Jeremy's Travels

I’m coming to you from inside the Cu Chi tunnels near Saigon. Well, I’m actually back in Cambodia, but please pretend I’m blogging from the tunnel.

The Cu Chi tunnels are an immense network of small tunnels that the Vietcong used to stage guerilla operations. The guerillas hid in the tunnels by day and farmed at night. The tunnels also protected them from U.S. bombings. Near the tunnels, they set traps, such as this one:

The tunnels are incredibly narrow, so only small Vietnamese people and in many cases child soldiers (male or female) could go through them. Big, fat American “enemies” had trouble fitting in. I crouched and walked 20 yards in a tunnel that was expanded for tourists and I was hurting. Guerillas sometimes spent a week in the tunnels if there were a lot of bombings.

Despite the Vietnamese national pride in killing Americans and “kicking the Americans out” (as one of my Vietnamese friends said), the tunnels are also emblematic of the impression Vietnam gave me. Vietnamese people are nationalistic and proud of their history, but just as the tunnels were expanded for tourists, Vietnam is opening up to the world and inviting people to visit.

I encountered Vietnam’s welcoming of foreigners in many forms: people eager to practice their English, street vendors smiling and laughing when we tried Vietnamese food, nationalistic exhibitions that promote peace and cooperation and young, trendy people telling me what they think about Vietnam’s future and interaction with the rest of the world.

Of course, I do not have the intimate view of Vietnam that I have of Cambodia. In Cambodia, I live and work with the rural people who make up most of the population. In Vietnam, I was mainly exposed to the urban elite as a tourist. So the people I met in Vietnam are probably more progressive than the majority of the population that inhabits the countryside.

I went through Vietnam with Allie, a friend from America. We took a boat down the Mekong River from Cambodia to Chau Doc, a fishing village with a population of about 100,000.

View from the Mekong River:

At the market in Chau Doc:

Our first meal had to be Pho, a Vietnamese noodle soup with beef. The beef is raw and cooks in the soup. We got the Pho from a family-run food cart that had a nice crowd. (When eating street food, always follow the crowds; if people keep going there, they must not be getting sick.) The vendors barely spoke any English, but were delighted as they watched us try the food. The father saw that I liked spicy food and kept trying to get me to eat bigger and bigger peppers.

Then we went for a walk around the park by the water. The park was bustling with women power-walking, children taking karate classes and couples eating food from the various carts and watching their children play. Coming from rural Cambodia, I was happy to see children play in clean areas, sometimes with toys, as opposed to in the dirt, perhaps with garbage.

Allie was blown away when a group of school children surrounded us and started bombarding us with questions in English. At first, we thought this was a trick to rob the foreigners. But, the children genuinely wanted to practice their English and they were too cute for us not to oblige.

Later, another man came up to practice his English and invited us to visit the school where he works. This is common in the Cambodian countryside (when I ride my bike, people frequently pull up next to me on their motos to practice English and I’ve been invited to too many English schools), but I was not expecting it in Vietnam. A student even came up to me at a park in Saigon to practice his English.

After Chau Doc, we made our way to Phu Quoc, a beautiful island, and just relaxed by the beach.

The quiet beach at Phu Quoc:

Then we flew to Saigon. Allie and I saw the War Remnants Museum and a nationalist exhibition in front of the opera house. Both contained propaganda about the Vietnam War, but ended with optimism about the future: Vietnam opening up to the world and cooperating with other countries, even America.

After Allie left, I spent a few more days in Saigon. I did the Cu Chi Tunnel tour with a tour group. Then, I spent the last two days in Vietnam with Tony, a friend I made through couchsurfing.com.

Couchsurfing.com is an amazing project. Briefly, it’s a social-networking site designed so people can share experiences and cultures. You mainly use it to meet people when you travel and perhaps for a place to stay. There are various mechanisms that make it safe to use, like being able to recommend other people. For example, when I was looking for people to meet in Saigon, I saw that a lot of people had recommended Tony, a native of Saigon, and wrote about their positive experiences with him.

So, I met Tony for dinner on Friday. He took me to a nice restaurant where we had a hot pot, which was a soup where we cook the meat, seafood and vegetables at the table. We talked a lot about our travel experiences since he works in tourism. We also talked about our lives and made a lot of cultural comparisons, mostly about the standard differences between American and Asian culture. For example, Americans like to directly confront someone, but Asians will avoid confrontation and use a third party to communicate when there is a problem. My host-brothers sometimes come to me when someone else in a family has a problem with something I did. Tony also gave me some great recommendations for places to get breakfast and coffee the next morning.

Tony looking at the hot pot:

After following Tony's delicious recommendations, I met Tony again on Saturday. He took me to see some temples and markets. Then, we went to a café where we met up with some of his other friends. The group all spoke English well and wore trendy clothes and had iphones.

Here is us at the café:

I ended up spending most of the day with them. For dinner, they took me to a great seafood restaurant where many Vietnamese university students go. We had snails, shrimp and clams, among other foods.

Snail:

I also got to hear their thoughts about Vietnam and its future. Vietnam has experienced a lot of economic growth. Although ruled by the Communist Party, the ruling party is described by the economist as “ardently capitalist communists.” I got the sense Tony and his friends were happy that Vietnam was liberalizing. They were all interested in business and shopping and spoke positively of Vietnam interacting with China and other neighbors and being more open in the future.

View of Saigon:

Businesses are not fearful to work around attempts at control by the government. Internet providers block facebook.com at the behest of the government. However, Facebook still works in some places because, as Tony pointed out, you can just call the Internet provider and they will unblock it for you.

I look forward to coming back to Vietnam as it continues to open up to the world. I’m interested to see what kind of society emerges from the fusion of capitalism and Vietnamese nationalism. However, I hope most of the people and the food will stay the same.

Health Education

2010-06-04T20:47:00.000-07:00

A woman cleans a raw chicken and then eats a bowl of rice with her hands. Naked children play in mud and then their parents peel a rambutan (a small, red spiky fruit) and hand it to them to eat. This is the sort of scene I see all the time in Cambodia, where basic hygiene, like washing one’s hands, is not yet common practice. Poor hygiene adds to Cambodia’s disease burden, which includes serious diarrhea and exotic mosquito born-illnesses. The disease burden contributes to the low life expectancy in Cambodia; the average Cambodian born today is expected to live to be 60. That’s why I devote a lot of time to working with Cambodians to encourage better hygiene practices.

Here is a photo of children in the mud:

From blog 8-10

Behavioral change is a slow process. However, by empowering community members to speak out about health concerns, people can spread proper health practices. I believe this is crucial for Cambodians to take better care of themselves and for Cambodia to continue to develop.

One thing I do is bike around the district with some of my students. We stop when we see groups of people idly chatting by their houses. We then give them a short presentation about hygiene. When they answer questions at the end, we give them candy or toothbrushes. The toothbrushes come from hotels all over Cambodia because I’ve asked other Peace Corps Volunteers to collect complimentary toothbrushes for me.

