At the beginning of this week, I was able to go to my friends home in Kompong Som. Their house is about three hours from Phnom Penh. One the way there we took a taxi, which is a man who lives in Kompong Som and drives people to and from Phnom Penh each day, using his own car. In America we would say the car holds 5 people, including the driver, but in Cambodia, it holds 8 people. Yes it holds more because Cambodians are a lot thinner than Americans, but it's also because you kinda have to sit on each other. Four people sit in the front and four in the back. I wasn't brave enough to take out my camera, but this is a picture I found from someone else.
The Beach ...
Kompong Som is most famous for the beaches. So many people go here for vacation. We actually only went to the beach for about 30 minutes, and didn't swim. Here's the picture.
Everybody who hears this thinks it's crazy that I was in Kompong Som and didn't "really" go to the beach. I'm not sure why we didn't go, but I'm okay with it! We went to a really small waterfall and swam for about two hours. We also went to the sea, about less than a mile from my friends' house. At the sea we caught a few small shrimp, and tried to catch some other thing, but only found one. I wish I'd taken my camera with me then!
Food ...
We ate seafood everyday for lunch and dinner, and it was really good! That's right! I used to hate seafood, but now I can eat it, and sometimes enjoy it! We had clams, crab (I'm still not very good at getting the meat out of these crazy things), lobster, shrimp (which I peeled the head and shell off myself!), different kinds of fish, duck (I know it's not seafood :-D ) ...
The House ...
Their house was REALLY nice! It was a made of wood, like most houses in the countryside. Upstairs, they had linoleum on the floor and maybe on the wall too! I didn't get any pics of the whole house, or the upstairs, but here's what I got.
The bathroom is maybe 15-20 feet from the house. The picture on the left shows it from the outside. It's the part with the door and stairs! :-) On the right is from the inside. You have the squatty potty, and a large pot and a 5 gallon bucket to hold water. Inside the large pot is a small plastic bowl with a handle, that you use to pour water on yourself. I took my first, second, and third "bucket baths" here!
Downstairs room
Top left and bottom left are the same wall, the top from inside the room, and the bottom from outside. The top left is a little blurry, but you can kind of see the two burners where all of the food is cooked. The top right picture shows the table where the food is prepared. The bottom right is the "back porch," where they wash the food, wash the dishes, wash hands after dinner, brush teeth ... You can't see it in the picture, but next to the porch, is a big barrel of water. We took water from that big barrel to fill the bathroom water pot and bucket. Though I'm not sure how they get the water in the barrel ... maybe from the faucet on the back porch.
Typical Day ...
My friends' dad works in another town far away and only comes home on major holidays, so he was not there. There was me, my friends Yee-Yin and Kim, Kim's husband, their mom, their brother, sister-in-law, and their 4month old baby boy. Pretty much all I did was lay around in a hammock all day! They wouldn't let me help. This is what the two guys did too. My two girl friends would help cook and clean some, but we all laid around a lot! The mom however, got up early every morning, and stayed busy for a lot of the day! After she finished making lunch (around 10:30), she'd sit around and visit for a couple hours, and after dinner we'd all visit for a few hours.
Between 10:30 and 12:30, lunch would sit on the table, covered to keep the fly's off, and each person would eat whenever they wanted to. We all ate dinner together around 6:30, then went to bed around 10 or 10:30.
Things I Learned ...
- Many Cambodians do not drink with the meal. After you finish eating you put your plate where they do dishes, wash your hands, then get a glass of water.
- We never washed our hands before meals, but always after.
- Girls do all of the work ... cooking, cleaning, dishes, laundry, refilling the bathroom water ...
- Guys go to work and make the money, then come home and sit in the hammock.
- Most Cambodians don't use toilet paper ever (in the city and countryside). I'm glad I brought plenty of Kleenex packs!
- If you need to use the restroom at night, there are little pots that you use. In the morning you take your pot downstairs and empty it.
- The noise Americans make to call a dog to them is the same noise Cambodians make to tell the dog to go away! Crazy! I think Americans make a similar noise when talking to babies, which I almost made one time with their baby. Whew, glad I caught it before I made the noise. That could've been really offensive.
- Cambodian dogs can eat ANYTHING. They eat tiny chicken bones, fish bones ...
- Whatever food isn't eaten for one meal is used for the next, and the next, and the next!
- Pajama's are not just for sleeping. They are to wear any time you are at home, no matter what the time of day.
- It is impolite to sit with your legs crossed, "Indian Style," with people who are older than you. It is perfectly okay with people who are about your age / friends.
I'm sure there were other things I should've learned, but didn't, or I forgot. Overall, I had fun and it was good seeing the way my friends live, though I think they live a lot better than most Cambodians. I also got to know them a lot more!
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