Cambodia, Phnom Pehn, Boeng Kak Lake area,
23-02-2010.
The mosque at the end of the Boeng Kak Lake Area was already under renovation three years ago, today I saw some local construction workers knock down a wall...I don`t believe much more of this so-called renovation work has been done since my first stay.
Still this pinkish-colored mosque does make a nice addition to my sketchbook - under renovation or not....
"hey mon, that is really great what you are doing there", being transported back from the drawing world into the present reality of Phnom Pehn, I look up into a friendly African face, sharply dressed and flawless English though with a strong Western African accent...his whole bearing and behaviour, his friendly voice and smiling eyes, in fact all about this bloke brings me back to the nineties in Bangkok when sharply but trying hard to look casual dressed Africans swarmed all over the Bangkok tourist district...I remember often seeing them back in pictures in the bankok Post on page two, handcuffed with their heads bowed down and in front of a table loaded with platic bags containing 20 to 40 years imprisonment in Bangkok's finest hotel...
I decide to go on the offensive rather that on the defense showing this friendly chap the paintings I made of African women in my house in Amsterdam - nothing like modern technology coming out of a digital camara - asking him about his roots and what he is doing in Phnom Pehn, "are you some sort of investor, looking for business opportunities, my friend"....
I tell him about all my Africans friends back in Thailand's capital, staying in first class accomodation courtesy of King Bhumipol's Asian realm, not about to leave that Asian nation anytime soon due to typical Thai hospitality...
My new friend doesn't take well to my obvious sarcasm telling me these are all stupid Ghanese people, "me from Nigeria, is not the same" before leaving me to my sketchbook...too bad because I would have really liked to have an African face in my sketchbook!!!
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