Here is a picture of a presentation:

From hygiene bike ride july 2010

These students are from my summer English Club. Once a week, we focus on health. While teaching about health, I have the students practice their public-speaking skills to explain the health concepts. I do this because, in addition to practicing poor hygiene, most students slouch and speak quietly and quickly because they are too nervous to speak in public. Therefore, it is satisfying when I see students in front of a group smiling, as they interact with the audience during our health education bike rides.

I was also surprised to learn I’ve opened some of my students’ eyes to community service (Most people I work with are already inclined to it). One of my students told me (in English) when we were biking back one day that he was “happy to participate with me” and that this was his first time doing anything like this. His interest was of particular value to me considering I didn’t even expect him to show up. When I announced the bike rides, he told me he didn’t have a bike (he borrowed one) and he is usually busy tending his cows.

My presence makes health campaigns a memorable experience for the audience since many of the rural villagers have never seen a westerner, let alone one who speaks Khmer (albeit with poor pronunciation).

The information I share is also regarded highly. This was pointed out to me after a morning of giving health presentations in the village with the health center staff (a separate program from my English club). A nurse explained to me over rice and soup that Cambodian people don’t trust information from other Cambodians, but they trust information from a white foreigner (having light skin implies you are wealthier and aren’t out in the fields all day, so Cambodians want light skin). The nurse was exaggerating, as Cambodian people like to do when they compliment you, but there is some truth in what he said. Whenever I am sick, everyone I know gives me medical advice that would result in a lawsuit in America. One of my friends got bitten by a feral cat, and the locally prescribed remedy was to put some Chinese balm on it. Luckily, he chose to call the Peace Corps doctor instead.

The health center outreach usually takes place at a village chief or village health volunteer’s house (the district is divided into communes and villages). These houses serve as a rudimentary health clinic. They provide basic information and distribution of things like water filters, but no medicine or expert consultation. Local health services are essential, since health centers and hospitals can be too far for a poor villager to go. Many villagers live ten miles from a health center and most live 20 from an actual hospital. It is also difficult for a villager to miss a day of rice farming or leave their animals unattended.

The village chief sometimes invites villagers to come to the health outreach with a loudspeaker that can go nearly a half-mile. This is necessary because the villages are so spread out and the nurses only go to each village once every two months. While I like the loudspeakers when they are providing health services, I dislike them when they are used to promote a social event. 4 am announcements for a festival or all-night wedding music are not uncommon, as there are no noise ordinances in Cambodia.

It’s interesting how something as simple as washing hands is institutionalized in a society. In America, we take for granted how easy it is to find a sink, soap and a clean towel, all right next to each other. When I eat lunch at my host-family’s shop, I keep a clean towel in my bag to dry my hands and the place where I wash my hands and where the soap is kept are far apart. I’m the only one in my host-family who washes my hands before meals.

The lack of hand-washing is present in the medical establishment as well. I’ve been to offices staffed by doctors, who are supposed to monitor health in large areas, but lack soap and towels in the bathroom!

Alcohol is also a serious problem in Cambodia. A Cambodian drinking party, which frequently occurs in the middle of the work day, consists of men sitting around a table. The drinks of choice are beer with ice or rice wine that burns as it goes down (Rice wine translates from Khmer to English as white wine and I go through pains trying to explain that we drink white wine made from grapes in America. They find the idea of our white wine revolting, oddly enough). There are usually some peanuts and meat - dog meat is sometimes served at this time. No one takes a sip of their drink unless everyone takes a sip. If anyone is drinking too slow or does not drink when the rest of the group drinks, they are ridiculed and badgered until they drink more, as if they are a college freshman trying to get into the drunkest fraternity. This is the norm; high ranking officials and the poorest farmers drink in this manner regularly regardless of age.

From blog 8-10

While there are radio and TV ads encouraging good hygiene, not much is being done about alcoholism in Cambodia. However, Samon (the teacher I do a lot of projects with) and a group have been spearheading the effort locally, by biking around the village to educate people about alcoholism and having community meetings to discuss it. His group wants to get a law passed so children under 16 cannot buy alcohol (there is currently no law about who can buy alcohol).

Here, we stopped at one of the drinking parties. Usually they are friendly, but sometimes drunk people can be angry or rude as you’d imagine:

Some of our group with their bikes and our posters:

When we give the presentation, we show pictures of the heart, liver and brain and talk about the effects long-term alcohol use can have:

This home-made poster talks about some of the dangers of excessive alcohol use:

The top right is a sick person. Many people in the rural areas listen to traditional healers who tell them that alcohol can cure their illnesses. During one presentation, a person was trying to tell us that even though raw toad is poisonous, if you mix it with rice wine, it becomes medicine.

Here I am, explaining some of the pictures:

At my English club, I was teaching students how to talk about their daily schedules. One student explained how in the evenings he does housework, watches TV and then has dinner. Another student, who is usually shy, says “You forgot something.” We all wonder what. Then the quiet student explains, “You forgot that you need to wash your hands before you eat dinner.”

From hygiene bike ride july 2010

Khmer New Year

2010-05-08T19:33:00.000-07:00

Khmer New Year usually consists of lots of family time, feasts and dancing. The official holiday is three days long (April 14-16), but school closes for five weeks and there is holiday cheer in the air for at least two weeks leading up to the holiday.

Depending on the occupation and wealth of the family, the holiday can last between one day and a week. For example, farmers, even though they are usually poor, have a lot of time to celebrate the holiday since it is not harvest or planting time. Sellers at the market, like my family, even if they are rich, need to work because business is good during Khmer New Year. And the extremely wealthy can celebrate a long time, while those who are poor do not celebrate much because they do not have enough money.

The holiday requires buying lots of food and drinks and making donations at pagodas or dance sites where people congregate. So, Khmer people spend a lot of money during the holiday. Following the holiday, I asked people if they “were happy on Khmer New Year.” Most people would say yes, but the reason a lot of people said no was because they did not have any money.

As a result of the cost of celebrating, many thefts occur around the holiday because people want money. My family said business was great during Khmer New Year, but afterward, it was not good because people spent all their money.

April 13
The day before Khmer New Year, I went on a bike ride to different pagodas with Samon (a teacher I work with on projects a lot) and some students. The students who attended are a lot of my students who are active in the community. We had planned to play a lot of traditional Khmer games and talk about not drinking too much on the holiday (any time Cambodian people have free time, excessive binge drinking occurs), but we mostly just played games. Many games resembled western games, like duck duck goose, tug of war and tag.

From pre-khmer new year 2010

This game was my favorite. On one end of an area are two full water bottles and on one end are two empty water bottles. The participants race each other to fill the empty ones. But, they have to transport the water across the area from one water bottle to another in their mouths.

From pre-khmer new year 2010

Cows are always wondering around Cambodia. No big deal, we just chase them away.

From pre-khmer new year 2010

April 14 (Day 1)
By 10 AM, the festivities had begun. Most of the men in my extended host family got together.

All the men enjoying food and beer. . .

… while the women cook.

