Cambodge

Enroute

2012-01-25T18:14:00.000-08:00

AWAKE

We talked to a taxi driver the night before. He was supposed to come at 5:30am. So we woke up at 5:00am. He showed up at 5:05am. We rushed around with him waiting in our courtyard and managed to be dressed and relatively put together within 15 minutes, to drive to Poipet at the Thai border. We understood that this would be a 3 hour journey so we wanted to get started early before the lines at the border (mostly tourists travelling from Siem Reap back to Thailand became busy). The driver woke us up just after 7:00am. We were there. The border wasn't open yet.

found an internet connection
in Aran

It didn't take long after the border opened around 8:00am for us to cross into Thailand into the town called Aranyaprathet. In between the Thai and Cambodian borders you have to walk through a no mans land that is a gamblers haven. It is full of massive casino's and even so early in the morning was pretty hustling. Once we were in the border town we had to figure out how to get to Bangkok. We knew we wanted a bus, preferably a public one (usually cheaper and more reliable than the private tour companies). We finally hooked up some google on the iPhone and found a lady tuk-tuk driver to take us 10 minutes to the bus station for 80baht ($2.50).

We found the bus no problem but got slayed by the only money changer that was open before 10:00am, who happened to work at the bus depot. The trip was enjoyable. We started and finished a novel called "Make Lemonade" written all in verse. We arrived at the Northern Bus Station in Bangkok in the afternoon and did not know what to do next. Thai people look a lot like Cambodians but are culturally very different. The large tourist population in Thailand has created a very aggressive local culture, and made us wary of many of the people who were trying to offer us rides without a meter. We finally found the government taxi line up and got a very sweet driver to take us into the city to our guesthouse.

great sign, abandoned shop

Unfortunately traffic was ridiculous and he kept missing the turn offs which resulted in him leaving us on the street a few blocks away from our hotel with our bags. He felt really bad (he did not want to charge us for the trip!) but we all decided it was better than being stuck in traffic jams for another hour to go 4 blocks. We paid him most of the fare and he was very grateful. And then he left and we were really lost. We dragged our suitcases up and down stairs and through crowded side walks and back alleys. We were just about to give up when I stopped to take the above photo of Ash. After I took the photo, I looked over from the stairs I had climbed up and caught a glimpse of the street signs and there was Chatburi Rd. that we were in search of!

this is how we found our towels in our
guest house

The guesthouse was great. Just opened a few months earlier and was suggested by friends that live just one block away. We indulged in some western food delights that we can not find in Cambodia, and being in the commercial shopping district we just spent the evening wandering around (sans bags finally!) and reveling at the affluence and materialism of it all! It was like jumping into a completely different universe from our sleepy, dusty Battambang town.

in case you were looking- it is in Bangkok, and it is a shopping
mall

drinking fresh pomegranate
juice in the Arab district

shopping, shopping, shopping

Most of our time in the city was spent shopping. It was unfortunate but I was ill equipped for the upcoming cold Israeli weather. I had no shoes to wear (all that I own is flip flops) and not many clothes that suit weather below 20degrees. On the upside there is a LOT of shopping to be done in Bangkok, especially near our hotel. On the down side no one in Thailand carries shoes in my size. On the upside I eventually found a pair from some very kind sales people. On the down side they gave me blisters and were painful to walk up and down all of the stairs and hills in Haifa. On the upside I also had my sandals to wear. In between all of the searching for shoes and clothes we met up with Ryan Duly and his family. He and his wife also lived in Battambang early in their marriage doing similar work to us, then upgraded to Phnom Penh and a child, and are now living the life in Bangkok with two children. It was cool to see who we will be in a few more years :) They took us out for Arab food (to wet our appetites for Israel) right near their house. There is an amazing Arab section of the city, mostly developed around a hospital that caters to medical tourists from the Middle East.

We flew out on New Years Eve. Before flying we had a chance to stop in at our friends just down the street from our hotel and have a quick dinner with some more friends who were there for the evenings festivities. The door opened while I was helping to cut pineapple and there was one of my friends from highschool who I haven't see in 5 years! She was more surprised that I was and so we had a great couple of hours just catching up and sharing stories and memories.

it was an all night flight

We arrived early in the morning in Tel Aviv but could not arrive in Haifa until after sunset. Because security at the airport went so smooth we had many hours to kill in the city with no plans and two large bags. We found a cafe in a residential district (after taking the train from the airport to a random stop that we thought sounded interesting). The cafe was sweet and we had some great pastries and capuccinos, then I got my hair cut next door and then we wandered. For hours. With large bags on cobble stone streets and a chilly January wind.

Ashraf expounding on the great art of ancient paper map usage,
it is so much easier to follow the little blue dot on google maps.

we coordinate when we travel

We managed to eat lots of amazing food, and visit the old city of Jaffa (pronounced Yaffo) before making our way back to the train. The best was our dinner (pictured on the right) at Big Itzik. Our taxi driver took us there and was really excited. We didn't know what was going on at all. We ordered salad and a lamb kebab and they kept bringing us food....

cultured™

2011-12-26T22:38:00.001-08:00

Before moving to Cambodia we were advised by many individuals who have lived the world around that we should eat lots of onions, garlic, and plain yogurt to ward of foreign stomach invaders. However, it turns out that refrigeration is a fairly recent thing in Battambang and there is no plain yogurt to be found! Over the past few months we have had a few breakfast splurges where we purchase the ridiculously priced ridiculously sugared bright pink strawberry yogurt from the foreign import shop. It left us dissatisfied, so after some easy to follow instructions from a visiting friend (thanks Elaine Losey!!) we tried our hands at yogurt making! Turns out that we may not be Dutch, but we can still work wonders with milk. The result was a perfectly thick and tangy natural yogurt.

We were so amazed by the results that we shared with an online group mostly frequented by foreigners living in Battambang and got an immediate response. We are in business. A week later we have made 1/2 a dozen batches which we have sold to individuals, businesses and ate some our self :) It has been a fun experience, learning a very small amount about small businesses and a lot about dairy! We have even made our first experimental batch of cream cheese, which is also delicious. Next we will be looking for our own cows...

our first batch!

10 seconds. no more, no less.

adding the starter

it has be wrapped just so...

fail proof hoody incubator

for the culture to grow

success! thick and tangy 18 hours later

*serving suggestion: on pancake with honey and
a black kick ass kicking horse coffee

packaged for the buyer

(written by Emily)

BUGS!

2011-12-02T09:30:00.001-08:00

Cambodia has bugs.

Emily gets HUGE welts from bug bites.

Our house doesn't keep the bugs out.

We're not fans of spraying chemicals in the house a lot.

All of these combine to lead to terribly trying time for my poor wifeh. Somehow, my combo irish-arab hairiness wards off most insects/acts as an early warning system so that I shoo them off. Which I think is exasperating for Emily, since, as she is being et alive, I am straight chillin' like a villain I've spent a few hours in the past weeks hunting mosquitoes. #thingsididntimagineinmarriage

We put lime juice on Emily's feet as a last resort to warding off bug-bites. Does that even work? We'll find out.

Projecto!

2011-11-27T04:24:00.001-08:00

A site for many people to join in systematizing the process of trying to emulate Abdu'l-Baha:
www.bahaireflections.com

Writing this from Kampong Thom, where myself and a colleague are spending a few days working with some of CORDE's teachers to strengthen their classes!

Heppy times!

Tweet-Tweet

2011-11-25T07:18:00.001-08:00

No time to post for the last two weeks!

I've got my iPhone unlocked, so if you can see the twitter feed to the left - that's where I'll put some updates until I get a breather!

Much love,

Ashraf.

Turn up the heat!

2011-11-14T01:27:00.001-08:00

We learn to cook the Khmer foods

There's a restaurant here called Smokin' Pot. It's been here for about 11 years. There's another restaurant here called One More Smokin' Pot. It's been here for about a year or so. They offer cooking classes. We took one last Friday:

We'd invited Ridvan and Wody, and some new friends, Zack and Eve, to come join us in the cooking class. This might be the first real like "couples activity" we've done. Wow. I just realized what I wrote. Means I'm seriously married right? When you start doing "couples activities"?! Either way was tres fun. We met up at about 9am, and sorted out what dishes we were going to cook. We settled on the classics, Fish Amok, Beef Lok-Lak, and Cha Krueng. Ok, that last one doesn't seem like a classic, but, as we discovered, its a pretty stock dish, and the name just means "fried spice". After deciding on some dishes, we headed straight to the market.

VEGGIES!

The first stop in the market was to buy some fish for the fish amok. This was actually a really cool part of the class, because we got a chance to find out which vendors our chef buys his food from, how he chooses it, what questions he asks, and how much he pays. For the two tourists that tagged on to our group, this was a fun experience, but for the six of us that live here, this information is like solid gold! For example, we may want to eat fish amok in the future. Rather than buy the whole fish, and have to gut it ourselves, we can simply say "filet", and the fish-sellers'll hook you up with some filet-o-fish

(Side note: these fish are intense. It was a bit unnerving to come here to shop for the fresh fish because they were still jumping. you can see the netting in the photo that covers the bucket-o-fish. This was not enough to stop them, as they actually hopped up and down, forcing the netting open, and then, when the seller was distracted, hopped right out of the bucket and onto the sidewalk! It didn't stop there, I swear that two of them seemed like they were making a "run" for the river.
Part of me really wanted to see them make it back to the water. We tried to get the seller's attention, but she was in the zone with that filleting, so Wody took it upon himself to pick up the fish and return them to the bucket.)

We also picked up some fresh veggies (learning the Khmer names for them along the way), and some things like dried chili(!), and roasted peanut. He also told us where to get the best cuts of beef, and whom to get them from, but when we went, the lady was all sold out. So we discovered who the second-best is as well. (Again, side note: Emily and I don't really cook meat. Not that we're intense about being vegetarian, or even that we're put-off the rawness of the market, just that it doesn't seems to happen.) We took our goodies back to the restaurant, and then had 15 minutes to hang out while our Chef's assistants did all the washing!

And we COOKED:

So HOT!

Beef Lok-Lak

Emily tests out her plate decoration skills

Cha Krueng Saek Moun (sp?)

We were all incredibly stuffed by the end, since we ate the fruits of our labour as soon as they were cooked. Em and Eve couldn't finish the last one, so they packed it up to go. We got cookbooks when we finished, so if you want a Cambodian meal, feel free to come visit, and we'll make sure you get a delicious Fish Amok, or Beef Lok-Lak when you do!

I can't remember much of the rest of that day, but I know we were invited to GEMS for dinner, and we got a second class (for free!) in how to best prep Vietnamese coffees. Thanks Prema!

calcul renal

2011-11-10T04:30:00.000-08:00

Kidney Stones...

...make me cry

around four am last friday i was half awoken from a vivid dream and stumbled to the bathroom with what i thought was a full bladder. i came back to bed, assuming i would sleep. i found however that my bladder seemed full again. only beginning to really wake up now i headed back to the bathroom. however, my bladder was indeed empty, but i did indeed still have the very urgent sensation of needing to pee. i was now fully awake and a little bit disturbed at not being able to find any relief.

the sensation persisted and empty bladdered i visited the bathroom countless times, until something new happened. this something was a little ache in my back. it was noticeably on the left and became painful enough quickly enough to distract me from the intense lack of urination irritation. it was probably almost five am at this point and ash had been searching our medical coverage online to find out if they could hook us up with a clinic. he was having no success and i was on the floor crying so he made the decision despite the early hour to call our afore mentioned friend prema.

from my position on the floor i vetoed the ambulance that was being spoken of. unfortunately that just left us with bikes. prema headed our way on her bike and we began a very very slow shuffle down our stone, mud, potholed alley. prema got to us quickly and brought a tuk tuk with her (the above picture was taken during the tuk tuk ride to the clinic). prema has been here for a number of years and had a few sick friends during that time so was able to take us straight to a 24hour clinic and is fluent in khmer so was a great help with the doctor and other health peoples. the doctor met us outside and brought us into a room immediately- no registration, no intake, no administration, just a person in pain who needs to be taken care of. he asked me a few brief questions, starting with anglais ou francais? we told him english. the next couple of questions were about the pain, he felt my stomach, felt my back, turned on a machine and did an ultrasound on my stomach and back. while doing this he asked my name and age and typed it into the machine. that was all of the personal information that was ever asked for.

he showed us the kidney stones in the picture, said that i have a few on the go, to drink lots of water and jump up and down. then he left and another guy came in and gave me two shots in the butt cheek.

at this point the pain was pretty unbearable and i was being pretty dramatic. it really was beyond my control though. in the 10 minutes between the shot and the painkillers kicking in the ridiculousness of the pain peeked. and then suddenly it was gone and life was great. life was amazing. i have no idea what the drugs were but i liked them.

we got my prescriptions filled right there in the clinic by an ancient woman who was slowly opening the pharmacy now that it was after seven am. i walked out with four brightly coloured sets of pills and no idea what any of them did or directions on how to take them. im not a big pill user on the average day so i was a little bit wary of the collection i now had in my possession. i wanted to call my mom and give her the drug names and then call our good friend mari (the pharmacist, and overall health care supervisor since i was an infant) to confirm the usefulness of the pills. my mom however answered neither her cell phone nor her home phone so i decided to go straight to the source myself. i found the phone number for the vernon london drugs pharmacy online and called them on skype. at this point some cosmic force had decided that i had endured my sufferings and without even asking for her directly i was talking to mari with three minutes. she confirmed the meds, some easily and some after some research. i had been given an antibiotic, a pain killer, a something for acute spasm pain, and a diuretic. apparently all standard for kidney stone treatment. she told me which ones to take with food, which ones to take with lots of water, and i finally felt not only the physical but also the emotional relief that had been eluding me since four am.

i took the day off of work, luckily i have coworkers who are cambodian and are built to handle anything so they just absorbed my classes into theirs. i spent the day sleeping, drinking water, taking pills and peeing. nothing seemed to change but the pain didn't reappear until about four-thirty the next morning. ash woke up with me and i think fearing that i would slip in to the world of extreme pain again turned the music on loud and got a few bottles of water and we had an early morning dance party in the living room to jump out the stones. and it worked!

a couple of hours later, after talking to my mom on skype and getting to compare stories (she also had kidney stones a few years ago) i "passed" my first kidney stone! that one i just let be, but the next one, on my mom's advice i kept as a souvenir :)

Fixing the Broken Things: Part II

2011-11-02T20:54:00.000-07:00

Now that Prema has returned, and is safely in her room, I can relay the rest of the story about the broken things.

