The new people have arrived. Four new housemates, so we total seven now, all volunteering in various capacities in Cambodia. We are a lawyer, a market researcher, three physio therapists, a horse whisperer, and me. Ages range from 18-39. Six girls and one guy (a brave man to live with so many women). Our volunteer coordinator, a clever fellow who ensures we get to hospital when we fall down manholes, took us out to dinner this Saturday night. Once seated, a glass of wine in hand, I was enjoying people’s stories of why they'd chosen to come here...and waiting for the food-I was so hungry, having missed lunch. We’d ordered the house appetizers and I was impatient for snacks. But as the waiter approached with a large platter, I realized it was not the typical starter plate of potato skins, calamari, and fried cheese. Oh, lots of fried things: tarantula, snake on a stick, cockroach, frogs, a little bird, beetles, eggs, and silk worms, all nicely arranged to please the eye as well as the palate. And my new roommates dug right in. Even the vegetarian ate a beetle. I watched in horrified awe while people tried the leg of a tarantula, a bite of snake ("tastes like pork crackling"), and tossed back silk worms (“pops in your mouth”) like peanuts. When our token guy slowly and deliberately ate the entire large cockroach, I had to look away, queasy from the sight. He noted afterwards: “It took a while to chew through it.” As I say, brave man. This bloke helpfully pointed out as we left that it would have been much harder to eat all these things if they’d been alive.
Thankfully, we did finally have a “normal” dinner (Ahh, rice. Sweet plain rice). One of the many things I've learned on this trip is that I am not an adventure eater. Good to know one's limits: I'll go out on a limb, I'll climb a mountain, I'll cop a squat...but I won't eat anything ever featured on Fear Factor.
Sated and several clubs later, we went en masse to the penultimate night club in Phnom Penh, The Heart of Darkness. We the volunteers had been advised not to go to this particular place, due to past incidents of serious violence. Apparently, the combination of money, power, alcohol, arrogance, guns, and no real laws of any kind does not always yield happy results. Go figure. But tonight was violence free. Just dancing fools, full of free bugs and booze.