April 15
The next day, I spent time with Samon and his family. They made Khmer traditional cakes, which are basically rice with either banana or sugar wrapped in a banana leaf. But, the wrapping process is excessively complicated. I couldn’t do it.

Then Samon and I went for a walk, stopping at a few small dance parties.

Khmer children love climbing trees. No one seems concerned about their safety.

Samon and I with blue tongues after eating the berries that the tree climber gave us.

April 16 (Day 3 and my birthday)
Khmer people to not celebrate birthdays except for old rich people, so my birthday was uneventful, except for some phone calls from America.

At least there were parties though.

One Khmer New Year tradition is to put powder on people. It’s supposedly came about as an excuse so the opposite sex can touch each other for once, but it’s also a way for kids to be cute.

April 17 (Day 4?)
Some people continued to celebrate for a few more days, but I was partied out.

Khmer New Year was interesting and I enjoyed going to a lot of different places. I’m also happy to get back to work. In my next post, I’ll talk about some the health education I’ve been doing in the rural villages with the health center staff.

Bamboo Train

2010-04-27T23:08:00.000-07:00

Over the summer, I rode the bamboo train to a remote village to learn about rural health education. It was raining, so I didn't bring my camera, which I regret. It was especially unfortunate because I did not expect to ride the train again. Luckily, I found an article about the train, which also includes a picture:
http://tinyurl.com/2uv7xqw

(if the link doesn't work, the article is called "End of the line for Cambodia's bamboo trains" from the LA Times)

Notice the 5th paragraph, which is particularly accurate in my case. We were usually the lighter train, so had to get off and take the entire train off the track.

How lonely and bored am I actually?

2010-04-11T20:32:00.000-07:00

There is this notion of Peace Corps Volunteers, out in the middle of the jungle in a straw hut by themselves. They don’t have much to do, so it’s just them on a hammock with a pile of books. Right now, this is sort of my life, only it’s a big cement house and my books are on a shelf. But even now, during the hottest month leading up to Khmer New Year, my life is interesting. And, I’m certainly never bored.

What I’m talking about here is only my personal experience in Cambodia. I am lucky that I have a few coworkers that are fairly committed to teaching and interested in doing projects to help their community. The truth is, it’s hard to projects here if you don’t have Cambodian people who take ownership of the projects. I know one volunteer who lives in a place where no one ever comes to school. He is in a very rural place and some volunteers live in more urban areas, as well.

The way my district is laid out is also to my advantage. My house, the market, the school and the health center are close together. So, I walk everywhere. I’m fairly outgoing and Cambodian people love talking to foreigners, so I spend a lot of time practicing my Khmer and making connections in my community. I’m always learning something new about Khmer culture and it’s still exciting to meet new people.

Typically, between teaching, networking, practicing Khmer and projects, I’m usually kept pretty busy for most of the day, especially by Peace Corps Cambodia standards. On a typical day, I only get to try to make a dent in my shelf full of books for one or two hours.

What about loneliness? You’d think being around people almost all day and being busy would prevent me from being homesick and lonely. Most of the time, this is the case. Some days, I really do miss people though (and food! It’s just not the same, even in Phnom Penh). It’s not only being homesick, but what I like to call being “culture sick.” Since the language and culture are different here, things don’t function as I perceive to be normal. For example, people talk about different things here and handle social interactions differently. It wearss on me sometimes.

There’s also the issue of being pretty much the only foreigner where I live, and even when I go to Phnom Penh I stand out. In my district, people always want to talk to me, which is usually nice, but can occasionally be bothersome. People also tend to think that I have deep pockets since I’m a foreigner. Now that a lot of people know me in my district, this is less of a problem, but I still occasionally have a seller trying to quadruple the price of something that I bought from the same stand for the real price a few days ago. In Phnom Penh, they can’t believe that I could possibly want to walk somewhere. I must want a moto or a tuk tuk (a cart pulled by a motorcycle), so they constantly ask me if I want a ride.

Overall though, loneliness, homesickness and culture sickness have not been a problem. Perhaps the summer could be troublesome if the projects I want to do don’t get off the ground, but during this vacation I have lots of downtime and it’s been great.

As I’ve mentioned, Cambodia gradually shuts down leading up to Khmer New Year (April 14-16). I have not had school in weeks and other things stop as people spend more time with family and relaxing. This is a chance for me to read a lot more. I also spend time with my Cambodian friends. I am invited to celebrations and festivals that families have to honor their ancestors. I also just walk around and chat with my neighbors.

I never eat my meals alone. I eat my breakfast at a variety of food stall and all the sellers know me and we chat, or I meet new people who are also eating there. Then, I eat lunch and dinner with my host-family. They are a bunch of jokers. After lunch the other day, they were telling me that they want my Peace Corps friend from another district to switch places with me because they want another girl in the family. I knew they were joking, but afterward, one of my host-brothers, who I help with English sometimes, made certain to clarify for me: “They don’t really want you to leave; they just want to make you happy after lunch.”

It’s all about being happy in Cambodia. “How are you?” directly translates to “happy?” Two common questions I’m asked if I’m happy when I come to Cambodia and if I miss home. I answer yes to both.

Note: April is also great because it’s mango season! One mango costs between 200 and 500 riel (4-13 cents). I usually eat between two and six a day.

Weddings

2010-03-25T20:50:00.000-07:00

Sorry I haven’t posted in a while. I’ve been really busy with teaching and projects, but now things are slowing down. I have one more big project this weekend, and then there’s pretty much 4-6 weeks of no school for the Khmer New Year (April 14-16). Yes, a three day holiday requires that much time off from school.

Another thing I’ve been busy with is Khmer weddings because it’s wedding season. Wedding season is in the dry season so that they don’t have to worry about rain. I’ll give you a rundown of my co-teacher Sopheap’s weddings.

Sopheap and his fiancee been engaged for almost a year, but they had to wait until wedding season and he had to save up for the dowry. Khmer weddings are a combination of independent courtship and family approval and arrangement. I believe Sopheap met his wife on his own, but their families knew each other.

A few weeks before the wedding, the couple and their relatives give invitations to their friends. But, there is no need to rsvp, just come or don’t come.

Khmer people like going to weddings, but usually money determines if they go. Instead of giving gifts, Khmer people put cash in the invitation envelope and then they have to go to a table where they record how much they give. So, poorer families may have trouble going to all the weddings that they are invited to.

Some Peace Corps Volunteers are bothered by weddings because Khmer people only invite them because they think foreigners have a lot of money. I am lucky that the people who invite me to weddings just want me to be happy there and don’t want me to give money. I always try to give the standard amount, but my Khmer friends always try to drag me away from the table before I can give the money.

Weddings are usually one day, but can sometimes be more. Sopheap’s wedding was one day. Most guests don’t arrive until the evening. The morning involves a lot of pictures and kneeling. During the whole ceremony, the bride and groom change clothes a lot. Here is them in one of their outfits:

This wedding was particularly fun because a few other Peace Corps Volunteers came and they decided to get traditional Khmer make-up. I thought they looked goofy, but all the Khmer people thought they looked very pretty. The three girls on the right are wearing traditional Khmer make-up:

When you arrive at a wedding, you are given a seat and have to wait for everyone to be seated at your table before you are given food and drinks. So, it’s good to arrive with your friends.

