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!
Thursday, September 4, 2008
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 needs
The 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 room
The 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!
The 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!A Practicum, a Picnic, and a Package
In my town, things are going well. I like my host mom more and more every day, I've been making more friends in the community, and the 'Practicum' we did went quite well. What is a 'Practicum,' you ask? Well, it is one of the many words, like 'competency' [used to mean lesson], that Peace Corps likes to throw around, like Columbia (aka 'Hispanic Studies' instead of 'Spanish'), to make things, in my opinion, sound fancy.
Anyway, our Practicum was a series of practice-teaching days. For the first week, we taught alone for 45 minutes, in addition to watching two of our peers teach in the same room to the same students. We exchanged feedback, and we also got feedback from either one of the staff members who observed or from one of the Volunteers from the first group of PC people in Cambodia (They are K1; we are K2. Peace Corps super loves acronyms.) Total we taught alone for 5 days, Monday through Friday. Then we had a week off from teaching. Then we taught for two days, this time jointly with a Cambodian teacher from the town. The teacher with whom the people in my classroom taught was really awesome and flexible, so it was really nice to work with him.
Tuesday, after the kids had completed all 7 days of their learning-with-Americans, we presented them with snazzy Peace Corps certificates. Here is a photo from that ceremony:
Richard, Janice, the Cambodian teacher, and I passing out certificates to the kids and shaking their hands!
Other than that, we've been working on techniques to train other teachers at the schools where we will be working, etc.
When we go on bike rides, the views are gooooorgeous.
It's about an hour-long ride, but the water there is cool and nice, even with the tons and tons of kids there splashing you and hanging out. As I was leaving to go back to town with Greg (I wanted to go to the Wat with my mom to meditate, and he had promised some kids he would teach them English for a little bit.), some of Robert's older aunts started dancing with him, so that was pretty interesting, too...And the food was, of course, tasty.
Robert with Socheata, one of the language instructors.
Oh! And I got a really sweet package from Mimi last week, and all my friends in the community thought the drawing of her dreaming about seeing me on the side was just utterly hilarious. I wish I had a picture of it to show you, but that same night I came down with dengue and was shipped off, so I never got a chance to take a picture of it. (For more on dengue, see my next post.) I also let a bunch of my friends try a little of the peanut butter; they were all pretty intrigued.
One last thing! I know to which province I'm going to be going now for the next two years, although I don't know the town or anything yet because I'm still in Thailand. I'm not going to post it on this blog, but if you want to know which province, just ask me via email!
Thanks for reading! I'll try to be better about taking more pictures!!!
Anyway, our Practicum was a series of practice-teaching days. For the first week, we taught alone for 45 minutes, in addition to watching two of our peers teach in the same room to the same students. We exchanged feedback, and we also got feedback from either one of the staff members who observed or from one of the Volunteers from the first group of PC people in Cambodia (They are K1; we are K2. Peace Corps super loves acronyms.) Total we taught alone for 5 days, Monday through Friday. Then we had a week off from teaching. Then we taught for two days, this time jointly with a Cambodian teacher from the town. The teacher with whom the people in my classroom taught was really awesome and flexible, so it was really nice to work with him.
Tuesday, after the kids had completed all 7 days of their learning-with-Americans, we presented them with snazzy Peace Corps certificates. Here is a photo from that ceremony:
Richard, Janice, the Cambodian teacher, and I passing out certificates to the kids and shaking their hands!
Other than that, we've been working on techniques to train other teachers at the schools where we will be working, etc.
In terms of personally, everything is still going well. On my last free day, Robert, Bri, Greg, and I went to 'Sand Mountain' to attend a picnic party held by Robert's mom. We biked there---all the locals rode motos or random motorized cart things packed to the brim. Here are some photos of the road there/our trip there:
Yup. This is just typical side-of-the-road fare.
Yup. This is just typical side-of-the-road fare.
