Porridge With Black Pepper Meals In Praksandai

By Mohd Hisham Abdul Rafar

PHNOM PENH, Jan 13 (Bernama) - The Muslim village of Praksandai in Kratie, located some five hours drive from here, depicts that development is much sought after in this deprived region.

The dirt-filled laterite roads, bare-footed and disheveled villagers garbed in disheveled clothing coupled with the existence of jungles as well as barren paddy fields bear testimony to the paucity of development.

This comes to no surprise, as some 80 per cent of the 500 villagers in Praksandai are farmers with the rest being fishermen and livestock breeders.

Most of the rice from the paddy harvested in Praksandai is not sold elsewhere except for consumption in the settlement itself.

BAMBOO FLOOR, PALM ROOF

Many of the villagers have to be contented with living in shanty dwellings with the floor made of bamboo stems and roof of thatched palm leaves.

This is a luxury to some, as they have to resort to sleeping under their stilt-propped huts.

All of the village's dwellings were built on stilts that measure about 1.8 metres to escape the frequent floods as the settlement lies close to the Mekong River.

Praksandai lacks electricity and treated water supply and it is normal for the villagers to keep huge drums of water at their home. They also depend on the river for drinking water to bathe, cook and wash their laundry.

All of the dwellings depend on the generator for power supply and this machine is switched on for several hours from sunset. For the surau in the settlement, the villagers use car batteries to switch on the electric lamps and loudspeaker for the Azan call.

To move around, most of the villagers ride motorcycles bearing no registration number those who have four-wheelers like pick-ups, they would use these vehicles to ferry others for a fee.

If there were no more seats available, the passengers would either sit atop the vehicles. I this village, there is scant attention on the earing of crash helmets despite the presence of several shops in Kratie that sell this safety gear.

HIGH FUEL PRICE

If the Malaysian perception that the price of petrol at RM1.80 a litre is still expensive, then they should be thankful as the fuel is sold up to RM4 a litre in Cambodia.

For those who stay far away from the towns that have petrol stations, they have to depend on the fuel that is sold in 2.5-litre Coke bottle which means RM8 per litre.

Apart from gasoline, other goods are expensive in this country. A notable example is chicken where it fetches a price of RM18 a kg.

As paddy-growing is their only means of livelihood apart from fishing and livestock rearing, the villagers like those in this Kratie village have very low and limited spending clout.

PORRIDGE

Despite the staple food in this settlement being rice, Praksandai villagers consume this food unlike what Malaysians and others prefer to do, that is eat the rice with various vegetables and meats.

Instead, the residents in Praksandai eat their 'rice' in the form of porridge plus sauce and black pepper. There are no fried noodles and bread but surprisingly, there is beef satay.

For the Muslim community in Praksandai, having breakfast at the shop is a must and as early as 6am the local time (7am in Malaysian), the villagers including women and children would be seen squatting at the shops consuming their food.

MALAYSIAN FOOD

Recently, Yayasan Salam Malaysia (Salam) and Malaysian Association of Youth Clubs (MAYC) made a goodwill visit here.

During this trip, the Malaysian visitors cooked for the villagers who gave them a warm welcome.

A trustee for Salam, Datuk Ahmad A. Talib who led the visit said the Cambodian community liked the Malaysian dishes.

"We invited their womenfolk to learn how to prepare rice-based dish. They would not know anything on meat dishes,"he said.

There were news reports that the Cambodian Muslims are so poor and they only have the opportunity to consume beef only once a year. That is only during the Aidil Adha celebration where livestock is slaughtered during the Qurban ritual.

Meanwhile, Kedah MAYC Veteran president Fazilah Ismail said more of such goodwill visits should be held.

"We want to teach the housewives (in Praksandai) on how to cook Malaysian-style. Furthermore to get halal food here is difficult and we hope this Muslim settlement be a one-stop-centre for tourists and this would boost their economy", he said.

-- BERNAMA