A constant flow of people...

Both the social and the professional scene here in Phnom Penh are very international; a mixture of people from all parts of the world coming to Cambodia for work or tourism, short or long time. I stay and work in the southern part of the city, which means that I seldom run into tourists though, except for the few times I´m going to one of the more tourist oriented markets in the weekends. At the office, the vast majority of my colleagues are Khmer - out of 15 staff, 5 are Swedish and 10 Khmer. It´s a new and very rewarding experience for me to work in an international team like this. Through my work and especially the social scene, I meet a lot of expats from the western countries, too. There´s a huge western oriented restaurant- pub- and music scene here, side by side with the huge karaoke places and noodle stalls, which means that you can have the best of two worlds whenever you feel like it.

What´s characteristic for the social and professional expat scenes, is that they are constantly changing. People are coming and going all the time. Some are staying for only a shorter period of time, doing volunteer work or research. Some people, like myself, are staying for a some years, before heading back to their home country or for a new mission in some other Asian country. There are also some who find themselves staying for 10 years or even longer, making Cambodia their new home country.

The only thing for sure about this dynamic scene, is that it´s constantly changing. This is of course a bit different compared to home, where your social network most likely is quite stable from year to year - well, I don´t know about yours, but mine seems to be quite unchanging anyway. But here, you meet and make friends with people who you might not even know if they´ll be around next month or not. This means that there is a constant flow of people; a lot of new aquintances, and also a lot of farewells... For example, last week there was a good bye lunch for my new good Swedish friend Susanne, who returned for Sweden after a couple of months of field research here in Cambodia.

Goodbye lunch for Susanne at Intercontinental Hotel. From left; Dre, Johan, Susanne and me.

This coming week, another Swedish aquaintance is leaving after a two year mission here. In August, my Lithuanian friend Dre is leaving for Europe after some months of volunteer work at Ecpat here in Phnom Penh. And in December, my good friend Johan might move to Chiang Mai. As I said; a lot of goodbyes... At first, this might seem sad. And it is. I must say that I miss Susanne already, that I don´t like to think about that my wonderful friend Dre will leave quite soon, and that I for my own egoistic sake hope that Johan will be around also next year. But, at the same time, I´m adapting to these dynamic social relations. I´ve made some really good friends, and I hope for some more to come along in the future. My social network here in Phnom Penh is energetic, warm and supportive - good friends altogether. And the fact that people have already come and gone in and out of this network during the short time I´ve spent here, hasn´t changed this. So I´m kind of getting used to the fact that my network here will change and look different over time. And although I will miss the friends that are leaving, just as I miss you friends at home sometimes, I also appreciate the possibility of meeting so many new and interesting people, all of whom have their own stories to tell and experiences to share from all parts of the world... And together, for a shorter or longer time, we´re writing a joint story here in Phnom Penh. Which we´ll look back at sometime in the future, when the time has come for each and one of us to move on, leaving others behind...

Two of my good friends; Dre and Susanne, in a tuk-tuk.