When we go on bike rides, the views are gooooorgeous.
Robert and Greg (from L to R) posing for the camera with their chroma bat-wing sun protection outfits. 
Bri, camera-shy, getting some stuff (probably sunscreen) out of her bag.
The road back to town behind us!
The road back to town behind us!
The road in front of us to the swimming hole!
It's about an hour-long ride, but the water there is cool and nice, even with the tons and tons of kids there splashing you and hanging out. As I was leaving to go back to town with Greg (I wanted to go to the Wat with my mom to meditate, and he had promised some kids he would teach them English for a little bit.), some of Robert's older aunts started dancing with him, so that was pretty interesting, too...And the food was, of course, tasty.
Bri and I during the picnic portion of the afternoon.
Greg picnicking with his Khmer 'older brother' and 'older sister.' He told us he didn't smile in anticipation of their not smiling. They have the CUTEST little girl. But she's too afraid of me to talk to me.
Robert with Socheata, one of the language instructors.Oh! And I got a really sweet package from Mimi last week, and all my friends in the community thought the drawing of her dreaming about seeing me on the side was just utterly hilarious. I wish I had a picture of it to show you, but that same night I came down with dengue and was shipped off, so I never got a chance to take a picture of it. (For more on dengue, see my next post.) I also let a bunch of my friends try a little of the peanut butter; they were all pretty intrigued.
One last thing! I know to which province I'm going to be going now for the next two years, although I don't know the town or anything yet because I'm still in Thailand. I'm not going to post it on this blog, but if you want to know which province, just ask me via email!
Thanks for reading! I'll try to be better about taking more pictures!!!
Monday, August 18, 2008
a free day's pleasures
Life in Cambodia is good. We’ve been in the training village for over a week since my last post; during that time I taught English for 45 minutes for 5 days (with my own lesson plans) to students in the community, and continued building relationships in the community. Today is Sunday (I’m going to the Hub Site main town tomorrow and will get internet then.), so we didn’t have language class or any work or anything at all. I still got up at 5 AM, though! (Yes, if you know me well, you can insert your surprise here.)
I got up so early because I wanted to wash a buuuuunch of clothes before going to breakfast (I got these ‘khmer cakes’ which are actually basically waffles made with a waffle iron over an open fire with a batter made of coconut milk and flour and peppered with seeds that look like black sesame seeds but don’t taste like them at all.) and playing soccer with a few of the other Peace Corps Trainees (we’re not ‘Volunteers’ until after swear-in), several of our Language and Cultural Facilitators, and a bunch of the kids we’ve been teaching English. After that, I got water, went home, had lunch, did a little more laundry, and then went on a bike ride to a swimming hole with a bunch of trainees (There were kids from our English classes there, too.). After that, I went to my friend Sutjeeah’s house and then to her sister (who is incidentally one of the other trainees’ host parent)’s house to have a bite to eat. Then I came home, took my clothes off the clothesline, and had my actual dinner. It was a loooong day, but a good one.
Sutjeeah lives close to me and is really nice. She likes to talk a lot, and she is friendly and pleasant. She has a daughter who’s 17 named Chantrea; this upcoming week after I get back from the Hub Site I’m planning on teaching her and a few other kids English for a few days.
Both Sutjeeah and her sister work in the market here; Sutjeeah sells vegetables, and her sister sells coconuts. I always make sure to visit Sutjeeah when I go to the market and fill her in on stuff/at least say hi.
Oh, speaking of the market slash Sutjeeah, since I last posted I have been invited to eat meals at three houses other than my home: my Poo (uncle) Lai’s house with his family [We had frog as one of the options. It was pretty darn delicious.], a neighbor’s house with my mom [There were like 50 bazillion people there, and it was only lunchtime.] and Sutjeeah’s house [I went there for the special dinner they had Friday night for a Chinese holiday in honor of dead ancestors. I brought my Shabbos stuff with me and did the prayers there.] It’s really nice to be invited to other people’s houses because of the visiting/making connections factor, as deliiiiiicious as my food is at home [My host mom always makes tooonnns of vegetables for me.]
