Day 17

I skipped Day 10. Apart from that my 21 days of working out for at least an hour every day is going well. Last night I did 60 minutes, counting every struggling minute... But I think this thing is still doing me good.

JA

Five reasons I feel like I'm living in a Jane Austen novel:

1. There is a gentle formality in all our greetings. I'm Sister Pip, Aunty Pip, Teacher Pip... never Pip.

2. With these titles, there is a constant awareness of status. Members of any group can rank themselves and the rest of the group at any time in order of status. Each position brings different expectations, obligations and responsibilities.

3. Newcomers in town bring a stir of excitement. Have you met...? Where are they from? How long will they be here for? What are they like? Do they have a house already? Really?! So soon...what did they pay for it? We have these conversations face to face when we bump into each other around town or pass each other on the main road, this alone being reason enough to stop for a 10 minute conversation.

4. A short journey can be a grand adventure. On Sunday night I rode my moto home from the English School, a distance of about 2km. It was after 9pm. Before I left, I asked my host for advice about which route to take. Well, this road is muddy but very quiet. This other road is probably safer but it is flooded. Anyway... it's a good thing you have a full-face helmet. Nobody will know you are a foreigner. Better for your personal security. It is getting late....Ok. I think you should take the busier road. When you come to the flooded section try to stay left. It's deeper in the middle. Roll up your pants first though! I did.

I drove home... heart thumping.. without coming off. I slipped on the clay, skipped to the side when I hit a submerged rock, but I made it through. Each time the headlight on my bike reflected on the water I had no idea if this pool was a couple of centimetres deep, half a metre deeper or deeper still. It told myself to get a bit of speed and take it on.... (or it would take me!). I also tried to tell myself that this should be fun. A free dirt-bike adventure in your own backyard! I was an adventure. Even though I was too nervous to really enjoy myself.

5. My final comparison with a JA novel is this: Everyday life is peppered with one minor crisis after another. A friend came to visit the other day. He's been a few times so I guess this time he was comfortable enough to indulge his curiosity and have a poke around. He opened doors, looked at drainpipes, leaned over railings and checked the view from the top floor front and back. I like it! How much do you pay for this? Good work with the flowers on the roof. Then he called out one phrase I didn't so much want to hear, "Pip- there's a rat in your water tank!"

No way! I thought he was kidding so I objected before I even got close. It's not a rat. It's a crack in the concrete. Some peeling of paint. I looked and had to admit there was a strong possibility that there was a dead rat in our water supply. He asked, "What do you use this water for?" I said, "Everything except for drinking." I use it to wash my hair, clean my teeth, wash dishes and rinse vegetables. Not good. Rat-water showers. Rat-water fried veggies. This crisis needed to be resolved.

I waited until the morning, put on a pair of shorts and lowered myself into the tank. Bits of sediment were stirred up and clung to my bare skin. Cobwebs stuck to my arms. There wasn't a lot of light. (I wished I had a stronger torch.) I walked slowly to the back, left corner of the tank, armed with a plastic bucket. The thing sure looked like a rat. I bent down and looked closer. I saw a piece of black netting, probably used to filter this well-water before I brush and floss with it. I dipped my arm down to check, feeling the crinkly nylon. Woo hoo! No fur! Crisis averted! Back to work....another day of living a Jane Austen novel for Ms Pip.

21 days

I once heard it takes 21 days to replace one habit with a newer, better one? Now I'm attempting 21 days of working out for 1 hour or more per day. Today is Day 8.

Run. Swim. Bike. Gym. Pilates. Weights. Whatever.... just as long as it's over 60 minutes of physical activity. The goal is to build fitness after a couple of slack months. Yesterday was the best day so far. I did a 1hr 20 Sunday morning run. It was slow, hard and wonderful.

