On Saturday last week, Charlotte and I had a lovely daddy-daughter outing around Phnom Penh. We stopped by the office on the way home to pick up a bike and, as the guard did some last minute maintenance on it, Charlotte took off her shoes. This is where I messed up – as we started…
Author: Charles
Durian
The first time I had durian I was told, “it smells like hell but tastes like heaven.” Unfortunately that wasn’t the case. It tasted like a rotten sweet onion. This was in Ohio in the year leading up to my first cross cultural trip to Viet Nam. Because of that experience I avoided eating durian…
So Dengue Fever
To conclude the story of Ugh Food Poisoning and Probably Not Food Poisoning… After the tests came back the Doctor concluded that I did have Dengue Fever. It has been a long recovery – lots of muscle pain, fatigue, and headaches. But, after a month, I’m finally feeling close to normal again. Dengue is a…
Charlotte and Victor Playing Chess
The Dengue fatigue hit me hard this evening and I’ve been up in the bedroom resting. When I came down to get some water I was surprised/delighted to see Charlotte playing Chess with Victor – one of the YAMEN participants from Kenya. I taught her how to play last year but never expected her to…
Why do so many Cambodians have diabetes?
Cambodians have surprisingly high rates of diabetes. Why? Is it because they put a lot of sugar in their coffee? This is what one expatriate told me when I mentioned that I was excited to have Cambodian coffee again. To paraphrase “Be careful, you’ll get diabetes.” I normally drink my coffee black so it’s a…
Probably not food poisoning
I’ve had food poisoning a lot in my life, as noted in my last post, so I’m familiar with the symptoms by now. This latest bout started off feeling like an extreme case of it. The nausea, fever, and vomiting lasted around 48 hours. But the diarrhea (and associated lightheadedness/weakness) has continued since. That’s way…
Ugh. Food poisoning.
I’m very susceptible to food poisoning. Even back home in the United States. It was a challenge for me last time – living in a rural province – as I had major bouts of food poisoning every two to three weeks for my first two years. I lost a significant amount of weight because of…
Olympic Market
The Olympic Market was one of the three markets that I visited the most often during my term in Cambodia from ’06 to ’09. This was entirely because this was where buses heading to and arriving from Prey Veng could be found in Phnom Penh. The buses rarely left on time so that there were…
Cooperation Committee for Cambodia
On Monday, I attended my first Cooperation Committee for Cambodia (CCC) meeting. The CCC is a group that coordinates and supports NGO activity in Cambodia among it’s nearly 170 members. What is an NGO? In the United States this is what we would call a nonprofit. But in international contexts the common term is Non-Governmental…
What are YAMEN and SALT?
I’ve mentioned Mennonite Central Committee’s YAMEN and SALT programs in a few posts. These are one year cultural exchange programs that send participants to countries around the world. The two programs are very similar with one core distinction – the sending countries. SALT (Serving And Learning Together) sends Christian North American young adults (ages 19-30)…