Welcome to the Women s International Group coffee morning. Tan is the hostess, and she works the room making sure no one is alone for too long. We have fun. We do charity work, and we support each other, she says. Some of the women, when they come here, they are so depressed and bored.
Women really come together.
It s wonderful. Forty-five minutes into the shopping and schmoozing session, she stands in the middle of the room surrounded by five women and announces loudly, Sunday lunch. There is a hint of uncertainty in her voice, but no uncertainty in her friends who nod affirmatively to each other. Tan, like many expatriate women in Cambodia, is enjoying the good life. A retired businesswoman from California, she is living a life filled with socials, charity work, beauty treatments, servants and shopping.