The Joys of Dry Season

Not only is dry season HOT. It is also the time for weddings and various other celebrations. Meaning it is painfully loud more often than not...but also pretty fun when you partake in the festivities.





Additionally dry season is absolutely FILTHY. Without the rain to knock the dust out of the air you get a thin layer of dirt on just about everything. Today I decided to undertake cleaning my mosquito net, window screens, pillow cases and fan.

We aren't very good tourists...

Back in Cambodia after a short trip to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. We had a great time but definitely did not manage to make it to a lot of the popular tourist destinations in and around the city. We did however make it to McDonalds, starbucks, dunkin donuts, subway, pizza hut, auntie annes, chillis, and a number of other fine eateries. We also made it to the movie theater twice, and to at least 5 malls. (we did some sight seeing stuff too though, the towers, a mosque, independence square, china town...)



KL is clean and bustling and diverse. It was a nice break.

Or July...

Scratch that. Turns out our entire group now has the same COS date. Not logical PC. Not logical at all. Oh well... all k3s (unless they choose to extend) will be out of Cambodia on July 12th. At least that eliminates one decision I have to make about my life in the near future!

Ah JUNE?

The latest bit of big news is that my close of service date was moved up a month. This means that all volunteers in my group (unless they file to extend) will be out of Cambodia by July 12th. While this does not actually make that big of a difference since I was planning to try and leave in July anyway, it did trigger a little bit of a freak out.

I think we are all kind of in Limbo mode. Many of the volunteers (myself included) who have applied to graduate school have not heard back yet. For everyone else, it is still a bit early start looking for jobs back home. Having one month less to figure it out puts the pressure on a bit. I think I will feel better about it, either way, once I know about grad school. The not knowing is the hardest thing. When you have a vague idea of what’s coming you can start trying to wrap your mind around it. At the moment I don’t know whether to be wrapping my mind around a visit to the states before I am of again to re-enter the academic world…or looking for a job, and deciding what academic pursuits are next.

I feel like the start of my time here dragged and once I got settled in and learned to love this place it all flew by, now I don’t feel ready to leave.

On another note I am working with a number of other volunteers on a series of projects over the next few months that I’m very excited about. Plans are in the works for a women’s day event in March focusing on women’s independence, balancing work and family, and women’s health. Later in March there are plans to do a community service project for Peace Corps’ 50th anniversary, and in April I am planning a workshop with a friend in my provincial town on violence and consent for my 12th grade students.

Next week I am off to Malaysia!

Cheers!

I don’t even know where to start, it’s been so long since I last wrote and the last month has been so eventful. I suppose I will begin with saying that I now have internet at site and so, hopefully, will not have this problem in future! Prepare to hear from me a lot more often.

Liv got here on the 16th and was able to spend some time with me at my site before heading to Phnom Penh to pick up Ryan and celebrate Christmas. This was eventful for a number of reasons. First, Liv came to school with me one day and met my students. We did a Q and A session with her and she received some excellent inquiries. My favorites were:

1)Why is your hair different (from mine)?
2)Why are your eyes brown?
3)Student: “what is your religion?”
Olivia: “I don’t have one”
Student: “Oh, how do you feel when you are alone?”
Olivia: “I feel fine. I like to be alone sometimes.”
Student: “Do you ever cry out to God at night?”
Olivia: ______________________________

I might have to give a simple genetics lesson in future. We also had karaoke time, something that tends to happen on any special or not so special occasion at school.



In addition to having Olivia at site, we also had some other house guests. My Yays have a brother who moved to France during/after/because of the Khmer Rouge. He married a French woman, and they have 3 French/Khmer children (same ages as me and my siblings). They came to visit my host family for a week and a half in December. The preparations began months ago. Everytime I left for a while I would come home to some new addition, framed photos on the walls, new curtains, floor mats, mattresses, etc… It was a lot of fun getting to hang out with them (as they spoke some English and come from a culture much more similar to my own) but also kind of bizarre as they did not speak Khmer. There is nothing in my life experience that can relate to having family who I have only met a couple of times and with whom I am unable to communicate. There were several excellent Foo moments during this trip. I love him, but he is becoming a bit of a terror. His offences during those few days included: hitting me in the nose with an electric mosquito racket, punching me in the chest, picking his nose and wiping it on my arm, and punching me HARD in the mouth (he was aiming for his twin sister who was sitting in my lap). Liv and I joined the French fam for dinner one night and I drank a beer, something I rarely do at site. While we were sitting there I hear Foo yelling “CHER, LOOK!” so I turned around and there was Foo and his sister holding beer bottles and cheers-ing, they then romped on over to cheers with me. I was mortified until I saw the girls refilling the bottles with tea…then it was just funny.

Christmas was pretty low key. There were a lot of Peace Corps volunteers in Phnom Penh for the holidays so Liv and I went out to dinner with some of my friends then out dancing later. Christmas day we just lounged by the pool and then went to dinner for another friend’s birthday. Ry sadly could not get a flight in until late Christmas night. Once he joined us though we did some lounging, some shopping, and got some photos taken.

For new years we went down to the beach where we ate, drank, danced, and greeted the New Year by running into the ocean during a fireworks show. Not a bad way to ring in 2011. I suppose this is the part where I talk about my resolutions for this year. So, here goes:
In 2011 I hope to:
1)It has occurred to me in the last year and half how much pressure I put on myself as a result of my culture, my academic background, my religious affiliation and community, etc… As someone who strives to be open minded, loving, and forgiving, it’s alarming to realize how closed minded, unloving, and unforgiving I often am toward myself. So in 2011, preparing to get back into the fast paced, competitive, academic, western world, I am going to strive to be kind to and patient with myself.

