Khmer cultural dance - this dance is called the 'Cardamom Picking Dance' (I'd write that in Khmer, but the script is impossible on this computer!). It talks about the 'Por', a minority group living in the forest, picking cardamom, planting rice and tea, the dance is supposed to portray the way of life of the Por people. And it does a very good job! Was amazing to watch one of the other dances when they wove cloth, you could almost see the cloth being made on a human loom made of dancers, it was very realistic.
This is Sokourn, my Khmer Language teacher! We hear lots of antics about his life, as well as learning some Khmer. (and notice that my hair is getting shorter and shorter.... I have a pair of scissors in my bathroom and keep snipping at it - might need to remove the scissors soon before it's all gone!)
This is Fiona and Sue, just this weekend. We had an easter lunch at my flat - nothing has happened here for easter (which is great), but it's odd for us when the eater egg hunt is real, and you have to search the entire city to find some where with chocolate eggs!
Fiona and I have been spending a lot of time with Nikray, our self appointed Khmer M'dai (mother). Here we are eating (yet again), our favorite lunch of vegetarian Pho! Yummy delicious goodness! Mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm
This is Navy, he is a friend of Callum and Sovuthy from New Zealand - went out to a dinner with Him, a young lady called Tong, and Fiona when she was up this weekend! It was hallarious. Their english is good, but the menu was all in English. Can you read this? We asked. Yes, of course, but we dont understand it! Which lead to a great game of 'what is this'... (tastes like, looks like, is used in, grows here.... GINGER!) etc...

9 April 07

Kia Ora/Hej/Guten Morgan/Hello/Sue S’dai!

Ewwwwwwww discovered a cockroach family in my kitchen last night! Fiona Fumigated the place (even more ewww), and this morning I have the guys on their backs all over my floor with their little legs twitching! I had no idea there was anything which grossed me out more than spiders… it seems long twitching antenna, followed by a little armoured scuttly body are the thing.

I’d take a photo of these huge creatures for you… but as they were still twitching this morning, they have been hidden under bowls for the day – and I’m too scared to lift them up in case the critter runs at me. Animal (these things are large enough to belong to the animal kingdom) cruelty 101 – if they are still alive at all they will have to sit it out in the heat all day too.

Fiona is up for the weekend from Svay Rieng, so it’s been good times catching up with her – it’s amazing how much there is to talk about after four days in this country. We have barely left the house. Although I did go out to a cultural dance performance last night (Sunday), which was good… some long sections of ‘stand up comedy’ in between the dances which was a little hard to follow in Khmer. It’s nice to watch theatre and dance in different places. It was very different to anything we would have watched at home – even if we had been watching Khmer dance. The crowd was full of Cambodian people and children, who all laughed outrageously loudly during the comedy, and would repeat several sections with the actors. Mosquitoes EVERYWHERE, buzzing in and out of your sight (except actually the mosquitoes here are silent. Weird? But highly helpful, especially as just the noise of them makes me itch and distracted).

This morning Fi is off to work early (8am), and I have the luxury of starting at 8:30am. It’s been really nice to have someone around the house (call to all people interested in visiting Cambodia… come and hang around my house!!). Not to put you off coming, but I’ve also tried to make sticky rice this morning… it tastes terrible. I’m not sure if I’m missing a secret ingredient (maybe the little brown beans you find in it when you buy it on the street?), or if I need to use ‘regular’ sugar (I stuck in a little tablet of ‘palm sugar’, which is delicious stuff – it tastes like caramel). Actually in all honesty, I think it’s because I was expecting something like rice pudding – but of course there is no milk in it.

Have lots more photos and antics to share with you all, but will post them later in the day - my computer battery is almost out.

Hope all is well at home
xx
Anna