May 20, 2007
Arrival
Sometimes you can't help but laugh.
As a child, I had a sort of surrogate grandmother who used to cycle to our house to see us all the time. When it rained, she wore this ridiculous clear vinyl raincoat that, while practical, looked a bit silly. Never ever did I think I would wear one of those things, but it seems the Gods had different plans for me.
These plans take shape at Hong Kong airport. To be more specific, on the airport bus that was about to take me to my "Dragon Air" plane with its destination Phnom Penh, Cambodia. The monsoon-like rain meant that these thin plasticy raincoats were the only protection we had against the brutal rain that pounded us as we walked up the steps to the plane. But on the bus, while putting it on, it just felt too ridiculous. "Surely the rain can't be that bad..." I thought to myself. But it was - and while I may have found it hilarious to dress up as an old lady or a tourist at Niagara Falls, it was a moment where hilarity met practicality.
I arrived, fell asleep soon afterwards and woke up the next morning in my new home. My apartment building is in the middle of "NGO Land" as my colleages like to call it. The whole area is quite swanky, while simultaneously still staying true to a developing nation. The apartment complex, named "Wonderland", has an pool and guard, and the houses around us are quite nice, albeit gaudy beyond belief. Imagine the house in "The Fresh Prince of Bellair", but then picture it painted pink and with add blue tinted windows. Yeah, pretty great. My street has a fair share of Khmer restaurants, a local pharmacy and a welder who has woken me up two mornings in a row. I face a main road which is constantly busy, but the back roads feel like a neighborhood, which is great.
I'm quite fond of the Phnom Penh. It's managable on the back of motorcycles or taking Tuk Tuks, and getting anywhere in the city doesn't cost more than a dollar or two. US Dollars - yep, that's the currency. Makes life easy. The riverfront area offers vistas of the Mekong and Tonle Sap rivers which stretch as far as the eye can see. The architecture is a blend between Khmer and colonial France - the Royal Palace, while I only drove by it, was absolutely breathtaking. The cuisine is has a French influence, with baguettes on almost any menu. My supermarket is called "Lucky Supermarket", and has almost anything an expat would need, at a price that reflects the distance my nutella traveled.
I spent this morning with two of my colleagues volunteering at an orphanage for children aged 2-5 who are HIV positive. Because I'll be working Monday - Friday for an organization that is doing pediatric HIV/AIDS work, it was great playing with the kids who are on treatment, thanks to the Foundation I'm working for. Within two minutes of walking through the gates I had a child on my shoulders and two in my arms. We played with them, helped feed, wash and clothe them and I also spent about an hour making paper airplanes for them. Their greatest joy was flattening them and forcing me to make new ones. I've pretty much perfected the skill.
Work starts tomorrow. I'm exited.
Posted by Guy Bloembergen at 03:50 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
