That means 'hello' in Khmai, a language that I am absolutely butchering but trying desperately to pick up. It probably doesn't help that many of the people teaching it to me are sex workers who speak no English and only want to teach me obscene words or how to curse people out. Nevertheless, I am starting to catch on to the language, and life more generally here in Phnom Penh.
I arrived on Saturday and stayed at a beautiful guesthouse, right across from Tuol Sleng, a high school that was converted into a secret prison and torture center during the Pol Pot regime. (It is now a museum, with the cells and torture equiptment still in place, pictures of all 17,000 people killed there, and their skulls; the place haunts you long after you leave.) I spent the weekend sweating (its in the low 90s and incredibly humid here) and roaming the city, desperately in search of an ATM or a place to cash Traveller's checks. At one point I only had $3 in my posession (they don't take credit cards here), which was quite distressing, but in the end it gave me an excuse to walk around for 3 hours and see the city. On Monday, while waiting for Haley to arrive (the other Ford School student on the Law School Cambodia program), I went to the chaotic "Russian Market" and purchased a helmet, possibly the most essential piece of clothing here. There are no taxis or public transportation, so the most common way people get around is on the back of a moto-dup, aka a motorcycle taxi. This may be the world's least safe way to travel, given that the motorcycles are usually about 20 years old, the driver only pretends to have a license, understand your directions or know which side of the road to drive on, there appear to be no traffic rules or speed limits, the streets are crowded by animals and vendors, and having your bag stolen by another bike seems pretty commonplace. Regardless, its still a lot of fun and I enjoy it immensely.
Once Haley arrived we started looking for an apartment, found one w/in 20 hours of beginning our search, (Haley, and the sketchy friend of one of the cooks at the guesthouse, are geniuses at real estate) and moved in Wednesday morning. We have the top two floors of a building on the riverfront, an area that is full of great restaurants and markets. Our lovely apartment has 2 bedrooms, 3 bathrooms, A/C, furniture, cable (including HBO!), and 3 private terraces, so we plan on hosting at least a few dinners for the other UofM students coming to Cambodia as well.
While Haley was out apartment-hunting on Tuesday, I started my internship at WAC, the Womyn's Agenda for Change. WAC is a local NGO (largely supported by Oxfam) that works for the empowerment of sex workers, garment workers, rural farmers and those people living with HIV/AIDS. They are a pretty well known NGO here (probably because our office is a giant houseboat), and a pretty radical one as well. They very anti-Bush, hate the WTO/IMF/WB, and refuse funding from USAID because of the conditions they put on how their money can be used. (Actually, refusing USAID money is not uncommon here, since so many NGOs are working on behalf of sex workers, and USAID specifies that money can only go to organziations which outrightly oppose the establishment of legal rights for sex workers. There are dozens of other conditions, most of which are anti-feminist and determined by conservative ideology.)
Among a myriad of other things, WAC does a lot of oversight of government/donor funding, publishes papers on the conditions faced by garment workers, sex workers, and the economic conditions faced by rural farmers, and runs seven drop-in centers where women can organize their unions, get information, and receive sexual assault counseling. Most of the staff are young, single women, many of whom are former garment workers themselves. Because WAC donated a wing of the boat (its huge!) to it's partner, the Women's Network for Unity, Cambodia's largest sex worker union, we also get to hang out with the sex workers who make up WNU's executive committee. They are a really friendly, interesting group of people, of varying ages and backgrounds; a large portion of WNU's members are transgender, and I've gotten to hear a lot about their unique experiences in Cambodian culture and the sex trade. WNU is another surprisingly effective organization; through their lobbying all their 10,000 members receive free medical care at any public or private hospital, and in 2004 they managed to stop the trial of a anti-HIV prophalixis (not yet approved for human use) on its members, because of ethical concerns, which sparked a worldwide debate and movement among those people usually used as test subjects. (The US company was going to pay the sex workers to stop using condoms and refused to provide them with health insurance or treatments if they did contract HIV.)
So, given all this, what am I doing for them you ask? Well, for the first few days I just read some of the dozens of reports that WAC has put out on a wide range of topics, which has really opened my eyes to the realities of third-world development. (There is a huge number of obstacles facing Cambodia and it is remarkable just how ineffective all the foreign aid has been in helping the country get over any of them.) Right now they have me working on a report about government expenditure and foreign aid on HIV/AIDS programs, and why most of the money allocated never reaches the people it is intended for. Its fascinating stuff and I'm really enjoying it, although I miss working with actual clients as I did at the high school clinic; my Khmai is just not up to communicating the nuances of sexual health. Right now I can barely direct my motodup driver back home!
Monday is a holiday (its the king's birthday) so Haley and I plan on spending the long weekend seeing the town and buying necessities for our new home. (We've already had one misadventure our first night trying to buy sheets and towels; we ended up getting stuck in the pouring rain in the evening with barely any cash left and no idea how to get home, until we found an English-speaker.) The food here is delicious, although my co-workers keep taking me to the new malls here to eat American food, like pizza. I have never seen a cuisine where absolutely everything comes covered in sausage and/or with sausage on the side. Thank god I love processed meats.
Speaking of processed meats, its time for lunch, so I'll stop rambling. Once I do some things which actually warrant your time, I'll post again, but until then, know that I am thinking of you all and wishing that you could be here to enjoy this fantastic, sometimes overwhelming, but always exciting, experience!
