Cambodia Diaries: Home Sick

Cambodia Diaries: Homesick
I am just half way between east meets west and I am already homesick, at least for those simple things home has to offer. Things that I never really bothered to sit back and ponder over how life would be if they were ever taken away. Things and people I had taken for granted. The India in and around me that I so casually took for granted- gol gappas, kadi patta, Shah Rukh Khan, Bangalore lingo, mallu jokes, yelling across the street to find out from the fat old anglo lady if the miniature fishing net my 5 year old retriever hid under the couch was actually her panty hose, dads garage that doubled as a free three star boarding and lodging for strays, getting caught in conversation with the wise old man next door, our phone that always parked itself on my cheeks as I regularly exercised my vocal chords. Now that I haven’t done or seen any of these things for over a year I almost feel alienated from what was once my life.

Reborn far away in Mandalay a year and half ago I find myself eating steamed vegetables with chopsticks for meals and training a bunch of people in spoken English to pay my bills when I am not job hopping. I don’t have neighbours to go around talking to. If my phone rings its only because my colleague at work wants to know where the weekly report files were kept. After a year of forced abstention from movie halls I finally showed fate my finger and sat through an entire Khmei movie. It was kinda fun but I wish I’d taken my ear plugs along. Sure there were days when I dint even see the sun but life here in Phnom Penh is not as dreary as you might think. There are lotta fun things you can do around here. All of them essentially need two things: Hoards of money and No parental supervision. Absolutely.

I have quite a bit of the former but not enough to beat the latter so Nat Geo and corn kernels it is. I am not a huge party bopper but I really don’t mind dipping into the social scene once in a while as long as the company and the conversations are equally compelling. Not many locals speak English so buddy hunt is a tall order. There is a huge expat population in Cambodia, mostly in the form of NGOs, missionaries and English teachers. About 80% of them are former backpackers who were smart enough to capitalise on their white skin and the intellectual superiority that it is double packaged with. Some of them haven’t even bothered considering bathing and chopping off their grimy matted locks. I know dozens of them who have been here for ages. Now I know what makes them stick around here- cheap beer, cheap sex, cheap coke and a next to God status. Chances of spotting a 60-something year old white with a local twinkie is as good as spotting a gecko in an Amazonian kitchen. The United States has managed to invade Cambodia without having to send a single soldier across the border. They are everywhere- as super hero social workers, as messiah missionaries with bread in one hand and the bible in the other, as English teachers – all proclaiming themselves to be the Chosen Ones of God born to liberate these unfortunate people from their obscure land and living and introduce them to civilization. Does Dubya Man think civilization was born in downtown Texas? While little Bush should probably sit at home and undergo some psychotherapy along with some History lessons, the jerks who created the whole mess in the first place are pretending to try and fix South East Asia- Again.

Of course, I don’t mean that anybody sporting genuine white skin is a glue smelling gold digger. A small portion of them are humane too. I have friends amongst these and we do have our share of fun, mostly hanging out at Java, our coffee shop talking politics and culture. If we were to do the same outside, we’d be attracting bullets. The café, run by a friend Dana, a young enterprising American has a loyal expat following. Loyal, because of its excellent service, awesome caffeine and homely ambiance. Expat, because of its charges. Nevertheless it truly is a home away from home for some of us.

Life is good if you believe it is. We all hold on to that belief and get on with our lives. The journey hasn’t been half bad. In fact, on the whole its been a thrilling adventure and an amazing learning experience if I were to take away the little irritants. I get to work with bears, tigers and gibbons. I get to live in an international community- swapping political and cultural views as much as recipes. I teach the children of some of the greatest internationally accomplished personas I’ll meet in a while. Living in Cambodia has taught me a lot. This Country will make me what I will choose to be. I will be grateful to this land and its people one day when I truly understand what life is really all about.

Sometime in late 2003