Additional broken things:
Washing Machine
Bed Board

The decline and fall of the washing machine is a long process, which is still happening. We were lucky enough to be around during an exciting part of this decline. One of our housemates, Kim, was distraught - the washing machine wouldn't drain. I scoured the internet for a repair manual or something, anything. I found something in Japanese for a close cousin model, but this model is elusive like a Dodo bird in December. Kim called a repairman the next day, and he managed to get it to drain. They tested it on some small dishcloths, it worked. Everyone was happy again.

We tried to run a load of clothes. It made it to the rinse cycle, and caved. We agreed that we'd call the dude again tomorrow, and ask him to fix it for real this time. In the mean time, we had a full load of cleaned clothes that needed to be wrung. So I set about wringing, and Em set about hanging what was wrung. What I didn't realize about wringing out a large load of laundry, is that it's actually tiring, and can flay your skin. Ok, ok, "flay" is a bit excessive, but my inferior wringing technique manged to give me minor blisters, and remove the skin by the end of the load. Aaaah.

The repairmen took the washing machine away this time, and returned it. Only for it to not work again that night. Sigh. One of the teachers at GEMS, Thavet, decided to give his washing machine repair skills a shot, and succeeded. Apparently, the culprit was a pipe which was pointing up, instead of down. I wonder now what the repairmen actually did?

The Bed Board.

This one has a back-story:
1) Battambang gets very dark at night - there are no streetlights near GEMS, so we were often submerged in darkness by about 7p.m.
2) When we arrived at GEMS, there was talk of a rat, or of rats in the kitchen (and thus the need to store everything securely before going to sleep)
3) The combination of these two preceding points left Emily somewhat fearful of the kitchen at night. I think that she knew seeing a rat in the kitchen would ruin her time eating food in the same kitchen ,and was more afraid of seeing a rat, than actually knowing that one exists in the house. This resulted in her often asking me to come turn the light on in the kitchen...to make sure it was safe (or give everything a chance to hide).

One night, a week or two ago, I fell asleep while Emily was preparing her lesson for the next day. Before going to sleep, she decided she wanted a glass of water. Considerate wife that she is, she decided not to wake me up just to turn on a light. As she approached the kitchen in the dark (you have to walk into the kitchen, and around a corner in order to flick the light switch), she thought to herself "there's nothing here, nothing's ever here, I don't have to be afraid". Almost in response to her brave thoughts, claws scrabbled on the floor, and small animal ran past her and down the stairs (turns out it was a cat). She let out an ear-piercing scream. Down the hallway, previously asleep in the bed, I lept completely upright. landing just in front of the foot of the bed, with my face in the mosquito netting. I ran to the kitchen, and, after discovering what had happened, laughed with Em for a solid 10 minutes.

Dudes setting up chop

Then we went back to bed, and I noticed that something wasn't right when I res-set the mosquito netting. The bed-board is in two pieces, and the piece on my side of the bed was completely broken near the foot of the bed. Luckily, this doesn't actually interrupt sleep, as the rest of the board holds the mattress up fine - and all is well as long as you don't sit on that exact spot. Still, we wanted to return Prema's room to her in good condition. So we decided we'd look for a replacement board.

Replacing MDF is Battambang is a challenge, and I ended up having to use wood of the same thickness instead. There is a shop close to GEMS that sells construction supplies, but she didn't have a saw to cut the wood to the size that I needed (and I didn't have a saw either). So I headed off (just yesterday) to road 5, where I was told more construction supply shops abound. I cycled around, and asked at once place, fumbling my way through khmer, and using a lot of gesturing to explain what I needed. After a few minutes, when the seller finally understood what I needed, she told me that she didnt' have any, and that I should go farther down the road. I did, and found a place. I talked to about three people before finding someone that seemed like they were understanding what I wanted. They went back and forth from having the wood to not having it, from being able to cut it, to not, etc. Finally, I realized that the hang-up was whether I would pay for the whole sheet, or just my small cut. I assured them I'd buy the whole thing (at a discount because the sheet was damaged). I marked the lengths that I wanted, and they got a guy who could use a skill-saw like a champ to cut the piece out for me.

I left the rest of the wood with them, and grabbed my two-meter piece, mounted my bicycle, and rode off like a knight in a jousting competition. Managing neither to bring injury to myself or to others, I arrived at GEMS (I shared many smiles with people on the way, marveling at the ridiculous prospect of a white guy attempting such a feat of balance). After all of that, the piece was a bit long. So I went back to the nearby shop, bought a hand-saw, marked the length, and cut it up. Finally, the bed-board was replaced!

The Move!

2011-11-02T02:43:00.000-07:00

We moved into the new house!

A procession for the King's Birthday?

Not to give something more importance than it's due, but after getting married, and living in rooms in houses for 6 months, we're pretty happy to have our own place. Since Em is teaching, and is in the habit of lesson planning every weekend for the upcoming week, and since she is also studying online, AND since we still want to make friends and spend time with people, it left us very little in the way of time to move on this three day weekend. Still, we managed. :)

Bunthueon and I waiting for the procession to pass @ road 3

Actually, the bulk of our moving/shopping happened in a 2 hour time-span where we hired a Tuk-Tuk driver, and made a few trips around town, and back-and-forth from GEMS to our new place.Originally, we were just walking to a shop to buy some sheets and pillows for one of the beds in our place - the pillows are enormous (but not very comfy in the end!) and an enterprising tuk-tuk driver by the name of Buntheourn convinced us to hire him for a ride home. We had plans though, and asked if he wouldn't mind trucking us around for an hour. In the hour we returned to GEMS, put the sheets in the washing machine, then headed to Street 2 to buy some electrical appliances for the house. We played the sellers on either side of the street against each other's pricing to get good prices for our purchases, and, after loading up the tuk-tuk, headed to the house. At this point, we still didn't have electricity running to our place! Em thought we might ask the tuk-tuk driver if he knew anything about power and how to get it up and running...and he didn't, but it turns out he was bright enough to follow the power-lines from our house across the street, and over to a power-box in the yard of the 'across-the-street-' peeps (can I just call them neighbors? or is there a term for neighbors that face you as opposed to ones that are beside you?) he strolled in, and flicked a switch, and voila! we had power. Lucky lucky.

The second trip from GEMS to new home

We then decided to head back to gems and check on the sheets...and I wanted to go to the bank, because our shopping had almost exhausted our cash. The bank was, how do the french say, Fermé. So I called Emily, and we decided we'd just pack and move all our stuff right then. Boonthon and I pulled an about-face, and headed back to GEMS. Emily had already hung the new sheets to dry, and packed two bags. I started loading up the tuk-tuk, and helping to pack. Buonthorn and I headed to the new house to drop off the bags, then back to GEMS, then one more giant load, and we were all done!

After we moved in, Emily spent an hour getting to know
The local chillins.

Of course, moving our stuff is only 1/4 of the battle. Cleaning the place on Saturday was another 1/4, unpacking is another 1/4 (which we're nearly through!) and the last, and perhaps longest 1/4 is buying stuff. I'm kind of torn about buying stuff. On the one hand, I like nice things. For reals! I like things that are well-made, and aesthetically pleasing, and functional, and best if they're all three rolled into one. On the other hand, I feel like spending money on things is a bit of a waste. Right? If a .50 cent bowl will hold as much soup as a $5 bowl, why not get the .50 cent one? I'll let you know how that internal battle plays out, or if you have any advice - I'm all ears. In the mean time, We bought a bunch of cheap, functional things (except for aluminum pots which changed color and stuff flaked off of!) and will have to get a few more things and some furniture before we can really say that we've 'settled' in the place.

First we bought bikes, then stuff
and a bucket to put the stuff in

We got new (second-hand) bikes! They're pretty awesome. They came with baskets and lights. The lights are cool - they have a little wheel that connects to the front wheel, and that's how it powers the light. faster = brighter! The cityscape has transformed with our purchase of bicycles - everything is now so close and so easy to access. I'm glad we walked around for 6 weeks though, because now we really appreciate the power of the wheel.

We were pretty insular last weekend, but we managed to join a Diwali celebration with some of the friends from malaysia (they're not hindu, but they took the excuse to make the food :D). Then we all watched "3 idiots" on our projector. Great film. Check it out.

Ridvan and Wody at the Psar Thmeuy Market

There's more to say about the weekends unending activities, but that's all I'm into typing for now.

much love,

Ash.

p.s. "Fixing the Broken Things: Partie Deux" is coming soon!

Color Change

2011-10-28T00:05:00.000-07:00

In response to a reader's suggestion to switch from the high contrast black background with white writing, I've switched the color scheme up a bit. I don't normally read the blog....I just write the posts! What thoughts on the new design - easier on the eyes? or does the white text just need to change?

muchos love-os,

Ashraf

Fixing the Broken Things

2011-10-25T20:34:00.000-07:00

"As a tornado, I have bestrewn your house with the broken clutter of your past life."

A real bicycle mechanic A.K.A
"the wheel deal"

We've been privileged enough to stay at GEMS international school, in the topmost floor, in my friend Prema's room. We've also been given the opportunity to do things like borrow her bicycle. Unfortunately, the bicycle broke. The back tire just straight-up stopped moving! Not being adept in the fine art of bicycle repair, I asked many of the friends here at CORDE what I could do with such a broken cycle. I was directed to a repairman nearby. "How lucky!" I thought to myself, "providence has smiled upon me!". Alas, twas not so. The repairman turned out to be a motorcycle repairman. You'd think that that'd be alright, and that, working with the motorized big brother of little bicycles, he could fix mine. The reality is, you make less money fixing bicycles, and he had a motorcycle that he was repairing. So he clanged around a bit with some tools, loosened this, tightened that, poured oil on stuff. No dice. The wheel wasn't moving. Realizing that repairing my bike would take some time, he promptly dismissed me. ! At this point, the bike was still not repaired. So I held up the back, and directed the front, and walked it back halfway to CORDE, then, frustrated with the pace, and the general situation, I hoisted the bike over my head, and hustled back to the office.

Now, there's this cafe called "1.5 street Cafe", which has been sharing its space with a bike tour company called Soksabike, a play on the Cambodian greeting, "Sok Sabai?" It was at this producer of delicious coffees, that providence really did smile on me (and emily, and the bike?) since Soksabike was testing out a new bicycle mechanic, we were invited to bring our broken bike for him to test his skills. Emily directed the bike and I held up the back end so that it could roll, and as a humorous spectacle of two, we paraded our way through the park, across the bridge, and down three blocks to the 1.5 street cafe. The mechanic diagnosed, deconstructed, replaced, souped-up, and re-constructed the bike in like 20 minutes. It was magical to watch. Allah be praised, Prema's bicycle works again (in time for her return)!

Peanut butter sandwich and an orange-banana shake

There's a look of pure joy on the face of Emily Rushdy (pictured left), as she spreads and eats a delicious snack, reminiscent of the food in her homeland. French bread with peanut-butter, and something akin to an Orange Julius, purchased from the White Rose restaurant, just two blocks away from our house. Though still speaking very limited-to-no Khmer, we've managed to befriend the White Rose family (who recognized me from 2 years ago), and occasionally drop by their restaurant for a fresh shake. Oddly, at a time when Emily was enjoying a very familiar food, I looked up from my seat, and got a feeling of absolute strangeness! It's as if I just woke up in the restaurant, and everything was new. the tables, the people, the language, the music, the t.v., the street and buildings outside, all seemed completely unfamiliar....then the feeling dropped off, and everything was normal again. Quelle etrange!

Hustlin' and Bustlin'

2011-10-19T23:24:00.000-07:00

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.

What a week!

2011-10-19T20:03:00.000-07:00

Kids in Em's afternoon class, learning about the family

Celebrate Su-Fang's Birthday

We've done a ton in the last week - Em teaching, and I, learning. Em also did some learning about teaching, and as I've been discovering about marriage, this means that I did too. :)

With a bunch of people

Our days start at about 5:45am, the same time when the pagoda's start blasting their tunes. I'm not sure if it's a call to prayer kind of thing, but I'm starting to be able to distinguish the voices of the different monks, and some of the different tunes that they play. Em works by 7, me by 7:30, we break for lunch at 11:00, start again by 1, I finish by 4:30, and Em by 5.

Then we have evenings, where we do various things, like this:

Far from mystery-cult-worship, this is a snapshot of a game called
"shocking!"

You can't really see it, but we hooked up our little BENQ
projector, and watched a pirated version of the smurfs

The Streets were PACKED during the water festival

This was the fruit of several attempts to capture the sporadic fireworks

We sat upstairs to see the river and check out the scene

People in the streets

I bought two more low-cost lacoste shirts

P.S. the week got so busy that I couldn't even finish this post! Instead of completing it, i'm posting, and writing a new one on what's happened since then! :)

We found a place!

2011-10-08T21:18:00.000-07:00

Front of the house

Our search is over (for the next 6 months)! After looking around at a few different places, and gauging what kinds of places are available, we found two things: 1) there are places that are affordable (~$100-150), but either in need of work, or open to the outdoors, and 2) there are places that are expensive ($250+) that we felt comfortable in. We ended up choosing to sacrifice other expenditures to stay in a place that was $300, that we bargained down to $250 (and got the owner to throw in a few upgrades including a fridge, and mosquito netting!).

