Bedazzling

I always tend to end up at random events with my school director and co-teachers with roughly 20 minutes to an hour notice. I ended up at the equivalent to a house warming party earlier this month after having a meeting with my school director to discuss my ideas for the rest of the school year and summer. As this event was rather far away I was picked up by the vice director in his car. I did not know before-hand, but soon learned that riding in a car is an appropriate justification for getting drunk. If only I had known that during my college years… Anyway I got to the housewarming party and this time, for a nice change of pace, there was actually another woman at the table! After a short amount of time the cheers began and cans of beer kept appearing before me. When I began to indicate that I had no intention of drinking more I heard the new justification “DRINK!!!!! YOU ARE RIDING IN A CAR…FROM THE BOTTOM TO THE TOP FROM THE BOTTOM TO THE TOP!” There are three factors thus far that have ensured my safety and sobriety in such instances 1) I can drink more than they expect without effect, 2) Khmer people think that getting red in the face is a sign of drunkenness and drunkness is an appropriate excuse to cease consumption. As an inevitable side effect of my white-ness I turn red when it is hot, and Cambodia is REALLY hot, so I pretty much look drunk anytime I am in a party tent crammed with people, and 3) I can always count on one of my co-teachers to tell everyone that I am plastered so they won’t try to make me drink more. These factors may not bode well for my reputation in the long run (depending on who you ask!) but alas, I will continue to be able to leave parties standing :)

Shortly after the housewarming party I went to a wedding with my host family. They graciously gave me plenty more than 20 minutes notice. As I do not yet have wedding clothes I had one of my host sisters help me select a suitable outfit. This however proved unnecessary. I got bedazzled. Literally, From the top of my head down to the ankles. When we arrived at the restaurant where the wedding was to be held I was quickly ushered into a hut where the women in my host family were gathered for hair and makeup. They thought it would be super fun to dress me up. I confess, it was super fun/hilarious. I had my makeup done more or less the same way my host sister (who was a bridesmaid) had hers done. I however am white, SO, dark purple, hot pink, and black eye-shadow, paired with heavily penciled eye brows, fake eyelashes, and hot pink blush, make me look… well… different. I was fully prepared to walk around with my facepaint whilst sporting my western attire but my family had other plans. First they changed out my normal jewelry for bling, including diamond rings, earrings, necklace, and a gold charm bracelet. Again I was content to sport my half-3/4 khmer-ness but the family would not have it. They brought extra wedding clothes for me to complete the look. Once I was fully bedazzled my yay promptly stationed me at the entrance with the wedding party to greet the guests. It was pretty amusing, made for some good photo ops, and a lot of double takes.

I have been particularly accident prone this month. My best move was perhaps when I was relocating with a sewing project and somehow managed to put a needle about a third of the way through my hand. I had fun explaining the bruise that filled most of my palm the following week or so. Shortly after that I gave myself some mild electrocution with my mosquito zapper. Ouch.

On quite a different note; the next time I update this I will be in America. Only for a couple of weeks, but still...weird.

Catastrophes and Tiger Balm

This week I had a catastrophe. Now, on the whole these days I am doing quite well. On a day in and day out basis I feel quite content in my general surroundings and have very little cause for complaint. My one big issue with this country remains noise. Cambodia is loud. I told this to one of my co-teachers recently and was rather startled to see his confusion. He actually told me that he thought Cambodia to be a quiet and tranquil place. Surely this is because he has never been anywhere else, and having been raised here he does not register the cacophony that is this country. I do not think I have gone a single day in this country without some period of time filled with music, speeches, or chanting monks being played over loud speakers with very bad sound quality. Thus, when my i-pod died I was beyond distraught. I actually cried. It was inconceivable to me that I could continue living in this country without it! I am glad to report, however, that my father took pity on me and aided me in buying a new one. Sanity restored. Crisis averted.

The last several weeks have been fairly uneventful otherwise. I have had very little school due to exams and grading of exams and holidays and so forth. My host "sister" was visiting from Phnom Penh over Chinese New Year and that was a lot of fun. She is close to my age and knows a fair amount of english so I had a great time with her. It was also helpful in learning things about the family. For example, I finally figured out where Foo came from and why he lives with his Yays. I learned that our neighbors may or may not be peeping toms. That was a fun conversation. "Cher, my grandmother says maybe you be careful in your room because the neighbors are not so polite." WHAT!? I also learned that Khmer people think airconditioning gives them acne. I find this hilarious since Americans in Cambodia think a lack of AC gives them acne, but alas, both may be true.