2)We learn many behaviors, coping mechanisms, and communication styles, for our families, friends, and communities at large. One that I have been coming to terms with is my tendency to present hurt as anger. Acknowledging when other peoples’ words or actions are hurtful creates vulnerability and it is easier to react with anger or feigned indifference. Neither of these responses show love. Angry reactions reconcile nothing and acting like you don’t care when you do is a coward’s cop out. This year I am going to strive to call a spade a spade.

3)Blog more than once a month!

Lots of love to everyone back home! Happy New Year!

Don't think about something....

The last few weeks have been pretty eventful. Lots going on. I have been sitting here thinking about what I want to write, but I keep losing motivation so I figured I would give the very abridged version.

Over water festival weekend I went to Siem Reap and spent time with other volunteers and tried to avoid the masses. Phnom Penh is out of control during Water Festival with people pouring in from all over the country. Many of you have probably seen news reports or read about the stampede during this years celebrations which lead to the deaths of roughly 350 Khmer people. Fortunately there were no peace corps volunteers or staff involved but many of the communities in which we live and work were effected. Being so far removed from Phnom Penh, it has had less of an impact on my community than those of many other volunteers. Irregardless of location though, it was a tragedy for the entire country, which has had more than its share already.

On a happier note! This Thanksgiving was one He!! of a production. There was an in service training held in my provintial town on the friday following Thanksgiving for all of the new volunteers. Soooo 8 or so of us spent the better part of 2 days cooking thanksgiving dinner for about 80 people. I made brownies, sugar cookies, and apple crisp for dessert, and pitched in here and there with the dinner preparations. I rubbed a raw turkey with oil. This was a big step in overcoming my touching raw meat phobia. I would also reccommend basting turkeys with Anchor Beer. They turned out great. It was a lot of work but a lot of fun, I may even have enjoyed the prep for the big meal more than the big meal itself. As tradition dictates: I am Thankful to have now spent two great Thanksgivings in Cambodia.

The latest and greatest at site moments include:

1) discovering khmer dance aerobics at my market. They are hard core about it too.
2) Best awkward Foo conversation:
Foo: CHER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! WHAT ARE YOU DOING!?!?
Me: GETTING DRESSED
Foo: Can I watch a little please?
Me: (SILENCE............).....No.
* He has stopped trying to follow me into the bathroom when I showed which is a step in the right direction.
3) People laughing hard over my boldily harm/stupidity/clumsiness. I showed one of the nurses at the healthcenter that I had burned my chin with a curling iron. She started howling with laughter. Thought it was about the funniest thing ever and then started talking over patients to tell the other nurses about it. They are all still making fun of me about it. I am not sure I will ever fully understand khmer sense of humor, but I appreciate the ability to make people laugh.
4) Assessment exam responses. Very few of my students were able to get to the essay questions in this exam I gave last week...only one out of the 80 or so kids that took it, was able to get to the last question. It was something along the lines of "talk about some dangers or health hazards in Cambodia and how to avoid them." Her response was (abridged version):
There is bodys healthy and hearts healthy. For bodys healthy eat good food [blah blah etc...] For heart's healthy: 1)Try not to stress, 2)Try to be happy all time, 3) Don't work so much, 4) Don't think about something.

So there you have it, the keys to emotional health and stability. Don't work, don't stress, don't think, and be happy!

Safety & Security

Recently I went for a walk down the dirt road I lived on for the first few months at site, it winds back through rice fields and houses. While walking I ran into my old neighbor. She asked me if I was afraid to walk alone and I naturally said no and continued on my way. I passed a few more houses with people who waved and asked where I was going. I kept walking and was invited to sit and "talk play" with a family, so I did. When I got up to go with the intention to walking farther they scolded me and told me to go home because it was 5:00p. They seemed to be looking past me so turned and saw a random guy sitting on his moto just staring at us. Or me rather. I had seen him ride his moto past me at least 4 times while I was walking. So, I turned around and walked back towards town. Then I started thinking again about the question "are you afraid?" and why I am not. It occurred to me that people like that family are why I feel safe walking alone on backroads.

Now I am sitting in a hotel room in Siem Reap and thinking about why I feel perfectly safe leaving my moneyand passport on the night stand and my laptop and ipod on the bed while in a huge tourist town on one of the bussiest weekends of the year(Water festival). I think last night is a pretty good illustration of why. My roommate and I came back late after going out dancing to find that they had pulled the gate over the doors shut. Getting locked out of your guest house could be cause for alarm, but they knew we were out and left the gate slightly open so we could get back in. The two women who run the front desk were asleep on cots in the lobby and we did not want to wake them so we hopped behind the counter to look for our key. We could not find it. Naturally I am thinking...well if we could get in and just jump behing the counter then anyone could do it...But eventually we woke one of the women and she laughed, lifted up her pillow, and handed us our room key.

When we all first got to country we were told, as were PC trainees all over the world I am sure, that the best way to ensure our personal safety was to build relationships in our communities. After a little over a year I can say I think they are right.I feel safe walking alone in my community because I cannot go 10 feet without being greeted, asked where I am going, or asked to join a family in whatever they happen to be doing at the time (usually eating rice or talk playing). Moreover they warn me when something is off (subtly, but still). I feel safe leaving my valuables in a hotel room in Siem Reap because the ladies downstairs call me sister, know where I live and who I came here to visit, and sleep with my room key under their pillow!