OPERATIONAL DISTRICT: TAKEO
HEALTH CENTERS: ANGKORBOREY
After the thunderstorms the night before, the earth has renewed itself. Today is cloudy and there is an overcast over the country. There is a small, thin layer of fog covering the rice fields as we drive across the expansive countryside. Although I've looked out into the same land for almost two weeks, the weather changes have given me different perspectives of the same plot. I'm not sure if the fog has descended down from the sky to cover the ground or if the warm land is emitting a light steam due to the temperature gradient. Whatever the reason, I look out and don't see a soul. There's no one out picking the rice. Some of the stalks have sunk as the rains have pushed the tip into the paddy. Far out in the distance though, I see a deep, bright green color contrasted against the seemingly impending storm. The rice fields that have provided for these farmers for centuries.
It's already near the end, two weeks of field work gone in a flash. I say goodbye to D at the last site I'm dropped off at, accompanying T. I shake his hand and thank him for working so hard, for taking the time to explain things to me, and for telling me more about his wonderful country. We just smile and shake hands, and I feel a tremendous amount of respect for this man. Then as quickly as we met, we part ways.
Today I have the fortune of accompanying T. This is the first time I'll be able to spend some time one-on-one with him to understand him a bit more: the man behind the data collector. All throughout the trip I've known him to be the one who takes the time to translate for me when everyone else is talking in Khmer. He's always patient when explaining things to me in English, and I appreciate his efforts to include me into the group. I watch him conduct his session and he does so, like he did on the second day, with a certain ease and engagement with the health workers.
Afterwards, we go across the way to someone's house to sit. This is probably the third or fourth cafe I've been at where they just let you sit for hours on end without needing to continually buy anything. We buy two Ca Phe's (coffees) and just sit, and I do my data entry work as he finishes sorting out some of the budgets for the past two weeks.
T's command of the English is the best among all of the vanmates. He expresses himself very casually and given his aptitude and sharpness in language, he is the one that comprehends me the best and communicates the most fluently. He has a lightheartedness to him, and will always follow up a joke with a smile and a slight laughter to hint at his humor. We get to talking about the English education system here in Cambodia, and he is critical. "Here in Cambodia, the English education is not so good. They will teach you through one book, I still remember, the 'Khmer English Book 1.' Once they're done teaching through that, then that's it. There's really no actual learning the language beyond a few words of vocabulary as well as some very, very basic sentence structure."
I ask him then how his proficiency is so good. He forms sentences quite well, despite some verb noun disagreements, but his communicative competency is very high, and he's able to be understood. "I had to learn it on my own. You know, back in university I didn't have that much money. But, I was determined to learn English. I would take a loaf of bread with me -- actually, haf a loaf with me -- and then put it in my bag. This was my lunch. I then would go to the hotel and help with translation with the tourists. I would try to go often so I could talk to native speakers of the language. In the Cambodian schools we had Cambodian teachers that didn't quite have the right accent. For example, they would pronounce the word 'table' as 'tuh-bull' (emphasis on the 'tuh'). When I heard this I was like what? How is this the correct pronunciation? And so, the quality of the teachers was not very good, either.'
If any of you have been reading my series on Southeast Asia, you will know my admiration for the young adults of today with a passion to succeed. And, they do so in far more innovative ways than kids today in the west. We're lucky enogh that our language of instruction is English and, for those in the West whose language is not English, they have access to relatively good educatoin systems that teach it. For the students here in Cambodia, they don't all have the luxury (resources, money) and so I'm impressed by the ways that they go about learning. To go from a position of not knowing the language to putting yourself out there by going to a hotel to do translation - that's the kind of risk I'm talking about. The same with our friend Danh in Vietnam, who struck up a conversation with Thorin at a bus stop on our way to Hoi An. There's a friendliness to these people, yes, but there's also a drive that motivates them to continually improve themselves. It's not just what they strive to be for themselves, but the way that they go about it. The students here know a lot about dedication and hard work and they seriously, I'll say it again, inspire me with their passion.
"So that's how I learned English. Some people would say I'm an English addict. I try to take as many opportunities as I can to listen to the language. I'll listen to the radio out loud so I can hear the pronunciations of native speakers. I'll go out of my way to talk to people that speka English. It's the most important thing, especially in Cambodia." More on this later.
