Settling in to Phnom Penh

At the end of my second week out of quarantine, I feel as though I've been here longer. Work is zooming right along, keeping me busy and more than a little stressed at times. My apartment is feeling more like my own, and after this next week will feel even more so, as my household goods delivery is happening. Yahoo!

My Cambodia experiences thus far involve work, grocery shopping and restaurants, a little bit of walking around exploring, and the odd visit to a cultural venue here and there. At work, I organized a commemoration ceremony for the 20th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks. The experience taught me a lot and showed me how much more I have to learn, but ultimately went very well. Most of the shopping I've done have been at "psar tohm-nup" as they're called in Khmer, or modern supermarkets. One visit to a "psar mulatan" or local market was at Russian market, which was fun but in the COVID era, not somewhere I'll frequent for awhile yet, due to its narrow walkways in confined spaces. Restaurants have been a mix of indoor and outdoor, each with a temperature scanner and spray bottle or mist of sanitizer. Only good food experiences so far, but nothing "local" or Cambodian yet. It will take me awhile, I think, to brave the streets and feel comfortable getting the more local feel of my neighborhood, this city, this country.

One thing that has me scratching my head is how very Western it all is, and how very strange this veneer feels. There are dozens of Starbucks-like coffee shops, for example, with sparkling windows and gleaming cappuccino or espresso machines, but just a customer or two and a Cambodian street vendor walking by with a cart of coconuts, perhaps, or tuk-tuk drivers hanging out hoping for a fare. It's the dichotomy of rich and poor, yes, but it's also an internal debate I have with myself:

"Wow, that's so odd, to see something so modern and new and shiny and expensive in an economically poor country like this," my state-the-obvious brain cell says wonderingly 

"Oh, what, so Cambodia can't have nice things? You want everyone to be barefoot and poor, looking at you as the rich Westerner?" sneers the self-critical brain cell who likes to point out the hypocrisy of my thoughts. 

"Girls, girls, can't it be both? Cambodia is a developing nation, with lots of foreign aid and investment, so of course there will be signs from both of those worlds as they collide," placates the pacifist, too-reasonable brain cell. 

A massive Mercedes-Benz SUV roars by, with the distinctively off-putting paint job of being all white except for the black-painted hood. The brain cells fall silent and watch from the tuk-tuk I'm taking from one place to another.

"It's going to take awhile," I say to myself, "To understand Cambodia."

Luckily, I have time.