Most people might never consider the fact that being 'clean' is a culturally defined concept (its different in different places). Hmmm, you say, what do you mean by that? Well, here's a good example from our home-stay!
It was probably our third evening with our family, around dinner time, and it was a bit unusual that we weren't in the process of fixing the evening meal, but we just assumed that at some point we'd prepare the food. Chris, Aiden and I were relaxing under the house when 'mom' and 'dad' got up and went inside the house. When they came back out, both of them had wet hair and a new set of clothes on. In a very polite way 'dad' said to Chris, "For you, how many times a day do you take a bath?" Chris responded that we usually bathe twice a day - once in the morning and then again in the evening. "Hmmm, " 'dad' says, "I take AT LEAST 3 baths a day, and sometimes even 4 or 5." This was his very Asian and indirect way of telling us that we needed to bathe more often during the day! He was correcting our behavior. They then proceeded to take us to an important church meeting....and I'm positive we were the only ones who hadn't bathed before we got there!
As we observed them more and more we realized that they did, in fact take 4 or 5 baths a day. We had never picked up on it before as they would simply disappear for a little bit and then come back with a slightly wet shirt, which we would attribute to them being a little sweaty. To help us change our behavior 'mom' would remind us at least 3 times through the day to go and "ngoot tuk" or take a bath. Taking this many baths a day is a way of not only keeping our bodies clean and smelling nice (especially now that its HOT season) its a way to keep your body cool in the heat of the day.
In contrast, Chris and I weren't too concerned with how sticky our skin was (we figure its just a part of living in Cambodia!), but we were pretty particular about keeping our room clean. Each day we would sweep and mop the floor. For us, and many other foreigners, keeping the floor clean is a big part of life here....if you don't sweep and mom your floor daily the amount of dirt and dust that collects is amazing! Your feet quickly turn brownish black on bottom and if you get them even slightly wet you leave muddy footprints everywhere! But, for many Khmer it is not too important to have clean floors. During our two weeks at home-stay, the floor on the inside of the house was mopped only one time. Cobwebs are left hanging and dust collects on the walls, on picture frames and cabinets around the house.
We all look at things differently...part is cultural, part is personality and personal preference. This is just one example of the things we are learning about everyday life here. Though we will never be Khmer, we can work to learn as much about their way of life and thinking as possible so that we can take down as many barriers between us as possible.
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