what I learned about language.
Sorry I haven't posted in a while. I have been deathly ill. I got the runs (what in Bolivia we used to call the Inca's scourge.) two days after I got home. It last until yesterday. I e wasxhausted by it. I haven't had a solid night's sleep since getting back llargely because the body wanted its needs met and those needs kept me going every 20-45 minutes. Yuck.

Now I seem to be better. I have lost a good 10 lbs. I like that though I don't recommend the method.

Since coming back I have been thinking about my need to learn pisaaKhmer before I return to Cambodia in May. It's funny. Cambodian Sign Language came very easy to me once I put my mind to it. Mostly it came easy because I was surrounded by Deaf people who knew no other sign language. They talked to me about a million topics and simply didn't accomodate me by signing in any other language either spoken or signed. I am so grateful.

On the other hand, any hearing people who I encountered either had learned enough English to make basic (commercial) communication possible. Otherwise there didn't seem to be any conversation at all. When I understood them, it was because I speak enough Thai to make a fool of myself, and that seemed to help me get by since Khmer is the mother language of several languages int he region including Thai.

On the other hand, when I spoke to Cambodians I often defaulted into spoken Thai. Now there is a war going on between Cambodia and Thailand right now over Preah Vihear, an ancient temple iin northwest Cambodia whose ownership is in question right now. So, the worst thing anyone can do to a Cambodian is not touch them on the head (the ultimate no-no) it is right now, speak to them in Thai. I was stuck. Resorting to gestures to communicate became my last option. In fact, it became my best option. Hanging out with Tashi my housemate gave me the motivation. After all, she being Deaf used this option all the time. Everyone in the tourist sectoin of Phnom Penh near the National Museum and the Royal Palace who saw me frequently knew that the way to communicate with me was via gesture.

So many people in Phnom Penh and in Siem Reap benefit from working with the expat and tourists that they have made tremendous efforts to learn spoken English. As a result there are swaths of town where one needn't speak Khmer at all. I shall avoid those places when I go back.

Yet, something odd happened. The longer I stayed the more understanding Khmer would benefit me. So, the mind started playing tricks on me. I began to hear people speaking in English who were clearly speaking in Khmer to each other. The mind so wanted to create meaning that it began inserting English where it heard Khmer. Now that isn't so weird for me since even in English the mind has to substitute meaning when I don't really undrstand because my hearing is just a little off (80 db loss in my right eare -such that hearing speech isn't possible and 25-30 db loss in my left such that hearing whispers and most high frequency sound is lost on me) ... Even so, the phenomenon fascinated me.

When I went to Thailand this phenomenon did not occur at all. I speak enough Thai to make it by with Thai speakers who also speak some English. In fact, the adventure in the airport with the bathroom was just the first of many opportunities to use Thai. In fact, Thai people are rightly proud of their culture, language and king such that when it's not needed to speak English, they won't. The mind did me no disservice by hallucinating English and I was left to my own language devices when I didn't understand. Whew!

So, I had a fascinating experience with my 8th language. That's why I'm going to take Khmer at the University oof Hawaii this semester.

I'm back home in Honolulu now, but Kampuchea still has its hooks into me. I have come to love the Khmer people like few others that I have known.

I blogged in early December about the lecture that I attended at the Reyum Institute, a museum and anthropological study center next door to the apartment where I lived with Tashi.

The lecturers ta lked about the importance of the classic wooden housing that used to exist pre-colonial times when the French introduced brick and stucco housing. Most Khmer. according to the speakers would prefer to live in brick and stucco even though the wooden houses are cooler and more conducive to living in a country where flooding is a regular part of every day life. Outside of Phnom Penh there areplenty of examples of wooden architecture. Note this house is built on stilts with the only bri k and stucco part of the architecture being the kitchen that you can see to the right ont he ground floor. Because the floors are wooden and the slats don't always completely seal there can be a natural cooling system in the house otherwise not available just through the windows.

On January 1, 2009 Cambodia had a helmet law that went into effect for all moto drivers. How well the law has been enforced has been up for debate. It certainly has led to a healthy competition among streetside vendors for moto helmets. Frankly, some of them I wouldn't even use for bike riding.. (in fact, I bought a moto helmet for riding my bike.) This gentleman hasn't gotten into the helmet thing, but hey he has what most people would consider the most important piece of equipment for moto riding the surgical mask. The streets in Cambodia are dusty, dusty, dusty. In fact, by the end of the day most folks who are wearing face masks really need to either throw them away or wash them.

In Cambodia the most common modern convenience is the cell phone. With four or five different cell companies offering services there is an ever increasing demand for time refill cards. And Cambodians being entrepreneurial have set up these phone booths all over the city. You can buy refill time in $2, $3 and $5 USD.