Now for some of the "bests" over the last couple weeks:

Best moment at site: I was teaching english at the health center and the nurses were trying to get me to eat some treats. I told them I would only eat one because I want my clothes to fit when I go back to America to visit in April. I then told them I need to exercise more. They then dragged me into a back room where they pre-natal check-ups and turned on the tv. As it turns out that had recently recieved a "Salsa-cise" dance work out video which they are now doing twice a day monday through friday. It was one of the most hilarious things I have seen in this country. I fully intend to begin salsa-cising regularly when I get back to site (I am in PP right now for in service training).

Best PC Staff moment: I will have to give a little background on this one. Khmer people LOVE tiger balm. For those of you who may not know –Tiger balm is a menthol-esque chap-stick like substance that people use for all kinds of purposes. We barangs use it primarily to lessen the itch of mosquito bites and occasionally for blocked sinuses and headaches (a little tiger balm on the temples or under the nose…) Khmer people however, use it for any ailment you might imagine. We all joke with each other about this. When someone has a medical problem or an injury or something the immediate response from one of us is usually “oh did you put tiger balm on it?” You might think this is an exaggeration but a quote from this week’s in service training proves that it is not. We were discussing safety and security concerns and road safety was one of the topics brought up. We got onto the topic of what to do if you are in an accident or view an accident. One of our staff members started suggesting steps of things to do if you witness an accident where someone is injured. It went something like this: “First maybe you move the person out of the middle of the road. Then maybe you see if you can get anything to help them, like if they need some tiger balm.” I don’t think we all meant to laugh. But we all did. It was just so perfect.

Best text messages of the week: “sister, what do Sunbunny and Snowbaby mean?” Or "Sister, what is a meat pie?"

Some big events...

A couple of weeks ago I was hanging out in my room drawing a picture (since that’s what I do these days) and my little sisters came up and told me I should go outside because their grandmother wants to know me. I was confused since I was fairly sure I was living with their grandmother. It was however, another grandmother, one that lives about 30K north of us. It was a good opportunity for me to spend some time with the family, and one of the visitors spoke good English and was able to translate some questions my Yays (grandmothers) had. The most impressive part was that I went through a 45 minute conversation in Khmer without a single person asking me if I had a husband or boyfriend. That has got to be some kind of record for a first meeting.

I was sitting in the teacher “lounge” at school a couple weeks ago minding my own business when one of my co-teachers informed me that my school director wanted me to attend a wedding with him roughly 45 minutes later. I figured hey, free lunch, why not?! So I ended up going, in my teaching clothes, to this wedding with my school director and about 9 other Khmer men from my school. Details of this event are perhaps unnecessary; I think the overview will suffice. In the course of lunch I have no idea how many beers were poured into my glass while my head was turned. What I do know is that eating a whole duck with chopsticks is difficult without alcohol in your system but virtually impossible with it and when people start yelling “FROM THE BOTTOM TO THE TOP” at you in Khmer, it is time to go home! My heart-felt apologies to all disappointed staff of TK High School, I do not chug. (for the record though, it was a lot of fun and a good opportunity to build relationships with the male-dominant staff of the school at which I teach)

Recently a couple of members of our Peace Corps Medical staff visited me at my site just to check things out and get some paperwork done. This turned out to be a pretty eventful visit. For starters it gave me an opportunity to communicate some things with my host family. I really love the family that I live with, but I also spend a lot of time by myself. This can be misconstrued in this culture as a lack of regard for the family. I wanted to make sure they knew that I really care about their family and am very happy with the living situation. It was nice to be able to communicate this and receive reciprocated assertions of the families regard for me. It was just a comfort to know that they enjoyed having me there and did not doubt my appreciation and affection for their family. In addition, during this trip I found out some interesting facts about the family. Most interestingly I found out that they are from Phnom Penh originally but came to Battambang during the forced evacuation of Phnom Penh during the Khmer Rouge. They stayed up north because there was so much rice! During this visit I was also able to ask a lot of questions at the health center about what issues they encountered most and that evening I was able to watch a delivery with two of the nurses from my health center. It was totally cool, but I might choose never to pro-create after watching it!

This past weekend I decided to embark on an epic journey. I decided to take a trip to Phnom Penh with my host family. Now I will start off by explaining that many of us laugh at the way many Khmer people travel. It is not all efficient. Usually in route to a given destination the bus will stop at least twice as often as necessary at some rest stop like area or another. It was really amusing for me to travel with my host family because they are the reason the bus stops so often. They packed huge amounts of food with them for the 6+ hour bus trip, and yet every time the bus stopped they got off and bought more food.

