TRAVEL | EXPAT LIFE
An Angry Mob Encircled the Woman So I Jumped in Next to Her
I didn’t see how else to help
I lived in the most beautiful house near the Olympic Stadium, with gardens outside. Bouganvillea white and purple in large pots, tropical plants. The windows looked out to flowers and the locked gate, and beyond that, the street full of shops and vendors and motorcycles.
The amount of room in that villa was unbelievable, probably 3000 square feet. We paid 600.00 USD per month, and while I’ve lived in many homes large and small, that airy home in Southeast Asia occupies a special place in my heart. My husband and I made memories there both good and bad.
Those of you who follow me know he broke my heart and I left Cambodia.
A Michigan boy, he died there in 2016 when he drowned in the Tonle Sap River, along the waterfront in Phnom Penh. He was fifty-nine years old. Tonight I’m thinking of him and Cambodia. I’ve found that no matter how stressed or worried I am here in the USA, nothing compares to how it was in Cambodia.
Not a horrible boss who was emotionally abusive at the high school I worked at for years here. Not family politics, which can get messy. Not day-to-day quibbles and jealousies.
