Today I Saw...

Today I saw a man crouched at the side of the road, muttering to himself. I don't know his story--but it looked like a sad one.

Today I saw several old, wooden houses--houses that are everywhere in Cambodia--made of scraps of wood with rust-streaked tin roofs filled with holes.

Today I saw children in their black and white uniforms riding bicycles and packed seven-in-a-tuktuk on their way to school.

Today I saw two wedding processions, with a little boy and a little girl dressed in stiff silks and looking uncomfortable leading the procession. They carried fake silver bowls in their hands. Behind them walked the wedding party, dressed in their finest dress. Behind them walked the rest of the fruit-procession, husbands and wives--husbands in their daily clothing, wives dressed in their wedding clothes of lacy blouses and silk skirts.

Today I saw a Chinese hearse of sorts, one with golden and red dragons coiling along the side of the vehicle. Loud wailing sounds emanated from the speaker at the top of the hearse. Around the coffin sat monks robed in saffron and nuns in white. Gold pieces of paper and confetti blew in the breeze and the car exhaust as nuns threw them out of the hearse.

Today I saw monks in their brilliant robes walking from house to house, giving blessings and collecting money and food.

Today I saw a little, one-room stilt-house perched out in the middle of a field of waterlillies.

Today I saw an old sewage lake, filled with waterlillies and brilliant green.

Today I saw a funeral-tent, made up of black and white.

Today I saw little girls skipping, waving their arms, and talking to their friends as they made their way to school.

Today I saw a yellow school building, old and worn with the years.

Today I saw new apartment buildings, a sports car, the new mall, and severe poverty. Today I saw sad faces--and smiling ones.

Today I saw Cambodia.

(Melodramatic, but hey, who doesn't love writing melodrama?)