A little over a week ago, some friends and I decided to try out capoeira, a Brazilian fusion of dance and martial arts. It's beautiful to watch and really fun to practice....but that beauty and fun comes with splash of risk as well. While attempting to do a jump-spin-kick move, I planted my left foot for the land, while the rest of my body continued to twist.... subsequently dislocating my left knee cap. I know... bummer.
The first few days being injured were highly frustrating - moving at the pace of a slug and realizing that I'd be out of commission when it comes to physical activities... including the volcano-hiking, crater lake-swimming Indonesia and Malaysia trip that my friends and I were going to take for Christmas and New Years.
With an encouraging push from a dear friend Margaret, the initial frustration wore off quickly. I decided to make the best of the week and a half I'd be spending solo at home. I set the intention to plant some roots here and connect with the Khmer people around me.
Living and socializing with Westerners on a daily basis makes it very easy to fall into the comfort of Western social norms. In addition, a language barrier makes it difficult to make a connection with Khmer people on a consistent basis. I'd begun to form relationships with Khmer people around me - but not many of the deeper relationships where I feel completely comfortable socially...until this past week.
I finally put my words into action and started highly anticipated Khmer language classes. My tutor is extremely helpful, and after 5 classes, I definitely feel like I'm starting to learn the language. So far I've been able to use Khmer in casual interactions and in 2 pretty helpful situations:
1. Went to the tailor down the street to get a dress hemmed. Last time I took something there, she just told me 5, so I assumed it'd be ready at 5pm that day... apparently she actually meant 5 days. Not a huge deal, but definitely a miscommunication. This time, when she wrote 3, I was able to ask her "Tgnai nih dtay?" which translates to "Today, yes or no?"
2. I went to Psaa Olympic (Olympic Market) in an attempt to find two of my students' parents' shops, and buy some DVDs in the process. The market is HUGE (3 stories stretching very far). When I found the DVD section, I was able to communicate with a group of shop owners in very broken Khmer, asking them if they knew a boy named Virak, ou-bpook midai quot (his parents) have a DVD shop. I'm his teacher at saa-laa (school)... they didn't know which shop it was, BUT they did understand what I said.
Tonight, just as I was about to go out for dinner at the market, my landlord invited me downstairs for rice and "Cambodia food". I gladly accepted her offer, and accompanied her downstairs where she, her daughter (who lives next door), and the 3 live-in housekeepers were all cooking and socializing in the kitchen. We ate her delicious food (muh hope ch-nign), chatted about the King, watched some Khmer music videos, and then played a Khmer card game. She invited me over to play cards again tomorrow night... Fun.
This past week I've also attended an amazing Christmas dinner with friends, gone to a Khmer wedding, befriended more of the tuk-tuk and moto drivers down the street, and almost overcome my fear of someone breaking into our house again.
My knee is getting better by the day, so needless to say, I'm really looking forward continuing to heal while I plant more roots here over the next few days of holiday break!
