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.

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.

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:

From sopheap's wedding

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:

From sopheap's wedding

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):

From sopheap's wedding

Here is me with Solen and a biology teacher:

From sopheap's wedding

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.

From sopheap's wedding

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

From sopheap's wedding

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.

From sopheap's wedding

From sopheap's wedding

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

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.

From leadership and walk

The school director.

From leadership and walk

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.

From leadership and walk

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.

From leadership and walk

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.

From leadership and walk

From leadership and walk

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

From leadership and walk

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

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.

From 1-17-10 mostly march

From 1-17-10 mostly march

From 1-17-10 mostly march

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

From 1-17-10 mostly march

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

From 1-17-10 mostly march

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

This is the road by my house.

From 1-17-10 mostly march

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)

From 1-17-10 mostly march

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

From 1-17-10 mostly march

(Khmer people usually don’t smile for pictures)

From 1-17-10 mostly march

From 1-17-10 mostly march

From 1-17-10 mostly march

Public Speaking

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.

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.