Going Again: Cambodia, Day 2

June 6, 2017June 6, 2017 ShirleyjdietzLeave a comment

At least I think it’s day 2. When the trip actually starts I soon lose track of what time to call it. It makes no sense to keep on referring to the time in the zone I just left. I’m not sure what time it is where I’m going and the intervening time is hard to identify. The lights in the plane are kept low/off except when a meal or snack is being served.

The longest flight is over and I am in Seoul, South Korea with about 15 minutes until boarding for the last six hour flight to Phnom Penh. It is 6:15 pm on June 5. I began the journey from home at 3:30 am on June 4^th but somewhere in there I crossed enough time zones to gain nine or ten hours.

Getting my shoes back on after 13 hours of sitting was more difficult than I expected. Technically, I know it’s healthier to stay hydrated. Realistically, it’s airline torture to be trapped in your seat with a full bladder so I am staying more on the “dry” side. When I think about how many people were on the plane, for all those hours, with so few facilities I get in touch with my claustrophobic self real quick.

However, I do eat all the meals, and almost all the snacks. It helps to pass time. I hadn’t heard of most of the movies but I did watch three and parts of a fourth. I couldn’t finish Star Wars: Rogue One. I used to love science fiction as a highschooler, but since then it seems more like a waste of time. So many of the movies seem to turn to overuse of sex and/or violence in an attempt to entertain and end up being distasteful and boring. I didn’t end up reading as much as I thought I would either as I kept thinking I should try to sleep (but couldn’t).

Later: It is over. I am here and breathing a great sigh of relief. On the last flight I had a seat between two men, and we had friendly conversation as much as we could without knowing much of each other’s language. One was from Japan, the other from South Korea.

I was so grateful to be on the ground and out of a sitting position at the Phnom Penh airport. There were probably 50 of us in line to apply and get visas, and as usual at least ten very stern faced men and women sitting behind glass taking all our passports and passing them down the line to each other. I can’t figure it out – some of them don’t seem to be doing anything. We wait at the end of the line for our passports to be returned with the visas attached, one at a time. Although I was early handing mine in, I was second to last getting it back. Although I paid $3 to have a picture taken, no one took my picture. But I was motioned on to the next desk. Every time I shoved papers back in my pack, there would be another need to drag them out again. They seem to like regulation and uniforms and scaring tourists. Not one smile, all business. Oh well.

20170606_181306 — This unusual water feature is actually the pool at the hotel. We pass it as we enter the lobby.

My lone suitcase was going round and round on the carousel, thankfully no waiting for that. My hotel driver was outside the building holding a sign with my name. It was so sweet! The Double Leaf Hotel is near the Russian Market and I am very pleased with the room and the service. It is now 12:30 am here and I certainly should be tired enough to sleep, except that my internal clock says 1:30 pm and is trying to be alert. I will make it adjust. So glad to be here safely and be able to rest.

20170606_004253 — What a welcome sight this was!

2017-06-06 23.09.00 — This simple type of art is found throughout the lobby and rooms of Double Leaf Boutique. Clearly hand drawn and painted.

Speaking of Rubber Bands

January 26, 2014January 26, 2014 ShirleyjdietzLeave a comment

I was speaking (writing) of rubber bands in my last post and this thought came to mind, Rainbow Looms. Now for those of you who are not frequently in the company of children and may not know about Rainbow Looms, let me introduce you to a new craft/toy craze that is sweeping the WORLD. It really starts with a very simple concept of stringing rubber bands of various colors and sizes together to make bracelets, etc… but goes on to some pretty complicated stuff. The loom itself is a small plastic apparatus with multiple upright pegs.

I first heard of it when my cousin who has a young daughter started buying rubber bands in bulk to sell in her flea market business. Honestly, I didn’t see the draw and kind of mentally passed it by. Later at our Thanksgiving celebration her daughter and another young guest spent quite a bit of time making bracelets. The other girl had been doing it for a while and was making some fairly complicated patterns – these girls were into it, seriously.

But I did not know the true power of Rainbow Loom craziness until we went to Cambodia. The Rainbow Loom “people” had donated a number of looms and bags and bags of rubber bands for us to take with us as gifts for the children in the orphan homes. There were a few extra so one day we gave some to the university students in the girls dorm. The next day we found out that one girl had been up till 3 a.m. making bracelets and hair bands to give away as New Year’s gifts for her friends. There is evidently no age limitation to the fascination.

Later we took the loom project to each of the orphan homes and our experts sat down on the floor to teach and demonstrate. Hours later the madness was still continuing… They catch on quick. Thank you Rainbow Loom for a really fun time.

This is fun and we are making pretty stuff!

So maybe we don’t really need the loom after all….

Something I Don’t Get to Do Every Day

January 25, 2014January 25, 2014 ShirleyjdietzLeave a comment

Checking out a rubber manufacturing plant in Cambodia (please tell me you haven’t done this…)

On a recent trip to Cambodia, our small group of foreigners got to tour a rubber plant in Kampong Cham province. Not only was this something one doesn’t get to do every day, but we almost didn’t get to do it that day either. There were union protests taking place in the capital city of Phnom Penh and the guards at our rubber factory thought we might be coming to incite a riot. Fortunately our tour organizer was from that province and somehow knew the right things to say. We all paid $1 to get in. This was a very self-guided tour. This was the full extent of our supervision as we roamed the premises at will.

I'm glad they told us. — I’m glad they told us.

