After getting up on Saturday morning, Shanti and trekked to a hardware store a few blocks away to get a hammer and four strands of white Christmas lights to decorate our apartment. In the store, they plugged the lights in to prove to use that they were working and we bought them for about $1 per strand.
Upon returning home, we strung the lights up around the family room/dining room (see the result here: http://good-times.webshots.com/photo/2187272930101814057HvbAWI). The first and second strands went up and worked without a problem. We put the third strand up and couldn't plug it in - the metal part of the prong was pushed back in to the plastic part that housed it. I used my pliers to pull it back out. Again, I couldn't plug it in. I tried a third time using my pliers (and wearing orange rubber gloves just in case). The lights worked! For a second... Then there was a few sparks from the plug and the power in the entire house went out.
We rushed downstairs to our "host family" to convey what had happened in an interesting mix of Khmer and English. Their driver/fixer/translator (who speaks a very little bit of English) came up and somehow was able to restore power. He then went back downstairs to return with a box of 8-mode colored Christmas lights. What Cambodian househould just has those things lying around?? Though we said we wanted what lights, he insisted that we keep them and informed us that $1 Christmas lights are "aht la-aw" (not good).
Upon returning home, we strung the lights up around the family room/dining room (see the result here: http://good-times.webshots.com/photo/2187272930101814057HvbAWI). The first and second strands went up and worked without a problem. We put the third strand up and couldn't plug it in - the metal part of the prong was pushed back in to the plastic part that housed it. I used my pliers to pull it back out. Again, I couldn't plug it in. I tried a third time using my pliers (and wearing orange rubber gloves just in case). The lights worked! For a second... Then there was a few sparks from the plug and the power in the entire house went out.
We rushed downstairs to our "host family" to convey what had happened in an interesting mix of Khmer and English. Their driver/fixer/translator (who speaks a very little bit of English) came up and somehow was able to restore power. He then went back downstairs to return with a box of 8-mode colored Christmas lights. What Cambodian househould just has those things lying around?? Though we said we wanted what lights, he insisted that we keep them and informed us that $1 Christmas lights are "aht la-aw" (not good).
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