Cambodia vs. America

Breastfeeding

This is something I am really passionate about, despite not yet having had children. What I find extremely interesting about Cambodia so far are the breastfeeding commercials. There are 3 commercials that I usually see encouraging mothers to breastfeed, and they are on pretty frequently, which makes me pretty happy, as I have yet to see a breastfeeding commercial in the States. What’s most interesting though is that the style of dress in Cambodia for women living outside of the major cities (Phnom Penh & Siem Reap) is very conservative, with shoulders and knees covered at all times; however, nipples are shown on TV when the topic is breastfeeding. In the States, where women can walk around in little more than a bikini and people usually won’t say anything, if a nipple were to show up on TV, even in the context of breastfeeding, there would be outrage. Priorities, man.

Children

We tend to watch kids like a hawk in the States. Here, volunteers have seen children handling machetes, walking around alone, and even driving motos (a moto is basically a vehicle that is halfway between a motorcycle and a moped). We had an event yesterday, and we had children show up without their parents, who were working. I’m not saying it’s good or bad, but it’s just something interesting and culturally different to consider.

Laundry

I’ve talked about this a little bit, but I’d like to emphasize how labor-intensive washing my clothes has become in Cambodia. It’s exactly like it was when I was in Tanzania: hand-washing and line-drying. Since I didn’t get my laundry done on Sunday, I have been getting up early each morning to do a few clothes at a time, since my laundry has piled up. In college, I could (and would) go weeks without doing laundry, and then just spend 3 hours on a weeknight catching up on laundry, which basically meant sitting in my room, reading, while waiting for the timer to tell me that the washer and/or dryer was done. I can’t do that here, 1) because I don’t have enough clothes to do that and 2) it would take probably an entire weekend to catch up on that amount of laundry, and there still wouldn’t be enough laundry line on which to hang the clothes. I like the routine I’m getting into, however, especially because it makes me get up early and it means I’m working out my arms daily.

TV

The shows that I have seen here are really unsatisfying, if that makes sense. The music videos as well. And many of the shows are Thai or Japanese with Khmer dubbing. I’ve seen a lot of music videos that have to do with arranged marriages, which is something that you see rarely (if at all) in the States. And twice now, I’ve gotten interested in a TV show, only to find out that it is actually a movie shown in half hour chunks until it’s over. The plots are sometimes strange, but I’m an outsider who picks up on less than half of what is being said, so obviously there is going to be some disconnect.

Food

Obviously, the food is going to be different. While there are less of them, there are still processed foods here, and some of the ingredients that Cambodians like to add to their foods (namely MSG) can be problematic. Other than that and the *huge* amount of rice eaten daily, the diet can be pretty good in terms of the availability of fresh fruits and veggies. However, a lot of things that we would consider “weird” in the States are eaten here. I’m going to end this post with a list of the foods that various trainees have eaten. Can you guess which ones I’ve had?

Trainees have eaten:

- Octopus

- Frog

- Ants (with the larvae)

- Fish eggs

- Duck fetus still in the egg

- Teeny-tiny shrimp (the weird part in this is that you eat ALL of it)

- Fetal pig umbilical cord

- Chicken feet