Category: Daily Life in Cambodia

The monsoon rains are filling up the hydropower reservoirs now and our electricity supply is becoming more stable, with fewer outages. And last week our prime minister promised that there would be NO outages next year. We’ll have to wait and see about that.

The past year has seen a booming market in new and used generators. Faced with the extended power cuts because of the really dry season, more and more businesses and institutions–and wealthy families–bought generators for themselves. The average price of a generator went up fourfold from what I heard.

Now those people are going to be ticked off as the power stays on–and their new generator stays off. A whole lot of money went into the hardware and now it’s not much use.

This morning when I had mass at the Don Bosco Technical Training Center, these Year 1 students were preparing for a field trip in the Phnom Penh area. Their Year 2 compatriots had already left for a two-day trip to Kampong Som on the southern coast. The Year 1 girls were looking forward to a one-day trip locally that would show them the Killing Fields, the genocide museum, the palace, etc. Here they are getting some last-minute instructions from two of the teachers.

Not all motorcycle loads are piled directly on the moto. Here is a motorcycle pulling a tuk-tuk that is fully loaded. Notice the jerry can of water on the side of the moto, behind the driver. Most motorcycles pulling tuk-tuks these days have one of these water containers which just drips plain water directly on to the motorcycle engine, adding a bit of water cooling to the air cooling.

I was in a three-wheel tuk-tuk, the new motorized kind, and the driver went through the Boeung Tum Pun market area. We got stuck in a big traffic mess and this lady selling hats wanted to make a sale. She was half-joking but started offering me hats for 25¢ apiece. I should have bought a bunch to give to the kids.

If we needed any further evidence that the rainy season is upon us, a bit of confirmation was afforded last week when we returned to the Deaf Development Programme office after a four-day holiday. While we were away, these–and other–mushrooms sprang up from the wooden threshold board in the doorway of our upstairs balcony! Apparently the early rains indicated to some dormant spores that it was time to bloom!

Squat toilets are not unusual in Cambodia—in fact, they’re the norm–but a squat toilet with a water tank for flushing! Now that’s unusual. I don’t ever recall seeing a squat toilet with a tank for flushing before. Usually there is just a barrel of water or a reservoir for scooping pans of water to flush everything down by hand. Another different feature of this squat toilet is its height. Because it has to accommodate the incoming water pipe for flushing, it stands eight or ten inches above ground instead of being flush with the floor.

Kinda reminds me of the 60s and the Beach Boys and “It’s the little old lady from Pasadena! Go, granny, go, granny, go, granny, go!”