Honey, They Made Me Do It

I can be kind of strait-laced. Rigid. Prudish. Go ahead and call me a total square.

Sitting down to dinner that very first night in Cambodia, everybody ordered a beer. So I thought, why not? And ordered myself one, too. Angkor beer, made locally. Tasty.

Then the second night, everyone ordered a beer, and I thought, oh, sure. What the heck.

Now, a word about alcohol: I hardly ever drink. Dale doesn’t drink (as in at all), so therefore I rarely do either. Every once in a while I may order a glass of wine if we go out to dinner, but I never have a second.

So anyway, on the third night at dinner, Jim ordered beer for everyone. Without taking a moment to think about how dorky I would sound, I said loud enough for anyone within 25 feet to hear, “I can’t drink beer THREE NIGHTS IN A ROW! I never drink this much at home!” and Jim says, “Yeah, and you’re not at home. Now have a beer!”

So I did. And soon it became kind of a fun habit. I drank every single day I spent in Cambodia. We’d work our asses off in the clinic, then come back to the hotel physically and emotionally exhausted, sweaty after long days spent in those stiff, red, plastic, chairs. Sitting down to a cold beer became a nice way to unwind after all of that hard work.

Then sometimes I’d really let my hair down and pre-funciton with wine in Dave and Pat’s room before going down to dinner. How does that old saying go? When in Rome, do as the Romans do?

The irony is kind of funny, you’ve go to admit. Who serves a mission and goes on an alcohol binge all in one trip?

On our drive from Sisophon up to Siem Reap towards the end of the trip, Dave was all “I brought beer and pop. Anyone want anything?”

“I’ll have a beer,” I said. There’s no such thing as an open container law in Cambodia. Come to think of it, are there laws at all in Cambodia?

So I am sitting there, minding my own business with my beer, watching the Cambodia countryside go by, when Jim grabs my camera and starts taking my picture.

I’m all, “What?”
“You’re drinking a beer.”
“So?”
“So it’s 10:00 in the morning.”