These past two weeks have been a little harder than most. The range of emotions I experience from day to day (hour to hour, really) are kaleidoscopic at best- there are peaks of joy and pits of helplessness as I learn more and more about my role as a volunteer in my village. Its tiring, to say the least. Much of this is due to the fact that everyday I seem to discover some new area where I see that the problems my community is facing are structural in nature, and that I can’t really do all that much to motivate change because its just not possible at this time. However, the peaks of joy come often and in such completely unexpected ways that it makes my service completely worth it. I’d like to share some of those in this public forum, and if you want to know about the structural problems my community faces, feel free to email me. I just prefer to keep this particular forum full of the positive experiences I have because sometimes I need to remind myself that the positive interactions I have far outweigh the negative or frustrating ones.
About a month ago I got pretty ill. I had a fever and a sinus infection- the works. I called my co teachers to apologize and let them know I wouldn’t be in class and to please teach without me. I immediately received text messages encouraging me to rest and drink a lot of hot water. A few hours later, my little brother was knocking on my door telling me there was someone downstairs to see me. Confused, I walked downstairs to see one of my co teachers with a bag of oranges waiting for me. I sat down (in my pajamas no less…), and he handed over the oranges with instructions to eat them right away because they have vitamins in them that will make me well. He also caught me up on what I missed that day in class, and offered to translate for me if I wanted to go see a doctor. After he left, I went back upstairs with my oranges and felt so blessed to know in such a tangible way that people care about me. About an hour later, I heard a strange male voice yelling my name from downstairs so I walked out my door to see my School Director bounding up the stairs with a bag of fruit in his hands. Now, you have to understand that this is an intimidating man who until that day had only seen me in sampots and collared shirts, and had only made small talk with me (very small, actually, since he doesn’t speak English) and here he is chatting away with me about what I need to do to get better and handing over fruit while I am sitting across from him in my pajamas. I couldn’t believe it. Just the idea that these two men would take the time out of their extremely busy days to come to my house and check up on me to make sure I was alright and didn’t need anything was incredible. Later that evening while I was eating some rice porridge my grandma made for me, she asked me if I missed my mom when I was sick. I said yes, and she said, “You tell your mother when she calls that I am taking care of you and I love you like a child and nothing will happen to you while I am looking after you” (or something to that effect…). I think the amount of love and care I was shown on that one day will be something that will help me get through some of the most difficult days of my service.
Now for another story of Katie and her misadventures with Cambodian animals:
Last Saturday morning I came downstairs to hang out with my grandma and help cook lunch (a two hour affair). My grandma looks at me and says what sounds to me like “blahblahblah foot blahblahblah shoe blahblah dog”. I can hardly ever understand what my grandma says because she has a really thick accent and talks really fast. I think, “huh, that’s weird. Why is my grandma talking about feet and dogs?” Then she changes the subject. About twenty minutes later my grandpa comes out holding one of my Chacos (a sort of all-purpose sandal that you can hike in, and, coincidently one of three pairs of shoes I own here) and says slowly in Khmer, “A dog stole your shoe this morning!”. I try not to acknowledge this and immediately begin my hunt for the lost Chaco. The shoe could have been anywhere, there is no such thing as a fenced-in dog in my community. After about half an hour I give up my pursuit on foot and am about to continue on bike trying to find the dog that fit my grandma’s description of “a large fat black dog” when my grandma says, “don’t leave, we will send out Sal to go look for the shoe”. Sal is the oldest of my little brothers, he is 15 and I could think of a million better things that he could do with his morning than look for the foreigner’s shoe, but despite my protests my grandma sent him on a hunt. Then she proceeds to yell at any passing boy she knew from the neighborhood that my shoe was missing and that they should look for it too. I told her to call of the shoe-hunt, and that I would find it eventually. She wouldn’t hear any of it, and wouldn’t even allow me to go look for it for myself. About twenty minutes later, one of the neighbor boys saunters up to the cooking hut with my lost Chaco saying the dog had dumped it behind his house. I thanked him about thirty times, and then went out to find the rest of the neighborhood boys and call off the hunt holding my lost-now-found Chaco in triumph.
A quick story about Sal:
Sal and his brothers (Nutt- 12, and Pia-7) were pretty shy around me when I first showed up at the house. A few days after I arrived about three months ago, Sal asked me if I would teach him English. I said of course, and then he asked me if I had a whiteboard. I didn’t, and he nodded and then didn’t bring it up again. Then, about a month ago, Sal wanders into the house with a small whiteboard and hangs it in the common area in the upstairs of the house. He shyly asks again if I will start teaching him English now that he has a whiteboard. I agree immediately. Later that afternoon my grandma told me that he had saved up for the whiteboard, and that cost him almost $10. That is a LOT of money in Cambodia, especially for a 15 year old boy. I was blown away- I had no idea he was that committed to learning. Now, I teach him and his friend Pisey English about five days a week in the early evenings after dinner. No matter how tired I am, teaching them is the highlight of my day just because they are extremely bright and very clearly want to learn.
Saturday, December 12, 2009
Thursday, November 26, 2009
Advice from Cambodian Teenagers
This past week was exam week at the high school. My co-teachers and I wrote tests for each of our classes trying to figure out fair ways to assess the students. The following sentences are pearls of wisdom from my students in Grade 11A in response to the directions "Write five sentences using 'must' or 'must not'".
On Love:
-You must die for me.
-I must not love you. [There were many variations of this sentence using different pronouns. So dramatic!]
-She mustn't betray me.
On School Etiquette:
-I must study English for my family and for myself. [This one warmed my heart a little]
-Whole teacher must not smoke in the classroom. [I agree?]
-Students mustn't drink wine at school.
On Social Etiquette:
-She mustn't kill the dog. [If you ever studied linguistics, this sentence should seem eerily familiar... and no, I didn't solicit it]
-You must not hit my kid.
The Best for Last:
-He mustn't destroy bush. [???? I don't even know how 'bush' was being used in the sentence, but it was both grammatically (almost) correct and hilarious]
-I must do PP next week. [hehehehehe... oh my sense of humor is that of a five year-old. Oh, and PP is short for Phnom Penh]
11A has 65 students in it, but they are my best and brightest. They are the only class so far that after 6 weeks of teaching don't still stare at me like I have snakes growing out of my head (oh that wide-eyed look of terror!).
Happy Thanksgiving yall!
On Love:
-You must die for me.
-I must not love you. [There were many variations of this sentence using different pronouns. So dramatic!]
-She mustn't betray me.
On School Etiquette:
-I must study English for my family and for myself. [This one warmed my heart a little]
-Whole teacher must not smoke in the classroom. [I agree?]
-Students mustn't drink wine at school.
On Social Etiquette:
-She mustn't kill the dog. [If you ever studied linguistics, this sentence should seem eerily familiar... and no, I didn't solicit it]
-You must not hit my kid.
The Best for Last:
-He mustn't destroy bush. [???? I don't even know how 'bush' was being used in the sentence, but it was both grammatically (almost) correct and hilarious]
-I must do PP next week. [hehehehehe... oh my sense of humor is that of a five year-old. Oh, and PP is short for Phnom Penh]
11A has 65 students in it, but they are my best and brightest. They are the only class so far that after 6 weeks of teaching don't still stare at me like I have snakes growing out of my head (oh that wide-eyed look of terror!).
Happy Thanksgiving yall!
Saturday, November 14, 2009
Katie vs. The Chicken
Every so often I do something so incredibly embarassing that I think "oh man, the whole village is going to know about this by tomorrow":
My family has recently moved their chicken coop from the front of the house to the back. This has resulted in mass confusion on behalf of the chickens, and never-ending frustration for my older brother who has to round up said confused chickens every evening and hand-place them in the newer, rennovated chicken coop behind the house. I had just gotten home after a very long day at school to witness this chicken rodeo of sorts for the fourth day in a row. I headed towards the cooking hut to eat dinner, still wearing my long sampot, when all of a sudden, a terrified chicken in a last ditch effort to avoid being plucked up by my older brother who, to the chicken, could surely be up to no good, decided my sampot was a GREAT place hide.
Awesome.
