On April 3rd, I set off for Vietnam on vacation. Schools in Cambodia close for Khmer New Year for the entire month of April (although officially the New Year is only three days long) and so I decided to take this as an opportunity to venture out of Cambodia. Vietnam was an obvious choice because it is so close to where I am currently living (which is about 8 km from the Vietnam border) and I am often in contact with Vietnamese people. Two friends and I took the bus from Phnom Penh to Ho Chi Minh City (better known as Saigon) where we spent a night before catching an "open bus tour" north. We stopped in Dalat, Nha Trang, Hoi An, Hue, Hanoi, and Halong Bay. It was a whirlwind two weeks. My favorite spots were Hoi An and Halong Bay. Hoi An because of the large number of wooden houses from the 16th and 17th centuries as well as all the fun dress shops (where you could get outfits made for less than $20!); and Halong Bay because it was breathtakingly beautiful. On the 14th I returned home to celebrate the three most important days of the Khmer New Year.
New Year in Cambodia (Chaul Chnam Thmey in the Khmer language) is all about spending time with family. It depends on their lunar calendar but this year we celebrated on April 14th,15th, and 16th. People who have moved away from their homeland will come back for at least these three days. Romeas Hek (my site) is moderately sized (in rural Cambodia terms) – and has a population of somewhere between 5 and 10 thousand people. Due to lack of jobs and overall lack of amenities, most people choose to move away; mostly to larger towns where they can get a job in one of the many gament factories. The population at least tripled for Khmer New Year. An interesting fact about Cambodians and New Year is that, for the most part, everyone just turns a year older at the new year. They do not (usually) celebrate their birthdays. I'm definitely not the sharpest tack in the box because it was maybe around the 5th or 6th person telling me their birthday was April 15th when it dawned on me that everyone celebrates on the same day.
Every morning, for each of the three days of the new year, families go to a Pagoda and give food and money to the Buddhist monks after prayer. Sometime after lunch, people will then go to one or more of the private and public parties happening all over town. Nearly all day, every day, I ate, drank, and danced with people in my village. The best party I went to was at the nearby Wat (temple/pagoda). Here there were at least 100 people – many of them dancing, many more just watching, while gaggles of children threw powder and water on EVERYONE. I hope to upload some pictures on Picasa (a web server for pictures) soon. If you are on Facebook the pictures are uploaded already and are included in the album "Welcome to the Wat Party".
Although Cambodia doesn’t have the most official public holidays in the world (though close to it with about 25), I cannot doubt that it has the most UNOFFICIAL holidays. As I mentioned earlier we had the entire month of April off of school. This month, I am told the school may be closed more days than it will be open. This is due to King Norodom Sihamoni’s birthday on May 14, (3 days), the Royal Plowing Ceremony on May 12 (1 day), and Labor Day on May 1st and the fact that one day off usually leads to two days off or more.
Friday, May 7, 2010
Sunday, March 14, 2010
Libraries and Rats
Every Thursday I sit in the high school’s “library” for two hours. I offer this time so that high school students may ask me questions regarding English (or anything, really). It either hasn’t caught on to my students, or they’re too busy, or they just don’t care, for (with the exception of about 5 students) the last few months I have been sitting by myself nearly the entire time. The problem could be in my advertising (there is none), the fact that the library is situated quite close to the school director’s office (location, location, location), or (and this is probably the real reason) is that the library is little more than a storage place and home to many rodents and birds. Not the best place to spend a few hours of your time, eh? It wasn’t until last week though, when two of my (brighter and more motivated) students from my 10 B class came to visit, that I really felt as though the office hours in the library were worth it.
At first they just came into the library to say hello, but I quickly persuaded them to “koy lange” (sit and visit). Off handedly I mentioned that there were a few dozen new English books in three cardboard boxes in the room, left from the last (and first) Peace Corps volunteer at my site. That was all it took. Together we ventured into the books, donated by the Asia Foundation. After a few minutes they stumbled upon a textbook called “My World”, a geography and history text book in one, and from the very first page were hooked. “Where is this Teacher?” they asked, pointing to a picture of the Acropolis. “Greece”, I tell them. “Where is Greece?” they ask innocently. I bring out a map and show them. Although nearly all of the students at my high school take “Geography” almost none of them could point to Europe on the map. It has me very interested in sitting in on one of their Geography lessons. The book has them engrossed for over an hour and has me answering questions like the following:
“What is nahto (NATO)?”
