Independence Day

In a semi-sleep I am aware it has been raining since 3:00am. We are supposedly coming up on the end of the wet season, but some days this hardly seems possible. The weather has changed since we arrived in September; the days then were unbearably humid, and the storms frequent and spectacular. There is less humidity now and the rain more infrequent, but still two or three times a week the skies just open up and the rain comes down in sheets. Two nights ago Sandra reported peddling her bike home in a foot of water (the curbs that delineate the mixed functional sidewalks can be nearly a third of a metre high). It is now 5:30am and Dara is knocking on our door: can she borrow our umbrella? We haven’t had it since Kampong Cham. It is Sunday, but it is also Independence Day, and all the school children are heading off to school in the pre-dawn rain (Cambodians, I notice, love to do things in the pre-dawn). From school they will head to the Independence Monument, which is quite near us, to celebrate. At a more civil hour, after coffee, we are about to set off to the monument ourselves, when Dara arrives home. She informs us events are still underway so off we go. The monument is all but deserted, though the streets are still cordoned off. As the monument stands in a busy traffic circle this is an opportunity to cross beyond it and head to the river (something we have not yet done). Returning from our inspection of the Riverfest preparations, we find ourselves in the midst of a parade, complete with floats, marching bands, and squadrons of sailors, soldiers, bankers, surveyors, agronomists, and any other group that could be organized into a uniformed square of marchers or perched on a float. Expectantly we await the final float. How do you mark independence? Parades in Canada end with Santa Claus, the Easter Bunny, the Grand Marshall of Oktoberfest, and other dignitaries of that sort. The final float, while not the biggest or most imaginative, has the largest contingent of marchers and is met with the most sustained cheering. It is the CMAC, the group dedicated to removing land mines from the Cambodian jungle and rural farmlands. It is followed by group after group of uniformed workers outfitted with a staggering array of detective equipment, electronic and canine.