Comfort Food
December 22, 2008
A few food vendors pass by our office daily, selling their homemade food door-to-door, but the Nam Pachok lady is my favorite. Nam Pachok is a delicious fish curry soup that’s made with lemongrass and coconut milk. She carries all the ingredients, including bowls, chopsticks and condiments on her shoulders as she walks down the street. My mouth watered as she garnished my bowl with bean sprouts, cabbage, cucumber, banana blossom and mint. Next she layered in some fresh Khmer noodle before ladling in the soup. She waited patiently as we all finished eating since she needed the bowls back. I didn’t eat fast enough because eventually she couldn’t wait for me so Miss Kim, our receptionist, gave her one of the bowls in our office kitchen in exchange. This is definitely one my favorite comfort food of all time. Delicious.
Where is the fish?
December 20, 2008
Today in class I read Taro Gomi’s beautifully illustrated “Where’s the Fish?” I would ask, “Where’s the fish?” and then say, “There’s the fish.” As a class we repeated these two sentences as we drew fish and other colorful animals.
Where's the fish?
There's the fish.
Soksabay
December 18, 2008
Soksabay from Phnom Penh. I can’t believe December is ending soon! Where did the time go? Next month I leave beautiful Cambodia and it feels that there is still so much work to do here.
I’m not sure why I am not inspired to write while living in Phnom Penh. So many experiences in such little time and I don’t want to forget about any of them yet I don’t feel the urgency to document them.
I still teach daily at the head office located in the heart of Phnom Penh. It’s the travel to the communities that I enjoy most. I’ve been teaching in two of the slum communities for CVCD twice a week. The two classes from 8:30-10:30 am go by quickly. I will travel with a staff member or teacher by moto to the classroom for about 30 minutes from the city. The kids look much younger than they really are because of malnutrition. The 14-year olds look like they are only eight. But they have the same laughter and enthusiasm as any child I know.
Some kids will ask me to write down the word for them but I encourage them to watch me as I write the words on the white board. At the other end of that spectrum are some kids who refuse help. They really are independent and prefer to do the work on their own.
Yesterday, Mr. Pheak and I drove to a slum community by the railroad tracks near our head office, crossing the bridge on Russian Boulevard. The Khmer teacher who teaches there sat and became our student as we, Mr. Pheak and I, co-taught English for an hour. The classroom was not designed to fit the 30+ kids that attend. I watched as they brought in stools from their homes to sit in the back. Parents and young kids crowded each other in the doorway and window to watch. A man came in drunk and asked us for $2 but we asked him to leave and we locked the wooden door by lowering the tiny wooden latch.
We asked some kids to come to the front of the classroom and they practiced simple conversation. How are you? What is your name? How old are you? For some kids this was a difficult exercise in pronunciation so it was good practice. As a game, I wrote the phrase on the board and called out words such as “name” and “what” to see who would be the first one to point the word out. Lots of volunteers for that exercise.
As we left the community, I saw a few of the same kids helping their parents selling used clothing or petrol in pepsi bottles on the side of the road.
At the Cafe
December 8, 2008
Currently Reading
“Bong, som kut loy.” So now I can ask for the bill in Khmer. I can also order an iced coffee with milk. ”Cafe tuk d’koh tkaw.”
I was at T & C cafe with V discussing the plot of The King’s Last Song. It’s an amazing story that takes place during the present and also flashes back to King Jayavarman VII’s time. V already knew about the history of Jayavarman’s accomplishments so it was great to hear his view. I don’t want the story to end but at this rate, I’m going to finish tomorrow. Actually I’m skimming through the present stuff since going back in time is so much more interesting. Why are the steps at Angkor Wat so dang steep? The book gives a theory as to why.
