I have been a traveling fool lately, so this was the first weekend I had spent at my site in a few weeks and I was looking forward to it. Preparation for my Saturday started Friday night when I went to bed. I had the forethought to put my earplugs in the mosquito net with me so that I could block out the 5am chicken wake-up call. So at 5am this morning when the hens/cows/dogs all started waking up I popped in my earplugs (same ones I used in nursing school during my tests, I am convinced they have magical powers!) and managed to sleep until 8! To prove the magical powers of the ear plugs at around 7am Niza and Bpo opened my window and yelled “Bong Taylor! Bong Taylor!” for about 5 minutes, and the earplugs let me keep sleeping.
When I finally got out of bed I did my normal routine of bathroom and shower, brush teeth/floss/Listerine (little did I know that moving to Cambodia would give me the time I need to have great dental practices!) get dressed, and then sweep the house. Then I made oatmeal (on the weekends I cook myself breakfast) with crunchy peanut butter and ate it while watching Friends (The episode with Unagi). Niza and Bpo sat with me, so I shared my oatmeal with them.
Then Ming Own (Bpo’s mother, and my host aunt/neighbor) came in and asked if I wanted to go to the market. So I went to the market with her and she got meat and vegetables, while I got laundry detergent, fabric softener (first time I have used it and it was awesome, my clothes smell super good and are kinda soft too!), and a new dress. Since I did not have rice for breakfast Ming Own was convinced that I was still hungry so she got me dessert. It was this banana dessert that is one of my top 5 favorite Khmer desserts.
Then I came back to the house and was able to skype with my family. However I was somewhat distracted by a muddy Jack chasing a chicken into the house and leaving a combination of muddy puppy and chicken prints everywhere. Niza also got to say hi and impress my family with how many chocolate rolls she ate (half a pack). After saying bye to my family I did my weeks worth of laundry I had been avoiding, and used my new fabric softener. Then I mopped my house to remove the mud.
By then it was lunchtime. After lunch I repeated my morning routine of shower, brush teeth/floss/Listerine, get dressed, and then sweep the house. Then Ming Own came to my house with bon chio. Which is very tasty, and kind of looks like Cambodian omelet (but with no egg and made from rice). So we sat outside and hoovered bon chio. Then she said something I didn’t understand and all I got out of it was “go with her”. So I went with her. She ended up taking me to a rice field to show me her portion. It was beautiful. There were rice fields for miles and in the distance you could see mountains. Sometimes I get these “holy crap you are in Cambodia” moments, and seeing that view definitely induced a holy crap moment. It is the beginning of harvest season so the rice fields are still green and full. There was even a few people harvesting rice while we visited.
After that we went to pick up Bpo and Niza from school, and went to visit my host sisters family. I spoke with her dad (who has great English) about Cambodian healthcare (he is a doctor in Phnom Penh). He asked me if I would be interested in working with him on educating health center staff on infection control, and I couldn’t say yes fast enough. After talking for awhile I noticed it was beginning to rain so I went back to my house because my laundry was still outside. After bringing in my clothes I showered and got dressed in my dinner clothes (for dinner I wear long sleeve shirt and pants because the bugs are intense!). Now off to dinner!
Overall a good Saturday thanks to my unpredictable neighbor/aunt Ming Own.
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