While in Phnom Penh we stayed with some extended family and all went out to dinner together the first night. I sort of thought we were going somewhere special because the whole family bathed and put on good clothes before leaving. As it turned out, the special dinner out was at a fast food fried chicken place in the “super market” (ie: SORYA mall) It was actually really fun eating American food with my Khmer family. We also took a brief trip to the arcade where I was reminded yet again that children are roughly the same everywhere. The next day was the big event.

We left around 12:00p for the water park and returned to the house just before 6:00p. It was exhausting but so much fun. I got to spend the whole afternoon going down water slides, giving mini swimming lessons, and just playing with my little khmer sisters (breakdown: I live with the mother of one of my health center nurses. I went to Phnom Penh with the nurse, her husband, their two daughters and two nieces. Also with us at the water park was the older sister of two of the girls, and her best friend, as well as two other kids whose relation to the family I am not sure of!) It was great to have that time with the family, especially the 4 girls that live with me (well, technically next to me). It was also really fun to spend time with two girls closer to my age (both were 19) who are studying fields I am interested in (pharmacology and nursing I think) in Phnom Penh. In addition, it was really fun watching the reactions of people when they saw me and then realized who I was with. I had two favorite moments during this afternoon. The first was my little sisters yelling “CHER! BARANG TIET!” which translates to “Teacher! More foreigners” excitedly whenever we saw another white person. The second and best was this: on one of many trips down the big water slide some guy went down the slide too soon after one of the older girls and kicked her pretty hard. She was not happy about this, so when she saw him getting ready to go down the slide again she waited at the bottom then racked him over the head with an inner tube. I have rarely seen any feisty move from a young Khmer woman and this one took the cake. It made me really happy. The security guard (not lifeguard…security guard…at the pool in full uniform watching the water slide) also found it quite comical.

This past week was exam week. It was very relaxed and gave me ample opportunity to think about projects for next semester and begin planning how the next several months might go.

AND text of the week: "I can't help it, I'm a sucker for drunk women who saunter up to me at four on tuesday and remind me that they can make me 'happy happy.'"

Everybody must happy happy

Highlights of the week:
1)While I am beyond sad that Katie is leaving, our trip to Angkor Wat was definitely a highlight of my service to date. Now, had I gone to Angkor Wat 5 or so months ago when I first arrived in Cambodia, the day would likely have looked different. We would probably have enjoyed the anonymity of being in a sea of foreigners, and felt very much at home with them, we would likely have had a strict itinerary and stuck to it, we would likely have gotten annoyed when our driver stopped at random places we did not ask to stop at, and we probably would have been completely overwhelmed by the children trying to sell us stuff. As it was we ended up spending a good portion of our trip to Angkor Wat talking to kids about when they went to school, where they went to school, and why they were not currently getting ready for school. I spent a good chunk of time over my morning coffee helping an 11th grade Khmer boy with his English homework. We spent a good amount of time meandering through random temples we had no intention of stopping at, we took lots of obnoxious photos with complete disregard for silly things like ropes, and we both felt completely overwhelmed by the sheer number of foreigners.

2)After receiving several Christmas packages (thanks to all who sent them!) I have a new appreciation for exfoliating soap. In America I never really understood the appeal of exfoliating soap. I mean I got it in principle but I did not appreciate it. I received a bar of exfoliating soap in a package of miscellaneous goodies from my aunt Kris and my grandma, and I have to say that bathing with said bar of soap left me feeling perhaps the cleanest I have felt in this country. Dirt has a way of getting into your pores and the creases in your skin here so that you can bathe and still rub dirt off of yourself. Not so with the exfoliating soap. This handy item also provides mosquito bite relief while bathing. So, a special thanks to my aunt and grandma, and anyone who wants to send me exfoliating soap in the future is more than encouraged to do so :)

3)Favorite Foo moment: I was sitting on a table outside my house watching TV with the fam when Foo (the 2 year old) spit into a small toy (kind of looked like a little plastic drum with one of the sides missing) and handed it to me. I took it and looked at him and he stared up at me with his tiny little adorable Khmer child face and said “niam at?” which loosely translates to “are you gonna eat it?” Thanks Foo, but no. I think I will pass on eating spitty plastic toys.

4)Favorite quote of the week: After church last Sunday one of the members of the congregation who knows pretty good English asked if I wanted him to tell me what the pastor had been preaching on. I said yes and he began to break down the message which was on Philippians 4:4-7. He helped me translate a bunch of stuff into Khmer and talked about the points the pastor had made about them but the best one was this: his summary of Philippians 4:6, “God says dear brother sister, everybody you must happy happy.” Now the pure simplification of this is funny but I think you may need to live here to fully appreciate the humor in this. Another volunteer here recently asked some Khmer people why they listened to music over loud speakers SO ridiculously LOUD so often and the response was “Kampuchea jole jchet supbai supbai” which translates to “Cambodia likes happy happy.” So of course God would command all of the brothers and sisters to be happy happy.

