Most of this week was meetings of all sorts, which I suppose is the norm. Yesterday we went to a convention: CAMHOTEL/CAMFOOD and CAMBUILD (and possibly some other CAM-names), Cambodia's first international conventions of the sort. Really it was in one big space. We knew some people who knew some people, and I met a girl that I had just been introduced to the night before, when Hok invited me to his friends' birthday get-together (which was nice, by the way, and a lot of the people there had also lived or studied in the US and were back working for their parents or themselves). Hok's brother was there selling paint, roofing, tin roofing sheets, etc- and spray on granite! I didn't even know that existed, although now I realize I have probably encountered it fairly often.
Today my dad had a small meeting with his building manager (which I couldn't follow much because it was in Khmer) and then he went with some associates and his engineer to the convention again, so he said I didn't really need to go again.
So I've been home all day, working on the tabi sock I'm knitting. I tried to look up more things on the biofuel crop we're considering, but I really found nothing new and my email to the company hasn't been answered yet (though I wonder if it got spam-filtered?). I will write a follow up today or Monday. My dad said it wasn't a priority, but still.
My mother is coming next week! She has an open return and hasn't planned when she will go back to the States yet, but I think she should spend most of her time in Thailand. I'll be in Thailand with her for a couple weeks or so accompanying her to the hospital (she's getting some ongoing condition checked out and I just wanted to see a doctor). I went to the dentist the other day, and it was clean and rather large- and missing the popular signs on many dental clinics scattered around Phnom Penh: Giant teeth or mouths, especially upper jaws hanging over the informative name-and-services sign.
The dentist/dental hygienist was kind of rough, in that she tended to yank my skin around, rest her fingers on my lips- pushing them onto my teeth, or right up next to my nose- so I couldn't breathe. Visiting the dentist is hardly ever comfortable, but she gave me the impression that she wasn't on the other side of the drill that often.
They are very stylish in an old fashioned way. Forget baggy scrubs printed with cartoon characters. She (and another woman I saw) wore a slim white miniskirt, white heels, a mod trim white jacket with a little stand up collar and zipper front, and a little starched cap! The idea of looking "professional" and being "practical" is a bit different here in Asia.
I don't know how easily I can update from Thailand, but we'll see.
Personal note: I use 'we' rather loosely since I haven't really told anyone but Dan about this blog, and I didn't tell him the address. So I don't know who, if anyone, is reading this. :)
Claudia
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