This month Team Restored has been living in a village outside the small town of Kampong Speu. The name of our village translated into English is “village of Chinese Farmers.” With that name you may begin to picture what life was like here. First of all it is the dry season which mean sweet thing is covered in a decent layer of dust. This lends to never really being clean. But then again nothing in this village gets clean by western standards. Even the water we use to wash dishes and bathe with has fish and lily pads living in it.
The family we stayed with are farmers. Our main contact is a pig farmer and teaches English on the side. He currently has about 50ish pigs at various ages that live a 3 minute walk along the road or a 1 minute walk through the woods from our house. Being this close we often smell and daily hear our animal neighbors. But these are not the only animals that we encounter on a daily basis.
Most families around the village raise their own chickens for eggs and meat. Our family is no exception. Right outside our front door live 4 roosters, 5-6 chickens and about 10-15 chicks at various ages. Needless to say it can get pretty loud. The chickens and roosters go to bed with the sun around 6:30pm and, therefore, wake up before the sun at 3:30-4:00am. When the roosters wake up they feel the need to announce it to world. Our neighbors have a couple of ugly ducks and several ducklings that do not hesitate to join in the animal symphony each day. Also on the property can be found 5 puppies with their mother and father. But by far the most unusual thing and the one that took the most getting used to were the cows. People own cows here but do not keep them pinned up. Because of this the cows have free range of the entire village. We have caught cows trying to stick their noses in our house, join in our English class, and generally not care what the humans are doing as long as it doesn’t get in their way. But the amazing thing about these cows is that they know where home is and when and how to get there. So when the sun begins setting, it is not unusual to see a line of cows walking the road headed home for the night.
The family we lived with cooked different meats for themselves than are served to the white missionaries. We have watched them prepare and cook muddy fish, snake (which I played with moments before it became dinner), frogs, crabs, and duck. There are many times I have wanted to add rooster to this list.
After the lights went out each night we would lay in bed and listen to the mice come out and play. Trips to the bathroom at night could equal encounters with large cockroaches, nice, and the occasional frog.
Let’s just say it’s a good thing I like animals.
AC doesn’t exist here so in order to “cool off” from the sweltering heat we use hand fans, floor fans (inside) and frequent trips to the swimming hole. This swimming hole is the hub of the community. It is where many people go to bathe, do laundry, rinse their cows (yep), and cool off. I have found that bathing here (especially washing my hair) to be much easier than the bucket showers back at the house.
So that is an overview from my life here in Cambodia. I wouldn’t trade it for anything. At the end of the week we head off to Africa for our final 3 months of the Race!
