Showing posts with label Puns-AKA-DDJ. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Puns-AKA-DDJ. Show all posts
Monday, March 31, 2008
Friday, March 21, 2008
Wind photos link
If you want to see photos to go with what I wrote before go to the Expat Advisory site. They run a blog contest and I entered "What colour is the wind?". They added some photos! I think you need to go this month to see pics, as its a monthly contest. I notice they changed it to USA spelling, and the first time KSs name appears you can tell its been spell checked too.
Wednesday, March 19, 2008
What colour is the wind?
What colour is the wind?
“Ouch!” Kimsoeun my husband laughs at my cry of pain. He is the one who is sick, so why am I screaming? And why is he laughing?
He has had a headache for a few days, but that’s not the pain that makes me say “Ouch”.
To treat his headache he has asked me to “ gos khjol” his back. So I’m scraping a small round metal lid up and down his back until his skin turns red, using a menthol rub as a lubricant.
When his mum does it he ends up with two red lines down either side of his spine, and smaller rib-looking lines going outward from these main two lines. I’m trying to do the same, but I only manage a few small, faint lines here and there. He wanted me to scrape harder but I felt like I was hurting him.
Sometimes “ gos khjol” is translated as “coining” because you can use a coin to do it. Cambodia doesn’t have coins anymore, but Cambodians in Australia use coins and Vicks. It’s similar to the Chinese medicinal practice of “cupping”. Hot cups are placed on the skin until it turns red. Khmer people also use this method and call it “joop khjol”.
Once when a Cambodian husband in Australia “coined” his sick wife, he almost got in trouble because of it. The doctors who were eventually called thought he had been abusing her. After someone’s been “coined” it does looked like something violent happened to them. Red welts on the skin are surely a sign of something bad?
It seemed to be used as a general cure-all. Apparently it can help if you have a fever. “Coining and cupping reroutes the blood flow by opening up the arterials near the skin surface cooling the blood and in turn it can reduce fever.” (Dr Sheftall, American Medical Center, Phnom Penh Post, August 2007)
Sometimes when Kimsoeun has a headache he pinches his skin so hard it stays red for the rest of the day. He explained this is called “jup khjol” and a likened it to a massage. A pretty painful massage if you ask me!
Many Cambodians would feel that they can’t get better from their sickness if they are not “coined”.
The word “khjol” is also the word for wind. When I learnt this I understood why my neighbours kept asking me “What colour is the wind?” They would burst into fits of laughter and I would feel confused. The wind doesn’t have a colour, does it? But now I know the colour of “khjol” is red.
“Ouch!” Kimsoeun my husband laughs at my cry of pain. He is the one who is sick, so why am I screaming? And why is he laughing?
He has had a headache for a few days, but that’s not the pain that makes me say “Ouch”.
To treat his headache he has asked me to “ gos khjol” his back. So I’m scraping a small round metal lid up and down his back until his skin turns red, using a menthol rub as a lubricant.
When his mum does it he ends up with two red lines down either side of his spine, and smaller rib-looking lines going outward from these main two lines. I’m trying to do the same, but I only manage a few small, faint lines here and there. He wanted me to scrape harder but I felt like I was hurting him.
Sometimes “ gos khjol” is translated as “coining” because you can use a coin to do it. Cambodia doesn’t have coins anymore, but Cambodians in Australia use coins and Vicks. It’s similar to the Chinese medicinal practice of “cupping”. Hot cups are placed on the skin until it turns red. Khmer people also use this method and call it “joop khjol”.
Once when a Cambodian husband in Australia “coined” his sick wife, he almost got in trouble because of it. The doctors who were eventually called thought he had been abusing her. After someone’s been “coined” it does looked like something violent happened to them. Red welts on the skin are surely a sign of something bad?
It seemed to be used as a general cure-all. Apparently it can help if you have a fever. “Coining and cupping reroutes the blood flow by opening up the arterials near the skin surface cooling the blood and in turn it can reduce fever.” (Dr Sheftall, American Medical Center, Phnom Penh Post, August 2007)
Sometimes when Kimsoeun has a headache he pinches his skin so hard it stays red for the rest of the day. He explained this is called “jup khjol” and a likened it to a massage. A pretty painful massage if you ask me!
Many Cambodians would feel that they can’t get better from their sickness if they are not “coined”.
The word “khjol” is also the word for wind. When I learnt this I understood why my neighbours kept asking me “What colour is the wind?” They would burst into fits of laughter and I would feel confused. The wind doesn’t have a colour, does it? But now I know the colour of “khjol” is red.
Tuesday, July 24, 2007
Meat on line
Well, I was so happy that we were able to buy a fridge. I've grown up with a fridge in the house, keeping food cold is good! However, my husband didn't grow up having a fridge so we have some different ideas about storing food! For example one Sunday he chopped up the meat and mixed it with garlic and stuff- and then put it on the washing line to dry!
You can see in these photos the beef in a red plastic basket thing sitting on the piece of string that used to be our washing line. Until recently thats where we hung clothes to dry, but the string kept breaking just after I'd put all the clean clothes on it- so they weren't clean anymore.
Heaps of people in Cambodia have a metal rod on legs they use. After putting the clothes on coat hangers they put them on this rod. Well, we finally bought one and worked out how to get it home. So far we've just been leaving it inside with wet clothes on it. After the workmen are finished I plan to take it out side some where.
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