A few shots from Rabbit Island!

Feet at the Rusty Keyhole the night before we headed to Rabbit Island



Hanging out on one of the creys during the daytime (from L) Emily, Joe, and Matt



Playing Frizz-Can, in which you have two people on a team and try to hit the can of the other team and knock it off a pole. You can guess what the consequences are if you lose.



Matt and Emily were taking beautiful pictures of each other with the the sunset, so I took a super sweet one of my sweet love, the Frizz Can



Ok, I gave in and took a nice one of the sunset.



Halloween time! Matt (Neo, from the Matrix) and I (Rebel at the Wat without a Cause)



More Halloween--Matt, Emily, and Joe

Some photos from my province!

My house!




My little sister #1,Li-Di in the lap of my aunt next door





My little sister #2, Li-Ching, also lap-sitting in the hammock!





One of my two favorite neighbors' dogs, Amop





My kitten, Coconut--she's awesome.




My big host sister and I



Li-Di with her happy face on





The stairs to get to my part of the house!




From here on...shots of my part of the house upstairs. This and the next two are of my sitting area.









This is the door to get out to my little porch!





Looking through my beads...



View from my porch!



More from the porch.



My bedroom




The khmer shirt I had made to attend ceremonies (and weddings, until I have a dress made...)

Settling In

A lot has gone on since I last posted, so I will give you a basic recap of life.

In terms of my routine at home, I've settled into a permanent--at least until the end of December--teaching schedule, teaching Monday through Friday for 20 hours with a total of four different teachers, grades 9-12. I'm also lesson-planning with those teachers, so that also keeps me busy. The teachers are also different in terms of what they're looking to do and how they're looking to do it, so it keeps me interested to work with all of them. The students are eager--perhaps frustrated with the old textbook, which is at times way above their level, but eager.

I really like my living situation. I have the entire upstairs of the house to myself, which is toasty when it's hot out, but gives me a lot of room to just be myself. I'm currently sharing it with Coconut, a kitten that was given to me by my neighbor Poo and Ming (aunt and uncle), whom I like a lot. She is about 6 weeks old now, and she loves playing around with me. She's really friendly, so she wants to be wherever people are at all times, and just upon seeing me she starts purring really loudly. I made her a makeshift litter box in a big metal bowl that people use here for washing clothes (a 'clamm,' if you will) filled halfway with sand. It works!

My family also helps me really feel at home here. My little sister Li-Di has the cutest way of saying "Hi!" and also has a really spunky personality. It's her 4th birthday tomorrow--I gave her a stuffed animal that she seems to like a lot. Her little sister, my other little sister, Li-Ching, is just over one year old and took her first steps today. It's really exciting to be here for this part of their lives. When I stop living here (cayna hara) in 2010, I will have been a part of Li-Ching's life for more time than she will have lived without me in the house, which is crazy. They and their friends play a lot at the house, which is also nice, because, as you know if you know me, I love me some little people.

Their parents, my 'Big Brother' and 'Big Sister,' are also really awesome. My brother works in a nearby primary school and is pretty silent, but extremely handy around the house and occasionally surprisingly silly. My sister stays at home to take care of the kids, and she likes to joke around with me. She also has recently developed an interest in watching movies on my laptop with me, even though she doesn't speak English. We watched Love Actually the other day, and it was interesting to explain things like people having boyfriends and girlfriends when they are little kids and older without expecting to have to marry those people, people making out, people living together without being married, etc., with visual proof to back up my explanations. I also told her and her aunt (my Ming next door) about how we hug in the states, as people don't do it here much, especially not with friends of the opposite sex. Little by little. I tried out a public hug today with one of the other volunteers who had come into town to make pasta with fresh marinara sauce with me (Yes. It was delicious.), and it seemed to go over fine. (Fine as in they didn't think we were dating or I was a slut or anything.)

I'm growing to love my town more and more every day. It's small enough that it's easy for me to know a lot of people in the town and really make meaningful relationships. So far some of my favorite people (besides my family, of course!) are several friends who sew clothing at the market, the woman who sells me my Num Ban Chock for breakfast every day and has proclaimed herself my Mom in my town, a woman who has a fruit stand along the road and a beautiful smile, my super really awesome female co-teacher who speaks amazing English and has a great attitude about life, and the guy who fixes my bike for free at his little stand. It's a really nice place, extremely beautiful and filled with small-town charm. The dry season is just now trying to start here, so it's been really breezy and cool enough that I haven't been getting sweaty, which maybe to us back in New York was considered warm enough for 'Skirt Day' to happen, but here in Cambodia is considered cold enough for huge warm puffy coats.

