Good Morning Vietnam!

A few weeks ago we decided to celebrate Cambodian New Year (& its weeklong public holiday) by taking a trip to explore Vietnam.

We hopped in a boat with our friends, Amie & Steve, & headed down the Mekong River to Vietnam, a land of dragons, contradictions, sadness & most surprisingly, a land of restoration & rebirth.

We fell in love.

We very surprised by how much more developed Vietnam is, compared to Cambodia. It was much cleaner & tidier (no piles of garbage in the streets!), the traffic was very busy but quite orderly, there were no giant Lexus SUVs taking up the roads, everybody wore helmets and not a single motor bike had more than two people on it!

In Ho Chi Mihn we drank delicious bubble tea.

We hired moto drivers & rode out to the Cu Chi Tunnels.

They were a network of tunnels & booby traps (made from bamboo, former hunting techniques, quite gruesome indeed!) made by the Viet Cong to evade & harm the American troops during the war. It was disturbing & fascinating to see the conflict from the Vietcong perspective. At the end of the tour, there was also a firing range where tacky tourists could pay $10 to fire an AK47 or various machine guns at a rifle range. An old Vietnamese war vet was telling us his stories about the horrors he lived through while wincing from the sound of these ridiculous tourists firing off weapons for fun...

Speaking of pacifism, we also went to the American War Museum (formerly called the american war crimes museum) it was gut wrenching & horrific & made us feel like weeping for all the needless blood shed, on both sides, in vain trying to protect the world from a communist Vietnam. The museum depicted such tragedy & loss that I really am at a loss to say anything more, just that we left with a profound sense of sorrow.

On to brighter things...

communist Ho Chi Minh is now a beacon of capitalism & we could not believe the swanky stores we saw. Louis Vuitton! Calvin Klein! Marc Jacobs! Oh my!

Feeling like we should indulge in this western deluge while we could, we enjoyed an evening of Pizza Hut (!!!) & a movie at a real theater. Unfortunately all that was showing was Race to Witch Mountain, a Disney movie starring the Rock. Oh well, we still enjoyed the pizza, popcorn, & air conditioning!

From Ho Chi Minh, we headed to Dalat, a mountain town about 5 hours northeast.

In Dalat, we met up with “An, the man who cAN”, a moto driver who spent several days with us, showing us all around the surrounding countryside, showering us with tales from his time fighting with the South Vietnamese army & his time in “re-education camp” after the South surrendered & drinking lots of rice wine.

It was great to travel around via moto & Dalat was cold, which we loved, because Phnom Penh has been so hot. We saw beautiful waterfalls,

a cool passion fruit grove,

a silk factory, (*picture by amie)

an old French train station,

& Vietnamese pagodas.

We also hiked a cool mountain & got to swimming in a big lake after.

It was exhilarating & refreshing to be away from the heat & chaos of Phnom Penh.

(* crazy house pictures by amie)

In Dalat, we also visited we also visited the Crazy House. A guest house designed by a former Vietnamese leader’s architect daughter who appears to be some sort of Yoko Ono. But it works great for architecture! This building was part Dr. Suess, part Dracula, and maybe part melting Smurf house!

In the end, it seemed entirely fitting that we were in Vietnam for Easter. The overwhelming feeling we came away with, was that Vietnam is a country that has been resurrected!

a quick trip...

A few weeks ago we traveled to Kratie Province (348 km northeast of Phnom Penh) to attend the wedding of the sister of one of our colleagues.

Amanda got to wear a fun wedding dress again...

We spent the day after the wedding with the bride & groom & the rest of the family.
We visited Wat Sorsor Moey Roy (literally, the Pagada with 100 Pillars)

The inside was quite ornate...

A friendly monk waved goodbye as we left...

Afterwards, we went swimming in the Mekong River & enjoyed a picnic of (what else!) rice & left over wedding chicken.

We finished the day on a beautiful boat watching a few pods of the Mekong's endangered freshwater dolphins.

all told, it was quite a nice trip.

[not pictured: 1) Daniel being carsick out of the bus window & friendly Khmer passengers insisting that he rub tiger balm all over his face (it stings!) & eat mangoes 2) d&a sitting at a wedding table full of jolly policemen & being convinced to eat deep fried chicken feet 3) d&a being forced to dance & the male guests, after being emboldened with "special beer" (its real name) lining up to shake Daniel's hand enthusiastically, while saying things we did not understand 4) swimming in the Mekong river, Cambodian style i.e. in all our clothes 5) a very squished return mini-bus ride where the passengers insisted on listening to the english preaching on the Christian radio station, for our benefit I presume]

no logo

i saw this sign from afar a few weeks ago & could not believe my eyes.
a real, live starbucks in phnom penh?!?

however, when walking by last weekend, i noticed the fine print around the edges:

"The Place does not possess Starbucks license,
is not a Starbucks representative
but merely sell genuine Starbucks coffee bean made coffee."

it appears that the phrase "copyright infringement" does not translate well into khmer...

A Trip To Prey Veng Province

[daniel using his moto skills to drive us through rice fields]

A few weeks ago we headed out to Prey Veng province to visit some of MCC's more rural work sites. The trip was fascinating on several levels. It was great to see what development work MCC is doing outside of Phnom Penh, but it was also shocking to see some of the rural poverty that exists in the countryside.

