Week Two

I just got inspired because some friends and family e-mailed to say that they had read the blog. We've been here about 10 days now and it is funny how things actually start to seem normal quite quickly, eventhough we know that it really is quite foreign to the way we have spent the rest of our lives.

Today we had a Khmer language lesson with a tutor who could speak both English and Khmer which was very enlightening. Our host family doesn't speak any English so we have had to learn bits of the language out of necessity but our knowledge and ability to communicate is still very limited. Last night we got invited out for supper and so we thought we explained to our host family quite clearly that we would not be home for supper. However, while we were out, we got a phone call from our mentors saying that the host family had called them because they were worried that we hadn't returned home and it was 7:30PM. It's such a strange feeling to never know whether what you are saying is making sense and then, when you have been misunderstood, to not even being able to apologize appropriately and sort things out. Anyway, we had a big long list of questions for our teacher this morning and he patiently went through them with us. The bigger feat will be remembering how to say them and actually turning our "words" into communication.

Yesterday we spent the morning at The Little Conquerors program. Generally in Cambodia, disability is believed to be a punishment and therefore kids with disabilities are often not valued. This program has been set up to challenge that belief system and provide support for the families. We will go on a home visit on Friday and we are very interested to see how these children manage in their home envirment. The house that we are living in has a steep ladder into a trap door that is used during the night to access the upstairs. The outside stairs are very steep also. It makes us realize how many resources we have in the Western world. On Monday we were at the school that is associated with this program. The public schools are not able or are unwilling to accommodate kids with disabilities for the most part. The school is especially for kids with disabilities and has 9 students in the morning (younger ones) and 10 in the afternoon (the older ones). The day started off with exercises and a dance which was really fun. There was one little boy who quite enjoyed break dancing. It was beautiful to watch one of the boys with cerebral palsy who could walk, but with much effort, serve a boy who also had cerebral palsy but was not able to walk during their snack time. We saw this type of behavior throughout the morning and it seemed that it was not mandated by the teachers but rather came out a genuine understanding of helping each other. The organization we are with has turned over all the leadership to Cambodian people and it struck me on Monday that as we were talking with them, they kept apologizing that their English was not good. We are in their country and they are apologizing to us for not knowing our language. I can't honestly say that I have ever apologized for not knowing a foreigner's language in Canada. Perhaps there is a general mentality in that English is "supreme" or maybe it is due to historical reasons. I don't know. Something to ponder.

After our language lesson this morning we went back to the house and Om Paun had removed one of the walls. From what we could understand, it is time to clean up. When I left after lunch again, he had a tarp hung, a couple of small logs in place and some sticks. I'm assuming that all of the other pieces (ie. metal cooking oil containers cut and flattened, old boards, corragated iron, etc) will be placed on top. It kind of looked fun, actually, just creating a wall. Who would think of creating a wall in Canada out of pieces of what we would call garbage?

Transportation is a bit of a daily adventure here. There are a few different options. The majority of transportation happens on motor bikes. You bascially can stand nearly anywhere and there will be motodots around coming to see if you need a ride. Our first feat is getting them to understand where we want to go then the price negotiation starts. Bartering is hard because they always say that fuel is very expensive and really, $0.25 doesn't make any difference to us but there is a feeling inside that you want to pay a fair price. After the price is sorted out which can sometimes take a while and necessitate abandoning that driver for another one, then we hop on and hope for the best. Usually ladies ride side saddle on the back but I tried this the first time and found it completely terrifying. Since then Ben and I have been mostly riding together on the back which feels much more secure. Today the driver I had took me around a corner fast enough that my foot went onto the ground and I thought, yep, this is still scary. It is an odd concept to think of just jumping on the back of someone's motorbike that you have never met before and has no qualifications except experience. We were told to just ask them to stop if it feels unsafe and get another driver but it is hard to decide what is unsafe and what is just normal. So far we haven't stopped any. A lot of people don't even wear helmuts here but we are certainly sure to have them on every time.

