Side Notes

I never thought that at age 23 I would feel dated. Today in my level 7 class we were talking about utilities in houses and the word dial tone was one they were expected to learn, and because of that I added land line. I started talking about a dial tone and said that they only exist on a land line, and not a single person had a clue what I was talking about. I asked if they had ever used a land line or heard a dial tone, and not a single one had. They weren't all kids either, my oldest student in that class is around 40 years old, and even he had not used one. I was shocked. I had no idea how to respond to them. I decided that I would give them the definitions, but they would not need to know them. I was just so amazed that my students had no idea what either was.

As bizarre as it is, it's somewhat indicative of Cambodian development. They did not have the development stage of telephone land lines because of a century filled with war, as well as a country based on agriculture. Now that they are in the process of developing and becoming a more industrialized country, they are all getting cellphones instead of land lines because it is cheaper, faster and they are simple.

Well, I just had to write that down because I was at a loss for words while in class. And I spoke of the Russian market earlier, and I really cannot do it justice by writing about it, so I'll attempt some photos later this week and post them so you can truly see how cramped and chaotic it is.