“Have you ever been to the pyramids? Why not?”
“What is that?” (pointing to a picture of the international space station) I answer that it is “a home in space” and that people from different countries live there. Their eyes become wide, then narrower as they are obviously mulling it over. They give the picture one more glance and then turn the page.
My office hours go by quickly that day and I bike home even more certain than ever that I want to finish what the first volunteer at my site attempted to do, and bring a library to the school. Luckily for me, I have a new school director who is seemingly behind the project. It won’t be easy by any means though. The “library” as it is now is a desk (for the “librarian”), a table, chairs, a shelf with unused/discarded textbooks, and a medley of different items that have found storage there. Mice and birds have taken up residence and their excrements cover nearly everything. The walls need to be painted, tenants evicted, shelves built, and books obtained. All seemingly easy except for the fact that nothing is as easy as it seems when you are a Peace Corps Volunteer in Cambodia*.
This week we have our In Service Training (IST) and I will hopefully be learning the ins and outs of grant writing and fundraising in Cambodia. No doubt I will keep you, my faithful blog reader, abreast of any developments as well as the address to send your check so that you may get involved in the project as well :)
Aside from teaching at the school, I also teach every Friday at the local Health Center. Many of the nurses there are between 30 and 45 years old and, if you are unfamiliar with Cambodian history, the years these individuals went to school were the most turbulent of any in the country’s history. Needless to say, they were not given the opportunity to learn English (although some do know a few words of French). When I began these lessons I had to start at the beginning – the ABCs. Most were familiar with them but could not recite them from memory nor remember all the sounds they make. There are two nurses, ages 24 and 25, who know quite a bit and seem glad to have a refresher course. Without a doubt I have the most fun teaching this group. Mostly because they want to be there and are eager to learn – but also, because I have been observing at the center for as long as I have been at site, we are all very comfortable with each other. Jokes abound and we seem to always end the class laughing.
Interlude: A library emerges out of the rat nests…
In December I filled out an application to an organization called Room to Read that was offering English books to needy schools in Cambodia. I had almost forgotten about it when I received a phone call from them asking if I could come by and pick up the 600 books they were giving my school. After a very turbulent weekend in Phnom Penh, I arrived at site with three very heavy boxes containing 600 various English books. The next day my host sisters and I together opened the boxes and happily went through the contents; “Magic School Bus!”, “Clifford!”, “Books on Teaching!’ I was very happily surprised with the selection.
We sat down, my sister Kohnteet and Sampoa, and for five hours wrote “Witchee-ah-lye Roomy Hike” (Romeas Hek High School) in permanent marker in every one of the donated books. I think it was around the 100th book that I realized I could write the name of my school in Khmer by memory. It is the only thing I can write in the language, but I’m proud. Khmer is not the easiest language to learn to write…
Later that day, our hands a bit sore from all the writing, my sisters loaded their moto with the first box and I followed in my bike. After three trips, all the books were safely inside the library. The next day, I had a sit down with the sub-school director who, thankfully, speaks English (my Khmer isn’t THAT good yet). We talked about the library and cleaning it up. He said he would talk to the school director and get back to me. The next day I got full reign to do whatever I pleased in the library as long as I didn’t throw out any books and on Thursday, the “official” cleaning day at the school, I would get at least thirty students to help me :)!
I was ecstatic – and full of dread! The library hadn’t been cleaned in at least fifteen years. The Ministry of Education has a policy that the high schools keep all text books for at least five years. My high school had …excuse me… has some dating back from 1996! I recognize this hording of books may be their showing appreciation for something they did not have twenty or thirty years ago. But can a worm eaten, rat poop covered, petrified to the floor, textbook be any use to anyone?
Well Thursday came and I made sure I came fortified with at least three cups of strong Vietnamese coffee in my system. Arriving thirty minutes early I took stock of everything that needed to be done, and where things would go. I was a bit overwhelmed. The coteacher assigned to help me, Mee-it, showed up soon after along with a twelfth grade student who had promised to help. We started clesning out the shelves and soon were joined by at least thirty of the 10th grade students. And then the “librarian” came. And any vestige of control I had over the project quickly was transferred to her and my coteacher. IT was all for the better actually, as I really didn’t know what to do with half the stuff we came across in that room. Medical supplies? A box of Khmer rice wine? Ten spools of copper wire? And somewhere around the time of discovering the iodine and drip bags a rat ran across my feet. I screamed (who wouldn’t??) which elicited many laughs from the students. “Teacher is afraid of mice!”, they taunted. After that I kind of stood towards the back and watched as the students moved the books, furniture, and miscellaneous things around and cleaned. There were too many hands in the kitchen, as some would say. And I did not want to risk having another rat crawl on my body. I may be in the Peace Corps, but you have to draw the line somewhere.