Here is me with the vice-school director and one of my other co-teachers, Solen (right):

Here is me with Solen and a biology teacher:

The food is always really good at weddings and usually involves a few courses. Some wedding tables are tamer than others, but most of the weddings I’ve been at involve a lot of drinking.

The groom doesn’t drink much, but sometimes he cheers with guests, or the vice school director forces him to drink.

Then people start dancing. Khmer dancing is mostly a lot of slow, semi-graceful arm-waving and twisting. Men dance with men and women dance with women. For me, it involves a lot of drunk Khmer guys grabbing me and dragging me to the dance floor. Luckily, there is no touching involved in the actual dancing.

Weddings sometimes go until about 3am and keep all the neighbors from sleeping, but I left this one a little earlier. Now wedding season is ending and Khmer New Year season is beginning and April looks to be quite hot. I don't think I can write a blog-post about Cambodia without finding somewhere to comment on the heat and April is supposedly the hottest month. Wish me luck.

Test taking in Cambodia

2010-02-12T19:49:00.000-08:00

Things have been pretty laid back lately. The students had semester exams, which means I had a few days off. I imagine the reasons I don't have to proctor are a combination of me not being a native Khmer speaker and my strictness on cheating. Many teachers here let cheating slide or help the students cheat for a small fee (maybe 100 riel or $.02 per student is my understanding).

It's also crazy cause even when the students aren't supposed to cheat, they are incredibly bad at hiding it. If any of my students took a test in America, their test would be taken away by the teacher in about 30 seconds. They basically talk to the student next to them, blatantly look at a cheat sheet or blatantly copy the student next to them. Despite cheating, the students still get lots of answers wrong.

There is also a complete lack of study skills. Students don't really study that hard or know how to study. Many students will actually come into a test knowing nothing and just copy someone else.

The teachers are partly responsible for this. Students aren't told about a test until a day before and sometimes are not informed in advance at all. Teachers will put material on the test that hasn't been covered or even material they themselves don't know. Following the grade 10 English midterm, I had to help the teachers get the correct answer for the test that they made.

I try to do what I can to help, but the truth is, I'm not in a position to make any real difference with test taking here. When people I work with want to take on cheating and teach the students study skills, I help and advise them, but I can't do anything about it by myself.

The reality of being a Peace Corps Volunteer is that you see problems all around you, but you cannot make a sustainable difference unless native people want to solve the problems. So, I basically figure out what Cambodians want to work on and help them do it. I always mention ideas I have and try to educate people, but large scale campaigns on many issues like cheating just don't have the support. Maybe in the future I'll do a study skills workshop if my Cambodian friends want to do it with me.

A project that has gained support are the seminars Samon (a fellow teacher) and I are doing. We just hosted a leadership seminar and the school director came and spoke about leadership and the challenges he overcame. He talked about his values and how he worked hard and survived the Khmer Rouge to get where he is today. When he went to high school, he had to walk 15km (9 miles) each way, over two mountains and through the forest. Here are some pictures of the workshop:

Samon and I.

The school director.

I also have done some educating about hygiene lately. I spoke with the savings group I'm working with about hand-washing and Samon spoke with them about the importance of using a toilet. Apparently, many people have latrines, but prefer not to use them.

Onto something a little more enticing: food. Here is a picture of my breakfast the other day, the Khmer version of soup and a sandwich.

The bowl is full of Khmer porridge, which is basically rice, veggies and fish. On the right is a sandwich. In the sandwich are vegetables and meat (with the consistency of tofu), something with the texture of sauerkraut and soy sauce and hot sauce. Don't let my description fool you; it's actually delicious (though it's also possible my sandwich standards have lowered here). And yes, it is wrapped in a rubber band and a piece of copy paper. Sometimes the paper has writing on it, but not today.

This next shot is a picture of my friends at the stand where I got the food. They are very friendly people, like most Khmer people.

Here are some pictures of a few of my students. My students are also friendly and cheerful and many of them want to learn English, despite their massive amounts of cheating.

And this is someone I met when I was walking around. He's fishing in a small canal.

Next week, I have a week of Peace Corps training in Phnom Penh. Although things are going well here, it will be nice to have a break.

Some New Photos

2010-01-23T18:59:00.001-08:00

Here are a few more pictures. There’s a lot here, so please ask me questions.

The second public speaking workshop went quite well. The students learned how to write a speech and watched Obama and MLK. We explained the significance and profound impact of MLK and had the students work in groups to make and present their own speeches about their dreams.

Here’s a student introducing himself to the group:

From public speaking 1-21-10

Here are some of the students working in groups to make the dream speeches:

From public speaking 1-21-10

On Sunday, I joined a march with students and teachers, organized by a local NGO. The purpose was to encourage parents to keep their children in school. Girls are sometimes pulled out of school earlier than boys, so we also tried to promote keeping girls in school as long as boys. Taking on these issues presents a variety of daunting challenges, but the march itself was inspiring and fun. The march was 6km and many of the Khmer people were very tired after. I took some pictures of the march and some pictures of the scenery.

After the march, there were some light refreshments. This is me racing one of my students to eat a banana.

I got pretty competitive and then thought I won, but I think he beat me by a second.

On the way to the walk, I took some pictures of my neighborhood.

This is the road by my house.

This is the shop my host family owns and works at. The left is a pharmacy. The right has a clothing shop and a place to exchange money (dollars, Khmer currency and Vietnamese currency since we are close to the border)

These are some of my neighbors who I chat with a lot.

(Khmer people usually don’t smile for pictures)

Public Speaking

2010-01-16T01:12:00.000-08:00

This past week, I hosted my first successful workshop that I can take some ownership of. I think I’ve contributed to some cool workshops and community groups, but this was certainly the largest project that I helped plan and implement. A Cambodian teacher, Sam On, and I had a class about public speaking for students. It was three hours long and 64 students came.

Public speaking is particularly important here because few Cambodians know how to do it properly. In class, it is customary for students to stand up when they give answers. Most students either lean on the desk while they are standing or speak too softly. And many students lack confidence or are too shy to even speak up in class, even when they know the right answer. Not speaking up is partially cultural, due to the fear of losing face from not knowing the right answer, but it also a skill that can be developed.

Our lesson focused on how to speak in public and how to be less nervous. We played games, then I gave a bad speech and Sam On gave a good speech. We asked students to compare the differences. Then, we gave them some tips and they watched speeches in Khmer and English on my laptop and then some students came up to try to emulate the speakers. We had some speeches written, but some students made up their own.

I actually saw an improvement in the students by the end of the workshop. Instant gratification is rare as a Peace Corps Volunteer, so I felt pretty good afterward. We were planning on doing a leadership workshop next week, but the students enjoyed public speaking so much that we are going to do it again.

