Friday, Jan 29

The streets are fascinating in so many ways. I remember Michael writing of the woman riding down the street grilling bananas on a grilled rigged to the front of her bike. I met this for my own eyes today and she allowed me to photograph her, which I shall post if only I can figure out the picture adding to the blog!

Every block has too many tuk-tuks, which are covered 2 seat taxis hitched to the back of a moto, which is a small motorcycle- 100 cc. The drivers are very eager to put our white faces on board, but we like to walk when we can and then ride when we are too hot or pooped. It turns out I have a partner in my limited walk capabilities. Turns out Michael went running at 5:30 am on Dec 27, stepped in a hole, and broke his fibula at the ankle. Not cracked, broken- made 2 bones out of one. Didn’t tell me, (didn’t want me to worry), but he’s in hot water about that! Fortunately, after wearing a boot to stabilize the bone, teaching when he could with his foot elevated, and walking with a cane, his latest x ray shows good healing.

The weekend has come and we are glad of that. Michael has been working harder than last year as he knows the lay of the land and jumps in with a more aggressive teaching schedule than last year. Between the constant heat and long days, we’re lucky to be awake at 9 pm.

Tuesday, Feb 2

Never got the last bit off. The weekend started out with a great walk on Saturday to the history museum, which houses a huge collection of the statues from the ancient civilization at Anchor Wat. There’s still a great deal of archaeological digs going on there and is by far the biggest tourist attraction in Phnom Penh. The courtyard was nice there, full of flowers and koi ponds with blossoming lotus flowers. Found a great spot for lunch of pho, Vietnamese noodle soup that we eat every chance we get in Portland. Even in the midday heat, it was delicious!

On Sunday, we went with the Hash House Harriers, a running group that has chapters in every nook and cranny of the world. We had to be walkers due to Michael’s still-healing leg and my back issues. We climbed rickety open air truck with 30 other kooks, left the city, and then took a really rickety ferry boat ride over to Mekong Island, where we happily left the noisy bustle of the city behind. There were massive spreads of beautiful fields of tomatoes, taro, corn, rice and lots of leafy greens, all with the Mekong River as the backdrop. Tethered horses and cows were here and there. We walked on dirt roads through the fields and then through a couple of poor but tidy villages where every house had children by the road to watch the parade of white people. They love to yell “hello” and did so at least 15 times each. Most kids were dressed but many were wearing only big smiles. We came to the end of our walk and were waiting for the others to get back amongst the grazing skinny cows. The Hash group gathers at the end to drink beer and sing silly songs and cut up for an hour or more. The island is famous for its weavers and the raw silk weavings were just magnificent. The ladies are highly keen to see interest in our eyes, so I was swarmed. If I just needed some raw silk- this would be the place!
During the swarming I noticed Michael sitting on the ground and turning a strange pale color. With no restrooms to be had and basically in the cow pasture, he got very sick very quickly. It was a long, miserable, hot wait to get back on the rickety truck, back on the rickety ferry, back to the central meeting place, then on a tuk-tuk for our ride home, which had to be a most excellent place for my poor sick man. He even missed work Monday, which means really sick for Michael, but is fine now other than being a little wrung out. I am happy to have dodged whatever that was and hope I can still say that in a few days!