I was not expecting this, to say the least. After all, hiding in the foreginer's sampot seems too savy of an idea for a chicken. Not so! I screamed, the chicken squaked as loud as possible, and then I jumped about three feet in the air. My entire family watched the whole thing unfold, and immediately after the chicken ran off, they burst into never-ending peals of laughter. Now, a week later, my little brother Nutt still references it whenever he sees me and then chuckles to himself. All I can say is that chicken better hide from me, because I am going to drop hints to my grandma as soon as I get back home that I'd really like a nice chicken dinner...
My family has recently moved their chicken coop from the front of the house to the back. This has resulted in mass confusion on behalf of the chickens, and never-ending frustration for my older brother who has to round up said confused chickens every evening and hand-place them in the newer, rennovated chicken coop behind the house. I had just gotten home after a very long day at school to witness this chicken rodeo of sorts for the fourth day in a row. I headed towards the cooking hut to eat dinner, still wearing my long sampot, when all of a sudden, a terrified chicken in a last ditch effort to avoid being plucked up by my older brother who, to the chicken, could surely be up to no good, decided my sampot was a GREAT place hide.
Awesome.
I was not expecting this, to say the least. After all, hiding in the foreginer's sampot seems too savy of an idea for a chicken. Not so! I screamed, the chicken squaked as loud as possible, and then I jumped about three feet in the air. My entire family watched the whole thing unfold, and immediately after the chicken ran off, they burst into never-ending peals of laughter. Now, a week later, my little brother Nutt still references it whenever he sees me and then chuckles to himself. All I can say is that chicken better hide from me, because I am going to drop hints to my grandma as soon as I get back home that I'd really like a nice chicken dinner...
Friday, November 13, 2009
FAQs and rice. So much rice.
I meet new people in my village everyday, and they always ask me to sit with them and talk. I gladly comply because I want to make as many friends as possible in my village. I get asked the same questions over and over again. This is great for me, becuase it has made my Khmer so much better by hearing the same questions from different speakers, as well as being able to formulate answers more rapidly. I thought id list them off in order of frequency and importance to the asker, because a lot of them are questions that wouldn't get asked back home, at least not when you first meet someone.
1. Where are you from?
2. How old are you?
3. Are you married?/Do you have chlidren?
4. Why aren't you married?/Why don't you have children?
5. Do you have a boyfriend here in Cambodia/back at home?
*note* question number five is generally only asked by women, and only in the company of other women.
10. How much money do you make per month [here in Cambodia]?
*note* this question is ALWAYS asked- without exception. when I respond that I dont make money because I am a volunteer, most people are completely shocked.
11. How much money do you/your family make [back in America]?
12. Do you eat rice back home in America? Do you eat Khmer food/do you like it?
If you will notice, questions about family come first- always. Family is hands down the most important thing in Khmer society, and it shows. Many women in my village almost look at me with pity when I tell them that I am not married and don't have children. Most women in my village are married by 18 or 19 and have children almost immediately after marriage, and having many relatives living together is preferable to any other living arrangement. Most of my Khmer friends all have at least five siblings- when they find out I only have one brother they ask me if it makes me sad. When I asked them why it would make me sad, they said because having many siblings is better because you always have someone around to spend time with. The communal nature of families here is so interesting. Most families in my village all sleep in the same room of the house even if there are multiple rooms in the house just because its considered happier to have the physical proximity of everyone together. Needless to say, my family had a difficult time adjusting to the idea of my need for 'alone time' and wanting to do individualistic activities like reading or painting or drawing, but after a few attempts at trying to explain that its just a different way of relaxing (trying to explain cultural subdlties in Khmer isn't quite my strong suit just yet...) my family got the idea.
The questions about my job and salary are fine, but my favorite questions are the ones about rice and how often I eat it. Rice is yet something else that permeiates every inch of Cambodian life. It seems that every single person in my community has a rice field, or has a stake in a rice mill, or sells rice or a rice by-product of some kind. People eat rice at every meal, they feed uncooked rice to their chickens, and they feed the leftover cooked rice along with leftover food to their dogs and cats. I have to admit, my favorite chore at home is feeding the dog. I take a bowl of left-over rice, add some leftover meat or sauce from a meat dish, mix it all together and call the dog to dinner with a clicking noise that is the universal dog-call here. Anyway, people always ask me if I eat rice back home in America, and when I respond that I might eat rice once or twice a week in America, the looks of surpirse do me in everytime. They ask "Well, what do you eat instead? Bread?" and I say sometimes.... but its difficult to try to explain that American food is really just food from all over the world that gets adapted over and over again. Maybe I should print some pictures of western food and show them to people.
For now, I eat my three bowls of rice everyday (one at every meal) and try to not think about my cravings for western food. Speaking of food, Thanksgiving is coming up- and my next trip into the provincial town after this one. I can't wait to eat turkey and watch football!
1. Where are you from?
2. How old are you?
3. Are you married?/Do you have chlidren?
4. Why aren't you married?/Why don't you have children?
5. Do you have a boyfriend here in Cambodia/back at home?
*note* question number five is generally only asked by women, and only in the company of other women.
6. How many siblings do you have [back home in America]?
7. What do your parents do [back in America]?
8. Are you homesick/Do you miss your family?
9. What do you do?10. How much money do you make per month [here in Cambodia]?
*note* this question is ALWAYS asked- without exception. when I respond that I dont make money because I am a volunteer, most people are completely shocked.
11. How much money do you/your family make [back in America]?
12. Do you eat rice back home in America? Do you eat Khmer food/do you like it?
If you will notice, questions about family come first- always. Family is hands down the most important thing in Khmer society, and it shows. Many women in my village almost look at me with pity when I tell them that I am not married and don't have children. Most women in my village are married by 18 or 19 and have children almost immediately after marriage, and having many relatives living together is preferable to any other living arrangement. Most of my Khmer friends all have at least five siblings- when they find out I only have one brother they ask me if it makes me sad. When I asked them why it would make me sad, they said because having many siblings is better because you always have someone around to spend time with. The communal nature of families here is so interesting. Most families in my village all sleep in the same room of the house even if there are multiple rooms in the house just because its considered happier to have the physical proximity of everyone together. Needless to say, my family had a difficult time adjusting to the idea of my need for 'alone time' and wanting to do individualistic activities like reading or painting or drawing, but after a few attempts at trying to explain that its just a different way of relaxing (trying to explain cultural subdlties in Khmer isn't quite my strong suit just yet...) my family got the idea.
The questions about my job and salary are fine, but my favorite questions are the ones about rice and how often I eat it. Rice is yet something else that permeiates every inch of Cambodian life. It seems that every single person in my community has a rice field, or has a stake in a rice mill, or sells rice or a rice by-product of some kind. People eat rice at every meal, they feed uncooked rice to their chickens, and they feed the leftover cooked rice along with leftover food to their dogs and cats. I have to admit, my favorite chore at home is feeding the dog. I take a bowl of left-over rice, add some leftover meat or sauce from a meat dish, mix it all together and call the dog to dinner with a clicking noise that is the universal dog-call here. Anyway, people always ask me if I eat rice back home in America, and when I respond that I might eat rice once or twice a week in America, the looks of surpirse do me in everytime. They ask "Well, what do you eat instead? Bread?" and I say sometimes.... but its difficult to try to explain that American food is really just food from all over the world that gets adapted over and over again. Maybe I should print some pictures of western food and show them to people.
For now, I eat my three bowls of rice everyday (one at every meal) and try to not think about my cravings for western food. Speaking of food, Thanksgiving is coming up- and my next trip into the provincial town after this one. I can't wait to eat turkey and watch football!
Saturday, October 31, 2009
adjustments
Im in town again- my school is on holiday for three days this week because of 'bon om duk' which means water festival in Khmer. So far over my three day vacation in the provincial town I have repeatedly stuffed myself full of western food, hung out with other PCVs, celebrated Halloween by watching scary movies on tv and eating snake from a road side stand (our plan was to eat spiders, but they were out), and gotten a manicure. When I was getting the manicure I asked the girl who was doing it to choose my color for me because I was curious what the outcome would be... Now I have what I have deemed 'Barbie Nails'. My finger nails are painted a bright pink covered in silver sparkles. Im pretty sure the glint can be seen from miles away.
