Submitted by Mark on Sat, 06/09/2007 - 3:32am.
Greetings in the name
of the Lord. I pray he has been blessing you as He has me. It's
been a busy month of integrating to Cambodian society and the long
term mission. Which is to say I now have an apartment and a moto.
If this were the US my report would be finished. Moving to a new
city and getting established in a home with a car would be trivial.
Half a world away things are rather different...
View
along the front of my apartment.
Those of you who saw my video or heard my report from my
previous stay in Cambodia will remember my descriptions of housing
here. The average Cambodian shares a 12'x12' room with several other
people. In big apartment buildings there may be no bathroom or
cooking facilities in the individual rooms. In small places you may
have both. My Khmer Instructor lives with his wife in a 12'x12' room
with a small bathroom in the room. His building is about 60'x12'
with a tin roof and a gap under the eves where mosquitoes, flies and
dust can enter. The alley the rooms are off of has a gate but that
didn't prevent thieves from making off with his moto (scooter). I'm
somewhat embarrassed that my spare bedroom is bigger, and nicer, than
the whole home of most Cambodians. The next step up is what I would
call a town home. A row of two to four story buildings with shared
walls. These often have high ceilings with mezzanine levels. The
mezzanine levels are half the depth of the building and sometime less
that 6' high. A couple of them I looked at were so low I had to
duck. A couple places I saw had “Chinese” style bathrooms (half
bath with a hand held shower opposite the sink that ends up soaking
the whole room) with 6' ceilings and lights that I could break with
my forehead if I didn't remember to duck. (Which if I was showering
at the time would electrocute me!) The nicest places are called
villas, a house in a walled compound. When I was here before I saw a
few western style apartments. Most were quite expensive. Now there
are many newer western apartment building all over the city with many
more being built. Some are even affordable.
Finding a rental
property in Cambodia can be difficult. There is no “Apartments for
rent” section in the local English language paper. You can wander
the area you are interested in looking for English “For Rent”
signs and calling the owners. This netted me a number of $1000/mo
apartments. I could have called on some of the non-English “For
Rent” signs but those would yield mostly Khmer housing set up for
Cambodians. Instead I went to a dozen Real Estate Agencies. The big
ones had fancy, glossy rental guides and gave me a copy.
Unfortunately, while they had some awesome places listed, nothing in
the ads or on the WEB was actually available. I think they're just
list the best places they've ever had immortalized forever in their
brochures as advertising. Some with the most promising ads had
absolutely nothing of interest available.
My
Kitchen
After 3 weeks of searching and dozens of apartments I had
narrowed it down to3 prospects. One was above a house with a huge
living room and balcony. The second was a great town home designed
by a Canadian for himself and the last was a new western apartment on
the extreme southern end of town. The first, while in a great
location was very musty and bound to give my allergies fits. This
was common in the places I looked at. The second, while exactly the
kind of place I want for my long term ministry was perhaps too much
for now. I would need to hire someone to care for it but that's
usually a woman who spends half the day there shopping, cooking and
cleaning for a fee that is partially covered by the savings of having
a Cambodian do the shopping at their prices. (Westerners often pay
2x-5x for items here since we're all rich by comparison.) While she
could buy groceries for a lot less than I can and would free me up
for study and ministry I had to apply the “60 Minutes” test. (If
the tv news (sic) show decided to do a story about it how bad could
they make it look.). Given that a woman would be in my home alone
with me for part of every day I don't think it would look good at
home or even here. I would like to find a good, Christian couple
that could live on one floor in a town home while I live in another.
This would cover the potential issues and provide me the help needed
to care for the place. The other floor(s) could be used for
ministry, classes, preaching, etc. Unfortunately I have no prospects
for that position as yet. I'd also have to buy furniture as most
town homes are unfurnished. I expect I could do that better and
cheaper with some local helpers.
I ended up taking the
apartment for now. It will allow for some ministry work and give me
a good place to live. I have my Khmer class in the living room and
could probably have a dozen people over if I bought some more chairs.
That will work while I learn the language and develop contacts. The
apartment is on the 4th floor and the climb is painful on
really hot days if I am carrying heavy stuff. Since there's no
elevator the top (4th) floor is cheapest, plus I like to
have a view so it was my first pick. Moving in took 5 trips and left
me exhausted.
