The building I live in is a "shophouse" in local parlance. On the first floor is the art store where my landlord sells scultures, carvings and paintings of Cambodia. The cheapest of some of the wood sculptures is $250 USD only because they stand nearly six or seven feet tall.

The family has a large parking place for motorcycles and bicycles for themselves and for the tenants right where in the United States you might expect a living room. Instead to the left of the shop is a small kitchen for the family and their sleeping quarters is actually in the mezzanine area between what you can see as the first and second floors. Quite literally there is a half floor with a large picture window that extends out over the shop where the family sleeps in two rooms.




Our neighbors to the rear include an internationally renowned school for street children. They are the children who are homeless by dint of being orphaned or because their parents are homeless. They learn skills such as motorcycle repair, cosmetology, sewing, and shopkeeping. It's hard to think they are homeless survivors off their own wits. Yet, that's exactly what they do. I went down to watch some of the sign language interpreters during some festivities for International Anti-Drug Day. I was fortunate that one of the interpreters was keeping an eye on me. She warned me that someone was about to claim my camera and cellphone. As a put my hand in my pockets I could feel small fingers too.

This barber operates directly opposite the school in back of the Buddhist wat. For the equivalent of $1 you can get a cut and a shave equal to any salon in the US. Just don't mind the fact that to get to the shop you have to jump over an open sewer and remain quite still while smelling the garbage dump for the neighborhood.


Some neighbors a block away run a small outdoor diner. They use this platform as a place to organize their ingredients while cooking breakfast and lunch for all comers. By night this family of six uses this platform as a bed.








Off my balcony, I cannot tell you how pleasant it is to wake up to this sight... the National Museumv of Cambodia a stunning example of French colonial architecture.