Day 2

I woke up at 6 then went back to sleep for a couple of hours. Allan was over viewing applications with Vanna, the lady that will be in charge of the dormitory, and Elise was conducting an interview with an anthropologist I had met at the mosque the day before. I had a pretty relaxing morning; I swam and began this journal. When Elise got back we went to lunch at another Khmer restaurant. We ate the usual food, pad tie, fresh spring rolls, and a salad dish (which was almost too spicy to eat). I ordered a jack fruit smoothie, not knowing what jack fruit was. The smoothie was very good. Elise told me all about her interview the anthropologist. The lady had been studying a chum 7 village for a while. In the village there an elderly that was like a mentor to her. He was the one that would tell her everything about their customs. The anthropologist told Elise a story from a recent trip to the village. The old man had been sick for a many of the previous visits then one day he was well. When she enquired about his health, he told her very plainly that he had been cured. Many years ago, the man got in a dispute with a stranger, and the stranger got a sorcerer to put a spell on him. He normally would have no problem getting the spell revoked by another sorcerer, but because the stranger used such a good sorcerer, he had to find an even better one. The villagers spent a lot of time finding a good enough sorcerer and they finally found one from Phnom Penh. The sorcerer came to the village and took a few bites out of the old man’s chest. The man was healed, but did have a few large wounds from the bites.

After lunch, I met two very interesting people: Vanna and Elephant. Vanna spoke English very well and was very smart. Vanna is to be the head of the dormitory and is in charge of communicating with the applicants. Elephant was pretty awesome. Many of years ago he had been the driver for a woman that was planning on starting an orphanage. The woman could tell he was very smart and capable, so she hired him to do some menial tasks for the orphanage. He worked his may up and is now in charge of the entire orphanage and the boarding school associated with it. Elephant knows everyone and all of the best places to shop. Elephant was there because he was trying to get his brother a job as the night watchman for the dormitory. We all got in Elephants 4-Runner, and he took us to the dormitory.

It was amazing. I had no idea it would be that nice. The builder was there with his workers planting a garden. I was very impressed that this local man was such a good builder; the three decorative windows were amazing. The dorm has three floors, 9 bedrooms – each sleep 4, 3 bathrooms, 2 lounges, and three kitchens.

After visiting the dorms I had another very unique experience. Alan, Elise and I went to a Buddhist monastery for meditation. On the way to the temple we passed through a tent that had been set up for an event. There were two army generals playing chess. We asked them what was going on and they said a funeral for an army general had just taken place. It was my first experience with meditation, so I got instructions from a monk before entering the temple. He taught me how to sit: legs crossed, body relaxed with head up. He said that the goal of meditation was to clear the mind of everything. There are things that distract us inside our body and outside our body and me must dismiss these things. After instruction, I went into the temple to meditate. There was a very diverse group of about 45 people meditating. There were monks, Cambodians, Americans, French, and many other people from all over. I had a tough time not thinking, I think it would take a lot of work for me to achieve right-mindedness. When meditation time was over a monk tapped a symbol and everyone began to leave. The monk that attempted to teach me game me some reading material about meditation. It was tough to walk for while.

After leaving the monastery we went straight to a restaurant to meet the couple from Maine (Fred and Lipp) that got Alan involved in Cambodia. The couple is involved in building schools in 7 different villages. They also encourage the children to stay in school and pay the parents a portion of what the child would be earning in a trade when necessary. I began to realize how exhausting it is to live in Cambodia. Being outside in the heat all day, as the vast majority of the population is, is extremely draining. By the end of dinner I was so tired I felt that I could barely make it back to the hotel. I did try to call home using an internet phone but because of poor equipment, not connection, the phone call sounded very bad. I then went back to the hotel and crashed.