The students found four very large rat nests, dead birds, and many many books.Some were even petrified to the floor behind some of the shelves!
At first they just came into the library to say hello, but I quickly persuaded them to “koy lange” (sit and visit). Off handedly I mentioned that there were a few dozen new English books in three cardboard boxes in the room, left from the last (and first) Peace Corps volunteer at my site. That was all it took. Together we ventured into the books, donated by the Asia Foundation. After a few minutes they stumbled upon a textbook called “My World”, a geography and history text book in one, and from the very first page were hooked. “Where is this Teacher?” they asked, pointing to a picture of the Acropolis. “Greece”, I tell them. “Where is Greece?” they ask innocently. I bring out a map and show them. Although nearly all of the students at my high school take “Geography” almost none of them could point to Europe on the map. It has me very interested in sitting in on one of their Geography lessons. The book has them engrossed for over an hour and has me answering questions like the following:
“What is nahto (NATO)?”
“Have you ever been to the pyramids? Why not?”
“What is that?” (pointing to a picture of the international space station) I answer that it is “a home in space” and that people from different countries live there. Their eyes become wide, then narrower as they are obviously mulling it over. They give the picture one more glance and then turn the page.
My office hours go by quickly that day and I bike home even more certain than ever that I want to finish what the first volunteer at my site attempted to do, and bring a library to the school. Luckily for me, I have a new school director who is seemingly behind the project. It won’t be easy by any means though. The “library” as it is now is a desk (for the “librarian”), a table, chairs, a shelf with unused/discarded textbooks, and a medley of different items that have found storage there. Mice and birds have taken up residence and their excrements cover nearly everything. The walls need to be painted, tenants evicted, shelves built, and books obtained. All seemingly easy except for the fact that nothing is as easy as it seems when you are a Peace Corps Volunteer in Cambodia*.
This week we have our In Service Training (IST) and I will hopefully be learning the ins and outs of grant writing and fundraising in Cambodia. No doubt I will keep you, my faithful blog reader, abreast of any developments as well as the address to send your check so that you may get involved in the project as well :)
Aside from teaching at the school, I also teach every Friday at the local Health Center. Many of the nurses there are between 30 and 45 years old and, if you are unfamiliar with Cambodian history, the years these individuals went to school were the most turbulent of any in the country’s history. Needless to say, they were not given the opportunity to learn English (although some do know a few words of French). When I began these lessons I had to start at the beginning – the ABCs. Most were familiar with them but could not recite them from memory nor remember all the sounds they make. There are two nurses, ages 24 and 25, who know quite a bit and seem glad to have a refresher course. Without a doubt I have the most fun teaching this group. Mostly because they want to be there and are eager to learn – but also, because I have been observing at the center for as long as I have been at site, we are all very comfortable with each other. Jokes abound and we seem to always end the class laughing.
Interlude: A library emerges out of the rat nests…
In December I filled out an application to an organization called Room to Read that was offering English books to needy schools in Cambodia. I had almost forgotten about it when I received a phone call from them asking if I could come by and pick up the 600 books they were giving my school. After a very turbulent weekend in Phnom Penh, I arrived at site with three very heavy boxes containing 600 various English books. The next day my host sisters and I together opened the boxes and happily went through the contents; “Magic School Bus!”, “Clifford!”, “Books on Teaching!’ I was very happily surprised with the selection.
We sat down, my sister Kohnteet and Sampoa, and for five hours wrote “Witchee-ah-lye Roomy Hike” (Romeas Hek High School) in permanent marker in every one of the donated books. I think it was around the 100th book that I realized I could write the name of my school in Khmer by memory. It is the only thing I can write in the language, but I’m proud. Khmer is not the easiest language to learn to write…
Later that day, our hands a bit sore from all the writing, my sisters loaded their moto with the first box and I followed in my bike. After three trips, all the books were safely inside the library. The next day, I had a sit down with the sub-school director who, thankfully, speaks English (my Khmer isn’t THAT good yet). We talked about the library and cleaning it up. He said he would talk to the school director and get back to me. The next day I got full reign to do whatever I pleased in the library as long as I didn’t throw out any books and on Thursday, the “official” cleaning day at the school, I would get at least thirty students to help me :)!
