Seeing

as how I am no longer dans le cambodge, I will cease writing in this blog. Instead, you may wish to turn your attention to arushdy.wordpress.com, where I will document much colder, and more dangerous adventures.

Love you all,

Ashraf.

blogging

I am taking alittle break from writing for a bit...as you all know.

I will be back.

KAAARIM!

I'm back in battambang from the ISGP training in malaysia (which was mind-blaahsting!) and some eventful few days following the training in and around K.L....but more importantly, my brother Karim is here in battambang to chill with me for a few weeks!

It's been fun showing the brotha around the ghetto; to see my coconut guy; CORDE; nice restaurants; how to dodge the heat, etc.

I was hoping Karim would write in my absence, but he decided to chicken out (what?! yes I did say it!). Also we're currently hungry, and going to go grab some dinner soon...peace!

race to the finish

I eneded up buying a new ticket that departed this morning at 8:30 from siem reap to KL. Upon my arrival (while still in a dazed state), I recharged my old malaysian sim card and called Farshad. Luckily, he was nearby, at a place called sepang(sp?). This is where they hosted the F! race - he was at the Asian Festival Of Speed (AFOS). So he came and picked me up, we packed my bags in the back, and the first thing I did in malaysia was sneak into the race car pits. We checked out souped-up lamborghini's and Ferraris, etc. I'm not really a car person, and I've never seen a race before - this was great. The best was that I got to walk around as if I was a media person, hanging out with riyaz and farshad's buddy Sabri (coincidence? I think not!), who owns a small race company. I felt the engines of the cars start when I was three floors up! We were also beside the scantily clad party girls and the dj booth. What a random arrival!

There was also a drifting competition on the side - which alternated between amazing and ridiculous, as any and all takers were allowed to try their hand at a small course laid out with cones. I might one day get into this motorsport business. We also met iranian guys representing a racecar sponsor who gave us free non-alcoholic malt drink things.

Then I went to Farshad's place, helped him with some grocery shopping - where I purchased some guava's on steriods.

Great day. Pictures and videos will come up soon!
and by soon I mean after I get out of the training.

Failport.

An inspired haiku about life while traveling:

traveling people,
make sure you have your passport.
(before leaving home)


:(

To Malaysia again!

I am writing from the hotel del la Paix in Siem Reap, the first stop on my way back to Malaysia!

I'm here with Elyssa, Quddus, and Theary...with Avuth joining us when he arrives. I only wrote to tell yout that I will likely not be posting on the blog while travelling, instead, Karim will fill in detials of his trip, and perhaps, his imaginings of what my travels are like!

peace!

Day and Night

Definitely one of the longest and most productive day+nights I've had in a while. I'm knocking off old assignments from CCFSA as we speak (not what they intended I'm sure) and I managed to run an annual planning workshop for CORDE staff and Master's students! I was happy with the results, and now can only hope they'll finsih their assignments and finish the plan. I am damn lucky to have a dad who knows this stuff inside and out, he's been like the wikipedia of development for me since I've arrived in this country. Soon, I will be on my way to the commemoration of the ascention of Baha'u'llah...which I managed to also make a program for, and hand off to the team before buckling down to work some more. Crazy, and I love it!

so much fun, so little sleep.

Guavas

I was hunting for guavas for the last two weeks, asking everywhere, and repeatedly being told that they're around, but not in season. Then, this morning, one of the p-units came in and gifted me three magically delicious guavas!

I'm seriously running out of small-time wishes to be fulfilled.

Age catches up with me

Yesterday morning, as I knelt down in front of a broken computer, I felt a strange twinge in my back. Since then, I've had some rough lower-back pain...I feel like I'm 80!

I got to join a book one with Melvene, Elyssa, and Elyssa's friend Tammy. It's been such along time since I went through the material - it was nice to just refresh on the basics of the ruhi institute. We had a great time trying to formulate four questions per short quotation, e.g.

"The betterment of the world can be accomplished through pue and goodly deeds, through commendable and seemly conduct."

Q.1. How can the betterment of the world be accomplished
Q.2. What will be accomplished through pure and goodly deeds, through commendable and seemly conduct?
Q.3. uh...wait wait, I can think of one...What, in addition to pure and goodly deeds is required for the betterment of the world?
Q.4.oh man, there's nothing left...
melvene: we're not moving on until you think of a question
Q.4. ...hmm...The betterment of what thing will be accomplished through pure and goodly deeds, through commendable and seemly conduct?

As you can see, we had to stretch ourselves towards the end - fun times though! We held it in a place called "madison square" which is a really uninviting new restaurant that serves great pancakes. It has a motorcyle on the roof. Yes, it is as strange as it sounds. oh, it also projects khmer music videos onto the wall of the building across the street. RANDOM!

I am incredibly behind in my work, but life is as sweet as the coconut water I drink every morning.

Coconut

I could not sleep last night. Eventually I did, but I was in a strange and unusual sleepless state till 3 or 4am - it almost felt like I was in university again! I dreaded, for a few seconds, the kind of havoc this could wreak on my morning, and perhaps *gulp* entire day! Though I missed, to my chagrin, dawn prayers with sheng-tchie; and though I came late to work - I did end up enjoying a nice coconut and some conversation with Oudum, whom, as a result of our conversations, decided to join ruhi book one! Overall, I will chalk down my random lack of sleep (and ensuing delays) as a victory rather than a loss or failure.

Now, on to the CCFSA final project!

Hope your nights are sleepless, and mornings fruitful (mine are full of coconut)!

Ash.

May tweny fi

One of the p-units made it up to battambang to teach a research methods class at uniED today. I hear she's whipping the students into shape, getting them in the right gear to complete their mandatory final-year thesis projects. Ah, poor souls.

on the flip side, today I ate breakfast at Sunrise Cafe with InterLashional; had some efficient meetings, got some more work done on my CCFSA final project (which I have failed to complete on time...due date = today); got a new computer (aka CORDE bought a new desktop to use as a server, and I get to babysit it until they find a permanent location:) ); had a coconut and sugar-cane juice; hung out with Enoch; ate an effervescent vitamin C (which was waaay more exciting than it sounds!) - all in all a good time.

Now I get to go shop in the market and then cook some supper, and maybe play a game of settlers of Catan - if urbody is down.

Oh wait, the market.

You see, in Battambang, people speak less english than in phnom penh. This is great, I think it's excellent that I get a chance to really learn Khmer, BUT, it is a complex and dangerous game in the market context. Observe Ashraf Rushdy, a friendly, well-dressed foreigner. Observe Market Ladies, less than 50% honest, and already holding masters degrees in developing countries' dual economies.

In this scenario, I posses a 50% chance of being ripped off at every stall I buy from, or maybe for every item I buy. This could be incredibly expensive except for one factor. They don't know if I know Khmer. In this game of limited information, I can force their hands, and make them charge the right price, as long as I can pass for speaking khmer, and generally knwoing the price of a fruit or vegetable.

I have mastered this with a few short phrases (this may become a video blog post).
how much is this/one kilo of this = ni pun man? muoy kilo pun man?
yes = Baat
no = Atay
Thank you = Aukuhn Chran

It is AMAZING what kind of equalizing power these four can give you. The ony time I encountered a problem as when the chicken lady started asking me personal questions the third time I went by. So now one of the \m knows for sure than I don't knwo Khemr. Luckily, she's on my side.

a sample market experience using the four essentials:

me: Ni 'man? (this one how much?)
her: RANDOM NUMEBR I HAVE NO IDEA HOW MUCH THEY SAY
me: baaat, baat, bat....bai (three, as in, I'll take three of them)

me: muoy kilo 'man?
her: ANOTHER RANDOM NUMBER!
me: baat.. mouy kilo.

her: random non-price-related words.
me: atay, aukuhn.

when I have everything I want from one stall: pun man?
her: random number.
me: 5 dollar bill.
her: make some change.
me: auhukn chran!

hope you learned how to shop like a master in a foreign market!

Where are the words?

They are all in my pictures.

I have been less inclined to write as a result of the battambang internet. I really liked uploading photos, and documenting life, and sharing it with all my friends and family. You see, even my hampered ability to upload a photo has reduced my photo-taking, which has in turn reduced the amount of attention I pay to my own doings, which has, as a result, reduced my ability to write about such things.

I have had lots of fun hanging out with Enoch. We made a "Roti-Hunter" video, in which I sat on the back of the moto and filmed our travels around battambang to find a guy who makes roti (video hopefully coming soon).

I taught a macro-economics class for Elyssa. This was good as well. I realized that, much as I dislike the administration of teaching, I really enjoy teaching itself! The class basically consisted of us studying a talk by Dr. Arbab about true prosperity. I learned a lot, since I had never read the document before, and because of the different ideas that the students threw out. The ideas of creating a new economics-creating new goals for wealth and finance, is brilliant, and should really be a focus around this time of economic crisis. If you want to know more about the talk and the principles, just ask, and I will happily dedicate a post to it.

