To my dismay there was no spaghetti anywhere in town so I had to rustle together whatever my fellow volunteer friends had in their food cupboards which comprised of a couple of packets of spaghetti, one of linguine as well as a half opened packet. It would have to do, I thought, and I even went so far as to taxi some in from Poipet to ensure I had enough! Oh, the panic!
Lo and behold though, on my way out of town I stopped at a well-visited Chinese shop which had such an abundance of spaghetti I almost bought it all in my excitement! My efforts to collect spaghetti were a complete waste of time, had involved almost the whole barang community in the north west of Cambodia, not to mention the VAs (volunteer assistants) and numerous taxi drivers and bystanders! Oh well, it amused some people and at least I could return everyone’s pasta to them as I had received it!
Daney helped prepare the dinner, which was really relatively easy (as I had hoped), although she did most of the hard work which was chopping/mashing the beef into very very small pieces to resemble mince beef. I was really rather proud of myself at mass producing such a tasty meal and realised that I had never cooked for this many people before. Learning from my previous experience of cooking for Khmers, I added a shed load of salt, rather than the usual ‘pinch’ or less that I would normally cook with on such occasions as the Khmers are rather partial to a shed load! And it tasted rather good if I do smugly say so myself!
While Daney and I were slaving over a hot stove, my colleagues were preparing the eating area, or so I thought! I arrived at the office with hot pans of pasta and sauce to find only about 3 colleagues standing around and no table and chairs to be seen! Trying not to show my disappointment (I had been harping on about it for days if not weeks previously!), I asked where everyone was and everything else happened in a bit of a rushed blur! Tables were carried out, chairs set out, bowls, spoons and forks (I banned chopsticks!) appeared along with an increasing number of people, I was handed a phone and told to personally invite or remind the people who were missing then ushered next door with Vuthang (my VA) to invite the district governor to join the meal in person. When I came back I was asked whether I had asked some other VIP who was apparently floating about and when I blankly said no, I was ushered back to apologise and invite him! I’m still very much getting the hang of the protocols here!
So before I could say “Prego!” all the (male) colleagues I work with at the District Office were sat round the table and eating MY spaghetti bolognase! Imagine that! The district governor and Chief of Police for the district were guests of honour at the head of the table so a smoozed with them as best I could for a while. Sadly the women at these events (apart from me evidently) have a different place to the men. After serving the men their dinner and making sure everyone has a drink and a spoon, they sit separately, talk amongst themselves and are ready to jump the second one of the male guests needs something. On other occasions I have tried to counter this by inviting the women to the table. Sometimes they refuse so I join them instead; sometimes they sit at the table for a short time before returning to the more comfortable sidelines. They stay where it is expected for them to stay. I, on the other hand, am treated like a Khmer man which I have grown more used to but still don’t always feel comfortable with. I guess they don’t really know what to do with me; I look like a woman but I have very light skin, drink beer and I am very tall in comparison with the Khmer men. They show me respect by placing me at the top of a table of men.
Other unidentified persons turned up and sampled what was on offer and at one point I turned to Vuthang and voiced my concern that I may’ve not made enough, to which his response was “Don’t worry Anna, there is enough beer!” This made me laugh and put my mind at rest but I was also really concerned that my colleagues actually liked the food. I was suitably encouraged when some guests asked for seconds but not at all surprised when I overheard most guests commenting on the fact that the barangs don’t use enough salt, sugar or MSG in their food! Mrs Kanyar was even sent home to collect some soy sauce and chilli sauce which was almost fought over on her return. I chose not to take this personally, even when my wonderfully delicious spaghetti bolognase was drowned in the stuff!
Without any prompting from me the topic of conversation turned to Chey Oudom Primary School which has become the model school for the district in following the Ministry’s Child Friendly Policy and which is planning a very exciting Community Open Day on 1st April (thanks to my mate Rachael – fellow VSO volunteer in Banteay Meanchey). The Chief of Police was especially excited about it and spoke at length, to whoever was listening, of all the changes he has seen happening at Chey Oudom recently. He was so enthusiastic about it he even managed to persuade the District Governor to donate 5 bags of cement towards developing gardens for each classroom at the school – happy days!!
The event really made me realise again how important these gestures are and how much they are appreciated and enjoyed. They really open up opportunities for discussion and general communication that scheduled meetings would never tap into.
Another effort I made in my period of reconnecting to the district was to fulfil my long standing promise to cook spaghetti bolognase for all the staff at the District Office of Education. I think I had confirmed the promise at my last attempt of cooking “English” (ahem!) food for a small group of Khmer friends. I had boasted that I was much better at cooking Italian and promptly contracted myself to cooking for all my colleagues. Well, this was the week to do it! In preparation, when I’d been in Phnom Penh I had brought a huge can of tinned tomatoes for the sauce, planned to be in Sisaphon the day before so that I had a better choice of vegetables to choose from and could buy the spaghetti. But what an adventure I had in search of the pasta!
