The Khmer Word for "clumsy" must be "Dennis"

Neth and I had a presentation meeting this morning at the corporate office of one of our client's. As we approached the office building we encountered a line of police who had closed down the street in front of the office building. I looked past the officer who had stopped me and saw in the distance that there was a large crowd of protesters in front of the office. I told the policeman that I had work in the office building and he signaled with his hands for me to pass. Once parked inside the office garage (located in a large shopping mall with corporate offices on the top floor) we noticed that all the shops inside the mall were boarded up and closed down. A guard from the mall met us and escorted us up an exterior garage walkway. As we began our walk up to the top floor we saw several large trucks packed full of armed guards wearing riot gear arrive at the side of the mall near the edge of the demonstration site. Within seconds of stopping the trucks the guards poured off the flatbed trucks with their facemasks, body shields, and weapons. They were all dressed in green (which seemed like a mysteriously ominous color today) and they looked like they were ready for violence. In the foreground I saw a dog sitting behind a fence that bordered the street; he sat peacefully watching the guards and I wondered what it would be like to be so close to all this mayhem and yet to be so unaware of the issues and impending dangers. I do not know for certain what the protest today was all about, but it seems like in the 5 months that I have been in Cambodia there have been 3 major protests (these summaries are from my rudimentary understanding): 1) Over election processes – alleging election fraud; and demanding the resignation of Prime Minister Hun Sen; 2) Protests over government seizure of property in Phnom Penh - relocating people from their homes and paying them only a small amount of money; and 3) Protests over working conditions, taxes, and wages – taxes in Cambodia have been rising at rates that far exceed the increases in GDP and wages in Cambodia. Consumer prices are also rising, making the cost of living too high for many Cambodians. UPDATE: I am very sad to report that I have just read an online news article that in a different protest area police opened fire (with their AK-47s) on the protesters and at least three protesters lost their lives in the gun fire. The article stated that the protesters were requesting a doubling of the monthly garment workers' salaries to $160 per month.

Mr. Clumsy...This has been my week for being clumsy. On Sunday I went for a bike ride and while on the outside lane of a roundabout I swerved to miss colliding with a cyclist who suddenly turned from the inside lane of the roundabout right in front of me. Swerving, I hit a piece of wood that was on the road and my front wheel locked up. I skidded on my right side for a few yards and ended up with a bruised right hip, bruised ribs (making it hard to breathe), and a lot of cuts (road rash). When I got home I noticed that my helmet had cracked in two places. This made me very glad that I was wearing the helmet!

Two days later I was at a New Year’s Eve party with a group of really great runners (from Japan, Germany, Cambodia, and the United States). They talked me into riding my bike the next day - as a course lead for their running race. It was a lot of fun, but really hurt my ribs. Clumsy act #2: There is a new mall just down the street from where I live and it is really a beautiful, fun place to go to. They have my favorite coffee shop there: Browns. I went there on New Year's Day and when I was sitting down for coffee noticed that the shorts I was wearing had a tear up the right side seam. I tried to hold my backpack on my right hip to cover it. Let me quickly explain something about this Browns so that the next sentence will make sense: this is a new Browns and the entire front of it is tall glass; very clean, new glass. When I was leaving Browns I thought that the front door was open because with the glass being so clear I didn’t even see that there was glass there. BAM!! I left a nose smudge print on the window and I am sure that it looked hilarious. I turned to see half the customers gasping and the other half laughing. I felt like I should take a bow or something.



This helmet saved my head from what would have been a very bad injury

Nary and Jay (Jay won the race). Nary is Cambodia's top woman long distance runner. Jay is an American living in Tokyo.