April in Cambodia.
on Mary In Cambodia (Cambodia), 30/Apr/2010 11:54, 34 days ago
April in Cambodia.Since I arrived here, people have been talking about‘April’ like we in Ireland talk about the weather.‘You think it is hot now, just wait till April comes’ ‘you feel tired now, just wait till April’, and so it goes. April is the dreaded month.In March the talk was‘this is April weather’, I didn’t think it could get any hotter, but it did. The last few weeks have been unbearable. The saying‘you could fry an egg on the stones’ actually I’m sure you could cook a steak on them here, and have it well done. In fact it feels like we’re being fried. The cold shower is hot, and the fan circulates a hot breeze. There’s no escaping it day or night. My arms are covered in a heat rash, anti-histamines make me too sleepy, so nothing for it only smile, and.......Trees, shrubs and bushes, are wilting under a blanket of red dust, like me! Rice stubble has been burned, so the fields are black. I always thought that burned earth wouldn’t grow anything. Here I’m told the ash is ploughed back into the ground as fertiliser. Can anyone enlighten me please? Ponds and streams have all dried up long ago.There has to be something good about this dreaded month! Well it’s the MANGO season, not those tough green things we call mango at home, but big, golden, delicious, juicy fruit, and you can buy a bag of them for a dollar. Khmer New year comes in the middle of the month, a holiday of uncertain length, a real fun time, and an opportunity for us to travel outside our own locality.We’re waiting for the rains; can you imagine an Irish person desperately wishing for rain? I imagine it’s going to cool down when the rains come. I hope I’m not disappointed. It's the last week in April;only 3 more days, no rain worth talking about yet, a few clouds now and then, so, fingers crossed.Tomorrow, Wednesday is an official holiday in honour of the birth of Buddha. An international ceremony will be held in Siem Reap, attended by thousands of Buddhist Monks from Thailand, Laos and Vietnam, as well as from all over Cambodia. Buddhists will go to the temple to make offerings of fruit and cash and to be blessed by the monks.Next Sunday will be the ploughing of the first furrow festival, which I think was done by the King in olden times. This year I have heard that the King will come to Siem Reap and sit on a throne at‘terrace des Elephant’ temple in the Angkor Wat complex of Temples, to watch the turning of the furrow as Kings of old did. This holiday is to be transferred to Monday. My assistant tells me it’s a very important day for Cambodian people. I’m not sure why, but I will agree with him if it rains.Friday 30th. Yesterday evening and the evening before that, the sky darkened, there were a few claps of thunder and a downpour of rain for about half an hour. Even this small amount has changed the look of the country-side. This morning, as I travelled out to school I noticed trees and bushes looking green and alive, a small amount of water had gathered in the ponds, and farmers were out in force ploughing the land. In one or two fields oxen were pulling ploughs, I noticed a couple of very old tractors, I think we might have called them‘Massey Fergusons’ , but mostly men were walking behind small‘merry tiller’ machines. I was reminded of a poem we learned in Primary school‘The ploughman homeward plods his weary way, and leaves the world to darkness and to me’. Grey, I think. These men must work from daybreak to night fall, in this heat they will surely be weary!Tomorrow is the first of May. I have survived April in Cambodia.