In terms of my actual movements and actions around town and the province, I've biked several times to the two towns relatively close and twice to the provincial town, which is I think about 25 miles or so from where I am. It (the provincial town) is also really cushy, with everything from peanut butter to brownies--all at a price, of course. All the volunteers in the province (except Jason, who was out of commission because he caught dengue), also went to a small island called Rabbit Island off the coast for Halloween and had a lot of fun. It's nice to spend time with the other volunteers every once in a while, because it gives you a break from being somewhat of a small public figure and a chance to act out comfortable behaviors from home that in general are suppressed when dealing with Khmer people (like hugging or wearing bikinis to swim, for instance). Plus it's nice to be around people who can understand to some degree what kind of experience you are having--or just help you understand yourself.

I'm going to stop for now, just because I know if I make this much longer, you probably won't read it. If there's ever anything that you specifically want to know about--or know more about--please feel free to mention it in the comments or send me an email if it's something private!

last photos from training

Photo of the people interviewing me at the swearing-in ceremony October 5



Another interview photo woooo



My host mom and I the last day I was there, at the market right before we left. So sad times.



L to R: Sutjeeah, Sutjeeah's little sister who is also my friend, my friend Sovanni Lai, and I



Sutjeeah and I at her house the day before I left




Sutjeeah's sister (Greg's Bong Sarai/Host Sister) and I



A big Cambodian gecko called 'Tuck Gai,'because that's the sound it makes. One used to live in my room in our training village and wake me up in the middle of the night with its antics. But apparently having one in your bedroom brings you good health.



My host mom and I! She is the BEST.

my new site - at least a little about it woo

(post written October 14)

I'm in my permanent site now, but I didn't get a chance to post this last post until now, and I haven't had enough time to write another legitimate post actually about my permanent site now that I'm here. I am safe and sound, though, and everything here seems like it's going pretty well. And for those of you hanging in suspense, I did get the rest of my speech written before the big swear-in day, and it went as smoothly as possible for someone who doesn't love love love giving speeches. They had some kind of cool fruit at the reception, too, whose name I can't remember now for the life of me but that looked kinda like a fig on the outside but then on the inside had lychee-textured white flesh. And the skin kinda left a latex-ey residue. Anyone know the name? At all?

Before coming to my permanent site, I went to Phnom Penh for one night, which was nice, since I got to spend time with the people I really like from my training village before we went our separate ways to different provinces and entered three-month provincial lock-down. I also ate mint chocolate chip gelato and pizza while there. Delicious.

Anyway, back at the ranch, my host family is warming up to me day by day, and they are even starting to understand my passion for vegetables. My host mom and friends from my training village still call pretty frequently, and I am starting to make new friends in this community. When you come visit (BECAUSE I KNOW YOU WILL), you can meet all of them.

After arriving here the 5th, I went with my school director the following day to our provincial town, where I bought a battery so that I can charge my phone, etc. here in my house (as my district does not have electricity). I didn't get to explore much, but it was nice to see it, even just for a little bit. I plan to go next weekend again so that I can pick up a package that I have waiting for me there (my address is going to be the same, it seems, for all time, and Peace Corps in Phnom Penh will ship stuff to our provincial capital about once a month. Send me mail! Send me packages! If you don't have my address here, you can email me, and I'll tell you!). It's apparently a really beautiful town, and there are a few Western restaurants, one of which serves apple pie. So I know where to go if I get any intense cravings.

Here in my permanent site I have come to realize the joys of living in a super tiny town, mainly legitimately being able to know basically everyone and having some of the most gorgeous scenery I've ever seen in my life--huge expanses of green rice fields dotted with palm trees and accented by stone mountains in the background. I'll take some pictures one of these days and post them so you can see what I'm talking about. I'll also take some of my living space, which is all decorated and organized, now that I bought some bamboo bookshelves last Sunday in the town of a fellow volunteer located about 14k from where I am. Woo! It is pretty homey now, which is nice.

Observation of classes at the high school here is going well, too; I sincerely think I am going to enjoy working with the English teachers here, and I think the administration seems very competent and effective. I look forward to actually setting up my schedule and getting started with teaching next month!

Ok, it's late here, and I'm going to get up at 4:30 tomorrow to bike early to a town 17k away that has internet, so I'm going to go on and stop this post now. Sorry I haven't posted in so long! I will make every effort to impose some sort of regularity on them from now on.

long-awaited wellness post (written oct 4)

Soooo, I'm better now, officially, as evidenced by my most recent blood test, which came out normal, despite it's having been taken the day after a night of birthday festivities. And now, for more fun and exciting things!