I have a beard. This may be featured in pictures that I upload, if a suitable connection/computer combo can be found...haha, and just now - 7:30 - the internet guys are closing up...ughh.

Friends, it may be time to get internet at home.

Business and other business

Business, small-business, entrepreneurship - been on my mind for a while. The first idea in Cambodia, as our avid, original readers know, was the fabled "Look-Look at my tuk-tuk" tuk-tuk company. Lacking funds, market research, drivers, and the inclination, this venture never left the planning stages (and truly, never even entered the realm of 'the possible'). There is, however, a new idea; a shining beacon of hope on the small-business horizon. I won't say what it is quite yet, (though the observant among you may know already), but it could be very sweet.

This master's program keeps getting delayed, but that's ok, I have been told I was a little too excited and gung-ho when I started off, and really need to let the program grow organically instead of jumping in with the NOS on....so I will. Lets see what happens.

Yesterday I started reading "The Quest for Meaning" by Oswald Hanfling...so far it's all right. He's not making any big claims or anything, just going through and refuting both people's claims to meaning, and claims against. In the second chapter, for example, he emphatically disagress with Shopenhauer's assertion that "life is pain", or that pain and sadness are the positive realities, and happiness and helath are the lack of the former. Somehow, I got thorugh philosophy not reading any SHopenhauer (that I can remember), and reading his views sheds some light on my philosophy/comp-lit friends.

As a quick aside, in most western universities, Comparative Literature is really just another name for Continental Philosophy.

Last night I finally finished ruhi-book-6 with Seng-Tchie...I'm really tempted to make him a certificate and frame it or something.

This morning, the 19th of may, I met Seng-tchie for the second of what we hope to be regular dawn-prayers. It's nice to wake up with the sun, and I enjoy starting my day by renewing my spiritual focus. Really, nuch of life is perspective, and that's part of why saying me prayers in the morning and at night are so critical - the constant renewal of perspective.

After showering, etc. I decided to go grab breakfast (my usual coconut). While enjoying the suppple meat of a young coconut, I recieved a call form Melvene, who was in great distress, "oh my God Ashruf, I locked myself een!". Through my laughter, I managed to convey that I would come back ad give her my keys. Supremely embarassed, Melvene asked me not to tell anyone. Of course, I threatened to put the story up on the blog (which very few people from battambang read anyway)..and have now followed through with my threat. Ah life, aint it wonderful?

The week that was

Warning; this blog will contain several disjointed blog-entries:

1. I was propositioned last weekend by a man-woman on the way home at 11:30 PM. At a distance it looked like there were two khmer girls walking in the park, then, as the distance shortened, I realized that they were dressed like nasty nasty hookers. Then, when I got even closer, the man-woman asked me where I was going and if I wanted "sexy-massage". SICK!! I felt gross just being asked that.

2. Battambang had a sweet teaching campaign. We went around and xplained the Baha'i Faith to a bunch of peoples, and they recieved it well, and are gonna join us in the daunting task of unifying mankind, and uplifting the peeps of the world!

3. I went down to Phnom Penh again, with Quddus this time. Got my Dad and bonne-Mere a present (for all the times I couldn't get them one before), and Quddus bought himself a camera.

4. I went to the only shopping mall with escalators in Phnom Penh, and Quddus showed me where he buys movies, and we played several games of DOTA. Which is both the epitomy of nerd and as a result, great fun.

5. It's decided, I love passionfruit. everyday that I've eaten one has seemed surreally exciting and joyous. Passionfruit is my new drug of choice.

6. We got to stay at Beattie's place, and drive her moto around. This has been GREAT fun. We were consequently pulled over by the police becuase I am white (and we possibly had our lights on) and had our first Cambodian currupt cop experience! The guy actually took my license, and then told me that I had to either pick it up at the police station, or pay the cops right there to get it back. In an uncharacteristic act of defiance (since my sense of justice was insulted), I grabbed my license back, pointed to the "handicap international" sticker on my helmet (since I know that HI works with the traffic police), and told the guy that I was claling the head of HI to get clarification before I payed anything. In reality, I called my QC advisor, Ryan Duly, who listed the three possible lines of action when stopped by the police:
1) you skillfully negotiate your release.
2) You neotiate a (hopefully) small payment.
3) You tell them you're calling the chief of police

I had apprently pulled a mashup of 1) and 3), which did, in fact, deliver us from the greedy claws of corruption. In fact, they relesead us as soon as I started describing the situaiton to Ryan.

7. I had some espressos. Hoorah!

SRD and Music

Yesterday my Dad and a guy named Sayed Al-Junid came up to Battambang to prime its inhabitants about the idea of engaging in a discourse (Keith, an ex-wildlife biologist, came to see the presentations). The main idea is to get groups of people to engage various sectors to talk about the conceptual frameworks within which they operate. Basically, getting diffeerent sectors to do some soul-searching and find out what the assumptions are they they are operating on; socratic philosphy for organizations...or something of the sort.

The presentations were great and the new concept of development, which proposes a very integrated approach, is pretty exciting for a development novice such as myself.

I also bought a guitar yesterday. It cost $20, but the nice old chinese lady gave me a $1 discount. This is, I assume, becuae I bought a badminton raquette from her before with seng-tchie (who spoke some mandarin with her)...and she now considers me an honorary recipient of the "chinese discount". I discovered, a while ago, that chinese businesspeople will not budge, unless the buyer is chinese, in which case they show solidarity by providing token discounts. Lovely.

While my guitar skills have failed ot improve beyond the depth (or even the scope) of the afore-posted video, I am keen to learn new chords and, eventually, songs. I also intend to train myself to switch cords swiftly, so that it sounds like music instead of 'a collection of badly-strummed chords'.

I rode to the CORDE building today, one hand on my bicycle steering, one hand grasping my guitar. On the girly bike that I bought, I imagine I looked particularly spectactular (spectacular here meaning "of, or pertaining to a spectacle" [aka making a scene], as opposed to the more positive and flattering vernacular).

I feel energized today, and have decided to come in and work even though its a sunday. I figure I should really 'hoist the sails' while the wind is blowing.

Hope y'alls enjoying life,

Ashraf.

Quddus' birthday.

Tons of fun last night right after I arrived on the bus. Eating pizzas, making jokes, celebrating the passage of time - made me realize that it'd been a while since I'd had such an earnestly enjoyable social dinner. Also, how cool is Quddus? the guy treated everyone else to dinner on his birthday!


May 6th:

While having a shower, I was running through what to wear to work today, white pants, green shirt, blue rubber sandals?? My sandalos don't seem to fit the rest of my attire, but I've decided to continue wearing them for one reason (also realized this morning): my new bicycle is called a "crocodile", and my sandals are "gators". I was tremendously more excited than I should have been about this, most minor of all coincidences. It made me feel somewhat like Mr.Bean, in that he owns cool small things, and loves how cool they are.

On a more worthy note, my friend, Oudum the coconut guy, met a khmer-speaking Baha'i on the weekend, and is now all about the Faith. Even though this will likely not result in discounted coconuts, it was still pretty exciting news.

Also, CORDE is so cool, they've decided to buy the masters program a laptop, and, I get to make a budget for the program for the rest of the year. I'm tottally getting a whiteboard and some markers so I can map out the program in my favorite way. That's one thing computers lack - real space and perspective (but just watch, google is monitoring this blog, and they'll release a white-board sized screen in a year!).

Two things:
1. I got to eat a street-waffle
2. I got to roll with the gangstas

1. I was out for a walk on my last day in Phnom Penh, going to pick up an ill laptop. My long-legged pace was faster than that of the burdened hawker, pushing his cart in front of me. I think the quickness of my pace frightened him a bit (as I had been gaining on him for a while. So he stops and turns to see who is following him. When he sees the shiny-whiteness of my skin, he jumps on the opportunity to sell me a waffle. Unbenkownst to this fortunate young man, I, of all random foreigners, have been patiently waiting for the day when fate would smile on me and deliver into my grasp an authentic street waffle. Yesterday was that day. 1000 riels and a few steps later, both the hawker and myself were happily about our business.

The waffle was like eating air encased in sugar, with hints of flour and egg.

2. Rolling with the gangstas
The Bus up to battambang offered me a special bus driver. This guy was like a greyhound bus driver from the 70's (if it was even a bus company then). He was great: Giant aviators, work clothes worn like he was born in them, cigarette hanging out the side of his mouth at every stop. Too cool. Then, he only got cooler when he showed his khmer dj skills over the bus's sound system.