He compliments me among all this and says that my Khmer pronunciation is quite good, especially for someone who has never been exposed to the language before (not sure if that's a good thing). He then proceeds to tell me som details of the Khmer language structure and how it's different from English. "First," he says, "everything is flipped. If we see a notebook, we call it a book of notes. Many words for Khmer are just composite words written in the opposite way from English." OK - quite a simple concept to grasp, I think. I'm quite used to this as many languages do the same - Bahasa Melayu, Spanish, and sometimes Chinese in a way.
Another interesting thing is how they'll classify objects into the motion that they perform. "For example", he continues on, smiling, perhaps at his ability to communicate to me in Englsh about Khmer grammar structure, "this motion over here," he says, as he wipes the table with his napkin, "will have one Khmer word." He proceeds to say the Khmer word for wipe. So, If you want to say napkin, you will say 'wipe mouth paper.' But, say for example you want to say the word toothbrush, you're still doing the scrubbing motion. In this case, you will call it wipe teeth brush. In this way, we classify the actions together, and there are many things that we can describe using this. It's actually quite easy." All throughout his explanation he has peppered in Khmer words. I don't recall any of them. Perhaps for a native speaker it's easy, but making my way across the vowl and consonant sounds produced in the mouth is difficult, but I try my best. When he says I word, I watch the curvature of his lips, and the placement of his tongue in relation to his mouth, and try to do the same. "Good" he says, "Good pronunciation."
He then says to me sometimes he find sit hard to express himself in English because there's just not the equivalent of the word. I understand. During this trip, D has told me various tree species' common names in Khmer. They probably have an equivalent in English but it's just not as commonly known. Perhaps it's also not as commonly known in Cambodia, I just happen to be hanging out with a botanist. "For example", T says, "In Khmer we have 12 different words for eating." I'm shocked - how can one possibly have 12 different words for eating, it's all the same action, and as far as he has told me, actions are usually clumbed by one activity. Is it the way you eat; a different style of eating? "We have 12 words because it depends on who you're talking about. It's a status level of eating. For example, when we say the monks eat, and when the King eats, we will use different words. This one, ____, is used more commonly. Also, this one, ____, is used for when animals eat." Oh, it makes sense now. Just like the bowing - there's hierarchy embedded into the language. And, this hierarchy can be used to express different levels of respect. "For example, if a wife is mad at her husband, or vice versa, they can take the plate of food and set it forcefully on the table to their spouse, and say, 'here, eat!' Of course, eat here is substituted by the word used for animals to eat." I bond with him over sometimes how it's difficult to find the right translations when you're conversing from a foreign language to English. In Chinese, you will have many more descriptions of the way food tastes in your mouth than you will find in English. And so, language really is an adaptation to the local culture, and to see what local cultures emphasize or place importance on.
I then take the time to tell him about some of the intricacies of the English language. Perhaps intricacies is not the right word, rather, the inconsistencies: how sometimes the combinations of the same letters can produce various sounds, and how there are spelling differences between British and American English given language reform in the United States. He's intrigued by the diversity of concepts in the English language as much as I am about the Khmer language. We then get to drinking our coffees, which are half melted and diluted by the crushed ice. The people in the home continue on with their activities, and the children occasionally stop by and stare at us speaking English and Khmer to each other.
After our conversation finishes, there is a brief moment of silence as we get back to each others' work. T steps up and says, "Jason, excuse me for just a second okay?" I ask him where he's going. "In Takeo there is a large Vietnamese population since we are close to the border. I want to go chat with some of the Vietnamese families." I find this a bit odd, but am more intrigued rather than averse to his decision. "I want to understand more the situation of the people that live now in Cambodia. Not only does that mean talking with Cambodians, but also immigrants that have moved here. I want to understand their situation in my country and see how they are adjusting. It's incredibly important to understand your neighbors." Someone nominate this guy to be foreign minister of the country, already. The U.S. could use some of this foreign diplomacy. Again, impressed by the maturity of the new graduated class in this developing region.