5)Text message of the week: "Uh Vatana just called me about stool samples. Maybe I don't want to et (early terminate) afterall..."

A couple more serious notes: I had a b it of a heart wrenching moment at school this week. There is a grade 9 boy at my school who appears to have cerebral palsy. I have seen him around all year and have asked all the teachers who speak English what his disability is and no one seems to know. They always just tell me that he cannot speak but he can learn. The other day I was sitting with one of the teachers at my school and this student walked up with a note asking her to ask me whether we have people “the same as” him in America. I know it is beyond anything I can understand or identify with, and difficult anywhere, but I cannot imagine how hard it must be to be like him in a place where the majority of people do not understand much if anything about it. To not even know if there are other people around the world who are experiencing life in the same way he is. It does present an interesting issue as far as the importance of names goes. We are so focused in the western world on what a condition is called. We want to know what we have. It isn’t enough to just recognize the traits exhibited and address those; we need to have a label to smack on it. While it has been confusing for me that no one here seems to have names for such things, in some ways it does not seem to matter. They recognize what his abilities are and have found ways to work with them thus allowing him to get to get an education as a non-verbal teenager. It’s pretty impressive!

On a sad note; my closest friend here has decided to go back to the states. There were a number of things that played into her decision and while I will certainly miss her I think that her leaving holds some important lessons. Katie has many qualities, not the least of which is a huge giving heart for other people that made her an awesome volunteer. However, there is an economy to time and every time you make a decision to do something, you are intrinsically making a decision not to do something else. If in the things you are doing you find that you cannot be at your best, than perhaps your time can be better given, and your life a greater service to others, in a context in which you can be your best. There are certainly trials in most anything you put your hand to but learning to assess whether those trials are growing your character or breaking your spirit is an important lesson and knowing when to push through and when to say enough is invaluable.

I thought I would start off my first blog entry of 2010 with a list of resolutions for the year. That way you all can call me out on them :) :

1)Be better at life. Pretty general. More specifically I want to be more bold about seeking out resources and pursuing projects/opportunities in my community. I want to be more enthusiastic about teaching crappy curriculum to students who could not care less half the time. I want to work on finding a good balance between caring for myself and giving of myself for the sake of the people I came here to serve.

2)Learn to resist the RAGE that boils up in me whenever there is a “biti” (celebration) in town. I hate loud speakers, but I have got to learn to fight the BITI RAGE.

3)Grow out my finger nails. I say it EVERY SINGLE YEAR. Never happens. Oh well, lets try again 2010.

4)Vomit less. I want to learn to master my slightly inane tendency to become ill when extremely nervous or emotionally stressed. Not sure if this is physically possible, but I am going to give it a go. I give anxiety too much of a stronghold in my daily life.

Now for a short list of favorites:
1)Favorite slogan: “It’s America time!” Miller Beer

2)Favorite question from a co-teacher: “What do you call it in English when you stand in a line a put one hand on the shoulder of the person in front of you? What do you call it when you stand with your hand behind your back and one foot forward?” I have also been asked rather important burning questions like “what is a magnetron tube, duvet cover, corn dog, caramel corn, safety product recall, etc…”

3)Favorite misuse of the English language: One of the teachers at my school does not understand that the word “especially” is meant to go with an adjective. That outfit is especially pretty. You look especially nice today. Etc… She uses it like an adjective itself and I refuse to correct it because it makes me unreasonably happy when I hear phrases like “your hair looks especially today” or “beyonce dances especially.”

4)Favorite conversation with a stranger: This is a toss up. Both come from New Years in Siem Reap. We had a great time (me and a group of female volunteers) in the market in Siem Reap shopping for dresses for new years eve. There are a ton of tourists there so it is especially (haha) shocking when a foreigner speaks some Khmer. We of course had fun with this and made friends with lots of the sellers in the market. My favorite conversation was with a woman I bought a dress from who spent a good while convincing me that it was okay to buy this rather short tight dress because “sexy girl ok Siem Reap.” I told her where I actually live and she laughed and kindly informed me that maybe “sexy girl not okay battambang, but ok New Year Siem Reap." She also more than cut the prince of the dress in half when she found out I lived in Cambodia. Nice bonus. That night we were out at a fine drinking establishment known as “Angkor What” celebrating the new year when a random norweigan man asked me if he had seen me in the market earlier. I said yes probably, and he inquired whether I knew Khmer. I said yes a little, and his response was “that’s hot.” Another group of guys informed us that being in the Peace Corps is also “hot.” Who knew?

