Adventures in Cambodia

Hello everyone,

I'm approaching my last few days in Cambodia and the time has flown by! It's been a really wonderful experience living and working here and I'm glad I was able to have a positive volunteer experience after a less than stellar experience in Vietnam. I'm going to miss my Harpswell girls a tremendous amount when I leave, and I'll definitely have to keep in touch with them and make a return trip sometime soon. Two weeks ago I had coffee, cookies and great conversation with the US Ambassador to Cambodia, Carol Rodley and the Consular Chief, Anita Allegra, at the Ambassador's house. It was wonderful to have them all to myself to ask every possible question about working in the Embassy, their careers as foreign service officers and what to expect working overseas. I am considering a career in the foreign service, so it was a great opportunity to ask career foreign officers about their experiences. They were both fascinating people and our two hours of conversation sailed by. What a treat!

My Harpswell girls and me in front of Chatomuk Hall.

When I sent my thank you to the Ambassador, she invited me, the other leadership residents and my Harpswell girls to a town hall event with Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton. We took about 50 of our girls and attended the event at Chatomuk Hall, which is next to the Mekong river in Phnom Penh. We had to get there at 9 to go through security but the event didn't start until almost 12. It was worth it though. We were among the first ones in so several of the girls and I were able to sit in the front row. I was 10 feet from Secretary Clinton! I also got to shake her hand when she left the auditorium, which was quite a thrill.

Secretary of State Clinton

We sat close to the Ambassador who came over when I waved and said hello, and asked where "her Harpswell girls" were. It was so nice to be recognized in front of the entire auditorium by the Ambassador. She also introduced me to the Minister of Education who said I looked "very Khmer" in my sampot, or traditional Khmer skirt, and white button up shirt.

Today I'm in the seaside town of Kep, on the southwest coast of Cambodia. After the traffic, pollution and craziness of Phnom Penh, it's been absolutely wonderful to just enjoy the sea air, walk all over the town and enjoy a few days of relaxation. I'll be going to Koh Tonsay, also known as Rabbit Island, tomorrow and staying overnight in a beach front bungalow for about $7. They only have electricity from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m., so we'll be able to enjoy a peaceful quiet night. Today my friend Kristen and I visited a pepper plantation for Kampot pepper, which is renowned throughout Cambodia and beyond.

My traditional Khmer outfit.

 On Sunday, the senior manager of Harpswell will be getting married and I'll be going first to her wedding ceremony, leaving at 6:00 a.m. and returning around 11:00 a.m., and then for the reception, which begins around 5:00 p.m. It's my first Cambodian wedding, so I'm looking forward to the experience!

Monday night, my Mom flies into Phnom Penh and we will begin our month of traveling around Vietnam, Cambodia and Thailand before I return home for a month in December. Look for photos from me on Saturday!

Anita Allegra, Consular Chief and Ambassador Carol Rodley

Hope all is well,
Erika

Experiences and lessons

I knew this trip would be life changing but I didn't realize how life changing. Spending time in a different country really gives one a perspective on one's own life. A few days ago, I was talking to my girls about the seasons and about how cold and snowy Boston is and one of them commented that she had never seen snow. None of the girls have seen snow unless they studied abroad. Out of the 80 or so girls in Harpswell, perhaps two have seen, felt, experienced the thrill of a snowy day. It's little things like this that make me appreciate what I have. I have never experienced a hungry day (unless I was dieting), I don't have to worry about whether my family will have enough food or enough money to make it through the year. I've traveled to 14 countries and 25 states; by the end of this trip the number of countries will reach at least 20, if not double.

On Sunday, I gave a seminar on budgeting and saving. I told the girls that I started saving when I was 20 and that's why I could come on this trip. I gave them information about basic saving techniques; budgeting by determining their expenses versus income and creating a monthly budget so they could save; savings accounts in banks; and emergency funds. The girls are only 17-21 so most of them do not have jobs yet, but I want them to start thinking about how they will manage their money when they do start a job.

This does give me pause for thought though. I have saved and scrimped a lot to go on this trip, but my take home salary from my job at Stanford was more than 30 times the salary that the girls will start with, if they are lucky. They will start with a salary of $80 to $100 per month and from that they have to pay for rent, food, clothes, transportation, cell phones, etc. My girls will not be garment workers because they have the opportunity to have an education, but the average garment worker in Cambodia makes $62 per month, which is the second lowest in the world, higher only than Bangledesh. Most people can spend more than that on a single weekend out back home. In Napa Valley, I can spend more than that in a single night out!

