Sylvia's Journal

The team is still struggling with enforcing norms. I think I have hit the hard core of power relationships and face saving in this culture. The few occasionally ringing phones are still ignored but to my great surprise a young woman, who is actually not a participant but administrative staff, walked in late and was applauded. I asked one of facilitators why they applauded someone who walked in late; shaming, was the answer, ‘Aha,’ I said. It’s a different logic.

Last night, after a good feedback session in which everyone was learning from everyone else we went in search of a place to eat. We drove over the Japanese bridge again to an enormous and totally empty restaurant with a singer and small band on a stage, playing to a crowd of empty handed waiters. The local staff gets 2 dollars to pay for their evening meal. The menu was slightly over. The emptiness of the restaurant and the cost of the meal made us decide to go elsewhere.

We ended up in Joe’s restaurant, by the river. Joe is from Pennsylvania and is married to a local lady. You can get American fare (hamburgers), British fare (fish and chips) and Asian fare (curries and soups) at the pub/restaurant. Although the food was good and the price reasonable, there were a few rather hostile exchanges between Joe and our Cambodian colleagues that puzzled us and angered them greatly (but, in true Asian fashion they smiled and swallowed the rudeness, until we drew them out later, away from the place of insult). Naomi and I were so surprised about the rudeness that we did not speak out and now I am annoyed with myself for not confronting Mr. Joe. Naomi and I were both ashamed by his behavior. To make up for this Naomi bought our friends an ice cream at the Caltex station and we all decided we would not go back there, even though the food was good and the place nice.

Today we completed the second day of the provincial alignment meeting and I got to watch the team as they tackled some of the more complicated sessions of the leadership program. They are not 100% there but their understanding of the key concepts and tools is growing by leaps and bounds and everyone is totally engaged in learning. Sometimes they are a bit too engaged as they take over from each other in the middle of a session, running away with it, or at least that is what it looks like. Other times they are reluctant to correct their peers and ask me to do it (‘because people will listen to you’).

I am beginning to learn some more words in Khmer, like dreaming, and counting to 5. I am also learning to write the numbers one to five. They are small squiggly symbols, like pictures. I remember them by making up a story of what the picture represents. Number five looks like someone holding a stick over a crouched figure.

The closing ceremony was presided over by a senior official from the provincial government. Naomi and I were invited to say a few words of ‘welcome’ before his closing words. I suppose it was a welcome to the official, since we were at the end of the program. The national anthem was played, as it was in the beginning, and everyone stood up, looking very solemn. I wondered whether it was newly written after the KR period or preceded it. It sounded very hopeful. I copied the CD with five identical tracks of music only and five with words, the repetition to make it easy for hotel staff to play the anthem on their sound system.