Oh that reminds me, the US dollar is the real exchange mechanism in Cambodia. As of Thursday 8 January the exchange rate was 4103 riels to the US dollar. So anything more than 20,000 R really needs to be done in dollars. So you give say a dollar for your 60c Coke Light and you will get back 1500 R in change... It's a unique monetary system but it works. That's what I figure it means when people say that the dollar is the worldwide unit of exchange.

I've landed in Bangkok, the capital of Thailand. I have no pictures yet because I have been positively overwhelmed by the similarities to a thousand others of the world's capitals. I've been experiencing deja vu since I supposedly speak Thai and in essence I have been relearning it. ONe problem has been that I have had no model for the tones of the language and I speak Thai pretty atonal-ly. That would mean that essentiall y I mispronounce every other syllable except the ones I have memorized completely. Gratefully many Thai mistake my ability for something stronger than it is, and they gallop a million kilometers a second and when I give them a blank look they repeat in broken English, which I don't understand any better... Smiles.

Tomorrow I leave Phnom Penh for Thailand. I ask myself what have I gained? And what have I given?

I haven't given half of what was given to me. I will always strive to give more to the Khmer people. They have given me so much, their kindness, their joy, and their friendship. I cannot thank them enough.

People like Kong Nop, a tuk-tuk driver that my friend from the US, Reese introduced me to. Kong made time in his busy schedule to accomodate me. He made time even though he himself couldn't take my friends Tashi and Mathias Nadaluti to the temples at Ankor. He arranged for an equally sweet and competent driver to take us. For this I will always be grateful and look forward to seeing him again in May or June.


I will take with me memories of the many children, the future of this great land, that I met or saw. Some like this pair were working even at their very tender age. Others begged on the streets of Phnom Penh. And still others I met in schools. I pray that the Divine will be a living presence in their lives and that everything I do can be a contribution in their lives.











The faces at Bayon (in the Ankor Wat complex) too represent the wonderful people who have lived here in Srok Khmer.
They represent the majestic and the potential in the Khmer people. They also represent the wisdom of those like the widow below who bring the wisdom of the ages with them.













It is the old who survived the civil war of the 1970's who have the greatest potential of passing on the values that made this land great. I will miss all of them. I Look forward to seeing them again in May.

A Chinese funeral procession just passed by my apartment. Blaring loud music and followed by ten or 15 cars this hearse wended its way slowly down the street. Chinese people here in Cambodia bury their dead where as Khmer people cremate usually within 24 hours of death.

Note that the attendees are wearing white, the traditional Asian color of mourning. Note also that there are monks riding in the hearse with the deceased. Buddhism, it is said gives the best outlook on death and so in many countries with multiple religions (Cambodia not being one of them) people choose buddhist priests or monks to preside over the service.

This is Toul Sleng, or S 21, before 1975 a high school in Phnom Penh. It became a detention and interrogation center during the Pol Pot regime. Here over 12,000 people, not including children were imprisoned, tortured and eventually murdered. Only seven detainees are known to have survived.

In one class-torture-room the blood has soaked into the tiles as you can see.
Here are pictures of some of the children detained here.

The city and the prison were liberated 7 January 1979. As the Vietnamese army entered the city, the maniacs at Tuol Sleng murdered the last fourteen of their prisoners. They were buried on the school grounds themselves since their bodies were discovered as they lay in the buildings, still warm but dead.

The Khmer language motto posted reads, "That we may remember and never allow this to happen again."

New Year's Eve is no fun for loners. So the interpreters from Deaf Development Program (DDP) invited me to the party at the Deaf Community Center. Not only is Deaf Community Center a gathering place for people throughout Phnom Penh it is also a hostel for the students at DDP.

The night started out slow since there was a thunderstorm early int he evening. But the students had hired a sound system and not willing to let a good evening's dance go to waste, some of the men stepped out into the yard and the rain to dance. Since normally Khmer people do not dance with partners of the opposite sex the young women reluctantly came out as the rain dissipated.

The music turned from pure Khmer pop to classical influenced pop. The women began the Khmer version of a line dance. Using the classic dance steps of the Apsara they led all of us to a beautiful rendition of pop-classical dance. Each step was accompanied by beautiful handshapes of the dances that were nearly entirely lost to the world when the Khmer Rouge wiped out all the elite of the country.

So, with the hearing women in the lead (they learned the steps of the classical dance in school) all of us at the party danced the night away bringing back the history of this country with vivid handshapes and simple but studied steps. Thanks DDP and DCC for one of the most memorable nights of my life. Welcome VOOF. (Fingerspell that for translation.)