Once again, we have reached December. The year is drawing to a close and Xmas is almost upon us. We are now firmly settled here in Kep and we are thankful to have found a small niche in the world where we feel comfortable, useful and happy and are surrounded by a small but eclectic group of friends of widely different ages and nationalities.
Having a tribe to belong to and to share the joys, celebrations and miseries life inevitably throws your way has been the biggest benefit of residing in this small Cambodian town with a vibrant expat community. We have gained something of a reputation for hosting informal gatherings of friends at home and providing vegetarian buffets to celebrate significant holidays, farewells and milestones. I have also morphed into a speciality birthday cake maker and Ian has become the purveyor of pickles, kimchi and local pesto in addition to distributing some of the fresh produce from his productive kitchen garden.
Our major focus this year has continued to be our little monks and they are challenge enough for us. We continue with the routine of twice weekly morning classes and support them by providing snacks, milk, fruit, hygiene products and the occasional outing. They have been treated to yoga classes and pool outings and recently a return trip to Rabbit Island, which was initiated entirely by them. There is still a transitory population who go off to other pagodas and may or may not return but we have a core group of four who have remained with us for over two years now and several others who have joined later and stayed on as well as a few of the original group who have returned after months of absence.
They have made good progress and continue to engage positively and attempt to use their skills at every available opportunity, whilst also remaining young boys with mischievous natures at heart. My favourite quote from last week was in response to the question who is your friend, and our oldest and most diligent boy replied, “Buddha is my friend.” Only a week earlier when we arrived with and distributed traditional Cambodian rice snacks made from sticky rice and coconut cooked in palm sugar, another of the boys took it and responded, “Rice is my friend.” Travellers passing through, family members and local friends have also continued to make generous donations to enable us to offer outings, expand the project and buy the necessary supplies and resources. We feel blessed to have these young boys in our lives.
As their needs expand we have embarked on a fundraising venture to help cover costs and enable us to continue. We now make eco-wraps from mostly recycled, cotton cloth and pure beeswax. They have proved quite popular and many local guesthouses and friends are reducing their ecological footprints by replacing plastic cling film with our product. We have plans to expand into another eco-friendly product in the new year but for now we sell our wraps via word of mouth or in the various markets we already attend to sell IWA products as volunteers.
Although we had expected to see a Khmer style wedding before we experienced first-hand the rituals and ceremonies of a funeral, that was not to be. The brother of a Cambodian friend passed away suddenly early in the year and this small closely connected community was in shock. He was a relatively young man with a vision for improving the education and quality of life of poorer Khmer children in Kep and he has left behind a legacy of goodwill, as well as a young son, and a devastated family. We attended a memorial dinner and service with the family as did literally hundreds of local Khmer and foreign residents. While standing in for his parents, at our friend’s request, at one of the memorial services, we observed the private, but simple and solemn rituals performed in his home and by our own little group of young monks. From this we learned a great deal about the ceremonies and the grieving process as well as seeing the devout and dignified behaviour of our boys – as I love to call them.
I celebrated my birthday quietly in the capital this year and chose to attend a cultural dance and music performance and visit local sights we had not yet seen. It was a delight to enjoy the many fabulous restaurants and be able to play tourist and expand our cultural knowledge at the same time.
With the assistance of dear friends, we were able to acquire visas to visit Bhutan in the middle of the year. Our primary objective was to attend the graduation ceremony for one of my former class IXC students from Rangjung Higher Secondary School, but we definitely wanted to catch up with life-long friends and former colleagues, and celebrate Ian’s birthday as well as making one last road trip across the kingdom and back. Once the difficult task of getting our visas was over things seem to fall naturally into place.
Friends materialised at exactly the right moment, gatherings found their own timeslots, coincidental meetings and long planned reunions all played their part in making us feel warmly welcomed and loved. Spontaneously our favourite driver, with whom we have done the cross country tour several times in the past, contacted us just when we were discussing how best to reach out to him to engage his services. Even the rainy season and landslides favoured us with safe passage and spectacular views. New destinations included Gasa, Nimalung and Bikhar and having student guides and companions in addition to staying in family homes made this trip even more memorable.
Although I personally had expected this would be a goodbye adventure and I would finally have Bhutan out of my system, I can now acknowledge that I left an even bigger part of my heart behind and still long to return, so I guess the lesson learnt is, you never really get Bhutan completely out of your system and I’m sure now that I never really want to!
We are still cycling and swimming at every available opportunity and have become the bicycle delivery service for IWA products to local guesthouses and resorts. We are also exploring more of the back roads and visiting other small education projects similar to our own. These mostly young volunteers also enjoy visiting our classes so it has become a sharing of resources and strategies to some small extent.
Monthly Tuk Tuk trips to Kampot provide us with a few essentials we cannot obtain locally, access to a much larger and more diverse fresh produce market and an excuse to eat out at one of the eateries with many more vegetarian options than we are able to find locally. Several adventures in Phnom Penh have likewise provided ingredients to expanded our culinary experiments and enabled us to live a little of the high life that time in the capital allows.
Just last week we did an overnight stay on Rabbit Island and I now wonder why it has taken us so long to take full advantage of this little treasure immediately off the coast in Kep. With generator power only running from 6pm to 10pm and no cars or mechanised transport beyond the boats which run from the mainland, and being completely surrounded by calm, clear, turquoise water and ringed with coconut palms, it is a tropical paradise. The perfect phones off, stress-free get-away was made all the more enjoyable for us by sharing the experience with a group of likeminded friends.
Breaking news is that the student we sponsored and travelled to see graduate gained employment in the field in which he qualified in the past week. This is no mean feat anywhere in the world, and especially in Bhutan. Only 4 months had elapsed since his graduation, so we feel very proud of his efforts and achievement.
Well, that’s about it from this end. Let me finish by saying that I wish you all the joys of the season and a happy and prosperous year ahead. I hope you have found your own tribe and a sense of belonging that translates to living with satisfaction, contentment, happiness and gratitude. Please feel free to drop us a note about where the year has taken you and your own plans for the future. May 2020 bring you all that you wish for and in the upcoming festive season may you be safe, and feel loved.
Peace and love always,
Vicky and Ian
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