The market

I have been here for just over a week now and I'm really loving it so far.  I met a girl from Ecuador at church who said the first month in Cambodia is the honeymoon period, then you become disillusioned for a while, and then you start adjusting and feeling okay about life again.  I'm definitely honeymooning right now.  We'll see how I feel in a few weeks I guess.  Matt has been here for over a month now and is doing really well also.

I love the apartment that Matt found for us.  It is really nice and comfortable and feels very homey.  I also like the neighborhood, Toul Kork.  It is relatively quiet yet it is so close to everything for me.  It is near the Royal University of Phnom Penh where I am going to start Khmer language classes in a week, the church we go to, a Western style supermarket with a lot of imported products, and also one of the best hospitals in Phnom Penh.  I am already familiar with that hospital because I went there to get my wounds cleaned once.  Best of all, the Toul Kork market is probably about a block away from our house

Matt picked a really great location for me because I can either walk or take tuk tuks for short distances to get  to the places I'll need to go to the most.  Matt is allowed to take home a Red Cross car to use on the evenings and weekends. He uses that to drive across town to and from work everyday.  That is so nice to have available, and I feel much safer riding in the car for longer trips.

I am usually such a picture fiend, but I haven't taken many pictures so far because I don't want to look like a tourist.  I really stand out in our neighborhood. People watch me when I walk down the street and they remember me.  I'm the only Caucasian besides Matt that I've seen walking around, and a vacationer taking pictures isn't the image I want to project.  Yesterday when Matt was with me at the market I decided to just grit my teeth and take my camera out, even though it pained me to do it.  I've also taken some pictures while in the car.

I go to the market almost every day and it's a great place for me to try speaking. Most of the time, I feel really optimistic about learning Khmer and love trying to speak using the very few things I know, but one day, after a particularly confusing time at the market, I was feeling discouraged and felt like progress was going to be impossibly slow and difficult.  I decided I couldn't go any longer without knowing the numbers and so that night Matt taught me the numbers from 1 to a million as well as money terminology.  Things went so much more smoothly at the market the next day.  I was so happy and excited.  I just have to add that I am so lucky to have Matt to help teach me.  He speaks flawless Khmer, he has an degree in linguistics, and he is an all around great teacher.  I may be biased, but I am totally convinced that I have the best Khmer teacher in the world.

One of the entrances to the market at the end of the street

 

At the market

The little kids there are so cute.  A majority of the vendors are women and they bring their kids with them.
 

 

Yesterday, Matt and I heard a sad little kitten crying somewhere in the market.  We zoned in on the sound and a nice man asked if I wanted him to catch it for me.  It was so alone and so sad.  There are tons of cats and dogs around, breeding like crazy.  Some of the dogs are kept as pets, but all of the cats are feral. The man told Matt that they don't keep cats as pets or even let their children play with cats because the cat fur will get in their nose and give them asthma.  Another man piped in and told Matt that cats with three colors and long tails are magical.  They can just look at a bird and it will fall down dead.  Interesting.  He didn't say whether the magical cats are an exception and can safely be kept as pets.  I'd like to know.  Anyway, I felt so bad for that kitten.  It was so scared of people and all alone.  I wanted to take it home with me.  Instead I let it go and it hid beneath something and started crying again.  

The saddest little kitten

 

I'll include one more picture at the market for this post.  The English words and phrases that get printed on things and the English names given to some businesses are an endless source of entertainment for Matt and me.  This t-shirt was cracking me up.  I might have to go back and buy it:

"Rain is liquid precipitation, as opposed to non-liquid kinds of precipitation, such as snow, hail, and HAPPY SMILE"

There are even lollipops and a cat wearing socks and on it.  Brilliant!