10.01.09

Farewell to one World, still waiting for the next.

Posted in Life and the happenings there of at 2:17 am by Kaihaku

Whelp… My farewell party is over, the guests have scattered back to their busy lives, and I’m sitting here feeling caught between two worlds.

People I know around town have started exclaiming in surprise when they see me – ‘Are you still here, I thought you went home?’ It’s jarring to hear this as I ride to breakfast, as I have done almost every morning for the last years. It leaves me feeling like the deal is done, Prey Veng is no longer my home even though I’m still here. At times I feel desperate to escape to Phnom Penh – to finish this journey in a place that is familiar but which has never been home. It’s only natural that my sense of belonging is swiftly crumbling as I approach the end of my time here, the question that I’m wrestling with is how to best weather these feelings.

The week before my farewell party was a hectic one. I made my last trip out to Angkearhdei with Miles and Ruth on Tuesday. I’m glad that they’ll be taking over the project but it feels strange to hand over responsibility for it after all I’ve been through. There was also a final visit to this year’s Irrigation renovation site at Kompon Th’nol on Thursdays and a long meeting with the program directors and Sakhoeun about plans for the future on Friday. Interspersed with those visits I was doing the usual paperwork, setting things up for the team meeting on Friday afternoon, and running around organizing my party. I had signed up to lead devotion for the team meeting and I ended up reading Isaiah 58 – not quite the standard inspirational or reflective reading.

Saturday, I had a nice breakfast with the Millers and Yordys but the rest of the morning was crazy. I had decided that for my farewell party I was going to serve herbal tea and coconut milk instead of the usual soda. It was fun and cheap. I spent some time Friday brewing Peppermint and Lemon tea then on Saturday I took a big plastic container and went off to have it filled with coconut juice. It ended up taking eight coconuts to fill it up and all the Cambodians who saw it thought it was rice wine. It turns out that eight coconuts costs the same as four cans of Coke and provide about twice the liquid. Good to know. While the drink selection was a bit unusual the food was some of my favorite Khmer dishes; fried pickled cabbage with pork made by the Kuyteal Lady, prahok k’tee made by Barbara’s amazing cook Nuah, and a chicken curry soup by the Wiederkehr’s cook Sarun. The food was great. Though I forgot to tell the Kuyteal Lady, whose real name is Aul Runh, that we would have three dishes so she made a ton of fried pickled cabbage… The Wiederhehrs, Sarun, Danni, and I ended up eating the leftovers for three days! I felt like I had picked cabbage coming out of my ears – that’s one Khmer dish I won’t miss for awhile. Ruth cut up all the vegetables for the prahok k’tee, bought fruit, and made cookies – I was glad for her help. David and Lana helped me wash dishes and set up the tables, if they had not been there I don’t know what would have happened – life would have gone on I suppose but the party wouldn’t have been finished in time. Little things like napkins and rice plates would have been missing if Lana’s sharp eye hadn’t noticed their exclusion! I had to run to place we were renting the tent from to ask why they hadn’t given us plates for the rice, so weird.

I was running around for most of the farewell party itself too. Serving drinks, fixing problems, greeting people. Sakhoeun had another engagement so he left early which ruined the speech I had prepared – it’s hard to make a speech directed towards your partners when they aren’t there. Ming Pheap and Amara showed up from Phnom Penh, they had come all the way in just for my farewell! I wish I had been able to spend more time with them, they headed back right after the party as Amara had her accounting exams that evening. Sam Ang surprised me with a gift, a recommendation from the people of Prey Veng as penned by him. I wonder if I can include it with my resume? I doubt it but I may have it framed when I get home. The speech I ended up giving on the fly was alright – at least no rotten fruit or vegetables came flying my way.

There was about an hour of good food and good company. The Cambodian ladies took over cleaning up and, for once, I let them dissuade me from helping since it was my party. In short order everything was packed up and everyone was leaving. Suddenly I was left alone at the office with nothing to do but wait for the tent to get picked up. That’s when I started writing this post. I was sitting up in the office in the still after having seen everyone scatter back to their lives. It left me feeling not quite sad, not quite happy but certainly reflective.

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