Diving In -- Exploring Phnom Penh

As part of a deal with myself to not work on anything this weekend, I decided to explore Phnom Penh and, to the best of my ability, to do it on foot.   I spent hours upon hours walking and exploring the nooks and crannies of various markets and districts of Cambodia's capital city.  It was a chance for the nerdy ethnographer in me to come out and take some field-notes. 

Its refreshing to see that this part of world has been far less influenced by the rip-tide of western and international media and--apart from the odd prevalence of Angry Birds paraphernalia--the culture is  distinctive and brilliantly Southeast Asian.


I have genuinely loved walking past the grand and ornate Buddhist temples, seeing groups of monks pass at the market and to have the spicy fragrance of burning incense ever-present on the streets.  There is something that I love about Buddhist art and tradition.  It possesses this particular sense of ornate transcendence that is rich with philosophical meaning, and I absolutely love it.  Now, don't get me wrong--I'm not a Buddhist.  But, I see something beautiful in what sincere Buddhism tries to attain and how it harnesses this sense of unity, balance, and harmony that so epitomizes (in a very broad sense) Asian values and ideals.   

Yesterday, I was walking along the Mekong riverfront near the Royal Palace.   I sat for a while just behind a large shine and watched people, young and old, come and gather their incense, light it, and proceed into this small ornate structure to offer prayers and offerings to the spirits of their ancestors.  This particular ritual is something beautiful to watch.  It is done with such care an delicacy and seems to involve both parents, children, and even young couples equally.    Outside of the shrine were vendors carrying cages filled with small birds.  A number of people, upon leaving the shrine, would pay a small amount for a couple of birds.  Then, walking away from the shrine, they would release the birds into the air and watch them fly out over the river.  I'm not entirely sure if this is directly connected to what was happening inside of the shrine, but the process was nevertheless beautiful.  

Something else that I have greatly enjoyed is the thriving nightlife here in Phnom Penh.  Saturday evening, during one of my treks, I stumbled upon a night market, near the Royal Palace.   It was a great opportunity to grab some Southeast Asian "soul food"--if that's what you can call it.  At the center of the market were a number of woven mats ("banig", if you are filipino) laid end-to-end in a matrix of what seemed to be a two-dimensional restaurant of sorts.  Each mat had condiments, salt, chili pepper, and a variety of spicy, sweet, and sour pastes to choose from.  

"Pho Bo" - the Vietnamese version

For me, this was my opportunity to grab a bowl of something that I had been craving for quite some time--a Vietnamese soup called, "Pho Bo" (this was the Cambodian version, of course, but good enough for me).   I have developed somewhat of an addiction to this particular soup over the past couple years, and I was excited to discover that it is quite common in Cambodian cuisine.   The dish is essentially made up of rice noodles, bean sprouts, beef, basil, and a deliciously-rich beef broth topped with shameless amounts of cilantro (my favorite herb).


Something else that should be mentioned about evenings in Phnom Penh is how animated the riverbank and its nearby parks become as the sun starts to set.   Last night was particularly lively, as it was the night before the birthday of the Queen Mother of Cambodia (a large picture of her can be seen in the first image of this post, hanging on the front of the Royal Palace).    Standing near the Liberation Monument, I was surrounded by literally 360º of some sort of local game involving a small, hollow, woven ball that is kicked around in what seems to be a cross between soccer and hackie-sack.  Beyond that were groups of local Khmer men and women dancing--some to traditional music and others to hiphop.  In all honesty, I wanted to join--but let's face it--I had no idea of what was going on.  As I walked through the animated scene, I came across a hilarious lip-synced dancing-drama which involved what appeared to be a man declaring his un-dying love for a what seemed to be a woman(?) wearing a mustache (played by a man in drag).  


Words really don't do it justice--so I video'ed it: 

Exhausted, I started the long hour-and-a-half walk back to the Russian Market district where I am staying (I grabbed another bowl of Pho Bo on the way). 


Walking through Phnom Penh is surprisingly easy.  Compared to Manila, I would say that Phnom Penh is rather calm--and for those here in Cambodia who haven't lived in Manila, they are usually shocked to hear me use the word "calm" to describe the bustling chaos of Cambodia's capital city.   Although the traffic here is wild and usually unpredictable, transportation is simple, easily available, and usually involves hopping on the back of a public-use motorcycle or climbing in a tuk-tuk, which is a kind of motorcycle-driven pedicab that is common in this part of Southeast Asia.   For the Filipinos reading this post, I am sad to report that there are no jeepneys in Cambodia, no screaming or cackling horns and no barkers calling out for passengers--just group after group of hopeful pedicab drivers on every corner asking, "Tuk-tuk, sir?  Tuk-tuk?"  

And now a note about language.  Throughout this weekend's wanderings, I have been doing my best to pick up what I can of the language.   I am learning a little bit.  I can greet people, say thank you, and ask a (very) few basic questions.   Other than that, I don't understand a blessed thing--and without a keen and constant observation of non-verbals and vocal tones, I am usually completely and utterly lost.    I had somewhat hoped that Khmer (the national language) would have had some rough relation to Tagalog (the Philippine national language) so that I could at least have some kind of bridge for learning.  

No such luck. 

As it turns out, Khmer is a Sanskrit-derived language (the ancient, liturgical language of Buddhism, interestingly enough) as opposed to Tagalog, which is Malay-derived.  There is NO connection that I can see between the two languages, except for the fact that they both use sounds to make words which carry meaning.  --Blah.

