ridin' that (bamboo) train...

our good friends levi & ellie from canada have been visiting us for the last month or so. its been such a pleasure to host them in different places & stages of life over the past several years & it has been a joy hosting them here in cambodia. [just when we were beginning to feel homesick, home, in the form of people we love, came to us!] they are our first visitors from home & its been wonderful to share our rich [& dusty & hot!] cambodian life with such beautiful friends.

[levi & ellie]

we've taken the opportunity of their visit to have lots of cambodian adventures & i'll begin with our adventure riding the bamboo train...

the train system in cambodia is in quite a deteriorated state & some very clever folks have built contraptions known as "bamboo trains" to haul goods & people along the dilapidated tracks that still exist. these bamboo trains are a marvel to behold, both for their simplicity, their effectiveness and the safety hazards they pose.

to get on this train we helped some 13-year-old put two heavy sets of train wheels connected by their axles on the track and then lifted a wooden frame onto these wheels. across the top of the frame were bamboo slats spaced 5 or 6 inches apart.

now, the best part is the engine. it's a small motor that nestles atop steel rails on top of the platform. its not attached so the engine can slide forward and back. from the engine a single rubber fan belt loosely drops through the bamboo slats and around the axle. once the engine gets started the driver just pushes the whole engine forward, tightening the belt, and moving the train. to slow down just slide the engine backwards. to make the train go the other direction just turn the whole engine around. to stop the train there is a big wooden stick with a piece of rubber nailed to the end that gets jammed between the train wheel and the platform. it seemed crazy but the system worked magnificently. and almost anyone can repair it.

[i loved this little guy's shirt - 'we're loving peaceful time']

[gasin' up]

we found a family with one these contraptions on the outskirts of phnom penh & had a day of adventure riding the [quite rickety] bamboo train & exploring rural cambodia.

[a video of the bamboo train in action]

[cow detour: picture by amie]

[gucci/ray ban knockoffs, $5]

[at the end of the tracks.

wrong way dude]

[better]

[view from the tracks]

forever heart stay you always. destiny!

to celebrate daniel's (& our good friend steve's) birthday, we hosted a 'bad english t-shirt party'. below is some of the hilarity.

[free style written boy hip hop & someone make me a cherry berry record mix tape]

[hunnies play me close like butter play toast]

[the dirty live long but die haro. save blue]

[obama for president of space]

[your very the highest. we are fighting on the brink whether it always dead or alive. real clothes from log.a careful selection matena is used and it's made with sewing technology.]

[losers always lose...always]

[blackfish rock tubelor money punk winshester]

[g-star raw denim 3801 south east distr]

spectacle

a few weeks ago i (amanda) travelled to kompong cham province with a small organization i work with here called women peacemakers.

the organization provides training in rural cambodia about women's right, domestic violence issues, peacebuilding & conflict mediation skills. cambodia has only recently emerged from decades of brutal & traumatizing civil war so education about peaceful alternatives to mediating conflict are so vital to the country's development.

the work of women peacemakers is inspiring. we traveled five hours by bus from phnom penh to a regional town with a guesthouse & a market.

[can you spot the pig head?]

& early every morning we drove an hour & a half

through miles & miles of rice fields

until we reached the primiary school in the isolated community where the training was held.

the two young women who led the workshop are strong & articulate & i was so impressed with their dedication to their work.

the workshop participants were gentle & kind & tried very patiently to understand my heavily accented khmer.

however, the entire time i attended the training i was an utter spectacle.

[kids gathering to peek in at me during the training]

with my limited khmer, i was able to pick up that the participants were constantly narrating my actions to each other. "she is sitting down". "she is eating fruit". "she is writing with her left hand". & then discussions about my appearance. "her skin is so white". "her shirt is not khmer style" "she looks like angelina" (who people like here because she adopted a cambodian child, somehow skirting the US ban on adoptions from cambodia due to child trafficking issues) .

it was endearing & unnerving all at the same time & provides a lot of food for thought on the arbitrary nature of cultural standards of power & beauty. behind the admiration, do the older participants ever think about my country's devastating bombings of their land & their people? or do they only see the media's idealization of all things western & young?

& the children.

in phnom penh, the kids i see on my street love to run out & yell "HELLO" when we pass by. the kids in this village just seemed totally stunned by my presence.

[when i came out of the bathroom on the first day, i was greeted with a crowd of stares]

they didn't yell greetings, because i think they had actually just never seen a foreigner before. (babies cried!)

but their fascination was tender & once they realised i spoke khmer at a child's level, curiosity got the best of them & they followed me around for days.

their bright smiles were the highlight of my trip, but their reality is much darker than i think i can ever really understand. the widespread poverty in their region means that they are very vulnerable to exploitation & abuse.

[please pray for these sweet children]

[it looks oddly hip, but many of the children have blond streaks in their hair because of a nutrient deficiency & malnutrition]

[i posted this little one-shoed guy in my last post, but i haven't been able to get him out of my mind. the villagers told me that his mother had to go to malaysia to get work (a lot of cambodians are migrant workers in malaysia, thailand, and singapore) & so he does not get proper care]

& it was all yellow

[a collection of photos from various countryside schools]

one weekend in bangkok