Here are some pictures from the event:

From for blog

This one is of my students at the workshop. The students in the front row are regulars during my free extra classes. Notice how one student has his hand resting on his friend’s inner thigh. It’s pretty typical for friends of the same sex to touch each others’ leg or even hold hands. Opposite sexes rarely touch in public, especially if they are not married.

From for blog

This is Sam On speaking to the students.

From for blog

This is a student giving a speech. Behind her is the world map, which was a project done by the Peace Corps Volunteer who lived in my district before me (I’m the second one). While I was waiting for the workshop to begin, I asked the students in Khmer where a few countries were. They were all able to find Cambodia, but struggled to find the US and other countries. They were surprised by how big China was and how small South Korea was (a lot of the music they like is from Korea). Clearly, there is still a lot of work to be done with education in Cambodia.

The workshop was in Khmer. I could do some of it in Khmer by myself, and when I could not, Sam On translated for me. My Khmer is coming along nicely. I can hold a pretty long conversation. For example, the other day I stopped at the tailor’s on the way to lunch. He fixed my shirt in about a minute, but then we ended up talking for about 20 minutes and I was late for lunch. He actually mentioned America deploying 30,000 more troops in Afghanistan and I understood him, but I’m not yet at the level of commenting or anything. All I could say was that I didn’t want to join the army and I was able to ask him if he was ever a soldier. Many Khmer people were soldiers when times were less peaceful, but he was not one.

One nice thing about learning Khmer is that few foreigners speak it, so Khmer people in the provinces are very happy when I can speak it. So, they give me a lot of positive reinforcement. I am constantly told that I speak Khmer “a lot” and I speak Khmer “clearly.” Or, they turn to their friend to discuss how I know Khmer. The other day at the market in the provincial town, where people are slightly less friendly than in my town, a bunch of sellers came over to talk to me once they found out I spoke Khmer. Oddly enough, sometimes I have conversations about how I don’t speak Khmer, even though the conversation is in Khmer.

Learning the language can also be frustrating. The down-side of few foreigners speaking Khmer it is that many people, especially older people, are not used to hearing it with a non-Khmer accent and find it difficult to understand. And, naturally, there are so many words, phrases and structures I still don’t know.

As for an interesting food and a cross-cultural experience:

An interesting food I’ve eaten lately is goy-tio chah. It’s basically fried noodles, vegetables and peanuts, but you have it with bon chio. As I mentioned in another post, bon chio is the omelet-like pancake. Together, goy-tio chah and bon chio are a delicious $.50 breakfast.

A funny cultural exchange occurred when a co-teacher of mine told me that I got fatter in Cambodia. I was a little taken aback, but he said it was a compliment. Most Khmer people are very thin, so perhaps being fat is a sign of wealth. I don’t really know my weight because none of the scales are accurate, but most of my male American friends have lost weight here. You be the judge:

From for blog

Cambodian people also love white skin. They always say how pretty my light skin is and even use creams that are supposed to whiten their skin (although I doubt they work). They also try to stay out of the sun. I think they view people with lighter skin as people who are not out in the sun farming. If someone does not need to harvest rice, it’s probably because they are wealthier. When I try to tell people that in American we want dark skin and think it's beautiful, Khmer people are usually blown away. So basically, it’s cool to be a fat white guy in Cambodia.

2010-01-01T21:42:00.000-08:00

Happy New Year everyone. It is crazy that it's 2010, which will be my first full calendar year without being in America at all.

Sorry for going so long without writing. I had a virus and my computer had a virus. So, it was hard for me to write blog posts at home. But now, I'm on the Peace Corps office computer in Phnom Penh. I'll talk about a few interesting things I've done lately and then I'll talk a little about culture.

I came into Phnom Penh for Christmas weekend and then I came again for New Year's. Normally, I try not to leave my village that much because I try to fit in and not come off as the "rich foreigner who leaves all the time." But, I made a special exception for the holidays.

Getting here is always an adventure. I catch a van on the side of the road and it costs $2.50 to get to Phnom Penh. Sometimes I have to bargain because the driver views foreigners as ATMs, but I always get it down to 2.50 which is what Khmer people pay.

Phnom Penh is not far from my village. It's only 150k, but nonetheless it takes a very long time to get there. It usually takes about 3-4 hours. The van stops constantly while they stuff as many people in there as they can. It's hard to describe the van, but an example of a car will illustrate how Khmer people like to travel. Sometimes we take a car which is a little more expensive, but is faster and has air conditioning. A 4-door sedan can have up to eight people in it, including two in the driver's seat!

The van also stops constantly along this journey and does not only carry people. I've seen them fill up with bags of rice, motos, wedding clothes and mail. Cambodia has no mail system; people just give packages or envelopes to drivers to take out to the provinces. The driver then calls the recipient and finds them. Peace Corps sends us mail this way. And, in typical Cambodia fashion, the driver calls you when he's five minutes away and expects you to be awaiting the package with no prior notice.

The trip to Phnom Penh also includes a ferry ride across the Mekong. There was supposed to be a bridge built there a few years ago, but between protest from the ferry company and the government just not getting around to it, it has not been built yet. Taking the ferry usually takes about an hour. While we wait, sellers try to sell us things ranging from bugs, to turtles to mangoes to fake sunglasses.

Phnom Penh has been a series of errands, relaxing, catching up with other volunteers and eating everything but Khmer food. Nothing that eventful happened, but the New Years countdown began at 12:02 at the place we were at. No surprise there.

Back in my village, I've been doing some interesting projects outside of my school. One is working with a savings group. It's led by an English teacher at my school and he was trained a bit by Oxfam. Basically, families get together and save money to finance other members in the group. The people who borrow pay interest, but not much. The people who are in the group don't have access to banks, so this is a way to encourage them to save and and earn interest on their savings.

Like other developing world microfinance programs, the repayment rate is extremely high. One reason for this is the communal dimension of the group. In addition to filling out paperwork (or being helped with paperwork if they cannot read), the group shares their experiences and the leader teaches them things. At the last meeting, he taught them about the differences in behavior between rich people and poor people. I'm going to help him so he can teach them about health and personal finance.

The savings group project really excites me and is something I was really hoping to do when I came here.

The teacher who leads the savings group also invited me to a conference about alcohol and health. Some university students from Singapore came to Cambodia to teach youth(mostly people age 18-25) about alcohol and health. It was a great grassroots project. It was three days, and they put us in a hotel and did a lot of lessons, skits and games. The Cambodians got to learn about the Singaporeans and it was exciting to see the Cambodians present their findings in a community fair we had at the end of the conference.

The conference is important because there is almost no awareness about alcohol in Cambodia. As I mentioned, there are pretty much no laws about alcohol here. Anyone can buy it and the drinking and driving rules are almost never enforced. Very few people realize the health concerns and people drink to get drunk. There is a saying in Cambodia that basically translates to: drink for drunk, if not drunk, why drink?

In addition to the social benefit of the conference, I made lots of friends who might want to work on alcohol projects in the future. I also now have friends in Singapore for when I visit there. It sounds like a cool place.

