Faces

Spent a wonderful day at the PEPY Ride School yesterday in Chanleas Dai, click here to see a slideshow of more faces.

Kon sa'at

This is the daughter of our house mother at Chateau PEPY. At four years old, she has figured out that her main job is to stand around looking uber-cute.

Mouthful is the new Ramblings. Kind of.

I have been experimenting with a new blog hosting site called tumblr.com. The interface makes it incredibly easy to share all kinds of media, from videos and headlines to photos, books, quotes, and music. Plus, I imported the feed from Ramblings so all posts will be displayed on the new blog as well. Consider it a brain dump for my increasingly short attention span.

However, I am not giving up fisharealwaysswimming, I will still be writing stories and thoughts and posting photos here as well. So if you like the old style, you can continue to come here. If you want to read Ramblings plus a plethora of other things I want to share...check out mouthful.tumblr.com

In between.

I am currently reading Howard Zinn's A People's History of the United States and came across a quote from Eugene Debs that I quite liked:

The issue is Socialism versus Capitalism. I am for Socialism because I am for humanity. We have been cursed with the reign of gold long enough. Money constitutes no proper basis of civilization. The time has come to regenerate society--we are on the eve of a universal change.

While I won't go so far as to declare myself a socialist (perhaps a compromising socio-capitalist?), I do feel like some of the solutions to the issues facing our nation (and humanity for that matter) can only be found by policies that consider the greater good of society more important than the good of individual citizens. I sometimes wonder how "socialism" and "communism" became such ugly words in the US, the roots of the words and the ideas they represent lie in society and community.

Finish this sentence...

This afternoon in the PEPY office we did a team-building exercise which I enjoyed and thought I would share. The exercise required the individual to finish the following sentences (in bold)--my answers are in italics.

1. I stand for creating opportunities and lifelong education.
2. I define quality of life as balance between give and take, and enjoying the people and earth around me.
3. My life changed when I joined the Peace Corps, cliché as that may be.
4. I recognize my weaknesses as being stubborn and judgemental, not being proactive enough, not digging deep enough, and allowing my adventurous lifestyle to make me complacent and selfish.
5. A harmonious and meaningful relationship requires listening, respect, compromise, and honesty.
6. My life will be complete if and when I die. I realize this one sounds obvious, but I hope I never feel like I have done all I want and experienced all that life has to give.

I would enjoy hearing how my readers might finish these same sentences...feel free to comment!

Streetwalker

Phnom Penh is not a beautiful city. At least not by any western standards. Though most of the roads are now paved, highrises and modern businesses are popping up on every corner, and there is evidence of new public works projects, the city still feels rather ramshackle. Its streets, thoroughfares, and parks are littered with all kinds of refuse and rubble, the air is oft choked with exhaust and dust, and electrical wire tangles mar the view of the tree lined alleys. On either side of an old colonial French villa or an inviting new dayspa are crumbling apartments and buildings that should be condemned. The rivers run muddy brown all year round and the riverfront, despite a horde of posh businesses catering to expats and tourists, still feels squalid.



And yet, it is perhaps my favorite city to walk. To say the Phnom Penh has character is like saying New York has culture, or LA has style. The streets are absolutely alive with people, vehicles, animals, and activity of all sorts. Kids with fistfuls of riel run down the street on mother-sent errands; moto and tuk-tuk drivers congregate on every corner, playing cards or checkers or simply shooting the breeze; barbers setup their tiny stands on a back alley and give shaves for 25cents; old women, often with a kid or two in tow, pull their recycling wagons through the streets picking up discarded cans and bottles; food and drink are abundantly available from vendor carts and street side restaurants, selling everything from sugarcane juice to hot bowls of noodles to duck eggs to coconuts to ice cream cones.



Simply walking through traffic is a real-life video game (remember Frogger?)--you must constantly be on guard for everything seems to be coming right at you. Cross a busy street and you will likely have to weave through several Lexus SUVs, a smiling cyclo driver or two, a large barreling truck, a group of bright orange-robed monks, plus countless overloaded motos carrying not just passengers but electronics, live animals, produce, and building supplies.



Sidewalks are a bit of a misnomer, for there often is little room to walk. It is impossible to walk straight. Businesses spill out of their doors almost into the street, motos and tuk-tuks use the sidewalk as parking, vendors block the way with their carts, and there are always piles of rubbish to avoid. I find I usually just walk in the street and disregard the sidewalks altogether.

All of this was magnified the first couple days I was here, as the country was celebrating the annual water festival (see "Bon Om Touk" post from December '07). Thousands and thousands of people from the countryside came to the capital to enjoy the festivities, packing the already chaotic streets, to the point where it was difficult to move at all. Disconcerting at first, but after a few walking journeys into the heart of the city, it all feels incredibly familiar again.

LA Filters

In Little Tokyo


Downtown, at the Walt Disney Concert Hall


On Santa Monica in Echo Park

In transit

I was in LA for a few days before leaving for Cambodia--the day of my departure I found this restaurant while walking around Echo Park.



In the Taipei airport, I was tempted by the gruel, but eventually settled on the beef noodles

He's so...human!

Four years ago I woke up on post-election day on a nearly empty beach in Panama, near the end of my Peace Corps service, shocked and discouraged that the US had put George Bush back in office. It just didn't seem plausible. While I wasn't terribly excited about John Kerry, I couldn't comprehend that anybody felt Dubya was leading us in the right direction. I felt truly out of touch with the average American, as well as the government and nation I thought I was serving. A friend and I consoled ourselves the night before with simpler gratifications: fried fish, patacones, boxed wine, tropical waters and the rebellious, socialist lyrics of McCarthy, along with vows of expatriation for the foreseeable future.


Today, I woke up and my first thought was the face of Barack Obama, and what he represents to so many people--not solely his potential as president, but more so an inspiring, progressive leader who seeks to unify Americans and other nations alike. For the first time in my life, I voted for someone who not only shares many of my political beliefs but more importantly, seems to hold his faith in humanity at the forefront of his guiding principles. I have great hopes for his presidency, and how his leadership may serve not only our nation, but the breadth of humanity.

Two Fall Photos

Reflections on Crabtree Creek



The last walnut