home alone(ish)

My host family is awesome. In a country where proper nutrition is a struggle they totally take it in stride that I (somewhat selfishly) have cut out an entire food group by choice. They treat me like their own daughter and expect nothing less from the community. They give me my space but include me in all the fun stuff. And they are good for an endless amount of awkward exchanges and hilarious stories. I should mention that Ma wears the pants in this house and Pa is one of the sweetest Khmer men I’ve ever met.

This last week Ma was in and out of town and Pa is in and out all the time because it’s orange season so he spends quite a few nights at the farm. They sent Pea up to stay with family members for the week but they still had me to worry about, and oh do they worry.  For Ma’s first two night stint away I told her I would stay at the house the first night and then go to Battambang for the second one. She seemed uneasy but went on her way making sure everyone knew that I was home alone…which was fine; until she told Pa he needed to come home to be with me. She called Pa and made him put me on the phone to make sure he was home. So Pa was home but Ma wasn’t which meant that he could have his buddies over! While Pa and his friends drank the night away I peeked out the window only to see that the community ambulance was parked in front of the house, not because anything was wrong but because the driver was over drinking (remember my 50^th project about road safety, yeah). If you remember Ma had told everyone that I was home alone so as soon as the ambulance left neighbors came over to ask what was wrong, sitting up in my mosquito net I could hear all of this and smiled knowing that I am well taken care of .

The next morning I went into town like I told Ma I would and had a great night. Sunday I ended up taking a taxi back to site even though I knew Pa would be going in later to pick Ma up from the bus. I had been stung by a bee, my morning wasn’t going so great and I was ready to get back. Sunday was a minor Chinese holiday so when I came back I found Pa sitting with the neighbors eating and hanging out, they waved me over and I ate some noodles and sat for a while. Soon after Pa told me he was going to visit some friends over at Phnom Sampo, where his side of the family lives, and then go to pick up Ma. He asked if I wanted to come, I said yes, thinking that we were going to visit family and off we went. The drive was pretty interesting, we drove down a different dirt road and Pa showed me some of the smaller orange farms he has and was telling me about where he and Ma used to live, it’s always nice to see more of the area around my site. So we get there and we’re not seeing family, it’s just his buddies drinking, awkward. We sit there for a while and then Ma called to say that she was ready to be picked up, not a moment too soon! Ma was only home for the night and grilled me about what Pa did while she was gone, oh, and where were the dogs? Gooood question, turns out Pa gave them to one of his drinking buddies and I have a sinking feeling he didn’t want them for pets, womp.

The next morning she was getting ready to leave again and as I was leaving for work she casually mentioned that the Yeh (her mother) was going to come over for a night to stay with me. UGH. It’s not that I don’t like the Yeh; it’s just harder with her here. I don’t understand what she is saying to me, she is nearly blind, she doesn’t know how to turn on or off the stove or the lights, her food is well…unpalatable. I knew it would be a long and hungry few days. The days went slowly and were awkward, trying to help the Yeh around the house while trying to avoid conversation that would just be me bobbing my head, agreeing and looking for an escape, and her food. Luckily my health center staff seems to have a sixth sense about when I’m really hungry and one morning one of the midwives took me out for boboa (rice porridge) I’ve never been such a fan but this was deeelicious and I happily ate my entire massive bowl of it. I was so happy when Pa pulled up late that afternoon with food for dinner. He told me he was going to buy fish Amok (my favorite) but the seller wasn’t there yet so he brought me some treats instead. He left again the next morning but I managed to avoid lunch with the Yeh and was taking my sweet time eating a massive pomelo when Ma pulled up. I nearly ran to help her with all her bags and eagerly sat half listening about her trip while eating all the fruit she brought home.

Long story short, I’m out of peanut butter (on the to-do list for next weekend), we don’t have puppies anymore and I really like when Ma is home to cook because even if I don’t love the food at least her rice is safe to eat.

Have a wonderful weekend!

Xoxo,

B