Some interesting cultural experiences: Khmer people do not yell when they are mad because that is seen as not being in control, which is losing face. But, they do yell when they speak to each other and many people seem to have no perception of volume. I think this is because they are traditionally farmers, so they needed to yell across large areas. Now, when they are in closed areas, they behave the same.

The other day a woman wearing two layers of pajamas even though it's hot(I will discuss style in the future accompanied by pictures, but wearing long sleeved pajamas around is normal for women), screamed at me for about 10 minutes that I should want a Khmer wife. She wasn't trying to be rude, that's just the way it is here. I'm probably asked if I want a Khmer wife about five times a day and then firmly told I should want one. It's usually the second or third thing someone I meet will say to me.

Usually, the question following whether I want a Khmer wife or not is what my salary is. Things are certaintly different here, but I'm enjoying it.

Schedule

2009-11-20T18:12:00.001-08:00

It’s actually cold here! Well, cold for Cambodia. The maybe two months where it is cool in Cambodia are beginning. It’s great to not be hot all the time and I actually may need to sleep with a blanket soon. Cambodian people are starting to wear jackets and complain about the cold. I’m still fine with just a shirt though.

I’m getting pretty comfortable here and life here is almost routine. At least one thing surprises me every day, but I’m starting to sort of know what’s going on. So, I can give you an overview of my schedule. In future posts, I will go into more detail about the work I’m doing, but here are the basics.

On weekday mornings I teach at the school. This usually consists of co-teaching 10th grade with a Cambodian counterpart in order to help them become better teachers. It’s a subtle, slow process. Monday is my long day. I go to the health center in the morning and then teach in the afternoon. Once my Khmer gets better, I’ll hopefully start doing some projects out of the health center. Right now, I just try to speak to people and figure out what’s going on and make connections.

I usually teach from about 7-11 and then go to the market to eat lunch with my host-family. My host family owns a pharmacy/money exchange/general store type place, so they eat lunch while they work. It’s typical for a Khmer family to do household things and run a store at the same time. As a result, stores do not offer American style service. Yesterday, I went to buy a pen and had to almost yell to have a woman come from doing her laundry so I could pay her the 12 cents for the pen.

Anyway, I usually eat with my family and then go back to school. I’m lucky that my house, the market and the school are all about a five-minute walk apart. From 1:00-2:00 I am in the English Library that was built with the help of the Peace Corps Volunteer who was at my site before me. Some days I receive Khmer lessons there and some days I offer an extra English class. It’s nice to be able to teach by myself and without the awful English for Cambodia book. The focus of the class is speaking. Typically 15-20 students show up, but I’ve only had a few classes so far.

Private classes are a big deal in Cambodia. My class is free, but many Khmer teachers offer private classes to supplement their incomes. Sometimes these classes are honest. Many of the teachers I work with charge a little, but offer the class for free to students who cannot afford it. Unfortunately, many students have to work to help their family, so just do not have the time. Some teachers, however, do not teach all the material so wealthy students have to pay for their private classes.

After my time at the library, I usually go back to my house to read and do a few odd-jobs around the house. Around 3:30 or 4:00, I go for a walk around the community. It is a good chance to get some exercise and practice my Khmer. Maybe once a week, I’ll bike to the local university to use the internet or run errands in the provincial town where the post office and the bank are. I come home around 5:30. Then, I read, shower and have dinner with my family. I spend a lot of time in my room at night because my family usually likes to watch lots of Thai soap opera DVDs dubbed over in Khmer. I can only watch so much.

I certainly have a lot of time to read each day, but I still wish I had more. There is so much to read. In addition to reading for fun, I spend a lot of time reviewing my Khmer language notes. I also try to read a little from the plethora of materials Peace Corps gave us about Khmer culture, teaching strategies and health. I also read news from my flash drive when I have electricity and I try to write a little about my experience and random things.

On weekends, I have a little more free time. I usually spend one half-day going to the provincial town or the university to use the internet. I spend the other time relaxing or talking to people in my community. Some weekends, I also take short trips. For example, this past weekend, a few volunteers and I went to Bavet, a town right before the Vietnamese border, which has lots of casinos and some western food. If you leave your passport at the police station, you can cross over to an international market in between Cambodia and Vietnam. It was fun to eat some good food and see a new place with more of a Vietnamese influence.

A few other miscellaneous things:

Interesting food: bon chio. It’s basically fluffy omelet filled with bean sprouts, meat and some other random stuff. It’s served with a spicy peanut sauce. Once the sauce is on it, it has the consistency of a watery omelet/pancake. Delicious.

Cross-cultural moment: At one Cambodian university, if you fail your year 1 medical school final exams, you cannot go onto year 2. You either have to reapply for year 1 or transfer to nursing school. Fail means get an F and, unlike America, you can get an E and it’s a passing grade. Students that failed were protesting because thought it was unfair for them to reapply with other students for year 1. The school and government argued that the practice was fair and that the country did not want unqualified doctors.

I was talking about it with one of my co-teachers. I had no problem with the policy, but his perspective was that students in Cambodia work very hard on things besides school, such as another job. So, the students should be allowed to go onto year 2 even if they don’t pass. It’s clear to me that he viewed the policy through a different lens than I did.

Also, I have some exciting projects coming up next month. I’m going to help some Cambodian teachers offer a class to university students about job interviews and CV and cover letter writing. We will offer the class again at my high school too. I’m also going to speak about saving money in America with a group of Cambodians who are learning about saving through an Ox-Fam program.

Lastly, to answer Watson’s question, I did see a Taylor Swift music video in a Khmer restaurant a few weeks ago.

2009-11-08T21:14:00.000-08:00

I finally got a few photos up. I have not taken too many photos at my site because I don’t want to make the impression of being a camera-wielding tourist. Once I get a little more settled, I will take a lot of photos.

Me giving my speech at the opening of school:

Students lining up to watch the opening of school:

The side of the market in my town:

The front of the market:

A nice view of the rice paddies at sunset:

Moon Festival:

Traditioinal Khmer Musician:

My friend doing traditional Khmer song and dance:

Preparing to aw amboke:

Holidays

2009-11-07T00:00:00.001-08:00

As my last post may have hinted, cross-cultural interactions have their fair share of frustrations. I am working hard to understand Cambodia so that I can do good work here and, I must admit, it’s a slow process. While all cultures are complex, I have found that Cambodian culture to be particularly enigmatic and filled with contradictions. For example, Cambodian people are extremely friendly and kind, but, historically, they have a propensity towards violence (particularly the Khmer Rouge period). This can be seen when their eyes light up when violence comes on TV (and by TV, I mean dubbed Thai soap opera DVDs that make the WWF look authentic). Other complexities include: Buddhism, Eastern communal culture (including indirectness and saving face), post-communism, what many consider to be an authoritarian government and poverty, among others.