I have gotten pretty good at getting reliable transportation to and from my site- Basically I stand at a crossroads in my town until a sturdy looking pickup truck rolls along. I ask if its going to my provincial town, hop in the back, and hope for the best. The ride in/back only costs the equivalent of a dollar, but at one point on one of my journies I was sandwiched in between a fruit seller's daily quota of pinapples, three Khmer women going to town, and four sacks of rice for about an hour of the journey. Cheap? Yes. Dangerous? Not really- unless the pinapples go air-borne. Beautiful? Of course: I get full 360 degree views of the jungle and rice fields surrounding my village. Dusty and hot? Very. However, it allows me ample opportunity to get to know people in my community on the two hour ride to or from my site. When I get to the taxi stand in my provincial town which no foriegners ever go to, all the men driving the taxis know exactly who I am and start shouting the name of my town and pointing to the pickup trucks headed back to my site. All of this, after only five weeks of living in my village.
Back in the village I have finally settled down into a good routine, which has made my adjustment to life there infinitely easier. My daily schedule generally looks something like this:
6am: Get up, boil water, drink coffee in bed
7am: grab some stall-food from my vendor lady friends for breakfast and bike to school
7-11am: teach class/ sit in the teacher's lounge and talk with the teachers
11am: eat lunch with my host grandma and grandpa
11:30-1/2pm: rest because its hot as hell outside, generally this is when I lesson plan for the next day's classes or read books
2 pm-5pm: more teaching/talking with teachers
5pm-6pm: teach English to some of my teachers who want to learn basic conversational English
6pm: dinner with the fam
6:30 pm: "shower"(bucket shower with rain water)
6:45 pm: under the mosquito net in bed to read books and/or listen to music till I fall asleep around 8 or 9.
Its pretty shockingly different from the schedule I was following before I left the United States, but so far Im pretty content with it. This schedule changes on the weekends and on Tuesdays when I work at the health center, but for the most part this is about it. Its feels really good to finally be teaching, and to be busy.
I am running out of ideas to write about, so if yall have any questions feel free to email me or post them in comments and Ill address them the next time I have internet access. Please let me know, and ill try my best to tell you!
As always, I hope everyone is doing well out there. Much love.
-k
I have gotten pretty good at getting reliable transportation to and from my site- Basically I stand at a crossroads in my town until a sturdy looking pickup truck rolls along. I ask if its going to my provincial town, hop in the back, and hope for the best. The ride in/back only costs the equivalent of a dollar, but at one point on one of my journies I was sandwiched in between a fruit seller's daily quota of pinapples, three Khmer women going to town, and four sacks of rice for about an hour of the journey. Cheap? Yes. Dangerous? Not really- unless the pinapples go air-borne. Beautiful? Of course: I get full 360 degree views of the jungle and rice fields surrounding my village. Dusty and hot? Very. However, it allows me ample opportunity to get to know people in my community on the two hour ride to or from my site. When I get to the taxi stand in my provincial town which no foriegners ever go to, all the men driving the taxis know exactly who I am and start shouting the name of my town and pointing to the pickup trucks headed back to my site. All of this, after only five weeks of living in my village.
Back in the village I have finally settled down into a good routine, which has made my adjustment to life there infinitely easier. My daily schedule generally looks something like this:
6am: Get up, boil water, drink coffee in bed
7am: grab some stall-food from my vendor lady friends for breakfast and bike to school
7-11am: teach class/ sit in the teacher's lounge and talk with the teachers
11am: eat lunch with my host grandma and grandpa
11:30-1/2pm: rest because its hot as hell outside, generally this is when I lesson plan for the next day's classes or read books
2 pm-5pm: more teaching/talking with teachers
5pm-6pm: teach English to some of my teachers who want to learn basic conversational English
6pm: dinner with the fam
6:30 pm: "shower"(bucket shower with rain water)
6:45 pm: under the mosquito net in bed to read books and/or listen to music till I fall asleep around 8 or 9.
Its pretty shockingly different from the schedule I was following before I left the United States, but so far Im pretty content with it. This schedule changes on the weekends and on Tuesdays when I work at the health center, but for the most part this is about it. Its feels really good to finally be teaching, and to be busy.
I am running out of ideas to write about, so if yall have any questions feel free to email me or post them in comments and Ill address them the next time I have internet access. Please let me know, and ill try my best to tell you!
As always, I hope everyone is doing well out there. Much love.
-k
Saturday, October 24, 2009
the saga of a seven year old at dinner time
My youngest host brother, Pia, is seven. He loves to ride his bike around town, play games with his friends, and reap havoc everywhere he goes. To prove that seven year olds are the same no matter where you are I will [roughly] translate a conversation that takes place at least three times a week under the cooking hut where we eat dinner between Pia and my host grandmother:
Grandma: [yelling across the street] Pia! Its time to eat!
Pia: I'm not hungry!
Grandma: Pia! Get over here! The rice is getting cold!
Pia: I want to play with my friends!!
Grandma: [sternly] Pia. Get over here.
Pia: [gives up and slowly drags himself across the street as if he is walking towards his death] Fine. But im still not hungry!
Grandma: [dishes out rice for Pia] Eat.
Pia: [silently fools around with his rice but doesn't eat] *hums to himself*
Grandma: Pia! EAT YOUR RICE.
Pia: [takes four huge mouthfuls, chews them slowly] ok im full now grandma.
Grandma: Ok Pia, time for a bath.
Pia: But my friends are still playing across the street!!
Grandma: I don't care Pia. Go take a bath.
Pia: [thinks very hard about how to get out of this predicament] But... im not dirty!
Grandma: [looks him up and down] Pia, you have mud all over you.
Pia: [smiles very largely] Oh! I didn't notice!
Grandma: Pia. Really. Go take a bath.
Pia: [resigned] Fine.
Then Pia generally slinks off to the bathroom area where he plays with some toys or runs around until my grandma or grandpa finally ushers him into the bathroom with very loud orders to bathe properly and get all the mud off himself.
This saga has become a regular part of my routine when I get home from school every afternoon, and I have to say I always enjoy it. Pia has decided that he likes me, so he smiles a huge gap-toothed smile every time he sees me come home. Sometimes he will follow me around, pretending to hide behind corners when I turn around. This kid has totally won his way into my heart, and it will be so interesting to watch how he grows over the next two years of my service.
Grandma: [yelling across the street] Pia! Its time to eat!
Pia: I'm not hungry!
Grandma: Pia! Get over here! The rice is getting cold!
Pia: I want to play with my friends!!
Grandma: [sternly] Pia. Get over here.
Pia: [gives up and slowly drags himself across the street as if he is walking towards his death] Fine. But im still not hungry!
Grandma: [dishes out rice for Pia] Eat.
Pia: [silently fools around with his rice but doesn't eat] *hums to himself*
Grandma: Pia! EAT YOUR RICE.
Pia: [takes four huge mouthfuls, chews them slowly] ok im full now grandma.
Grandma: Ok Pia, time for a bath.
Pia: But my friends are still playing across the street!!
Grandma: I don't care Pia. Go take a bath.
Pia: [thinks very hard about how to get out of this predicament] But... im not dirty!
Grandma: [looks him up and down] Pia, you have mud all over you.
Pia: [smiles very largely] Oh! I didn't notice!
Grandma: Pia. Really. Go take a bath.
Pia: [resigned] Fine.
Then Pia generally slinks off to the bathroom area where he plays with some toys or runs around until my grandma or grandpa finally ushers him into the bathroom with very loud orders to bathe properly and get all the mud off himself.
This saga has become a regular part of my routine when I get home from school every afternoon, and I have to say I always enjoy it. Pia has decided that he likes me, so he smiles a huge gap-toothed smile every time he sees me come home. Sometimes he will follow me around, pretending to hide behind corners when I turn around. This kid has totally won his way into my heart, and it will be so interesting to watch how he grows over the next two years of my service.