So, having found a place, we are now relaxed, and able to focus on our crazy new lives. There's a lot to do at both CORDE and GEMS, and Emily and I are discovering exactly what those things are, and how we can make contributions. our jobs have also converged a bit: I'm assisting a group to test and edit an English Language Learning program - and Emily's teaching an English class, so....of course I'm getting her to test out the materials! :) It's exciting to be testing, creating, and editing curriculum! It's only been a week, but we've both learned lots about language acquisition, and a few different approaches to the learning of language, and how people can develop the ability to "listen with comprehension", and "express their thoughts". Oddly enough, I also have an old book of Umberto Eco's here that I brought with me last time I came to Cambodia. he talks a lot about semiotics, and the link between language and cognition. I sometimes feel like I have serendipity on speed-dial. Heppy times!

Please enjoy more shots of the home and the signing:

Front yard, view from the front door

signing with my thumb!

Navy and I signing, Navy helped us find the place

Trip to Phnom Penh for Pchum Ben!

2011-09-29T07:04:00.000-07:00

I say, those seats are "capitol" old chap!

Cambodia just celebrated "Pchum Ben", a holiday to honor and praise ancestors. One Cambodian lady told Emily that the holiday is really just a chance for everyone to feed the monks (to make up for letting them starve the rest of the year). Apparently dry humour floats around Cambodia too! :)

Since the three days we get off of work fall right after the weekend, it seemed like a good opportunity to go visit Phnom Penh, and get a chance to explore the capital city. Unfortunately, the closer we got to last-weekend, more we heard about flooding everywhere! There's been lots of flooding around the country, and warnings issued for Phnom Penh as well, but my dad was there, and he seemed alive, so we went for it. I'm glad we did too! This blog post'll cover the journey down, and Em's first interactions with the ins-and-outs of Cambodian transit, and the next post'll cover some of the finer points of chillin'-like-a-villain in da 'Penh.

We didn't stage this, it was just that cheesy-delish

We set our alarms for 6:00 A.M. on Saturday morning. We got up at about 7:00 A.M. on Saturday morning. Carefully anticipating this eventuality, Em and I (read Emily) packed our stuff the night before. We decided we'd pick up breakfast somewhere on the way, and spent out time checking, and double-checking to make sure we had everything we needed before heading off. We were offered many tuk-tuk rides on the way, but were convinced we didn't need one, and that we'd make it just fine, thanks. It's not that we had heavy or excessive baggage per se, just that the bags were awkward, and we didn't feel the pressures of time keenly. This combo of factors found us ordering our breakfast to go at the Sunrise Cafe on the way to the Capitol bus stop. We ordered a "Battambang Omelette", which was delicious (made more delicious on the bus by our lack of cutlery, and excess of cheese). We also got coffee to go in plastics cups. Normally this is ok, but we ordered hot coffees. I have a greater appreciation for styrofoam's ability to protect hands from heat.

Isn't this a wicked photo? I like it.

I don't have a picture of it, but the hustle to get your bags on the bus is a great scene to see. Battambang has lots of limes and oranges at this time of year, and it seemed like some people were using Captiol Tours as their official logistics solutions for their small-time export businesses. Everyone's pushing to get their bags on the bus first, which is ridiculous, because then they get their bags back last when they get off. Still, they seem to do it with a kind of fear that if they don't then they might not get their bags on. This kind of frenzy grips you, and makes you begin to question if there's some kind of local logic to it - like maybe you actually won't get your bag on the bus! As it turns out, this isn't true, it's the same-old same-old: everyone wants to be first. I just kind of wait at the side until one of the workers loading the bus looks over, show him my ticket, hand him my bag, say the number, point to the tape and his marker, speak a few words in khmer, make firm eye-contact, look at my bag, look at my ticket, look at him, and then smile. It's worked twice so far. I like it more than yelling at the dudes.

Sticky-riz avec sweet iced-coffee

When em and I finish eating, we realize that we haven't said our prayers yet, so we thought about it, looked around, and realizing that we're in a small private room provided by the language barrier - went ahead and said our morning prayers. Em discovered that Battabang is larger than the five square blocks that encompass our lives, as the bus wound its way through the city on our way out. The countryside is generally flat in this area, so our view on the way is pretty constant: rice fields and tiny fish farms. In fact, it is pretty, and constant. And the fish farms are both tiny, and they farm tiny fish. What an odd accumulation of sentence. We were bright enough to bring our own water with us, so we could stay hydrated, and enjoy the ride. We were stupid enough to drink a lot of the water we brought after drinking our coffees, not being sure of when the bus would stop for bathroom breaks, etc. We were saved from exploding bladders at around 11:30 or so, when we pulled into a little bus stop. It has a small canteen, some washrooms in the back (with entrepreneurial beggar-boys suggesting that you have to pay them for the privilege....lemma: as a follow-up to the mendicancy post I had no cash when I went to the washroom, but I don't think I would have given them money in this case either. since they were kids of the people that lived there, and seemed to be doing just fine without cash, and it didn't seem like you actually had to pay anyway). It also has a few small shops with ladies selling fresh fruits, chips, nuts, and BAMBOO STICKY-RICE! It's not really all that good, but it's a fun experience to eat bean-filled sticky rice out of a piece of bamboo.

We discovered the secrets of using these
all-too-small cup-holders.

We're trying, as Baha'is to expand the learning mode of "consultation, action, and reflection" to as many new fields of thought and action as possible. Unfortunately, we failed to expand it to "bus rides in Cambodia" as we blatantly repeet our mistake of coffee+water+no control of stop time. Undeterred, Emily used a small stop when the bus driver only meant to drop one person off (like unplanned stop) to go find a bathroom. she stopped and talked to the bus driver on her way out, and then left, so I assumed that it was all good. Then the bus driver gets back on the bus, and Em's still not back. He looks at me imploringly, I look at him, shrug my shoulders, and hold my hands up - it's the international sign of "hey, whatchya gonna do about it, eh?" I would have given him the "hands-tied" tied sign, but I'm not sure if that's an offensive sign here. Either way, the real comedy begins when other women, their bladders spotting an opportunity, try to exit the bus. The driver had to speak quickly, and deal with some disgruntled mamas! Finally, I got up and went towards the toilets, just to let Em know that everyone was getting "pissed-off" (aha!). She returned to the bus quickly. she got some glares, but I don't think she noticed. Tres drole.

Did I mention pineapple on a stick?

Beauteous!

the rest of the trip was not nearly as exciting, we got some reading done, listened to tunes, etc. Phnom Penh was also anti-climactic: no floods! We found our way to our guest-house, once again avoiding having to take a tuk-tuk with their terribly high rates for foreigners.

What are we doing, actually?

2011-09-29T03:56:00.000-07:00

It's a question both Emily and I had a few days after we arrived. I mean, we knew in general what we'd be upto, but discovering the specifics is another thing altogether. So, what are the specifics?

So far, Emily facilitated a training for the teachers at the GEMS elementary school, and I started facilitating a training for some of the staff/graduate students of UniED and CORDE. This was great, as we both got a chance to build some closer friendships with our participants, and got a quick taste of what we might be doing while we're here!

Now Emily's training is over, and the staff are cleaning-up and reorganizing their classrooms, and prepping the materials for the upcoming semester (starts oct.3rd). Emily's also signed up to teach an English language class and a half-day kindergarten class! I helped her move some furniture around, and we discussed the role of classroom design and environment and its effect on the focus and learning of the students. We'll soon see if her class is fit to handle the kiddies.

Oh yeah, we also teach people crib, and learn some
fun Asian card-games like "poh-quat"

The training which I am facilitating is continuing, and may extend further into the future than we'd all first thought (as the participants alert me to prior commitments!). I'm trying to reflect as much as I can on how I can better facilitate, what the needs of the participants are, how to overcome the English-language barrier while studying materials that are in English, what are good examples for the concepts we're exploring, etc. I really want to see the participants enabled to fluently use the language and concepts that we're learning about - which is presenting all of us with a challenging class. I got a few complaints about the difficulty, but also a lot of comments about how much some of the participants are enjoying learning. I'm enjoying learning with them as well, so so far I'm feeling like we're on the right path. Heppy times!

We're still in the process of looking for a more permanent living space. We've seen some ridiculous places so far - places with rooms so small that I had to bend down to get into them. It felt slightly Lord of the Rings-ish. We have a few more leads to follow up on, and are hoping we can find a clean place without excessive mosquitoes. It's not a long list, but it's a bit hard to fill so far. hah.

So that's a brief overview for now. The description of what we do could change tomorrow. We'll likely expand the breadth and depth of our actions as we get to know the community and our institutions better - and see how we can apply and develop ourselves while we serve and develop our new community!

the new do

2011-09-20T06:58:00.000-07:00

it is too hot for beautiful curls

so i cut

but the rockstar look is still too messy for a teacher

so i clean it up

i am told to keep cutting

we pause: he in joy, i in sorrow

now he is serious professional

now he seriously sips espresso

my hair is too hot too...

Settling in

2011-09-16T00:15:00.000-07:00

This is the broom we used to sweep cobwebs off the ceiling.

I've been introducing Em to the few ins-and-outs of Battambang that I know, and re-acquainting myself in the process.It doesn't feel like home yet, but I feel like we're steadily settling in: cleaning things, doing laundry, fixing-up little bits and pieces around the apartment, learning how to best secure a mosquito net, and cooking meals (we have a deal with the three other residents of the building - each of us takes a day of the week to cook dinner, so we get to eat every night, but don't have to cook every night).

Cleaning here's a bit different of course - the slightest trace of food brings ants (which I have to to sweep off our bed a few times now, bigger traces of food bring rats (which ate one of our bananas); plaster regularly crumbles off of sections of the wall (makes me think of dandruff, which then makes me want to give the poor wall/ceiling some kind of shampoo to help it along); Spider webs are invisible for a week or two, and then collect all the dust in the air and turn brown (leaving us with large brown strings everywhere on the ceiling); clothes only dry in the morning, before the rain, and on and on. We're re-learning bit by bit how to maintain a good standard of cleanliness, and what things just can't be cleaned (poor crumbly wall/ceiling).

What's better than fried bananas?
Friend bananas in maple syrup.

Who's sweating more, eggplants or emdawgs?

Em prepping the potatoes.

We've also learnt(/I'm starting to recall) some of the finer points of shopping in a wet-market. We got DESTROYED by this one lady who sold us potatoes that all looked good, but two giant ones were completely rotten on the inside. They were so expensive. We've pretty much decided not to shop with that lady anymore. Still, a good lesson in attending in great detail to the produce we buy. There's no quality control here - just people bringing goods form their homes/farms to sell everyday. We managed to get almost everything we need for our two dinners (we have thursday and friday nights).

These guys play every afternoon kiddie-corner to us.
I may have to get back into SEA chess.

While walking around, we saw a large group of people huddled over a table. There was great shouting, and the waving of arms, and excited jumping and such. Of course, we had to investigate. Turns out this young guy was testing his mettle against the resident champ in a game of chess! It's south-east asian style, and I learnt the rules last time I was here, but I couldn't recall exactly what all the pieces did. I love how everyone gets excited about chess out here. It's like the Khmer equivalent of a break-dance battle. So sweet.

Em and I have been making a few new friends around our area of town as well. Many Cambodians run a small business at or from their homes. This means that there's a general store every few meters. We've befriended one of these intrepid businesswomen who lives in an alley beside our building. We've taken to walking through the alley because it's surprisingly clean! It looks as if everyone in that alley had banded together to create at least one space that is well-kept and tidy in the middle of the ghetto.

We also still find time to frequent a cafe or two.

Gecko Cafe continues to deliver

Much love,

Ash

Mendicancy and Prejudice

2011-09-14T19:37:00.000-07:00

I have a difficult time dealing with the question of mendicancy.

It came up yesterday when Emily and I were sitting in a little khmer cafe. We were seated near the door, facing the outdoors, sipping on khmer iced-coffees, and reading philosophy. How bourgeois. An older one-legged man hopped past the restaurant with a crutch, until he was almost out of sight. At the last minute, he looked over his shoulder, and (we thought) saw us seated near the exit.

[Now, it often happens that foreigners, especially white foreigners in Cambodia, are approached (if not assaulted) by mendicants. By mendicants I mean professional beggars. Those who are dedicating their lives to asking for money from others. Those who, if you remain in a place long enough, will see day-in and day-out sitting on a corner and begging for their livelihood.]

I assumed that this one-legged man was one of the same group. Especially since he turned back and approached us after looking over his shoulder. Immediately after making eye-contact I told him "ot-te" which basically means "no". He seemed to ignore me, and kept approaching. So I said it again (it being the crude, but only way I know of saying "no" to beggars). After saying no a second time, I noticed that he wasn't stepping into the restaurant, and that he actually had money in his hand, and was looking in to the cafe.

You see, the cafe has a small stall outside that sells local food, and it had just recently been stocked by the employees. They were sitting in the back and having lunch themselves, so they didn't see this little scene playing out at the front of the cafe.

So here I am. the dreadful realization of an alternate explanation for the man's actions dawning in my mind. "Maybe he just wanted to buy a meal". All of this happened in a second, just after I said no a second time. Before I could say another word, the man shot me a hurtful glance and hopped away. I felt terrible. I wanted to say so many things to the man. I wanted to apologize; I wanted to alert the staff that they have a customer waiting; I wanted to buy his meal for him; I wanted to do anything I could to atone for my insult. Too late. He had left. And with his departure, left me embarrassed and shamed.

Emily said that she was sure he only turned back after making eye-contact with her, and that it wasn't the food that caught his eye. She also said that he had the money in his hand the whole time. What a strange and ambiguous situation then, where two equally possible stories describe the same situation. Emily suggested I take the situation as a reminder of what kinds of perceptions we're putting on people that we meet; that we should be wary of what prejudices we might have floating around inside us.

It's not that she mentioned the word prejudice (I threw that in - artistic license), but I knew that's what her comment was getting at. I have considered before the prejudices that people have of the poor, but I have never really considered (or even seen) those prejudices in myself. I consider, like many Baha'is, the elimination of prejudice of all kinds as a requisite to spiritual growth. At the same time, we've been reading some of Martin Buber's works. He talks about some random stuff, and is often abstruse, and excessively wordy. In spite of that, we've gleaned some great stuff from his philosophy. He talks about the necessity of meeting each situation for what it is, and responding to it specifically. This experience brought to my attention how much of my life must actually be on autopilot; how little consideration I'm actually giving to the nuances of each situation I encounter. Essentially, I wanted to share this little realization I've had of the importance of giving each situation a careful consideration; of approaching each person with respect. Indeed, it looks right now like a very good method for me to eliminate my prejudices.