The garment workers have gone on strike multiple times saying that $62 is not enough to survive on and the factories are saying they have no incentive to pay them more and the $62 is enough to support one person. They are not supposed to be supporting their families on their meager salarie because they supposedly don't have families. I'm not sure how they get away with these lies, but they do. How many of your clothes have "made in Cambodia" on the label? I know many of mine do. Free trade has a whole new meaning when you drive past the factories on a regular basis and see busloads of Khmer women leaving their hard jobs.

"Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness, and many of our people need it sorely on these accounts.  Broad, wholesome, charitable views of men and things cannot be acquired by vegetating in one little corner of the earth all one's lifetime."  ~Mark Twain

Angkor Wat, Siem Reap and Battambong

Last week, two other leadership residents and I escaped the craziness of Phnom Penh for a week in Siem Reap and Battambong. I'm now two months into my three months at Harpswell and it's going by so quickly! I've loved my time with the Harpswell girls and I'm really going to miss them when I leave on November 11th. That being said, it was wonderful to have the opportunity to get away for a week.

Kristen, Sarah and I took a bus from Phnom Penh to Siem Reap which stopped multiple times along the way, including for a snack and lunch and to deliver Khmer passengers to their homes. Snacks on offer included worms, spiders, tarantulas and steamed turtles (in the shell). I'm having problems with asthma and I looked up "asthma+Cambodia" on Google and I found an article stating that doctors are telling people with asthma not to eat bugs. I guess I'll have to give them up! Darn! :-P

When we reached Siem Reap, we were picked up by our guesthouse from the completely flooded bus station and checked into our room. We had a bath tub! After traveling for 6 months, little things like bath tubs and hot water make all the difference in the world. The first night we went to Angkor Wat to see the sunset but the sun was hidden by the clouds so we didn't get much. It was also our first experience climbing the treacherous stairs which are found throughout the Angkor Wat grounds. There were several occasions where we decided not to climb up to the top of various temples because we wanted to keep all limbs intact. After returning from the non-sunset, we took a free tuk tuk into town and ate dinner at a delicious restaurant on Pub Street, the main tourist area of Siem Reap. It was wonderful to have a salad. Again, the little things.

The next day we had a nice morning then went to the temples. We were walking by Bayon Temple when a monkey came out of nowhere and started circling us. First he went after Kristen and then turned his attention to Sarah. He grabbed her leg and we yelled at him. He let go and ran away but not before gnawing on her leg. We saw he had drawn blood so we grabbed a temple police officer and they called an ambulance to take Sarah to the hospital. We went to the international hospital in Siem Reap, which is incredibly nice and clearly the best hospital in Cambodia. My cousin was also treated here when she was infected with Dengue Fever and Dysentery a few months ago. Sarah was quickly seen by a doctor, got the first of five rabies shots and we were on our way again in 45 minutes. We even made it back to Angkor that day! She was a real trooper.

The next two days, we explored the grounds of the temples by bicycle and tuk-tuk. Kristen and I cycled the "grand tour" which covers at least 10 different temples, over one day and boy were we sore the next day! Angkor is actually a complex of many temples built by Cambodian kings between 800 AD and 1430 AD.  Angkor is also the pride and joy of the Khmer people and frequently referenced in conversations about Cambodia. For a nation suffering so greatly from post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) as a result of the horrific Khmer Rouge genocide, the ability to point to a time in their past when they were a great nation is extremely important. It also essential for the national psyche to know that they have the capacity to be a successful nation. I hope that they can overcome the corruption that is inherent throughout the country to become that very successful nation once again.

The temples are truly amazing but I can't help thinking how difficult it must have been to build them (likely with slave labor). Various countries have "adopted" Wats throughout the park and are carefully restructuring or renovating them. Angkor Wat is probably the most beautiful temple and is depicted on the national flag and money. U.S. dollars are used much more than the national currency, the Riel, but Riel are frequently given as change.

On the last day, we visited the most well known temples, Angkor, Thom and Bayon, and got up at 4:00 a.m. to see the sunrise. Unfortunately it rained that morning to there wasn't much color in the sky, but it was still fun to see. We spent the morning visiting the temples and then spent the day relaxing. Our last day in Siem Reap was also spent exploring Siem Reap and relaxing in our hotel room. I also watched Tomb Raider, featuring actress Angelina Jolie, which was filmed at Angkor. It was fun to be able to recognize places I'd been in the movie. Angelina Jolie adopted her first child, Maddox, from Cambodia after filming Tomb Raider. Sarah had an emergency in the States, so she left on Friday and returned back to the US. We were sad to see her go.

Friday, we left for Battambong, which is a rather disappointing city but surrounded by beautiful countryside. We met two guys from Europe, Kevin from Ireland and Steffen from Germany, on the bus and spent the next few days with them. Another leadership resident, Nellie, also joined us in Battambong.