[children collecting dung to use as fuel]

There are estimates that half of Cambodia's rural poor lives on less than 45 cents a day. And more than the poverty, what I found haunting was the apparent lack of opportunity for the rural farmers, and especially for their children. And at the same time, it is in this context that the work of MCC and its local partners becomes so inspiring and hope-filled. We visited a meeting of a small community bank, villagers coming together to save and to give each other small loans for small scale business ventures.

We attended a meeting of local farmers listening to a trained veterinarian speaking about caring for their animals and protecting against bird flu.

We visited a high school that is teaching students agricultural techniques to address food insecurity issues.

We met a family living in poverty, who with the help of MCC, is learning to raise & sell chickens.

And we saw some rice field irrigation projects.

In the midst of our journeys here, we are often reminded that we are haves, while so many around us are have nots. And that we are haves in ways that run so much deeper than the size of our bank accounts-in having lived lives free from violence & war & the trauma of genocide & sexual abuse & discrimination; in having families that have always loved and supported us; in the education we received; & in the opportunities we have had to travel & learn & experience life from so many different places.

and it does not make any sense.

i keep remembering (& praying) the words of the poem "listen" by w.s. merwin

with the night falling we are saying thank you
we are stopping on the bridge to bow from the railings...
we are saying thank you and waving
dark though it is

the wheels on the bus...

...go round and round.

Last weekend we had the good fortune of going for a short trip out to Prey Veng Province to visit the work sites of some of our MCC colleagues. One of the more interesting parts of the trip was the bus trip there.

In what appears to be typical Cambodian fashion, this bus trip was about as chaotic as can be imagined. The way these bus companies work is that all the buses going to the same location leave from the same place, from where they have to compete with each other for the same passengers. It's every bus for herself. So as soon as a person carying a backpack gets within sight, they are descended upon by half a dozen bus attendants trying to make their best arguments for hopping on their bus. A particularly persuasive argument involves having your bags taken from you and placed on a bus for you. This really narrows your options down to hoping on the bus that already has your bags. It makes the decision much easier.

I tried to give my bags to the lady that said her bus was leaving in 10 minutes. It was later explained to me that what she meant was "our bus leaves as soon as there is no more room for anything in or on it. But if you would like to hear that our bus is the type of bus that leaves soon I don't mind telling you this". Oh cultural misunderstandings!

These buses make money by compensating for unreasonably low fares with unreasonable amounts of stuff to transport. About two hours later our bus was still sitting there waiting for more passengers to take up the last conceivable places for people to sit. When the seats are full, they simply put stools in the aisles.

At its peak, the bus had packed 34 people into the 15 passenger seats, not to mention bags of straws, flour, cooking oil, metal wire, and other miscellaneous goods meticulously packed under and between the seats. The best part is that since it took us so long to hit the road, by the time we got going we had to stop, before even getting outside of Phnom Penh city limits, so that everyone could buy bread!

[on the bus we listened to a great Classic Rock Liberation podcast, made by our brother-in-law Chris Lopez]

The Talstras Speak Cambodian

[warning: the post is not for the faint of heart, perhaps only true amandaniel fans will be interested in watching our rudimentary khmei small talk skills!]

daniel & i have been studying khmei, the cambodian language, for the past three months. here are videos of us conversing in khmei with our teacher, socheat, on the rooftop of the MCC office.

(i've included a translation of our conversation below)

Daniel speaks Khmei

Socheat: Hello, Daniel.

Daniel: Hello.

S: Daniel, are you happy & well?

D: Yes, I am happy & well. And you?

S: Yes, I am happy & well. Are you busy today?

D: Yes, I am busy today, as usual.

S: What will you do today?

D: Today I will study the Khmei language, work on the computer, and work at the university.

S: This morning, what time did you wake up?

D: This morning I woke up at 7 or 7:30.

S: This morning, what did you eat?

D: I ate a banana, bread, and water.

S: Where?

D: At my house.

S: Good, very good. After we study, where will you go?

D: I will stay here, at the MCC office, downstairs.

S: Good, very good.

Amanda speaks Khmei

Daniel: Ok, 1,2,3.

Socheat: 1,2,3. Hello, Amanda.

Amanda: Hello, Socheat.

S: Amanda, are you happy & well?

A: Yes, I am happy & well. And you?

S: Yes, I am happy & well. Amanda, are you busy today?

A: Today I am not busy.

S: Where did you go last night?

[Loud noises from the house next door]

A: Last night we went to our friend’s house. Their names are David & Holly and we ate together. It is close to your house, Socheat.

S: What did you eat?

A: We ate rice & vegetables & pizza (Italian food), & chocolate cake.

S: Last night what time did you go to sleep?

A: Last night I went to sleep at 11:00.

S: What time did you wake up this morning?

A: This morning I woke up at 7:30. And you?

S: I woke up at 5am. I wake up at 5am everyday.

we're on our way

[photos taken from the back of a moto with our new mp3 player/super mario handheld video game/camera phone - a fake sony we bought for $20 at a local market!]