I'm not sure how they will look different, or what they will look like, but I am sure my interactions with everyone I meet will be perceptibly different from here on in [I'll be sure to write it up when I figure it out!].

Much love,

Ashraf.

p.s. Please comment if you have some experiences/advice/thoughts about mendicancy, or the elimination of prejudice!

Battambang

2011-09-13T06:15:00.000-07:00

The view from our room in Gems

at war with mosquitoes

In Battambang we fight battles. We fight against jet lag by not napping during the day and forcing ourselves to stay up longer than the sun, which sets at 6:00pm.We fight against the heat with thoughtfully placed fans and open windows. We fight against the mosquitoes by climbing up flimsy ladders to fix window screens and by sleeping under a net. I think we have finally reached an upper hand on all three, but I still have constellations of itching red welts as a reminder of the battles being fought.

the river before it was TOO high

enjoying sugar cane juice and
viewing the river at its current peak

The town itself is also fighting. This is a seemingly lost battle against water. The river that runs through Battambang is high and fast. One friend told us that it hasn't been this high in ten years, and people stand along the banks and bridges just watching it in awe. Certain streets are also flooding. Yesterday it was just big puddles, one of which offered up a soaking hundred dollar bill, that have today grown into intersection lakes.

devotional

Between all battles we also have some time for a pretty sweet life. I have been doing some teacher training using the Hidden Gems Curriculum with the teachers at the Hidden Gems International School in Battambang (which we are currently living above), Ash has started putting together a masters course for UniED students. We have a dinner schedule with our housemates so everyone only has to cook once a week which is a great way to not have to worry about cooking, and get to try new foods (primarily Malaysian and Chinese). On Sunday morning Aunty Grace made all of us nasi lemak (but she spared us the anchovy garnish...) it was delicious. Later on Sunday a group of first year UniED students came over for a devotional. It turns out that "God is Sufficient" has the same tune in many languages, so the boys taught it to us in Khmer (Cambodian), then we taught it to them in English and then "Kim", our Chinese roommate, taught everyone the prayer in Chinese. We decided to save Arabic for next week.

In sum the first few days here have been pretty awesome. Between down-pours we have walked around a few different parts of the city and I am beginning to feel more like I know the place everyday.

in Khmer Cafe to escape the rain

A More Chronological Capturing of Events in the Form of a Poem:

first day in battambang
nassi lemak breakfast
gecko cafe nachos, coffee
walked around in battambang (stuck in rain, khmer cafe)
devotional with unied students
learned God is Sufficient in Khmer and Chinese,
save Arabic for next time
taught God is Sufficient in English

breakfast at sunrise cafe

dinner by Grace
chinese moon festival

second night in battambang
slept by 7:00pm
got bitten by mosquitos
woke up by 1:55am
Ashraf woke up by 2:30am
slept until 5:30am

second day in battambang

the money was counterfeit

breakfast at sunrise cafe
gems teacher meeting
ash to unied
skype with mom and dad
lunch at one more smoking pot
found money
market for fruit, veg, eggs, yogurt
unied (becoming insted)
walk through nice part of town
high river

48-ish Hours In

2011-09-10T20:36:00.000-07:00

September 8th, 10:15 A.M. Pacific Time, Vancouver International Airport

Talking to the P-units

We arrive at the airport expecting to check in at 11 for our flight which we thought left at 2:00 P.M. We discover three things: 1) The flight leaves at 2:40 P.M., so we're VERY early (first time in my life, marriage is crezy) 2) The Korean Air desk doesn't open for another 45 mins, so we're stuck with our bags for a while, and 3) Our bags are overweight! Luckily, these three work together to give us enough time to re-pack our bags using the airlines scales. We juggle our books, clothes, and laptops so that all four checked bags are the maximum allowable weight, and we only have a small excess to throw into our carry-ons.

The check in takes a while, since we booked our tickets separately (we couldn't figure out why we did that), and Emily had her name as "Emily MacDonald" on the ticket, which doesn't match her shiny new "Emily Rushdy" passport. We had to present our marriage certificate, but we got through just fine.

Em killing time

September 8th, 11:10 A.M. Pacific Time, Vancouver International Airport.

We have 3.5 hours to kill.

So we bought some classic Canadian maple syrup and maple-caramel candies to give as presents to people in Cambodia, went through security, found some wifi, and called our parents to say bye.

September 8th, 2:10 P.M. Pacific Time, Vancouver International Airport

Takeoff! We read a bit of Martin Buber's "Between Man and Man", watched Thor, and ate Bee Bim Bap. Asome. Then we discovered best part of the Korean Air in-flight entertainment package: in-flight TETRIS. This was plus drole, and we played several times. You can play anyone else on the plane, but we seemed to be the only two interested in head-to-head tetris. It took us a while to figure out: when you clear more than two lines, your opponent receives those lines unless they clear their own lines, and vice-versa. This made tetris pretty intense. I'm not bad at tetris, but I discovered that Emily is insane! I think the quickest game we played saw her kill me in 10 lines. Ridiculous. In my defense, I won a few, and we both got better as we played more, but she always held the upper-hand.

Bee Bim Bap!

September ??, ?? P.M., Korean Airplane.

She isn't actually that excited about the seaweed soup

We've been chasing the sun the whole flight,and the cabin lights have been dim for a few hours. Everyone's either sleeping, watching a movie, or trying to sleep. Emily finally manages to fall asleep in the awkward economy-class seats, when the lights pop on, and the flight-attendant wakes us all up! I thought that we would be arriving soon, but we soon discover that they're serving a meal.

Emily has to move her seat back upright because the table-trays don't unfold well unless the seats are upright. We were sure that we'd be served breakfast, but no, it's dinner #2. we could only really handle the dessert with some tea...though, I did my best with the meal as well :)

September 9th, 5:30 P.M., Korean Time, Seoul International Airport.

As we disembark Emily discovers that she has a cramp in her arm from all the tetris playing - apparently I wasn't mashing the buttons as intensely. We worried about our 50 minute transfer, but it turns out that our departure gate was immediately past transfer security, which gave Em enough time to discover the secret world of Korean singing toilets.

September 9th, 10:30 P.M., Cambodia Time, Phnom Penh International Airport.

Collecting bags in Phnom Penh

We get off in a mess of people running to sign up for Visas. We threw our passports into the mix, and an airport worker who looks (and acts) like he'd been drinking, manages to pass our documents down the assembly line of visa-makers. We head down to the other end, where another airport-worker calls out people's names to come and pay for their visa. He calls for Ashrasss, I get my Passport, we go on. the next bit is interesting - they took photos and fingerprinted us (with fancy machines) just before we could get our luggage.

September 9th, a bit later P.M., Cambodia Time, just outside PPIA.

We find Prema waiting to meet us! We were so lucky to have Prema in town, and able to ease us into Cambodian life. After some fine maneuvering to fit all our bags in a taxi, we made our way to the Bur Ly guesthouse, where we crashed for the night.

4:00 A.M., Cambodian Time, Bur Ly room 507.

Em and I both wake up ready for the day. Realizing the time (after re-setting my iPhone), we decided to go back to sleep.

7:00 A.M., Cambodian Time, Bur Ly room 507.

Chilling with some new friends and old friends

We get up, slip a note under Prema's door to knock when she's up, and get ready for the day. We joined Prema for breakfast, met up with a friend named Naseem (and her almost-2-yr-old twins), and together with Naseem's driver, we headed out to meet some Cambodian friends!

We spent some time chatting, and got to know everyone and their babies. After we spent a bit of time entertaining the kids, Emily and I were quizzed about when we're having some of our own. These kinds of questions are happening too quickly, seriously, we've been married for a few months - why not ask "How is married life?", or "how are you two getting along?", or, "what are your plans for the next little while?". Of course, they were mostly in jest, and all the parents re-iterated how much fun the non-kids time together is. So, if you're wondering, "not just yet". :P

Prema and I at the Dosa Corner

After a brief siesta back at the BL, Emily and Prema and I went to one of my favorite restaurants in Phnom Penh, "The Dosa Corner". I love dosas. A Dosa is like a rice-flour crepe with variable filling, usually a spicy potato and veggie thing. Em tried one, I had two that were super-spicy (I could count the green chillis in it!) and Prema had one as well.

Em's new cell; She's pumped.

Later, Prema took us to a place called "Lucky Groceries", where we bought a few supplies, and then later to a small cell-phone dealer to hook Emily up with a brand new celly.

After all of that, Prema went to the trouble of negotiating a taxi-ride for us right to GEMS (where we're staying) in Battambang from the BL!

The taxi was a bit late, but that was fine with us, as we had time to have another mini-siesta, and say some prayers. The taxi ride up was quick (since I napped a bit more!) and full of interesting sights, which neither Em, nor I, were on the ball about photographing. We saw motorcycles hooked up to giant trailers, pulling 30-40 factory workers home from their shifts; lots of people "fising" the "fis" from the "fis fahm". Our driver was a wonderful guy named "Own". Apparently, he "Own's" the road, as he drove in the middle of the highway a lot when there were no other cars oncoming...it was a bit strange, but turned out to be for good reason - there were small animals all over the sides of the road at night.

We got in safe and sound at around 8:00 P.M. to a home-cooked malaysian meal! Aunty Grace (Prema's mom) received us, and helped us settle in to our new (but temporary) digs.

Note: Emily's also an author on the blog, so she'll post some articles up now and then as well.

Love from the Kingdom (of Cambodia),

Ashraf

Seeing

2009-10-11T01:24:00.000-07:00

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

2009-07-16T20:12:00.000-07:00

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

I will be back.

KAAARIM!

2009-06-21T05:02:00.000-07:00

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

2009-05-31T04:24:00.001-07:00

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.

2009-05-29T20:10:00.000-07:00

An inspired haiku about life while traveling:

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

:(

To Malaysia again!

2009-05-29T03:07:00.000-07:00

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

2009-05-28T10:41:00.000-07:00

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

2009-05-26T19:23:00.000-07:00

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

2009-05-26T18:25:00.000-07:00

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

2009-05-25T20:15:00.000-07:00

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

2009-05-25T02:55:00.000-07:00

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?

2009-05-24T04:54:00.000-07:00

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

2009-05-18T17:53:00.000-07:00

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

2009-05-16T03:14:00.000-07:00

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

2009-05-09T21:05:00.000-07:00

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.

2009-05-06T21:51:00.000-07:00

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!).

2009-05-06T21:31:00.000-07:00

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

2009-05-05T10:37:00.000-07:00

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

2009-05-02T08:34:00.000-07:00

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"

2009-05-02T06:29:00.000-07:00

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.

2009-04-29T05:05:00.000-07:00

I made this with friends in malaysia. enjoy!

Epic Bail

2009-04-27T21:40:00.001-07:00

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

2009-04-26T22:49:00.000-07:00

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

2009-04-25T18:39:00.000-07:00

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

2009-04-24T02:17:00.000-07:00

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

2009-04-23T00:21:00.000-07:00

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

2009-04-22T02:35:00.000-07:00

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

2009-04-21T23:37:00.000-07:00

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

2009-04-20T01:13:00.000-07:00

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

2009-04-20T00:53:00.000-07:00

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

2009-04-20T00:08:00.000-07:00

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

2009-04-19T23:54:00.000-07:00

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

2009-04-19T19:37:00.000-07:00

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

2009-04-19T19:10:00.000-07:00

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

2009-04-16T23:40:00.000-07:00

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

2009-04-14T22:35:00.000-07:00

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

2009-04-14T21:34:00.000-07:00

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

2009-04-13T20:30:00.000-07:00

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

2009-03-19T02:57:00.000-07:00

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

2009-03-18T21:30:00.000-07:00

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!

2009-03-14T21:24:00.000-07:00

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

2009-03-10T10:54:00.001-07:00

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

2009-03-10T10:05:00.000-07:00

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

2009-03-09T09:29:00.000-07:00

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.

2009-03-07T10:28:00.000-08:00

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

2009-03-07T09:16:00.000-08:00

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

2009-03-02T08:14:00.000-08:00

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?

thanks munir!

2009-02-28T21:05:00.000-08:00

Munir linked this on facebook - the way I feel about most things in life.

Time

2009-02-28T08:20:00.001-08:00

"Time keeps on slippin' slippin' slippin' into the futuure!"

Time's been on my mind lately. I just booked a flight from Bangkok to Kuala Lumpur, and back. I head out on march 14, and get back on the 7th of april - long vacation! I will try and meet with some peeps in KL who can explain to me what kind of services I can render in Battambang at CORDE, and then, who knows? This "who knows?" is such a big one too, I can feel its enormous looming shadowy presence whenever I look to the future.

Really, I need to do a few things: get a masters; pay off my student loans; work; serve; refine my skills; hone my craft (or just find a craft), etc. I have been throwing a few possibilities around, but I haven't found the option that maximizes the awesomeness available to me - rest assured, when I find the right sequence of events, I'll let you know. Looming and scary as my fast-approaching future is, I'm still quite excited about it. I think there's lots of opportunity to do svet things in life - and I intend to do as many as I can.

Also, the online course - great for keeping me focuses on growth. It's so easy to stagnate, to let the day(s) pass you by without exerting effort to change and develop in some way - but being enrolled in a course where that's the main topic, and several other people write about it almost everyday - it's like developmental gold. I highly recommend it.

Well, time is still slipping away, so grab the day by the horns and be productive. I promise you'll feel better!

love,

Ash.

Organization and Achievement

2009-02-28T05:18:00.000-08:00

Friends!

What exciting times we live in - the world is changing, nations are rising and falling, and I'm (still) marking papers! Okay, okay, so marking papers doesn't fit so well, but really, for my students the marks they receive will affect the course of their ever-changing worlds. so maybe it can kind of wiggle in.

