Cafe

As a person who speaks very little of the native la I frequent the same places in hopes I am less likely to get ripped off not to mention it helps built connection with the community. There is one place in particular that I pretty much live at which happens to be the café by my lcfs house due to the fact that I drink coffee at least two times a day from them. Well since most of us volunteers frequent there we have made this place some what of a cool place to be and while in America you really don’t know if giving your money over to one place vs. another really matter or see the effects of you being there this is the opposite in Cambodia. Since arriving in my community this place now has added a roof and extended the restaurant. While in America it’s hard to say I was really ever a loyal costumer to any one places due to the fact there are no specials for the locals in America. The people who work at this place are so happy to have us as costumers they go above and beyond anything I could imagine and to think I don’t even tip them for instances they will run to another places and give us free snacks because they are so happy we are trying to learn Khmer they will sit and actually try to help us study and then today was sort of the kicker that has lead me to write this blog the lady who runs the place as I am paying pulls me over to the side because she has bought me a present a hair thing with fake diamond like things in a shape of a flower. What does one say to a gift from a lady who makes no money I was deff overwhelmed and couldn’t believe that some restaurant cared that much about the people who go their to invest money on a present. On another note today at lunch Lorie the girl who’s site I visited has lunch at my house and now my host mom is in love with her and has been asking me since I have arrived home where is she and telling the neighbors how much Khmer she knows and how pretty she is compared to me. I guess this is my fate since inviting someone who has been living in Cambodia for a year however I am glad that she also thinks my host mom deff speaks Khmer all crazy. I did my survey thing and I can say that the best question was by far do you think your meals are clean and how people’s perceptions were and reality was amazing. So I will tell you about one of my favorite house I went to anyways mind you we get taken to the barn to ask the question in this place is horse, cows. Chickens. ducks etc when asked do you think your meals are clean the answer very clean next question where do you cook ur food the man points right in the middle of the barn next to the horse. See I love the fact that his perception of clean and what health wise we consider clean is a lot diff I don’t know if that shows that as a health volunteer I might have to really dive in what a clean environment is or if they know and they choose to ignore it. Naturally things can just be normal in Cambodia so I will tell you about my brush with death while doing the surveys and no im not talking about the dogs. As me and my survey partner liz were walking all of a sudden a snake is passing by at first sight I was not to scared thinking whatever a snake however has it lifted its head like it was going to attack and I saw that it was a cobra I was like wtf and scream which according to our safety book ur not supposed to do however in my flight or fight moment I said screw that. As were walking away from the snake the lcf is like o a snake and looks at it and once we were down the road decide to let us know how dangerous it was I wish you could here the accent as he says this but ill quote and you can just imagine “o I think you very lucky if that snake accidentally bite you I think it would kill you in 15 mins” me and liz o really thanks for telling us that now me couldn’t you just get us venom from the hospital lcf umm not all hospitals have venom I know many people who die because of that. Then I think I went on how I would make him suck the venom out of me lmao but it really was a huge note to self how would I survive if I was attacked I still don’t have an answer bc there is no way the peace corps could get to me in under 15 mins which means death,