It truly astounds me how much time I wasted on the internet during my time in Korea. Admittedly, I did have little choice chained to my desk as I was at the time, but here in Cambodia, logging onto the WWW just seems all too hard!!
As I may or may not have mentioned, I am teaching English predominantly to kindergarten children here in Phnom Penh. I moved out of a guest house into my own apartment recently, where my neighbours all seem to be old foreign men who look like they are here for ‘good times,’ if you catch my drift. I am pretty much convinced my actual next door neighbour is a prostitute, though how I prove this to be so is beyond me. All I know is that there seems to be an array of different ‘gentlemen’ leaving her apartment at all hours of the day. This morning I left my apartment in search of a bicycle to rent for the day, and ended up a few hours later, $30 lighter, as the owner of my own mode of transport!! Very exciting stuff!
Teaching 3 and 4 year old Cambodians to speak English is exhausting and hilarious all at the same time. I’m hoping to move onto older kids soon, but the funny shit they do does crack me up. For example, yesterday I was pointing out students who had been excellent that class. I then feel a tap on my leg and see 3 year old Simeng, who has pissed his pants, standing there naked asking ‘Teacher, have I been excellent today?”‘ ( The same child I caught the previous week peeing into the classroom bin!) I often look down to a sea of faces with fingers firmly planted up their noses, who then want to hold my hand. I am constantly flashed by little girls, and watch as the little boys check out each others penis’… Its a good thing I’m no paedophile!!
I have a 2 hour lunch break here, and as I work a fair distance from where I live, I decided to join a gym to fill this gap of time. The gym is quite modern and on the 4th floor of a building. Many Cambodians sensibly sleep over lunch time (hence my 2 hour break) so the gym is usually quite empty when I am there. Sometimes, however, I am joined by a group of local men, who I think are just there for a catch up rather than any real exercise. I have witnessed them though, treadmill running in flip flops and exiting loud grunts as they try to bicep curl 10 kilos. I do believe they think as long as they work up a sweat (not through actual exercise but by steaming in up in a 4th floor building in the middle of the day without turning on the air con) they are getting fit. Hey, but Im not complaining. I figure they just make me look better!! The change room at the gym is a whole other experience. A woman stands and watches me as I change and shower each day. I have tried to tell her I’m ok and don’t need any assistance, but I think it might be part of her job, and as I am the only woman who ever seems to be there, I can hardly deny the woman the one break she has from mopping the spotless floor for the millionth time that day!!