ANYWAY, lots to recap, lots more to project, and little time to do it in:

This week:

I'm lost on what week we're on. I know that ryan lash came and stayed at my place on some weekend/weekdays. I Think it was this week, but my last few days have felt very long, so who knows? No, lets pretend Ryan, Amy, and Roshan came last week, and left this week. We did several fun things together:

From eating

To playing settlers of catan

To wearing Quddus' glasses

and even trying to find camouflaged Jarnahs!

Ah, pictures, I remember everything now. We had a great little time, eating out way too much (but for cheap!), failing to do my school work, staying up entirely too late, sleeping in hammocks - great times all around.

Then, when the guests departed, the ear-shattering, anything-but-pleasant peal of the bell of reality tolled once again. Oh, life. It was okay though - I caught up on my school work, had fun with the chillins, got more sleep, and did some laundry (though, there was a day this week where I had no shirt for work...turns out I'm now close enough to wear my fajah's - lucky...but the sleeves are waaay to small). Of greater note for the 25th (thursday), we had a small 'fireside', where we invited a bunch of peoples to come and discover the Baha'i Faith. We had four guests, and two of the guys who came thought that unity was a great idea, and believed that Baha'u'llah was a Meesenger of God, and just like that *poof* they became Baha'is. Of course, only now to discover that they have to actually actively engage themselves in the arduous task of uplifting society, one angry, troubled heart at a time. :) people rarely realize what they sign up for.

Which fails to bring us to our next point:

The questing asks the students to write a sentence in the past about an unreal condition. for question 2 (you were the oldest/youngest/only child in your family), this student wrote: If I had been the only child in my family, my parents might love me more.

aww.

(this seems like a good place to end this post)

Dreams: I fail to comprehend them.

2009-02-23T09:05:00.000-08:00

Of course, in my defense, I don't really invest much time into contemplating them.

Either way, the weekend was fun, but rather than relay mundane (but sometimes exciting!) details, I will instead recount two of my dreams. I had a RANDOM one on sunday morning. So I'm sitting with a bunch of friends in a moxies-like box-restaurant place, and we've just placed our order with the waitress. She's about to walk away, and I grab her arm, and say "wait a minute, wait a minute". So she turns around around, waiting to see what we need. Then the perspective of the dream changes, and I'm back in my body (before I was watching from the outside). All of a sudden, we unanimously burst into a horribly off-key(and tune) rendition of Amazing Grace. No lies. I almost forgot this most random of randoms, but I started humming amazing grace to myself a few minutes after waking, and in that instant, remembered the whole dream again.

The next one was a doozy!! I haven't had too many scary dreams that I can remember, but this one takes the cake. So I was having a conversation with a girl across a room. It was well-lit with sunlight, and I knew the girl (but I don't know who she was), most importantly, i could hear, and recognize her voice. There were a few other voices in the background, but I could only faintly make them out. Then, out of nowhere, someone jacks up the volume on the other voices...I can still make out her voice, but I can also hear snippets of millions of conversations. I seriously think I could distinguish all the conversations at once, but i can't describe what that felt like. Then comes the freaky part: the volume goes up again (I start to hear some heavy high-pitch noise); I get a simultaneous rush of exhilaration and awesomeness, and then all the sounds blend into one deep, rugged, voice (this coming from a man with a deep voice will give you an idea of its depth). It said, and I quote, the three scariest words I've ever heard in a dream, "Ashraf, Ashraf, Ashraf".

SNAP! I woke up in a fit with the words still echoing in my head, looking around me, half expecting to meet God, the Devil, or the Archangel Gabriel face-to-face! It's actually so terrifying to be addressed directly by your own name in a dream (at super-high volume, and super-deep depth). Usually, you have some background noise in your mind, but Monday morning, there was nothing but my name, laced with fear and trembling.

So after this jarring, soul-gripping experience, I obviously assumed the worst, and imagined I was in the beginnings of schizophrenia. Oh, did I mention I was sleeping on the couch (as interLashional is staying with us) and the first crack of light into the house was siting squarely on my face and no other place? Anyway, feeling exhilarated (for some reason) and supremely terrified, I researched voices in dreams from about 6-6:45 in the morning, just to see if similar experiences existed. There are a few, and most of them reported with feelings of being freaked out by it, but I still thought I was going crazy.

It's nearing the end of the midterm, and between marking, reading and writing for the online course, socializing with guests (Lashional & Amy and Roshan), and having crazy dreams, I've been well-short of time for this blog. I have more to say, but it must wait for to-more-ow.

Sweet dreams ;)

just for love

2009-02-20T09:53:00.001-08:00

I drank some coka (as they call coke here) late in the night, and it made me ignore the first call of sleep. Two great things happened, even as I fell deeper into tiredness: 1) I wrote a paper, and 2) I got to watch a spectacular, out-of-season lighting show as a thunderstorm rolled through the city.

I love thunderstorms. Cambodia is growing on me (and this time, not as a random bacterial skin condition!).

Routine.

2009-02-20T06:07:00.000-08:00

Today I felt like I had one.

I remember walking down the stairs at the school, punching myself out from work, and hopping on a moto to come home. This is when I had the eerie realization that I had done the exact same thing many times before. It was like all my actions just converged on that moment of time, and I felt like I did them all at once. Crazy! I know.

I don't think I've ever really had a solid routine like that before. Even in my flashes of dedication in university, when i attempted to study in the same place - it was only the same place, not the same place at the same time, every day! I'll chalk that down as another new experience.

On a more personal note - I feel like I've been confronting some character deficiencies and coming out on top (for now?), so that's put me in a joyous state for shizzle. Of course, procrastination (O bane of my soul!) has yet to be conquered. I am, however, taking steps.

Fruit of the fruit.

2009-02-20T06:03:00.000-08:00

So team, what is this fruit called?

Either way, it is one of the most delicious fruits I've ever sampled.

Also from yesterday: If you were a school assignment/test, what would you be?

If I was an exam, I'd be a 100% final.

2009-02-19T06:18:00.000-08:00

That's right. My recent days have been occupied with, among other things, the construction of finals. It just occurred to me as my fingers hit these keys: that I am a final exam. I'm not a unit test, not a pop-quiz, not a take home exam (they're so easy), and definitely not a homework assignment, or a class presentation. Then I thought about the different kinds of finals I've written, and I think I am a 100% final exam. Let me explain. When you write a 100% final, it doesn't matter what you've done before (and I don't care about what people have done before I meet them - I like to give them all fair chances); at the same time, your evaluation depends on your past preparation and general geniusness. Also, you know you can't sneak away from a 100% final - it tests everything you know; I like to think I examine all aspects of the people I meet. The similarities don't end here, but this paragraph does.

So, lots of exam writing, which mostly involves looking up interesting articles on the internet, and hoping they come with pre-made questions. Jokes, I actually made many of my own questions (all laced with self-reflexive/ironic references). I think more teachers should include references to themselves or students in the test, it seems to make it less intense for the kiddies - maybe I can do a masters in EdPsych on this? Who knows?

My buddy Neissan bought an iPhone the other day, and came over last night to update the software using our free and unlimited internet. Ended up having a nice chat about life, family, and Nigerian pick-up lines. We also conversed about the recent opening of the first Khmer Rouge trial by the international judges. I went and saw the S-21 museum. It's seriously messed up. Like, the kind of brutality that rocks your humanity. Whew, wrote myself into a little negative rut!

Feels like time for a crazy picture.

You see, my step-mom's been in battambang for a few days, so my dad and I are going a little crazy. We eat large lunches, and then ferociously devour fruits for supper. I tried eating cup-noodles one night, but spicy cup-noodles on an empty stomach just isn't that good. Mangoes, however, are awesome all the time. Also, we ate some amazing mystery fruit tonight, I thought it was rambutan, but when I googled rambutan for a picture, a different fruit appeared. Don't worry, I'll do some detectivising, and maybe take you on a virtual tour of the BKK1 marketplace in the process.

Also, not sure if I mentioned, but I got a rash on my leg a few days/a week(?) back - turns out it's nothing serious, just thought i'd inform the world about these ever so important, and often unspoken details of humid-weather life!

Peace!

We interrupt your regular daily broadcast....

2009-02-17T07:44:00.000-08:00

To bring you this.

I had previously elected to refrain from blogging as an escape mechanism from actually doing work. However, i felt like I had to alert you, my dedicated readership, to the link between the comedy show "the office", and the persecution of the Baha'is in Iran.

Feb the one-five.

2009-02-14T23:15:00.000-08:00

I'm listening to some slave songs from the south. Which I found in an old Dialektika CD case, hidden away in the front pocket of my suitcase. I think the CD was put together by my sister's old boyfriend for her, but I have no idea how it ended up in my hands. Either way, the music is playing in the background while I mark paragraphs written by my students. Coincidence? I think not.

I may soon abandon life to become a beatboxing gypsy monk philosopher.

Edit: my buddy Taeed is all up in the news.

I went to a svet potluck at Neissan's place this evening. There were around 15 of us who gathered to eat, and share some prayers and readings from different religions. The night was a great success! I once again had an impromptu meeting with Ryan Duly, the aforementioned QC officer for the blog. Shown above. I always thought his name's better than mine to start a blog. I mean really, he could start "Duly Noted"!! Amazing blog name.

I did some procrastinating, and some marking - probably a 90/10 split. Horrible! Especially when I'm trying to kick the procrastination habit. Ah well, next time. ;P

Feb 14.

2009-02-14T08:55:00.000-08:00

My heart, clear of the clouds of passionate romance, basked in the singular clarity of singleness - on this, St.Valentines day. Likewise, my wallet, free from the bondage of exclusive relations, danced excitedly beyond the grasp of such hands as St.Valentine seems to embolden.

I had suggested in my previous post that I would upload phone photos today after my tuition session. This turned out to be impossible, because I managed to misplace the CD to install the software for the phone. There are two solutions: one is to find and download the software, the other is to bluetooth the photos to my dad's laptop and upload them. Neither of those seemed worth pursuing today. A thousand apologies. I will, however, console you with this ironic photo, titled, "Valentine's day when you're single":

:)

Jokes guys. The day was actually filled with meaningful interactions with other human beans, so I count it as a swet one. I "taught English"/chatted with my student for an hour and a half at Anise Hotel. He's still struggling with pronunciation, but he's getting better, and is the most driven student I've ever seen, much less taught. I later experienced my first lonely dosa, having expected to meet some friends who never made it...as a consolation prize, the dosa was incredible, and I actually read a newspaper.

I read an interesting piece of art sometime earlier in the day. It is dark now, and I don't want to turn on a light (as I might disturb the p-units), but I took a flash photo just to show you. I'll write the text out tomorrow because that was the most exciting bit. The face in the photo is an impression of Abdu'l-Baha.

I'm currently enrolled in an online course called "Constructing a Conceptual Framework for Social Action" offered by the Lazos Learning Association - so today I ventured my first online posts and responses, and kind of familiarized myself with the format of the next few months of study. I'm pumped for the course - I'm completely in love with the idea of integration . Let me explain: I'm a firm believer in the necessity of the unification of mankind as a step in the solution of the various ills afflicting us. In the same way, I'm a believer in the necessity of the unification of the self as a necessary step on the way to the discovery and use of effective solutions for the tests of life. This course is (as far as the I can see)a marriage of these two concepts. in the end, I'll have systematically explored how I want to be, live, and serve mankind, and what I want to do - such that I can do them all at the same time. I'll let you know how it goes :)

While posting to the online course, I made use of my time and did BUKETLOADS of laundry. I though tI had laundry to do, and then realized I only had the clothes I was wearing, a suit, some ties, and a t-shirt that were clean. Needless to say, I still have laundry left for tomorrow, but at least I made a dent in the dirtiness.

In the evening I went to a fastfood-gellato cafe fusion restaurant called "Lucky 7" with Sovannarith (aka Sarith, the guy who runs CRDA) while he waited for his wife to get back from visiting a friend. I ran in to some of the Cambodian teachers from my school, and it turns out one of them them knew my buddy Sarith from attending Baha'i activities back in the day. I ate some ice cream. I highly recommend a waffle-cone filled with gellato every now and again - so tasty!The late-evening saw Neissan, Kui(sp?), and myself at a place called "Tamarind", which is actually a sexy-time location. We played a German game called coohander(once again, sp?), which is a random animal-auction game. If your name is Eric Chamney, Jeff Konawalchuck, or Bryce Kustra, you'd be fascinated by this game, and purchase it immediately.

How was your Valentine's Day?

The Long and Winding Road to Hell, and Valentines Day

2009-02-13T06:44:00.001-08:00

Feb 9-13.

I've noticed, as I'm sure you, my loyal readers have, a decline in the frequency of my writing. Rest assured that we're doing everything we can to make sure arushdy.blogspot.com maintains it's quality, regularity, and prestige.

Report Cards.

I promised to write once the report cards were dealt with, and basically I am, but MAN these are a pain. I had 106 students, each needed a personalized comment (the school checks to make sure), and have the correct marks and information in the system. Now, I like the place I work at because of their organization, however, the sword of organization is, like so many other swords, double-edged. They have a team of guys who's sole job is to be a grammarian, and grammar-check everything that goes public from the school, including my report cards. They want to present a certain image, so they ensure that the English on the report cards going home is completely correct. For example, I commented that a student should watch more t.v. in English. Notice my "t" and "v" are small, they need to be capitalized, so I had to reprint some cards. All the mistakes were fair, however, there was one which I battled with the Grammar King over, and won. He insisted that my sentence which used a "however", could not (as in the previous sentence) be surrounded by commas, and should instead have a semi-colon before the "however". Something like this ";however,". Are you bored and confused yet? Yeah, I told him he was correct, however, I could use "however" however I wanted. A small, meaningless victory.

