Day 31, Day 1, Month 2 - the 1st of July, Cambodia!

My induction was moved up with little notice (15 mins, me answering the door bleary eyed and barely clothed) to am not pm, so no lie in. It's too hot anyway. It is a National Prayer Day today. Something on the Buddhist lunar calendar. Everyone was concerned it was a public holiday, apparently there can be a lot of them! 

 

Sophourn took the induction for myself, Chrissie and Megan (from England and Wales but not in my Apartment). He does not speak English well. He has long fingernails. (He teaches French). He has a wife who did not ever go to school.  The induction went on for a while. There are a lot of newbies but so far I'm the only one on the Khmer Project. We went over to the PA office where we met Mao Pises, the Director, a handsome chap in an expensive shirt. He was just heading out to fly to Siem Reap. My supervisor,Mr Sython Sun is not around as he is at the pottery village with another volunteer. However he will be returning in two days and I will be joined by two other new Khmer Projecters shortly. In the interim Chamrong the intern is going to show me around The Royal Palace and the National Museum.

There is an election on 28 July. The Cambodian Peoples Party (CPP) is running a campaign as though it will make a difference to the outcome. Occasionally you see the opposition, the National People's Party or something but it seems a bit half hearted. The campaign involves blasting very loud music from the back of large trucks covered in blue and white ribbons and garlands, with banners, and cruising past at their own speed. Day or night.

Finally got to the wifi cafe, (plastic chairs not stools in Phnom Penh), where I downloaded a Speak Khmer app and a Khmer Dictionary (does not include the written transliteration). Is transliteration the right word for the written language being non-Phoenician alphabet? (This means you can't actually read, spell out in a note for a tuk tuk driver, or attempt to pronounce, street names for example). It poured with rain whilst in the cafe and turned the road into a lake. 

I then forgot to pay the wifi cafe (the vast sum of 0.75c). Since I will need to go back this is midly troubling.

Totos ice cream was very nice and the service great. I've now been twice to Riverside and it is exciting at night.