Listen to this, and be reminded of the deep bluesy-folksy clasicness of it.



Now imagine it dubbed in khmer. SO GOOD! In between my sleeps, I was highly entertained by the most gangsta of all Capitol Tours bus drivers.


Somehow, driving back to Battambang this time felt like traveling to Cambodia for the first time.

Phnom Penh

Since my return to the glorious past in Phnom Penh, I remembered why I had such a good time - cool peeps, nice places to eat, and a sweet house.

This time, I also got to drive Jarnah's honda chaly (28 year old bike!) - and eat pre-peeled rambutans while walking around lucky's supermarket.

The trip was, however, primarily focused on business...and by business I mean money, and by money, I mean grants. This was a good two days (monday and tuesday) of meeting other NGO people, making some connections, and getting a sketch in my mind of what the grant-application field looks like for education programs. I thought it'd be hard to go door-to-door inquiring about grants, but everyone was friendly, and we sometimes had multiple contacts in a NGO. The most positive thus far was the canadian cooperation office director. He told us about their small grants program, which had thematic areas that we weren't directly involved in. So i asked him instead if he could ask CIDA to help us out with a long-term education grant. He paused, looked off into the distance for a sec, then was like, "yeah, we can. I'll ask the CIDA represntative to visit, and maybe put education as a focus!" He's our new friend.

the last post

k, the last post was called "mayday, mayday" it was supposed to be about my may1st trip down to Phnom Penh, but instead, it warped into PP vs. BB. My apologies.

May Day was cool , the staff and students of CORDE did some laborious service projects to celebrate. I arrived late, because Quddus, Enoch (Q's cousin) and I decided to make a scrumptious breakfast. Check out the breakfast in the video., and the service projects in pics below.


So I gets on the bus to head down to Phnom Penh, and, just like every other time, wonder who I am going to be seated beside. Turns out to be a young khmer guy, but he was counting the seat numbers in English, so I noted that there was a chance we could have some conversation on the way to Phnom Penh. We both failed to introduce ourselves when he first arrived. Do you ever notice how , once you've failed to greet someone, finding an opportunity to make introductions is a hassle and a pain? I mean, I was unconcerned whether I talked to him or not, but I like to talk people on the bus, and much prefer even minor conversation to the awkwardness of siting beside someone, asking them to move over so you can get out, etc., and not even being introduced.

Luckily, I had bought some mentos.


I pulled out my mentos, pooed two into my hand, and immediately into my mouth, and then I decided to offer some to my khmer neighbor. He was on the phone, and totally shocked, but super-happy about the mentos, ever since then, we were friends. It turns out he's a deputy-governor of a district near batambang, and he specializes in educaiton, information, and culture. So we talked edcaiton, and he's a law PhD student, so we talked politics. Apparently the ministry of the interior has lots of power in Cambodia, they control the poilice, the military, and the military police, so he otld me that I could call him if I ever needed some help while in and around batambang. Cool! Then, right before arriving in Phnom Penh, he asked me if I play any sport, and I was like "well, I played a bit of badminton" and he was like "in batambang? where?" so I described the place, and it turns out he plays there everyday, and we just missed each other on timing or something like that. I met lots of other big-wigs at the bamdinton coutts, and am starting to think that badminton is the cambodian golf.

I also had a great night of chess, sheesha, and grape-juice with neissan. We covered all the happenings since I'd departed for the malaysian adventure, and, he finally gave me the image of a game we'd played on his laptop. Titled "The last draw":

sidenote: I've been attacked by bugs recently, I don't know what it is, but they all seem to be jumping/flying right at my head! I was about to go to sleep in battambang, I looked up to see medium-sized bug on the floor, facing me. It looked at me, I at it, and then it just spread its wings, and sped towards my head!! What kind of silly bug does that? really? Then just this evening (Happy 12th day of RIdvan!) I took the garbage out, and had a giant bumble-bee-ish thing DIVEBOMB me. I had to actually duck and dodge to stay alive. They're after me, I have no idea why, but they're out to get me, and I can feel it....so if I don't post for a few days, you can assume I've been brutally slain by kamikaze cambodian bugs.

"Mayday Mayday"

Life has a way of getting busy all of a sudden, and it is often true that, "when it rains it pours". (Either often true, or a completely tautological statement, depending on how you go about defining "pours".) Find an example of raining and pouring below.


I am writing this from the relatively opulent haven of my old residence in Phnom Penh. I've been kept busy at the new jobula, and am still riding the wave of excitement about doing work that I haven't yet done - with the expectation that my excitement will likely wane once I wade ino the work. Oh how pristine the lake looks before you jump in, and how cold and large is seems once you're swimming!

The last coupla days in battambang have been interesting to say the least: I met a prospective masters student, and realized just how much work I have to do; I decided to try and live in the house where I sleep, and realized just how much stuff I need to buy; I wore a sweet belt-buckle to work, and realized just how cool it is to live in batmanbang. Since we're on the topic, lets commence part 1 of Battambang vs. Phnom Penh.
NOTE: this will be an assessment for my life only, since it's all I really know.





Pros of Phnom Penh:
Sweet house, with a big bed, a gym, a pool, air-conditioning, p-units, a cleaning lady, meals cooked for me, and a WIDE variety of eateries and cafes...and fast internet.

Cons of Phnom Penh:
No cool development jobs, lots of traffic, fast-paced lifestyle, fairly irritating moto and tuk-tuk drivers, hard to get around.

Pros of Batmanbang:
cool name, super-chill lifestlye and people, my own place, a bicycle, easy to get a round, cheap food, pleasant locals (and foreigners), sweet job, lots of opportunity. CHEAP MANGOES. badminton.

Cons of battambang:
cockroaches, rats, no bed, no fridge, no other appliances (except the toaster oven I just bought), no furniture, no real source of income, no internet in the home, no laptop (it stays with the p-units), loud 3-day wedding sand funerals, lots of dust in the air, lots of heat,


So far, Phnom Penh is winning for easy-nice-life-factor, but Battambang is the harsh land of opportunity...and it is quickly softening. I will explore some of these pros and cons, and likely some additional ones in part two, where I give you a qualatative taste of life in PP and BB.

I made this with friends in malaysia. enjoy!

Epic Bail

Epic Bail
Originally uploaded by AshrafRushdy

FInally, here it is!

oh how I wish it was bigger.

it was a fun night, nothing like bailing water to save your bed and all your belongings from being drenched.

Baby The Rain Will Fall

I did not manage to post sunday night because of the weather. I played badminton again (with my new racquet)  for close to two hours! Lots of fun. I accidentally smashed the shuttle into this old guys head, and then his teammate (seemingly intentional) returned the favor! I started to bike home (on my new bike! pics to come), and then got caught in what can only be called a veritable downpour.

I was drenched, the house was flooding, and some stories are better told by pictures...which are such a pain to upload in battambang...hopefully it is up today.

April 25th

Yesterday I got organized in my living.

I bought:

A small wall-mirror with two little compartments for toothpaste, etc.
A small make-it-yourself dresser to hang clothes in.
A hammer.
A screw-driver.
A row of wall-hooks to hang my towel/clothes on.

and today I plan to get:

stuff to clean the bathroom.
A Badminton Racquette.
Some nails.
a used bicycle.
possibly a maid.

I've been feeling pretty productive and healthy lately, even though I had the runs (a few kilos of mango will do that I guess :O). Yesterday I played badminton with Seng-shie (sp?) and it was killer. I used to play badminton in junior-high a lot, and then a few times here and there in university, so it was great to get back into it. The guys out here are quite good, and seng-shie is also quite good, so it was a rough re-entry into the world of badminton. On top of it, I was borrowing Elyssa's backyard-badminton cheapo-racquette. I will go again today, and hopefully this time, get more than 9 points. I sweat so much that I had to wring the sweat out of my t-shirt! Also had a nice dinner cooked by Melvene last night - we're back on the vegetarian kick, so the food is healthy(excet when oily) and nice.

The battambang-phnom penh comparison will be a three part series. The first will be written later today!

The XXIV of April

So I'm living in a place lovingly referred to as "the hostel". It is, believe it or not, a functioning hostel, and from time to time accommodates guests of CORDE. Last night we had a bunch of guests arrive, all of them leaving early in the morning. I'm ok with this, except that they didn't have a key. The hostel is a high-security facility, and the gate is always locked when people enter or exit, thus, without a key, one is effectively imprisoned. Taking pity on the poor travelers (and waking up with their morning chatter), I decided to just go along with them and go to work a little early. Of course, this all worked out nicely. You see, last night was my turn to make supper for the crew of permanent peeps living in the hostel (and gems school next door), and I am still white and don't know that much khmer, so I got Melvene to come along with me and help me buy the foodstuffs from the market. Melvene is a student from the Philippines. So I went with her and we got all that we needed for a nice stir-fry, then we decided to buy some mangoes. Mangoes regularly go for 1000 Rials per mango, but you can bargain it down to like 5 for 3000 if you have skills. Melvene and I found a guys selling mangoes at 1kg for 2000 Rials. This is already a good deal, but Melvene felt the need to bargain...

translation in english:

Melvene: "how much?"

