I got you behind

This past week has been a bit of a whirlwind. On tuesday afternoon all of the K3 trainees met in Takeo for a "seminar day" during which we learned our final site assignments. The Peace Corps staff made a huge outline of Cambodia with chalk and little rocks and placed flags all throughout. We were each given an envelope, one by one, with out permanent placement and asked to stand by our flag. It was really kind of cool to see everyone scattered through our miniature version of Cambodia. I will be heading to a district town in the north of Battambang province.

Wednesay we headed to Phnom Penh (where I am currently) for our "counterpart conference" where we met the Cambodian counterpart we will likely be working with for the next two years. My counterpart is an easily amused man in his late 30s who worked with the K1 volunteer I will be reaplacing. I made up my ming that I will like working with him when he informed me, during a session on building fruitfull counterpart relationships, that if I was angry or sad I could tell him...but if I cried he would laugh at me. I promptly informed him that that was fine, but I would also laugh at him if he cried. At this point one of the other Khmer teachers from my province informed me that "men do not cry. they go to the restaurant and drink two beers." So guys, if you are ever feeling down, that's the cure. Two beers in a restaurant. Later on that same day my counterpart asked me if I was going to stand up and present to the group what we had been discussing. I said no, as I will rarely speak in front of a large group voluntarily. He laughed and replied with "It's ok, I got you behind." It is my new favorite Khmer translation of American slang, but at any rate; I am glad my co-teacher "has my back."

Random story purely for the readers enjoyment:

During language class this week one of the other trainees decided to teach the word "bullshit"to one of our LCFs (language instructors). He asked how to spell it and wrote it down on a peice of paper. The next day he walked into seminar day with an official peace corps folder that had "BULLSHIT" written across the bottom in large black sharpied letters. I laughed...it's the little things.