Cambodia is going to be fine

The longer I stay in Cambodia, the more I understand about what it is to live here, especially in the energy. I believe whole-heartedly in ghosts, because energy is powerful. Walls, rocks, places, hold energies and history, and I think that at some times there is such a flash of energy that it remains -- perhaps why violent deaths sometimes result in ghost sightings and stories.

There is an energy in Cambodia, and I didn't really even understand that until a friend and I were talking about it. She was in Thailand for a week and said now she thinks it's important to get out of the country at least once every few months because the energy here is heavy.

She's right -- there is a heavy energy here. Going to Sihanoukville or the islands, while relaxing, doesn't cut it, because it's still Cambodia and it still carries the weight of the genocide.

At the immigration office we're working on a separated family case, and between the sisters who have grown up in America and the sister left in Cambodia (born some years before the Khmer Rouge), the difference in their faces and eyes are incredibly striking. The one in Cambodia has years and  years of care and worry and hard work etched into her face, very little education and far too much hurt for her time. Those in America have wide, lively eyes and smooth foreheads.

Sometimes it gets frustrating -- actually, a lot. Corruption has been built into this country's government from the beginning and it is so entrenched now that it's hard to see even the start of the path out. Poverty and corruption are institutions and it affects all daily life. With the recent political stalemates, it highlights the problem even more.

One of my friends said it best -- more often than not, instead of being the "Kingdom of Wonder", Cambodia is the "Kingdom of Wondering What The Hell is Going On."

And yet.

Today I went to go see the circus. If you believe the internet, there is no circus school in Phnom Penh, only in Battambang, but there is a circus, a program of the Royal University of Fine Arts. Circus apparently dates back to the Angkorian times as there are bas-reliefs in Angkor Wat showing people tightrope walking and juggling.

The maybe ten performers were aged somewhere between ten or twelve to maybe late teens or early twenties, all but two male, and they were good. They attacked their work with focus and determination, with all the panache, showboating, and theatricality required for circus. They were choreographed, decently rehearsed, and actually very impressive.

When I left, I had this thought: Cambodia is going to be fine. It's going to be fine because there is a whole younger generation of people who are passionate about what they do and willing to take the time to invest themselves in it.

My brain afterwards was trying to be a cynic about it, saying that the system is so skewed that all that optimism and passion could get squashed -- a very specific google search that finally admits the existence of the school is full of how it might get shut soon and how the artists are not sure if they can actually make a living doing this.

But I can never shake that feeling, whether with these young performers or other dancers and artists I've met. They are not sure, but they are passionate and willing -- so it seems at least -- to take the risk. When they talk afterwards their words are unsure, but when they are performing their eyes are on fire.

It is not now, and change is a very, very slow, ardous, and ugly process. My mind can think of a thousand ways for things to go wrong and very few for them to go right. The passion of youth to be stamped out by the status quo and the old entrenched institutions and all that.

But whatever my mind thinks, my heart sees these young artists and believes unshakeably that in their hands, Cambodia is going to be fine.

The Circus, SE Asian style

The day I came back from Siem Reap, there were two circuses in town.

That in itself is remarkable, as it's not exactly a common thing here, and yet to have two on the same night, roughly around the same time, was quite something.

My friend invited me to go, and I bought a ticket, at that point not knowing about the double situation, and just bought it for the circus I thought it was, the Phare Ponleu Selepak troupe from Battambang, which I'd heard a lot about.

However, once in the tuktuk with my friend, who was directing and heading to somewhere that was definitely NOT where I thought the performance was -- and yet, what do you know, a circus tent! I assumed I had gotten the directions wrong, until she pulled out her own ticket and we realized that in fact they were not the same. There were not one, but TWO circuses performing, and I was currently in possession of the wrong ticket for this venue.

Despite this mixup they let me in anyway, as I assume this was a common issue what with both tickets being on sale at the same places and nowhere that said choose wisely my friend.

Turns out, it was a circus compiled of artists from Cambodia, Vietnam, and Laos. The Ringmaster spoke in Vietnamese, with a translator to Khmer. The cast was enormous. It was an acrobatic circus, cirque du soleil style only without the crazy factor and the ridiculously intricate costumes and makeup.

Don't get me wrong, they were good -- but it was really interesting, watching it made me realize how much time I've spent around circus -- learning it, watching it, etc. I realized I had spent the majority of my teen years doing this, and therefore, I recognized pretty much every act and their tricks -- the tricks for the aerial acts, the structure of the show and the acts, even the juggling passing patterns. I never did passing in juggling, but I've seen it practiced enough to recognize.

However, what was much more interesting for me than the tricks themselves -- besides the general awe at how much human beings can do -- was how they were presented, with a definite Southeast Asian flair. I caught a lot of classical dance movements, for one. The contortion act was all based on Hindu myths and had a lot of the dance in it, finishing with the girl shooting an arrow through a balloon with her feet, while balancing on her elbows. I think that was the most impressive thing I saw...

The spring board act, from Vietnam, had what I think was Vietnamese folk dancing, and the music. The fabric duo had the Cambodian hand gestures. Though I'm not sure what it has to do with SE Asia, the Vietnamese troupe doing the human feet juggling (you know, the burly guys on their backs juggling people on their feet), had specially modified motocycles for the occasion.

It was fascinating just to see how the same tricks, the same acts, the same audience reactions were just a little transplanted, made into something a little more local. Besides that, whatever they may be doing, I just love watching performers perform.

And, I'm not sure I have ever seen anyone set a jump rope on fire and do it on a unicycle, on the top of the platform, as the young performer from Cambodia did in the uni act...