Things that are not weird in Cambodia

There are many things that are not weird in Cambodia. One, for example, was that yesterday there were hundreds, maybe thousands, of pineapples in my aunt's driveway. (My aunt lives right next door and I spend a lot of time sitting in front of her house with my 'cousins' or chatting with them at mine.) There were three different minivans loading up the pineapples, and by loading, I mean packing the entire van from floor to ceiling, making a pile out the back tied down to the open trunk door, and making a mountain of additional pineapples on top. Granted, Cambodian manoa are a lot smaller than the pineapples we would buy in America, but still, they manage to fit a lot of those suckers in!



Some other things that don't seem weird:
- Not going out past 6pm. What could there possibly be to do in the outside world past dark?
- Extremely loud music. All the time. All day long. This is generally for some sort of gathering - a wedding, funeral, new house celebration, or other party. The exact volume of the music is hard to describe, but it usually involves speakers that start to sound very distorted. It also usually a some point or another involves the Khmer remake of that Pitbull song...One Two Three Four, Muay Bee Buy Buon, I know you want me...
- Meals being a bowl of rice with toppings, instead of rice being an accompaniment to meals. It just makes sense.
- Not having internet. Or newspapers really. Or any source of information. Life goes on.
- Stopping to chat with 3 or more different group of people on your way the 500 meters to the market. Relationships, they keep telling us, are the most important key to our success in Peace Corps. IRBing!

Just another day.