I was ecstatic – and full of dread! The library hadn’t been cleaned in at least fifteen years. The Ministry of Education has a policy that the high schools keep all text books for at least five years. My high school had …excuse me… has some dating back from 1996! I recognize this hording of books may be their showing appreciation for something they did not have twenty or thirty years ago. But can a worm eaten, rat poop covered, petrified to the floor, textbook be any use to anyone?
Well Thursday came and I made sure I came fortified with at least three cups of strong Vietnamese coffee in my system. Arriving thirty minutes early I took stock of everything that needed to be done, and where things would go. I was a bit overwhelmed. The coteacher assigned to help me, Mee-it, showed up soon after along with a twelfth grade student who had promised to help. We started clesning out the shelves and soon were joined by at least thirty of the 10th grade students. And then the “librarian” came. And any vestige of control I had over the project quickly was transferred to her and my coteacher. IT was all for the better actually, as I really didn’t know what to do with half the stuff we came across in that room. Medical supplies? A box of Khmer rice wine? Ten spools of copper wire? And somewhere around the time of discovering the iodine and drip bags a rat ran across my feet. I screamed (who wouldn’t??) which elicited many laughs from the students. “Teacher is afraid of mice!”, they taunted. After that I kind of stood towards the back and watched as the students moved the books, furniture, and miscellaneous things around and cleaned. There were too many hands in the kitchen, as some would say. And I did not want to risk having another rat crawl on my body. I may be in the Peace Corps, but you have to draw the line somewhere.
The students found four very large rat nests, dead birds, and many many books.Some were even petrified to the floor behind some of the shelves!
Friday, March 5, 2010
Sunday, January 31, 2010
Living in Cambodia on 75 cents a day
After returning to site from my glorious 10 day trip to Phnom Penh and Siem Reap, I came back to site with about $80 in my pocket. The following two weekends I proceeded to go to my provincial town and then Phnom Penh. Needless to say, when I came back from PP, I was broke as a joke. I had enough to get back to site with $10 left over and two weeks until my next "pay day". Could I survive at site for two weeks on 75 cents a day?
It took some heavy budgeting and a severe case of diarrhea but I made it with a dollar to spare:) Not only did I spend all my money in Phnom Penh but also picked up a lovely intestinal bug which kept me at home (and near the toilet) for four days. You could light about 10 houses for a week on the power I unleashed in that 4 by 6 foot room. When and if you ever come to Cambodia, take this advice seriously - DO NOT eat fresh fruit and vegetable without peeling them or washing them in bleach first AND always pick places you know will take food prep seriously. The upside of not doing these things is that you may get very ill and not want to eat. And if you don't want to eat then you won't spend any money. And if you don't spend any money then you might be able to afford the $20 entry fee into Angkor Wat.
Enough about my cash strapped, volunteer life. The next two weeks the entire high school where I teach will be taking their semester finals. As a volunteer, I do not need to be present during their exams and so I will be sitting under a mango tree and doing what I do best, studying Khmer, reading and/or staring into space. Having learned my lesson about going to Phnom Penh too often, I am opting to stay at site and only go into my provincial town when absolutely necessary.
It took some heavy budgeting and a severe case of diarrhea but I made it with a dollar to spare:) Not only did I spend all my money in Phnom Penh but also picked up a lovely intestinal bug which kept me at home (and near the toilet) for four days. You could light about 10 houses for a week on the power I unleashed in that 4 by 6 foot room. When and if you ever come to Cambodia, take this advice seriously - DO NOT eat fresh fruit and vegetable without peeling them or washing them in bleach first AND always pick places you know will take food prep seriously. The upside of not doing these things is that you may get very ill and not want to eat. And if you don't want to eat then you won't spend any money. And if you don't spend any money then you might be able to afford the $20 entry fee into Angkor Wat.
Enough about my cash strapped, volunteer life. The next two weeks the entire high school where I teach will be taking their semester finals. As a volunteer, I do not need to be present during their exams and so I will be sitting under a mango tree and doing what I do best, studying Khmer, reading and/or staring into space. Having learned my lesson about going to Phnom Penh too often, I am opting to stay at site and only go into my provincial town when absolutely necessary.