When we get picked up by the bus, we go pick up K to drop him off at his aunt's house. This is also the last time I will get to see him. I drop off some of the pictures I've taken of his baby cousin and him that day last week when I spent a night at his aunt's house. I tell him not to forget to thank them so much for letting me into their home and giving me a chance to stay among a local family. It looks different here in that house today. Last week it was sunny, today it is wet and the outside table I was sat at has a thin layer of water on it, and so do the benches. I think back to how only a week ago I was here but how it has already felt like forever. Before I go back to the van, I also shake K's hand and smile at him. I remind him again to give the pictures to his aunt, and thank him for all his hard work. He returns back to his aunt's house in preparation for his session tomorrow.
We pick up W along the way and head to Kampot province for the night - the same province last week when I had seen a white person when I hadn't for so long. This is my last night here and so they want to take me to a nicer place that has a cooked dinner and we can order some dishes. We eventually find one that is a restaurant-cum-KTV place. We order some more octopus with Kompot pepper as well as
T and W take time to explain to me how the KTV process works. The girls will get called by the KTV place to show up. Say there are four guys in one room together, maybe about 6 or 7 girls will be called so that the men have a selection of women. All of them will be dressed in tight clothes and high heels, and enter the room together for the selection process. On the way in, the move in like a small gaggle and waddle their way into the room. They don't look around, but they know that everyone at the restaurant is staring at them. The people in the restaurant stare at them but don't pay much attention - this is common practice here in Kampot City, the capital of Kampot province. About 10 minutes later, T tells me to look behind me. 3 of the girls sitting that didn't make the cut. They use their phones but don't look dejected. It's a process of selection and rejection, and these girls look hardened to the process. About 5 minutes later, an older lady comes by on a motorbike and picks some of them up. I ask the guys who she is and they said "she takes care of the girls, and also takes some of the commission." The head mistress.
I'm neither conflicted nor irresolute about the issue of prostitution in this area, but am more curious about the motivations into why these "EWs" -- entertain workers -- choose (or don't) to partake in this line of work. I ask T, whose English is a bit better, "So, do you think these girls do it because they want to, or because they have to?"
He takes a deep sigh as if he's prepared to discuss a lot about the topic. Before his work currently with University Health Sciences in Phnom Penh, he worked in collaboration with the WHO to study motivations for sex work. He shared about his stories about going to the bars and needing to interview these women while they worked. Often, the work would involve needing to go into the KTV bars to talk to the women, otherwise you're taking their time away from the money they could be earning. "It was really fun work, I felt like I got to see a side of my country that I never would have. WHO also had a budget for going to the bars and spending money, sometimes it was part of the job and you had to kind of 'hire' the girls and tip them to get the data."
"I'll say the answers are varied. Some of the girls don't have a lot of qualifications, and so they're in it for the money. In a month they can make a decent salary without a strong education, and most of them would prefer this to working in a factory where the hours are longer and the salary is not as high. Imagine two scenarios, if you had no choice. Would you rather work a 9 to 5 factory job, or have a job that gives you flexible mornings, a little bit later hours, but pays a lot better? Some would rather have the second option. Some girls though have no other options, they don't have families and can be considered orphans, and do need to work to survive, so this is all that they have. When we talk about motivations for doing sex work there's a lot of complex stories. It's not all girls do this because they want to. It's not all girls do this because they are whores. Here, it's sometimes about survival too."
I listen to him talk about all of his work experiences, from today, and all the days past. To have someone on the ground doing this kind of work for Cambodia is great. As we have another beer the topics range from Khmer dirty words to some more serious topics like the EWs that he's worked with. A and W are chatting about something in Khmer as some patrons frequent the KTV portion of the restaurant. The entertainment workers come and go, and their dealings blend into the background. T's fun loving facade was not just a front, but was backed by a remarkable sense of consideration and respect for others and his own countrymen and women. He learned English on his own through going to do translation for the hotel. He's worked with the EWs in the provinces. He's talked with the local Vietnamese population in Cambodia and now he's involved in the data collection work to understand the village health workers with us. Although these jobs may seem completely different, he's done them out of interest of serving his community, a humble servant. "Out here," he says, "the job applications will ask for two things. They don't care if you have a Bachelor's all the time. The first thing they'll ask is if you speak English. Then, they'll ask if you can use a computer. If you can do these two you're considered very strong in the applicant pool, and after graduation you can come out with 400-500 USD a month salary. Otherwise, you're stuck in the 200-300 band."
In the stride for development, I'm glad Cambodia has these young people on the ground doing the good work.