5)Favorite host family moments: I came downstairs the other day and my little sisters/nieces I guess, had tied leggos to the bottom of their shoes and were “ice skating” on a wooden table top. It was precious. They then serenaded me with a number of English songs they had learned in school. Foo, the 2 year old, is one of my favorite humans. This week my favorite Foo moments included him getting PISSED that I cannot understand his tiny little voice, him crying when we left for English class at the health center (me, one of my health center nurses, and the 4 girls), and coming outside in the morning to find Foo squatting on the side of the main highway in Cambodia outside the family shop taking care of business. This phased no one.

Happy Merry Christmas and a Whole lot of Change

So I moved. I refrained from writing about it until the issue had resolved itself. Now, after two months, it finally has. As you all know, I really enjoyed the family I was placed with at my permanent site. There was just one big problem. My bedroom did not have real walls. Two of them were plastic siding that you couldnt even lean on and didn't even block out light, least of all noise. One of them was actually a curtain which separated my room from a drop off into the living room below. This also was not so great for sound proofing. While I loved the family it became more and more difficult to continue living with them with no means to get away and have a retreat from the constant noise of living with a large family. When I began realizing how much it was effecting my sleep and health, I realized a change would be necessary. This is something I felt a large amount of anxiety and guilt about. Not only did I want to avoid offending the family and be able to maintain relationships with them but I was also battling feelings of failure and selfishness that I just could not maintain my sanity, health, and happiness in that living situation. Slowly but surely I have come to make peace with the fact that I do have needs and that is okay. I don't need lush accomodation. I do not need running water or toilet paper. I can do without TV and internet. Etc...and so forth. But, I need to have space to think. I need a quiet space to get away to. That is not something I will ever be able to compromise and stay healthy. And that is okay.

I moved a few days before Christmas into a home with two yays (grandmothers) and a 2 year old boy. I live next door to one of my health center nurses and 4 darling girls (8-12). The space I have been provided to live in is large, clean, and lovely, and most importantly, peaceful. My new family has made me feel welcomed into their home. They even had a surprise "welcome to the family" dinner party for me my first night there. I feel so fortunate to finally have this issue resolved in such a positive way and feel ready to really dig in after the holidays.

My first Christmas away from home was spent with Jayne, one of my closest friends from the states. We spent Christmas eve with another volunteer at my site then headed into Phnom Penh on Christmas afternoon. We spent some quality time eating cheese and crackers watching really bad Christmas TV movies then proceded to meet up with some other PCVs for dinner and drinks. I can honesly say it was my first Christmas at a night club experience. As much as I missed my home and my family during the holiday it was a huge blessing to have Jayne here and it was great to finally have "lock down" over so that we could meet up with other volunteers for a few days of R&R.

Now back to the real world. Well until New Years :)

“New information buy two give one”

I this week I decided to try something new. I gave an actual creative assignment to one of my classes. After they got over their shock and rage however, they turned in some great work. The assignment was to make their own advertisment. It has to include a title for the product, a picture of the product, price, and one persuasive "if...must" statement. The folowing is a list of some of my favorite quotes from the assignment:

1)" WElcome! Welcome! every body who is the customer that always want light teeth and beauty; dont forget number 1 special toothpaste for every body's tooths and mouth called "toothpaste herbal natural" it made frome nature really! really!...if you have bad smell in your mouth nobody want to near you, so you must buy toothpaste and that toothpaste is "herbal natural" that make you life to be happy, don't worry about problem of mouth and teeth.”

2)“If you have wedding or join the party you always need jewelry to make more your beauty.”

3)“...if you want your teeth have healthy teeth you must use toothpaste to recive what good in your life and future. It has polite cost for you. Moreover when you used toothpaste produce SARAHA you must get what good to others. And when you say with someone makes them like you because you have smell good teeth nice and they are interesting with you so much.”

4)“Wellcomes! Wellcomes! All of customers that have an attention to buy clothing...if you want to make your body so good and you want a modern or ancient clothing. You must buy them in our shop...”

5)“It have a good smell for you if you used it your hair must will smooth all time. Harry up hary up will not hopeless.”

and my personal favorite,

6) “New information buy two give one” (somehow not quite what I think this student meant to say)

While the english in these may be in need of a little help, I vastly appreciated the critical thought my students put into advertising their products :)

And here are a fwe assignment quotes from students of a fellow volunteer:

"If I met the president of the US, I would say “love.”
"If I was a bird I would fly to see your face every day and all night…”
"I wont take a bath unless you near me…."