It's Saturday in Honolulu, and I'm spending the day cleaning my house before I go to work. I'm reminiscing about what I would do on Saturday in Phnom Penh.

First, I would definitely ride my bike to Maharajah, my favorite South Asian restaurant right near the Independence Monument. See Cambodia was a French possession until 1953. When the Cambodians finally declared their independence they built a monument at the intersection of Norodom (the Family name of the King) and Sihanouk (the king from 1960 something through the early 21st centuray.) The monument is in the middle of a roundabout, probably one of the bigger obstacles in the city. I dreaded having to find my way around it. In fact, I would rather drive the wrong way on a one way street one block north of the monument rather than brave the roundabout. But every day I would brave it anyways on my way to work. And on SAturday I would brave it for a dish of green south Asian curry.

Every Saturday I would try to find a new merchant plying his or her trade. This man works at a shop near my house on the arts and crafts street. He is carving a naga, the image of a boddhisatva surrounded by cobra heads famous in Cambodia. In fact, if you double click the picture of the Independence Monument, you will find the entire monument is made up of naga heads. The naga is supposed to be wise and skillful as well as to be the protector of deity.










Saturday afternoons are perfect time for relaxing and playing with Tevi, my housemate Tashi's kitty. Tevi showed her love for anyone in her life by licking them even when that person had just upset her by petting her stomach (something that scares kittie's to no end.) Tevi paid special attention to the raw flesh left by the heat rash and would lick endlessly as if to clean up the yucky stuff. I'm so glad I got to know the kitty.

I hope she comes back to Kampuchea so I can live with her again. She was cool cuz she learned to pee in the toilet, though pooping was a totaly different story. She chased wads of paper thrown around the apartment just like alittle dog would do. I never quite got why she did that but it was fun throwing the paper.



Tevi's favorite perch was on top of the refigerator where she would wait for Tashi every day after work. To get there she would have to jump on top of the cover of this water filter. This is one of the best inventions in Cambodia. Produced by a group of women in Kampong Chhang this filtering system saves thousands of lives by simply preventing yucky stuff from flowing into people's glasses every day. It's simply a ceremic pot fired in a kiln and left unpainted. Then inserted into this plastic bucket with a faucet. Fill the pot with waterand it will trickle clean water into the bucket. A gallon takes about an hour to filter. Some people boil the water and cool it before filtering. Retrieve the water in a bottle and cool it and you have a nice cool glass of refreshment. Tashi and I drank at least four or five gallons every two days. Tevi even got regular doses of filtered water. Every few weeks I would brush the ceramic pot to clean it. And boy did it need it. Even without using the vegetable soap that we got at the supermarket I would brush out two or three gallons of brown dirt and stuff before the water ran clear. Wow. But such a simple solution to such a huge problem. Thousands of people in Cambodia suffer dysentary every day because they don't have filtered water.

I'm back in Honolulu having taken four days to get back here and then a couple of days flat on my back trying to recover from jet lag. I'm down to my last $20 and so I'm not doing much other than eating ramen and reminiscing about Cambodia.

My favorite souvenir this time has been the Cambodian krama. I've been giving them away by the dozens. They are the work-a-day all purpose bandana, head covering, carry all woven clot h that every Cambodian has at least one of (most have more than four or five of them actually.)

In this picture the bird vendor has one on her head to help her balance the cage. (Click on the picture to see a full size version and check out the cloth on her head as well as the swallows she's selling.


Krama are so quitessentially Khmer that Cambodians going abroad take them as souvenir gifts to their hosts. If you have read anything about the Khmer Rouge (the ruthless totalitarian proletarians who ruled the country from 1975-1979) you have seen pictures of field workers wearing black pants and shirts with krama as their only decoration. They were and are the symbol of all that is proletarian about Cambodia. Here this charcoal vendor wears krama as her hide-a-bad-hair-day ornament. Folks from the provinces who work all day outside wear krama to protect their heads from the hot, hot sun.