Saturday, January 9, 2010
A Cambodian Christmas
Well Christmas in Cambodia can both be a blessing and a curse. There are no Christmas displays, ads and commercials, or pressure to buy the perfect presents for my family and friends (if I had the funds that would be different). There is nothing even remotely Christmas-like in Cambodia; or at least in the provinces. With the exception of the other volunteers, the downside of it all is I have to bear through it relatively alone. Although it doesn’t feel like Christmas, I surely know its happening back home and it is hard not to think of eating delicious pies and cookies with good friends and family. The one place you can find Christmas in Cambodia is Phnom Penh. That was the surprise awaiting me and some of the other volunteers when we arrived on Christmas evening. The restaurants catering to foreign guests had all the lights and embellishments (TINSEL!) that we had been deprived of. We soaked it in. After our three long months of “lock down”, many (if not all) of the volunteers were ready to celebrate – not only Christmas but their freedom. We ate pizza and drank margaritas and danced like Americans. It was the most un-Christmas Christmas I have ever had.
Given the choice to return to site for two days and then come back to Phnom Penh and Siem Reap (for New Years), I opted for annual leave so I could stay on and eat more cheese, and potentially lay by a pool (or two). It made my Christmas and New Years vacay a total of nearly ten days, and it was wonderful. I admit, after three months of limited (to almost no) electricity and no running water, I was ready to spoil myself. What is there to do in Phnom Penh? For me it was eat American food and go shopping. I ate to my hearts content, pizza, macaroni and cheese, quesadillas, bagel pizzas, bruschetta... the list goes on. The only thing I can truthfully say I did NOT eat was rice. It did not make sense for me to spend money on something I have to eat three times a day, seven days a week. Instead I focused on my favorite three food groups – cheese, bread, and pasta. Atkins has nothing on me.
On the 30th I packed my bags and headed to Siem Reap, a 5 or so hour bus ride from Phnom Penh. Siem Reap is famous for Angkor Wat and some other, beautiful and terribly old, temples. That was not my reason for going there though. Knowing that some friends and family will be coming to visit within the next year I opted to focus more on the city itself. I did not want to burn myself out on the temples before my loved ones had a chance to see them – it just wouldn’t be fair to them. So I stuck with what could never get old to me – shopping and eating. Five other volunteer girls and I bought new dresses for New Years Eve and that night had fun dressing up as though we weren’t in the Peace Corps but foreigners on vacation. It was a BLAST. As hundreds of other people on a crowded street in Siem Reap started counting down to 2010, we counted along with them. Six months in Cambodia down and with nineteen left to go, who knows what the New Year will bring to this small group of bleeding hearts halfway across the world from everyone else they know and love. For that night we were excited and happy and danced the night away; hopeful of a wonderful and successful year ahead. It was one of my best New Years so far.
I returned to site on the 3rd, happy but broke. Why does happiness (i.e. air conditioning and cheese) have to cost so much? My host family seemed happy to see me after my ten day disappearance. Unfortunately my bed was covered in dead bugs – a surprise because my mosquito net covered it entirely during my time away – and I quickly set about shaking them out and straightening up my room. Tomorrow I would teach again, and it would be much easier if I had my stuff together.
The students were better behaved than I remembered. Maybe it was like the old adage, “absence makes the heart grow fonder”. Or maybe it was the short week ahead which brought about their remarkable upbeatness in the face of English grammar. The 7th of January is the day when, in 1979, “Vietnamese troops captured Phnom Penh establishing the People's Republic of Kampuchea.” The official rule of Pol Pot’s regime was over, although they continued to hold onto parts of Northwestern Cambodia until the late 1990s. Although my town celebrates this holiday on the 5th, because that is the day when they were liberated from the Khmer Rouge, we also have the 7th off. Out of my four day workweek, I would be teaching two days. It is no wonder why many people say that Cambodia has the most official holidays out of any other country in the world. Teaching was a breeze that week.
Currently I am in Svay Reing catching up on any internet time I did not get in Phnom Penh while also compiling a list of English names for my students to choose from. How appropriate do you think the names of Apple, Coco, Pax, and the Hulk are? They reflect people's names for our generation in the English speaking world. My Cambodian students should be made aware of them and prepared to meet people with names like these. It is only fair.
