Cultural Barriers

Cambodia is a place of ordered kaos.  of predictability.  but not the things one might predict in Canada.  In traffic, I can guarantee to be cut off, almost hit, see many close calls, watch as pedestrians cross the wide and very busy highway - home to many semis, tuk tuks and motos.  In Canada, if I stepped out in the middle of traffic to cross the street, I would be worried of getting hit.  In Cambodia, this is the way you cross the road, and thus feel at ease that the driver will swerve around us.  

The first time Jeremy and I had wanted to cross a busy street in Cambodia, we were’t sure how to go about it.  Today, in Seoul, a city with crosswalks…. when we wanted to cross the street, we weren’t sure how to go about it.  Where is the crosswalk?  Why are there guardrails everywhere?  Why do we have to wait 3 minutes to cross, when we can do it… we’re experienced!  We walked around a city where traffic sits at a red light…. until it turns green.  There is no fake 10 second advance while the light is still red, which is a norm at every intersection in Phnom Pehn.  Vehicles drive in the lines, traffic calmly flows.  As I reflect, I realize, the city was pretty quiet, and the streets were not crowded…. huh.  I am sure we weren’t seeing all the trueness of South Korea in the short time we wandered through it, but what we saw was Canada disguised with Koreans, and this gave us a good head start as to growing accustomed to the orderly way of life.

This kaos, or overstimulation, is something that I didn’t think I would miss.  Life seems so calm without it!

We only left last night, but, from the time we entered the sanitary version of Cambodia in the Phnom Pehn airport, until now (post Seoul city experience) currently in high-class Seoul airport, it seems as though we left ages ago.

Leaving is always a bitter-sweet experience.  We left behind new friends, whom we hold very dear, in exchange to see our family.  Doesn’t this seem bizarre?  An exchange for one for another?  Yet that is exactly what it is, as we can not have both worlds in one.  We have entered into 2 very different worlds, lived in these worlds, loved and formed relationships in these places…. and now… torn between where our allegiances lie between the 2 places.  There is no common ground, no similarities.   Our last memories of the Cambodia we know are of the 21 people who crammed in the van with us to say good-bye at the airport.  How can we ignore this love and affection.  These are the people who have stolen our hearts.