A Monk Spit on Me

So welcome to Pachume ben 2.0 new version of last year’s version. So this is a big Cambodian Holliday where you must worship your dead ancestors with food. My friend liz from pp came in to chill and go to the wat with my family this made them supper happy. This year my host mom tried to teach me and liz though she deff gave up on me way sooner then liz on how to make something called onsom jarook and onsom jake one is pork the other banana rolled up and steamed in a banana leaf.  However you have to tie them just right and you tie it with dried leafs and me cooking anything is a disaster but my host mom never believed me before. In the past she asked me what I could cook and I joked around and said mie which is khmer version or roman noodles and she laughed at that for a few days she was like but all you have to do is boil water I was like that’s pretty much all I can do. Anyways she gave me 15 mins and when I was joking around with her bc the way I tied them up was really messy I kept telling her how it was the most beautiful more beautiful then hers and she was laughing and then would un tie mine and re due them all.  She had a pretty strict standard with them bc we had to bring them to the wat to give to the monks. The thing about khmer holidays that sucks is that all men do is sit around and get drunk and women must slave to make sure they are having a good time while preparing time consuming things to give to dead people really! For the record the food doest get wasted they give it to the orphans at the wat. Anyways after being silently banned from making onsom me and liz went for a walk played some Frisbee and just had a good time. That night however my host sister jentu wanted us to sleep over o yea I should mention the day be4 we were at her selling stall helping her aka being eye soars and her giving us free clothes good times it was then we promised a sleepover the next night. We did not do to much that night she made me french-fries yumm and me and liz just watched a movie bc the next morning we had to go to the wat for the worshiping. The next morning we get dressed in what I feel r okay wat clothes but by jentus standards not so. So we go get food coffee go to jentu’s stall and just talk with her. When all of a sudden this guy comes up and starts to compare me and liz who is prettier then the other (this always happens when there are two white people in the same place). Most of the time I just ignore it however jentu is way crazier then even the rest of my family and have to say is very protective over me my host mom always tells me how much bong loves me anyways she turns to this dude and tells him off that if we wanted his option we would ask then she turns to both of us and says we are both pretty don’t listen to him and then goes off on him some more in Khmer I don’t understand he runs away embarrassed lost mad face. Then she looks at us again and she gets that look in her eye the same one she got before I had my wedding pictures taken and is telling us how r shirts where not pretty and to come back to her house now I knew this could lead to no good. She whips out a bunch of white Khmer wedding shirts of course im first up in this dress up gone wrong. I have this crazy beaded shirt with the added benefit of a bib next liz is up the shirt is way to big for her so my host sister pins it. I go up to look in a mirror and decided I can let her go this far I make her change my shirt to one with out a bib not that its all that better but some how it was. An hour ago jentee told us she was on her way with the tuk tuk mean while that hour took her to get her hair and makeup done I swear Cambodians… they finally make it and we head to the wat where we blow through in like 10 mins giving of all the money this year I was on it with small bills my host mom wanted me to take lots of pictures so I did. Only on special occasion is this one part of the pagoda grounds open where it had this really huge Buddha and awesome pictures it was really cool. The monk spoke to me telling me he didt know eng I think my host mom was nervous the whole time either me and liz would do something stupid I think we did a pretty good job of keeping up.  Before we left to go to the 2^nd wat where my grandmamma was I had to go inside and pay for a monk to spit on me for 2 reason one it is the year of the rabbit Chinese zodiac so I was supposed to get it done a while ago and the 2^nd bc my family thinks I don’t have good luck that’s bc I have really weird luck I don’t like to say bad just not good.  So while in America its pretty rude to spit on someone however in Cambodia I pay for this privilege and hoping I will have some good luck though its questionable.  So we leave and go to another wat down the rd not as nice but that’s where my grandmamma and churey were ther was a big lake with a cool statue more food and orphan kids at this one. But soon we hop back on said tuk tuk to head to the mt where the monkeys are except unbeknown to me we were going far into the mt where their was another watt. However this time it was so my grandmamma could go find the monk that went to the hospital im still not sure we found said monk but we did stumble onto another Cambodian awkward moment. So there is this food offering ceremony for the monks with a small group of people nothing like I have done before but the person running in a Buddhist monk was soo excited. First she goes up to liz I was still not down the stairs yet and ask in eng this 70 year old nun did speak eng so odd about where was liz from and she told her and then made her get up and sit in the front to help with what in catholic religion would be like alter boy stuff with out the training. I wanted to avoid joining that situation like the plague no such luck so I tried to lie saying I was Khmer some how it just was not believable so I to became some sort of Buddhist alter boy. My host mom now looked like an anxiety attack was going to ensue with watching us about to screw up this all up having no idea whats going on anything we messed up not my fault I was forced. So there was us having to put hands on this plate to hand off to the monk lift up a table where the monks where sitting.  Next was poring water into this thing of rice with a cigarette in it don’t understand the spirituality behind a cigarette then they came around with I guess holy oil that I had to rub on my head into my hair. Keep in mind all of this stuff is said in sand script on top of it nothing is in Khmer I guess u can say its like if church was still preached in Latin. After this we had to eat with everyone and the nun came over to talk with me. She wanted me to come to her house today to eat rice with her I had to tell her I was busy this lead her to ask for my phone number. I know your thinking what I did what’s the worse that can happen if I give some old nun my phone number ill have you know she has called or texted me everyday since. Well more fairly her grandson so im trying to figure out if this is a set up for me to marry her grandson or what jentee think is the nuns of like an office sort of a deal and she wants money from me assuming im rich. I don’t think I can keep her at bay to much longer so at some point ill find out her motive. I doubt some 70 year old nun wants to be my friend man even nuns have alter or motives. Until next time peace out from the other side of the world.

