Home-Stay Visit

A few weeks ago as part of our In-Country Training, VSO gave us an opportunity to experience how it is to stay in a rural village as guests of a Khmer family.

So Saturday 9^th April we left at 8.30am to travel to the village which was approx. 1 hour away from Kampong Cham where we were based for language training.

The Country of Cambodia is divided and administered as   :

Provinces (Kaet)

Districts (Srok)

Communes (khum)

Villages (Phoom)

So for the Homestay we were in:

Kaet – Kampung Cham

Srok – Kong Mas

Khum – Soka Koy

Phoom – Pong ro

On arrival we were formally greeted by the Commune elders and given a briefing on the current economic and social situation in the area by the Commune Chief.

We were then invited to individually introduce ourselves to the Commune elders using our newly acquired Khmer language skills.

So 20 Cambodian males gazed at me in expectation:

‘Sua-sdey, Knyom chmuch Chris mok pii Pro teih Ongklay Knyom tweu-Kaa chea moi Ong kaa VSO now Stung Treng chea moi pror pon Angela.’ Well I tried…

We were then taken to the Phoom where we were to stay and introduced to our host families

(I.e. the 7 members of our group having 2 couples were split into 5 houses all close to each other)

The Village house where we stayed

Where we slept we have yet to put up the Mozzie net 

Our host was a Kamai lady approx. our age and during the course of the afternoon various members of her family and relations wandered through the house. It took most of the afternoon to talk about our family in the UK swopping family photos and then to try and put together some sort of family tree for where we were staying.

The youngest daughter, aged approx. 11, was called What Iye and could speak some English as she studied it at school, she was a great help showing us around and clearing up confusion due to our limited Kamai.

What Iye and baby Brother

Midday we were told to have a shower which entailed going under the house to the outside toilet room and pouring cold water over yourself with a bowl. It was impossible not to gasp with shock at the first cold splash hitting your hot head. Then we were told to take a midday nap which was our first introduction to where we would be sleeping during the night. A thin short rush mat had been spread out on the floor of the living area and placed in one corner.

I can’t say it was comfortable but that is what was provided so we got on with having a nap.

Chris trying out the sleeping arrangements

In the afternoon we went a short walk within the village area and saw the river and a curious building; it was cement rendered on the outside walls with plastic pipes set into the walls all around.

The Curious Cement building

We could not get an explanation of the buildings function due to language difficulties but think it is something to do with collecting bird spit. This drab windowless concrete façade is a living birds nest factory and is meant to mimic caves where the swiflets would normally live and has inside a carefully spaced matrix of wooden rafters replacing the ledges and crannies of the cave ceiling. They are used in Chinese birds nest soup.

In the village and especially around our house there were lots of dogs of all ages and sizes. We were told many of these are in effect a ‘cash crop’ as they are reared and sold to Vietnam where I understand dogs of a certain breed are eaten as meat. Anyway the dogs all lived, played and fought together and had a definite pack/lead dog mentality.

Some of the many village dogs

We were able to have a try at raising water from the well with one of our neighbours, fun to us but probably tedious to them.

The Water well

We were given a lovely evening meal of at least 3 separate dishes .fish, meat and vegetables and we both had plenty to eat and were given a couple of cans of beer each.

A general impression of the day was there were many females around with children from new born to early teens but not many men as they were probably working in the fields. As the evening drew in the cows were brought in from the fields and tethered to the ground outside our toilet block presumably because they were too valuable to remain in the fields on their own overnight.

The cows brought in for the night next to the toilet block

As it got dark the women came into the living area sitting on the floor preparing the children for bed.

We had a visit from a fellow volunteer Paul and his male host who we think is the brother of our host. They both were bare chested and I (Chris) was pestered by the Kamai man to take off my shirt, after 10 mins of ‘No’ I gave in and took my shirt off.

Get your shirt off Chris!!!

Then we all sat cross legged on the wood floor and he proceeded to demonstrate how flexible the Kamai man is and we how stiff the western male is (by putting his leg/foot behind his back) and laughing at our attempts to cross our legs for any length of time. Paul quietly told me his host had been drinking at a wedding all afternoon and that was why he was so frisky. He picked a bottle of Jonny Walker whisky off the sideboard and insisted we each had a half beaker full to be downed in one we were too polite to refuse and anyway wouldn’t it help sleeping on the floor?

Johnny Walker - Down in One!!! 

We rigged our new mosquito net up over our rush mat and prepared to sleep next to 3 ladies and 4 young children one a new born baby- nobody used the big double mattress bed in the far corner of the room we never did find out why.

Eventually with every one showered and changed for sleep we were shown by our host how to unlock the main door during the night if we wanted to go to the toilet which you will remember is down the steep steps, under the house and into the small toilet building.

Lights out every one lying down and going to sleep- that’s when the fun started.

Before I describe the following I hope you have seen the film ‘Out of Africa’ with Robert Redford(Denys) and Meryl Streep(Karen Blixen), in particular the scene where the car has broken down and they are surrounded by 100’s of Water Buffalo on the African Plain. Karen Blixen, in an effort to get rid of the beasts, shouts ‘Shoo.. Shooo…’ anyway back to the Cambodian homestay in the dead of night…..

11.45 pm Angela woke and said she needed the loo so to minimise disturbance I said I would go as well. We unlocked the door and took two steps down-one dog growled in the dark, by the bottom of the steps we were surrounded by barking growling dogs but couldn’t see them it was pitch dark and no lights just our dim torch.

We stumbled under the house in the direction of the toilet block followed by 15 + barking, growling dogs we were almost at the toilet when for some unknown reason Angela decided to break our silence and said ‘Shoo… Shooo.. go away’- the dogs went WILD, WILD,WILD; the tethered cows by the Toilet jumped up and tried to pull their steaks out of the ground Mooing…it was total Mayhem!!!. We jumped in the toilet block and slammed the door shut. Before we left the house we were worried about seeing rats but they were the least of our worries now!!!

We went back out and walked quickly back with snapping at our heels and ALL of the dogs in the village joining in now. When we got back onto ‘the thin rush mattress’ we couldn’t stop laughing as the noise was deafening.

A long night then passed and we got up at 6am to a breakfast of spicy noodles. We gave our lovely hosts some gifts of food and toys we had brought with us and got back on the mini bus to swop tales with our fellow volunteers who had been staying nearby.

It wasn’t easy but it was a unique experience and I for one will never forget the night of the howling dogs.