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Other adventures
Entry 36 of 63 | show all | print this entry |
Well, I was about to leave the internet cafe, but seeing as how a massive thunderstorm just opened up, perhaps I'll write a few entries and upload some pictures instead...
Before I left Battambang, I took a cooking class (I've managed to take one in every country, so far). The highlight of the class was a trip to the market... on the one hand it was pretty much like all the other southeast asian markets I've been in - lots of vegetables, spices, animals that are being chopped up, animals that are waiting to be chopped up (it's still a bit weird to walk by buckets of turtles and fish, live chickens, etc.). Then we came to the bucket full of spiders.... the three of us taking the class, being westerners, were a bit put off by it. The restaurant owner teaching the class explained that in the wild, the spiders are quite aggressive and bite, but when they're fed a certain kind of leaf they become very mellow and safe. To prove it he picked one up and let it run around on his arm... I still have yet to work up the courage to try one deep fried.
After class I went out to a local village with a teacher I'd met the day before. (Incidentally, did you realize that virtually all of the leaders of the Khmer Rouge were ex-high school teachers? Think about that one for a while...) He's not a salaried teacher - he works as a motorbike driver in the mornings to try and earn a living - but he teaches an english class to a group of 16-26 year olds from his village that don't have enough money to attend regular classes. I donated a bit of money so that he could get an extra english/khmer dictionary, and in return he brought me out to meet his family and his students. I told them a bit about who I am and where I'm from, and helped out a little with the english lesson for the day... it was a lot of fun. It also confounded my expectations a bit... I'm sitting there in a run down classrom, perched on a wooden bench with a bunch of impoverished cambodian students, and one of their cell phones keeps going off, interrupting class.... you really just never know.
Latest Comments (2)
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high school teachers? (reply)
Apr 14, 2007 22:34 EST by wolfunicorn
are you sure the Khmer Rouge weren't high school principals- great log entry-did their pants sag and did they call you 'dude?'
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musings (reply)
Apr 12, 2007 14:49 EST by jcakre
Fried spiders? Are you going to readjust to Oregon food? Khmer Rouge and high school teachers -- I hope you didn't spend a lot of time on that one. Great entries. Miss you
Dad
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5 votes 
