To market, to market to buy a fat pig, home aggain......you need to wear raincoat each time you wash dishes
My prince charming
This is how i look like each time i wash dishes...all wet
Beautiful smile.....



WONDERFUL LIFE....

Isn’t life so wonderful? Here I am in Battambang, lying down while my secretary (Prema) is typing out what I want to say. This is what she pays me for all the washing, cleaning and cooking. Anyway, life is indeed very interesting in Battambang. Why do I say that?

First, you must know this place. It has everything that you need from Skype, Yahoo, MSN and everything you know about IT, they have it. But, it is like living in the 50’s. There is no television in Prema’s house, but there is laptop, but again, there is no internet/broadband. So, our only entertainment is watching ‘My Fair Lady’ and ‘Harry Meets Sally’ for the 20th or 30th time (Prema says it is exaggeration).

And you have to wear raincoat when you wash dishes. To know why you need to wear raincoat, you must first know about her house. She has a nice house, right in town. Half cement and half plank. Very comfortable with plenty of little friendly (some not so friendly) creatures. The problem is there is no water supply to her house, but it is ok because it is now the rainy season, so we get rain water. Since there is no water supply to her house, the landlord has 6 big urns to catch rain water, so we have 6 urns of rain water but you can’t use it because it is full of mosquito larvae. You must wonder why we don’t throw away the water. It is because the urns are so big and heavy that you can’t turn it over. The landlord is smart enough to have 2 big tanks that is 10feet high and 3 feet in diameter. The tanks are so big that we can’t see what is inside. What we cannot see, it is ok, and so we use that water to bathe, wash our dishes, etc except drinking. Why I say we have to wear raincoat is because there is a small pipe protruding out from the tank for us to wash the dishes with, but the pipe is loose and a slight knock will give us a shower outdoors (only mummy and Juan lah…when I wash, nothing happens!)

And why do I say it is so interesting? It’s because we literally dance with joy when it rains so that we can have clean rain water to bathe and wash our dishes with. 2 weeks ago, we ran out of water and we had to call the water guy by the river to fill up our tank with the river water. Since then, we have been using the river water for everything other than cooking and drinking.

I’m having a great time of my life. Every morning when I walk to the market I meet these 3 boys at the corner coffee shop. I can see their face literally light up. And then, I will pass another group of motordob (motorbike-taxi) guys and they will greet me ‘Good morning’ in English (they were shy in the beginning but now they are friendly). Then, I pass the river, cross the small bridge, pass by the monks, the motor-bikes, the woman carrying their wares on their heads, as I walk to the market. And occasionally, I need to pick up my slippers to dig out the pebble that get stuck to the sole and pokes my foot.

If you have a camera, it will be very interesting to take my photos while I’m bargaining with the sellers at the market. It is all on sign language or facial expression. And I always make them laugh! By now, I’m sure they are looking forward to my visit everyday. (So full of herself!)

In order to help Prema to get more students, we decided that I should give a talk to parents on parenting. It was a last minute decision and we had 1 week to prepare. IMAGINE ME GIVING A TALK. Prema was more stressed out than me. But it went on ok except that we didn’t have many listeners.

Oh yes, I met my prince charming. He was waiting outside the door one morning. I shall show you the photos of him. I am totally in love, help me! Also, of all the things that have ever been invented, nothing can compare to the MOSQUITO SWATTER. It looks like a badminton racket but can kill! I cannot go anywhere without it, and it sounds like playing fire-crackers, just as the thrill of it is.

Another thing, there is no washing machine in Prema’s house. Imagine, I hand-wash Prema’s and my clothes…HANDWASH…poor me. Luckily, Juan sends his to the laundry. So, can you imagine? Could anyone’s life be as interesting as mine?

P/S The above post was created last week while we were home, not kn0wing what to do next. With the help of Prema.