Others use the two foot by three foots checkered cloths as slings as others would use purses or bookbags. When office workers get home from the office they use krama as a swimsuit/bathing suit substitute as they shower outdoors. Often you will find fifty-something men wearing krama aroudn their waists as sarongs.


This vendor wears her krama not only as a head protection, but also to identify where her wares come from. The checkered patterns of kramas are specific to the provinces where they are woven. Families who weave kramas even have patterns unique to their own families. Most kramas are made of cotton and have a fringe. These days with so many people living in Phnom Penh needing a quick and easy head covering, many krama are woven in some kind of polyester. Come over to my place in Manoa to see how krama can be used as window decorations or even window curtains.

When I went to Siem Reap to visit my friend Kong I used krama as a faux bandage to cover up the raw parts of my heat rash inflicted arms so that people would n't get too concerned.



One of the best uses for krama is as a dish cloth. They are so sturdy that they can endure just about anything. There are certain patterns of krama that are four foot by five foot and are perfect for lava-lava or sarongs for both men and women. Plus they serve as perfect table coverings for picnics and outings.

Have you ever been there when durian fruit was cut open? Did you faint? Or did you salivate immediately hoping for a taste of the scrumptious fruit? Or maybe you ran out of the room? All these reactions are to be expected. This infamous fruit is omnipresent throughout southeast Asia. When the fruit is cut open the stench can be best compared to human vomit. It permeates everything nearby. It's so strong that the practice in Phnom Penh upscale hotels is to forbid it entirely. At the same time the fruit in pods esconced inside the hull is sweet, scrumptious and nearly sinful. In fact, durian can be the best metaphor for Christian sin here. The spikes on the skin should warn any thinking soul, but the temptation of the sticky, sweet fruit entices even the most thoughtful. And then the stench should further warn, but NO, fanatics must wade on to grasp the sticky pods in their own hands and down them despite ruining their clothes with the juicy odor.

If you were riding a bike in the streets of Phnom Penh and you saw this wouldn't you do anything you could to get a shot of it? Damn the SUV that you've stopped on a dime by riding in front of it. Damn the parking blocks where your tires wedge. Damn the dropped iPhone. Stop this woman let me take a picture of her offering, hudnreds of wild sparrows for sale to any taker.

Another of my responsiblities at Deaf Development Program is to train two HIV prevention outreach workers. They are two vivacious, outgoing-for Deaf Cambodian women. They have been training with an older hearing instructor who really hasn't gotten the idea when it comes to working with people whose primary communication is visual.

Sopheap helps out at my apartment with cleaning and straightening stuff up. She comes once a week with her hearing boyfriend.

In her role as an HIV outreach worker, she has a quick grasp of otherwise very complicated metaphors and examples we need to use to each Deaf young people 1) What HIV is; 2) Who gets HIV; 3) How to prevent HIV transmission; 4) How to get the HIV test; and 5) what to do if the test turns positive.

Though Sopheap was orphaned at an early age, she has an outgoing personality and a thirst for learning that with with the encouragement of her foster family have really given her a wide outlook on the world and a willingness to look outside of herself for information. Her friend Sreytouch on the other hand has a Deaf identical twin sister and a second younger sister who is deaf. Her advantage of having grown up in what could have been a language rich family is somewhat tempered by her shy personality and her lack of world experience. The discussions they are going to lead have the five components and three object lessons. They were specifically design to be easy to understand no matter how much language exposure you have attained. My housemate, Tashi will continue to train them as I leave tomorrow for Hawaii. The two of them are one of the things I will miss about Phnom Penh while I return home.

