Hustlin' and Bustlin'

Friends, Romans, Countrymen!

Em and I are (still!) getting used to the organization and pace of life out here. While no single activity feels like it is proceeding very quickly, there's still a feeling of hustle and busyness around all our doings. On the 15th we went to the Feast of Knowledge (‘Ilm), on the 16th and 17th I attended an international seminar on the eradication of poverty (at which Malaysian and Indonesian presenters and academics formed the majority), on the night of the 16th Emily and I attended a meeting with the Counsellor from Myanmar, Myint Zaw Oo (who is a sweet and cheerful soul), on the night of the 17th we attended the closing ceremony of the seminar, and on the night of the 19th, we attended a celebration of the Birth of the Bab.

Whew.

Em getting ready to go the Feast

Let's start with the Feast. For those of you who might be wondering, "the Feast" is an institution of Baha'i community life - we get together, pray, consult on the affairs of the community, and have some time to just socialize and get to know each other. Our trip to this feast was particularly exciting, because we piled 6 people into a tuk-tuk, and traversed the treacherous, pot-hole laden road to the Baha'i Centre. I say "pot-hole laden", when in fact the road is, in sections, an accumulation of pot-holes which are attempting, unsuccessfully, to form a road. On several occasions, we had to drop a few people out of the tuk-tuk so that it's mighty .5 horsepower engine could navigate the terrain.

The experience was intensified when we arrived at the Baha'i Centre, and found it submerged in darkness. I was sure that we had collectively got the wrong day or time until someone spotted a few people walking in the distance in the property. So we went in, quickly discovering that the power was out, and that the feast was going on in the dark! It was pretty fun actually, everyone who had flashlights on their cell-phones used them to light up the current speaker or poster presentation. Finally someone brought some candles and a potted plant (in which they "planted" the candles), and, as they lit the first candle, the lights returned. Glorious.

I think I'll just add the meeting with the Counsellor in here. He emphasized a few topics with the youth, chief among them the importance of service to the community, and of having purity-of-motive. The discussion around these themes was interesting, and had some hilarious translation mishaps: there was a translator from English to Khmer, but the Counsellor's English was a bit hard for the Khmer translator to make out, so one of the youth ended up acting as an English-English translator. In the end everyone got to hear and to speak, so all was good in the house.

The opening ceremony with some traditional khmer dance,
Performed by the students of UBB

 The RENPER seminar on Poverty Eradication was very interessant. I attended it with a colleague from CORDE, and we heard about some efforts by universities to become involved in achieving/contributing to the first of the Millennium Development Goals, and some of the problems and solutions found by local NGOs. I actually found the presentations of the local NGO's, thought fraught with terrible English, to be most relevant and insightful. There were also some interesting presentations about the role of small-land holders, and cool technologies like Aquaponic systems. In general though, the presenters shared a framework of poverty which sees the poor as "a bundle of needs", and greatly de-emphasizes the latent capacity of individuals and communities to contribute to their own development. There were a few presentations that stood out, and recognized the importance of capacity-building as an important first-step in the development process. Either way, I learned a lot, and asked a lot of questions, and met a lot of people, and had a great time doing all three.

RENPER closing ceremony dinner...I got 3 chopsticks,
So LUCKY!!!!

The closing ceremony had a dinner and dance, and all the presenters and attendees received gifts from the host (the University of Battambang). Emily and I had a good time hob-nobbing with local and foreign academics, and Emily got a chance to speak to to a few who research Early Childhood Education. We got compliments on our khmer dancing, and our "revolutionary" re-interpretations of traditional khmer forms. Tres Bons.


Finding a plain sheet is actually impossible in Battambang...as far as we know. We went sheet-shopping, only to find that nobody has sheets. I mean, they have bed-sets, comprising a fitted-sheet, 2 pillow cases, and 2 bigger pillow-cases, but no plain sheets. We even explored really light blankets - no go. After some frustration, I just decided to get two big pieces of fabric ($4), and get them sewn together ($.50). Voila! A sheet! We may have to travel to Phnom Penh to outfit ourselves when we move into our new home...or just get into designing our own stuffs. :)

Em and I in the Baha'i Centre

Two nights ago we went out for dinner to say goodbye to some visitors form Malaysia. One is the sister (Sue-Mei) of our housemate (Sue-Fang), and the other is a friend (Ashwini). We went again for the large buffet BBQ/soup-ish meal, where you cook-up whatever you want however you want. It's a little bit pricier than your normal meals out ($4.5), but well worth the added fun of cooking stuff over a coal-fired BBQ. Unfortunately, we enjoyed ourselves too much to even remember to take pictures.


Last night we attended the celebration of the Birth of the Bab, which was hosted at the Baha'i Centre, and again required a treacherous and trying tuk-tuk ride (we could probly walk it next time). We brought our projector and small speakers to the event, and projected lyrics for a song, and played music for a game, and just generally had a good time. The organizers did a great job, managing to tell the story of the life of the Bab and involve everyone in the activities somehow transcending the language barrier without a need for excessive or constant translations.

Oh yeah, it's also been raining and flooding a lot.