I miss....

I miss park benches
and drinking from bubblers for free

thankful this season

thankful this season for:

simplicity
sunrise, sunset, water from a well
a bucket, scoop and liquid soap
heavy, ripe fruit from tropical trees
mangoes, bananas, pineapples, watermelon and lychees
five matching, striped porcelain coffee cups
Illy coffee to go in them
cool nights sleeping under a blanket
waking up warm but not sweaty!

connections
a house full of noisy chatter
new friends around the dinner table
stories of people coming to faith
seeing the church in Poipet grow
believers growing up and serving others
labouring together in the harvest field
love, love, love and silly smiles
and kisses and romance and adventure

learning
thirteen years of public school education
(mixed results amidst well deserved detentions!)
several years of tertiary education too
ongoing learning in challenges and changes
book thieving, informal research and conversations
wisdom from the lips of children
running and all it teaches me
purposeful pain in training and racing

people
strangers who call out, "hello, hello"
people who know me and smile
prophets and artists see life differently
creatively revealing their own perspectives
friends who know all my failures
love me, and push me forward
encouragers, supporters, critics, clowns and crowds
long distance phone conversations, airport reunions

Bangkok Marathon

I should write something about the 42.2K in Bangkok on Sunday. But I don't know how to sum up the story in a few words.

Marathon #1 in the US last year went like this: trained well + ran my best + finished under 4 hours = very happy.
Marathon #2 in Canberra in April: trained well + got injured + had no idea if I could run at all + ran anyway and finished = amazed.
Marathon #3 was... different. I took it seriously but it was hilarious. It was a disaster and totally fine at the same time. After the race I met and chatted with the Kenyan woman who came second. She ran Sunday's marathon in 2:46. I confessed I ran 4:01. She smiled and said, "You tried!"

The Bangkok Marathon starts at 3:30am. I fell asleep just after midnight and set 2 alarms for 1:30am so I could eat, stretch, shower and dress. Instead, I woke up to the sound of my friend banging on the door at 2:25am telling me it was time to go!

I started out feeling strong and perhaps ran a bit too hard. 10K in 49 minutes, 12K in an hour. I slowed a bit to conserve some energy and continued running. Bangkok was fine until about 25K. Then I couldn't keep it together. Physically I wasn't too bad; I knew I had to pick up my pace a little if I wanted to reach me goal time. But I just didn't have it in me. So instead I had a dummy spit. Stupid marathon. 42.2K. 26.2 miles. This isn't a race, it's a form of torture. Impossible. Insane. I'm done with this and I don't care if I never attempt to run another long-distance race again.... This wasn't exactly the inspirational, motivational, positive talk that I'd practiced before the race. Run strong? Dig deep? Nope. I wasn't believing it for a second....

At 28K I did something I thought I would never do in a marathon: I walked. You want to know something? It was fun! I forgot it was meant to be a race. I soaked in the sunrise. Stopped looking at my stopwatch. Jogged a bit. Walked some more. Didn't bother calculating my splits. It almost felt like I was alone on that long bridge, closed both ways to traffic; out there in a silent world for an early morning weekend workout at whatever pace I wanted.

The sun was up when I approached the 36K marker and suddenly decided, "I think I can run again." I was fresh. Excited. Energised. So I ran. I maintained a reasonable pace for the final few kilometers. And I finished in 4:01. It wasn't the result I'd hoped for, but it was about what I'd trained for. The Kenyans may have laughed but I finished a marathon before half of the city had rolled out of bed.

Marathon #4: To be continued....

Angelina Jolie

Angelina Jolie wrote a book. I picked up a bootlegged copy of Notes From My Travels because I was curious to read the second chapter. [UNHCR] Mission to Cambodia. July 16 through July 27, 2001.

Some parts made me chuckle. This three-sentence story, for example:

Yesterday I was about to throw ice out of my glass and Ravut stopped me. "Ice is very expensive here. You should give it back to the kitchen."

What?! Ice is expensive?! It's about twenty five cents a kilogram expensive. It isn't necessary to send a couple of cents worth of half-melted lumps back to the kitchen! I think maybe Ravut was messing with you....

I laughed a little at the tales from the fresh foreigner but I also enjoyed many of the raw observations in Notes From My Travels. It reminded me of comments from first-time visitors; things that I realise afresh aren't part of everyday life in an urban, Western context:

I just woke up to roosters.

A roll of toilet paper is put on the table.

As we continue to ride our bicycles, we pass many men and women watching us from their homes. They are surrounded by children.They wave or smile at us. Other people just watch us, but I noticed that every time we wave and smile, they immediately respond in kind.
... Every time we pass someone on the road, through the jungle and through the little village, we make eye contact and give a friendly greeting. It is always returned.
Can you imagine if that was our everyday life? Could you imagine acknowledging every individual you pass and smiling at one another? Showing respect to everyone?