Well I guess I should go as it is almost supper time. Eating has started to become a bit more difficult for us. We've had a few dishes over the past few days that...well, they weren't anything we would chose to eat. We definitely aren't having to battle overeating so that's good. I never realized how important food is to well being. I'm not just talking about nourishment because I think (not completely sure) we are getting that but perhaps there is an element of comfort in a juicy burger or a pizza or a small square of chocolate....ahhhhhh....time to go and have some more fish and rice.

Hope you are all well. We love to hear stories from home!!

Week One Phnom Penh

Well, Charlene and I have been in Cambodia for about 1 week now, living with a family in one of the poorer pockets of Phnom Penh. It is beginning to feel challenging these last two days, and at times I wonder what we are doing here when we could be in a regular Canadian/Australian house and living a normal month (by Western standards). As much as it is getting hard I'm glad it is. Not sure if that makes sense. The first few days felt a little too easy- a bit like camping. I think what threw me was, I expected the food to be nasty and the house to be tiny. From the houses in other areas, their house is not the smallest (still 8 people living on a 300 sq ft block is tight by our standards), roughest or most tightly packed house. It has two rooms upstairs (they have given us one room to ourselves) and downstairs where you spend the day (because it is so hot) is dirt floored with bamboo sitting tables. They have a dog with seven puppies so the floor has wet patches in varying spots throughout the day. They are cute, but are covered in fleas (layers of fleas) so patting is usually kept to a minimum. They run around the neighbourhood and it is quite amusing watching them chase their mum for a feed.

Our family consists of Ming Kan (mother), Om Pon (father), Naree (25 year old daughter), Vasna (19 year old son) and Sompanut and Sompanni (17 & 16 yr old sons respectively). Ming Kan usually cooks and makes really good, but simple food. Chngang (delicious) was one of the first words to be learnt. Meals are always rice and then there is a stew like dish that you put over the rice little by little as you eat. It is impolite/greedy to cover all your rice at the start of the meal, so there is a lot of double dipping in the community stew dish. For each mouthful of rice there might be one small piece of green vegetable (described to us as sewer cabbage on the first day) and maybe four slices of finely cut pork in the whole meal. I have a feeling these meals maybe more extravagent due to their guests. Anyway, I really like the food. It is nice to appreciate the equivalent of a small piece of spinach so much.

The thing that has made it rough for us is that the family went away for the weekend and we chose to fend for ourselves for the weekend rather than going to the team centre. Charlene and I are usually quite capable of cooking etc, but everything seems to add up. There's a small window from 5 til 9am to do stuff like washing when the temperature is cool, but then it gets stinking hot after that. It is dirty, going to the toilet and showering is foreign. Trying to maintain hygiene is hard. The water is not safe for us weak westerner's to drink (we do have a filter upstairs - a clay pot plant looking pot in a bucket that the water seeps through), we don't know the vegetables, noone in the community speaks english, and we don't know how to make the yummy stuff that can make rice taste so good. Also there is just nowhere comfy to sit and hangout, and there's bitey things besides mosquitoes and fleas that make life a little uncomfortable.

This really feels like I'm rambling, it is all quite different and hard to know where to start describing life here. There is lots of goodness in this place too. The family have been really welcoming and made us feel at home, the kids of the neighbourhood all come to hang out with us and are perfect for practising/ learning Kamay. Due to the small amount of things to do for them, we are great entertainment.

After one week of being foreigners, we are beginning to understand in some small way the experiences and frustrations of refugees/ emigrants to our countries where basic living skills are so different. We are glad that our host family will be back in an hour and on that note we should get home.

Magandang gebee - Hello from the Philippines

Magandang gebee (Good evening in Tagolog - we think but didn't confirm so beware),

We've acquired a VERY small tagolog vocabulary:) Learning a language is definitely daunting and perhaps it is not very motivating when we can actually communicate to most everyone in English. It will be different when we go to Cambodia so we'll have to clean out the cobwebs in our brains and make room for Khmer.