Given the choice to return to site for two days and then come back to Phnom Penh and Siem Reap (for New Years), I opted for annual leave so I could stay on and eat more cheese, and potentially lay by a pool (or two). It made my Christmas and New Years vacay a total of nearly ten days, and it was wonderful. I admit, after three months of limited (to almost no) electricity and no running water, I was ready to spoil myself. What is there to do in Phnom Penh? For me it was eat American food and go shopping. I ate to my hearts content, pizza, macaroni and cheese, quesadillas, bagel pizzas, bruschetta... the list goes on. The only thing I can truthfully say I did NOT eat was rice. It did not make sense for me to spend money on something I have to eat three times a day, seven days a week. Instead I focused on my favorite three food groups – cheese, bread, and pasta. Atkins has nothing on me.
On the 30th I packed my bags and headed to Siem Reap, a 5 or so hour bus ride from Phnom Penh. Siem Reap is famous for Angkor Wat and some other, beautiful and terribly old, temples. That was not my reason for going there though. Knowing that some friends and family will be coming to visit within the next year I opted to focus more on the city itself. I did not want to burn myself out on the temples before my loved ones had a chance to see them – it just wouldn’t be fair to them. So I stuck with what could never get old to me – shopping and eating. Five other volunteer girls and I bought new dresses for New Years Eve and that night had fun dressing up as though we weren’t in the Peace Corps but foreigners on vacation. It was a BLAST. As hundreds of other people on a crowded street in Siem Reap started counting down to 2010, we counted along with them. Six months in Cambodia down and with nineteen left to go, who knows what the New Year will bring to this small group of bleeding hearts halfway across the world from everyone else they know and love. For that night we were excited and happy and danced the night away; hopeful of a wonderful and successful year ahead. It was one of my best New Years so far.
I returned to site on the 3rd, happy but broke. Why does happiness (i.e. air conditioning and cheese) have to cost so much? My host family seemed happy to see me after my ten day disappearance. Unfortunately my bed was covered in dead bugs – a surprise because my mosquito net covered it entirely during my time away – and I quickly set about shaking them out and straightening up my room. Tomorrow I would teach again, and it would be much easier if I had my stuff together.
The students were better behaved than I remembered. Maybe it was like the old adage, “absence makes the heart grow fonder”. Or maybe it was the short week ahead which brought about their remarkable upbeatness in the face of English grammar. The 7th of January is the day when, in 1979, “Vietnamese troops captured Phnom Penh establishing the People's Republic of Kampuchea.” The official rule of Pol Pot’s regime was over, although they continued to hold onto parts of Northwestern Cambodia until the late 1990s. Although my town celebrates this holiday on the 5th, because that is the day when they were liberated from the Khmer Rouge, we also have the 7th off. Out of my four day workweek, I would be teaching two days. It is no wonder why many people say that Cambodia has the most official holidays out of any other country in the world. Teaching was a breeze that week.
Currently I am in Svay Reing catching up on any internet time I did not get in Phnom Penh while also compiling a list of English names for my students to choose from. How appropriate do you think the names of Apple, Coco, Pax, and the Hulk are? They reflect people's names for our generation in the English speaking world. My Cambodian students should be made aware of them and prepared to meet people with names like these. It is only fair.
Thursday, December 10, 2009
What kind of brains are they?
"Hope Bai , Kellee!", Nary yelled to me as I sat in a plastic chair in the front of her famiy's shop, watching people go in and out of the market.
Every week I come to Nary and Narin's house to have lunch and chat. Nary is my age and Narin is 22 years old, both unmarried, and so they make for good company. Narin moved to Phnom Penh, however, in October to go to school. For $500/year he studies Korean 5 days a week. When he comes home he gives his notes and books to his older sister so she can study off them too. As with most Cambodian, as we as Vietnamese (as Nary and Narin are), families in rural Cambodia they support their male children to go to school while their daughters stay at home until they get married (usuay around age 18). One of my male students said that his sister wanted to go to study at a university but their parents refused to support her. In order to get money to fund her ambitions, she moved to Phnom Penh to work in a clothing factory. Her brother says she is still working there two and a half years later.
Both Nary and Narin are studying Korean so they can move to South Korea next year. Narin wants to get a job assembling cars and Nary is just looking for a "sales" position. I wonder what their family will do once they both move to Korea. With the absence of Nary especially, I think it will be much harder to run their shop which sells everything from fruit to pots and pans to children's toys.
I sit down to their table in the center of their one story home. In front of me are some fried duck eggs, rice, and some very questionable meat (brains?).
