Suosday!
That is Khmer for hello to someone you already know. (I thought this would be a good progression from the formal "chump reap suor" from my last post :) )
The last few days have been quite busy. There's a lot going on in Poipet. I noticed that it's a very active city when I went on my first tour through the streets. Several times a day I hop on the back of a "moto," motorcycle, and ride short distances to wherever we need to go. It's sort of like riding a horse, I find - you might want to tense up and hold on tight at first, but the best way to ride is to just relax and let your upper body sway and move with the curves and jolts of the moto. Dust blows up in your face from the street, so I have to close my eyes and sometimes hold my breath when trucks pass. Despite this, I enjoy riding around town, looking around at all the lives dependent on the heartbeat of this small city. There's something about the smell of oily cooking smoke and fresh fish, the brightly colored storefronts and Khmer characters, the laughing teenagers and wandering dogs.
This morning CHO ran a campaign for children's education. They want to increase enrollment in government schools by encouraging parents to send their children to school instead of keeping them home to work or labor for money, or increase their vulnerability to being trafficked. We met early in the morning, waited around a long time for all of the teachers to arrive, and then paraded down the streets of Poipet with flags, loudspeakers playing Khmer music, and banners exhorting parents that their kids being in school is the best thing for them. I came to the campaign dressed in shorts and a tshirt, but all the rest of the CHO staff was wearing their uniforms! I felt bad so Sophy and I made up for it by dressing up to go to lunch afterwards. CHO staff all had lunch at the casino buffet, which is reminiscent of the casinos in Atlantic City. :) This buffet had many Thai and Khmer food items, so I loaded up my plate with as many things I couldn't recognize as possible. I ate some vegetables I could not identify (some of which tasted rooty and soily), boiled lotus root, raw spring rolls, neon noodles, and a bowl of soup labeled chicken coconut. When I spooned through it, I found a big square of what looked like purple tofu. I cut it into pieces and found that the middle was pinkish. I took a bite... and asked what it was. My suspicions were confirmed: pig's blood, congealed. Yum. I couldn't quite finish the whole chunk. Maybe next time.
I went for my second run with Pip this afternoon, and last night the whole running team had dinner together. We talked about what we were learning about ourselves, God, one another, and "running the race" from being part of the running club. It's been neat to get to know so many young Khmer people who are eager to learn and experience new things. One of the boys I was talking to was telling me he has to finish high school, and work at the same time, because his family is very poor. But he wants to go to school in Thailand, and become a pastor and a lawyer. So inspiring; makes me mindful of the opportunities we have here.
Tomorrow is the Sabbath... so in preparation, I tried to clean my new room, which was supposed to have been cleaned before I moved in, but people use the same word to mean different things. I c l e a n e d that room for over an hour and have made a slight bit of progress. Some of the things I found under the bed made me not want to know the history of this room. I mopped 5 or 6 times over and am going to give it another good scrub tomorrow, if I can. I also got a laundry tub and hanger-rack. There's something about washing and ironing clothes by hand that I find stilling, peaceful. As much as I want everything to be clean and in order right now, I need to write a paper. Oh life, when will you let me finish being a student?
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