Tela is open!!! A Tela mart opened in Prey Veng two weeks ago and it's amazing. The closest comparrison I can think of is a 7-11 without the slurpies. Ah slurpies...Anyway, they do have ice cream, lovely, cold, refreshing mocha chip ice cream. I never thought I'd sit in my house in Prey Veng and eat ice cream. It's also the one public place in town that has air conditioning and with the hot season officially starting Sunday, March 09, that's welcomed news. While I'm super excited about Tela, this new store has changed Prey Veng. I suddenly feel my experience in PV is not quite as rustic as it was, or even should be. I think back to my life a year ago when I thought there was no way Cambodia could get hotter (it certainly did) and struggled with living with my host family and a lack of direction on where to even how to start my assignment here. The dusty roads seemed unchanged for years, yet progress has come and I now can point out new houses that have been built or new developments. The road between PP and PV has greatly improved-each bridge is in and half the road is paved, though Friday when I came back, the road was a muddy slosh pit. Some developments are so swift, yet some things seem they never change.
Like Khmer men. I have decided they never change and as the token white girl I have (too much) experience. Dani, a young woman who attend my church and works at the youth center, got married two weeks ago. I attended her wedding and then the reception in the evening. I decided to go to a shop and get my hair and makeup done since some of my friends had been asked me to. I also decided since this was my first rural wedding, I should experience it as much as I could. Dinner was fine as I sat with Scott, Charles, Gunthia (the first teacher) and her fiancé. At one point while we were eating, Soperak, the pastor, came over, said he didn't recognize me and then mumbled something about a second wife. (Polygomy isn't practiced here though it's normal for men to have a song-sa, or girlfriend, in addition to a wife. Usually it's hush-hush.) Later when the dancing started I would only dance with girls. One wonderful thing about Asian culture is that girls do stuff with girls and guy with guys. This includes dancing, touching, etc and it's not seen as strange. When a guy would ask me to dance I simply said no and went off with Gunthia (the second teacher). However, there was this one man who asked me to dance. I replied "I only dance with women." He said, "Oh, but I'm a woman!" Clearly you're not.
It gets better. Last Thursday I went into PP to meet with WPM about some things. I returned Friday morning for my language lesson. While on the ferry a young man came up to me, flipped out his camera phone, 'click' and walked away. He said nothing to me. About 5 minutes later when I got another taxi on the other side of the ferry the same thing happened. A group of taxi drivers/ random men got another phone and took my picture. Khmer men annoy me. They could at least have asked before they took the picture..
Saturday was the opening for Love Cambodia. LC is a NGO Scott has been working with and they celebrated becoming an official NGO as they registered with the Ministry of Interior a couple months ago. The ceremony was nice and I got a free t-shirt. Lunch was surprisingly tasty and Charles, Sam, Rob and I had a wonderful discussion on the Democratic race. I always love the different view I get when I am overseas during a presidential race.
The next couple of weeks are going to be busy. Next weekend is the MCC staff trip to Kompong Som, the beach. My mom and Uncle Curtis arrive in Cambodia on March 20. I'm excited my mom will be able to visit PV and see a glimpse of my life here. She'll also get to see the Easter program at my church and celebrate my birthday with me. My mom will only be here for a little over a week, but I'm glad she'll at least understand the place where I've invested my life for three years.