Looking past my language issues, and the fact that VERY, VERY few people actually speak English (or Tagalog) here, I feel that my adjustments to Cambodia have been fairly effortless.  Looking back on my years in the Philippines, and the time that it took me to adjust there, its comforting to know that culture-shock is no longer a big challenge for me.   I remember that my initial culture-shock upon first moving to Southeast Asia five years ago took a number of months to work through.  And as it turned out, culture-shock was much less of a "shock" as it was a slow, creeping anxiety--like a kind of subconscious stress and frustration that I couldn't really put my finger on, but nevertheless was very real and, at times, very debilitating.   Those days are over, it seems, which puts me at ease and allows me to focus more readily on the tasks at hand.   

And with those thoughts, I think I'll save the rest for another post.  Tomorrow will be a big day.  In the morning, we leave for our first few days of fieldwork in Siem Reap.  Today has been a productive time of literature review and a very useful discussion with a long-time researcher and social worker here in Phnom Penh.  I'm looking forward to jumping in.  

More on this to come. 

Research in Cambodia? : a brief explanation

I am at the end of a very long, very full week of meetings and information-gathering for next week's initial fieldwork in Siem Reap.  For those of you who do not know, I am in Cambodia this summer working as a research intern with an organization called "Love146" which specializes in the prevention of human trafficking/sexual exploitation and providing aftercare for its victims.  The commercial sex industry is a thriving business in this corner of the world and much of it revolves around tourist hotspots and (naturally) the red light districts of Cambodia's urban centers.  My work this summer will be an exploratory study of the sexual exploitation of males working as masseurs in a number of these tourist destinations outside of Phnom Penh--namely Siem Reap.   

As I mentioned in my previous post, there is little-to-no research focusing specifically on men and boys in the commercial sex industry.  Most research has focused primarily on women and girls--often framing men as the predators and women and girls as the quintessential victims of exploitation.  However, men and boys are also victims.  One earlier study found that nearly 20% of Cambodian boys are sexually abused between the ages of 9 and 15--that's about 1 in 5.  However, in this climate of research, where men are solely predators and women are solely victims, it becomes very difficult for NGOs and other social service providers to take male issues seriously--thus, very few services exist to meet their needs.   This research is part of a big "first step" in uncovering a great blind-spot in our understanding of sexual exploitation.  

Next week we will begin with our preliminary fieldwork in Siem Reap.  The primary data for our research will come from one-on-one interviews with masseurs.  Some of these young men may work for legitimate spas and massage parlors, some will be prostitutes, and others may be somewhere in-between.  This first week of fieldwork will consist of four days of observation and information gathering from NGO workers in the area and impromptu conversations in a number of area restaurants and bars.   

Hopefully, this gives a bit of context to what I will be doing this summer.  I thought that it was important to dedicate a full post to a an explanation of my work, because I will--no doubt--be drawing reference to this subject in a number of posts to come, and I don't want anyone to be lost.  Hopefully, not everything that I write will be as heavy and academic as this post--I'll be posting some lighter things as well--but I thought it was important to give this brief explanation as a backdrop for my posts to come over the next few months.

A few pre-flight notes from the Philippines:

It was an absolutely amazing week-and-a-half in the Philippines.  And the strangest and most comforting thing was that it felt like I had never really left.  I have felt completely at home.  I was able to pick up the culture, language and--more importantly--relationships, right where I had left off.   More and more I am becoming grateful for the solidarity that I have in my Barkada both at home and abroad.   

In some ways, this has been a reassuring visit for me.  Last August, after leaving the Philippines and taking on my old job as a waiter and a substitute teacher, I had these irrational fears that--this would be it. I feared that I wouldn't find something else and I would eventually just settle into doing something for which I had no passion or calling.   Although, I still don't have a career--this summer is just an "internship"--my short visit back to the Philippines has been a much-needed reminder that everything is stil here.  There still more left to be done, and the story is not over.  

That... gave me a great deal of rest.  

I've stayed with a very close friend and colleague of mine, Glen Loyola (he's the one giving the "peace" sign to the left there).    Glen is one of a number of super-ultra-high-quality individuals at APNTS, with whom I am very close, who share with me this incredible, passionate belief in the dramatic potential of human beings--regardless of who they are, what they've done, or where they are from.  Socially active and insatiable thinkers, we never seem to tire of sharing thoughts and ideas, no matter how late into the night the conversation goes.  So many quality conversations have marked my progress through the last two weeks, this had been precisely the prelude that I have needed as I enter into my research over the next few months.   For this, I can be nothing but thankful.   

There are a number of thoughts and themes that have been circling through my head, over the past few weeks--subjects that Becca and I have discussed and debated, and a few things that have simply been hanging on my heart.   Many of these thoughts and themes have to do with personal transparency and community.   I feel that many of these thoughts have some very real connection to the issues that I will be researching this summer (Human Trafficking and Sexual Exploitation of Boys),  however, I still have to figure out how to best articulate what I have been thinking.  

As I write this very sentence, my flight for Malaysia is boarding in front of me.  There is much, much more to be said, but nowhere near enough time to write it all down before my flight leaves. 

This evening I will have a 12 hour layover in Kuala Lampur, Malaysia.  I am going to try to use the time to make it out ti the city and see a few sights.   I'll do my best to finish a few of these thoughts when I'm back on the ground.  

Mabuhay!