Since the last time I posted, a lot has gone on. I found out the location of my permanent site before I left Thailand; then, once I got back to Cambodia, I went on a shortened site visit because of being sick (4 hours to get there, 4 hours there having lunch and hanging out with my family, my future co-teacher, and the school director, and 4 hours to get back to Phnom Penh). I'm going to be living with a couple and their two small daughters in a small town in the southern part of Cambodia.

My future 'Bong Praw' (big brother) is about 35 or so and is an elementary school teacher, and his wife, my 'Bong Sarai' (big sister), is 25 and as far as I know currently is not working in order to spend more time with the kids, who are 7 and 1. They all live together on the first floor of my future home, and they are giving me the entire second floor (a closed room, a porch, and an inside common area) to have as my personal space. When I went to visit it seemed like a pretty sweet set-up, especially concerning the fact that it's way breezier there than in my training site.

My future co-teacher is a woman about 30 years old who has been teaching for about ten years. She speaks English quite well, and seems to be a friendly person in general. I look forward to working with her and getting to know her better...starting OCTOBER 5 WOOOO when I arrive there.

After my mini-visit to my permanent site, everyone else came back from their normal 4-day site visits, and we all met up in Phnom Penh. We did a really fun scavenger hunt in teams by permanent site provinces that led us all around the city to find the places where we can buy all sorts of stuff that we might miss or need while in-country, and my provincial team won wooo! Currently, the Phnom Penh staff owes us one (1) pizza party redeemable whenever.

Once we did all that good stuff, it was back to our training villages for our last few weeks before moving to our permanent sites. During that time, I celebrated my birthday, the Cambodian holiday P'chum Ben, and Rosh Hashanah.

We did my birthday up big at my house, with like 5 extra people helping make num koum s'nol doung, these super delicious little dessert ball things that you make with fresh shredded coconut, sugar, and some roasted peanuts and sesame seeds encased inside sticky rice powder dough and folded into a pyramid shape into individual portions in banana leaves. I should have taken pictures, but I didn't. I'll try to get some num koum on camera at some point. I did receive birthday presents from a bunch of the Khmer people I invited, including two pairs of super sweet hawaiian pants/shorts. You can see them above if I can get the slow internet here to let me load the photos of them.

For P'chum Ben, I went to several different wats with my mom several different days, as we got time off from studying Khmer because our teachers had time off to go home to their families to celebrate it. At the wats, we did a number of things, from giving money to the monks and receiving a blessing to plopping spoonfuls of rice into special beautiful pots to listening to meditation to repeating the things the monks said to (this was a special honor) passing around the collection pot for everyone to give money to the wat. My host mom also gave me things to give to the other Yays (the women who are a little older and either live at the wat or go there every day--the more observant ones observe basically the same rules as the monks except the one about carrying money--I'll tell you all about those rules another time.), all of whom gave me lots of blessings. So my karma is in really good shape right now, hopefully--cayna hara.

For Rosh Hashanah, the celebrations were a little more low-key--I got some apples and asian pears and pomegranate from the market (my BFF fruit seller actually gifted them to me), and my mom hooked me up with some apparently super-pure honey bought from one of the Yays. It was more watery than the honey I'm used to, but I think it will bring everyone who had some a sweet year all the same.

While all the festivities were going on, a lot of people came into town to stay at my mom's house--some of her cousins' kids. They seemed pretty nice, and I went to visit the Boribo creek again with them. Having them in town made it easier to leave my mom all alone in the house, because at least she wasn't going to be alone right when I left. Even so, the morning of the 1st we both cried a bunch when she and the other family peeps dropped me off at the restaurant by the market where we were going to catch the taxi-van. It was intense. But it did result in an amazing photo in which you see both of our chromas (the multi-purpose checkered cloths that people use for everything from male loincloths to drying your hair). Check it out after I upload it! It was hard to say goodbye to everyone, but especially to my mom and to Sutjeeah. I will miss them a lot when I'm in Kampot having to build new relationships.

Right now I need to stop writing, because tomorrow we have our official swearing-in ceremony, and I still haven't finished writing the part of the speech that I have to give. Whoops.

my life with dengue, or, BLEEDING PRECAUTION

Sooooo, I have dengue. Some of you may already know this, but for those of you who don't, I just want to update you now that I'm getting better so that you can be less worried...and so you can learn about the oh-so-many wonders of this delightful disease!

Day 1--> 28 Aug. 2008-Thursday

So, I came down with dengue at about 5:30 pm, when I thought I had a migraine and was just really tired. This was right after I had been over at Sutjeeah's house visiting with people, and I thought I had just gotten worn out. I took an excedrin migraine and texted Linda, the Peace Corps Medical Officer (PCMO) to let her know. Then I ate a little dinner, after which I started feeling worse and worse. At that point I just went to bed. Linda called back at about 9 or so, and I took my temp then. It was 103.something, so she told me to take tylenol every four hours and that she would call in the morning.

