about $1.25, that usually consists of rice and a meat surprise. We enjoy the next hour napping and relaxing in our rooms and hammocks while the sun scorches the red earth during the hottest part of the day.
We go back to work at 2 until 6pm and then we head home, where we usually treat ourselves to “tukaluks” – fruit shakes for 50 cents from Na right across the street.
By 7pm, dinnertime, we are drained; our table conversations are thinner and the words come out in a more lethargic tone. I find bugs jumping onto my rice and I eat around them, flicking the big ones across the table at one of the other 6 internationals. Crickets are everywhere and they jump around your feet. Sometimes if we are REAL lucky, they’ll hit our face on their clumsy mid air flight. It used to make me jump up and scream bloody murder (Jamie nods in approval). Now, I am indifferent – I simply grab the cricket and smack it on the ground in hopes it wont get back up. We can even watch the toads hop around our table, gulping down crickets before they can make a daring escape.
By 8:30pm, we are back in our rooms, reading or laying in bed with the fan on full blast. This is the best part of the day. The whole city shuts down by 9pm and the silence can be so beautiful. You usually hear geckos shouting out into the night: “GECK KO, GECK KO”. Now that it’s rainy season, we can hear the booming thunder and lightning that electrifies the sky.