Angel of Death

Sorry its been a while but my life has been not so lucky where to begin. Well first off my family has had some drama Khmer one that is because well jenta the middle one is planning to live in pp for a few months to go study Korea my host mom supports this idea. After she studies the plan is for her to go live in Korea for 5 years. Why the drama well this really fucks my other sister jentee over because she would have to watch churey jentas son and my host mom is not happy with her not willingness to help jenta. Me my self and I have the option of the middle man my host mom is a real big idea type of person which makes it fun to be around her but I can see how it screws people over. Ie she came up with the game plan for jentee to marry the American however once it was not so easy I think she quickly changed all her eggs to put it in jenta’s basket. This can obviously leave a lot of issues between everyone she sort of starts things and excepts them to work in her favor. Anyways another issues is jentee has no more money it all goes to her brother schooling and her husband is coming in nov so she wanted to save money for that but now all the family money will also have to go to jenta rent and Korean lessons. This has left jentee pretty devastated and frustrated so I have been trying to help her out. Though I understand the benfits of jenta going to korea I just think her son should go with her is all but khmer people look at that stuff way different. I just think you leave a kid with abandonment issues and they r screwed for life its already started I can tell with him. Next bad thing is my computer well my laptop is done I had to buy a new one. So I was stuck outside in a Cambodian monsoon while my laptop was in a backpack it was not enough some how water got into my screen and then it just would not turn on my hard drive went with it to. Note to self-buy external hard drive really really. Now the last and the reason for this title is angel of death well my Khmer grandmamma Grandson was in a horrible motorcycle accident.  Apparently he feel off but then another moto came by and ran over his head it was so sever they had to take him into a hospital in pp. well a week goes by and I don’t know to much about the situation however I was in pp for a meeting and jentee calls me to come to the hospital so we can take a taxi home together so I was not excepting to go into said hospital. Anyways when I got their I though like the last time no one would let my brong ass in but nope this time they did and what I say is one of those life changing events. Okay I get told that they want me to go see him I should mention there is no waiting room so everyone is out side on the curb in the raine with matts sleeping their. Sorry to digress trying to pain you a picture so I go inside and I grab a yellow surgical apron (re used over and over) but the point is for germ protection right haha. I walk a few steps down the hall into the open doors to this smallish critical care unite that was open with 25 people packed in like sardines most of them im pretty sure goners in diapers and not breathing on their own but that was not for me to think about. I see this young boy 16 who I guess if family and then I see the rest of the family doing all sorts of things for him massaging his legs etc. when all of a sudden I hear an American voice I think this is an inter dr for drs with out boarders or something but find out soon she is just a missionary from California but has been their long enough for me to get a better idea what is going on. So I see that this white substances is being shot up into a tube so I ask what are they injecting into him girls response rice portage (pretty sure that has 0 nutritional value).  Come to discover it’s the boys dad the situation in Cambodia is like this there is absolutely no nurse aids etc to help in any capacity it is all on the family while I have seen this on a small scale when people have fevers. To see it on such a scale when someone is on the brink of death but the family has to sit their and not only watch it but try to keep him alive is a bit much even for me. I think I have mentioned on many occasions that it doesn’t matter I have no medical degree in the village I am know as the dr  so I come to find out I was brought it for my “medical option”  which if I did not watch so much er and house I might have none of any ways thank god for tv jk. Anyways they wanted me to take his plus however there was a monitor which they didn’t know what it was measuring that much I did know so I told them and this impressed them upon words even though there is a picture of the heart then the pulse next to it. His heart rate was low at this point he was in Acoma with no response to light I did fear the worse even though im not trained to fear the worse I just knew it was not good. Next they take off his eye bandages to ask me why his eye is so swollen now keep in mind my Khmer is not up to the sympathy needed to convey that sort of thing with out scaring them but I tired anyways because he had sever bleeding in his brain I was trying to explain the brain was swelling up pushing on the eye sockets think it was conveyed. Next up on my medical duties that I would be sued for in America going to talk to the dr about the ct scan man I sometimes I really wish I had even a year of medical school under my belt for this craziness no such luck.  Sever bleeding in what looked to me like the occipital lobe of the brain the back part. Well the fun news is this dr is one of the few who don’t speak eng (I found out later that is bc this was a French run hospital) so I have this broken convo in khmer with a little bit of help. So I ask him about surgery and he just looks at me and tells me they cant do surgery that it to high of risk that he will only have a 10 percent survival rate humm guess u don’t have to be a dr to know if you don’t stop bleeding in ur head death. Then I ask him about passing urine etc which has blood I guess earlier that day they finally stopped internal bleeding anyways then I ask how much oxygen was he on 100 percent I was told. Well all those thing to me equal not good out come so then I ask the question I was dreading how long does he have to live dr reply o he can live a while on machines he will not die soon. I know you would think he told the family this but no the dr had 0 communication with the family talk about shity bed side manner and was not planning on telling them so he could make a few hundred dollars a day. So I come out side and just say I know nothing which jentee knows im lieing but I just didt have the balls to tell my aunt your son is going to die and you have to pull the plug. However jentee quickly pulls me aside and I quickly ask her how much she wants to know and she is like no tell me so I do and then she tells the boys aunt and the whole taxi ride back their asking me question hysterically crying.  So I had my first experience explaining why you don’t want to let a brain damaged person with no chance of surgery to live how its not a quality of life. ill keep you posted on all of this until not peace out from the other side of the world!

