Colombia-India-Colombia-India-Colombia-Singapore-India-Singapore-Colombia-Singapore and so on… this constant back and forth really makes me wonder where my home is and where is it that I belong.
Coming to Colombia is always a relief, it means family and old friends. India is the country I miss, the place where I learnt to be free. Singapore is where I spend most of my time now, my “home”. What even is home? Is it where we live? Is it where we were born? When does it become home?
Anyways, finishing with my midnight stream of nonsense, coming to Colombia is learning how much I have changed. Everything is the same, just a little older. Friends are still friends. Colombian food still tastes like heaven and the typical news still make it to the paper every day. It is me that views them differently.
Moving on… What I know for sure that I have left Colombia and have arrived in Cambodia, adding it to the list of countries in which I have lived. I have spent a week here and I still have 10 more to go. Getting here was a pain, in all possible ways. I left my house on Friday afternoon to fly to Bogota, take a midnight flight to Houston, then Los Angeles and wait for 11 hours before taking a transpacific flight to China. The final flight got me to Cambodia on Monday night, which meant it took 68 hours from my house to my hotel in Phnom Penh.
Stopping in China was an amazing break from airports and planes. I was able to get a 24-hour visa free permit and went on to meet 2 friends from MUWCI, from Jamaica and Poland, and 2 Colombian friends who studied at other UWC’s, Germany and Hong Kong. The day was sunny and the sky blue, a rare occurrence in Chinese cities. Ula, my polish friend, picked me up at the airport and we quickly met with the rest of UWC’ers and visited the Yu Yuan gardens, had a traditional Chinese lunch and later went to the Bund, to enjoy the views of the financial district at the other side of the Yangtze.
Arriving in Phnom Penh was getting used to busy streets, rainy afternoons and the ever-present smell of durian in the local fruit shop. The reason why I am here being an internship, my first ever job linked to what I want to work in. My task for the next 2 months is developing a proposal for community based ecotourism in the Lumphat Wildlife Sanctuary, in northeastern Cambodia. Originally I was supposed to accompany an expert and aid him with whatever was required, but I was informed the person is no longer coming and now a 19 year old very lost Colombian is heading the project.
The first 3 days of the internship took place at the office in Phnom Penh. I was meant to get to know the organization a little bit more before being sent to the rural province. The first day, as probably many interns’ first day, was filled with free time. For the second day, however, the work assigned seemed to have escalated rapidly, as I was meant to finish up and edit a report going straight to the ministry of environment.
On Saturday I was invited on a birdwatching trip. The idea was to go to Tonle Sap, South East Asia’s biggest lake, and a protected area nearby. The trip was very enjoyable apart from the food, I’m not a fan of catfish nor snails… it wasn’t a very successful birding trip either but I did manage to see a lesser adjutant for the first time in my life so I was happy. It was very exhausting though as I had to wake up at 4 in the morning and we did not reach Phnom Penh up until 8 at night.
Sunday was a resting day and I watched pirates of the Caribbean, and then was Monday. Monday can easily be one of the worse days I have had in months. I took the 8/9-hour bus from Phnom Penh going to Banlung. The bus ride was uncomfortable but bearable and some Colombian music helped in making time pass by. The organization that I am working with had sent someone to pick me up at the station, his name: Sokhom. When I arrived, I was approached by a Cambodian guy and I asked if he was Sokhom, to which he said yes. Subsequently I left in a motorcycle with him and my 2 suitcases (yes, quite a lot of stuff but I’m packing for my entire semester after Cambodia as well). The guy asked me where I was going to which I said the office and he proceeded to drive off aimlessly until dropping me in a random street and asking a guy who actually spoke English to ask me where I was going, to which I again answered the office. The new translator told me that he didn’t know where the office was and I found it ridiculous, how could he not know the office in which he works? Then it occurred to me he was not Sokhom and that I had been riding a random guy’s bike.
I was able to call the actual Sokhom and got to the office safely. Before accepting the internship here I was told that the accommodation that I would be provided was quite basic, but nothing to worry about. Having had lived in India in pretty basic accommodation for 2 years I imagined it should be fine but I was clearly not prepared for the room I was given. A room I shared with many spiders, their webs and tons of other little bugs. A room that had a mattress-less bed and only one dim bulb to illuminate it. A room with a squad bathroom, no shower and no sink. I like to say I am not very complicated when it gets to basic accommodation but this was too much.
Now I have moved to a different hotel, significantly better. I still have to adapt to the hard circumstances and the language barrier, not to mention the thoughts of going back home haunting me permanently. This weekend I will be going back to Phnom Penh and will be able to catch my breath again and recharge energies (and food) before coming back to the province.
Chronicles of the Traveller 