A post in which I recount how I arrived in my Provincial Capitol today:
This morning I was sitting at the breakfast stall near where the busses come and go from my town awaiting the departure of the bus that was to take me to my provincial town that was already running an hour late. I didn't mind this though, because I was enjoying talking to the woman who ran the stall and playing with her three year old daughter who insisted on strutting around in her sparkily pink dress and pigtails and posing every so often so that everyone could see just how beautiful she was. Right about as I was finishing my noodle soup, a man from the bus company came up to me and said it was time to go and ushered me towards a small, dusty Toyota pickup truck. I asked if the roads were flooded again (as this happens from time to time with the dirt road leading to my site). The man said yes and that the bus could not make it through but this Toyota was going to my provincial capitol and I could get a ride with them. I trusted this man, because he had gotten to me to my provincial capitol two weeks earlier safe and sound, and taking share-taxis is something that is very common here, so I hopped in.
Imagine a small, early 90's model Toyota pickup truck. Now imagine nine people inside the cab of the truck (myself included), fifteen people sitting in the bed of the truck with lots of luggage, and about five more people sitting on the roof of the cab. As I sat making what little small talk I could with the woman practically sitting in my lap, I couldn't help but smile at the situation I had found myself in... one that has become familiar to me in my three short months here (I have taken a few share-taxis before this, but this one takes the cake for # of people in/on one vehicle). As we barreled down the dirt road, we came to the first flooded section which we passed through with relative ease. The second flooded section we came to had an odd looking make-shift bridge over the deepest part which some local entrepeneurs had set up seeminlgly overnight. They were standing at the entrance trying to charge cars and taxis that needed to pass over it to get where they were going, but they did not seem to be having much success at this scheme. The third section was nothing but a muddy quagmire that was probably two feet straight down in mud, but we made it through (this was nothing short of a miracle considereing how much weight we had in that tiny truck). From there it was pretty smooth sailing to the paved highway, and then on to the provincial capitol.
After arriving in the city, and after I had walked off the terrible cramps in my back and legs from sitting in such an awkward position for two hours, I came upon a brightly colored tent set up in the middle of the road. Inside the tent was a band of about ten musicians playing many different traditional Khmer instruments at a deafening volume. I didn't care- I loved every second of it. I wandered by, and casually asked some of the men standing outside the tent what was going on. They were so shocked that I spoke a little bit of Khmer and asked what I did to which I replied that I was teaching English and working as a health volunteer in the village I live in. Their eyes got very large, and they exclaimed, "The man who is paying for this party is from that village! You must meet him immediately!". I walked inside the tent, and I bowed and greeted the old man as the men told him my story. He invited me to sit down, and we listened to the music while he shouted questions at me over it. I replied politely and smiled, and spent about half an hour in the company of his family listening to the music. I eventually realized that I had come into town to run errands that I had to get done today, so I made my exit and told them to find me the next time they were in the village.
Khmer hospitality is absolutely incredible. Really.
In other news, I started teaching this past week at my high school. I teach six classes, four 11th grade classes and two 10th grade classes. My classes are really large, the smallest is about 35 students and the largest is somewhere around 65. I have also started teaching about eight teachers at my high school who don't speak English but want to learn. The main goal for my trip into town this weekend was to find curriculum for the teachers to learn from, which I eventually had to order from Phnom Penh with the assistance of one of my co-teachers who was, amazingly, right down the street from me when I texted him asking him what I should do when I couldn't find the right books.
Sorry to end this abruptly, but I am tired. Ill try to update again tomorrow before I go back to site. As always, love to everyone and have a happy halloween!
Imagine a small, early 90's model Toyota pickup truck. Now imagine nine people inside the cab of the truck (myself included), fifteen people sitting in the bed of the truck with lots of luggage, and about five more people sitting on the roof of the cab. As I sat making what little small talk I could with the woman practically sitting in my lap, I couldn't help but smile at the situation I had found myself in... one that has become familiar to me in my three short months here (I have taken a few share-taxis before this, but this one takes the cake for # of people in/on one vehicle). As we barreled down the dirt road, we came to the first flooded section which we passed through with relative ease. The second flooded section we came to had an odd looking make-shift bridge over the deepest part which some local entrepeneurs had set up seeminlgly overnight. They were standing at the entrance trying to charge cars and taxis that needed to pass over it to get where they were going, but they did not seem to be having much success at this scheme. The third section was nothing but a muddy quagmire that was probably two feet straight down in mud, but we made it through (this was nothing short of a miracle considereing how much weight we had in that tiny truck). From there it was pretty smooth sailing to the paved highway, and then on to the provincial capitol.
After arriving in the city, and after I had walked off the terrible cramps in my back and legs from sitting in such an awkward position for two hours, I came upon a brightly colored tent set up in the middle of the road. Inside the tent was a band of about ten musicians playing many different traditional Khmer instruments at a deafening volume. I didn't care- I loved every second of it. I wandered by, and casually asked some of the men standing outside the tent what was going on. They were so shocked that I spoke a little bit of Khmer and asked what I did to which I replied that I was teaching English and working as a health volunteer in the village I live in. Their eyes got very large, and they exclaimed, "The man who is paying for this party is from that village! You must meet him immediately!". I walked inside the tent, and I bowed and greeted the old man as the men told him my story. He invited me to sit down, and we listened to the music while he shouted questions at me over it. I replied politely and smiled, and spent about half an hour in the company of his family listening to the music. I eventually realized that I had come into town to run errands that I had to get done today, so I made my exit and told them to find me the next time they were in the village.
Khmer hospitality is absolutely incredible. Really.
In other news, I started teaching this past week at my high school. I teach six classes, four 11th grade classes and two 10th grade classes. My classes are really large, the smallest is about 35 students and the largest is somewhere around 65. I have also started teaching about eight teachers at my high school who don't speak English but want to learn. The main goal for my trip into town this weekend was to find curriculum for the teachers to learn from, which I eventually had to order from Phnom Penh with the assistance of one of my co-teachers who was, amazingly, right down the street from me when I texted him asking him what I should do when I couldn't find the right books.
Sorry to end this abruptly, but I am tired. Ill try to update again tomorrow before I go back to site. As always, love to everyone and have a happy halloween!
Saturday, October 10, 2009
muddy sampots and fingernail paint
I am in my provincial town for a meeting this coming monday with the Provincial Office of Education and the rest of the PCVs in my province (hence the internet access). My belly is full of western food and drip coffee, I have bought necessary provisions to take back to site (a new sampot, a jar of nutella, and an electric kettle to boil water), and now I feel ready to recount some of the details of my new home:
My town is small and very out-of-the-way unless you are trying to get into Thailand via winding, pothole-ridden dirt roads. I arrived to greet my new family, and they accepted me with open arms. I live with an older couple whom I call grandma and grandpa, their youngest son, and their three grandsons between the ages of 7 and 14. The youngest grandson has finally started to warm up to me- we play a game of marbles everyday after I get home from school and before we eat dinner. The first day I went to my school, I was pretty nervous as I had only met my school director and one teacher previously and had absolutely no idea what to expect. I arrived to many stares, and a few hellos, but many smiles which seemed like a good sign- and it was.
I have lucked out at my site- most of the secondary school teachers (which is housed in the same buildings as the high school) are young and unmarried, and are mainly women. Most of them are close to my age, and the minute they found out how old I was and that I wasn't married and was going to be living here for two years, I immediately joined a sorority of sorts. In traditional Khmer society, is absolutely not appropriate for unmarried women and men to be friends. The evidence of this can be seen in the classes I teach as the girls and boys self-segregate to separate sides of the classroom and do not interact with one another. Attitudes towards this are changing somewhat in the larger cities, but that change has not come to my town just yet. So, the female teachers, who I now call "the girls", realized immediately that since I am going to be teaching with all men, and that I live with practically all men (except for my host grandma) I was going to be a part of their 'club'. This made me so happy- I was worried about being so isolated from other volunteers, and after only two weeks of being at site I can easily say that "the girls"will very soon become good friends of mine. We have already swapped fashion magazines (I gave them a copy of Elle that my mom sent me in the mail, and they gave me a copy of a Khmer fashion magazine) and painted each others' nails with super femmy sparkily colors. None of them speak English, but it gives me ample opportunity to practice my Khmer and gives me a great reason to improve it every day. They live in the teachers dormitory which is a small house at the back of the school. One room is for unmarried female teachers, one for unmarried male teachers, and one for a very young couple (both teachers) who just had a baby. They cook all of their meals together, go to the market together, and hang out together when they are not teaching. As one of the teachers put it ''it is a community of teachers, and we like each other because we all are here for the same reason [to teach]''. How could I not be ecstatic to have friends like that?!
