Different Things About Cambodia (Part 1 of ?)

Dear friends,

We have been in Cambodia now for one month! It's hard to believe what exactly we've already done--we've moved into our new house, started language school, begun training for our jobs and become familiar with the city of Phnom Penh.

Here are a few reflections from these last few weeks about the differences of living in Cambodia.

-Living in a tropical climate means that:

*60 degrees F at night or in the early morning feels cold! Some mornings we grab a jacket on our way out to Khmer lessons. We're coming out of the 'cool' season now.

*Constantly having a fan on means that EVERYTHING must be weighed down (money, paper, receipts, light plastic bowls). We are always chasing after a runaway something or alternatively, pepper or cinnamon flies back into our faces when we are pouring them on our food.

*Anything that might melt must be refrigerated. Even while we prepared dinner, the cheese and butter must remain in the frig until the exact moment we sit down to eat.

*Constantly having cold drinks on hand is a cultural must. We should always have a wide selection of drinks in the frig to offer guests.

-We use US dollars to pay for everything but we get change back in Cambodian riel. We are having to memorize what the appropriate change is with 1000 riel being a quarter and 4000 riel being a dollar. Occasionally we borrow money from each other for coffee or tea on the street and then realize we owe 60 cents or 75 cents but we pay it back with 4 or 5 bank notes of 100 or 500 riel each.

-Cambodia doesn't produce much domestically; nearly everything at the corner stores and larger supermarkets is imported, especially from Thailand, France, the United States, Vietnam and, of course, China. One difficult thing is that we are used to paying Chinese prices because we used to live in China. We have been in sticker shock as we stock up for our house--a plastic garbage can that we would have paid $1 for in China is at least $4 here. It's good because it is forcing us to reconsider our purchasing habits and see if we really need that bathroom shelf.

-Cars have steering wheels on both the left and the right. Technically, Cambodian steering wheels should be the left (a result of French influence) but neighboring Thailand has them on right because of British influence. As a result of the previous point, both are seen.

-Fighting against ants is a constant battle. Today alone we found ants on our breakfast food, on a shelf, in the sink, and in a cabinet. Our food will continue to have lots of extra little bits of protein as we figure out the best way to keep them out of our house. Ants are very, very, very smart little creatures!

-The post office doesn't alert you when you receive mail. You have to go to the office and ask if they have mail for you. There is no mailman! It feels weird to be in a country with so little structure to the postal system.

We imagine that every so often we will be posting new differences that we encounter!