I got up "very early" one morning (at 5:30 I was out the door) to see what I could in my neighborhood at that hour. Down toward the riverside what did I see? A crowd of 50 year olds and senior citizens doing their morning aerobics. I had heard that there was a morning falung dan activity at the Olympic Stadium about three miles from my house. But I never knew that these folks worked out to Khmer pop music every morning at six directly in front of the Royal Palace (to the right and out of the picture) and next to the Royal reviewing stand for the annual Water Festival on the river. Most of these folks are Vietnamese and Chinese seniors and some of them don't just dance to pop music, but also practice chi gong for health.

Back towards my house I turned the corner and ran into Mit Samlanh (Street Friends) the school for street kids whose playground and assembly yard is directly beneath my bedroom window. They provide schooling and job training for kids who otherwise are unable to attend public school because they don't have a permanent address. High school age Deaf students at the school copied a pair of pants three times in three different materials so I could have appropriate work pants. So now I have two pair of black pants and a pair of brown pants that go withmy white and pastel dress shirts that I can wear to Deaf Development. Deaf Development provides the interpreters for Mit Samlanh so Deaf students can take sewing, motorcycle repair, cosmetology, massage and manicure/pedicure classes.

Around the corner I almost collided with the ice man. At this hour of the morning, a truck filled with block ice drives through the neighborhood filling the coolers for local businesses. Since electricity is never consistent here and since most businesses have a streetside service there are mini-fridge sized coolers on the sidewalk so sodas, fish and veggies can be served on demand. Each block is cut with a handsaw to size and dropped with huge pincers into the coolers.




Further around the corner, near the back entrance to the Royal Palace is a small branch of the city's most American eatery... USA Donuts No. 2. Just as the American embassy cannot escape the local custom of building and maintaining a spirit house for the land spirits displaced by the construction of the mammoth building, neither can an American business escape the local custom of offering food and incense to the statue of the female bodhisattva who protects this business. Coffee and doughnuts anyone?


Turning back towards my house, I see some guys playing a game of volleyball, second only in popularity to badminton. They are playing on the sidewalk surrounding the park that fronts the National Museum and rolls up next to the Royal Palace (the tower in the background.) Note that they don't have a net, so their stingray substitutes.

I have made great friends with my co-workers here in Phnom Penh at Deaf Development Program. My closest co-workers are the seven interpreters who I admire greatly. While I am supposed to be a trainer, I have learned a great deal from them. The men, Phirom and Donh have taught me a great deal about comradeship especially because Khmer men can be very physical between themselves in a way that Westerners cannot.

I have become good friends with the lead, Vichet (second from left), Maly and Veasna (who I have been able to observe working at Mit Samlanh (the school for street kids beneath my bedroom window.)



I'm grateful to have been able to meet interpreters from across Southeast and South Asia. At the interpreting conference in Kuala Lumpur I was able to meet and befriend folks from Malaysia, the Maldives (islands southeast of India), and the Phillipines. What a great privilege to work in the same field as such pioneers.




Justin Smith is DDP's deputy director. I work with him and his staff at Deaf Community Center to document the organization's oral history on video. He came to DDP like myself as a volunteer and now is responsible for much of the actual program work of the organization. He is leading the effort to develop a stable community among Deaf people. Recent events here have shown that Deaf people have primarily their own individual interests at heart and haven't really grown a sensiblity of Deaf co-0peration. He's leading programs to develop a team spirit among them.


Charlie Dittmeier is DDP's director. He is a diocesan Catholic priest from Louisville, Kentucky who works as an associate of Maryknoll Missioners. Many of you may know that I was adopted by Japanese Americans who were raised by Maryknoll Sisters and I myself went to elementary and junior high school under Maryknoll Sisters. It's a privilege to work with such forward thinking men and women. Charlie has been working among Deaf people for almost 30 years in India, Hong Kong and now here. He's a jack of all trades and is the principal fundraiser, computer network fix-it guy and social worker at DDP.

About 13 km (8 miles) from Siem Reap town some of the ruins pre-date Ankor Wat. You have seen here earlier the ruins of Bakong and Preah Ko, the island temple and the temple to the Hindu manifestation of the god, Shiva. Another part of the Ruluos group of temples is this temple. This temple is notable not just because it comes from the 8th century, but because of its contemporary history.

