There's nothing quite like a Sunday in "C-Town" (as my cooler, younger, more hip cousin calls Cambodia). It's the only day that you can sleep in until you actually wake up. Sunday is officially, my weekly Cambodian holiday. Cruising the open-air markets (like a regular two-day-stay "barang"), walking in the sun along the local river that floods each time it rains, laughing with the locals about life, drinking Angkor beer (no matter the time of day), wearing your camera around your neck, smoking a Cambodian cigarette, drinking coffee from Battambang, playing on the internet at the local cafe (it has become an institution and feels like it should be reverred as a library would be), eating every meal somewhere new, discovering the fish market that you can't believe you never saw until your fifth Sunday in town...life is like this in Cambodia....never boring, always forgiving, never on time. It's kind of nice and I'm going to miss the Sundays here. I'm already spending any extra time I get to myself, just wondering how I'm ever going to leave this place behind. It's funny because, when I arrived, I was as homesick as anyone would be, as I've ever been while travelling, and now, I am homesick at the thought of leaving this place. I wonder what it will be like to walk away from these kids that have taught me how to look at life from a different angle, from a different perspective. You can come here and think you're going to do something great for people who are living more difficult lives than you've ever known or imagined....but once you are here for longer than a short moment, you realize, you are the student in this place. Everyday you are learning...not just more about yourself, but more about the world..about the other people living in it.... And then, they become a part of you, and not just any part of you, but one of the best parts of you. Cambodia revives you, wakes you up, makes you more ready to deal with a world that can't be bothered with you. Cambodia spoils your heart.