Here's the cool thing: I don't have to imagine what this might be like. After five years, interactions like these never get tiring. I smile at strangers and they smile back. Always. Kids call out 'hello' on their way home from school. People pause for a few minutes to make small talk at any time of the day. It's easy. And this is what makes it such a pleasure to live here.

Maybe I'm completely bonkers but I will put this idea out there: Ange~ you're tall, gorgeous, rich, famous.... and you have snogged some fair-decent looking fellas. But I believe there just might be a tiny bit of you that's a teeny bit jealous of the life I get to live every day.

Pursat Run

Slightly blurred... but you get the idea. This is a photo of someone taking a photo of the winners of the women's 5K at Pursat. (How tiny is the girl who got first?!)

note to self

One day when I'm 17 years old, indescribably cool and have tons of free time. I'm going to start a band.

Today I was thinking about possible names:

1. Hide The Evidence (it's a bit secretive and mysterious...)
2. Captains Of Industry (obviously the media will shorten this to the Captains when we start to gain worldwide popularity...)
3. The People's Party (because the Cambodian People's Party needs an alternative)

I'm also a huge fan of any band name with the word "band" actually in it. It helps to clarify the product. With this in mind, I offer these suggestions to my teenage-self:

4. Bandwagon (see inspirational image above)
5. Bandicoots (small to medium-sized terrestrial marsupial omnivores in the order of Peramelemorphia. Fyi.)
6. HeadBand (yes, the capital B is important)
7. Plaster (because Band Aid has already been done)

Pursat River Run (race report)

I like surfing and I’m crazy about snowboarding. Unfortunately, neither of these sports are booming in Cambodia… so it’s a good thing we’ve got the annual Pursat River Run! This year was my second year to run Pursat and I learned a few lessons.

Lesson # 1: It’s not about time. It’s about having a good time.

The pre-race information noted that the routes were not exactly 5km or 10km. (Both were slightly longer because of the need to locate the starting lines in places where people can congregate on narrow roads.) Pursat might not be the place to record a new personal best time if you’re trying for a 5K PB over a 5.25km course. However, it’s a great race to enjoy running with local Cambodians. Runners turned out from thirteen high schools across the province, the police and military police, non-government organizations as well as members of the public. Of the 495 runners, there was a sprinkling of expatriates, but the majority of runners were locals. Running with a bunch of locals is what makes this race great!

Lesson #2: It’s not about fashion. It’s about finishing in style.

Just before the start of the 10K, there was a huge downpour, cooling the air and giving runners an excuse to look a little messy after only a few kilometers. (Me? Sweaty? Nah.. it’s the rain!) I was quite comfortable but I wondered about the teenagers who ran the full 10 in soaked jeans and a cotton T-shirt? They were still smiling at the end so I guess they were ok! I noticed a range of footwear at Pursat 2009 too. Many ran barefoot. Same ran in socks. One young guy clicked down the street in his football boots. Ultimately, it wasn’t as much about fashion as finishing in style. Srey Mao, a 12-year-old student from Battambang, embodied this. She ran a well-paced 5K, striding out 300m before the finish line and taking first place in the women’s event. All this in shorts, a T-shirt and a pair of socks! It wasn’t about fashion, but Srey Mao was all style.

Lesson #3: It’s not about placing. It’s about racing.

At the starting line, I couldn’t help but notice there were kids preparing to run who were about half my height and a third of my age! I wasn’t sure whether to feel pity or fear (or both). After some jostling at the start, runners settled down andbegan to run their own race. At the finish line, Mok Bonthoeun finished the 10K a comfortable 2 minutes ahead of his nearest rival, Kieng Samon, and Emily Woodfield defended her women’s 10K title. Cheng Chandara claimed the men’s 5K and Yeut Srey Mao won the women’s 5K. For the kids who pinned a race bib to their chest for the first time, I hope they will race again and discover that placing isn’t everything. Rather, it’s about setting a goal, running at it and celebrating finishing the race.

Afterwards, I spoke with some of the other runners and race officials. Some high school students were thrilled with the prize money they received for minor placings and said they would use the money for their studies. One runner said she was motivated to enter the race because she is training to be a school sports teacher and doesn’t simply want to teach the theory but wants to be a role model for young people. The race officials I spoke with loved being a part of it too. They said they have no plans to run if there’s another race next year but would consider participating if there was a Pursat River Ping Pong Competition?!

I can’t say that in Pursat 2010 there will be surf, snow or ping pong…. but I do hope there will be running!

Siem Reap....all about the food!

Sim & Malis in Siem Reap