- -5 Senses of Cambodia- -

So many of you are interested in knowing what life is like for us here: how it is different, the new things we are experiencing, etc. The best way I thought to communicate that to you is through something we can all relate to...our 5 senses. Going through each of the five senses, I will try my best to give you a visual of life in a third world country:

SEE:

• Busy roads
• People going to the bathroom on the side of the road
• Dirt everywhere
• Tropical plants
• Large insects
• More motos than I have ever seen
• Worn faces on older people, hopeful faces on the youth of Cambodia.
• Dogs and cats without homes
• Markets crowded with people
• Darkness (the power goes out almost daily)
• Rats and rat poop everywhere
• Geckos magically climbing walls
  

HEAR:

• Horns honking
• A language I don't understand
• Multiple questions: "Excuse me, Tuk Tuk?" "Where you going?" "Where you come from?"
• Dogs barking
• Loud claps of thunder
• Children laughing
• American rap music playing
• Tukai Geckos doing their call (hard to explain, but it sounds like some sort of bird)
  

TASTE:

• Tropical fruits with FLAVOR
• Dirt in my mouth, blowing up from the roads
• Amazing iced coffee with sweet milk
• A multitude of new and exotic spices
• Filtered water
• Fanta soda in many flavors (including Orange, Green Cream, and Pineapple!)
  

TOUCH:

• My keyboard keys (lots of touching these; it's how I stay in touch back home)
• My bicycle handlebars
• Pencils galore!
• Riels and dollars
• Strange fruits

SMELL:

• Pollution
• Our helper cooking dinner each night
• Rotten trash
• White rice cooking (...far too often)
• Plumeria flowers
• Fresh laundry off the line
• Coffee brewing in the morning
• Human waste
• Rain falling on the cement
  

It is truly so hard to describe our lives here. I feel as if our lives here are completely opposite of our lives in California; not only are we on the other side of the world, but we are on another planet in terms of how we live day-to-day. I deeply miss the things and people of "home", but I know we are here to be challenged and sharpened.