On Saturday we took a tuk tuk out into the countryside and took a ride on the "bamboo train" which is a wood platform set on train wheels which takes riders about 5 kilometers into the countryside. It felt like a mini Disney ride. When another bamboo train comes, the one with fewer people has to get off the tracks. The people hop off, they take the platform and wheels off, the other "train" goes through and they they put the "train" back on the tracks. We also visited the only winery in Cambodia, which is run by a woman who makes all the wine herself... and the winery is named after her husband. Typical. The wine was okay; it had a nice nose which promised a good wine, but was disappointing on the palate. It was also $15 per bottle, which is pretty pricey in Cambodia. I try to see a winery in every country I can to compare their methods and wines to the wines back home. I guess that's what happens when you grow up sleeping on a bed of wine! (Cases of wine were stored under my bed, but no I didn't pop any open for a midnight drink!)

We also visited two temples, both requiring steep climbs up hundreds of stairs. The first one was called Banon Temple and had signs everywhere warning of land mines. On the second one, Phnom Sampeou, we cheated and climbed up a hill instead of going up the 800 steps. The views from the top were spectacular!

We were planning to stay one more day in Battambong, but decided there wasn't much more to do so we headed back to Phnom Penh. It was a hard transition for me because pollution in PP is so bad that I've been having some trouble with asthma, especially when running.  I just bought an inhaler and I'm hoping it will help!

It was wonderful to return to the girls, and I got a lot of hugs amid cries of "I missed you". It definitely gave me the "awwww" warm and cuddly feeling. I won't be sorry to leave Phnom Penh, but it will be really hard to leave the girls when the time comes.What a wonderful, amazing group of humans. I know they will do great things in Cambodia in upcoming decades!

Phnom Tamao

I LOVE what I'm doing and I enjoy many aspects of Phnom Penh. However, after having grown up next to a state forest, I have a long standing love affair with trees and greenery and Phnom Penh is sadly lacking in that area. On Thursday, two of the other leadership residents and I visited the wildlife preserve Phnom Tamao. It was lovely to drive out of the city and into the rice paddies and greenery.

Kristen, Nellie and I joined the Betel Nut tour with a couple from Germany and a woman from Australia who is living in Delhi, India. Our guide, Visnya is a native of Phnom Penh and spoke impeccable English. She was very knowledgeable about the animals and a lot of fun too. Visnya is 24 and getting married next year. She mentioned that she's getting to be rather old for getting married and she wants to have a child immediately. At nearly 28, I was feeling like 24 is very young!

I really loved seeing all the animals at the preserve. All of them have been rescued and they are attempting breeding programs with some of the animals.  I especially loved seeing the tigers up close and petting the gibbon. She was nursing her baby and would grab our hands and put them on her head so we could scratch the top of her head. She would put her head down and almost looked like she would start purring! The monkeys were everywhere and followed up around but we were warned not to look the monkeys in the eye because that was considered an act of aggression and could make them attack. We wore sunglasses the whole time to make sure that the monkeys
couldn't see our eyes and get the wrong idea!

We had a marvelous Khmer lunch of rice, stir fried vegetables, curry and noodles and enjoyed talking to all of our new tour friends. I got the contact information of the German couple and I'll visit them when I go to Germany next summer.

On the way home, I took several photos of Phnom Penh and my neighborhood. Here are a few of my favorites. Enjoy!

This deer followed us everywhere. His antlers were covered in fur and he was very friendly!

Giant squirrel eating sugarcane.

Our guide with the deer

Beautiful peacock

Cute baby monkey

A red deer

The gibbon who loved her head scratched.

Gibbon baby

This gibbon was unhappy with us and showed his (very red) derriere to demonstrate his distaste!

Our group: Henri, Hanna, Nellie, Kristen, Amber and me

Otters

This one-legged gibbon was brought to the preserve and no one knows why he only has one leg.

Gorgeous creature!

Life is hard. Time for a nap!

I LOVE elephants

This one constantly looked like he was smiling!

These are small snail like snacks that are popular here.

Anything you want for dinner: meat, veggies and fruit

Rice paddies and gorgeous clouds just outside of Phnom Penh

My street

I definitely live on a very "Khmer" street. I am the only foreigner anywhere in the vicinity!