I ask Nary "What is this?" in Khmer, pointing to the bowl of brains. I forget the word for brains and ask, "is it from a head?"
She nods yes.
"Pig's head?"
She looks at me, disgusted. "Pig's brains are not good! Not delicious!"she says, matter-of-factly. Then goes to bite into a few more river clams that have suddeny appeared on the table in a bowl next to the bowl of "questionably-not-pigs" brains.
"Cows head?"
She looks at me and then her 3 year old little brother who is doing laps around the table with a tricycle. When she looks back she nods a few times and smiles.
"Yes. They are very delicious - my little brother's favorite!" She then proceeds to take a spoon to the brains.
I take one more helping of fried egg.
Every week I come to Nary and Narin's house to have lunch and chat. Nary is my age and Narin is 22 years old, both unmarried, and so they make for good company. Narin moved to Phnom Penh, however, in October to go to school. For $500/year he studies Korean 5 days a week. When he comes home he gives his notes and books to his older sister so she can study off them too. As with most Cambodian, as we as Vietnamese (as Nary and Narin are), families in rural Cambodia they support their male children to go to school while their daughters stay at home until they get married (usuay around age 18). One of my male students said that his sister wanted to go to study at a university but their parents refused to support her. In order to get money to fund her ambitions, she moved to Phnom Penh to work in a clothing factory. Her brother says she is still working there two and a half years later.
Both Nary and Narin are studying Korean so they can move to South Korea next year. Narin wants to get a job assembling cars and Nary is just looking for a "sales" position. I wonder what their family will do once they both move to Korea. With the absence of Nary especially, I think it will be much harder to run their shop which sells everything from fruit to pots and pans to children's toys.
I sit down to their table in the center of their one story home. In front of me are some fried duck eggs, rice, and some very questionable meat (brains?).
I ask Nary "What is this?" in Khmer, pointing to the bowl of brains. I forget the word for brains and ask, "is it from a head?"
She nods yes.
"Pig's head?"
She looks at me, disgusted. "Pig's brains are not good! Not delicious!"she says, matter-of-factly. Then goes to bite into a few more river clams that have suddeny appeared on the table in a bowl next to the bowl of "questionably-not-pigs" brains.
"Cows head?"
She looks at me and then her 3 year old little brother who is doing laps around the table with a tricycle. When she looks back she nods a few times and smiles.
"Yes. They are very delicious - my little brother's favorite!" She then proceeds to take a spoon to the brains.
I take one more helping of fried egg.
Saturday, November 21, 2009
Cambodian Dreams
I have been in Cambodia for about four months so far, two of those at site. Living in Southeast Asia is no longer a novelty but a fact of life. Starting at about 4:30 am every morning I expect to hear a dozen or more roosters cawing, dogs barking, babies crying, and women and children sweeping their homes. Within the last few weeks I have even begun to dream about Cambodia and me in it which means that I have both consciously, and unconsciously, accepted that I now live in Cambodia.
My days are really laid back, sometimes so much so that I end up feeling guilty about it; such as on November 9th. This day is a national Cambodian holiday and commemorates Cambodia’s independence from France. I had no idea that I would not have to work that day until a student came to my house the Saturday before and told me (if it wasn’t for him I would have showed up at my school, books in hand, waiting in an empty classroom for tardy students that would have never showed up). Anyways, I had not planned anything to do that day and so it took me by surprise. My town is only so big. And by so big, I mean very small. There aren’t many options for things to do in your free time unless you count housework or planting or replanting rice as options. On holidays I usually see groups of men sitting in a circle drinking shots of palm wine, playing cards, and eating. The children run around and lately (I assume because now we are out of the wet season) have been flying kites. They make these kites themselves and I have been impressed at how well, and how high, they fly.
We do have a thriving market that is very busy in the morning which becomes a ghost town after noon except for a few tailors and seamstresses. Don’t even think about going at 4 pm, you will be the only one there. So I went to the market, ate breakfast (Ramen – no meat- and iced coffee), and wandered around. I bought some clementines (which are in season here and are awesome) and some nome tian (a gelatinous ball made of rice flour and filled with coconut, cashews, and sugar). After which I sat and gossiped with a friend of my host family who has a shop at the market until about 9:30 am. After which I decided to go home, where I stayed for the rest of the day. Don’t get me wrong, I wanted to be social but it gets so hot during midday and with having nothing to do I saw nothing better than resigning myself to a lazy day at home. I ate some clementines with my host sisters while chatting with them and then sat down with a book until lunchtime (lunch was stir fried pork and pineapple with rice). After which I took a three hour long nap and, after waking, proceeded to read again. I read until dusk (when the electricity turns on) and went about finding a way to assess my students’ knowledge of English on my laptop. And at 8pm I went to bed.