Day 2--> 29 Aug. 2008-Friday

I woke up still feeling crappy--now with joint pain and muscle aches, talked to Linda, and then proceeded to chill out in the upstairs hammock for a couple of hours, at which point a PC staff member showed up to help me get a taxi from the taxi stand in town to get to the Hub Site. Once I made it through the hour-long bumpy, loudly-musicked trip to the Hub Site, I got in a rental car with two more PC staff members who were headed to Phnom Penh and took me along for the ride. At this point I still have a headache and body ache. Once I arrived, the Medical Assistant took my vital signs and some blood and let me lie down in the medical office. He also tried to get me to eat a little, after which I threw up in a trash can. Eventually, he dropped me off at a hotel, and I went to sleep for hours. At night, Michael and Emily went out to eat and brought me back some soup, which was really nice of them since I was in no shape to move around.

Day 3--> 30 Aug. 2008-Saturday
I basically slept all day and continued to be in pain. It made it hard for me to sleep sometimes because my legs hurt so much. This was apparently the bonebreak fever portion of my dengue fever. Linda informed me that my test had come back negative for dengue, which made it a super secret super painful mystery tropical fever. Luckily, it turned out that was just because the blood sample was just taken really early on in the course of the disease. I also still had like zero desire to eat anything.

Day 4--> 31 Aug. 2008-Sunday
I felt a lot better Sunday afternoon, enough to walk around a little bit, watch a weird movie with Emily and Michael in Michael's room, and actually venture out with them to go out to eat dinner. However, after eating my huge banana pancake, I felt super nauseous at night.

Day 5--> 1 Sept. 2008-Monday
In the morning, more blood was taken from me, and then it turned out that it wasn't enough blood to do the new dengue test, so I had to go to the Medical Office to get more blood taken. I felt really, really bad and nauseous again. My platelets came back really low, so I went with Linda and Katie (who was also sick) to the hospital in PP to be checked in there. It was a pretty sweet facility. They gave us shampoo that smelled really good.

Day 6--> 2 Sept. 2008-Tuesday
In the morning, my platelets were down even more, so they decided to send me to the hospital in Thailand. John, the Cambodia PC Country Director, went with me there, which was really nice, because I didn't have to negotiate things like taxi fare, etc. We had to wait a really long time in the waiting area in the hospital in Bangkok, but I made it in the hotel, and he peaced out and went back to Cambodia. They put a sign up behind my bed in all caps on 8.5 x 11 computer paper that just says: BLEEDING PRECAUTION. Awesome. They also put a catheter in my arm.

Day 7--> 1 Sept. 2008-Wednesday
My platelets continued to go down to an all-time low of 43,000 (normal is 150,000-450,000), but I did get wireless internet in the hospital, which is why I am able to write you right now! Also, a nice current PCV in China (who was also medically evacuated) came by and chatted with me for a while, which was really nice.

Day 8--> 1 Sept. 2008-Thursday
My platelets started to go back up (54,000), but I got all rashy and was super tired with a headache all day. At least they gave me an antihistamine to help the itchiness! I finally convinced them to let me take the catheter out, since they weren't using it for anything, and my platelets were on the up and up.

Day 9--> 1 Sept. 2008-Friday
My platelets were up enough this morning (108,000) that I get to go back to Cambodia! I'm leaving the hospital at 2:00 and leaving Thailand at 5:30! I still have pain behind my eyes, fatigue, headache, a rash, etc., but it's apparently part of the recovery process. I should be as good as new in a few weeks!

basic everyday life in cambodia

My house!My bike--random Merida brand and all
My backyard--these are all fruit or vegetable plants...mmm
The outside cooking area where all the magic happens

The table/bed where we sit to eat, as well as the inside-cooking area where things are stored when we're not home or asleep
The under-the-house hammock area for afternoon naps
My washing machine!
My dryer!

Some of our basins that catch rainwater for all our water needsThe stairs to the upstairs part of the house


Right when you get up to the upstairs, we have another hammock on the porch
The little side-porch area


My mom's room (left) and the curtain into my room (right). We can talk to each other from our beds!
Peeping into my room

A closer view of my roomThe view from my window


My sarongs, all laid out on my bed




The basin from which we get water to rinse off after using the bathroom
Squatty-potty!
The basin from which we get water for showering (it comes from rain through a pipe from the roof)
Little mirror area!