Some friends have told me they really want to hear about my day to day life in Cambodia. Well, yesterday was such an interesting day that I'd like to share the whole thing with you! It's pretty detailed, so if you want the good part, skip to the afternoon!
Here is the story of Wednesday, July 22, 2009:
7:15 am Wake Up; get ready for the day; eat American cereal with Lactose Free Skim Milk in a box (UHT—Ultra High Temperature milk). This week my cereal is Post Banana Nut Crunch. At $5 a box, it's one of my treats.
8:15 am Take a moto taxi from my house to the office: three blocks, 1000 Riel ($0.25). A major plus is that most of the moto taxi drivers on our street now know where our office is!
8:45 am Check with our office manager to make sure the driver can take me to pick up the volunteers.
9:00 am Search online to find some lessons and activities for the Advanced ESL class. I find a crossword puzzle about geography and a paragraph correction activity. I do them myself to see if I can and to find out how hard they really are. I'll look for more later.
Continue my research on how to replace a lost passport in Cambodia and how to acquire a police report.
Work on balancing a cash advance for the ESL program.
9:45 am Send an email to a local hotel to reserve rooms for the volunteers for one night next weekend.
Talk with Ashley, our ESL Coordinator, about the plan for today and the next couple of days as she travels to Kampong Thom to substitute teach. Also, make plans for girls' night on Friday and for a pool visit on Saturday!
10:45 am Receive an email from a hotel confirming rooms for the volunteers for next weekend. Send my own email with names, final confirmation, and a "thank you" for being so quick. Check that item off of my To Do list!
11:30 am Send some emails to people in the states to make sure details are set for the volunteer team. Hope that I get a response and everything resolved by Thursday.
12:15 pm Leave the office and drop Ashley off at the ESL house. Run in the kitchen, grab two pieces of cold fish sticks left over from dinner and stuff them in my mouth. Lunch will happen later!
12:30 pm Go with our driver to the bus station to pick up Randy & Tim (two volunteers from Lake Ave. Church in Pasadena)
12:45 pm Purchase a bus ticket for Ashley for 2:30pm today. Find Tim & Randy and head back to the house.
1:00 pm Eat some lunch: this time I heated up a plate of fish sticks and French fries and enjoyed them more.
1:40 pm Go with the driver again: to a police station to get the report necessary to get the replacement passport for Tim. (The first thing on the list from the embassy is "A police report substantiating loss or theft.") *I'll write more on my police station experience, but overall, it was a highly unsuccessful visit and a complete waste of time. (Thankfully, only 15 minutes.)
2:00 pm Drop Ashley off back at the house to take a tuk tuk to the bus station.
Go back to the WR office to find out which police station can actually help us.
Do some more research online and a PDF from the UK embassy called "How to Obtain a Cambodian Police Report," which turned out to be the most useful information I'd found so far. *Why can't the US Embassy have a similar document? 10 points for the British!
Solicit some help from Grace, our office manager, to contact the Tourist Police and type a letter from our organization. She is Cambodian (her Cambodian name is Rachny) and speaks English very well.
I find some more material for tomorrow's ESL class. Two lessons on adjectives: Comparative and Superlative. The lesson is complete! Print copies, punch holes (with help from the volunteers), and check it that off my To Do list!
3:00 pm Grace convinces me to drive (for the first time!) to take us (Tim, Grace, and me) to the police station. *I have my Cambodian driver's license, but have not been brave enough to actually drive a car here. More on this later! Note: I avoid telling Tim that this is my first time driving in Cambodia! Innocence is bliss, right?
3:30 pm I drive, Grace is the navigator, and we make it safely (in the afternoon rain) to the Tourist Police office. *Thankfully, it's on our side of town and traffic is a little lighter than the city center.
We meet with the police officer (I'm not sure what his position or rank is) in his office. He is very nice and seems quite helpful. Grace is invaluable in this whole process!
I play Solitaire on my iPod Touch (Thank you again Mom & Dad!), while Tim and Grace work things out with the officer.
5:00 pm The report is almost done! Tim pays the $30 "fee" to the officer and we arrange to meet him later to pick up the final report. He needs to get one more signature from one of his superiors.
5:30 pm I drive through a few ponds and lakes that have accumulated on the roads since the rain started and drop Grace back at the office.
Tim and I go to the ESL house to eat dinner and wait for the call to meet the officer.
6:00 pm The report is ready early! (Does that really happen in Cambodia?!) We drive 2 blocks to meet the officer and get the report. Step 1 of 'Getting Tim a New Passport' is complete!
6:30 pm Eat dinner!
7:00 pm I drive back to the office to leave the car and pick up my moto helmet. *My first nighttime driving. Only 4 blocks.
Blessings!: I get a ride home on a moto from one of the WR staff that is heading home late. And the night guard loans me his poncho to wear home in the rain!
7:15 pm Home!
Watch some TV on DVD with roommates. Send some emails. Eat some Pringles. Eat some ice cream.
10:15 pm Lights out! Sleep!
And that, my friends, is one day in Phnom Penh, Cambodia!
