Cambodia, Day 12

On Tuesday of this week, we started the day at Rapha House, but then had lunch at Viva in Siem Reap, and I made a discovery: ហហ្មុកត្រី, pronounced amok trey, which is steamed fish in a spicy coconut sauce. It's awfully good; awfully, awfully good. So good, in fact, that I've eaten it six times in five days: at Koulen, at the hotel restaurant, and then in Phnom Penh at Blue Pumpkin, at Olala, and at Freebird. I'm already a sucker for Asian food with coconut in the sauce -- my favorite Indian dish is navratan korma -- and I also like fish a good deal. I keep telling myself to knock off ordering it so often, but the rule I gave myself is to try Khmer cooking whenever possible, and several times there hasn't been another Khmer option on the menu that I hadn't tried. And it is very, very tasty, and very filling. I think Blue Pumpkin had the best sauce, but they did theirs as a ravioli, which was a bit odd. When I get home, I definitely need to get to work tracking down a recipe and learning how to make it myself. And I like to think this means I've been willing and obedient, but probably not; probably just God indulging His child.

(Pastor Troy wanted me to title this entry, "Doyle runs amok in Cambodia." I didn't title it that, because I've got a format going, but I did open with it. Incidentally, "amok" rhymes with joke and poke, so the gag doesn't work out loud. And Pastor Troy is on a similar obsessive mission for cashew chicken, so Mary Jo said he needed to title a blog post, "Pastor Troy goes nuts in Cambodia.")

We spent the late morning and early afternoon at Phnom Tamao Wildlife Rescue Centre, which takes in animals that have been abused or are threatened by poachers. Here's a deer auditioning to be an emoji.

 

Vendors sold us bananas, sugar cane and bamboo to feed to the animals. There were dozens upon dozens of fearless and aggressive monkeys ready to relieve us of all the food if we got distracted. Some of the animals were native Cambodian species we'd not heard of, some were variations on familiar wildlife, like the black-necked pelican, and some were very familiar. We had several good minutes with a monogamous pair of gibbons; the female gibbon liked to put her hand through the bars and let human visitors hold it. She and her mate snuggled and groomed one another, and when she treated us to her ululating call, he joined in with a little doo-wop harmony at the tail end. And near the end of the visit, we spent a bunch of quality time with a couple of elephants.

 

Needless to say, every beast we visited belongs to God, and in some ways it was a good way to follow up yesterday's sobering reminders. Animals can be dangerous and violent, but they're free from the sort of calculated, meticulously designed cruelty we studied up close. The animals we greeted and fed were curious, friendly, and wonderfully made.

Tomorrow morning we're off to church, followed by an intense afternoon work session to be ready for next week's ministry at Rahab's House. Keep praying for us.