My back and neck are sore from all the exercise I did today, so I don’t want to write that much more. But I will definitely make sure I get to post more pictures when I post.
Ooh hey! In case you don’t know this and have been trying to call me, I never have my American phone with me during the day, and when people do call it only shows up as having received a call from either ‘007’ ‘008’ or something like ‘7017’. So, instead of calling my American phone, try texting me on it, and then I’ll tell you my Cambodian cell number and you can call that one if you really want to talk. (I think it’s cheaper for both of us that way, too,)
I got up so early because I wanted to wash a buuuuunch of clothes before going to breakfast (I got these ‘khmer cakes’ which are actually basically waffles made with a waffle iron over an open fire with a batter made of coconut milk and flour and peppered with seeds that look like black sesame seeds but don’t taste like them at all.) and playing soccer with a few of the other Peace Corps Trainees (we’re not ‘Volunteers’ until after swear-in), several of our Language and Cultural Facilitators, and a bunch of the kids we’ve been teaching English. After that, I got water, went home, had lunch, did a little more laundry, and then went on a bike ride to a swimming hole with a bunch of trainees (There were kids from our English classes there, too.). After that, I went to my friend Sutjeeah’s house and then to her sister (who is incidentally one of the other trainees’ host parent)’s house to have a bite to eat. Then I came home, took my clothes off the clothesline, and had my actual dinner. It was a loooong day, but a good one.
Sutjeeah lives close to me and is really nice. She likes to talk a lot, and she is friendly and pleasant. She has a daughter who’s 17 named Chantrea; this upcoming week after I get back from the Hub Site I’m planning on teaching her and a few other kids English for a few days.
Both Sutjeeah and her sister work in the market here; Sutjeeah sells vegetables, and her sister sells coconuts. I always make sure to visit Sutjeeah when I go to the market and fill her in on stuff/at least say hi.
Oh, speaking of the market slash Sutjeeah, since I last posted I have been invited to eat meals at three houses other than my home: my Poo (uncle) Lai’s house with his family [We had frog as one of the options. It was pretty darn delicious.], a neighbor’s house with my mom [There were like 50 bazillion people there, and it was only lunchtime.] and Sutjeeah’s house [I went there for the special dinner they had Friday night for a Chinese holiday in honor of dead ancestors. I brought my Shabbos stuff with me and did the prayers there.] It’s really nice to be invited to other people’s houses because of the visiting/making connections factor, as deliiiiiicious as my food is at home [My host mom always makes tooonnns of vegetables for me.]
My back and neck are sore from all the exercise I did today, so I don’t want to write that much more. But I will definitely make sure I get to post more pictures when I post.
Ooh hey! In case you don’t know this and have been trying to call me, I never have my American phone with me during the day, and when people do call it only shows up as having received a call from either ‘007’ ‘008’ or something like ‘7017’. So, instead of calling my American phone, try texting me on it, and then I’ll tell you my Cambodian cell number and you can call that one if you really want to talk. (I think it’s cheaper for both of us that way, too,)
more photos!
This is a photo of me with some of the students I teach from when we were swimming at the water hole!
Some water buffalo. There are a TON of them in my town.
I tried to get into a photo with a baby water buffalo, but she was totally freaked out. I'm still kindaaaa in the photo with her!
This is from one of our language lessons. These are some of the feet of some of the other trainees.
Another picture from the water hole!
This is my house. It turns out the only people in it are my mom and I; the 'aunt' and her grandson are actually from Phnom Penh, and they went back last week!
This is from my district town---there's a crazy restaurant here with crocodiles in the back where you can go look at them. But then you have to pay them half a quarter.
Wednesday, August 6, 2008
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!
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!
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