Valentine's Day

Valentine's Day exists in Cambodia for one reason:

Valentine's Day exists in America. Cambodians try to keep up with the United States in many ways in culture, holidays, currency (they accept USD).

So, the word for boyfriend/girlfriend is "sungsah"
The literal translation: "Sweetheart." And they ask it like that, too, if they speak English (mostly the teenagers). "Do you have a sweetheart?"

Anyhow, selling roses is HUGE. They do it all over Phnom Penh; on street corners, in front of markets, in malls, everywhere! They sell roses for $1 or 4000 CR a piece. That sounds cheap, but it's really not. Anyhow, funny story about Valentine's Day and business smarts, a buddy of mine here, Greg, was trying to explain to his students how you can make more money by selling them for 3000 CR (or $0.75), and they would ask, "Why, Teacher? People will pay more money for roses on Valentine's Day. We should raise the price and make more money." He explained competition pricing to them, and it took awhile (he seemed to insinuate), but I think they got it. On a related note, a buddy of mine in a more southern province explaining how some vendors would purchase products from one seller and then sell them at their stall for exactly the same price. People don't have enough money in his village to afford to buy more than the one product, so using it as a ploy to purchase more things in the shop isn't what they're going for. Maybe we need some micro-finance business volunteers here. I'm applying to Fordham in a few years, so I'll happily be the first volunteer to do that (I'll just add it to my health responsibilities) and add that to my resume.

Oh, love in Cambodia:

Here is the time line:

-Find girlfriend/boyfriend
-Get engaged (within 6 months-1 year)
-Get married (within 6 months)
-Conceive children (within 1 day)
-Have more children (about every 9 months)

I say this all jokingly, but it's kind of true.

Talk to you soon,
Garrett