Day Three
We met this extremely engaging tuk-tuk driver called Thyneon, who was evicted last year from one of the central squatter settlement flanking the insanity of that Vann Molyvan White Building. He and his young family were moved to a new settlement an hour’s drive outside of town - a place the government decided to call “Peace City 1” (more Peace Cities coming right up). It is a desolate, sandy, construction site with smatterings tin-roofed houses dotted across the dusty landscape.
Thyneon took us there in his tuk-tuk, a long and bumpy ride which he now makes twice daily to get into the city and earn some cash. We discussed his situation and our project with him for a couple of hours, and then he shot a short film with our zippy Kodak test model.
We rode to his mother-in-laws house a few dusty blocks away, and passed by a market which was half empty and the abject opposite of bustling. Thyneon’s family-in-law runs a candy stall, and they explained that although they prefer living without the threat of slum fires, away from the dirt and chaos of the centre, it is impossible to make a decent living in this new town-to-be as there is no population - and no money.
Thyneon took us back to PP where we hopped on our motos and zoomed to Boeung Kak. We met a super charming lady called Lina, and her amazingly badass father. They heard about our project a few weeks back (courtesy of the lovely Smey) and she was really keen to participate. But scared to hell of the authorities. So we need to sort out that pesky permission again before going any further. Tomorrow: MISSION PERMISSION!
