Point of View

I just watched a show on National Geographic called Meet the Natives.

Some men from a south pacific island go to Western countries to meet the natives and learn about their customs- its interesting hearing a different point of view, I'm used to hearing the western POV of other cultures. The one i just saw they went to the UK and were shocked to see that there were homeless people. They said in their home place Tanna, no one is homeless.

I found that interesting as to me their society looks poor, they don't have electricity, running water, "proper" clothes- yet no one is homeless, but in our "rich" society we have people sleeping on the streets.

They were taken to see some pet dogs washed and groomed, were amazed people would go to so much trouble to look after animals; they made a deal with the English- they said: when we go home we will try to look after our animals more, and you should try to look after people more, like those homeless people.

Hearing this different point of view reminded me of China Ramblings by Suzanne Rowe. Most of the pieces in her book are about her experience as an Aussie in China, but she has some written from the Chinese point of view.

This one is from the POV of a Chinese teacher who has some foreigners visiting her class.

I didn’t want the children to be frightened so I prepared them well. These foreigners, I told them, are people just like us, but different too. Their skin is the colour of a grubby whitewashed wall with splattered speckles. Their eyes are blue, but not as blue as the sky. More like the blue-grey exhaust coming from a run-down tractor. Their hair isn’t yellow like the books say, but closer to the colour of a muddy river.

Later in she wrote about how she felt sorry for the foreigners when it was toilet time. In China the public toilets are just that- public. I'm used to cubicles but in China its a lot more open plan. Anyway, the teacher in this story found it strange that the white person wanted to go in by themselves.

Back in Cambodia

Some of you may know that I recently went away. These photos on my other blog say a bit about that: Holiday 09.

Now I'm getting to know the new students at the Bible school, so many girls this year.
Ali has great photos of Cambodia. I really like these ones from around Phnom Penh. As she notes, her commute in Cambodia is quite different from going to work in Sydney.

Mum visit (part 7) Kompong Cham

Kompong Cham is known for its rubber trees.


We visited a Bible school that has solar power and pigs.

Ain't no flood no more

Stepping stones

The water has gone down now, but the other week this is what the campus looked like. They used bits of the drain to make stepping stones.

New Typhoon looms as South East Asian Death toll nears 400

and from the Phnom Penh Post

Photos of the typhoon damage in Cambodia.

Recent flood photos

This morning I went for a ride down our road. The duck farmers house is flooded, so they were doing it all on the road. I also saw people using boat type things to get around. I've been posting photos on our other blog Kronicle Extra, also some of the fishing nets that are set up on campus.



I have a friend whose house is really hard to get to, so she and her 3 year old are staying with her mum. But her husband has to stay and look after their ducks. They were joking about how its like they are divorced for rainy season. She's looking fwd to the water going down so she can be married again. Although for the long weekend she is going home, and taking some friends to visit her house. They are excited because they will be catching and eating fish.. fishing from the comfort of your own home!

Sheep head anyone?

'We began to realise that, as much as we were committed to adapting to our adopted culture and doing things the Mongolian way as much as possible , sometimes we had to draw the line. In three areas we were unable (or unwilling) to give up our own culture's ways: birth, death and breakfast."There's a sheep in my bathtub by Brian Hogan
page 165

Flood!

The water levels on campus are about as high as they were at their highest last November. If you click here you can see photos from last year, in each set there is one or two for when it was pretty flooded, and one for when it was really flooded.

Inside the temple

At the moment Festival of the Dead is on, as I mentioned below. Last year Rachael went to see what they were all up to at 4.30am in the temple. Have a look at her photos here.

That time of year again!

The other week we had our first big rain of the season, as Karen noted on her blog.

The flooding started earlier last year, and the roads were really flooded, as you can see in these photos (click here) I took August 2008. Today Our roads aren't flooded but on campus is!


I don't think we need to water the veggie garden today.

Looking after your deceased family members in Asia

Last Thursday as I rode to and from work I saw people burning things outside their houses. They used metal bins or big metal bowls to burn money and other paper things for their dead ancestors. I'll try to get a photo next year. I think they also had a special meal that day. Its a Chinese festival, although I don't remember seeing it in China. Religious things are more obvious here.

And on Saturday the Cambodia "Festival of the Dead" began. It's called 'Pchum Ben'and goes for two weeks. During these two weeks the streets are filled with people in their best clothes going to temples to give food to their ancestors. Some photos: KI Media, Pchum Ben photos
See also Feeding the Dead
The last few days are public holidays and everyone goes back to their hometown.

Shadow puppets (mum visit part 6)

We visited Sovanna Phum and saw a performance of drumming and dancing. We also saw these shadow puppets on display, an ancient art form SP keeps alive.

PS (mum visit part 5.5)

Just found Rachael (who is now back in the US) has a great blog about the cooking class too. She did it awhile ago- have a look here.

Cooking Khmer food! (mum visit part 5)

While Mum was here we went to a Khmer cooking class and made lots of yummy food. This is a photo of some of the herbs and spices.


First the teacher took us to the market so we could learn about some interesting things there, then we went back and made a few dishes. One of our classmates did a blog on it. She has lots of photos and explained lots of the highlights of the day. Have a look at Ali's How to be a domestic goddess: Khmer edition

Almost all our classmates were Aussies- it was funny to hear them all talking in Aussie accents to each other! Not something I hear often, esp as I can't seem to get Radio Australia very clearly these days.

And if you want to see a video of cooking Khmer food have a look at this. I don't know if its any good or not as my internet isn't fast enough to watch videos.