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!
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