Cambodia
as a School of Patience
To Find Inspiration
Violent monsoons, intense colors, awkward smells, strange languages of the Mekong valley, secret gestures, and shocking contrasts became an inspiration to look deeply at Cambodia. In the chaos of its adversities, we can trace peculiar life wisdom that we do not have, or perhaps do not remember anymore, in the West.
Short Story
Cambodia as a School of Patience
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Cambodia has proved to be a demanding School of Patience, a capricious lover, a challenge, an experience of contradictions and dissonances. These circumstances do not help with adaptation and embracing its reality. The people of Cambodia live, smile, and show their will to last every day despite the memories of the recent genocide, which are still pulsating under their skin. The chaos of Cambodia resounds with the sounds of intricate harmony that will not seduce every ear. Still, it will help some to find their own selves.
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It is challenging to live and let live when things are entirely different than they seem to should be. Accustomed in Europe to efficient, organized work, open actions, and clear expression of intentions, Mister Marcin did not fit in with the new environment. He tried to understand why the laws of logic and common sense did not apply to Cambodia.
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The land of Khmer has changed and still affects the author's life. Cambodia is not so much a stage for the story as it is a catalyst and release factor for work that started several decades earlier. Here are Cambodian images seen through the eyes of a man who almost accidentally came here for a year. Cambodia, however, a jealous lover, kept him longer. Years later, living in one of the Lesser Sunda Islands, where the earth shakes, volcanoes spit lava, and Komodo dragons live, the author often returns to the Kingdom of Cambodia.
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Although they would probably let one another pass unnoticed on their own soil, similar people cling to each other with a strange magnetism in an alien world. The blog's author made friends with some Westerners, sat down, and drank a glass or two, recalling "how it is in old Europe..." However, in day-to-day life, he worked (and kept taking notes) among the Khmer.
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Mister Marcin spent a few of the best years of his life in Cambodia. He will always remain slightly "incomplete" because he left a piece of his heart and life, the loving work of his hands, in the Khmer Kingdom.
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This blog tells what he got in return.