khmer sources

by: ELLEN MINOTTI
The karaoke roars, the bus dives into a hole, tiger-balmed women bounce out of their seats, and with a round of piercing "ooooooweees", the bus lands upright. There is a pale-faced foreigner on this bus who has forgotten earplugs. Rice appears and is offered to the foreigner who is too busy vigorously chewing double-mint. There is a fair bit of expectorating going on out of seat number 24’s window.

Disembarked and recuperated the foreigner, plainly a recent émigré, asked four expatriated experts—who have all lived in Cambodia for more than seven years—if they can sing-along with Preab Sowath and eat rice at the same time.

Ellen Minotti left Seattle for Phnom Penh in 1992, and with time and experience on her side, I believe her when she says her feelings about Cambodia are complicated like love. "It’s not always only positive," Ellen says. The positive aspects of Cambodia are explained with genuine enthusiasm. She loves the food; Khmer soups and salads, and the lemon-grass and turmeric enhanced stir-fries with cha Kroueung, her favorites.

"I’m also a sap for Angkor, Siem Reap. Because, somehow when you enter, the air cools off as you enter the park … and it gets so quiet and peaceful. I’ve been there more than a dozen times … at the full eclipse of the sun … and beneath a full moon during the water festival in ’97."
Then she tells me the shortest conversation in Khmer. "I love it. ‘To?’ ‘Tay’. You know? ‘Moto?’ ‘No thanks’."

Director at Social Services of Cambodia, Ellen and her team of almost 50 staff—"only two are full-time expats"—have several projects on the go at the moment. "Our biggest work right now is training social workers and counselors," says Ellen, "and since the organization began 12 years ago, we have trained hundreds and hundreds of people."

Trainee social workers and counselors have to be "pretty committed" she says. "Social work does not have a high status in Cambodia, it doesn’t seem glamorous and in fact, it’s a lot harder than it looks." In 1992 Phnom Penh was a much quieter place Ellen says. Electricity was also extremely irregular, people didn’t speak much English, "and I didn’t speak much Khmer". "Sidewalks were scary and [there were] open sewer holes and so you really had to pay attention to where you walked."

"There were lots of dogs and there were plenty of pigs and chickens in Boeung Keng Kang."
Together with her own dog, and cat, Ellen will continue to stay in Cambodia because she says she has stopped guessing when she’ll leave. But before she goes somewhere else she would like to study why the Cambodians who have remained honest and uncorrupted have stayed that way.
"I think there should be more honor given to kindness, goodness, intelligence and curiosity."