This temple, set on a hill, became an ideal lookout point for the 1970'sKhmer Rouge soldiers trying to defend against Vietnamese invaders. Note the white repairs done on the temple. Those are are plaster repairs done to bullet and shell pockmarks.

The Cambodian Mine Action Centre is still active today clearing farms, ruins and urban areas of landmines that have wreaked so much damage and loss of life and limb here. They have been working in this temple clearing out the mines placed among the ruins to defend this military position. Note the red post with the label CMAC. It's a warning that landmines have been found in the area. Should you ever go to Ankor Wat follow this basic rule at all times, "Never go off the beaten path." Phnom Penh is full of landmine survivors begging or eeking out a barely survivable living .

Here a temple hasn't fallen apart just by gravity. The stones here tumbled under the pressure of cannons placed here pointing out towards Vietnamese arm outposts. The cannons then also became targets for the invading army so both sides were to blame for the modern condition of the temples.

Deaf Development Program where I work has a job training program where 40 young people from 16-25 learn sewing, motorcycle repair, cosmetology and woodcarving. The programs where they learn are in Phnom Penh at Wat Tham (a Buddhist temple with an education program for people with disabilities) and at Mit Samlanh (Street Friends, the school beneath my bedroom window.) The Deaf students from the provinces outside of Phnom Penh are housed in this hostel where they have after school activities and opportunities to learn social skills and community organizing. Young people are very protected in Khmer families and moreso if they have a disability. Many have never been to the marketplace or have never been outside their own provinces in their entire lives.


Since many of the young people do not read for themselves, the house rules are written in Khmer and summarized in photos of Cambodian Sign Language. This particular rule tells the students that everyone gets treated as partners and as equals. Other rules talk about not stealing, lying or destroying hostel properties.

Eating in Cambodia is wonderful. Not only are there fantastic foreign restaurants for the visitor tastes, but there are also local cuisines by the millions. Literally every province here has a different cuisine and some different delicacy to excite anyone's taste buds.

My friend Nop Kong took me shopping before we went to h is house for lunch when I was up in Siem Reap (near Ankor Wat.) The first market we encountered was off the beaten path (quite literally) and we drove his motorcycle down the one pedestrian wide lane to look for fish.

What I encountered more than just the fish still flopping in the plastic pans the vendors had laid out in front of them were some unusual vegetables. You've read that my favorite food in all of Cambodia is morning glory stems in oyster sauce. These water lilies come a close second. They are stir fried in with chicken, beef or other vegetables and sauce to add a pungent kick to an entree or to a soup.

On the road between the two markets we visited, I noticed these little structures in almost every farm. I hadn't the foggiest notion what they might be so I asked. Note that there are flourescent lamps on top of each structure and that there is a pool of water in the plastic sheeting on the ground. At night a second plastic sheet is strung between the posts and the lights are turned on. Crickets attracted to the lights jump up, hit the plastic sheet and fall into the pool of water and drown. The farmers collect them, fry them, cover them in a little bit of salt and palm juice sugar and voilà the perfect movie watching or soccer game snack.


You can buy any number of delicacies from the provinces delivered fresh every weekend near the riverfront in Phnom Penh. Strolling couples and families pick up (front row) newborn chicks, locusts, shrimp, (second row) cockroaches, crickets and another bug (don't expect me to know everything that hops in Cambodia), garden snakes, clams, quail eggs and snails.

This particular stand is very popular because the snacks are from all over Cambodia. It takes several hours to get to Phnom Penh from many of the provinces and the bugs and animals must be eaten fresh or they don't taste good. So, these are brought in plastic bags by farmers coming in from the surrounding provinces to sell produce. Call them a by product of vegetable cultivation. Mind you I don't eat much meat... Bugs are meat.