Cambodia at Your Convenience
Having lived in Cambodia for more than 4 years, my reserves of amazement are practically exhausted. I managed, though, to drag a little extra out of the back of the cupboard yesterday morning, as I heard from a neighbour that a family of homeless Khmers had moved into the recently constructed public toilets across the road and were squatting there, so to speak. Surely my neighbour was having a wee jest.
I had to check this out so wandered over and with raised eyebrows saw the sight for myself. ?They surely can’t really be actually living in there?? I thought to myself, and at precisely the same moment the matriarch of the clan, a grinning washerwoman nonchalantly performing such everyday Khmer tasks as shifting around the fish cooking on the charcoal oven and hanging up her newly washed sarong, stared over at me with a practised shrug and an expression which seemed to say, ‘Yes, and what of it?’
What cheeky monkeys.
They certainly have all they need in there or nearby. A charcoal stove (outside), electricity (free), running water and not just one but two toilets. The outhouse is probably a little on the small side to squeeze in a Jacuzzi but apart from that they seem to have adequate facilities plus a fine view over the recently landscaped park and the grand colonial buildings surrounding it. Meanwhile, in the surrounding park the men pee against lamp posts and the women squat and hitch up their sarongs as usual with no discernable sense of grievance.
Call me divorced from reality, heartless or a killjoy if you will, but I do feel that in even in a city with such large homeless population, one of the few public conveniences around should actually be used for the convenience of the public.