The Report cards were a struggle, but now that I know how their system works, I think the finals'll go much easier. The report cards occupied my time and energy from Monday to Wednesday. Wednesday night we were invited to a local Baha'i's house for dinner. Cool guy named Nassir. Had some great, great foods, and I managed to have an impromptu meeting with Ryan Duly, the blog's Quality Control Officer. He appreciated "interlashional man of mystery" from the unofficial Baattambang Conference Report, and we joked about how we didn't need to talk about what I've been doing, because he reads more about my life than I do. We also joked about the awkward existential twist that would occur(is now occurring) when he reads about what I write about how we talked about what I wrote about my life. From there, the conversation could only get clearer and more interesting. It did.

One point of interest, which I'm not sure I mentioned is the book "The Road Less Travelled: The New Psychology of Love, Traditional Values and Spiritual Growth" By M. Scott Peck. I'd read bits and pieces,and heard my dad comment on several themes and ideas, but I read it while I was sick last week. Brilliant work. I think the guy hits so many psychological nails on so many minds, that he could be a psycharpentrist (too much? it felt like too much, but I wrote it anyway). He writes about discipline and love, and says great things about them - things that are really helping me motivate myself to hustle.

Thursday night we had a nice "fireside" with some of my friends from work. My dad gave them some small presentations ("anna's presentation") on the Baha'i Faith, and we ate sandwiches and pastries, and the tastiest dragonfruits I've ever had. Unfortunately, we were all teachers at AII, and needed to go do some slave marking work for our students the next day. Two of the guys who came were these cool Nigerian guys who are both named "Emmanuel". Yeah. They met here. I was trying to imagine what that would be like(/how hilarious it would be be), but the bitter, cynical side of my mind is refusing to let me believe it was anything but mundane with a hint of surprise. Ah, how education can sometimes ruin fun.

Today was actually a fun teaching day; I taught all my students about valentines day, bought them candies, taught them a song, and teased them about nonexistent romances. Of course, by starting the teasing process, I inadvertently opened myself up to the relentless speculation and prying of nearly 80 girls between 14-23. It was good times, and one of the teachers (a guy named Eddie) came in and taught the kids to sing while I beatboxed. We brought our evening classes together to repeat the magic, and it was tons of fun.

I am, however, tired, and unfortunately, without pictures to upload. I have some on my phone - I'll put them up on the morrow after tutoring. Love y'all.

footnote of victory

2009-02-08T10:51:00.001-08:00

Kai and I won the Hok'm series 7-5.

February 8th, A Glorious Day

2009-02-08T10:12:00.000-08:00

Today ranks up there with one of the best in my life (on a scale of pleasurable days)

First, I went with my dad and shaku to the Baha'i Centre for prayers in the morning. Then, around 9, I hopped on a moto-dop, picked up some walnut pain complet, and rode to Jarnah's for breakfast. My english class had been rescheduled to 2PM, which provided me agolden opportunity to have breakfast with friends. Breakfast was nearly prepped when I arrived: eggs with baby tomato and onion, whole passionfruits, the aforementioned bread with butter and jams, fresh croissant, artichoke tea (actually decent), and "whispers of summer" juice. It was a delightful breakfast with friends on Jarnah's roof. We all sat on a large, low table, and felt like we were Mediterranean royalty. This was my first memory of encountering fresh passionfruit, and it was so good. I actually felt the passion flowing into my veins as my body digested the fruit. I also felt the prayers slowly entering my soul as i digested the words. Overall, very healthy morning.

We helped Jarnah clean the house up a bit, and Kai and I had to battle with this old floor-carpet that just would not let go of all of its dirt. After both sides sustained heavy injuries, we consulted, and finally decided to effect a unilateral cease-fire - stopping all further carpet-bombing.

I know, it just came out that way.

We explored around russian market for a bit before I decided to head back home for quick swim. It felt great to both have energy, and an opportunity to use it. For some reason, those two rarely seem to line up in my life. I also discovered that I had received my password to log into an online post-grad course called "Constructing a Conceptual Framework for Social Action". Looks to be interesting, and I'm going to go print my materials tomorrow!

Then, I went and tutored Veth at Anise Hotel for an hour and a half, while enjoying a cheap, yet delectable lunch. Our class ended with me promising Veth I'd teach him how to talk to ladies...comic! My class with him revolves around a book called "walking the straight path", which has a series of short moral stories, all with excellent language-education material tagged on.

I then went to the living room to meet up with Jarnah, Beattie, and Kai again. We had some nice times chilling out, and I hazarded an espresso on my recently-recovered belly. It was so good.

Following the days trend towards awesomeness, we went for massages (my first ever!) and it was hilarious! The place seemed okay, but the masseuses turned out to be a little bit sketchy! if it weren't for three of us getting massages in the same room, it might have turned from massage therapy to massage the-rapy. Either way, I was fairly relaxed by the end of it, so I would chalk it down as a success.

Next was a return to the faithful Dosa Corner for some cheap eats, and then a trip over to Neissans. We arrived for a night which I had never imagined possible in phnom penh: sheesha and hokem. You see, Neissan managed to finnagle the import of a houka from malaysia, via a visitng friend. Kai is visiting, but knows how to play hook, and Quddus is also visiting, but was willing to learn, and learnt quickly. Thus, with a convergence of such disparate means, we were able to produce a night of great entertainment and joy.

Amazing day!

but lets get real about this business. having started my day off with prayers, I characterized the whole day in reference to God. This was great, because I felt none of the guilt that the religiously-inclined often do when life is good. I spent the whole day in a state of thankfulness and prayer, and it just would not let up! The day continued to deliver on little bits of grace and joy every time I took a breath. Also, I was a little down in the morning, but my dad, right before he went to Sa'ang with a bunch of the baha'is, held my shoulders, lifted them up, and said "don't look so down, stand up straight, and go grab hold of life." Or somesuch fatherly pep-talk. Surprisingly, it worked. Contemplating Words of Beauty, heeding my dad's advice, and just loving my friends was enough to make the day excellent. So I hope if all yous who read this give it a shot, you might have similarly sweet days.

Since then, till now.

2009-02-07T01:09:00.001-08:00

I went back to work. I know, I know, bad move. But I did it anyway. The kids were all wondering why I was missing on monday, so I told them I was a secret agent, and that teaching English was a cover. Ok, I didn't, but I always think being a secret agent is the best reason for inexplicable absences.

One of my classes has become a nightmare! There were over twenty kids in each of my level 11 classes, but now (since public school rotates their schedule) most of my morning kids have switched to the afternoon! I had 31(!) kids in the class, and more registered. Ridiculous. Luckily, I didn't have to deal with it this week because I manged to get sick. again.

Wednesday I went to teach in the morning, and returned to the house rather drowsy, and kind of feverish. Then, as I lay in my bed, I could feel my temperature rising, and my stomach growling. The fever left on wednesday, but the stomach cramps and such persisted till yesterday. here is a picture of my last three days:

I felt much better today, and decided to go out and test my stomach on some eggs for breakfast. I met Becc, a wonderful girl working against human trafficking in Cambodia, for breakfast. She brought me some sweet home-baked cookies! I had requested them when I discovered she could bake, and was, today, happily rewarded. I later met Neissan for chess at Le Jardin. Good times. The running total for chess is now: 16-1-4. I got neis in a super-aggressive check-mate. aggressive by my standards, which is like the UFC of chess. Neis managed to slip a pawn to the bottom in our queenless game to eventually win another game. I fear my time is nearing an end, and our running total could reverse the more we play.

Battambang, the unofficial report - 2

2009-02-07T00:03:00.000-08:00

Right, where was I? Oh yeah, I just referred you to the official article for a hint of the spirit of the conference, and an idea of the schedule and activities.

So while all of that was going on, Interlashional, Jarnah-face, "emily-with-a-T", and I wandered around looking, listening, and experiencing the event. Ryan had much more to worry about than we did, because they threw him to the lions of management, and asked him to make sure the media was all worked out. This seems ok, but if you consider the fact that they had multi-lingual, simultaneous translation, and were not sure which audio to feed into the stationary video camera, then you being to see why our dear friend might have been slightly stressed. The best part is that all the tech guys spoke only khmer. Ha! Neissan Beshrati ended up manning the stationary video-camera, which was fitting on so many levels. You see, prior to the conference, Neissan had some tasks and assignments as a volunteer, which he executed perfectly, and managed to complete before the conference started. He raved and ranted about his delegatory ability, and was excited to spend his time simply enjoying the conference. Little did he know, his name had been penciled in as cameraman all along. :)

We listened to the talks, noted and quoted, and looked around for interesting stories. I became involved in a great one myself: you see, some of the malaysians decided to buy some deep-fried bugs. They brought them over to the conference, and half-offered, half-dared people they met to eat them. Also, many of us were making a quick trip outside the gates of the compound to buy sweet, sweet sugar-cane juice from the local street-vendors. Now, I'm personally not sure which street food, or combination of street-foods caused the sickness, but sickness happened. Both Temily and I (and I think Ryan) got some serious stomach bugs. Temily got it the worst, but 3/4 of the media people were out on the second day of the conference, because of reckless eating. Of course, all it took was a few trips to the porcelain throne for us to recover (except temily), and life was back on track. While we were gone, some continued to draw inspiration and wisdom from the words of the speakers, while others found it a suitable time to engage in extremely deep meditation sessions.

From Cambodge

So deep.

Either way, the conference was soon over, and that's when I engaged in some serious writing and compiling. We had managed to find some svet interviewers in other languages, so all I had to do was collect their work, and get ready to type. Luckily again, temily decided that it would be her job to type up the interviews, so all I was left with was the beautification of notes into happy little sentences. This went well, and my assistant continued to assist throughout. Let's be honest, I did very little actual work work. Still, I felt like I got something accomplished, and BWNS was happy, so overall it was a success.

I had to tell work that I would be absent on monday because there was no late-night bus from Battambang back. So Sunday morning I just told them the truth "I have to write a report for a conference". They took it pretty well, considering I basically just asked for a day off with no real medical condition/family emergency to back it up. What did I do on sunday? Why, eat chocolate-covered-banana-pancakes of course! I also got to see the Battambang Baha'i centre and had time to chat with some friends. I caught the bus home at 2:30PM, and somehow managed to sit beside the one Khmer guy with excellent conversational English! So good. We started talking about the Khmer rouge - he was 13-15 while everything was tense, and he recounted tales of people being conscripted in the morning, armed in the afternoon, and returning to fight at night! He also said that the 'government' and the Khmer rouge would do the same thing. He was happy because somehow, all of his family survived. Then we talked about the Baha'i faith for a bit, and he told me he knew a bah'i in Battambang. Turns out, he took English lessons from a guy named June Libertad (whom I know) and he was now working as an English teacher!

So my new English teacher friend and I exchanged numbers and promised to be friends forever...I even shared my chocolate wafers with him.

Wait wait wait!
I'm forgetting one of the funnest stories. Rewind to the sunday night: Everyone's back at their hotels, it's about 11 or 11:30PM. I get a call. It's Prema telling me that someone's bleeding at the Kehmera Hotel, and she needs me to get over there and check it out. ME? Why? Not only do I know nothing about Battambang, I also have no transport, AND sketchy-at-best first-aid skills! Nonetheless, she sounded frantic, so I made my way down there on a moto, and proceeded to investigate the situation. The youths from Thailand had been out for an evening swim in the hotel pool, and one of them had taken a vigorous dive, which eventually led the clipping of his chin on a slope at the bottom of the pool. Lucky for him, they were traveling with a nurse, who cleaned up the wound, got a cold compress, and told him to hold his skin together. He was going to need a few stitches. I was relieved to find no pressing emergency, but confused when my transport was refused. They really wanted to take him in a car! I manged to convince them that he could survive the moto-ride to the 24hr clinic, and off we went. The guys name was Warren..I think? He was pretty relaxed about the whole thing, and was like "yeah, when my mom gets here she'll be like 'again!?'" Apparently he's pretty accident-prone.

We made it to a sketch clinic, where the doctor spoke no english, and we spoke no khmer, but, by exemplary use of non-verbal communication, and the obvious gash on his chin, we were able to get he doctor to stitch him up. I stayed in the operating room long enough to make sure he pulled out the right medical implements, and then we waited outside.

The young doctor came through for us, and stitched Warren up well. in only a few hours of knowing each other, he'd decided to grow a chinstrap just like mine!

From Cambodge

Battambang, the unnoficial report.

2009-02-04T06:51:00.000-08:00

Lets begin at the beginning...wait, quick aside: whenever I try to write the word beginning, I write it beggining. I think I might have some mild dyslexia, because I do this with a few words consistently, words that I know I know how to spell.

ok, now lets begin:

I was already pretty excited about the conference in Battambang, having read some news on the Baha'i World News Service(BWNS), and hearing of other conferences from various friends. Then I got wind of the fact that someone, somewhere, had thrown my name out as a journalist/reporter for the conference. At first I thought that they should find someone else - since I was sure there had to be someone better at journalizing and reporterizing than I. It turns out that those people existed, but they were all otherwise occupied, and thus it was that I heard the ear-piercing toll of the bell of destiny echo through me: khello english friend, time to write! true story, the bell of destiny speaks with a khazak accent and if it had a face, would look like borat.

So, I'm all geared up to go and do this thing, which I know nothing about. Luckily, I manage to snag an assistant who does, in the form of one "Emily-with-a-T", from Malaysia. Having already written a report for a similar conference in Malaysia, I was now set up to delegate my work, and simply assume responsibility and reward for the work of my slave(s). :D

I confer with Jarnha and Neissan on a regualr basis, and Jarnah informed us of the imminent arrival of Ryan Lash (international man of mystery). Also, being a facebook addict, I was able to, with the assistance of Avuth, coordinate to have Haifa stay with us when she got in to Phnom Penh. This is all to the backdrop of mountains of midterm-exam marking.

On the 27th, Avuth and I eat some banana in place of lunch, and then set out to retrieve Haifa from the airport. The bananas were packed in sticky rice, and wrapped in bananaleaf, and then BBQ'd to perfection. The Sticky rice is also coconut-flavoured. Just awesome. Before getting Haifa, we went and bought tickets for the bus to Battambang for Avuth, Haifa, Ryan Lash (interlashional man of mystery), and Myself.