Dude: "2000 per k"

Melvene: can I get a discount?

Dude: No

Melvene: what? please, just a small discount.

Dude: No way.

Melvene: how about if I buy 2 kilos?

Dude: no

Melvene: what if we buy 5 kilos?

Dude: no, still 2000 per kilo.

Melvene: ok, ok, What if we get 10 kilos?

Dude: what? 10 kilos?

other dude: No discount.

Defeated, Melvene departs the scene, indicating that she wants to create drama for a discount...so I walk away as well. having made it 40 meters from the scene, I let Melvene know that I just wanted some mangoes, and that I will go back and buy them. Realizing that 2000 a kilo is still a good price, we walk back...

Melvene: okay, give us a few mangoes.

Dude: how many?

Melvene: will you give me a discount?

Dude: 1800 per kilo if you buy 10 kilos.

Melvene: really? oh my gosh! ok. lets get it. Ashruf do you want to get it?

Me: sure.

Melvene: ok help me pick them out.

Dude: *giant happy grin*

That's how we ended up getting 10 kilos of mango for $4.50. I love batmanbang.

Anyway...this morning, taking those guys out the gate in a hurry, I manage to pack my toothbrush, toothpaste, and 4 mangoes into my shoulder-bag on the way out. I was immediately rewarded for deciding to eat mangoes for breakfast, by eating one that tasted almost as sweet as a sugar-cane!! How much better cane it get?

Also, I got some great work done today, which felt good. A 3-month work-plan, and a draft grant application. and a few other random bits, pieces and e-mails. Then, my dad came into town around lunch time, so we all went for lunch together (obviously). I had enough time to have some intense deliberations with Ryan "Q.C." Duly. It went like this:

"Q.C to H.Q., come in H.Q"

"Roger Q.C. this is H.Q. go ahead"

"write a comparison between life in Phnom Penh and Battambang, over."

"Sweetness Q.C."

"I know H.Q., that's why I'm Q.C.. Be brutal, over."

"Roger, H.Q. out."

We don't actually ever speak like that, but I was just reminiscing about walkie-talkies and how much fun they were to play with as kids.

So, this weekend, in addition to a short description of the National Convention that my dad and Ryan came down for, I will produce a brutally honest comparison of life in Batmanbang versus life in Phnom Penh.

Like all the Manifestations of God once said,

PEACE!

The 23 of April

Last night I went out for dinner. I went to a place called Gecko Cafe, which is actually kinda high-class for Battambang. I went alone, well, I brought Mr. Gibbon with me, but basically alone. I decided to start off with a mango shake, and see what I felt like after. I immersed myself in the history of the decline and fall of rome, lying on a couch on a balcony in the dusk and dust of Battambang. It was pretty nice actually.

Gibbon is more of a critic of history than a historian- I mean, the man was a great historian, but the best part of the decline and fall isn't the fact-giving, it's the critical commentary and psychological assessment. So good, but I only recommend it if you like words, reading, and have an attention that can span the length and breadth of the roman empire.

Today the work has snowballed, and I all-of-a-sudden have mountains of reading and writing-yay! Today has also seen the dawn of a new era in sugar-cane juicing. I went out for a regular sugarcane juice, and the guy had just abandoned his stall, so I looked for the next closest one and walked over. This intrepid young juicer adds a chunk of pineapple(!) to his sugarcane as he sends it through the grinder. It was delicious.

I'm also getting in the zone for sending and receiving e-mails all the time. I don't know how it is for other peeps, but I used to check e-mails once every now-and-then, and now, I'm receiving e-mails which need prompt responses like every other hour. SICK! but doable.

How's everyone else doing?

Chuck

Being somewhat entertainment-challenged in Battambang, many of the foreign inhabitants take to watching countless downloaded movies and t.v. series. One of these is Chuck. Chuck is a great show about a nerd who accidentally integrates visually-coded government secrets into his brain. He later “flashes” (remembers the specific info) when he sees relevant items, faces, or images. The premise then, is that the government’s own computer is destroyed, and they have to rely on chuck for all their information...he has a two CIA agents who watch over him, one sexy lady, and one tough-guy. He continues to work as the head of the “nerd-herd” at a buy-more store, with highly entertaining crossover between his nerd-life and his secret-agent-life.

The show is either immensely entertaining, or the slow pace of battambang has already warped my idea of fun..or both!

But this is not why I’m writing about the show. Chuck and I, believe it or not, have much in common. Chuck is kind of like a Baha’i. You see, Baha’is, well, North American Baha’is (for the most part), tend to be a little shy about telling people about their beliefs, or talking about what they do as Baha’s in general. This is not because they do anything illicit (or even bearing a resemblance to secret), but rather they don’t think people will understand what they do, say, or believe. Chuck, poor guy, finds himself in several situations where he opts to give a reasonable explanation of events which fail to mention the real, spy-related reasons. I dunno, just hit me when I was thinking about the show.


In some episodes, he desperately wants to tell someone about his ‘spy-life’, but must refrain from revealing the secret, for his,and that person’s safety. This is kind of like the situation of Bahai’s in Iran or Egypt...there is such hatred against the faith, that it’s hard to gauge who you can safely divulge your “secret” baha’i life too, since it may affect your safety, or if they accept the faith, potentially theirs. Maybe this one was a stretch, but hey, whatevs.

Also, chuck and I are nerds...yeah, that's kinda where the similarities end. The show’s sweet though...you really find yourself rooting for him to get the secret agent...and the show's writers know it, and mess with you so bad. God, how did I get emotionally involved in a t.v. show?

p.s. Mr.Duly, how’s the quality of this post...and the blog in general? see you on friday.

April twenty-deuce

Today, I received some clarity in my work, and things are slowly solidifying into reality. Recently, I have been organizing several areas of my life concurrently, happy to see myself living in an integrated way, with my decisions spanning the whole breadth and depth of my life. As well, I've been on the spiritual up-and-up, saying my prayers in the morn and eve, teaching people I meet about the Baha'i faith, and engaging (in large part due to the online course and my cousin Salah's blog) in conversation spanning topics of immense interest. In addition, I am currently exercising immense self control, restricting my sugar-cane-juice consumption to just one drink, and only at 3pm. It is 2:20 now, and so far I have looked at the clock only 5 or six times, not too bad!

I am to make a three month plan for work, and start developing curricula for the masters program here...which is thrilling and terrifying at the same time. (note, I first wrote terryfying, just for you, mom) The first course to develop is a report-writing course, with the first module being "annual report-writing". Not the most exciting, but it's good to start with something safe and technical before I branch out into designing crazy courses :) I've also been e-mailing around, and browsing online for some grant-application opportunities. Hopefully that all pans out-actually, I have surprisingly great confidence that it will work out...we'll just wait and see what happens!

it's now 2:40, and my throat is calling for sugar cane juice, got to go!

edit: I didn't drink it until 3:00. Ah, the sweet taste of self-control.

Batmanbang

Since I've been back here, not too much has happened: I've eaten LOTS of mangoes, played catan, been inducted into CORDE as a staff member, eaten a coconut almost every day, got a desk, chair, and office, participated in a workshop on successfully completing a consulting assignment, moved into a room near gems school, and generally enjoyed the sun.

There has also, for the last three days, been a funeral service next to us, blasting funeral hymns and various speeches on a set of giant loudspeakers...incessantly (note how I waited till the end, and used and ellipsis for a dramatic pause before, and added emphasis on incessantly).

Coming soon to the blog:
Pictures! Videos! Visual Media!!
Philosophical/spiritual discussion
A batman belt buckle
commentary on the show "Chuck".

We spend the night in the Bangkok airport

We spend the night in the Bangkok airport
we return to Battambang

Quddus and I were exhausted from our Malaysian Adventure, but not so unaware as to miss some malaysian habits that we had picked up. e.g. the occasional use of "lah", and the fact that, even though our plane was listed as open for boarding, we still decided there was enough time to sit down for some lunch before heading through security...actually turned out sweet, since we arrived just as they opened boarding, and we got to board first!(def had our cake and ate it too)

Either way, this post is about the bangkok airport, and how we spent a night in it. Our plan had originally been to contact someone in bangkok, and go chill with them, but in the end, neither of us did any contacting. We tried calling, but after twenty frustrating minutes of trying various coin combinations to get it to work, and then reaching phones that were shut-off (why interlashional, why?), we decided to bail on it and just spend the night. While in malaysia, we had seen ong-bak, and wanted to get it, they were, however, sold out. This turned out to be okay when, to my delight, ong-bak was screened at our restaurant, manging to both fulfill a minor wish, and kill some time. We found a nice corner of the airport to chill in, and then I read one of Quddus' starcraft series novels. The novels are alright, but they always seem like fast-food. I mean, I've been slowly battling my way through the abridged version of Gibbon's ole' decline and Fall of the roman empire, and I finished that novel in a few hours. Still, like fast food, it's fun to eat every now and then.

