Foundations

Just outside Sheila’s flat, just beneath my window, there’s a building site. When I stayed here in May, the space was taken up by a catering business working all hours to prepare food for various Khmer doos (weddings, funerals, Buddhist monk blessings, ancestor remembrance days....). Each morning I remember waking up to the sound of clashing pots, high-pitched singing and the smell of prahok (a sauce made from rotting fish used as the base in most khmer dishes). This morning I had a different kind of wake-up call though. At around 7am I surfaced to the sound of a screeching saw and the steady crack-thumping of stone being made into rubble. Marvellous.


Like I said yesterday, things here change fast. I guess this new building will be up in a few months. Interesting to see it at its foundation stage though, at a time when I’m thinking about foundations of my own. Now I’m back in the land, my initial thought has been to start building on the foundation laid last time I was here. To get on with things and start making visible the various plans and projects in my head. However, on reflection, I reckon these next 9 months are more about working on the areas I never quite got round to last time, especially learning to speak khmer and not just reading it.


So, I hope to get out and about more and give it a go. And carry on with the things I was doing before (teaching, making films and gathering/ writing stories). Don’t feel this is a time to rush ahead but to sink into things a bit deeper and strengthen foundations.