My first official day at the health center was tuesday- I had a pretty good conversation with my health center director in Khmer, and then he showed me the facilities of the center, and introduced me to the rest of the staff. My health center director is a man in his mid sixites, and I am not sure if he likes me so much as he is amused by the idea of me, but ill take what I can get. My health center offers a few different things- they do HIV testing and counseling, deliver babies (they have two trained midwives on staff), have a pharmacy, and have a consulting doctor on staff five days a week in the mornings. There is also a traveling vaccination program that opperates out of my health center, which my health center director wants to include me on. They travel to different villages in my commune and give needed vaccinations to small children. I will not be giving the vaccinations, of course, but it will be a great opportunity for me to get to know the different villages and the people in them. All in all, this means that my health center is very well staffed and well stocked compared to many health centers in the country. I am extremely excited to see what will become of my time spent there, hopefully I can work together with the staff and health volunteers to get some projects started in the coming year.
My community is a small town, and as such it is just like a small town anywhere else in the world- everyone knows everyone, everyone wants to introduce you to their mother, their cousin, their uncle, etc. and within three days of me being there everyone seemed to know exactly who I am and what I am doing there. The members of my community have been so gracious and kind to me already that I know my next two years there will be great. It is challenging at times, and being far away from home is difficult, but my community has already done everything they can to make me feel at home that I cannot express my gratitude towards them enough.
I hope y'all are well. Keep me updated!!
much love,
K
My town is small and very out-of-the-way unless you are trying to get into Thailand via winding, pothole-ridden dirt roads. I arrived to greet my new family, and they accepted me with open arms. I live with an older couple whom I call grandma and grandpa, their youngest son, and their three grandsons between the ages of 7 and 14. The youngest grandson has finally started to warm up to me- we play a game of marbles everyday after I get home from school and before we eat dinner. The first day I went to my school, I was pretty nervous as I had only met my school director and one teacher previously and had absolutely no idea what to expect. I arrived to many stares, and a few hellos, but many smiles which seemed like a good sign- and it was.
I have lucked out at my site- most of the secondary school teachers (which is housed in the same buildings as the high school) are young and unmarried, and are mainly women. Most of them are close to my age, and the minute they found out how old I was and that I wasn't married and was going to be living here for two years, I immediately joined a sorority of sorts. In traditional Khmer society, is absolutely not appropriate for unmarried women and men to be friends. The evidence of this can be seen in the classes I teach as the girls and boys self-segregate to separate sides of the classroom and do not interact with one another. Attitudes towards this are changing somewhat in the larger cities, but that change has not come to my town just yet. So, the female teachers, who I now call "the girls", realized immediately that since I am going to be teaching with all men, and that I live with practically all men (except for my host grandma) I was going to be a part of their 'club'. This made me so happy- I was worried about being so isolated from other volunteers, and after only two weeks of being at site I can easily say that "the girls"will very soon become good friends of mine. We have already swapped fashion magazines (I gave them a copy of Elle that my mom sent me in the mail, and they gave me a copy of a Khmer fashion magazine) and painted each others' nails with super femmy sparkily colors. None of them speak English, but it gives me ample opportunity to practice my Khmer and gives me a great reason to improve it every day. They live in the teachers dormitory which is a small house at the back of the school. One room is for unmarried female teachers, one for unmarried male teachers, and one for a very young couple (both teachers) who just had a baby. They cook all of their meals together, go to the market together, and hang out together when they are not teaching. As one of the teachers put it ''it is a community of teachers, and we like each other because we all are here for the same reason [to teach]''. How could I not be ecstatic to have friends like that?!
My first official day at the health center was tuesday- I had a pretty good conversation with my health center director in Khmer, and then he showed me the facilities of the center, and introduced me to the rest of the staff. My health center director is a man in his mid sixites, and I am not sure if he likes me so much as he is amused by the idea of me, but ill take what I can get. My health center offers a few different things- they do HIV testing and counseling, deliver babies (they have two trained midwives on staff), have a pharmacy, and have a consulting doctor on staff five days a week in the mornings. There is also a traveling vaccination program that opperates out of my health center, which my health center director wants to include me on. They travel to different villages in my commune and give needed vaccinations to small children. I will not be giving the vaccinations, of course, but it will be a great opportunity for me to get to know the different villages and the people in them. All in all, this means that my health center is very well staffed and well stocked compared to many health centers in the country. I am extremely excited to see what will become of my time spent there, hopefully I can work together with the staff and health volunteers to get some projects started in the coming year.
My community is a small town, and as such it is just like a small town anywhere else in the world- everyone knows everyone, everyone wants to introduce you to their mother, their cousin, their uncle, etc. and within three days of me being there everyone seemed to know exactly who I am and what I am doing there. The members of my community have been so gracious and kind to me already that I know my next two years there will be great. It is challenging at times, and being far away from home is difficult, but my community has already done everything they can to make me feel at home that I cannot express my gratitude towards them enough.
I hope y'all are well. Keep me updated!!
much love,
K
Saturday, September 26, 2009
Its Gonna Be A While
Today I head out to permanent site. As training is over and we have officially been sworn in as volunteers, it is now time to move to our respective permanent sites all over the country and begin the work we are now prepared to do. My community is small, and very isolated but I am ready to rise to the challenge. I am as prepared as I think I can be for an adventure like this. I will get to my site late in the afternoon today (its about a seven hour trip by bus from Phnom Penh to my site) where I will meet my family for the first time. Tomorrow I will go to the school and meet the teachers as well as some of the students while we all help to get the school campus ready for the school year which may or may not start this week (it depends on the school). For the first month of my service at site I will observe the different English teachers in my school to learn about how they teach, and then talk with them about which ones want to work with me as my co-teachers. I will work 16-20 hours in the school, and then spend a half-day or two each week at my site's health clinic getting to know the staff there as well as the patients. Really the first few months of service will be about observing my community, figuring out how it functions, making friends and meeting people, and then starting the process of where I can fit in to help my community in the ways they find the most effective.
Hopefully over the next two years I will be able to keep this blog updated at least once a month. It will not be easy- I am over 90k away from the closest reliable internet. I really want to keep everyone in the loop, so as some of yall will be recieving post cards and letters, please share those with others who are interested. Like I said, I will try to keep this as up-to-date as possible throughout my service, but as with anything while serving in conditions I will be, anything and everything can change from day to day.
Love to all,
K
Hopefully over the next two years I will be able to keep this blog updated at least once a month. It will not be easy- I am over 90k away from the closest reliable internet. I really want to keep everyone in the loop, so as some of yall will be recieving post cards and letters, please share those with others who are interested. Like I said, I will try to keep this as up-to-date as possible throughout my service, but as with anything while serving in conditions I will be, anything and everything can change from day to day.
Love to all,
K
Thursday, September 24, 2009
on the eve of swearing in
Just a short update before I go off to bed- tomorrow will be a long day full of celebration because we will swear in as official volunteers.
We did it. The K3s have completed training successfully- we survived hours of technical sessions, bumpy remork rides, hours upon hours of Khmer instruction, thousands of bowls of rice (collectively), a few cases of giardia and dengue, the dreaded LPI (language sufficiency test which we all passed), and spiders the size of our hands. We survived, we got to know each other, we recognized our strengths and weaknesses, and now in two days we will leave to go to our permanent sites all over the country.