When we bought the tickets, I was given this spiffy new 20,000 rial bill! I was so pumped about it that I insisted on taking pictures, and refused to use it to purchase anything until the last days of the Bang. Soon later, we found ourselves at the airport.
After picking up a terrified Haifa, we proceeded to drop off some bags, and then go for a nice khmer lunch at boat noodles. After the delicious fish amok and fried veggies, we returned to my place, only for Haifa to discover that not only was she my captive, but that she had to mark some of my midterms for me! Avuth played guitar to calm her nerves while we worked away. I realize this stpry is turning into a series of photos and descriptions, so I'll try and avoid that and move along a little quicker.

We all ate Gado-Gado for diner with beattie and her p-units, and then chilled in the park, and then had fruit juices. sweetness.

Wednesday! the 28.

I had barely enough time to do laundry, hang it up, and hope for the best by the time our 1PM bus left. Ah procrastination, the character flaw which haunts me most. Needless to say we went out for lunch, and my clothes were dry and packable upon our return. The trip up was fairly dull, except for the absolutely RIDICULOUS hong-kong-dubbed-khmer movie. Millionaires, mad-scientists, teachers, robots, great film. aske me about it sometime.

We hit the ground running in Battambang, helping out with the conference preparations by sorting out tags and stuffing folders. Avuth, Haifa, and I stayed in the CORDE building while Interlashional made his way down to Gems international school to get his photo gear sorted, etc. The next day was much of the same, Ry and I got a briefing on the conference, most of what I got out of it was that there was much yet to be decided...and I still had no clue what I was doing. I decided to do my own research, reviewing the instructions from BWNS, and reading up on past conference coverage. I was finally put at ease when my contact from BWNS gave me a shout and told me to "capture the spirit", "gloss over the details", "get good quotes", and "enjoy the conference". Instant new friend. Best news I could get. So, I reset my mind-frame to one of simply absorbing what I saw and felt, and keeping alert for the notable and the quotable.

This feels like a good place for a picture.

The Representatives of the House of Justice made it into Battambang on thursday in the evening - their departure was delayed a bit, but everyone got to watch a sweet, sweet dragon dance while we waited. Check the bar to the right for a video, and facebook for some pics! They cleared up the schedule of the conference and all the logistics in a meeting almost as soon as they arrived, efficient to the max! There were some problems, mainly with the venue: There were too many people, so the organizers had planned to move the conference outside, creating a large hall made of tents. This might have worked, except for the fact that the khmer wedding tents were too low for people to be able to see any kind of screen for presentations, etc. So they went inside to double-check the capacity. After some shuffling of chairs here and there, it was discovered that hundreds more than originally thought could be fit in by simply using smaller chairs. Genius. So it was figured that 1400 or so could fit in the main hall, with the spill-over in some tents set up outside the hall. There were many such situations like this - problems, followed by observation, and nearly-magical common-sense solutions.

Friday we did some more random tasks, and I got to move my things to a hotel - and invest in a much needed shower. There is nothing as refreshing as drenching yourself in cold water when you're in a hot, muggy, dusty place (nothing, that is, except for the shower followed by fresh lime juice in soda-water, with sweet-syrup).

I'll skip the highlights of the conference, as they are contained in the "official report"...and as it is late, and I am recovering from being a sick people, I'll hit you with the rest in the morning...but I'll leave you with a photo.

Battambang Conference

2009-02-03T17:20:00.001-08:00

Here are the official reports:

general overview.

Detailed business.

The unofficial one will be up as soon as I finish report-card comments.

jan 30

2009-01-29T18:52:00.000-08:00

Lots to write about - and I have notes and pictures...but it will have to wait - as I'm arranging pictures and writing stories for the aforementioned conference in Battambang! Yay journalism.

Jan 25, 26.

2009-01-26T09:17:00.000-08:00

25th was an unfortunate saturday - with loads of exams, I not only slept in, but bartered away my free time in the pursuit of mental relaxation. I needed, and took, a do nothing day.

26th hold much more promise, but was also filled with social contacts of all kinds - one involved Neissan, and this has inevitably brought our running chess total to 14-1-3. I did, however, manage to mark some papers here and there.

Today was a day of action - I woke up at 8 (even thought it's a holiday!) and met with the executive director of CRDA to discuss the website, and some other ongoing projects. We later returned to the Rushdy residence to review and edit a grant application...actually not as bad as some people make it out to be. met Jarnah and Neiss for lunch at.........you guessed it, the dosa corner.

Though it is unrelated in time, I had a revelation a long time ago, and it resurfaced when talking to Jarnah- have you ever noticed how people from the south of a country are dark and from the north are light. What's with that? does anyone know why? It seems like even Europeans from the south are darker than their light-skinned friends on the border below them. Or am I misguided?

I actually marked (I know!) some exams today, but was rudely interrupted by the p-units! They came back from Ethiopia/Kenya and brought me smiles, hugs, and a ver' nice "Hakuna Matata" t-shirt. They have also returned with my camera, so expect a return of stunning visuals to match these breath-taking stories of the life of an expat in Phnom Penh. To the left, you will find an example of one of these stunning visuals - this is the "sad-face" drawn on every unanswered question on every exam. Why, oh why, don't you just guess?

Peace!

Vietnamese New Year Dinner

2009-01-24T11:47:00.000-08:00

It was delicious.

Then we drank Vietnamese coffee, played monopoly (until all but one were bankrupt), ate chocolate, and ice-cream, and mangoes.

Then I came home and chatted with my famiglia for a while...I miss my family lots, what great people!

and now, I'll play fifa '09 till the coffee wears out.

peace.

A Crush of Midterms.

2009-01-24T01:25:00.000-08:00

The last few days have been a blur of paper and red ink, and the ink still runs. After slaying so many egos on the altar of standardized testing, one begins to wonder: is this really necessary?

The school that I work at has a system for testing, as follows: every teacher creates an exam for every class that they have. Then, the academix team takes all these tests, selects the questions they like best, correct formatting, and publish the standardized exam. Essentially, if you write the best questions, it's better for your class because they will be tested on material that they have studied. There is, as yet, no coordination between teachers of the same level. The whole thing is kind of ridiculous, and many of my students have been unnecessarily, and unfairly failed. Still, I don't know much about exam construction or academic management, so I couldn't really give them suggestions from experience or study. Just seems like a poopy situation for the kids.

Either way, I made it up to them by playing movies in all my classes on Thursday, and playing language games on Friday. So, even after brutalizing their collective self-confidence, we still remain friends. I showed them the movie "Bolt" which is quite a fun little movie. Unfortunately, the subtitles read like they were written by a student in my class, so rather than confuse them, I made them watch without the subtitles.

My quality control officer suggested I tell you a little more about cambodia - so here's a little tidbit fro mthe students: I had them write an opinion essay on school uniforms, and they came up with some interesting and convincing arguments.

For:
Students should wear uniforms because they look good.
Students should wear uniforms so that people can know that they are students (and know that they are skipping school if they are out during school hours).
Students should wear school uniforms so that, if they get into an accident, people can contact their school, and get their information.
Students should wear uniforms because uniforms help them concentrate and remind them to study.
students should wear uniforms so that poor students don't feel bad about their clothes.
students should wear uniforms because they look good and tidy when everyone wears them.
Students should wear uniforms so that, if they are good, it will reflect on their school, and people can find out that the school is good.

Against:
Students shouldn't wear uniforms because they look bad.
Students shouldn't wear uniforms because they're boring.
Students should be able to wear what they want, so that they can look sexy.
Students shouldn't have uniforms, because it becomes difficult to go to work after school, or to go to another school.

Overwhelmingly in favor of uniforms.

Also, I've had my evevening class (6:50-8:10) given to another teacher because they didn't want to overload me on the first semester. Unfortunately, that was my favorite, and most advanced class...sigh. The bonus of course is more free time - the first instance of which I used to great effect - attending an african/khmer fusion drum and dance session at a club called gasolina!

There's an exciting conference coming up in Battambang, and I get to help out by organizing some of the media coverage! I get to do a little bit of interviewing and such. Should be awesome. The conference is part of a series of 41 conferences happening around the world.

more to come, more to come.

the recent past.

2009-01-19T05:54:00.000-08:00

Oh to try and recall such precious moments so far after their passing! Regardless, the blog must go on:

Last wednesday and thursday, as far as my already belittled memory serves me, were nondescript (I think things happened - like I know I had lunch with neissan at a cool thai restaurant, forgot to take money shopping, and I slept in the sun by the pool, but, w/e). Friday, however, held great promise in the form of an after-work dinner party with fried's at Jarnah and Beattie's place. It was as delicious, if not more delicious, than the last time. What's more, I actually recognized some of the people there! (almost like real friends!) jokes, obv. Neissan and Nadi engrossed themselves in a chess game while I gorged on tasty treats and social interaction. I shared with them, upon request, this telling anecdote:

I've struggled so far, to win the respect of my students based solely on my teaching method, and hopefully, exciting teaching style. Realizing the folly of my decision, I've recently switched back to relying on beatboxing and timid (but knowing) jokes about teenage romance. Happily, I didn't have to introduce my (can I call it a) talent(?) - I zoned-out while pacing the classroom, and the beats proceeded to trickle out my mouth, loud enough for the class to be staring at me when I turned to find 46 wide-and-wondering-eyes. So now beatboxing is a regular class reward for work well done, and I may soon be able to make a living on private beatboxing lessons alone :P

Saturday was decent, but disappointing. I canceled plans to mark, and then procrastinated like a mad-villain. At least I got to unlock new footballs in fifa. :(

Sunday was better, with the A.R. security council passing a resolution for marking to be completed by the end of the day at yejj cafe. Somehow, breakfast happened, great company was enjoyed (Neissan, Beattie, Jarnah, Nadi, Ryan, Echo(sp?), and their daughter Alanna), but I only managed one pile of marking. As most resolutions from the security council, this one was ignored, or half-completed, in the safety of my home. I set out for the feast at around 5:40pm, and had a great time getting back in touch with the Baha'is of Phnom Penh, after our circumstantially prolonged separation. Avuth and Neissan joined me (/coerced?) at my place to play some settlers of catan. I won twice, but Avuth now gets it, and Neissan is slowly accumulating strategic intelligence about the many ways to win settlers. We drank chocolate soy milk, and ate cookies.

The night didn't end there! oh no, the party raged on: I showed avuth some horrible guitar-playing skills, to which he smiled and approved after the fashion of Baha'is the world-round. Then he intimated his thoughts with the internet while Neissand and I played two games of chess. I marked simultaneously, bringing our new record to 10-1-2. To be fair, Neissan has realized that his weakness is moving before considering the possibilities, and our first game displayed Neissan creating forks, and capitalizing on mistakes like never before. I beat him the next game, but I still think my days of free chess wins are numbered.

Today I navigated the murky waters of ESL education with the assistance of coffee, fresh baguette, mango, and fun staff. Tomorrow I administer the midterms, like so many bandages upon the open wound of complacent copying, and lazy learning.

peace!

(note: I have more marking, and interesting essays, but both must wait till tomorrow)

I am so behind

2009-01-18T10:15:00.001-08:00

And my memory is horrible!

Little bits of life are slipping away from me forever! How sad!

Except that those bits are mostly filled with marking, or procrastinating (which involves playing fifa '09, or watching some premier league games)...what I'm trying to say is, they're likely bits of life that we both could miss. I will, however, attempt to recount, with dramatic flair, and stunning accuracy, the events leading up to this day. Unfortunately, this may have wait until tomorrow.

;)

Jan 13

2009-01-13T07:27:00.000-08:00

Ahhh! I woke up late today! I set two alarms, one for 6:15 and another for 6:30. The 6:15 one is to turn on the hot water heater, and the 6:30 is the real wake-up-and-start-life alarm. Luckily, I was able to let them know I'd be late, so they wont penalize me at all (they have a great system: 30 minutes or more of total non-informed late time leads to a delay in your paycheque!). My day was a blur of articles and activities, but I felt my energy levels dwindling by lunch time. In order to recharge, I went and got a little sun by the pool...you guys need to come visit, life out here is pretty swetdawgs.

The rest of the day was swet, though tiring (and I haven't even started marking yet!). I met some friends at Warung Bali for Indonesian food, and had a dish called Gado-Gado. It was pretty tasty, but very spicy, so I had to order not one, but two banana-shakes! So good.

Then, best part, I decided to walk home from the riverside (20-15 minute walk) and I met sith (said 'sut') out riding his little cambodian "cyclo". It's the old-school tuk-tuk, with a guy riding a bicycle and a seat on the front of it. He wanted tons of cash, but I gave him a dollar just 'cause he was cool. I insisted that I wanted to walk for a bit, so, to preserve his dignity, and cut down my time, he gave me a ride for a few blocks. He told me stories about pol-pot and the khmer rouge, and how "they have little food, not good my friend, not good". Then he said "now also I have little food, not good also." Rough business trying to give people bicycle rides when there are a million motos and tuk-tuks willing to take you faster and for the same cash. Sith is 52 years old, has 5 kids (who live in the provinces), and has been riding his "cyclo" for 20 years. He blames the vietnamese and the koreans for the sex trade and the drugs, and told me he didn't like the friendship monument (built to recognize the friendship between cambodia and vietnam). I asked him why he didn't switch to motos, but he said "I ride cyclo only, slow is nice, cyclo is good my friend." At least he was in good shape for his age (read: much better shape than me). Cool guy, cool night - I might need a light jacket next time.

Jan 12

2009-01-12T08:44:00.000-08:00

Today was INTENSE.

I was called last night to take on a substitution this morning. I ended up subbing the whole day! It was a little crazy, but all fun times. I had some rowdies in the morning, but they all settle down enough to learn, so I don't mind. Came home at 11, (cashed my cheque on the way, cash monies!), and got down to business - practicing the guitaro. I was tempted to play fifa '09, but I had to mark some papers, and decided the day should be productive. If you haven't already picked up a guitar, I highly recommend it! You don't even have to make good music to feel like you're doing something! I hope eventually to play well and beatbox at the same time...the play well part may take me the better part of my time in the Cambodge, but I got time.

