Phnom Penh, Cambodia
11° 33' N 104° 54' E
May 10, 2006 15:04
Distance 0km

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life is so random

Text written in: English

10 months ago I was a corporate desk jockey, arguably bored out of my
mind, sitting in an airconditioned stupor. yesterday I was in the back
of a cambodian lumber yard sweating, breathing wood dust, searching
for 18 perfect peices of wood so 5 cambodian orphans can make easels
to hold the first oil paintings they've ever done. I'm not gonna say
'my life is so much better now' - what a cliche. just that life is so
frickin random (tho for the record, life IS still pretty sweet :).

I met up with drew - a friend of a friend - who'se helping out an
orphanage here in PP. he and another guy, nader, have been here 2-3
months building bathrooms, setting up a school, cleaning, etc.
yesterday nader and I bought supplies. today, me and 2 of the artist
(lee and rossi) painted the front of the new school. drew and nader
are doing cool stuff here. I have the utmost respect for their
constant energy. another girl - prescilla from south africa - took the
kids to a dentist. she raised funds before she got here so that meant
the kids got novocane along with their teeth getting pulled...

while we were painting the school, 2 adults got in a fight down the
road (actually more a garbage-lined dirt path than a road. this slum
is south of downtown and slated to be demolished any day now - new
hotel or mall going in). one started swinging a metal pole and broke
the glass on the other guys food cart. the 2 boys shook their head in
disgust. at least that was good to see...

the other night I also met with friends of my family - cathleen, dale
and their kids - they're from minnesota and have been in cambodia
since 1994 - total lifers here - been running orphanages, schools,
missions. most their kids are adopted. their family is supremely cool.
we talked like old friends - will for sure be seeing more of them!
I also went to tuol sleng prison in the center of downtown - this is where the khmer rouge tortured almost 20,000 prisoners in less than 4 years. on the verge of tears through most of it. if its true you can feel negative energy, this palce is full of it - a couple rooms especially oozed it. saw torture devices, photos of so many people, re-bar of shackles, beds with shackles, axes (bullets were too expensive), gallows, stains on the floor, this place was really raw.  WHAT gets in the mind of people to do this? can only think of lame words to describe the pain. *everyone* in cambodia was directly affected by this regime. disturbing on so many levels.

.....on a lighter note (the past few days have been intense). I have a new game - called asian olympics. so far a few are:

- how many people can fit on one motor bike. 2 days later, that got
ammended to 'plus maximum combined age'. seeing 5 peeps on a bike is
really common. but usually thats 2 parents and a bunch of kids.
yesterday I saw 2 adults, 2 teenagers, and a baby - thats the winner
so far. (britany spears has nothing on the folks here).

- avoid the motorbike. hard to describe exactly the organized chaos of
asian city driving, but its a constant stream of cars and bikes, there
are virtually no stop lights, people drive on all sides of the road,
pedestrians just walk into the frey, but around all this, it works.
these people ALL deserve medals.

- related to this: farang (tourist) street crossing. since there is no
break in all that traffic, you have to just jump in and start walking.
drivers expect you to keep walking and so swerve around you. you're
worse off if you stop and think. it's like frogger with no back
button.

anywhoo, thats what I have so far...will watch out for more. gotta run
- catching a bus at 7am tomorrow for seim reip and angkor wat. early
bus - yuk!

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Photos / videos of "life is so random":

tuol sleng - bldg A (this used to be a school - makes it all even sadder) tuol sleng - bldg B so many graphic photos of torture so many photos of prisoners on and on... shackles gallows - as if not bad enough - they'd dunk the persons head in that pot (full of putrid water) one of so many cells where they kept keys to each cell looking down one floor lined with cells (at least 8 floors like this) remnants from when it was a school one of the torture rooms - each room had a photo of who they found when the prison was uncovered bed, shackles, groover, bowl - this was same in each room another room the lumber yard orphanage director with his 2 pulled teeth one of the kids from the orphanage - they're also a dance troup - hence the makeup (she's eating snails) front of the school while we just got started the 2 budding artists! the painted school, the landlady, a mom from next door, and 2 more 'helpers' - just need to add the name written in khmer and its done. the teacher taking kids to the dentist (low combined age, but 6 people - do they win??!) kids at the orphanage hand-pulled chinese noodle soup. note different size of noodles. my $3 tree-house room. hot, but all mine - no shared dorm!
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