So six weeks have nearly passed since we first came to the Philippines. We have enjoyed our time here, though, and feel very grateful to have been able to spend this time with Crystal, Jerry, Joshua and Joel, mostly just living life. Here are some of the pictures...

Crystal, Jerry, Joshua (2 1/2 years old), Joel (1 1/2 years old). Family photos are never "perfect" at this age but they are full of character so that's what counts.
Not too sure how to switch this picture so tilt you head to your left and it will make complete sense. This is my (Charlene's) dad, Richard and Joel looking at animals in a zoo. Mom and dad were here for the first week of our stay so we have a 2/3 family reunion (we were missing my brother Jonathan).
My mom, Mary, with us and the kids post puppet show. We've had a few puppet shows over the back of the couch. They seem to be a hit with the boys.

Ate Edna, Kuya Gimo, Genesis, Jhomari, Mariel. This the the nurse that Crystal works with at the clinic and one of the men that worked with Ben on fixing up the clinic. We visited them at their house and they made us very yummy Singang and fish one day.
This picture is definitely worth the head tilt. What a cute little guy, eh?? This is Joel. He is playing in a little kiddie pool full of balls. Perhaps if he could talk, he would say that this is one of his favorite ways to spend the day. Joel is a very content little boy wandering around checking everything out, occassionally adding in some words from his five word vocabulary. He's also a charmer...it'll be fun to see what he's like as a teenager with that cute smile and sneaky way about him.We went to Borocay Beach for a few days. It is a beautiful white sand beach with gentle waves. Did some snorkelling but mostly just relaxed. The boys loved playing in the sand.


Ben and Jerry holding the octopus.

While we were at the beach, we went "Island Hopping" one day. That means gettting on a "bancka" (quite a ricketty boat for our standards) and going from island to island. We really only went to one, though, because Ben and Jerry were both getting sea sick and the waves were quite large especially considering the looks of our boat and the fact that we had two little kids on there with no lifejackets on:( At the one island we went to the boatmen prepared a meal. Someone came by and sold us this octopus for about $12. It is a delicacy here - we didn't find it too appealing but it was interesting nonetheless.

Joshua and me. Joshua is a very fun little boy too. He is talking a lot. He speaks English but he often forms sentences in Tagolog. For example, he always asks "What doing you Uncle Ben?" because in Tagolog the verb and noun are in the opposite order (that's what I heard - don't really know). Joshua is very social and always remembers everyone's name and greets them. It is great in the morning to come downstairs and have him say "Good morning Auntie Charlene". Sometimes he even asks "How are you?" He's working on potty training right now. Last night he did a #1 and #2 (sorry about too much info but...) and he brought it to us in his portable potty to show us and then he said we had to smell it too. A bit nasty.


Uncle Ben giving rides in the Pedicab to Joshua and his next door neighboor Ira. They were especially enjoying the ride because Uncle Ben could make it go up on two wheels around corners. Lots of laughs were heard.
We've been to three zoos here and their idea of treating animals well is definitely different than what we have experienced in Canada and more recently, Australia. A bit concerning really. Kind of a funny sign to have especially considering the pictures below.
This is Louie, the show monkey. He even wears a diaper and Crocs on his feet when he walks around. It would be interesting to know how he feels about life...

At the end of last week, we went out to Second Mile. It is a vocational/discipleship program for street kids. It was nice to get out the city and breath fresh air again. My Uncle Marton, Auntie Cely and their kids (May Rose, Rose Marie, Thomas and Jean Paul) live nearby so we went to the zoo with them and had lunch with them.

So that's a bit of what we have been up to. Life is so different here and we have had our thinking challenged in many ways. It is hard to reflect things on this blog. Oh, in case anyone is worried, we have still been playing Settlers here too. Crystal, Jerry and Jean ( a lady who lives with them) are all keen players now. It was definitely worth the weight to bring along:)

We're off to Cambodia on Sunday to start the last "leg" of our adventure. We're not too sure what to expect there. We'll be living with a family in a slum area of Phnom Penh, experiencing life as they do for a short while.

We love to hear from you...keep us posted on what is going on in your lives too.