A tenuous truce and some long-awaited travel

First and foremost, an update: the cockroaches (plural) are still there, alive and well -- thriving, you might say, despite my best efforts. The most damage I've done was to catch one crawling around in the sink befouling the dinner dishes, which I responded to by turning on the tap full blast in order to rough him up a little bit and maybe even drown him, if I was lucky. It didn't end up killing him (since I hadn't beheaded him first or mixed any kind of poisonous dish liquid into the water source), but I do think it might have reminded him of his place in my kitchen, and he and his cohort have been cowering respectfully under the sink ever since. And that's all I really wanted, at the end of the day: they get their territory and I get mine, and as long as we can both respect that and refrain from unlawful intrusions, well, maybe we can all get along after all. So I'm calling a truce, but under a strict three strikes framework which leaves the door open for me to reactivate my crusade at the first sign of a transgression. Watch yourselves, roaches of # 7ZE1 Street 360 (and yeah that's my real address, of course it has a Z and an E in it). You're on my list.

In other news, I've been traveling a bunch since I last wrote and have lots to say about all of it, but I probably won't be able to get through it in one sitting so be ready for installments. To begin: after five months of working here with 20% travel time stipulated in my contract and 0% travel time actually occurring, I finally got to take my first trip to the field. I went to three provinces, visited 5 villages, and met about 30 young indigenous villagers who will be participating in a photo project we're implementing to document and promote indigenous culture. I'm helping design the project as well as overseeing implementation, along with one other coworker, so it's probably the most substantive work I've done this whole time and I'm fairly excited to be part of it. But it was also great just to get out of Phnom Penh for awhile and see some of the countryside, which is currently bone-dry and caked in a thick layer of red dust, but still pretty. I rode a motorcycle on unpaved country roads by moonlight, visited a crater lake and watched with great amusement as my two workers conducted an impromptu calendar shoot of themselves in a variety of poses in front of the lake and surrounding vegetation, hung out in a village with pigs the size of cars and squawking chickens running up and down people's front stairs trying to get in the houses, and, most interestingly, attended the opening ceremonies at a new Buddhist temple way out in the middle of nowhere and got to accompany my coworkers as they performed a full ritual offering including incense, flowers, money, and packets of shaving cream and shampoo for the monks. Fascinating.

Somewhere in there I also attended a public forum on extractive industries in Cambodia, which a partner organization hosted in order to provide information to people who might not otherwise have much access to it on what the current situation is with respect to oil, gas, and mining. The forum was great to see, but it was also pretty great that it was held in a beach town and as soon as we were done we got to go snorkeling and eat banana fritters in the sand as the sun went down. And then lastly, when some fellow VIA volunteers were in town I took them to a place called Udong, which is supposed to be a former capital and site of some cool temples but which our taxi driver saw absolutely no reason whatsover to visit. He kept asking me, " Udong? Are you sure? Do you even know what Udong is?" I assured him we were interested in seeing the old temples on the hill, to which he responded, "All you want is to see a temple? Look there's a temple right there, want me to pull over? There's also lots of temples in Phnom Penh, should I just turn around now?" We remained adamant, though, and were glad we did. It's not all the much to see because apparently the US bombed the bejesus out of it during the war, but it's still something, and there were some kids selling snow cones at the top which you just don't get everyday, so all in all it was a trip well worth taking.

Ok that's about all I can cover at the moment, I'll get back to you on my conference in Krabi, Thailand and trip to Laos with Mom in the next edition. In the meantime, here's an article for your reading enjoyment about a badass lady politician trying to shake things up in Cambodia:

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/22/world/asia/22cambowomen.html?ref=global-home

Go Mu Sochua, go!