room poup (that means excited) to be in cambodia

Since I last posted, a lot has happened, most of which took place in the training village in which I am placed until early October, and it’s all very exciting! I moved in with my family last Wednesday, the 30th, and I have learned so much in my first week with them. I technically only have this really awesome host mom who is probably about 65 and a devout Buddhist. She goes to the wat (the temple) every day for a while, and she shaves her head to show her religiosity. She’s never been married, but she does have an adopted daughter (who’s actually part of her extended family) who studies and works in Phnom Penh. I said ‘technically’ before because a relative of my host mom’s, who I call Ming (Aunt), and her grandson eat every meal with us and spend every night at our house as far as I can tell, though they also have a house next door. All three of them are really cool in different ways, and none of them (well, obviously not Natou, the 2.5 year old grandson who super loves peekaboo) try to make me do anything unpleasant like eat millions of pounds of rice or only fold my clothes the way they think is right.

The food at our house is really tasty, too, with lots of fresh fish, little shrimp, and sooooo many fresh vegetables. There isn’t anything spicy because my host mom does not like spicy food, but we do get dessert with both lunch and dinner, which is—literally—pretty sweet. I’m trying all sorts of new fruits (some of which I’ve tried before in the states but never had as fresh or delicious as the ones here), all of which are ridiculously reasonably priced as compared to the fruit we get back home. For instance, a kilo of dragonfruit (2.2 pounds) is only 50 cents. And, let me tell you, it is delicious, really refreshing and full of little black seeds. Some of the other trainees say that it tastes like kiwi, which makes me happy to feel like I can have something like kiwi even if I can’t have kiwi. Another really cool fruit is Ankam fruit/Salá fruit, which is prickly/hairy on the outside, looks like a butt on the inside, tastes like sour blueberries, and is apparently shipped in from Thailand, where it’s in season right now. I made a relationship with a fruit seller woman, too, and always go to her, so she gives me good, cheap prices rather than ripping me off for being a Barang (their word for gringo, which technically means French).

In terms of language learning, I am learning soooo much every day; it really helps that no one speaks English in my family in terms of fully immersing myself in the language. We also have about 4 hours of language class every day, which is really nice. Oh! And there is the cutest kitten ever at my Khmer teacher’s host family’s house. He likes me and really gets excited and happy and purry when I pet him. And his owner, my Khmer teacher’s host sister, has an older sister who lives in Oregon, but whose daughter lives in Memphis! I talked to her (the older sister) one day when I was at the house, and she told me that she went with her daughter to buy a car at the Wolfchase dealership. Crazy! It really is a small world.

A bunch of us in my village went on an approximately 20 mile bike ride on Sunday, our day off, to go to this swimming hole. The road there was gorgeous, surrounded by rice patties and ridiculously peaceful. But I didn’t realize the ride would be so long, and thus did not bring my camera! I need to start taking more pictures in general, I’m posting a few today, but there are soooo many things that I want to share that I have yet to capture on (digital) ‘film.’

One little whine before I go---I’m taking Lariam, a malaria prophylaxis, rather than doxycycline, which most other volunteers are taking, because I am already on an antibiotic for my face. It’s making some of my dreams super vivid and crazy (aka in one I was disoriented and unable to really walk around, talked to the medical officer, found out I had malaria and a fever of 110 and then passed out…and then woke up and went to an amphitheater to meet up with everyone else and watch a movie with them), and I keep on waking up at like 3 AM and can’t go back to sleep. I go to bed early (basically between 8:30 and 9:30) and plan to get up by 4:45 so that I can go on a bike ride with one of the language instructors before class, so it’s not too bad, but I hope it does not continue forever. I like sleep!

I’m at the hub site, where there is internet access, only overnight, and then we go back to the training village for another week or so again I think. I will update this when I can!

in cambodia, i am!

soooo, i finally got access to the internet today, but it's apparently super flaky because of the rain, so i am going to try to be quick. right now i'm in a provincial town (i'm not supposed to divulge my exact location!) where we've been having training for about a week. yesterday (sunday) was election day, so they wanted to keep tabs on us until afterwards to make sure that things didn't get too crazy. everything was cool and calm, so we'll move in with our host families wednesday.

the language is really cool and really fun, and i'm having a good time with it. the people are friendly and happy to practice the language; they seem to be excited that it interests us. they smile a lot!

the climate here is hot and muggy, like utica mississippi in the summer, but with no air conditioning at all, not even in the dining hall. i'm glad my southern upbringing prepared me for it; some of the others in the group (there are 36 total) are from more northern climes and are struggling with the heat. the best part of the day, in my mind, (as in utica/memphis) is the delightful hour or so of rain followed by a less-humid, fresh moistness in the air. there have been lots of rainbows, and the days are filled with sunshine. i'll post some photos when i get the chance to take my laptop or my flash drive to an internet place.

today we went to the market, and i did my first little bit of bargaining in khmai, which was pretty fun. i got a sarong made (turns out this is the part of the world in which they call them sarongs) and taught one of our LCFs (language and cultural facilitators) how to tie them the way i always tie my pareo. cross-cultural exchange, booyeah!

i'm excited about my work! it should be challenging, but pleasantly so. apparently, there will be a time coming when i get frustrated with my community and host family, etc. but it has yet to come, so i'm just cruising along and enjoying myself.

wish me luck with the host family...apparently girls get locked in for the night at like 6 or 7 pm while boys head to karaoke bars to pick up prostitutes...




ps the food is tasty! i haven't had any lychees here yet, but let me tell you, the rambutans and dragonfruit here are DELICIOUS. and there's this really tasty garlicky stir-fry of morning glory greens that's also reallllllly good. i'll definitely take some pictures of that kind of stuff soon.