Tying off loose ends

Wrapping it up I am toiling hard
To try and communicate that which I've found
Cambodia's dust and its sun leaves me scarred
Has stolen my will and to them I am bound

KEP, CAMBODIA

July 24 - 26, 2008

Crazy that things are finally wrapping up around here. I'm spending my days furiously trying to write my paper and finish at least the first draft before I leave, which, unfortunately, is turning into quite an exercise in futility. We just don't have enough computers around here, and with me squandering all of my desginated computer time blogging and emailing and Facebooking, it's going more slowly than I'd hoped. That all being said, I'm in okay shape: everything is outlined, so it's really just a matter of pounding it all out.

I'm getting a little sad at the thought of leaving though, because I feel like I've gotten to know Kep fairly well, and it's always sad leaving something behind. Not to mention the fact that it's great that the first thing I can hear in the morning, before I open my eyes, is one of two things: (1) the wind blowing through the palm trees, or (2) the sound of the waves as they crest and fold over themselves. Well...second thing I hear anyways, after I mentally filter out the sound of the fan spinning like crazy overhead trying to keep this place cool.


And the views are really great too. This is from a "mountain," overlooking the beach. It's a view that we get on our way to lunch every day. Not too shabby at all.


I am running out of peon stories, although I guess this counts: turns out Peon 1 has never used Excel before. Yeah. I had told her in April that she would need to use it for all of our analysis, but she apparently didn't think that a good enough reason to bother learning it. And so I was stuck running a "Fundamentals of Excel" tutorial for -- and get this -- both her and my two-finger-typing supervisor Doc R. It took us two hours to get through basic arithmetic (+, -, * and /), copying/pasting, CTRL-Z, sum(), average(), max() and min(). PAINFUL.

After that, I quit. I figured it's not my job to teach this stuff and Peon 1 needs to learn to figure things out on her own anyways ("Leave the weak behind," interpolated from Darwin).

Plus, I was pissed at Doc R who had just spent her first day doing field work and cam back all upset because she was tired. Then spent the entire lesson bitching about how tiring field work is. This after passive aggressively telling Peon 1, TH and me that our trip to Si-ville was an indication that we didn't have enough work to do. Us. Who have been in the field since June, not taking any weekends off. Riiight.

Anyways, as for the Peons, I'm fairly certain that they're royally screwed when it comes to their individual projects because I've recut the data and taken out all of my analysis in the version I've provided them. And I leave in three days and they have yet to look at the data. They're going to be so lost. Especially Peon 1, having never used Excel before. Ah well. Such is life and justice.

But Friday was great. The power went off in the morning (as it often does) and didn't come back until about 5 pm (also a common occurence; although why it always seems to come back at the same time has me more than a little puzzled). So, since the laptops ran out of batteries in the morning, the entire day was spent reading on the hammocks. Which was actually kind of a nice thing.


Plus, the banana in rice in a banana leaf lady was back...and I got to have that for dessert. (I know the picture is bad...sorry...but it was my attempt at a self-photo.)


Then, on Friday night, We finally had crab! Kep is known for crab, but I'd just never gotten around to it, and now I with I had. It was so good, fried in Kampot Pepper. Cheap too. Mmm...hopefully I'll have it once more before leaving. So good. Can you believe that this meal only cost $10?


Oh Friday...full of sloth and gluttony. What a good day.

And my parents were asking about Seaside guesthouse, my home for the last two months, so I thought I'd try and make things a little easier and so here's a visual for you all. My room is on the right, second floor: the corner room. One of the best rooms in the guesthouse. Yay for us.