The Sights and Sounds of Battembang

Just Giv'r! This has become my motto when cycling in and around Battembang. Battembang is my adopted city for 3months while I complete a summer internship at the MJP Foundation in Cambodia. Battembang is the 2nd largest city in Cambodia, and famously home to Mr. Battembang - a large statue in the middle of a busy roundabout with mystical powers that can help you if you pray appropriately and offer the right gifts. Although I have yet to offer any gifts and I don t think Buddha (or any deity for that matter) would approve of my method of praying I frequently rotate him in my list of those who I call upon while cycling through the apparent chaos. The streets are almost always full of motos and Tuk-Tuks and cars and horse and carts and cyclists, and trucks hiccuping blue-black smoke. It is the perfect zen moment when I make it through each unregulated traffic intersection. In that moment all the chaos makes perfect sense. I feel invigorated - and hence "Just Giv'r". I really like cycling here, and it has - for me - filled a niche to experience a bit of adventure. This is very unlike my bike riding in Toronto - which I can only now describe as a dull, muffled and a orderly side note to picking up groceries.

Mostly, I have had to cycle to grab a bite to eat. Eating, for me is an adventure all in itself and, has become so for the rest of the expats who dare walk on the wild side of street food. For the most part the food has been quite similar to asian food found in downtown Toronto. Because there is a large-ish contingent of expats working here we mostly frequent the western style restaurants. These restaurants offer various barang-a-sized and barang-a-changed meals (barang = foreigner) for relatively cheap prices. However, last night I was able to break free of the barang-a-catering, and (at their own free will) enlisted 2 other expats to venture out beyond.... We ended up cycling near the river, which cuts Battembang in half, and trying our hand at rice paddies with green spring onion drenched in fish and chilli sauce, and stopping off at a corn-on-the-cob vendor. Very proud, we cycled to the edge of the river set up our picnic and ate and laughed.

Not this week but the next all of MJP staff will be on going on a retreat. The timing seems to be perfect for me! We are all traveling to Sihanhoukville to.... get this: relax. All the expats seem to ask the same question over and over "What will we be doing on our 'retreat'?" The answer is always a matter of fact, "Relax." Once after my obvious disbelief following the usual answer, I also got a "What else would we do?" In my mind I quickly sorted out the retreats that I've been to - and those retreats were never about relaxing. Always so many things to do - workshops, networking, skill and team building exercises, etc. After the retreats I am accustomed to I always feel like I need a vacation. I answered a bit mentally exhausted, "Well, I m not sure."

It seems this new kind of retreat is a true re-treat.

I hope I have been able to give all my family and friends a small window into my life here. Thinking of you all daily.

Amanda xoxox

as a side note: The blog title "Blessings from Cambodia" was chosen to represent how thankful I am to be on an internship in Cambodia at MJP. Also, how thankful I am to be given the opportunity to learn from the expertise of the people I will meet along the way, both professionally and those who I meet in my day to day life.