We bought some snacks, and then decided to take shifts sleeping. I should have seen Quddus' sneakiness a mile away, but he decided to sleep first. I was awake at the time, so it seemed ok. What was not ok, was the temperature of the airport. I ended up having to go outside a few times to warm up, and, eventually, entrust a stranger to look after our bags while I drank a cup of tea and watched a soccer game. In Quddus' defense, he did wake up at one point and offer to take his turn watching, but I had just hit the second wind, so he fell back asleep. After my tea, I fell asleep on a random bench in another level. This freaked Quddus out when he woke up, because we had to catch out bus fairly early on, and I was nowhere to be found. Of course, we eventually met up, and then headed to our bus. It turned out that our clocks were still on malaysian time, so we arrived an hour early for our bus, but this was ok as we caught up on more sleep. the ride back consisted, yet again, of us sleeping all the way back.

And so the glorious conquerers returned to Battambang.

Ah, what fun that trip was.

Everyone leaves the country except for Quddus and I

were this really the case, Quddus and I would have likely split the country up evenly and concurrently begun ruling the newly formed "Quddasia" and "Rushdystan". It was only the case, however, that the remaining friends from our group at Roshan's place departed a few at a time, to the point of my being left alone, and Quddus still chillin' in Singapore.

Everyone leaves the country except for Quddus and I (Quddus is still in singapore)
My dad and Shaku arrive, my dad gives a coupla talks on SRD
I go to the Ludher's and hang out with Dad and Shaku for a bit
I go to the Jayagopan's
I go to singapore

So Quddus and I had planned to stay some extra days in malaysia to attend this Science, Religion, and Development colloquium that was supposed to go down, but it didn't pan out. What did pan out was a short presentation on what the SRD discourse is all about, and how any puny human can involve themselves in the discourse. It is, in fact, an enlightening presentation, and I will, in a future post, recount some of the basics of SRD for you guys (giving me just enough time to really learn them ;P).

I got to spend some time with my dad and shaku, not a lot, seeing as how they had a crazy schedule of medical tests (full-physcial with stress tests and everything), and I had a crazy schedule of social tests (full-social with stress tests and everything). Jokes, malaysia was all chillin'. We went to a mall and wandered down to a coffee shop, and basically hung out for a bit. I did feel like, having been away from the p-units for a bit, we were all more appreciative of each other...but this seems to me to be an axiom of (family) existence.

Later that day, I made my way, via rail, to the Jayagopans (aka "the Gobus"[pronounced "go" "boo"]). Originally, Quddus and I had intended to spend some time there, but then it was too busy a time for guests, but then, right before I came, they invited me to stay just for that night. Either way, I had a change of clothes with me when I got there. Temily, Taraz and Temira are the three chilins of the Gobus, and Taraz was actually the stylish cat who supplied the beat for the mamak music video. So I checked out some more music, and showed Taraz some of my old Dialektika-days stuff on myspace, and some of karim's stuff on facebook. Then, Counsellor Gobu arrived. The man was tired, stressed, and in a hurry.

He had to make a flight the next day, and needed to go get his passport and pick up his visa and make it to his connection in bangkok. His stuff was with a friend in/on the way to Singapore...realizing that he had to make a crazy drive, he looked around and saw in me someone who could likely make sure he didn't fall asleep. So he asks "have you ever been to Singapore?" I was like "nope...but I'm so down". So we make a trip back to the Ludher's place, where I left my passport. After retreiving it, I get home and we plan the next day. Leaving at 4:30 am, hoping to get there by 8, and try to catch the 3pm flight to bangkok. Sounds easy to do, it is very hard.

We leave in the morning, making great time all the way down to JohoBahru (sp?) on the border near Singapore. we meet a friend, drop the bags at his place (to ensure less delay at the border), and roll into immigration (after eating a quick dim-sum). I forgot my departure card...I felt horrible, delaying the man on his quest against time, but luckily, the guy at immigration just had me fill out another one, and reminded me not to lose it again. We finally pull into Singapore, and it's quite nice. Tall trees lining every street, nice tall buildings, nice short buildings, a nice park or two. Very nice, but kinda boring after a while. We hustle to the Embassy, get Gobu's visa, and make our way to a travel agent to confirm the bookings/book new tickets, I don't even know. By this point, Gobu is smiling like a man who's won a great victory, and he has, but it's 12:30, and we have to make it back to Joho Baru to get his bags, AND get to the airport by 2:10pm (because he needs to buy his final ticket at least 40 mins before the flight). Our friend/guide Zoran goes all need for speed on it, and gets us there in time (not without some of us in the back seat getting a little woozy from the curvy roads). It was a fun ride.

Long story short, we make it. Then we have a 5-6 hour drive back to KL on the traffic-congested highways of malaysia. I got to talk to Gobu's wife Pohyean a lot, in fact, I can't remember the last time I talked to one person for 6 hours solid (because it somehow did not stop).

I watch jackie chan's latest film, and, somehow, escape from witch mountain
I go to Riyaz's again
We leave malaysia

I ended up another night at the Gobus, and basically hung out, watched movies, helped with a children's class, etc. until Farshad came to pick me up. It was fun to spend another day and a half with Riyaz and Farshad, but I felt bad because Quddus and I had lost contact in the middle of that time somewhere! It was all good in the end since we both had fun in our respective locations.

Then, we flew back to Bangkok.

We play futesol

We play futesol
Amy and roshan delay their departure long enough for us to hang out a little more (also long enough for us to film a music video)

“What is this ‘foote-sawl’?”, you may be wondering. Well, wonder no more, it is simply soccer in a cage. I know, everything is more exciting in a cage, and this maxim holds true for futeball. I brought a pair of runners along specifically for this occasion, unfortunately, the advertisement lied, and I couldn’t run faster, jump higher, or score more goals than in any other pair of shoes. My play was dismal. It was still fun running around a small and netted/caged area, calling out to teammates, and pretending to know what was going on. We later went for mamak. good times.

The music video.
After going to so many mamaks, but before going to Perhentian, I made some joke rhymes about going to the mamak. When I discovered that Manesh was a director (we got to see a screening of his film “baby let it rain”...or “baby it will rain”, or something like that), I immediately decided to ask him to direct the mamak music video. Upon actually asking him, and seeing the excitement in his eyes, I realized that I could no longer back out of making the music video without some serious damage to his expectations. This was good, and likely a sub-conscious plan devised to secure my commitment to the project. So on perhentian, I finished the first verse (and I asked alfred to do one as well). Then, on the way back from perhentian I started the second, and finished it only on the day of the actual filming.

There was rhyme (but no reason) as we proceeded to hack out a plan for the music video, roshan, ryan, manesh, alfred, and I all sat at Roshan’s, wondering what we should do for this video. amy had to go drop off Nasrin and Glory (who were visiting from England), so we lost our two backup dancers/female extras/likely backup singers...AND we lost amy. Luckily, things were delayed long enough that Amy made it back in time to film the first scene. The whole project looked like it might die out at any moment from the time that it started, and I gtive my sincere thanks to everyone for keeping the dream alive, and making it happen. (seriously, we got a BEAT for the song a few hours before shooting, and recorded on ryan’s little portable mic, and ryan had to make some last-minute time-adjustments to the song in garageband, with nothing but the full, bounced song file.).
Manesh and Roshan had a sketch of a story, and a makeshift shot-list, and we were off! The rest of the evening is history, and will be immortalized on youtube, available for public consumption as soon as the last few edits are done (thanks amy!).

This was, of course, all possible because amy and roshan prolonged their stay in malaysia by a few days. Thanks guys!

Everyone except ryan and I goes to singapore for a wedding

Everyone except ryan and I goes to singapore for a wedding
I smash ryan's face in an epic game of war
I hang out with Riyaz and Farshad

It was sad to break up the fun of our 10-person group, but we were patient in the knowledge that we would all be reunited to eat mamak and play settlers again soon. Ryan and I were left in the house on our own...this eventually led to us going to the corner mamak, having some tehtahrik, and playing the age-old game of “war”. not sure if you know the game, but war is played by dealing each player half of the deck. Then, at the same time, you flip over the top card: the highest card wins, and the winner becomes the owner of the new card. A “war” happens when you btoh flip the same value-card: in his case, you place three cards face down, and then flip again, with the winner taking everything. This game, as you might imagine, takes forever. I played the most one-sided game of war I’ve ever played...lash didn’t stand a chance. I felt bad about the quickness of my victory. We played another game, with ryan taking me down to two cards, only to see me come back to full strength...it was simply not his day for war.