View from
my kitchen
Some of you may remember my description and photo's of “The
Happy School” and the area where people lived in 5'x7' ramshackle
shacks. That is the area where I am living now. The happy school is
nowhere to be found and almost all the ramshackle homes are also
gone. I wonder with sadness what happened to them. The area is now
nice villas and a couple of apartment buildings. The roads have even
been made passable though still dirt. (I need to sweep the dust from
my apartment every day.) This is not the same city I left two years
ago. It has made much “progress” in a very short time and the
gap between the poor and rich has grown dramatically.
The
Monday after I moved in Socheat (so-Chee-et), my Khmer teacher, took
me to the center of town on his moto and helped me shop. As a
married man he probably never bought those items before so I doubt he
knew the correct prices and we didn't get the best of deals.
Probably better than I'd have gotten alone and certainly a lot easier
with him to help and to translate. We made three round trips to the
main shopping area and one to a local place to buy rice. It
took 5 hours and had me totally wiped out! I even carried a
3'x4' metal table and a 5' tall 6' long clothes drying rack on the
back of his moto. I'm sure it was quite a sight! An 85lb
Cambodian man driving me and all that junk on his tiny little
scooter. An air conditioned car would certainly have made this
easier.
Traditional
Market
I realized quickly that at 3-4 miles each way to the main
shopping areas I was going to need my own wheels. I like to walk and
all but in this heat that's a huge drain on my strength and time. I
went ahead and hired my Khmer teacher who grabbed his uncle, who
fixes old wrecked motos, and their friend who is an expert moto
engine mechanic and headed out moto shopping. After looking at many
moto’s that were too expensive ($550-$685) and not very good I was
able to get a “Plus” sized Dalim (a Korean brand) for a
reasonable price. Socheat didn’t particularly like it at first as
he thinks it’s too bulky and tall. (Of course he’s not much more
that 5’ and 85lb. To me, my moto seems tiny.) They declared the
engine very good and the set up was just what I wanted. Paid $500
for the used bike, $2.50 for a “Road use permit” (an annual
sticker like our annual registration sticker for our license plates)
$5.10 for a new rear brake, oil change and mirrors at a sidewalk
shop, plus a final $2.10 for a good bike lock. (and $20 total to my
3 helpers for an entire afternoon of help and translation.) In
Cambodia you use the original license plate and bike registration
card with the original owners photo and address for the life of the
bike. (It may be possible to replace it at considerable pain but not
needed. The police at the registry table under a tarp on the side of
the road near the main bike selling area in Phnom Penh took the photo
ID from me and gave me the sticker without batting an eye.) As a
Korean “Dalim Plus” is a bit taller and beefier than many moto’s
the ride was nicer than the rented bikes I tried. I’m quite happy
with it. I’m told the tiny 100cc engine should get close to 50Km/L
or 125mi/gal! (Perhaps less when hauling heavy loads. ;-) Socheat’s
distaste for the looks are indicative of the bikes un-popularity with
thieves. They like the new models of the svelte, sporty Japanese
bikes. It’s use by moto drivers as a pickup truck/taxi and the
assurance of the “team” that it is good for another ten years and
much more reliable than many of the more popular (and more expensive)
Japanese bikes makes me hopeful it will prove a reliable bike. I
was glad to have my “helpers” because I got to ask some questions
and learned I need to have the oil changed every month. I was
shocked but at $.50-$3 for the oil change depending on the quality of
oil it shouldn’t prove a big deal. Without them I’d have done it
every 6+ months and probably ruined the bike. After a number of
short trips over the week I had a more extensive tune up done for
another $20 to correct some issues I had noted. Oh well. Repairs
over here nickel and dime you just like in the US but at a much lower
level.
While it may not seem
like much getting an apartment, a moto, and all the miscellaneous
things you need to set up house takes a huge amount of time and
energy over here. Oh how nice it would be to have a “Super
Walmart” to hit and my Honda Element to fill! I think I visited
dozens of markets and shops all over the city to get most of what I
want and 2 weeks later I still need more stuff I haven't found or
haven't been willing to put on the back of my bike. On a moto you
must go home after each stop because you have no place to leave your
purchases while you shop and you can only carry so much on the bike.
Given city traffic it takes me a good half hour each way in the heat
and sun to get to the markets. I try to hit one place each day.
Please keep my strength
and language studies in prayer. I look forward to seeing some of you
at synod this year (I'll be at Cape Canaveral for the week) and the
rest in a couple years when I'm next on deputation. I pray that God
bless you and keep you close.
Be sure to look at my
Picture gallery as well!
