Shop, Getting Lost, and Making Lists.

This past Thursday I went up to SLP and TC, and some great things happened. First and foremost, Leb Ke and I signed a contract for renting a shop space! It is the one pictured in a previous post, near the SLP market. While it is fairly small, I think we will be able to make the most of the space. It is 3.8 meters by 8 meters, and the rent is $50 a month through 2009, and then it will be $60. We signed a contract to rent for one year, and will begin utilizing the space in October.

I was planning on getting to SLP at about 8:30, but ended up not getting there until 10:00 because I had to get the rear tire of my dirt bike replaced. The one that was on the bike had plenty of tread left, but one of the lugs had somehow been sliced down to the tire carcass, and was threatening to peel off the tire. This could easily have caused a blowout, which I was determined to prevent. So I got a new tire, which was only $35, and headed out. I had to go more slowly than expected, traffic was insane because everyone is celebrating Pchoom Benh. I don't know how to properly spell that, but it's a holiday where everyone in the city goes to their families villages, so leaving the city was kind of a nightmare.

Yousos had been expecting me to be there an hour and a half before I actually made it, and left SLP before I got there. This was very unfortunate, but I actually made it worse, as you will see. After Leb Ke and I finished the negotiations for the shop space, Leb Ke was going to stay in SLP and asked me If I would be okay driving to TC by myself. I said yes, even though i had only been once. Leb Ke hand drew me a map (see picture below) and I was on my way.

I thought that i should turn left at the first fork, and right at the second fork, and all would be well. That first fork wasn't actually a fork though, so i went straight past it. After travelling for about 45 minutes, down roads like the one pictured below the map, I realized that my 20 minute old suspicion that i was going the wrong way should be ignored no longer. Miraculously, my phone had service so I called Leb Ke. I explained that i was lost, and found someone who could explain to him where i was. After a fairly lengthy conversation between Leb Ke and a random person, I got back on the phone, and Leb Ke laughed.

"Oh, Ned, you are very far away. Turn around, and when you see a Wat on your left, turn right."

These instructions were fairly simple, and So I turned right at the first Wat on my left, onto this road:

In the back of my mind, I realized that this road looked sort of rough, and may not be the one Leb Ke was talking about. But I went down it anyway. It quickly degenerated into a swampy mess which appeared to mostly be used to herd cows. I had never ridden a dirt bike in mud, or through water, and had a brand new, road biased tire on the back, inflated to 30 psi, which is way too much for riding in soft conditions. So the bike was extremely skittish, and I felt very lucky to not drop it. This picture illustrates the general condition of this road. Keep in mind i had no idea how deep these ponds were when i approached them, or how goopy the mud was. I don't really know how the bike never got stuck. If you click on the picture to make it bigger, you can see the cows I also had to navigate around.


My voyage on this road came to an end when I got to a place where the road was water as far as I could see, between two bamboo fences outlining rice paddies. I didn't take a picture here, but it was clear that I was not going to make it much further. So I turned around and started going back down the main road, when I re-approached the train tracks. After consulting my map, I decided they were the same as the ones Leb Ke had drawn, and that if i followed them, I would get to TC. So I went for it.


This was a good time, until I came to a bridge over a small river that was obviously not made for foot traffic, and would have been extremely difficult to cross on my bike. I considered it, but decided that if i fell off, the dirt bike would probably pin me in the water, and I would drown. So I turned around again. On my way back, I called Leb Ke and he consulted with a cow herder. Having concluded that I was out of my mind, he told me to go back to the main road, and just wait where the railroad tracks crossed the main road.

I was concerned about running out of gas, and decided he was correct. While waiting for him to arrive, this rolled up. It was a gas powered platform that followed the tracks, which I had assumed were defunct. Good thing I was not on the tracks when it was running, though. Anyway some people thought it was hilarious I was there, and said Hi. One old man was super pumped, he grabbed my hand and was smiling fit to burst. It was pretty cool.



So Leb Ke came and rescued me from my own foolishness, and we proceeded to TC. I arrived so late that almost all the men who were interested in working in the shop had left. I felt really awful about this. It was such an incredible experience to have been voyaging around the middle of nowhere in Cambodia, but I was brought back to earth by the feeling of having failed at my responsibility to the people of TC.

Fortunately, we made good progress despite my errors. Leb Ke, Yousos, and the leaders of TC were able to come up with a list of who wanted to be in the program, and we came up with two people who were responsible and mature enough to go to moto-repair school in Phnom Penh.

Leb Ke, Yousos and I also came up with a more concrete plan on how the shop operation will run. Basically, while the two people are going to school, I will set-up the shop. From the beginning, there will be a designated shop keeper who will live in the building to prevent theft, and I will try and train that person to run the business, like the administrative side of things. This will include managing the flow of money into and out of the business. Hopefully the other people will therefore be able to better focus on repair and teaching when they return from PP.

Also, I'll try and teach some people as much as I can while the two guys are in PP.

So thanks to Leb Ke, Yousos, and the villager leaders of TC, the day was a success. I think I'm more of a catalyst than anything else. I see my job as primarily being the means to an end, and recognize that I wouldn't really be able to do much without Leb Ke and Yousos. They also assuaged my guilt, and assured me that it was okay that i had been so late.

That's the story, hope you enjoyed it. On another note, my dirt bike started making noise again. We'll see what happens with that. In the meantime, I bought a bicycle to get around the city. It has some hilarious stickers that you can see below, which include the words 'Lover Boy' in blue writing, and a stern portrait of a wolf. It also has a basket on the front, which is infinitely useful.


Okie Doke. Hope everyone's well. Take Care.

Ned.