Learning about Cambodian culture is a continual process. I try to include explanations throughout my blog for why things are how they are. If you want me to elaborate on the cultural background of something please let me know. This is helpful because part of my mission as a Peace Corps Volunteer is to share Cambodia with Americans. It is also possible that I have not considered your question and it will help me understand Cambodian culture better. I also want this blog to be entertaining so you continue to read it, so if culture interests you, I want to write about it.

So, onto the past two weeks.

Cambodia is believed to have the most holidays in the world. The past two weeks included the King’s birthday, the Water Festival and the Moon Festival. As a result, I had off from school on Thursday, then school Friday and Saturday (but Peace Corps Volunteers don’t teach on Saturdays), then no school until the following Thursday. And, this Monday we have off for Cambodian Independence Day (Though I will use the day to help one of my co-teachers train other young teachers).

On the King’s Birthday, I relaxed and spent time with my host-family and talked to various people at the market. In the afternoon, I went to a few gatherings with my host-brother. First, we went to a dinner the school director was hosting. Basically, people show up, eat and give money that goes to a poor pagoda. Then, my host-brother had to stop at another pagoda to drop off more money. There are a lot of donations to pagodas because so many were destroyed in Khmer Rouge times. Of course, in typical Cambodia spur-of-the-moment fashion, he told me that his brothers/cousins (there is little distinction in Cambodia) were having a dinner party and wanted me to come. So, even though I had already eaten and was not informed prior, I had to go. They all really wanted me to drink a lot, and it was hard to explain to them that I had to teach the next day, so I did not want to. I never realized how exposed one is when they stand in front of a class every day. I feel like if I am the slightest bit tired, or have a small cold, the students all notice.

After my classes were finished on Friday, I went to Pray Vang Town to meet up with the other volunteers from Svay Rieng and Pray Vang Provinces. It was a lot of fun. Pray Vang Town is beautiful and the hotel we stayed at had two movie channels (yes, that is a big deal for me now). It was great to catch up with other volunteers and we had a little Halloween party too at another development worker’s house.

I returned to my district on Monday because I wanted to see how the other festivals were celebrated in my village. Other than watching the boat races that were going on in Phnom Penh on TV, the Water Festival was uneventful. Next year, I will go into Phnom Penh and see it for myself.

I did get to experience the Moon Festival though. The teacher I worked with on the health projects invited me to celebrate it in his commune. Not everyone celebrates the festival every year, but when I told Khmer people that I was going to, they were very happy for me. I still do not completely understand the festival, but it involves predicting the following year in terms of harvests and rain. I intend to read more about it, but it was difficult for me to get an explanation because of the language barrier and so many monks were killed during Khmer Rouge regime, so the background of many religious customs is not widely known.

The festival was a lot of fun. There was praying, then singing, dancing and some skits. I had trouble understanding the skit though. My language skills right now are at the point where I’m decent and speaking with people because I can figure out the context, but I cannot follow other people’s fast-paced conversations and presentations. After the skit, there was more praying, some candle-lighting and then the aw amboke which means “finish the amboke.” Amboke was described to me as “plated rice,” but it reminds me of oatmeal before water is added. You eat it with bananas and it’s delicious. The bananas are soft, so they provide moisture.

I know amboke doesn’t sound that appetizing, but keep in mind I have not had western food in about six weeks. My food standards are definitely lowering and my tolerance for stinky fish is going up (I still don’t think I can handle prohap though). The volunteers who have been here for a year say they don’t even know what’s good anymore. Don’t get me wrong, Khmer food is usually delicious, but my palate is altering subtly.

That’s all about the holidays for now. Knowing Cambodia, there will be another bunch soon enough.

First month at site

2009-10-23T21:26:00.000-07:00

Everything is going pretty well. I am still adjusting to my new home and to working exclusively with Cambodians. Working across cultures presents a unique set of challenges.

One challenge is teaching. I started co-teaching with other English teachers. Each class has about 40 students with varying English skills; in every class, there is at least one student who speaks extremely well and usually about five students who cannot speak a word. In addition, many students do not have books and the book is not very good, but we are supposed to use it. There are ways to work around these challenges, but they require a lot of lesson planning that my co-teachers do not really want to do mainly because of them being too busy and “too busy.” They seem to have plenty of time to invite me to parties though.

It’s very early in my commitment though, so maybe things will change. A teacher that worked with the volunteer who was here before me is very committed to lesson planning and finding creative ways to teach. He does not teach grade 10, so we have not been teaching together. We have been working together on health projects though. We had a meeting for class monitors about swine flu, the flu and the common cold. The monitors will teach what they learned to their respective classes. A lot of what we taught was basic stuff and made me more aware of how undeveloped the health infrastructure here is. For example, students know little about the difference between a common cold and the flu.

This teacher also helps to organize an alcohol campaign on the commune level. They try to make villagers aware of the health dangers of alcohol. Many Khmer people do not know that alcohol can be dangerous and bad for your health. Some people think it makes you strong and helps cure diseases. The campaign is also trying to make it illegal to drink at pagodas and to buy alcohol when you are under the age of 13 (If there was a Cambodian prom, I imagine they would have a different set of problems compared to ours). The campaign also had a march around town and I gave a small speech. There were about 70 people there. My co-teacher will be writing a grant for this campaign to do more activities and I will help him.

An interesting thing about working with Cambodian people is their sense of time. Many of them do not plan ahead. They frequently call me and ask me to do something at that very moment. “Where are you? Come to this gathering now.” Or, I will see them when I am walking and they will invite me to have dinner with them in a half hour. Compared to planning oriented America, this can be difficult at times, especially if I already have plans. They believe I can drop all my plans to do whatever they have asked me. They also do not know how long things will take. I was not feeling well at the alcohol campaign and my friend told me it would end at 9am (it started at 7:30). It did not end until 11.

So how is my standard of living? I have no running water and pour a bucket of water on myself to shower. I do have a washing machine, so I don’t have to wash my clothes by hand. The washing machine is actually a very big deal. Hand-washing clothes can take hours, so I am lucky. We only have electricity for about four hours every day, so I get to use my computer at that time if I want to watch a dvd or something. When I do get the internet, I usually put a bunch of news articles in a word document on my flash drive so I can read them when I am home (so feel free to email me interesting articles). When I have electricity, I have a fan, which cools off my room. But usually, my room is very hot. I generally fall asleep sweating once the electricity goes off.

I’ve been eating pretty well. I have rice with every meal and my family usually provides me with two meals a day, if I do not go eat with a community member who will typically invite me at the last minute.

The interesting food I have eaten this week in baw baw. It reminds me of grits. It’s like rice, water and oil with vegetables and meat in it. You can make it spicy if you want. It’s delicious.

I found good internet, but the connection is not that great today. I was not able to upload new pictures, but here is what a Cambodian barbershop looks like from training:

From PC Training

The haircuts cost about 50 cents and are amazing. Here is their diverse set of tools:

From PC Training

2009-10-10T00:39:00.000-07:00

Everything has been pretty good since I’ve departed from site. I’ve been here for two weeks now.