Stay Away from Curious George the monkey is dangerous

Let me first off by saying thanks for all the donations thus far and then I will get into why one should stay away from monkeys. How this all started was I went to prey veng where there is a place with monkeys however do to rainy season the rd was flood which required a boat to get their I know believe me when I say this was a crazy exertion. Well Taylor was telling me about this place that is just a wat with monkeys and I think why not well we go to walk their and we get to a part of the rd where its flooded now we are thinking humm do we try to walk across anyways then we think of r pcmo officer who is in charge of are health would kill us if we had to call with a case of leeches so we decide against this idea. The thing about Cambodia no one ever seems to have answers for you so we ask and keep asking up the block of were the rd is flooded is their a person with a boat that we could ride with well with in time we did find someone. We wait for a while talk about a price of 4 dollars for 2 of us round trip and 20 mins late out of the bushes and weeds where there used to be a rd comes this boat from far away inspection did’t seem to have any holes fingers crossed I should know. Anyways we should have know things were going to get a bit shady later on with the boat drivers when they made us wait another 15 mins for them go and buy rice wine yes me and Taylor had to drive though trees while the drivers were drunk yay for risking ones life on the account of monkeys. So after we make it out of the woods we get their pretty quickly to discover no monkeys at first this island wat is really pretty in the shade with lots of trees interesting animals bridges etc and due to the fact is almost nearly impossible to live or vist this area this time of the year we had the place to our self besides the 4 people who I guess actually live their.  The drivers and some random people who rode the boat for free started to eat and drink and then all of a sudden one of the women comes up to taylor saying to leave island we must pay more money 10 dollar each lmao I know yea right! While this is all happening im still exploring taking pictures which I will post soon. Well when I get back the lady is still their and im like yea sorry I have no more money and I keep telling her how we are volunteers we are poor. Side note to all of this most Cambodians like to think all Americans have so much money however when u speak khmer with them it should be a flashing red light in their brain to why if they were smart. Anyways the police chief is ocd about taylor living in Prey Veng so lucky for us we saw him on the way to the boat where I guess he wanted to jot down that another brong was in down as well me haha this guy I guess needs to know when any who is not khmer is around I say good bc we used him as away to get them to budge. While we waited two hours going back and forth on getting them to leave the island the monkeys started to appear and where NOT HAPPY! Okay so they were I think in mating season and really hungry bc they are monkeys trapped on an island with no food and no tourist of khmer people bring them food. For some reason monkeys seem to hate taylor more then me we learned this in monkey forest in bail and how you need a stick to beat away the monkeys. However do to the nature of these monkeys state of mind sticks and throwing rocks at them were not deterrents in the past stomping at them and just staying away form them was enough however bc they wanted food from us which we had none of they tried to attack as a group even the crazy boat lady was freaking out!  At this point we convinced her taylor lives in pv has a family and her uncle was the police of chief and if she died it would be a big problem for them so we won the stand off of 2 dollars per person but sort of paid a little bit in the end. I know your wondering what do you mean well that marsh land water on the way back that may have been invested with leeches we had to walk though it to get back to land I can safely say no leeches and I did no see any snakes I am alive to tell the story =) after words we treated r selves to a big lunch and coffee and did some bike riding around the area I personally think I like the big town of kp chhange better but it was still cool to see another site and I can say Taylor has a posh core life with her Barbie dream house. Its fun for me to vist rich family’s bc mine is so poor and I dunno just really like the life I get to experience in my village life! Peace out from the other side of the world.

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