What a wonderfully "abnormal" normal day! It was like any other day: wake up, bike to the hospital, sit with the children outside for four hours while they clamour around me (climb on me, pull on me, speak to me in words that I cannot understand), leave the hospital for my two-hour lunch break (that's right, volunteers have it good), pick up pictures for the families I've been photographing,.....etc. OH WAIT! Let me go back. Today, it wasn't just any ordinary lunch served at the White House. I walked upstairs to eat at the khmer buffet style table, but just as I was working my way up the steps, Lena (an Cambodian-American-Dane...if you can figure that out) was invited to eat with the security guards and cooks outside. "Would you like to come along? I won't tell you what we're eating." That did it. I knew I had to go at that point. Eating strange and new things is the spice of life...literally. So, I walked downstairs and out the back door, around to the carport to sit on the cement slab and eat like a real Cambodian. There was rice, some kind of soup, fish, greens, and other vegetables. Lena began to tell me about the fish. This was not just any regular fish. It was fermented fish. Now, I had become familiar with this when I went into the Amazon with my good friend, Paulina. We consumed two bowls of Chi-Cha, otherwise known around South America as "fermented fruit juice" (conveniently fermented by the natives saliva). This was going to be a breeze. "C'mon, Lena," I thought, "Give me a challenge!" I sat with Lena, two Khmer, male security guards, and two female house cooks/cleaning ladies. We formed a circle around the food, sitting cross-legged and smiling a lot! Lena helped with the language barrier between us all and it wasn't long before we were talking and laughing loudly (a strange act for khmer people, as they are known to be very quiet...and, in turn, think of Americans and most Westerners as loud and obnoxious...which we are...thank god). I dove into the fish. It was as salty as Lena warned me it would be. But along with the rice, it was more than tolerable. It was very, very good, to be completely honest. It was the fish soup that I had a more difficult time enjoying (even though the Khmer promised that I would find it more delicious than the fermented fish). The greens were wonderful. The papaya soaking in the warm broth was delicious! It was a wonderful experience. All that in just under an hour.
Around two o'clock in the afternoon, I headed back to the hospital on my squeaky bicycle. I love that thing! Everyone knows when JuJu's driving down the road! After arriving at the hospital, I approached Sinaath (one of the permanent art therapists) and discovered we would be spending the day in the LAU (low acuity unit). This was wonderful! It would be our first time ever as a team in the LAU, and that was precisely the room where I had been spending most of my off-time. Chen, the young boy mentioned in earlier blogs, resides in bed #3 there, and so through spending time with him, I've come to know every child, mother, brother, and sister connected to the LAU. I walked in with Sinaath and was greeted very warmly. We sat down and began to fold origami birds to hang from the patients' bedposts. This time, it was different - it was better. I am sure it was because the mothers and fathers in the LAU had become so acquainted with me, that even though we've never been able to say more than "hello" to each other, we were finding (and really searching for) ways to communicate. Now that Sinaath was there, we could actually finally speak. The family members began holding up different objects and saying the Khmer name of that object to me. They would repeat it until I thought I had actually HEARD the word, and I would say it. They would inevitably laugh at me, but it was a warm kind of laughter. And it was funny, because when they looked at me and said, "ch'muah," which means "name" in Khmer, and I responded, "Julayne," they gave me the look I'd been giving them. They repeated back to me, "Ch'lin". I laughed and made a noise that indicated, "Oh, see, it's not so easy!" We all laughed. It was a wonderful afternoon.
I also got to spend extra time with Chen. That always is good for me. He has taught me the most since arriving here and something tells me that if I never saw him again after today, he would continue to teach me for the rest of my life.
Tomorrow, I leave with a team of three men - two community builders/workers and one anthropologist - to a town 55km away from Siem Reap. It will be my furthest journey yet and, without a doubt, material for yet another blog. I will stay the day there and return to the White House in the evening. I hope to spend the majority of the time photographing...and laughing.