The day I arrived, I took a taxi from Phnom Penh with four other people from my province and got off at the market shop where my family works. I wasn’t expecting to be nervous, considering I had been to my site already and knew my family, but there was definitely a shock of “wow, this is real:” the only American in a foreign, developing country. It’s funny that that is the experience I’ve wanted for a while, yet it’s weird when it finally comes. My friends in the taxi were feeling it too. As a result, I basically forgot most of my Khmer for my first afternoon at site.

The next day, I went to school and met with the school director and started to meet some of my fellow teachers. I also worked with Sopheap, one of my co-teachers and my Khmer tutor, on the speech I would have to give on Thursday for the school-opening ceremony. Oh, and the speech would be in Khmer in front of about 1500 people. No big deal.

Skipping to Thursday, the ceremony was pretty cool. The school director and district governor talked about the importance of education and gave me praise for helping. My speech was nothing glorious. I had to laugh in the middle of it because I would make mistakes and the students would giggle. The speech consisted of me thanking all the important people there, introducing myself, saying what I will be doing, apologizing for being bad at Khmer but saying that I will learn, then thanking all the important people again. Respect is very important in Cambodian culture.

Everyone thought I did a good job considering I’ve only been speaking Khmer for two months and everyone was happy to have a foreigner at their school trying to learn their language. Cambodia is basically the opposite of America with respect to xenophobia. If someone who could barely speak English gave the speech I gave in America, they would be ridiculed (or in all likelihood not asked to give a speech at all). In Cambodia, I was great.

I’ve been taking advantage of the fact that Cambodians like foreigners so much. I’ve been walking around my village, meeting people. They are always happy to talk to me. It’s also a great way to get some exercise (which Cambodians think is hilarious) learn about my community and practice Khmer. A frequent conversation topic is if I am married and why I will not get married while I am in Cambodia.

In the days leading up to the school opening ceremony, I spent my mornings at the health center. I got really lucky because the second day I was there the village health volunteers had a meeting and I joined them and now I can go to their meetings. The village health volunteers are an important resource for me. They are the people in the community that are turned to with questions about health. They also do outreach activities, like encouraging parents to take their new-born children to the doctor frequently. Some of their projects are supported by NGOs. Many of the village health volunteers are very nice; I had lunch at one of their houses over the weekend. I hope I can contribute to their activities and they can help me with future projects.

I also started classes this week. I will be teaching grade 10 and working with three teachers. This past week and next week, I’ve been observing classes to see how I will be able to help the teachers improve, learn from them and reach the students. When I get settled into teaching, I will go into more details about what the Cambodian education system is like.

Interesting food of the week: Prohap. It’s basically stinky fish goo. I’ve had maybe one bite. My family eats it every single day and it’s disgusting. They think it’s funny that I don’t like it. A funny thing about the Cambodian language is instead of saying I don’t like prohap, what my family says to me translates into English as I don’t know how to eat it. I would also like to remind everyone that I eat rice with every single meal, totaling 5-7 bowls a day. I’ve loved the western food people have sent me, but if someone could mail me ice cream and a pizza that would be great.

That’s all for now. Next time I post (hopefully within the next week), I will probably describe a typical day and go into more detail about how rugged I really have it. The fact that my family has a washing machine is a big deal. I also may have a good internet situation, but I'm still figuring it out.

About to head to site. . .

2009-09-26T08:02:00.000-07:00

*One thing I forgot to mention in my last post is that I will also have visual aids for teaching health that have pictures and Khmer writing. They will also help me communicate.

Pictures. For the first time since arriving in Cambodia, there will be pictures in my blog. I will mix them in with the text, and at the end I will provide additional pictures. This post is a little disorganized since my computer/the internet has frozen so many times while putting these pictures in place. I finally figured out how to do it in spite of the slow internet, so future posts will be better. Please note that since I wash my clothes by hand and do not want to appear rich to my Cambodian friends, I wear a lot of the same clothes.

If you want to see all 379 pictures I took during training (probably so you can find the perfect pictures of me for your screen saver), you can follow this link:

PC Training

So, I am officially a Peace Corps Volunteer instead of a Peace Corps Trainee. Tomorrow, I will go to my site. It was sad saying goodbye to my the friends I have made here, but we will have much to share through text messaging and when we get together again.

For the next three months, we are on what we call "lock-down;" we cannot leave our province. The reason Peace Corps has this policy is so we will make a good impression on our community and make it clear that we are living there. So, I will spend a lot of time at my site and with the volunteers in my province (of course, I will spend a lot of time at my site after lock-down too).

Training wrapped up nicely. We returned from our health trip and I gave a presentation to about 40 Khmer students on hand-washing. It was a little awkward since it was my first time presenting information in a foreign language, but I will certainly improve.

Then, it was a Buddhist holiday in Cambodia: Pchum Ben. It is a day where the family goes to the wot and gives food so that their ancestors receive good things in the after life. It was a lot of fun. I hung out at the wot a bit and then spent a lot of time with my family.

After the holiday, we took our language test. I passed! I feel pretty comfortable with basic conversation and, by being outgoing at my site, I think I can speak a lot and continue to improve.

On our last day in our training village, we had a part for our Khmer teachers and our host families. It was great: we cooked pancakes, carnitas and other American food. We were lucky that one of the host-parents professionally had parties, so he was able to provide a tent, tables and chairs. The Khmer people really enjoyed it and we all had fun cooking and then hanging out. But, it was sad to leave our village.

Us with our carnitas creation:

From PC Training

Me with my host-dad:

From PC Training

Sweet shot of the party:

From PC Training

Our Khmer teachers:

From PC Training

My friend, Nathan giving a speech about our village:

From PC Training

Then, it was off to Phnom Penh to wrap things up. In addition to some final trainings, we went shopping (I bought a lot of cheap DVDs) and ate delicious food. My province does not have any non-Khmer food, so I had to get as much ice cream, pizza and Indian food as possible.

I have a lot of expectations for tomorrow, which I won't bore you with, but please wish me luck. I hope to have internet once a week at my school or in the provincial town, but it may be once every two weeks while I get settled.

Here are more photos:

Me with some Cambodian children at the market. They are always eager to speak with a foreigner.

Me with my host parents.

Myself in front of some houses by the river.

At the zoo, you can touch the animals.

My friends and I enjoying a coconut after a long day.

The monkey that escaped from next-door and scared the family dogs and my host-mom. I am not kidding. My host-dad ran next door to get the owners. My friends and I aren't really sure why they have a monkey. My host-dad couldn't tell me, but when I asked if it was for safety, he said yes. But that could be just because I know the word for safety in Khmer.

The view from behind my house in training. Eat your heart out, benjaminnorman.com (a site that I highly endorse)

The shower facilities at my training site. Pretty typical. I scoop water from the basin with the bucket and pour it on myself.

A typical toilet. In addition to learning how to bathe during training, we had to learn how to use the toilet.

From PC Training

My host dad watching tv in the living room. The room also houses his car.

From PC Training

Frontal view of of my house in training..

My host-dad watching TV in his living room.