It was a dramatic game, not only becuase of the various twists and turns, but becuase we had been chatting about the rise and fall of empires, and how they relate to the presence or absence of religious teaching, and it began to storm. So imagine that, we’ve been talking about the rise and fall of great empires, there is violent thunder and lightning all around us, and then, we sit down to play “war”. Ah, great times. Just when it looked liek I could beat ryan again, he was saved by Farshad soming to pck me up.

I went to Farshad’s class, posing as an interested student. I got to see some cool 3D product design stuff, and then riyaz came and convinced me to go get supper while farshad finished up his class. We had tasty tasty arab food.

It was good to recconect with Riyaz and Farshad, I:ve know the guys since I was 7, and it’s rare for me to get to see friends from the past. I had chats withboth of them about life, and it’s incredibel how different our lives have been. What’s interesting is the spiritual connection, the common tie to the Baha’i faith that we all have: even though we’re more or less involved or aware, or active, we’ve all had our experiences shaped by our relationship to the faith. I may dive into this in detail sometime in the future.

Either way, good times chillin’ with the boys till one fine day, the party returns from Singapore.

We go to Perhentian Island

Perhentian Island

Hokay, so a long time ago, amy and roshan decided to go for little vacation to an island. This was my “vacation from my vacation”. Already enjoying life in bustling retreats of Subang, I was now lucky enough to make my way, for something like $120, to Bubu resort on Perhentian island for a 3day/2night all-inclusive package vacation. Having never been on one of these, it was actually quite fun. We were all afraid that we’d be rained out becuase it was drizzly and rained after the first night, but, lucky for us, all was well. We chilled out, I got a tan, we all went snorkeling (my first time, I loved it), Riyaz and Quddus went scuba-diving, some of us went on a hike, we all played cho-tie-tee, Uno, and mahjong. good times. Snorkeling was hilarious - when we first made it into the water, I was so excited about all the different fish in the reef, I pointed a few out to riyaz underwater and he looked at each one, then he pointed out one that I hadn’t seen, then, he pointed directly behind me, and there, to my shock and surprise, was one of the other snorkelers bums right near my face. I choked on some water as I laughed. The rest of the day continued after such fashion, with us failing to see any turtles, but spotting some very cool looking fish and clams and so on. I highly recommend just staying in one place for a while if you’re snorkeling - there’s so much activity in one little place.

We also filmed us burying Elyssa in the sand. We thought it’d be fun footage to speed-up, and I still think it would, but, alas, the end of our video has some incriminating footage, and as such, can neither be spoken of, nor displayed for the world. (it’s so funny, I wish I could say something more about it).

I also realized how much I love the water, and the sun. I really need to live on an island.

We go to Naw Ruz

Naw Ruz

Quddus and the Haghtalab (sp?) family and I decided, for various reasons, to go to the Subang Jaya Naw Ruz celebration. I ended up being pulled into the program as a last-minute announcer, and a reader for one of the performances, which was fun.

The spectacle of Naw Ruz, however, was the introduction. Quddus and I somehow (inside connections) got seated at the best table, front and center near the stage. This also gave us a great perspective on the intro. All of a sudden, the lights were shut off, and techno music started pumping through the speakers (of all songs, “zombie nation”). Then, amid the confusion, people began to gasp and look back at the entrance - where we could see two of the caterers marching in, bearing giant sticks of fire (I’m not joking). They walked at a steady pace, leading a train of caterers, all carrying a large silver tray. The process made its way to the front, and in one coordinated flash, the music was cut, the lights went on, and the caterers lifted the covers off of the trays, all to reveal...our appetizers. Man, these Malaysians love their food!

There were some great performances, and I got to meet a lot of new people, but I mostly hung out with Riyaz and Farshad. The whole event closed down by about 10:30, but the night was still young, and we all had an after-party to go to. Apparently, it is a tradition for all the Naw Ruz celebrations to reconvene at an A&W in Petaling Jaya to continue the celebrations. I know!! and A&W! It was strange, but lots of fun...I saw HUNDREDS of Baha’is descend on one A&dub, and got to meet lots of them. Also a great time. There were soo many people that you had to kind of fight your way through to go anywhere...and I use ‘fight’ lightly, because they were all baha’is it was more like “indicate your desire to move in a certain direction, and quickly be accommodated by smiling, joyful individuals”. Quddus has a near-twin in Malaysia, and they began an eating contest in that very A&W, I:m not sure what all was eaten, but I know that Quddus brought home the trophy.

After this ridiculously awesome time, we made our way (yet again) to asia cafe. It was starting to rain, and I was siding with Temily’s suggestions of turning up the music in someone’s car, and dancing in the rain, but this didn’t turn out to be a popular decision. Either way, let me give you a short run-down on Asia-cafe: when you get there, you get a table number, then you wander around a gaint food court, and order anything your heart desires, and wallet can afford, and just tell them your table number, then, as your food is finished, they bring it over, you pay, and you eat! So simple! The only thing that the asia cafe staff do is bring you drinks. The cool bit about asia cafe is the variety of food you can get, it was always good, even when I just ordered a mango shake. They also have billiards upstairs, and a giant internet cafe/nerdery, where close to 50 people play DotA at any one time.

The rest of the night was fun, and I can’t remember, but we might have played catan when we got back.

EDIT:
somehow, in the first publication of this post, I failed to mention Naw-Ruz-day. This is an inexcusable oversight, and being such, I have no excuse for it.

Another Malaysian tradition is to host giant open-house parties on Naw-Ruz day, inviting the world to come and eat food at your house. We went on a marathon of open houses, starting with Roshan's parent's place next door, and ending at Manesh's place. with two or three others (including a separate stop at manesh's).

I could, in all honesty, not eat for two days after food like that. Ridiculous.

We break the fast at several people's homes

We settled in and met Roshan's parents, who had two townhouses side-by-side, one of which they graciously let us use the whole time we were there. They had organized, in the Subang Jaya community, to break the fast at a different person's home each night. It was actually pretty nice to go and meet people from the community at a few different places. We also hosted a night, and by we, I mean Roshan and Quddus, and Roshan's mom, who did most of the organizing. This evening feasting, mixed with giant breakfasts (full of croissants and delectable fruits), was already enough to make me feel like I was eating tons. It turned out that this was to be the preparation for the marathon eating which was to come after the fast.

Either way, we had a nice little family shopping trip, where ryan and I quested for things like brie and proper croissants and grapes. We found them all, and some boursin, which is really wicked cream cheese. I really just wanted ot treat the family to some slightly hihg-priced and extremely tasty breakfast, and so I did. Croissant + brie + grapes was good, but lacked an espresso. I realized that I somehow acquired european tastes in my culturally diverse upbringing.

Oh, I just remembered! Quili (a doctor who lives somewhere in the jungle of highways that is KL), invited us over for dinner. It so happens, that the night before this we had stayed up late, eating at a mamak, and then playing settlers of catan when we returned. I realized that it was already 4;30, or 5, and we eat early in the morning when fasting, so I decided to forgo the sleep. The whole day went by fairly well, I didn't feel bad at all, and managed to fast...but when riyaz and farshad finally managed to drop me off at Quili's place, it was 8, and we still hadn't eaten. So when I arrived, they immediately got me a plate and a drink, and let me go to town on the tasty indian food. I had two servings, and was satiated. Round about this time, quili had developed some kind of allergic reaction on her shoulder, and had to get roshan to give her a shot with a needle. Then, when a few of us were looking at the rash, I started to feel dizzy. The edges of my vision went black, and I actually just lost my balance. Luckily, I fell against the wall and managed to prop myself up. I was also starting to feel sick to my stomach, so dr.Quili had to jump up and be a doctor, giving me kind and soothing words, while I threw up a bit in her toilet. Then, she suggested I go upstairs and rest. I figured it couldn't hurt, and really, after 15 minutes, I felt fine. The final analysis was that I was already a little bit fatigued from lack of sleep, but the blood from my head must have rushed down to the stomach when I ate (after a day of fasting), all coming together to nearly cause me to black out. Ah, the effects of a rockstar lifestyle.


That night I slept at Riyaz and Farshad's place, and Farshad dropped me off at a place called Balakong. Balakong is a nice institute where the KL community holds lots of different kinds of training events and whatever else they might need I guess. I was substituting for a tutor (substitutoring, as I like to call it) who had to go to his university that day. I tutored a Ruhi book 3, with only three participants, but we had fun, and finished up the book, with them practicing their newly acquired children's class skills.

