Full moon and good legs

I just came back in from being out on display, which is: White Girl Walking, Carrying a Bag.

I'd gone out to wander the market of the town Ang Ta Som, where we stay tonight. The number of people waving at me, calling "hello!", and smiling, you'd think I was back again living in one of my Small Towns USA, as if everybody knew me. I performed Exhibit White Girl Adjusting Pant Legs, and also the engrossing performance White Girl Using Foreign Currency.

Indeed, paying for things here is no small task. I often am simultaneously using two currencies, the dollar and the riel. I find it almost comical to give someone a dollar for some snacks, to be given in change 1000 riel. Trying to think in thousands and ten thousands reminds me I did not inherit my mother's mathability. I stand there, holding a veritable bouquet of bills, befuddled, as a growing crowd of onlookers helpfully point to applicable bills in my fist.

The market was just closing up, which was fine with me, because it was one of the more repugnant markets I've visited. This probably also was because it was nearing the end of the day and goods weren't so fresh. Wads of trash littered the paths, snack stores offered boxes of dusty wearied looking products, and raw meat was black with flies. I had been hungry, but the half-dead fish in water-less pans and the pile of pinkly oozing chicken heads dissuaded my appetite.

But I'm learning I can eat well in this dirty disorganized country, with some care. I found a girl frying ducks and I watched as she stuck duck legs in the hot oil; yes, please, I'll eat that fresh and hot. I relished these good legs with lime and a bottle of Anchor Extra Stout (meaning more like a brown ale than a proper stout here) sitting watching the golden perfectly round full moon. I waved at it for you, so when it rotates your way, I highly recommend the duck legs.