A question of hygiene...

After some more recent, and some longer-term experiences with Cambodians, I'm forced to conclude that hygiene is a subjective ideal--a state of mind rather than any specifically justifiable reality. To give you a sense of some of the contradictions:

1. On the one hand, Khmers would generally abstain from swimming in rivers or lakes which Westerners perceive as clean and suitable. On the other hand, they seem not to wash their towels more than once a year.
2. On the one hand, Khmers wipe down their eating utensils with paper napkins and drink only from straws because bottle/can rims can be dirty. On the other hand, they often eat lunch in the heat of the day from fly-infested pots of food that have been sitting out since near breakfast-time.
3. On the one hand, Khmers correctly believe that very hot frying sanitizes food. On the other hand, they don't seem to know that frying the same foods multiple times in old/rancid oil has other nasty consequences.
4. On the one hand, Khmers consider ice as a sanitary entity--to the extent that they mix it with their beer. On the other hand, their ice is made with melting-point-reducing chemicals and often shaved from blocks that have been transported around in the dust on dirty oxcart surfaces.
5. On the one hand, Khmers wake up every morning and spend a while sweeping their houses and patios. On the other hand, they tolerate exceedingly strong mildew odors in their living spaces and from their clothes.
6. On the one hand, Khmers are fastidious about showering and personal hygiene. On the other hand, they often install their leaky bathrooms adjacent to kitchens.
7. On the one hand, urban Khmers are careful to drink boiled water/tea or purified water. On the other hand, they swish their mouths out with tap water (more often than just after brushing their teeth).
   

Now, I don't posit from this that Westerners are lacking in such contradictions. My point here is that the conditions in a developing country means that some measures are taken for hygiene, while many other measures, for cost reasons, have to dealt with psychologically. Take the bathroom/kitchen example. Naturally, it costs less to install a water column in only one place in the house--so if you can share it between the kitchen and bathroom, you don't need to go through the extra expense of plumbing other areas. One can simply view the bathroom as a place of cleanliness and not as a dirty depository for human waste. Or take ice, which is perhaps even more demonstrative. If ice was transported in sanitary trucks, it would be more expensive--so it is easier to simply believe that freezing kills bacteria and that any bacteria that did get onto the ice during transport will be drained off as the ice melts before it is used. After biting into a few pebbles in my beer-on-the-rocks, I can assure you that hygiene here is more a matter of hope and belief than reality.

On a side note of a more grumbly nature--I realize that there is a spectrum in the construction industry ranging from minimalist and cheap to extravagant and expensive. But I swear, Khmer remodelings (and often new buildings) are constructed with a tree-house mentality. Wiring is done post-morten--which means ratty extension cords running everywhere. Thin particle-board walls are built without studs and matched with metal doorframes and solid-core doors. Hefty locks are fastened to wimpy and vulnerable chains. Sound-proof 8-inch thick cement side-walls are matched with hollow plastic-sheet ceiling material, to the effect that one hears everything going on at the neighbors place anyway. Nice faucets are matched with wobbly and ugly-blue plastic piping. Curtains are almost never installed--instead some jerry-rigged pulley system controls ugly plastic roller-out shades hanging in the patios. Nice glass panes are installed on metal frames that have no swing-control, to the effect that many people have at least one half-shattered glass door in their house somewhere. Nice stone thresholds are installed under doors that don't actually prevent the rain from coming in under the door. Mosquito nets are meticulously installed on all windows, but never on doorways, to the effect that bugs and fresh air are one in the same... anyway, the list could go on. Many of these things apply to houses I have lived in, but many are gleaned from houses that I have visited.