I was pretty happy to be able to do some service on my holiday...and they ended up teaching me how to play a new card game called "cho-tie-tee" which is some dialect of chinese for "the biggest two". I lost four times, then won 5 in a row. Yea!


p.s. I apologize for the lack of photos, but the internet here is terrible.

The Fullness Of The Thing

I think I left off with Quddus and I arriving in Malaysia, greeted by Amy, Roshan, and Ryan "Lion" Lash...This is exactly where our unbelievable journey of eating began.

Quddus and I arrived at around 11pm, which we thought was appropriate for sleep, but which roshan and amy indicated was actually perfect for visiting a 'mamak'. You see, 'mamak' is actually the name for an indian-muslim man, but over time, has become synonymous with the 24-hour eateries which these men so often run. So we went, for the first visit of many, to a place called Sukumaran's (suku's for short) in Subang Jaya, which is a suburb of KL. Here we watched a premier-league game projected on a large screen outside the restaurant, ate a few kinds of roti, and drank some tehtarik.


Now, this all happened what seems like ages ago, so I'm not going to aspire to a chronological tale of the events, but I will list Everything I can remember/have noted, and then tell you guys about a few of the notable events.

The following happened in Malaysia:
Breaking the fast at several different homes
Ryan Lash gives a presentation
We go shopping for breakfast
we eat at Suku's (x5, x10, x???...many times)
we eat at Asia Cafe (at least 7 times)
We go to Mourni's
we see the twin towers
I go tutor for a day at Balakong
We go to Naw Ruz + the post naw ruz party + the post post naw ruz party
We go to many open houses
we play settlers of catan (throughout)
we go to Perhentian Island
Everyone except ryan and I goes to singapore for a wedding
I smash ryan's face in an epic game of war
I hang out with Riyaz and Farshad
I chill out, and meet up with William Jacob
People return from Singapore
We play futesol
Amy and roshan delay their departure long enough for us to hang out a little more
also long enough for us to film a music video
Everyone leaves the country except for Quddus and I (quddus is still in singapore)
My dad and Shaku arrive, my dad gives a coupla talks on SRD
I go to the Ludher's and hang out with Dad and Shaku for a bit
I go to the Jayagopan's
I go to singapore
I watch jackie chan's latest film, and, somehow, escape from witch mountain
I go to Riyaz's again
We leave malaysia
We spend the night in the Bangkok airport
we return to Battambang

whew! so that's actually an almost chronological list, but I'm not too sure, either way, I'll pick a few interesting stories and write them up as seperate posts in the blog.

Back in Battambang

Friends!

I've returned from Malaysia, and hit the ground running here in Battambang. I'll be working/volunteering at CORDE, doing lots of cool stuff (they even gave me a new desk and chair!). I'll be updating this blog with details from malaysia, and the return to Cambodia soon...mangoes are 3 for $0.25...life is good.

:)

Malasian Adventure

Apparently, this will have to wait until I return to battambang (don't worry, I'm taking pictures and notes). I don't know what to say guys - I've been BUSY doing all sorts of fun little things, e.g. tomorrow we film a music video about late-night malaysian eateries (mamaks)! between things like that and this online course, my days have been full. I thought writing while travelling would be easy, but I had a stable internet connection in phnom penh, and a less socially demanding schedule. Either way, hope everyone's well!

love,

Ashraf.

p.s. spoiler pics on facebook.

Battambang and Beyond

I went up to BB on the 11th of March, arriving just in time to help set up the chairs, tables, etc. for the second birthday party (note: this was a joint birthday party with Prema, whose birthday landed on the 12th). I met one Ruhi Zandra just before boarding the bus to Battambang – story as follows:

The P-units drop me off at the bus and peace out. I’m standing around, looking at my bus, waiting for the guy to let me load my bags. I call Elyssa to let her know that I’m leaving. Seconds later, she calls me back, telling me to look out for this Ruhi woman. I asked for a description, and, each bit of information she passed on correlated to the body in front of me! So I just walked up to her and was like “Ruhi?” and she said yes, and how did I know, etc. We then got a chance to hop on the bus, and decided we’d continue our conversation at the next bus stop. It being the fast, we both slept through the whole 5 hour ride to Battambang, postponing our friendship-building until later.

Back to the party:
It was pretty sweet, set on the rooftop of Gems International School, with around 20 attendees. We ended up eating kind of late, but I broke the fast with a mouth-watering coconut, so I was in no rush anyway. Prema made some tasty chocolate fudge cake, and banana-chocolate cake. Sweetest birthday presents ever. We all played Mafia after dinner, with Sopheap (from CORDE) being the first victim of the mafia. Ryan “interlashional” lash turned out to be the mafia ringleader, and after he fell, the rest followed suit. Alas, I was the final victim of the Mafia. The next few days involved sleep, Settlers of Catan, and mango shakes – I like!

Trip to Bangkok

Saturday the 14th, Quddus and I hop in a taxi to Poipet (Cambodia-Thailand border town). The taxis in Cambodia insist on having a minimum of 6! Passengers for each trip. After the guy came to get us, he needed three more. So we roll up to this random part of BB, where taxi drivers and potential passengers congregate. It was hilarious to watch: as each passenger arrives (usually on a moto), all the taxi drivers walk over and try to win over their business. The tactics ranged from grabbing their luggage and walking towards their taxi, to paying for the moto, to insulting other taxi drivers, to what our guy did, which was point to the foreigners in his taxi. I felt like he should have given us a discount. Either way, we ended up leaving with a decent 5 passengers in a regular sized sedan: Quddus, a negligibly-sized Cambodian guy, and I sitting in the back, while two ladies shared the front seat. We all had to fork up an extra dollar so that the guy would drive, but it was worth it. I’ve learnt some Khmer by this point, so I could make out the conversation between the two ladies, talking about the “thom-thom’s” in the back seat. Thom, of course, meaning “large”. So I let them know that I knew by laughing when they said it, and once the ice was broken, we had some good times speaking back and forth in broken khmer.

Then we got to the border in Poipet.We waited in line to immigrate, hoping we wouldn't end up like this:

We made it through with plenty of time to organize a ride to the International Ariport. After shopping around for options, we settled on a little minivan for 300 baht (originigally 350). Making sure that we were guaranteed a ride straight to the airport. Of course, once we were near the airport, the guy feigned ignorance, and insisted that he was only going to Suvarnhabumi town, not to the airport with the same name. *sigh* After leting him know that we wouldn't be paying an extra 100 baht each, and Quddus insisting that we get a chance to speak to his managers, he shook his head, waved his hands, and gave up his quest for extra cash. We met a cool Cambodian guy who was on his way to visit a friend in Bangkok. His name was Paul - which I didn't believe at first, and demanded he give me his real khmer name. As it turns out, Paul is a khmer name as well (it was like wei-paul or something).

The Bangkok airport is actually a cool spot to hang out for a while (lucky for us). In our hurry to reach the airport, we'd provided ourselves 5 hours before our flight, and 2 hours before we could even check in!(which we discovered after waiting in line at 3pm). I burned up time by reading another chapter out of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire. The chapter I read was titled "The Complete Annihilation of the Western Empire" - so good.

Then we went back into the lineup (where the air asia ladies asked Quddus to pose for a photo with them, sexy time!):

After getting through passport control, we hunted for a place to break the fast (this airport is horrible to be fasting in, the smells of delicious food are everywhere). Food was tasty (but soo pricy!), we also had a tasty dipped cone from DQ.

I had, for some unkown reason, decided to pack my toiletries in my carry-on. I know, I haven't packed them in my carry on for ages! Ridiculous. Either way, I haggled with them to let me keep my aftershave (unmarked bottle!) and had to let go of some aveda haircream that I got in montreal. I tried to convince them to take the hair cream, but they weren't really interested. I think they genuinely felt bad about taking it away by the end of the conversation, but this didn't stop them from doing their job...too bad :( Quddus and I made jokes about the fast being a time of detachement anyway, so I little mourned the loss of some haircream.

We boarded the plane, took our seats, and had a sweet fligh out to malaysia. We were about to buy bus tickets from the air hostess, but the couple behind us gave us theirs becuase their friends were coming to pick them up. Sweet! Quddus and I had an "amazing race"-style landing. We quickly made our way to the front of the line of people walking to passport control, were the first to get our bags, and first to bust out of the airport! Where we found, to our surprise and excitment, our friends, waiting to pick us up! (here's us putting our "M's" down for Malaysia)



End Part One.

MALAYSIA!

I had many travels - to Battambang, to Poipet, to the Bangkok airport, and finally to Malaysia!

