Drinking during the day

This morning, I went to the countryside with the nurses. They gave out Vitamin A and gave vaccinations and I gave a health presentation.

The nurses giving medicine:


If you look closely at the picture, you can see a shot glass and a container of rice wine next to the medical kit:


In between repeating the announcement for villagers to bring their children to see the nurses, the village chief would take shots of rice wine with some friends. It was only 10 am at this point. Yet, no one looked twice, as it is not abnormal for a community leader to knock back a few shots in the morning, even while organizing a local event.

To the village chief's credit, he was helpful to me during my presentation. He read some documents I brought and helped me interact with the audience.

While he was behaving poorly by drinking, he was promoting good health during my presentation. I've learned to accept the positive things people can offer me here, even when they do things I would consider unacceptable in America.

Have you eaten rice yet?

Last time I spoke about how often I’m asked about my salary and money. This is common for people wanting to get to know me. As for people who already know me or just being friendly, they always ask if I’ve eaten rice yet. I think it’s the most common question in Cambodia. The question actually translates into “have you eaten rice already or not yet?” And then you answer with “already” or “not yet.”

This neighbor asks me every morning if I've eaten rice yet:


The assumption is that eating rice is inevitable. Cambodians typically eat rice almost every meal and when they are not eating rice, they eat noodles or cake made from rice. At a restaurant, the rice has some food on top of it. If they are eating as a family, they have a bowl of rice and a one or two dishes of fish or meat and vegetables in the middle of the table. They assume that westerners do the same thing, but eat bread instead of rice.

Here are my host-brothers having dinner. In the background, other family members are watching TV:


Statistic of the day: 100-400 million. This is the range of guesses of the global population by the students who I taught geography to today.

I can’t stress enough how often I’m asked about money and marriage. Here are highlights of three typical conversations from the last two days:

1.When returning from Phnom Penh, I need to take a ferry across the Mekong River. While waiting for the ferry, all the travelers are swarmed by sellers and beggars. I usually take this time to stretch my legs after sharing a vehicle with way too many people.

Last time I was stretching my legs, I got curious about a basket a woman had on her head. I asked the seller and she told me they were frogs. Two other sellers then realized I could speak Khmer and started asking me the usual questions – what’s my nationality, how long have I been in Cambodia, what am I doing here etc.

Then the question turned to marriage and one of the other women asked me if I “wanted” the frog seller. I said no, but she persisted that she would make beautiful children for me. I politely said no thanks.

2.Two or three policemen “patrol” the corner near my house where the dirt road meets the highway. They usually just stand around while nearly everyone who rides by on a motorbike breaks the law by not wearing a helmet. I speak to them a lot when I’m on my way to school.

During our conversation today, they asked me what I will do when I go back to America (most people assume that I don’t actually have to look for a job, I’ll just automatically have one). I always say I want to be a teacher. Then they asked how much teachers make and told me, unsolicited, that they only make $70 a month and wanted to know what police make in America. They were shocked that I didn’t know.

They also asked me when I’ll be getting married. I said maybe in three of four years and they said I would be too old. Then they suggested I get a Khmer wife.

3.At school, two female students I don’t know came to talk to me. After asking me how many siblings I have, and commenting on my Khmer language ability, they asked me how much money I spend in a month. Then one of the girls asked me in English, “doesn’t you married yet?” I said no, I'm only 24. But, she said I was so old and should get married.

So here I am, 24 years old, not married and I don’t know how much money police in America earn in a month.

Profiling in Cambodia

I was away from my village for two weeks, a long time by rural Cambodia standards. As I was walking back from breakfast, I saw a woman and a man pushing a two-wheeled cart piled high with green bananas. I didn’t know them well, but as pretty much the only Westerner in my village – there are some creepy old guys too, but more on that later- everyone knows me.

The woman pushing the cart said she hadn’t seen me in a while and asked where I had been. I told her I was in Vietnam and Phnom Penh. She asked me if I was happy there (direct translation) then commented that I was darker than before. I responded with my usual bit about how in America, we like dark skin (I really meant being tan, but in the Khmer language you are pretty much either black or white). Like most Cambodians, she was shocked by this. She started talking about how white is so much better, then pointed to the man pushing the cart with her and said that he is not pretty because he is so dark.

My generic morning conversation embodies a broader theme in Cambodian culture: Cambodians say what they see and interpret it based on widely-held stereotypes.

Even though Cambodia is a homogeneous society (95% of the population is Khmer Buddhists) profiling is common and tears apart Cambodia’s social fabric. My friend told me that some of the darker people don’t like being in crowds because they are embarrassed about their skin.

I believe a major reason Cambodians value light skin is because it means you are not out in the fields all day. My Cambodian friend also said it is because whiter people are part Chinese and Vietnamese, so are believed to be smarter and better at business. Because of these sentiments, Cambodians like to cover their heads with scarves, wear hats and even use whitening cream.

