This Cambodian life: #10 No country for jogging man
Posted by Vio
I have a little tradition of mine: every country I visit, I like to go for a run.
Of course that 37 degree days with 94% humidity had so far discouraged me, but this particular day this naive blogger thought that if I waited until the sun started setting and hydrated properly one hour before, I would be just fine. So I laced my running shoes, turned on my running playlist and walked off the hotel. Needless to say, 500 meters after I started I was already sweating from pores I didn't even know I had. Before I made my way to halfway my goal my temperature had risen so much I could feel my brain cook, my heart was racing and fatigue settled in like a unwanted neighbor. I wanted to stop and spit my lungs out, but I was so hot all I wanted was my air con back at my room, so I reckoned that running would bring me there faster.
And so I ran. 6,49 km later I was back at my room, drenched in sweat and dust, red from head to toe. It took me 40 minutes to cool down and manage to jump in the shower.
Later that evening I joined the other volunteers to go out for dinner, like we usually do, and trying to decide where to go one of them asked me:
Sinead: ' So, what do you feel like?'
Vio: 'Dying. I feel like dying.'
Yeah I know I'm having this life changing experience and all, BUT
Posted by VioLeo finally won the oscar and there's no way I could not mention it. This was getting older than the Alba Duchess.
This Cambodian life: #8 Why do it?
Posted by VioBefore I came to Cambodia, people often asked me: Why are you doing it?
I don't think there's a better answer than the examples you have everyday here.
While visiting our shelter, this little girl who doesn't speak much, wrote 'beautiful' in Khmer on her chalkboard and brought it over to me. She is one of the first children I profiled, and because of her delicate abandonment story she kept mostly for herself for several weeks and is now starting to open up. When I saw her handing me the little chalkboard, I had to hide my tears behind a smile.
Why do I do it?
I do it for a million reasons. Because I believe we, rich countries, have a responsibility, because I believe we don't always understand how privileged we are, because I think we can actually make a change, because I still believe in humanity.
But today, only for this. And this is enough.
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This Cambodian life: #7 I'm in love with the coco...
Posted by Vio... and I got it for a low low.
Since I came to Asia I've been obsessed with coconut water. I'll stop my bike on my way to work if I see one of those moving stands. They sell it nearly everywhere, they keep it in ice and it literally costs peanuts. If you're in the tourist area you'll get it for 1$ but if you stay away from the center you can get it for a 1000 riel. That's right, for 25 cents they will chop it open for you right there, slip a straw on it and hand you this low calorie, fresh, rich in potassium drink.
I just can't get enough of it, which is funny, because back in Germany I tried many bottled ones and always found them disgusting.
In the coconut, like in life, the real deal is always better.
FFW (2009)
Posted by Vio
I woke up a Winter morning and I burned all my
poems. I did it, so there would be no words, like the ones that Torga* missed,
and how I felt it back then. But there was nothing dramatic, but simply unwise,
a total lack of logic, of the kind that reminds us of some God, full of irony,
playing tricks on us.
I don’t wear a watch anymore, and got rid of
diaries and calendars. If I can’t control time, I’m gonna trick it instead. So
you push life forward, so it happens at any cost, but just don’t stop. I pray
to every God, me, who believes in none, that it please won’t stop.
Invisibility was always an expensive but easy
art to me, and that’s how I realized there were these lost people who made the
days move through a lens. I couldn’t tell you anymore but I was sure. I
suspected people like I did (suspect) poems, and if I heard them was for pure
condescendence, some kind of modern altruism to which escapes all romanticism.
Life goes by in fast forward. I carry in my
fingertips an unrepeatable strain. I insist in making life happen, I’ll keep
insisting until all my energy is exhausted.
And I swear, out loud so I can hear me, that
all of this is true.
*Portuguese
poet, reference to the poem “Denoument”.
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This Cambodian life: #6 some portraits
Posted by VioWhile working for the NHC Outreach, I got in touch not only with the culture and history of this country, but also with many Khmer people.
I got to realise, after I shot a few of these portraits, how when you isolate the subjects from their context - the dirt, the garbage, the chaos - you can better read, in their emotive, direct gaze, the individual stories of what is life like after the end of the Khmer Rouge.
And although I can't always pull out my DSLR - because I'm working and because when they notice the lens they loose the spontaneity I'm looking for - I hope I manage to get a few more portraits like the first, that to me better represents the indomitable spirit of this wonderful people.
(you'll need to click to enlarge to see details)
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This Cambodian life: #5 A week(end) in pictures
Posted by VioYou already know what I do during the week, so now I'll dedicate this 'week in pictures' to show you a bit of my weekends, when I take the opportunity to travel around. Traveling in Cambodia isn't like traveling in Europe. There's no fancy transportations systems, no subways or trains, or any great connections. Traveling here means you need to take a bus or get a tuk-tuk or taxi and depending on where you go probably drive for hours... So I wake up early on weekends too. I'm tired, my feet are dirty and my t-shirt is sweaty, but I carry a heart full of miles, landscapes and faces and that is, my friends, pure joy.
mixed pictures from the Floating Villages - Kompung Khleang / Silk Farms - Puok District / Bamboo train Battambang / Bat caves & Temple - Phnom Sampeou / Beng Meala Temple - Siem Reap
(click to enlarge)
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(click to enlarge)