We had a farewell party for the host families in our training village yesterday. We formed groups last week to make different kinds of American food to serve to our families at the party and went on wild goose chases all over our provincial town to find ingredients. I decided it would be a great idea to try and figure out how to make chili... it turned out more as a bean surprise, but it was pretty delicious. A few of us also had the brilliant plan to make a piñata for the party- paper mache and all (now thats what I call Peace Corps ingenuity). Our families slowly trickled in and greeted one another and sat under the shade to chat while the trainees prepared food. We spent the next hour feeding our families and trying to explain what american food is, much like they had been doing for us for the past two months. As I watched the trainees, my friends, chat in Khmer and laugh with our families and extended families I thought back to our very first day in the village two months ago when we were all unloaded at a strange and dusty Wat knowing almost no Khmer at all. We were blessed by monks and then introduced to the heads of our families. We were scared, had no idea how to act or what to say, and didn't know what we would face once we got to our homes. The contrast between the scared, timid foreigners and their extremely nervous new parents and the happy families that I saw at that party was incredible.
I cannot speak for all of the trainees in my village, but my family had nothing and yet gave me everything. Every moment of time and every ounce of patience they had, they expended it on me to make sure I felt safe and loved. It was extremely awkward in the beginning for both me and my family- just imagine a stranger who could not speak more than ten words of English sitting at your dinner table and trying to listen to your conversation. Mid conversation this stranger suddenly says "lizard!" or "bowl!" or "rice!". This is how the first week or two of my home stay went with my training family, and yet they always smiled, laughed, said "you are learning so much!" in Khmer and then went back to their conversation. Slowly but surely I learned how to communicate, how to joke around with my sister while we were cooking dinner, how to ask my little brother where he went that day or if he won his volleyball game, how to ask my father if his cows were doing well... My family in the training village will always hold a special place in my heart. I will go back to visit them as soon as I can, and my host dad said he would bring my host sister out to my permanent site to visit me next summer.
As sentimental as this post is, its only a tiny outpouring of the gambit of emotions I feel everyday here in this place. Tomorrow I become an official volunteer, and I will leave for my permanent site on Sunday where I will live and work for the next two years of my life.
Love to everyone, stay well.
K
Friday, September 11, 2009
Sokapeip and the Bamboo Train
Its been a while since my last entry... things have been really busy on this side of the globe. After my visit to permanent site I went to the Khmer Rouge Tribunals being held in PP. They currently have Dutch on the stand, who was the right-hand man of Pol Pot, and was responsible for the genocide that happened at tuol sleng work camp/killing field. If you want to know more abuot the details of this trial, please send me an email, or visit any number of websites about the Khmer Rouge. Anyone over the age of thirty five in this country will tell you horrific stories about what they had to endure during the regime, the number of family members and friends that they lost to either starvation or execution, and how it has affected every single day since the regime ended... I know a few volunteers who are working with NGOs to document stories about the Khmer Rouge in particular regions and what happened during that time. My permanent site has a very different story- my town was one of the last garrison towns of the Khmer Rouge until their official disposal in 1996 because it is so close to the Thai border. I have already heard stories about how people were still running away from towns and hiding in the jungle when the Khmer Rouge came through up until fifteen years ago.
Currently, I am on a health trip with the 10 other health volunteers. Like I said before, we are the pilot health volunteers for Cambodia, and we are SO excited. So far we have spent the last few days working with Khmer staff from several international NGOs in different villages (some of which are VERY isolated, up to 100k away from the closest health center which may or may not have a nurse or a doctor and over 200k away from the closest referal hospital wich may or may not have one or two doctors on staff- this is the story of almost ALL of rural Cambodia- more than 80% of the country). We went to see a community education project on maternal and baby health in a town in Kampong Chnang yesterday. I will recount first how we got there:
1) A bus ride about 30k down a dirt road
2) A 'bamboo train' (a bamboo platform with an engine and a large wooden stick for a break situated on four wheels that fit over train tracks) that we rode 18k down the train tracks where the 20 of us riding it had to get off three times and dissassemble the 'bamboo train' i.e. get it off the tracks to let other 'bamboo trains' and a REAL train go by... (mom and gran, im sorry if you are reading this, we were safe I promise and no one got hurt)
3) another 20k truck ride down more dirt roads to the village
That, also, to put things in perspective, is what any person in this village, or surrounding villages would have to go through to get to the nearest refferal hospital if they or their family members got sick.
We went to a meeting of moms and small children (infants to children about six years old) where the trained village staff from the NGO had made a special kind of rice poradge (a staple here) using vitamin and nutrient rich locally grown plants to show families how to increase nutrients and variation in their diets so their kids can be healthy. The NGO had also brought in a doctor to give bi-annual vitamin A vaccines and an injection of vitamin suppliments for the children and post-pardem women. While the families were eating, they were getting education from other people in their village about basic nutrition and sanition (washing hands, how to get clean water, etc.). After the meeting was over, we followed some village health volunteers to a few families homes to watch them do health interviews/intakes with the families. They asked if the children got sick, what they got sick with, looked at where the food was prepared, looked at what water source the family was using, etc. and then educated the mother and father about basic nutrition and variation in foods throughout the year so that their children can get the proper nutrients they need to have a healthy immune system (12% of chilren here die of preventable diseases before the age of 5). This NGO also promotes home gardening of native veggies to supplement diets which is a rarety here because almost all airable land is devoted solely to rice farming. After this, we went to a HUGE party for mothers and children held at a local wat to educate families on water sanitation using the SODIS method (basically its well or covered rain water put in water bottles and left out in the sun a proper ammount of time so that it will kill the bacteria in it and make it potable).
It was absolutely amazing to see a community come together like they had with very little assistance from the NGO to improve the lives of almost everyone, especially the small children. These communities very clearly have extremely few resources, but what they do have they use in an amazing capacity to do so much good. It made me so excited to get to permanent site and figure out where the health needs lie in my community. Basically, once I get out to site I will spend four days a week at the high school teaching english, and one to two days a week at my health center which focuses primarily on expecting mothers. I am pretty sure that there is one nurse and one or two midwifes who work at the health clinic, and no one else... and is about 65k away from the closest referal hospital in the provincial town.
I have so much more, but this is a LONG entry, so ill write more later... I miss yall terribly, and send me an email or a letter! I will respond! Love to everyone.
xoxo
K
Currently, I am on a health trip with the 10 other health volunteers. Like I said before, we are the pilot health volunteers for Cambodia, and we are SO excited. So far we have spent the last few days working with Khmer staff from several international NGOs in different villages (some of which are VERY isolated, up to 100k away from the closest health center which may or may not have a nurse or a doctor and over 200k away from the closest referal hospital wich may or may not have one or two doctors on staff- this is the story of almost ALL of rural Cambodia- more than 80% of the country). We went to see a community education project on maternal and baby health in a town in Kampong Chnang yesterday. I will recount first how we got there:
1) A bus ride about 30k down a dirt road
2) A 'bamboo train' (a bamboo platform with an engine and a large wooden stick for a break situated on four wheels that fit over train tracks) that we rode 18k down the train tracks where the 20 of us riding it had to get off three times and dissassemble the 'bamboo train' i.e. get it off the tracks to let other 'bamboo trains' and a REAL train go by... (mom and gran, im sorry if you are reading this, we were safe I promise and no one got hurt)
3) another 20k truck ride down more dirt roads to the village
That, also, to put things in perspective, is what any person in this village, or surrounding villages would have to go through to get to the nearest refferal hospital if they or their family members got sick.
We went to a meeting of moms and small children (infants to children about six years old) where the trained village staff from the NGO had made a special kind of rice poradge (a staple here) using vitamin and nutrient rich locally grown plants to show families how to increase nutrients and variation in their diets so their kids can be healthy. The NGO had also brought in a doctor to give bi-annual vitamin A vaccines and an injection of vitamin suppliments for the children and post-pardem women. While the families were eating, they were getting education from other people in their village about basic nutrition and sanition (washing hands, how to get clean water, etc.). After the meeting was over, we followed some village health volunteers to a few families homes to watch them do health interviews/intakes with the families. They asked if the children got sick, what they got sick with, looked at where the food was prepared, looked at what water source the family was using, etc. and then educated the mother and father about basic nutrition and variation in foods throughout the year so that their children can get the proper nutrients they need to have a healthy immune system (12% of chilren here die of preventable diseases before the age of 5). This NGO also promotes home gardening of native veggies to supplement diets which is a rarety here because almost all airable land is devoted solely to rice farming. After this, we went to a HUGE party for mothers and children held at a local wat to educate families on water sanitation using the SODIS method (basically its well or covered rain water put in water bottles and left out in the sun a proper ammount of time so that it will kill the bacteria in it and make it potable).