Rubber tree sap is white and really quite beautiful. It’s collected a little like maple sap used in making maple syrup. There’s the hole in the tree trunk, a little spigot and a pail. I’m not sure how they get the sap from the grove to the processing building but once there it’s put in long storage vats and a chemical is added. The sap solidifies. It looks a lot like cheese (mozarella).

the grove in background, (bananas in front)

The long flats of raw rubber go into a drying machine where they are chopped up and dried. I’m actually making this all up because there was no one to tell us what was really happening but we got a pretty good idea just by the looks of things. These are the drying machines.

The rubber is not as attractive when it is dried – yellow/brown and dense. It comes from the dryers, still on it’s conveyor belt and drops into a compressor where it’s made into blocks.

block of rubber on its way to.... — block of rubber on its way to….

…this guy with the knife who was very busy. I have no idea why he was doing this.

The blocks of rubber are trucked out to other factories where they are made into various rubber things. Rubber bands? I don’t know. This is where our tour ended. There were about eight of these long open buildings but this was the only one that was in operation at the time. It appeared to be off-season for rubber. This is a very warm climate and the buildings are open, as I said, and didn’t have fans – only natural ventilation. The workers were often shirtless, shoeless and definitely were not wearing hard hats or protective anything around the machinery. Evidently there aren’t a lot of lawsuits in Cambodia. We were free to walk around the machinery, through the plant, touching, poking and asking questions without interference. It was really quite interesting.

What things are still made with real rubber? Do you know?

Back at Home

January 12, 2014 ShirleyjdietzLeave a comment

Cambodia, what a time it was! This time last week I was still on the other side of the world saying goodbye to everyone and now it feels like it was ages ago. I made so many new friends, strengthened bonds with others, wandered a bit out of my comfort zone and survived. I saw God doing the things he does best – changing people.

One of the joys of travel is getting to come home again, back to a life that seems familiar but altered and fresh in some weird way. I love being home again.

It’s taking me forever to get all my photos of Cambodia in one place and organized. I put an album up on facebook but didn’t have the heart to tell people that it was only half of the pictures that I had taken. The rest have yet to be posted. One thing I did take time to put up was a new profile picture of me in my tuktuk riding garb. I was told more than once that I looked like Audrey Hepburn (when all of her facial features and hair were covered up… right, striking resemblance.) We all rode around with masks because of the dust and because of the Stinky River, aka open sewer running along our street. It’s a good look and I’m thinking of trying it here at home.

Back in my usual Florida life I’ve been cleaning house, washing clothes, grocery shopping, going to work AND buying a different car. Different as opposed to new. I am now a proud Mazda owner, zoom, zoom. It was quite an ordeal and I’m going to write about it in a different post but for now I just want to say hi to the guy who drew up the final papers, the one and only Jim Carey. Not really, but he did look and act just like him and can you imagine what it would be like – in a movie, buying a car from Jim Carey? I just sat looking at him and not getting over the resemblance, which probably creeped him out a little but he deserved it. He’s a car salesman. He did say he wanted to check out my blog and we’ll see if he did the next time I’m in for an oil change.

Have you ever toured a rubber plant? Well, I have (in Cambodia) and there are pictures to prove it. Check back in a couple days and you will know all about it. I’m just sayin’ it was pretty interesting in a third world kind of way…

Comfort Zones

January 3, 2014January 3, 2014 Shirleyjdietz1 Comment

I’ve been out of mine so long today that I’m forgetting what it is like to be in my comfort zone. Loud, loud music that is not culturally familiar, much heat and little water, crowds of people, very few of whom I can communicate with, and those I can understand I still can’t communicate with because of deafness due to loud, loud music. It seems that our mission team is very well organized but somehow we English speakers are not understanding enough to prepare ourselves for each step as it comes, (Or could it be that God knows we would be resistant/scared/freaked out if we understood ahead of time. Yeah, that’s it.)

We are always being asked for the unexpected. What is the matter with us that we don’t expect to be asked to talk, lead, teach, play games, and do physical exams on sick villagers? The excitement is building as I contemplate having to see patients and dispense remedies, depending on an interpreter to know what problems I’m supposed to address… in the heat, in the dirt, under a tent, amidst confusion. We are called on to be flexible and all we can do is proceed. This may turn out well, it may turn out not so well, but either way it will only last about three hours tomorrow. I’m just sayin’ I’m thankful for that and I think I can do it.

Having Very Little

January 1, 2014January 1, 2014 ShirleyjdietzLeave a comment

These children have just been to Phnom Penh Central Market for their semi-annual shopping experience. They bought $5 to $10 worth of shoes, jeans, or a school bag for each of them. Most of them had never had this experience until they came to Asia’s Hope orphan homes several years ago.

In Cambodia, these are not the children who have very little. These children have a home that is clean, house parents who love them, a school to attend, food to eat and clothes to wear. They have lots of reasons to hope – including knowledge of a God who has a plan for their lives.

Today our team from the U.S. joined with university students from a Cambodian church to visit a nearby slum area and interact with the children there. These children had very little clothing, some had none, there were no parents watching over them, they themsleves were coated with filth and grime and pestilence as were their surroundings. The garbage and stench was unrelenting, everywhere. They came running for the gifts being handed out… a piece of bread, a pencil, a ball. There was not enough for them all and chaos ensued. These are the ones who have very little. If only they could be taken out, one by one, washed with clean water and fed, and then put someplace a little cleaner, safer and friendlier to find hope. I’m just sayin’, we have a real problem here, a real evil to work against.