No real reason for me to write more about my 21 day goal. Just wanted to blog so I will be publicly shamed if I quit at day 9.... ; )

a cup of coffee

A couple of weeks ago I took Sim out for a coffee at Palais. It's the Poipet place for expats to go get a latte. The coffee always smells great and tastes ok. The interior is clean, even though the couches are a bit shabby. (B2 commented on the chairs the other day, saying, "Man- they wouldn't put up with these in a Canadian crack house!" Perhaps he exaggerates a little... I just choose not to think of the thousands of bodies that have left their sweat-stains...layering deep and thick into the upholstery...)

So I was saying... Sim and I went out for coffee. Sim has been working with us since November. She goes to the market, cooks lunch and cleans the public areas of the house. We often have coffee together at home, comparing the Angkor Wat brew with Lao, Lavazza, Stumptown or whatever else we have. It was about time that I took Sim out for a drink.

We wandered around the casino for a few minutes, looking in shop windows and adjusting to the air-con. We ordered drinks, sat down and chatted about work, family and future plans. Sim has three boys so much of the conversation revolved around them. She spoke with a mixture of awe and authority that it is possible to have three sons with completely different personalities. Sim had countless examples to back this up and I loved learning more about her little guys. After an hour or so, we left Palais and went home.

But before I got back to the computer, Sim said, "Thank you for showing me honour by taking me out to have coffee today." Seriously?! It was such a small thing. Yet Sim felt valued....even honoured. Amazing!

Quote for the day....

"I don't want to live as a parasite on the first-hand spiritual life of others, but to be personally involved with all my senses, tasting and seeing that the Lord is good." Eugene Peterson

more signs...

You know you've lived too long in Asia when....

A warm can of beer poured into a plastic cup, filled with half a pound of ice is both:
a) totally normal
b) delicious

Pot Plants

On Saturday morning I woke up with the feeling like it was going to be a significant day. Not for any real reason.... Maybe half of the reason was that I watched a war movie until 12:30am so my head was full of soldiers in uniform with polished shoes, shining buttons, medals of honour etc. I had images of white glove saluting and brand new flags folded exactly just so. I slept with Values on my pillow: Honour. Rank. Duty. Courage... with a fair dose of nationalism.

So I woke up Saturday was a sense that it was a Very Important Day. Not busy. Certainly not filled with frenzied activity (it's too hot for that...) Just a day that counts. Do you ever have that feeling? ...Like you're on a sacred mission even in your ordinary work week?

Anyway, to prepare for this Super Important Day the first thing I did was eat a peanut butter sandwich and drink a cup of coffee. Then I got ready for the pastors & church leaders meeting. I prayed, printed out copies of the agenda, read through the business items again and practiced out aloud the parts I needed to lead in Khmer. We were almost ready when the first pastor showed up at 7:45am for the 8:30am meeting.

During the following hours we heard stories, talked business and caught up on news. I pulled out some extra percussion for the singing so one of the highlights for me was having a kinda rowdy time of worship. It was fun.

In the afternoon I bought pot plants. (I'll say 'pot plants' even though one of my friends reckons it should be 'potted plants' because where he comes from the phrase 'pot plants' is only used for pot.) We got some orchids to hang and leafy palms with green and purple-green leaves. We got dirt under our nails and grime on our elbows as we potted them... and it was great! We washed the dust from the leaves so they all looked wet and fresh.

We've now got a modest rooftop garden and I LOVE IT! I reminds me that this place is my home. I'm sticking around. I'm planting stuff and watering it and changing the position of the pot plants to catch the afternoon rain. I'm here long enough to plant some stuff and watch it grow.

It's all really ordinary but Saturday was a Very Important Day.

weekend

Last weekend some of my friends and I went to a fundraiser for a local Primary School. We were there to add prestige to the event (and probably because we were likely to be able to put more than a couple of dollars into the donation envelopes).

I met some people, gave my donation, sat through the formalities, chatted with some Grade 5 students, talked with a couple of parents, ate some noodles, drank half a can of Coke, said goodbye and went home. I didn't really mind that I was invited more for my prominent nose, rather than the fact that I've become a prominent community member in only 9 months.... It was just good to be there.

Hopefully Hun Sen Primary School has enough funds to raise the floor of their building above the flood level so that students can return to class again. I'm waiting on news for Part 2 of this story....