Music (noise) to my Ears

As I am getting ready for bed, around 8:30 pm, I hear familiar noises.  My roommates flipping the pages of the books they are reading, mosquitoes and flies being shocked to death with a mosquito bat, the fluorescent lamp buzzing, the fan making a noise as it rotates from side-to-side.   I finish up the last page in my book and turn my light off.  As I am drifting off to sleep, I hear a monster truck outside of my window honking at random people walking around on Highway 5.  Now awake, while everyone else is asleep, I start to listen to other noises that I usually drown out in my slumber.  I hear one of the windows creek open.  I definitely start to panic due to my over active imagination.  Some thoughts:

"Is someone breaking in?",  "Oh no, did I leave my wallet on the kitchen table?",  "Shit, my parents are going to kill me if I loose anything!"

I hear small thumping noises.  Hm... maybe this creeper is unusually small?  I run to my door and immediately lock it.  Getting back into bed I realize that is pointless because my door does not reach the top of the ceiling and the burglar can easily climb on top of the broken television and jump into my room.  I grab the most weapon like item close to me... a mosquito bat.  Well at least I can shock the hell out of whoever is outside.  I attempt falling asleep but I jump with the slightest noise.  

I start drifting to sleep around midnight when out of nowhere I hear monstrous croak.  I jump out of my bed and race to turn the light on, only to realize it was a gecko.  Okay, the gekko cannot hurt me when I'm in my bed with my mosquito net surrounding me.  I start to relax, but I keep hearing things moving around in the living room.  Shoot, there is still someone lurking out there!  

I hear some of the chairs scraping against the wooden floor, books falling off of the coffee table.  Too scared to actually do anything about it, I get back into bed, lights on with every intention to stay awake, and just pray whoever is out there will just leave seeing that the house is full books and movies he probably cannot understand and food that will taste strange to him.  Somewhere between fighting to stay awake and lucid dreaming, I hear a scream.  Only it wasn't human; it was a cat meowing at the top of his lungs!  It sounded like he was fighting another cat... 

Relieved, I fell asleep... safely!  

Pictures!

You can find pictures at:

picasaweb.google.com/neetiparekh

Enjoy!

Life in Pursat

Today marks the fourth day I’ve been in Pursat, Cambodia.  The pace of Pursat is slow but I’ve never been more productive in my life.   Everyday is full of bike rides, lunch with important villagers, meetings with SC staff, and other activities.  I’ve used the past few days to familiarize my self with the area that surrounds the village, the paid staff of SC, the other volunteers, and the framework of SC. 

On my first day in the village, I met the mangers of almost all of the projects.  They were having a small party as they completed a tedious 5 day training.  Everyone was warm in their welcome as they introduced themselves individually to me.  The managers remind me of friendly, non-creepy “uncles” (in the Indian sense).  After that the other volunteers and I had a nice welcome dinner.  I am having a hard time adjusting my palette to khemr cuisine.  The only thing I like so far is vegetable fried rice (buy cha bunlai at setch).  Their preparation (or lack of) meat, insects, brains, tongue is going to make my transition to vegetarianism really easy in a few months.  I am still trying to keep an open mind when it comes to food but it becomes increasingly difficult with every dish I try! 

Besides the food, everything about Pursat is lovely.  A few days ago two other volunteers and I took a “moto” (scooter/motorcycle fusion) ride into the surrounding villages.  Rice paddies and small lakes surrounded the villages.  It was really beautiful.  The road conditions changed from pavement, to red clay, to dirt throughout the journey.  Along the way we stopped at a “wat” (Buddhist temple) and talked to some monks.  As we rode along, many children and sometimes adults, would call out to say “hello how are you I am fine” all in one breath.  I guess to them we are “barang” (foreigners) to practice their English with.   We visited another wat yesterday for the festival “penchum bon”.  This festival lasts 15 days.  People visit the wat to feed imps, or evil spirits to keep them from interfering with their lives.  We went to the altar and placed 3 incense in a vase (each which contain a wish).  Then we got in line to spoon rice into bowls and feed away the imps.  Finally lunch was served.  It was really interesting to see how Buddhists pray.  I found many similarities to Hindu rituals. 

This morning I took a bicycle ride to a SC model village.  In the village, SC set up a pre-school for children ages 3-6.  A local village grandmother supervises children at the school while they are learning.  We met her but none of us could understand her as her khemr was so fast!  They also set up a well and a rice bank.  Since the price of rice increased 30% this year the rice bank serves as a place for families to store their excess rice for shortages and price increases.  Like a bank their rice can accrue interest and families can also take out “rice loans”.  The bank also offers incentives to store rice at the bank.  I also (apprehensively) saw a bee farm the SC help set up.  The bees were all tame thankfully!

Good morning from Bangkok!

It is a beautiful morning here in Bangkok!  I'm writing from the Novotel at Suvarnabhumi airport in Bangkok where my luxurious stay will end in a few hours.  Everything about Bangkok (well the airport and the hotel) is extravagant.  Hopefully I can make it back soon and spend a few days sight-seeing and exploring.  

My flight from Chicago to Tokyo was grueling.  It was 12 hours of sitting in a cramped space with waves of nausea passing through every two hours.  I quickly found my gate at Tokyo for the next flight and passed out for a few hours.  The flight from Tokyo to Bangkok was fine because I doubled the dose of dramamine!

Everyone in Tokyo and in Bangkok are extremely helpful and kind.  It is such a change from the attitude we are used to in the US.  

I am going to get ready for my next flight.  Next stop: Phnom Penh, Cambodia.  Blog soon!