Guy For That

Last year, Post Malone released his new country album (to which I listened to its entirety with my host siblings). I would even say my host siblings have come to like the country album (my host brother titled “I Had Some Help”-Post Malone and Morgan Wallen- as “Ohpamasay” because that is the sound of the words to him). There is another song on the album, featuring Luke Combs, called “Guy For That”. The song is about how they have a person in town who can do just about everything and anything, but they don’t have a “guy” to build a relationship back. Anyways…. I catch myself singing that song in my town a lot because I really feel like I “got a guy” for everything! 

My best friend at site

I know the song in Post Malone’s album is set in America, and so there are for sure settings in the US that also are when you “got a guy” for everything, however, this is the first time I have experienced that in my life. In Cambodia, if I need something, I usually do not ask “where do I buy it” like a location, but instead “who do I buy it from”. Usually if you need something, you go to the seller who is either your friend or you know them through a connection. For example, my market has many clothes sellers, beauty sellers, laundry detergent, pillows, fabric, anything you can imagine, sellers. But the seller that I go to get my face wash and my moisturizer is the wife of a teacher at my school (whose daughter I also sometimes babysit while I work in the office). Out of the at least 10 sellers in the market, I go to her because I know her (and also follow her on Facebook to see when she has a new shipment of stuff come in). The same goes for the sellers that I frequent the most, I have built personal relationships with them to where we are not strangers but like friends. I buy fried bananas from the same family that runs the shop out of their house. One day I was bored and so I made them a sign for their shop as a way to thank them for always being nice. Every time I see them we chit chat with each other before I go home. Same now with where I get coffee. I frequent a couple places but the place I go every day now is the coffee stand of my best friend in town. I started going to her stand when I first got to my town, and because I would go everyday, we slowly started to talk to each other. Now I go there almost everyday to hang out and talk with her and sometimes on the weekends we go on day trips together with her family. (She also is the person I practice my Khmer the most with, and is also truly my best friend in my town- when I went back to the US she called me everyday to see how I was). We chat on Facebook all the time and also if I have a big order, I always message her on Facebook first. 

Speaking of Facebook, that is information #2 about how you can buy stuff. On my Facebook (which is the most widely used social media platform in Cambodia, even for young people), my Facebook is flooded for advertisements of someone selling shoes, fabric, clothes, skincare, perfume, you name it they have it. Sometimes, local sellers, like my co-teacher’s wife, will post on her story when she has new shipments. But also, a lot of Facebook posts are from sellers across the country who sell online. If you want something, you send them a DM on Facebook (or instagram if it is on an instagram account). They will tell you if they have what you want in stock and then all you do is scan their QR code to pay them and you tell them your shipping post pick up point (think of it like a PO Box at a post office) and you will get your item in 1-2 business days. Yes, this could lead to internet scams which we know are all too prominent in our lives, however this is also how you find some good sellers for products you need. So far I have gotten a flower cosmetic bag, perfume, a claw clip with my name engraved on it, fabric to make fancy clothes, and 5 pairs of shoes. I know that’s a lot, but especially with the shoes, I have found a seller that I trust and they have my shoe size (which makes it very difficult to find large sized shoes in my Cambodian markets). Besides some random food items that I miss from the US (aka cheese!), I have pretty much everything at my finger tips. 

Point #3: when making bookings for things, you usually do it over chat: Facebook Messenger, WhatsApp, etc. When family come to visit, I always say “oh don’t worry I got a guy” to take us from point A to point B or to take us on a tour. I have the phone number of the taxi driver to take me from my town to Siem Reap (who happens to be the father of one of my students). I have a phone number of two people to set up tours with in Siem Reap. I have the same tour company I use in Battambang. 

It is safe to say that the small town vibe described in Post Malone’s song is something that has lead to meeting wonderful people and having great connections. 

a video I made for my friend at her shop