slums and shadiness

Over the past few days I have started to get acquainted with the darker, dangerous side of Phnom Penh, which considering how long I’ve been here is not that surprising. You can only be oblivious for so long. The different events that kind of brought it home to me were not crazy in and of themselves, it is more the sense of cold violence that is chilling - the aggression and the potential for something horrible to happen and go largely un-noticed.

The first experience happened later in the night on Monday, probably around 10pm. I was walking out of the parking lot on the way to my friend’s apartment, chatting and not paying too much attention to what was going on around me – the street seemed totally quiet. My friend quickly brought it to my attention that we were being followed very purposefully and the guy was hurrying up as he approached us. I turned around quickly and it was pretty obvious what the man’s intention was. We started to walk faster and turned quickly into the alley of the building, hoping that he would realize that we were going inside and not follow. The last time I turned around he had just appeared at the start of the alley still following us. After that my friend told me to run and we sprinted up the stairs to his door and quickly went inside. It was disturbing because would-be-thief knew that we were watching him, we all knew what was going on, but he was not at all deterred.

Apparently if you are being robbed here and you yell “JOW” (khmer for thief) and there are any people in the streets they will just mob the guy and beat the hell out of him. There is a strongly felt sense of justice and right and wrong. Unfortunately for us there was no one around that night and by the time anyone came outside it would have been too late.

The next thing that happened was up at Olympic Stadium while I was playing soccer. I ran to get the ball and when I turned around no one was paying attention. Everyone had gathered - probably a hundred people and about 30 motorbikes – and there were two groups of people each trying to hold back two guys who clearly wanted to fight. One of them had picked up a metal pole that is used as a goal post and eventually broke away from the group and started chasing the other guy. It was crazy because everyone was just kind of watching and no one seemed that bothered. Interested, but not bothered. The guy eventually ran to the bbq and tried to get a knife from the girl there that was cooking. She wouldn’t give it to him so he went back to chasing the guy with the metal pole. Eventually it all dispersed but there was definitely a potential for violence and it didn’t seem like anyone was going to step in to stop it.

And finally… same day at soccer, a group of guys came out of the gym-ish building next to the dirt area where we play soccer. I guess they saw me playing soccer – a girl playing sports is still a huge ordeal/scene for everyone there – but they gathered on the edge of the field on the side where I was playing (definitely a moment where I was glad that I don’t speak Khmer). I knew that they were watching me but generally whenever western people are up at the fields playing everyone is gathered watching, so I wasn’t really paying attention. Then one of the guys started to follow me around, ON the field. He kept about 5-10 feet away at all times, but he was physically on the field, in the middle of the game, following me around. The look in his eyes was what really creeped me out. His eyes were dead cold, leering with contempt. He looked like he wanted to kill me. He would look down at my legs (I was wearing shorts to just above my knee), then up at me again and even when I looked at him with a look that was like ‘get the hell away from me’ he would just stare blankly back at me. It really freaked me out, and more than that no one else that I was playing soccer with did anything about it – well, none of the Cambodians. The male intern (Nic) that I go up to the field with noticed and made a motion for the guy to leave me alone – but what can we do? He was with a group of 10 of his wrestler friends, and there was no general feeling that what he was doing was offensive. It got to the point where I felt too uncomfortable to keep playing and had to get Nic to leave with me. That was really my first bad experience playing soccer. Other than that it had been really positive and fun.

I guess what it comes down to with all of these little incidents that have colored my impression of the city is that sometimes the cultural gap feels exhausting and oppressive. There just isn’t that sense of security, cleanliness, access to medical care etc that I don’t even think about when it is there. It is easy to forget that sometimes I’m walking on thin ice here - because it is a great place and the people are generally overwhelmingly friendly. Especially at night though, attitudes change and the man on the corner who smiles at me during the day and says hello will turn into the man glaring at me and thinking about stealing my bag. The attitude towards women just becomes completely disrespectful and almost contemptuous.

Then there is the shady shady bureaucracy. I had to get my visa renewed this week, because I have been here almost one month. First of all, the fee is $40 (give or take, and depending who you ask), which seems steep for a one month extension on a single entry visa – which means that I can’t even leave the country in this coming month without paying extra. Anyways, I couldn’t find the right travel office to do it and I was feeling nauseous traveling around on a very slow moto in roughly 38 degree heat and intense humidity, so I went to a regular tourist travel agency. They took my passport, filled out some form and I paid them. 10 minutes after leaving my phone rang and it was the passport office. Apparently I cant pick up my passport until Saturday… and I couldn’t understand why. He was trying to explain but it was lost on me. It is only supposed to take one day. Whatever, nothing I can do. It was hot and I just could not understand what was going on. That happens regularly here. I end up just staring at someone and they are staring back at me and there is no comprehension whatsoever.

So otherwise things here are going great. It is an amazing place and aside from having to be really careful at night I love it. I am getting lots of work done on the children’s rights manual/lesson plans, and also helping with other projects in the office. Trying to get BAB to organize for some of us to teach some classes at the Centre for Children’s Happiness. I think I would enjoy doing some teaching while here and it is always inspiring and uplifting to be around the kids there.

Speaking of teaching, I went to the largest slum in Phnom Penh yesterday to teach a class to some kids there. In January of this year BAB helped to set up a classroom in the slum to teach additional classes to children in the afternoons – kids go to school for 4 hours in the morning here. It was great, the kids were awesome and they enjoyed spending time with us. It was a huge contrast from the orphanage near the dump where they mob you when you walk in. They were well behaved and eager to learn.

The slum itself was shocking. It is a maze of streets and huts built on a huge shallow lake in the north of the city. The water is thick with garbage, including medical waste from a hospital in the city. If that wasn’t bad enough, the government sold the whole lake area illegally to a corporation for development. This means that the area is threatened with eviction, which would leave thousands of families with no home and nowhere to go. The corporation plans to fill in the lake and built a resort. There is a huge legal battle right now over the planned evictions.