It was absolutely amazing to see a community come together like they had with very little assistance from the NGO to improve the lives of almost everyone, especially the small children. These communities very clearly have extremely few resources, but what they do have they use in an amazing capacity to do so much good. It made me so excited to get to permanent site and figure out where the health needs lie in my community. Basically, once I get out to site I will spend four days a week at the high school teaching english, and one to two days a week at my health center which focuses primarily on expecting mothers. I am pretty sure that there is one nurse and one or two midwifes who work at the health clinic, and no one else... and is about 65k away from the closest referal hospital in the provincial town.
I have so much more, but this is a LONG entry, so ill write more later... I miss yall terribly, and send me an email or a letter! I will respond! Love to everyone.
xoxo
K
Friday, August 28, 2009
Permanent Site
I recieved my permanent site placement on tuesday. For security reasons, I can't give you any specifics, but I am going to a northwestern provence of Cambodia about 50k down a dirt road from the nearest highway and only another 20k to the border of Thailand. My hostmom is a midwife and works at the local health clinic/field hospital where I will be volunteering two days a week and my dad is a ministry official. I met my counterpart, an English teacher who grew up/lives in the community, this week in Phnom Penh as part of a large country-wide counterpart conference where each trainee met a counterpart from each of their site placements. He told me that my high school has over 3000 students, one school director, and about 50 teachers (total). He said that a typical class size is about 60 students, depending on the rice harvesting/planting seasons which will see a pretty dramatic drop in student attendance.
Tomorrow I will get on a bus leaving from one of the markets here in PP to make the 7hr (if nothing goes wrong/the bus driver decides to wait to fill up the bus in one of the larger cities before continuing on) trip out to visit my site and my family for two days. We still have a month left in training before we are sworn in, but this visit marks the beginning of our true commitment to Cambodia, and to our particular community. I cannot wait to see my site, and meet my family, my school director, and the director of my health center. The paperwork I was given says that the health center is really understaffed and desperately needs someone to help work with new mothers to promote baby health and safety as well as mosquito erradication in homes, and their new vaccination program that goes to other districts around my town to give vaccinations to children. It seems now, on paper anyway, that this community is receptive to having me there, and hopefully once I arrive as a full-fledged volunteer I can help make a difference.
I have also completed Practicum, which was a six day work week where all the trainees were in charge of teaching classes of about 40 Khmer students in our training villages for an hour each day. I taught my kids some tounge twisters, as well as some spelling games, and then adapted the national english currciulum for the rest of my lessons. It was amazing how after the first day of teaching, suddenly every student who was in the same grade level as me would smile at me wherever I went in the village and say "hello teacher! where you go??!!". It was just a tiny taste of what I will do at the school in my permanent site, but it got me really excited about teaching here. Students are, for the most part, extremely eager to learn anything you have to teach them. Of course, it might have something to do with the fact that I am foriegn, and anything foreign as we all know, is interesting... at least for a little while. Everytime I go to the school I wear a sampot and a collared shirt. A sampot is a long (ankle-length), wrap around skirt made of stiff fabric with traditional Khmer embroidery on it. I have pictures on my camera, but getting them from my camera to any sort of device that would be able to download onto the internet is a bit of a mystery at this point im afraid... The sampots I have are pretty beautiful, and I really dont mind wearing them, except for the fact that it feels like wearing a full-length carpet in 100 degree tropical weather AND its a totally new battle to try and ride my mountain bike down my dirt path in that thing while dodging cows, dogs, chickens, and small children on the way to the school (my host family thought it was the funniest thing they had ever seen the first time i very awkwardly mounted my mountain bike in my full length khmer sampot to roll out to school... they laughed for about 10 minutes).
Hopefully I will have a chance to write again after returning from site visit, but until then, I hope yall are all happy and healthy, and stay in touch!!!
xoxo
K
Tomorrow I will get on a bus leaving from one of the markets here in PP to make the 7hr (if nothing goes wrong/the bus driver decides to wait to fill up the bus in one of the larger cities before continuing on) trip out to visit my site and my family for two days. We still have a month left in training before we are sworn in, but this visit marks the beginning of our true commitment to Cambodia, and to our particular community. I cannot wait to see my site, and meet my family, my school director, and the director of my health center. The paperwork I was given says that the health center is really understaffed and desperately needs someone to help work with new mothers to promote baby health and safety as well as mosquito erradication in homes, and their new vaccination program that goes to other districts around my town to give vaccinations to children. It seems now, on paper anyway, that this community is receptive to having me there, and hopefully once I arrive as a full-fledged volunteer I can help make a difference.
I have also completed Practicum, which was a six day work week where all the trainees were in charge of teaching classes of about 40 Khmer students in our training villages for an hour each day. I taught my kids some tounge twisters, as well as some spelling games, and then adapted the national english currciulum for the rest of my lessons. It was amazing how after the first day of teaching, suddenly every student who was in the same grade level as me would smile at me wherever I went in the village and say "hello teacher! where you go??!!". It was just a tiny taste of what I will do at the school in my permanent site, but it got me really excited about teaching here. Students are, for the most part, extremely eager to learn anything you have to teach them. Of course, it might have something to do with the fact that I am foriegn, and anything foreign as we all know, is interesting... at least for a little while. Everytime I go to the school I wear a sampot and a collared shirt. A sampot is a long (ankle-length), wrap around skirt made of stiff fabric with traditional Khmer embroidery on it. I have pictures on my camera, but getting them from my camera to any sort of device that would be able to download onto the internet is a bit of a mystery at this point im afraid... The sampots I have are pretty beautiful, and I really dont mind wearing them, except for the fact that it feels like wearing a full-length carpet in 100 degree tropical weather AND its a totally new battle to try and ride my mountain bike down my dirt path in that thing while dodging cows, dogs, chickens, and small children on the way to the school (my host family thought it was the funniest thing they had ever seen the first time i very awkwardly mounted my mountain bike in my full length khmer sampot to roll out to school... they laughed for about 10 minutes).
Hopefully I will have a chance to write again after returning from site visit, but until then, I hope yall are all happy and healthy, and stay in touch!!!
xoxo
K
Friday, August 14, 2009
The Floating Village
I went to a floating village on the huge lake that divides Cambodia in half (the Tonle Sap) today. This village has everything- including wats, cell phone shops, butcheries, farms, gas stations- all floating on the lake. People get around on tiny boats that are painted brilliant colors from one floating platform to the next. Apparently crime in the floating villages is pretty high due to the lack of opportunity and resources that these people are afforded living on the outskirts of a giant lake, pretty far removed from the closest town or village. There are also issues with water sanitation- the water is used for everything from cooking, cleaning, waste, etc. etc. and there is no way of sanatizing the water except for boiling water which we weren't sure if that was a practice that people employed frequently or not. All that being said, it was a beautiful and unique part of Cambodia that I had never heard about before.
In other news, I was told by one of my bosses last week that I have been accepted as one of 10 health volunteers here in Cambodia. We will be the first group to seriously focus on health issues in Cambodia as Peace Corps Volunteers (as this is only the third year that Peace Corps has been in Cambodia). Basically what this means is that in addition to teaching in a high school at my permanent site four days a week, I will also spend one to two days at the local clinic conducting community needs assesments and building health programs around the needs of my community. This will be an amazing opportunity for me to reach out to my community beyond the borders of my school, and to show the government of Cambodia that Peace Corps can expand into other sectors of the Cambodian culture than just education. I still have five weeks of training to go before I move to permanent site (I still don't even know where that will be yet), but I cannot wait to get started. As for now, I will enjoy spending time with my other trainees, and learning as much as I can about Cambodia before I officially become a volunteer.
xoxo,
K
In other news, I was told by one of my bosses last week that I have been accepted as one of 10 health volunteers here in Cambodia. We will be the first group to seriously focus on health issues in Cambodia as Peace Corps Volunteers (as this is only the third year that Peace Corps has been in Cambodia). Basically what this means is that in addition to teaching in a high school at my permanent site four days a week, I will also spend one to two days at the local clinic conducting community needs assesments and building health programs around the needs of my community. This will be an amazing opportunity for me to reach out to my community beyond the borders of my school, and to show the government of Cambodia that Peace Corps can expand into other sectors of the Cambodian culture than just education. I still have five weeks of training to go before I move to permanent site (I still don't even know where that will be yet), but I cannot wait to get started. As for now, I will enjoy spending time with my other trainees, and learning as much as I can about Cambodia before I officially become a volunteer.
xoxo,
K
Monday, August 10, 2009
family
I have been living in Cambodia for about three weeks now. I am very quickly falling in love with this country and its rice patties, its gap-toothed smiles, its motos, its resilient spirit....
