One day

I have just had one of the most interesting days, but it does not conform well to a single story or journal entry. I am bound to forget it all if I do not write it down. Here is a chronological listing without detailed explanation.

-Woke up and tried to figure how many minutes it would be before the alarm went off.
-Showered.
-Took out the garbage.
-Bicycled to work.
-Watched my students suffer through an English exam, while they tried and failed to discreetly cheat off each other.
-Wrote two e-mails to some Italians.
-Listened to the department heads of the hotel talk about Cambodian food and karaoke for 10 minutes.
-Ate some scrambled eggs and a croissant with brie. Drank a glass of fresh orange juice.
-Gave some weak platitudes to comfort my general manager, who found out, via phone text, that her dog just died.
-Met an attractive Khmer woman from an organization that specializes in reducing dangers to children, specifically for street children and victims of trafficking. Set up a time for the organization to provide training to the staff to make sure that the hotel is aware of how to act in the face of child abuse.
-Drank a glass of water.
-Walked to the nearby children’s hospital.
-Saw dozens of sick children, mostly waiting in the lobbies and hallways.
-Sat on a bench.
-Filled out a form that says I do not share needles or engage in risky sex.



-A doctor poked me with a needle attached to a bag.
-Donated some blood.
-Received a free hospital t-shirt, some crackers, and a coke.
-Met a young German medical student on a month of practical learning.
-Posed for some photographs.
-Resumed work.
-Stopped working to meet a young Dutch woman who found me on the Couchsurfing website, but neglected to e-mail me to tell me she might stop by.
-Carried out a nice conversation and exchanged contact information to meet again at a later time.
-Met some Canadians who were donating a house to our village projects.
-Ate lunch, which included my favorite Khmer soup – the one with pickled lime and chicken.
-Wrote some e-mails to set-up a meeting on Monday.
-Ordered two bags of rice for a village visit.
-Ordered five bicycles for a different village visit.
-Organized my team to practice games for a staff party.
-Watched my teammates try to dance in traditional Khmer-style.
-Tried on some second-hand women’s clothing in preparation for a drag contest.
-Had two very attractive women from the spa apply make-up, something which had not happened since I was in a musical performance of Annie in the fourth grade.
-Was amazed to see the effects that foundation has on hiding the roughness of skin.
-Was taken aback by seen myself with mascara for the first time.
-Was bored.
-Was reaffirmed in the belief that women waste far too much time making themselves up every day, and yet more appreciative of the fact that they do
-Tried on high heels for the first time since I was dressed up like a girl at my grandmother’s house by my sisters and cousin.
-Was told by four guys that “girls walk like this”, where “this” was their demonstration.
-Washed off the make-up.
-Accidentally put soap in my eyes trying to get off the eyeliner.
-Looked in the mirror a fifth time to confirm that my face had indeed reverted from the drag-queen appearance.
-Met with my low-performing students.
-Told a young woman that if she didn’t improve her effort and performance that I would drop her from the program.
-Met with a rural teacher.
-Talked about buying student uniform and ways to keep track of supplies in a school that has no doors and palm leaves for walls.
-Met with some Americans who live in London and were joining the village visit the following day.
-Ordered some school supplies.
-Started writing this post.
-Looked around facebook and livejournal.
-Met a young man from Malaysia whom I had been in contact through Couchsurfing and treated him to dinner.
-Ate some fried ice cream.

Now I am ready to go to bed, but I am the manager-on-duty for the evening, so I will be here until 10 o’clock, waiting and hoping that nothing goes wrong. Tomorrow, a new day approaches. I can only anticipate it will also be interesting and exciting, but I do not anticipate that I will write another entry exactly like this one.


- Finished this post.