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.

Friday, June 4, 2010

Health Education

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

Saturday, May 8, 2010

Khmer New Year

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.

Tuesday, April 27, 2010

Bamboo Train

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.

Sunday, April 11, 2010

How lonely and bored am I actually?

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.

Thursday, March 25, 2010

Weddings

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.