Friday, August 28, 2009

Kampuchia Momment

I just remembered this...

Last week I was biking home from afternoon language class in my training village. The village has a national highway that runs through it, so I was moving pretty quickly down the asphalt to my dirt road when I looked up, into the sparse oncoming moto traffic and laid my eyes on a scene that made time stop.

Two people on the oncoming Honda Dream come into view. A toothy twenty something male and a smiling woman behind him. We start to pass each other while the woman yells, "Helllooooo" as they pass me. My hand shoots up, in a reflexive wave, and my mouth drops in ghastly astonishment. Straddling the back of the Honda is a typical Khmer girl. Black hair, big smile, and two bare breasts catching some sunlight... wait a minute... yeah that's right. Tucked between the man and woman is a newborn nursing from the one breast not wildly attempting to obey the law of gravity. Up comes the mother's hand to wave, while the other tenderly nurtures her new born at 35km/h. Just as suddenly as my mind is blown, the moto egresses behind me, and is a metallic blur headed away from Vietnam.

Instantly the image of gymnasts come to mind, and the future of the Cambodian Olympic Gymnastics team seems pretty good. At 35km/h, with no free hands to hold on to something, and still mustering the gusto to wave to a foreigner, while holding a baby, it dawns on me that Cambodian women are have untapped potential. The balance required to pull off such a stunt is unimaginable. Somebody please send me a spring board and a vault! Watch out China, Cambodia is going for the gold in '012!

4 comments:

  1. Please tell me that Peace Corps has provided you with a bike helmet and you are using it. If not, that will be the package you get to celebrate your promotion to PCV.

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  2. I had an off track Yamaha but PC would not provide me with a helmet. Alas one Saturday I ran over a dog and crashed into a palm tree losing all memory of what transpired after I made it back to my house. PC soon provided us with helmets.

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  3. I was terrified reading waiting for the... and because I was so distracted and clearly not looking at the road, I crashed! Let's be careful, now is not the time for injury! :-) glad to hear things are going well!!

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  4. Yeah right Tori, Ben wouldn't get distracted by something like this. Right BEN?? :P haha

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