My Khmer neighbors hanging out across from my dorm

"My girls"

I guess I've finally found what I love. Every day that I teach "my girls" is a good day. We have a lot of fun together, we laugh together and we really enjoy each others' company. Today we read about the Atlantis Hotel's $20,000 per night "Bridge Suite" and one of the assignments in the book was to write a postcard pretending you stayed there. I divided my girls into two groups of three and had each group write me a postcard. It was fun to see their enthusiasm and how excited they got over details of the suite. We even looked it up online so they could have a visual while they wrote their postcards to me. It was hard to study such extravagances with girls whose families likely won't see $20,000 in 10 years, maybe even a lifetime, but it was a nice escape to imagine what it would be like to stay there. These are their postcards to me:

Dear Erika,
We have been on Paradise Island for a week. It is a very great hotel that we have never seen before. In the Bridge Suite, it has a lot of luxurious things, for instance, if we stand on the balcony, we see the brilliant sightseeing, and we feel very very fabulous. Inside the room, there are a fantstic four-poster bed, wonderful sofa, gold leaf mirror, silk rugs on the floor, and the fresh smell of flowers, In the bathroom, it has three tilets that are made from silver. We are all feel(ing) very well, and I hopefully have great chance with you to visit this hotel next time. See you soon!!! :-)
Love, your girls

Dear Erika,

We have been on Paradise Island for a few days now. Can you guess what we have seen there? On that island, we are enjoying many unforgettable things for the best one is staying at the Bridge Suite, which is the most expensive hotel that we have never seen before. Are you imagining about what we have met in this hotel? It is $20,000 per night. there are 18 bedrooms in a suite, big balcony, great living room, modern furniture, and magnificent materials such as gold leaf mirror, silk rugs, and Picasso plates on the wall, etc. Furthermore, the cheapest thing in that hotel is a lamp that cost $6,000! And the last thing here, we have met many famous people. We are thinking of the day that you can come here to celebrate the most wonderful party in this world here.
Love,
:-)

One of my greatest hopes for them is that they will have the opportunity to experience something luxurious like this but also that they have plenty of opportunities to make meaningful changes in this country.

 Me and My Girls

Kampot and heat rash

Much as I loved Phnom Penh, the idea of getting out, if only for a few days, was too irresistible, so this past weekend I visited Kampot. I was feeling sick on Wednesday with a horrible stomach ache and when it didn't get better by Thursday, I went to the Harpswell doctor for a diagnosis. He said if we were in the States, he would have run several tests, but being in Phnom Penh limited his options. After a medical history and palpitating my stomach, he decided I had an ulcer. The doctor gave me a few prescriptions and sent me on my way. I spent the night in my nice ac room and left the next morning bound for Kep and Kampot.


I met two girls on the bus who were from England and are here in Phnom Penh for five and six weeks respectively to do research about climate change. Dora and Geeta are both from north London, near Camden, and are starting school as "mature learners" at the University of York. We spent the next day together and I really enjoyed their company. We decided to go to Kampot and both Dora and I had been told that we "must" see Les Mangueieres, a mango plantatation turned guest house with individual bungalows and a house with rooms. We all got a tuk-tuk out from town and took a room together in the house. It was simple but nice.



 The plantation is located on the banks of the Kampot river and has free bicycles, kayaks for rent and nice platforms to lay out in the sun and go swimming. It was a hot weekend, so we enjoyed the water immensely. They had a set menu for dinner and breakfast and although it was a little pricey, the food was quite good.

The highlight of the trip was the boat trip. One of the employees took Dora, Geeta, me and two other people: Gabi from England and Skip from Boston, out onto the river after dark. We went up the river to where fireflies had settled in a few different trees. They were beautiful. There was also lightening in the distance, which made it even more spectacular. We were so far out that if it had been a clear night, we probably could have seen the stars. One of my favorite memories from Laos is laying on the ground staring up at the most stars I had ever seen and a very clear milky way snaking through the sky. We had a great time talking and getting to know Gabi and Skip, who are also working for an NGO in Phnom Penh promoting environmental protection.


On Saturday morning, we went for a nice bike ride through the countryside and a few villages. We saw a temple and said hello to the monks, who spoke a bit of English, and saw an old almost-toothless woman fishing next to a dammed stream. It was really fun.


Dora (on left) and Geeta (on right)
Unfortunately when I got back I discovered that I was getting a rash on my neck and face, which quickly spread to the rest of my body. I was concerned it might be related to Dengue Fever, which is endemic here, so I decided to head back to Phnom Penh. I haven't seen a doctor because I haven't had any other symptoms, but it appears to be a heat rash. I've been in Asia for nearly 6 months now in much hotter weather than this past week, and I never got heat rash during that period. Yesterday I checked into a guesthouse and watched TV while using the A/C to try to make it go away. It's still there and itchy, but the prickly heat powder I have is also helping a little bit. One issue with Cambodia: If you go somewhere other than Siem Reap or Phnom Penh, it can be difficult to get good medical treatment. Even in these two cities, it's a bit spotty.

On Saturday I"m going to Siem Reap, Battambong and maybe Kep for about 10 days. I'm very excited!

Hope all is well with everyone!