Living in Cambodia, Part 2

On bugs and pests:
Throughout SE Asia, ants, geckos, and cockroaches are a common site. Phnom Penh, with its sparkling clean streets (note sarcasm), is surely no exception. They are everywhere, inside and out, and it is not uncommon to share a shower with a lizard or two. But what I was unprepared for, having experienced the air-conditioned sanctuary of Singapore, are the mosquitoes. They are everywhere, and are harsh! At home, I typically wear bug spray if I'm in grassy or forested areas, and more often at night. But in Cambodia, they are everywhere, at all times of day. My first week, I was unprepared for this, and my legs became a breeding ground for mosquitoes, with a few dozen bites on each leg. Spending much time at the theatre outside, the mosquitoes swarmed me, preferring my light skin to the darker Cambodian skin around me. So now I layer on the bug spray every day.

On food:
Cambodian food is wonderful! Similar to the cuisine in neighboring Thailand and Vietnam (but less spicy than Thailand), dishes are typically rice or noodle based, with many fresh vegetables, prepared as curries and stir-fries. Fish is a large staple of the diet, put in cooked dishes, or dried and eaten as a snack; and nearly every dish contains fish sauce. Fortunately for me, most of the restaurants catering to foreigners feature a sizable selection of local vegetarian options (in addition to tourists, there is a huge expat community in Phnom Penh, mostly working for NGOs and embassies, and these restaurants not only feature English menus with English speaking staff, but food is prepared with filtered water and oils that are agreeable to Western digestive systems). There are also a few vegetarian restaurants around Phnom Penh with a great selection of Cambodian and Chinese options. I especially enjoy ginger fried tofu, Khmer noodles (short and wide round rice noodles prepared with a local sauce and veggies...delicious!), curries with tofu, and salads with shredded green papaya, peanuts, and other delicious delectables.

On poverty:
Cambodia is an incredibly poor nation, with the per capita income estimated to be averaging $300-$1000, meaning that a vast majority of the population lives on $1-2 per day, which may have to be spread among many members of a family. This puts into perspective barganing over $1 or $.50 in the market or with a tuk-tuk driver. People will do anything for money, and children are often put to work at a young age, not allowing time for school or our Western notion of a childhood. Adults and children walk around the city, often barefoot or in flimsy plastic flip-flops, pushing giant carts, collecting recyclables to redeem for a few cents each. Their squeaking plastic horns alert you to bring your bottles out to them, and they walk the streets at all hours of the day (often, when I am just drifting to sleep around midnight, a squeak startles me back awake). It is not uncommon to see these workers digging through garbage piles searching for anything they can redeem. Even more extreme, are the dump workers. As reported in the New York Times this November, many people, children included, make their living searching tirelessly through rubbish for anything recyclable, including electronics. They wade through the garbage, wearing no protective clothing or face masks; this makeshift playground is slowly poisioning its child laborers.

On education:
While there are many schools in Cambodia, and you can see uniformed children gleefully leaving school at the end of the day, the eduction system, like many operations in Cambodia, is corrupt. Teachers are paid approximately $20-$30 per month. This salary alone ranks them among Cambodia's poorest nationals. To counteract this, many measures are put in place to force children to pay for their education. It is not uncommon for children to be required to 'pay'(bribe) their teachers on a daily basis. Children who do not pay are locked out of the classroom. As children become older, with more specialized classes, and therefore more teachers, they must pay each teacher. Further, I have heard tales of teachers selling food for another salary boost, and if their students to not buy their food, they may be locked out of the classroom. Many children, already from poor families, are unable to attend school, as they cannot afford this bribery. This only exacerbates the trend of forcing children to work to help support the family.

While it may seem like the teacher is at fault, can you really blame them? Earning less than $1 per day hardly allows for survival, especially if they have families to feed. This really casts a new perspective on the weaknesses of the American educational system...

On corruption:
The rule of thumb in Cambodia is, money is power. Those who have, want more, and will do whatever it takes to retain money and build assets. Hence corrupt wealthy government officials, many who are ex-Khmer Rouge, who maintain extreme inequalities in the country.

Those who have not, will do whatever it takes to get it. From selling children into sex work, to a police officer accepting a bribe in lieu of a writing up a traffic violation, desperate times call for desperate measures.