You know what makes a really good omelet? Insects. Oh yes. There these insects, that resemble wasps except they are brown and don’t have a stinger. And we eat them and their larvae pretty frequently. They are actually quite delicious. Sweet and a bit crunchy. You fry them up and put them in just about anything, you can even eat them plain. I actually like them a lot. And if ants get into them, not a problem, just fry em up eat them too. Better than fish soup, that’s for sure.

In other news, it has been a really long couple of weeks, first of all, to my family, I’m so sorry about Granny, you guys have no idea how much I missed you and how badly I wanted to be there with you. I am truly sorry. And to Erin: I’m so happy for you! I really regret not getting to see you on your big day, Congratulations!

This was one of those weeks that really made me not want to be in Cambodia. Several different things happened; I won’t go into all of it here. Suffice to say that both at school and at my house everything seemed to be about money. Cambodians think that all Americans are rich. And I really felt like everyone I was around just wanted to find some way to get money out of me. The school director wants my English club students to pay electricity costs for using the school building. Which is fine, except his reasoning was that the school was to poor to manage the cost. Well if they spent their budget on things it was intended to fund maybe it wouldn’t be so poor. He also made a huge deal about it in front of all the other teachers, which was embarrassing beyond belief.

I’ve come to detest even mentioning money. But here, it is all people want to talk about. They want to know how much everything costs, how much everyone makes, it just goes on and on. And they refuse to believe that my parents do not just have thousands of dollars lying around so they can come see me whenever they want.

The problem is that this society is built on patronage and reciprocity. What you do doesn’t matter at, it’s who you know. It is completely natural and not at all shameful to be friends with someone simply for what you can get out them. That has always bothered, although while a lot of my friends have asked me for outrageous, most have understood when I explained why that can’t happen. But the idea of liking someone for who they are isn’t the ideal here. It’s really tough to deal you, a lot of times I feel really taken advantage of. But despite this, the overwhelming majority of people are really good to me, definitely better than I deserve.

That’s all for now, oh Nanny I got your envelope, it didn’t cost much. Thanks so much!
Love and miss everyone