I will fill you in on a few details, and then I will transcribe an entry from my journal from a few days after I moved in with my host family that I think describes my situation with more clarity than I could now after a sleepless night, a forty minute tuk tuk ride to the closest internet cafe, and at seven am in the morning.
I live with a host family of five (I make six) about 2k down a dirt road in a tiny village of about 200 people. My mother worries about me constantly, and doesn't smile very often but when she does I know I have done something to touch her heart. My father has the most heartwarming smile of anyone I have ever met. I have an older brother who is 23 who is headed to Phnom Penh in the fall to go to University (the first in the family). I have a sister who is 20 who makes me laugh like no other and has been very kind and patient in my slow climb to learn Khmer. I have a little brother who is 17 and only has one arm though he plays volleyball everyday and is on the local team. We live on a farm in a wooden house on 10ft stilts with no electricity and no running water. The water we use for cooking, cleaning and bathing is collected in giant clay jars from the rain that falls everyday. my sister and mom do all the cooking in a tiny room removed from the house where they use scrubbrush and dried palm leaves to make a fire to heat the woks. my dad and brothers work very hard to take care of the cows, chickens, dogs and cats we have on the farm running around in addition to working the multiple rice, potato and tomato fields my dad owns. I arrived right in the middle of transplating season, so my family is constantly busy.
The Peace Corps training schedule is pretty intense, we have four hours of language lessons every morning before lunch, and four hours of workshops and lectures after lunch every day excpet for sundays. As intense as it is, I am grateful for it because it supplements all the new information that is coming my way everyday all the time from my family and their neighbors who are all VERY curious about me. Now on to my journal entry-
things I hear: my dad fixing a moto, children playing a game, chickens, my mom talking in Khmer to my sister, wind in the trees, cows, dogs
things I see: straw mats, blue walls, mosquito net, pink blanket, ox cart, gardens, palm and coconut trees, my sarong, the wooden house next door.
things I do differently: I use a trough full of rain water to bathe (with a small bucket), I do my laundry by hand in a bucket, I have to worry about things like dengue fever and malaria, I am stared at wherever I go and sometimes collect very curious crowds of people, I never ever wear anything that shows my shoulders or knees, I do not have electricity, my feet are always swollen from the heat, I never go out past dark because it is innapropriate for women to do so and very dangerous, I never show the bottom of my feet or sit crosslegged (both for women is considered rude), I am in bed by eight and normally up by 5:30 with the sun and the roosters, and I havent used toilet paper since I was in Phnom Penh.
things that are the same: I eat, I breathe, I sleep, and I drink iced coffee everyday (yes, they have that here).
I have only been here for a short time, but I know I have a purpose, and I love this place so much already. Ill save you the gushing wax-poetic words of a person in love, but really, truly, this place is great.
I will fill you in on a few details, and then I will transcribe an entry from my journal from a few days after I moved in with my host family that I think describes my situation with more clarity than I could now after a sleepless night, a forty minute tuk tuk ride to the closest internet cafe, and at seven am in the morning.
I live with a host family of five (I make six) about 2k down a dirt road in a tiny village of about 200 people. My mother worries about me constantly, and doesn't smile very often but when she does I know I have done something to touch her heart. My father has the most heartwarming smile of anyone I have ever met. I have an older brother who is 23 who is headed to Phnom Penh in the fall to go to University (the first in the family). I have a sister who is 20 who makes me laugh like no other and has been very kind and patient in my slow climb to learn Khmer. I have a little brother who is 17 and only has one arm though he plays volleyball everyday and is on the local team. We live on a farm in a wooden house on 10ft stilts with no electricity and no running water. The water we use for cooking, cleaning and bathing is collected in giant clay jars from the rain that falls everyday. my sister and mom do all the cooking in a tiny room removed from the house where they use scrubbrush and dried palm leaves to make a fire to heat the woks. my dad and brothers work very hard to take care of the cows, chickens, dogs and cats we have on the farm running around in addition to working the multiple rice, potato and tomato fields my dad owns. I arrived right in the middle of transplating season, so my family is constantly busy.
The Peace Corps training schedule is pretty intense, we have four hours of language lessons every morning before lunch, and four hours of workshops and lectures after lunch every day excpet for sundays. As intense as it is, I am grateful for it because it supplements all the new information that is coming my way everyday all the time from my family and their neighbors who are all VERY curious about me. Now on to my journal entry-
things I hear: my dad fixing a moto, children playing a game, chickens, my mom talking in Khmer to my sister, wind in the trees, cows, dogs
things I see: straw mats, blue walls, mosquito net, pink blanket, ox cart, gardens, palm and coconut trees, my sarong, the wooden house next door.
things I do differently: I use a trough full of rain water to bathe (with a small bucket), I do my laundry by hand in a bucket, I have to worry about things like dengue fever and malaria, I am stared at wherever I go and sometimes collect very curious crowds of people, I never ever wear anything that shows my shoulders or knees, I do not have electricity, my feet are always swollen from the heat, I never go out past dark because it is innapropriate for women to do so and very dangerous, I never show the bottom of my feet or sit crosslegged (both for women is considered rude), I am in bed by eight and normally up by 5:30 with the sun and the roosters, and I havent used toilet paper since I was in Phnom Penh.
things that are the same: I eat, I breathe, I sleep, and I drink iced coffee everyday (yes, they have that here).
I have only been here for a short time, but I know I have a purpose, and I love this place so much already. Ill save you the gushing wax-poetic words of a person in love, but really, truly, this place is great.
Friday, July 24, 2009
6am
Its six am and the sun is just rising of Phnom Penh. I am up this early because of jet lag, but I seem to be adjusting pretty quickly to the 14 hour time difference. I am sitting in a hotel lobby next to a shrine that is brightly colored and has flashing lights all around it. Yesterday after we arrived at the airport, some current PCVs and all the PC Cambodia staff met us and took us around the city (as it was our only day in the capitol for some time). We wandered around the city for a while, saw the palace and the national museum and then went and got a cold beer. After that, we all got on boats and took a cruise down the tonle sap (the river- not the lake) until it met the Mekong river and then turned around. There was food and karaoke to be had by all as the sun set over the capitol city.
The number one thing I have learned about Cambodia so far? Its hot. REALLY REALLY hot. all the time.
Today we have an official orientation at the Peace Corps office, and then we will get on busses to head down to another province to begin our training. I will meet my host family that I will be staying with for the two months of training on either sunday or monday, and I cannot wait!!
xoxo,
Katie
The number one thing I have learned about Cambodia so far? Its hot. REALLY REALLY hot. all the time.
Today we have an official orientation at the Peace Corps office, and then we will get on busses to head down to another province to begin our training. I will meet my host family that I will be staying with for the two months of training on either sunday or monday, and I cannot wait!!
xoxo,
Katie
Saturday, July 18, 2009
Three Days
Howdy!
Ill be using this blog [hopefully] over the next two years to keep family and friends updated about my life as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Cambodia. I leave in less than three days for staging, and then on the 22nd, I head out for Cambodia. I have been trying to do everything I can to get ready, and I am getting very excited. I am not sure how much access I will have to the internet during my service, but I will try my best to keep this updated as often as possible.
Much Love,
Katie
Ill be using this blog [hopefully] over the next two years to keep family and friends updated about my life as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Cambodia. I leave in less than three days for staging, and then on the 22nd, I head out for Cambodia. I have been trying to do everything I can to get ready, and I am getting very excited. I am not sure how much access I will have to the internet during my service, but I will try my best to keep this updated as often as possible.
Much Love,
Katie
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