Afternoon involved some discussion of the Israel/Gaza conflict, the Bible, Alzheimer's, and the oneness of humanity. Interesting times working with a multi-cultural staff - sudanese, singaporean, american, canadian, phillipino, nigerian, cambodian, etc - make any discussion interesting just because of the diversity of cultural viewpoints.

Tonight I met Jarnah and Nadi for a Dosa (again, I know!). I managed to get the best-made Dosa yet again, and have now come under fire from certain friends for stealing all the luck. As some of you know, I am (or at least convince myself I am) a luck-sac. That's right, I am super-duper-ultra lucky. But, it's mostly perspective, so with the right mind-games, you can be lucky too! The trick is to imagine that every little good thing that happens to you, happens because you're lucky. This way you both 1. feel lucky, and 2. never take anything for granted. Moving from the initial thoughts, to engaging the full-fledged paradigm-shift, can be a long, and sometimes torturous journey. Trust me when I say, it's worth it.

We later came back to my place to complete Neissan's delayed settler's game. It went well, with Nadi taking the win thanks to an absurd number of 9's and 3's rolled in complete and utter disregard for probability. He also made very smart decisions. And now unfortunately, I have to sub all day again! I don't actually, it just means I need to sleep earlier, wake up earlier, and delay shopping by another day....at least I have bananas. (actually, quick aside, these bananas are tasty little things - tiny fat little bananes that taste like awesome plus two - put me in touch with my inner monkey)

Jan 11th evening

2009-01-11T07:27:00.000-08:00

Just had to note this for you guys.

Neissan invited a few of us over for a little games night. So i got settlers of catan ready, hopped on a moto dop, and made my way over. There were five of us for the first bit, so we started, but then three more came, so we switched games. There were some odd ones, but in the end, we played a card game called "kaka". This game involves trying to make a set of four cards, and when you do, you put your hand on top of a communal pile of cards. Then everyone else has to get their hands on as quickly as possible, and the last person to do it has to take a cards from the pile of "kaka". The idea is to end up taking as few cards from the middle as possible. Now this is all good, until you play it on a glass coffee table. Somehow none of us realized that eight high-velocity hands hitting the center of a glass table was a bad idea. That's right, on the fifth or sixth round, we completely destroyed Neissan's table, and sent small bits of glass flying EVERYWHERE! most of us came out unscathed (actually, all of us except for Jarnah), so it wasn't as bad as it could have been.
Exciting way to end a night...what can I say, none of us wanted that kaka.

Jan 9-11

2009-01-11T00:45:00.000-08:00

The only really memorable things from the 9th are: the maid bought me some delicious fruits; the kids in my classes are continuing to build up their enthusiasm; I ate more masala dosa, and, Neissan, Jarnah, Nadi, and I all played a game of settlers of catan! So much fun - unfortunately Neissan and Jarnah were still figuring out what was going on, and we had a lot of distraction in the form of laptops on the table, BUT, still a fun game (maybe just because I won? :P). I realized that I really have nothing in the house to offer guests, and had to resort to giving out the last of the cookies, some veggie/fruit juice, and a few small chocolates. I think tomorrow will be the real day for shopping (now that I have my first cheque from work!).

The 10th was an indoors day for me. I stayed up late the night before talking on skype, so I missed my morning seminar at work! Luckily, it's only optional, and I should be able to get the info I need from the other teachers. My day involved a lot of football(soccer). I've been getting into it recently, in the form of FIFA '09, and a lot of watching games on the telelevision. There was even a point where I was playing a game, and had a game on mute on the T.V. at the same time :0

Today was a little more exciting - I got some initial work done on CRDA's website, and went out to 'Comme a la Maison' for a chocolatine and an espresso (I also bought a baguette). I'm waffling over whether to continue the children's class in the orphanage or not - I don't want to be all burnt out teaching, but I really enjoyed the class, so I'm not sure which'd be best in the long-term. Avuth and Elyssa helped me get the guitar up to snuff, and I used this opportunity to try and develop some guitar skills. I have an embarrassingly bad video of my initial guitaring for you guys to see. Enjoy.

Jan 8

2009-01-08T09:11:00.001-08:00

I forgot to mention some exciting events in the last post, so this can be jan7 night/jan8 morning:

Two friends from malaysia arrived, Elyssa and Kazin. We went to meet Jarnah and her friend Nadi for dinner at Dosa Corner. It was a good dinner, I ordered TWO dosas, and the second one was much better: much crisper, much hotter, more tastiness oozing out of every potato. I loved it. Then Jarnah casually mentions the fact that an MC from Jurassic 5 is playing at a club called 'Pontoon' at 8 P.M. I missed so many concerts in Edmonton, but this one made up for it.

It's with a heavy heart, and trembling fingers, that I give you the following news: I let the p-units borrow my digital camera, and my phone battery was so low, that it died before I even saw the face of "Akeela the MC". I know, so much diligent reporting with pictures and everything, and now, on the one night where it was more than just a convenience, I was deprived. Boo hoo, it was still a fun night.

When we first arrived, we joked around about dancing, but then met people we knew and conversed and met new friends, etc. Then Jarnah asked me to help her open up the dance floor, so we did - to some crazy blend of staying alive and I don't know what else. It was sweet. Pretty soon some of the drunk girls came on the floor and then everyone else followed. So Jarnah and I basked in our pride as dance-floor openers for the rest of the night.

After some wicked blends, and very fast cut/changes from an impressive Cambodian DJ (who's name I unfortunately missed), the night's performances began. It started with a hip-hop group called "clap your hands". Their set was ok. It was fun to hear the khmer rapping, and I joined in on some choruses. They had one slick little rb singer who serenaded some of the ladies in the front row - he was a solid performer, and added some class to their act. Later, when they were in-between sets, this giant black guy named Soljin(??) thanked me personally for opening up the dance floor. Seriously, he was like "I really wanted to dance, but you never want to be the first one, right? Thanks a lot man, respect" *hi-five transitioning to a grip, snap, and pound*

The next group up was amazing! A hip-hop group called "Tiny Tunes" started by a cambodian-american (Khmerican) who lived in south-central LA, learned the ways, and came back to start up a scene. He did it well. These kids could rap and break-dance so well - I loved every bit of it. To top it off, they had a female emcee from longbeach who rapped like it was the early 90's. I felt the khmer raps waaay more than I've been feeling any of the hip-hop coming out of the states recently. So I got a phone number for these guys and hope to get into the beat-boxing again. Ah, I'm charged with excitement. oh! and during their set, they made a stage out of the dance floor, and continued to break through a black-out! They started up a soul-clap, used the light from the dj's laptops to light the floor, and broke it down! I was beatboxing a bit, but the emcee seemed super-keen on the clap, and hey, so was I.

Then, Akeela's buddy "Hydrophonics" came on the dance-floor-circle-stage to perform, and he was good - very eminemish flow, solid lyricism, but the crowd wasn't feeling his stuff, so he tried a few songs, and gracefully thanked everyone and bowed out. Akeela came on finally, at like 12-12:30 (we'd been there for 4 hours already) and I got to hear a few verses before we had to go, because my guests were sleepy! So, I missed the majority of Akeela, but I felt like aI got a solid does of hip-hop for the low price of....free! ah, great night.

Today was a little more chill, but still cool. Avuth came over for breakfast, and brought Cambodian street noodles for us to eat. Cool new experience! Elyssa and Kazin had to go to Battambang today, so we went for a parting dinner with them, Jarnah, and some of her work colleagues. It was a cool place, and I find I'm developing a taste for friend morning glory and rice - and I still love stir fried mushrooms. Time was tight for Elyssa and Kazin to make the bus, as they still had to get their stuff from my place, Elyssa wanted some bread, so I offered to pick it up for her, and meet them back at my place.

What an ordeal! the people at lucky's supermarket wouldn't accept Elyssa's $10 bill because it was ugly. They seriously made me battle over the economic viability of the less-than-pristine note which I wished to give them. Also, quick aside from this aside, I don't know what's up with me lately, bu I feel like my sense of justice is is waaaay more active than it used to be. I'm becoming (at least in the last little bit) a lot less accepting of the unacceptable. So I insisted that they take my note, and after some hassle, they did. Yay, empty victory: I got to pay them 3 dollars.

Either way, bread got to Elyssa, Nadi got me the keys, and, after a quick change into work clothes, Nadi came with me to my school. He had some readings to work through, and I had some marking to do, so we found a cafe, ordered up, and settled down for a solid 2 hours of study and correction. He had to peace, and I had to teach, so we did the needful. I had fun teaching the class, they seemed to get into the activity more today than they have before...or maybe I'm still so hyped about the hip-hop that everything seems better.

I played chess against neissan again, some very good games, but, the record is now 7-1-1. It feels like the games are getting harder though, so maybe once he's back in the zone of strategic thought, I will find the numbers reversing.

acquisitions today: Settler's of catan, and a new 5th string for my dad's guitar.

Jan. 4-7

2009-01-06T08:22:00.000-08:00

Oh irony. Mere days after being congratulated on the regularity and consistency of my posting to this blog, I find myself procrastinating. Luckily, I wasn't procrastinating just to avoid typing up dreary details of Cambodian life, rather, I was in a mode of general procrastination - brought on by my job. Yep, they wanted me to make midterm exams for both of my classes (which turned out to be no less than three separate exams because one class is split into reading and writing!). It all worked out in the end, with lots of time spent learning the hidden depths of formatting a document using Microsoft Word.

I have, unfortunately, forgotten what happened in the last few days, suffice it to say: nothing that exciting/important. I think the days were filled with teaching, exam construction, marking, and the watching of heroes (great show!). Also, the much anticipated "shipment" arrived from croatia, and the apartment is now almost like a real living space.

Today, however, was a whole different story. Today is "independence from the genocide regime day". Also, oddly enough, the day on which I re-gain some measure of my own independence. Today the p-units got on a plane to go to Ethiopia.

Jan 2/3

2009-01-03T08:36:00.000-08:00

January the deuce was a fun day.

I spent the day refining my exam, and putting in the print order at the school, picking up a bus ticket for shaku, administering some exams, and then enjoying lasagna dinner with a bunch of guests. After all of that (tasty lasagna!) we watched some pictures form Neissan's trip to malaysia, and some hilarious youtube clips. This is one which my dad has saved on his laptop. So funny, I crack up everytime I watch it.

After that, Neissan and I went to a Mediterranean place called "tamarind" for some sheesha, tea, and chess. They have a nice rooftop up there, I imagine it'd be much more enjoyable if there were less clouds and more stars. After some complications over the flavours of tea and sheesh, they finally brought it all out, and I soundly beat Neissan 3-0 in our games (compared to 1-1-1 last time). I chalked a large part of my victory up to his inattentiveness. They were great games until an error or two crept in to finish it off(reminiscent of something isn't it Munir? ;P).

Either way, the night didn't end there! We dropped by the monthly "elsewhere" party to see who was around, and hopefully enjoy some good music. The music was out in full-force, I couldn't recognize any of the tracks that the dj was playing, but it was all cool stuff. We happened upon Christine and some of her friends, and some friends from the "Khmerry Christmas' boat party. Fun times getting to see them all again. The club, however, was dead. there were a fifth of the people that I'd seen last time I went (2 months back) and that meant you could actually talk to people, but that that there were less people to talk to, and no one dancing. This didn't stop us. Having the dance floor to ourselves, Neissan and I did some breakdancing, and he showed me some capoiera moves. That was fun, until the dj officially told us to go home by dropping the tempo considerably in the following 10 minutes. It's not his fault, the crowd was already non-dance, but they more sit-and-listen, than stand-and-pretend-to-dance.

Fun times.

Today, Shaku had to go to another city for a meeting, so we moved egg-in-a-hole sundays up a day to accommodate this newfound family tradition. We had mangoes for lunch, and went to Anise hotel for a coffee and to get some work done. I marked my papers, and my dad spent all his time trying to get the wireless internet to work...which he did, in the end. I had some interesting answers on the exams, I put one up for your viewing pleasure.

The rest of the day was spent watching juventus play in the snow, making stir-fry, and updating this blog!

peace out playas.

New Year!

2009-01-03T03:45:00.000-08:00

Dec 31st was a busy day: first I went for breakfast with Sovanarith, the executive director of a little Cambodian NGO that I plan to dedicate some time and effort to; next, I slept, awaking to phone call invitations for lunch, which I eventually accepted; I later went to an indonesian place for lunch avec Jarnah and Beattie and Christine; this was followed by more sleep, and then the new years party.

I had great fun going to the Indian Association of Cambodia's new year's party. Shaku got some tickets from a friend of the family. Unfortunately, my camera battery died while taking the "before" photos, so all I have is the before and after (and some bad cell-phone videos). Basically, we enjoyed Indian food, activities and intermittent dancing. The night was a bit of a gong-show, they had overlooked a few things while planning the event, but it didn't interfere too much with the celebration of the new year. There were not many people my age at the event, but that's ok, because I'm kind of an old man anyway, so it was easy for me to connect to other attendees. We went to a fancy-dancy hotel called the imperial garden hotel. It was ver' swanky, and the room we were in was nice and big, but not big enough for the 80 extra people who came to the door with no tickets!! I had plans to go to go to a place called "the mansion", but I procured a massive headache (presumably by keeping my head craned over my shoulder to look at the stage for long periods of time). So, after some interesting times with the Indian community in phnom penh, we retired for the night.

The first day of the new year was much better, it involved a delicious mango lassie, with real bits of mango(as seen in the photo). This day also saw me constructing some exams for my students. They went over fairly well ( I think), and the classes were actually fun as all the students loosened up after finishing the exams. I'll try not to bore you with details, but exam construction can actually be fun. I took sample questions from their past homework, and edited the names, order and questions. I even gave them a bonus section, wherein they had to place the right question into the blanks of a conversation between Dr.Rushdy and a student. The student had not studied for the exam, and Dr.Rushdy prescribes studying. Also, used the names of some of their classmates on the exam, and I plan to use it a lot more, they were excited to see themselves in the exam, so maybe they'll study so that they can get the question with their name correct, at the very least.