This is a picture of a government school, set on one Phnom Penh’s busiest streets, at 7:40 AM on a Saturday morning.  You can learn a lot about the culture from one photo.  First, notice the huge billboard set up on the school grounds, right next to the building.There are no zoning regulations that are enforced–if there are zoning regulations.    (My bet is that the school director (principal) is profiting from allowing the sign company to build there.)  Second, notice the school windows are wide open–in the rainy season when it’s raining every day.  There’s no great worry about security because there’s nothing in the room except a blackboard (not a whiteboard) and wooden benches and two ceiling fans.

Do you know what these are?  They’re banana seeds!  We get all sizes, shapes, and colors of bananas here.  They grow all year round–and really fast.  Occasionally, with one variety about four inches long, I find seeds in them–not the usual small black dots but big monsters like these.  At lunch today I found these eight seeds in one banana.  It’s really easy to break a tooth on one of them because they’re not soft at all.

WHAT is she sitting on??!!