Some of the profiling is a result of poverty and lack of education. Also, a lot of people have never learned about issues related to difference among people.

However, the culture of generalizing presents dangers to Cambodia as it develops. Cambodia has a large gap between the rich and poor for this stage in its development (wider than Thailand and Vietnam when they were at the same level). As the gap continues to widen and the rich get richer, profiling could further stratify the society, resulting in strife and a breakdown of services.

For example, skin color can increase the likelihood of being pulled over, like in America. Poor farmers, who generally have darker skin, are the ones pulled over on their motobikes for not wearing a helmet. Helmets are required by law, but the law is not well enforced outside of Phnom Penh. In the countryside, the police pull people over for not wearing a helmet, but just ask for a small bribe. They prefer to target poor people because poor people are not influential, so can be exploited. Pulling over a powerful person could mean trouble for the police officer. Skin color is probably one identifying factor in identifying the powerless.

Generalizing also affects Cambodians’ relationships with foreigners. Cambodians profile foreigners based on their appearance and it has offended a lot of people I know.

Although children yell “hello” to me as I ride my bike, until proven otherwise, I am a borang (French person). Sometimes they refer to me as boo borang, directly translated as ‘uncle Frenchy.’ They usually know that America and France are different countries, but some people have been surprised by this information.

If the villagers have met an American before, they assume I must be exactly like that American. The first time I went to have breakfast at a place the volunteer who lived in my village before me liked to go, they started giving me the food and drinks she liked before I even ordered. And if they haven’t met an American before, they assume everything I do is what all Americans like to do. It’s ironic that part of my job as a Peace Corps Volunteer is to represent diverse America in a foreign culture. Yet, a lot of them think everything I do is what all Americans like to do.

Locals also assume foreigners are rich. This makes some sense because travelers who are able to come all the way to a country like Cambodia you must have some money (and Cambodians are usually poor, so when they say rich, it’s relative). In Cambodian culture, it is not rude to ask about money. Some of the first questions I’m always asked when I meet someone is my rent, salary, parents’ salaries and how much money I spend in a month. No matter what answer I give, the questioner thinks I’m rich and that everyone in America is rich. When I go to buy something, the seller gives me a high initial price (usually double what they give Khmer people) and I have to bargain it down. In my village, they know me, so they give me the real price.

I’m almost used to the money conversation at this point. And other observations and assumptions aren’t too brutal because I’m lean and white. Usually, I’m considered handsome, but have been called fat a few times. And, despite being short in America, I’m “big” here.

It’s much more difficult for volunteers from other backgrounds. Cambodians doubt Asian-American and black volunteers are actually Americans. Some minority volunteers have even been accused by their Cambodian co-English teachers of not really knowing English. And black volunteers get told they are not pretty all the time.

Another serious problem here related to generalizing is what my American friends here term “sex-pats” (sex expatriates). These are western men, typically past their prime, who come here to pursue young Cambodian women. These men sometimes hire prostitutes or spend a lot of money to take a typical young Cambodian woman out. If couple marries, the family of the woman usually benefits financially. Two Western men men in their 50’s with wives in their 20’s live in my district. My host-dad jokes that when one of the old men dies, the Cambodian family will get all his money.

I guess we are guilty of profiling as well because we assume all old white guys with scantily clad young Cambodian girls are sex-pats. What’s worse, Cambodians not only assume the same thing, but assume that this is normal behavior in the West. Even some of my more educated, urban Cambodian friends thought this was common practice!

In the end, profiling in Cambodia affects not only their relationships with foreigners but also with each other. However, I've encountered so many friendly Cambodians that I'm confident they can overcome issues with foreigners as they become more educated and meet more foreigners. But within Cambodian society, there are values and status issues that are beyond my comprehension as an outsider. These run deep and are never openly discussed. Because of that, these issues will be more difficult to take on, but I believe education and economic development would go a long way to solve it.

Vietnam

From allie's SE asia 2010

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:

From allie's SE asia 2010

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:

From allie's SE asia 2010

At the market in Chau Doc:

From allie's SE asia 2010

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:

From allie's SE asia 2010

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:

From allie's SE asia 2010

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:

From allie's SE asia 2010

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:

From allie's SE asia 2010

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:

From allie's SE asia 2010

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

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:

From blog june 2010

Some of our group with their bikes and our posters:

From blog june 2010

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:

From blog june 2010

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

From blog june 2010

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:

From blog june 2010

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

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

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

From pre-khmer new year 2010

From pre-khmer new year 2010

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

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. . .

From khmer new year 2010

… while the women cook.

From khmer new year 2010

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.

From khmer new year 2010

From khmer new year 2010

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

From khmer new year 2010

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

From khmer new year 2010

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

From khmer new year 2010

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.

From khmer new year 2010

From khmer new year 2010

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.

From khmer new year 2010

From khmer new year 2010

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.