And since I've had a sketchy internet connection, I've been unable to post! Not to worry, I have pictures and some video, and will upload them in a few hours. For now, we have to go change money, buy local sim cards, do some work :( , and get to know the area!

ah, life. So cool.

quick additional note

Two good buddies came over wanting to say goodbye, and learn more about the faith (they'd ben asking, and I'd been promising some sort of mini fireside). So I gave about half of Ana's presentation to two guys named Eddie and Ana. Hah! Anna for Ana.

anananananana!

Bifday

This day,  an estimated 24 years ago, I was birthed into this tumultuous existence. Legend says I "rolled out", predating Ludacris'  hit song by a good 16 years. I was also a reportedly happy baby, enjoying moments of life, failing to balance myself as I explored the world, and generally being chubby and chill. Not too much has changed, but I am working on having greater balance in life, and Cambodia is taking care of my chubbiness, slowly but surely.

Either way, today, I continued my slave labour for AII, entering all the details for report cards, and ALMOST printing them, except the printers were occupied by others, so I got, how you say, the shaft. I will have to make a special trip in tomorrow, before I depart to Battambang, just to print the report cards, and get my last little bit of pay. Hopefully that all goes A-ok.

I had a svet little birthday party, with a few friends. The complete photos will be on facebookolet, but here are a few key photos:

breaking the fast

eating the dinner avec cat hats

Bringing the cake

blowing out the candales.

After this manner, I had a sweet little 24th birthday party. Tomorrow, we continue the festivities in Battambang, where Prema and I will celebrate a joint birthday on the night of the 11th (her bday is the 12th). I was promised large quantities of mango, and a rooftop party - so the future looks bright (and sweet, and orange). 

I got many sweet and thoughtful messages, which, to be honest, put my birthday-wishing to shame. Apparently, 24 is the year where people get professional with their birthday greetings, and really throw some effort into the well-wishing.

All, however, was not well in the party. It was bittersweet, since we celebrated my departure as well (note: for some, it is entirely possible that this is doubly sweet, who knows? ;) ) This threw the small wrench of awkwardness into the mix, but it was an joyous occasion nonetheless. I even read quotes from African wisdom in a Nigerian accent. Also, as far as food goes, Shaku made chicken curry and palak paneer(but it was with other cheeses), AND banana cake! Delicious!

Tomorrow, I quest out into the wide world of dust, travel, and tenuous internet connections.

These are some new birthday clothes from yesterday's Russian Market trip.

PEACE!

The Day Before the World Began

more like my world, but anyway.

Today I spent some time reading about unity as a necessary precursor for lasting peace, and had some interesting discussion with my fellow online-course mates. I also, as they say in India, "did the needful": I did my laundry, paid off some debts (this is a long story in itself), bought some new clothes, and made sure I invited a few friends for my birthday party. My p-units have decided to throw me a CLASSIC birthday party, with supper, cake,  hats, and noise-makers. So I could invite only a few people (much as I'd like to invite everyone I know out here in PP), but I still think it'll be a sweet time.

Also, sweet moment of the day: we broke the fast sitting on the balcony with some tea, dates, cookies, and prayers. It was great, but then it got better - as soon as the sun set, what should appear, but lightning! Y'all know how I love a good lightning storm, and this one delivered - a solid half-hour of non-stop lightning. Ah, I am so easily amused. Either way, I solidly enjoyed the evening.

I noticed today how quickly my departure has come - I've only just finished teaching, and now I head out for three weeks of gallivanting across the Malaysian peninsula! No time to spend bonding with the p-units...I guess I'll have to wait for Batambang in April to spend some nice family time. 

That's all for now!

(tomorrow is the birthday, so I will likely have much more to report) Although, I am already feeling older, but that's been accumulating over the last few months.

video notice.

you will find a new videpo on the right. This was taken on monday night at Neissan's place. The video describes the night so well, I felt no need to write about it.

Le Fin de Semain

Struggle as I might, my posts have fallen into a bi-weekly rhythm. The good thing is that I get more time to sleep at night. The bad thing is that I forget some great little stories. Luckily, (and with thanks to Munir and Adaeze) I bought a digital camera, and have a great memory-aid.

I delivered the final exams to my students, desperately tried to prevent them from cheating, and finally had a little party with each class on Thursday. The kids out here cheat SO MUCH! It's actually ridiculous. I was having to firmly remind students not to leave their sheets hanging off the ends of their tables - and every time I went to answer a questions, I got the sneaking suspicion they were strategic questions, posed to give their friends a chance to cheat. Either way, even if they cheated, it did them no good - as many of my students failed their exams (oddly [or not], the classes with the least cheating got the highest scores). I had a great time partying it up with the students, some of them even got me gifts (a Parker pen, and a silk wallet!). I later realized the gifts were likely bribes, as the students who delivered the gifts were definitely failing. :)

Oh, oh! I had a student FAINT during a final. She was seated right in front of my desk, near the front of the class. She had come in to the exam a little bit late, and was out of breath and fanning herself for a few minutes. She looked a little pale, and I thought nothing of it, but then she looked at me and said "teacher, I'm feeling dizzy". "Great" I thought, "at least she's got the grammar right on reporting medical conditions"...not realizing how serious she was, I opened a bottle of water that I had sitting on my desk (awaiting sunset), and offered her a drink. Just as I did, she dramatically collapsed out of her desk, arms flailing about, knocking the bottle from my grip, and generally causing a scene. The class quickly came to her aid, and we soon had her laid flat on the ground, with her head supported. Someone busted a strong perfume out of nowhere, and with its aid, she eventually came to. The chaos in the class allowed a few entrepreneurial spirits to take a gander at some of the abandoned final exams of their classmates, but most students were focused on their fallen comrade. Security was called, and manged to get her down to the office. I had to quickly reestablish order in the classroom to prevent further cheating, so I firmly maneuvered the kids back into their seats. Our victim was taken to a hospital to ensure that she didn't have a concussion, and thankfully, all is well.

Friday was filled up with school work, finalizing the marks and such. Marking went much faster this time - I felt an increased sense of efficiency and achievement. Unfortunately, I am still not finished with the administrative work (even though my contract is done, and I will receive no more pay!). Thus, in my updated C.V., I will likely list myself as having volunteered for AII as well.

Tonight was fun! The school booked out a little restaurant/cafe called "Gasolina". They served us all the food and drink that we could want, and gave us a good chance to get to know each other. Many people invited their families and significant others, but I brought along my p-units. They had a great time, meeting the president of the school, mingling with the teachers, and eating some free foods.

I ended up having the ever-famous "why don't you drink?" conversation with many of the staff...only to happen upon this: one of the teachers was like "oh yeah, I used to have a friend in uni that didn't drink as well - he was a cool guy...he was Persian though, not Egyptian." I thought to myself "well, there are a lot of Persian Baha'is in Australia." so I asked him "Was he a Baha'i" He goes "Yeah! That's the one - that's it! How did you know?" Lucky guess I guess :P

A handful of us continued the festivities at a place called Fly Lounge. It was pretty fly. They have a pool encased in plastic/glass that sits right beside the dance-floor. This way, some of the swimmers can see some of the dancers, and vice-versa. Interesting/funky idea. It was a strange club experience for a few reasons, but mostly because some families brought their kids along. I danced with some of my Nigerian brothers, and later walked home. good times.

The Fast

Is a beautiful time of the year.

from march 2nd, till march 21st, Baha'is around the world do the ludicrous - they don't eat or drink from sunrise till sunset. This is all in the hopes of achieving some spiritual growth, or at least doing some spiritual spring-cleaning. The idea, as far as I get it, of fasting is this: if you're not eating for God, you learn two things (at least): one is self-restraint, and the other is remembrance of God. The self restraint one is a simple 'technical' skill you learn from fasting - the repeated denial of a basic instinct allows one to control their desires. Of course, this doesn't always work out, sometimes you'll have a drink without realizing what you did till it's done - but even that can teach you to be more aware of what your regular routine is. The second is less technical, and more state-of-being-ish: fasting, for me, is more of a spiritual exercise...every time I feel my hunger or my thirst, I think of why I am hungry and thirsty, this leads me to think of God, and, in this way, I re-center my mind on God. It's surprisingly simple, and incredibly effective. I imagine, one could fast for any cause, and end up with similar results - you would center your mind around that which you fast for. For me, it's God - so the fast ends up being a spiritual reset-button - a kind of yearly battle against spiritual entropy. It's very nice, I like.

So that's the lowdown on my current mind-state. In the foreground, I'm still teaching the ESL, just closing up shop, marking finals (I became efficient!), having parties with the students in class (pics to come), and generally enjoying life. I've not had time to write my thoughts, feelings, or interesting stories up here for a few days now...and I've felt odd. I think blogging is becoming a part of my life routine -dangerous.

Thoughts on fasting?