Instead of just sitting down and to read one book I have decided to read many books at once. This often helps me when I have an exceptionally long day with many hours to kill. Currently I am reading “A Walk in the Woods” by Bill Bryson, “Tellers of Tales” an anthology of short stories from 1947, and “A Prayer for Owen Meany” by John Irving. They have kept me very well distracted from otherwise itching my mosquito/unidentified insect bites or getting upset over the fact that the ants had got into my peanut butter AGAIN.
I promise you most days I am not that lazy. So if you are looking at become a Peace Corps volunteer or have recently been accepted to go to Cambodia, let me tell you it is no 'walk in the park'. During the normal school week the days go by very quickly and I do not have that much time to read or sleep the day away. My days go somewhat like this:
5:15 am: Get up and go running.
6:00 am return home, take bucket shower etc.
6:30am eat breakfast at a local food stand (usually I eat a sandwich or noodle soup accompanied with a few shots of delicious Vietnamese coffee).
7:00 am arrive at school and start teaching
7:05 am the class monitor tells me that the coteacher has a meeting in the provincial town and that I will be teaching the class myself. As my Khmer language skills are elementary (at best) I resort to doing lots of miming and drawing of the English words on the chalkboard in order help the students translate the words into Khmer (how do you draw the word "cause"? Oh let me show you...). I do this until I realize that there is a dictionary in the back of the teacher’s book which translates the words from English into Khmer.
9:00 am move to the second class of the day. The coteacher shows up on time and everything goes smoothly until I am broadsided by a question about an obscure grammar rule from my coteacher in front of the class. I try my best to bs through it until I must give up and say I will come back with a better explanation at the next English class.
11:00 am I go home to read and prepare for class in the afternoon
12:00 pm I eat lunch with my host family (Yum, fish soup and fried frogs).
1:00 pm take a nap
2:00 pm I grab some coffee by the market and, literally, jump on my bike so as I am not late for class. When I arrive the coteacher has just arrived as well. It is his turn to teach and so I sit to the side of the classroom and assist with pronunciation and reading dialogue.
4:00 pm take a short bike ride with my friends Nary and Narin.
5:00 pm stop by the Metphone business. I have made friends with the manager and a few days a week I can go there and use their internet. This can only happen when the town has electricity between 5:30 pm and 10 pm every day.Recently I have discovered that Metphone blocks facebook. FACEBOOK?!? My only real reason to go on the internet now a days... urgh.
6:00 pm after using the internet I go home. I visit my sister who is cooking the dinner for that night in the back of the house. As we don’t have electricity everything is either fried, barbequed, or boiled over an open flame. We have lots of sour fish soup and boiled frog (I made the mistake of saying that I like frog to my family and now I have it about four times a week. I appreciate them trying to accommodate me but I can only eat so many frogs. )
7:00 pm I sit down to dinner with my entire host family and their friends. They seem to be constantly hosting guests at our house. Currently there are 8 people living in the house and with the additional guests it brings the party to 12. I spend the dinner time answering questions about why I ride my bike everywhere, if I miss my family, why I choose to wear short sleeves, and why I am so fat.
8:00 pm I take a bucket shower and settle down in my bed to listen to BBC radio on my shortwave and read a little.
Around 8:30pm or 9:00pm I go to sleep
Of course that is just an example of my schedule. Lately I have come to find that an entire class of students may be excused from class to harvest rice, or if it's raining, may just decide not to show up at all. On those days I just sigh, get my books together, and head to a coffee stand to sit and practice Khmer with some local people. For the most part the students themselves seem to be motivated to learn English. There is one class though that I feel like I am pulling teeth to get any student cooperation. I have started to incorporate more games into my lessons. It gets them more involved in class, but I fear it isn't doing much for their language ability. My bachelor's degree in History really did not prepare me to teach English to Cambodian students. I work hard every day though to take notes and work on my lesson plans in order to more effectively teach them. Some days seem awfully futile.
My days are really laid back, sometimes so much so that I end up feeling guilty about it; such as on November 9th. This day is a national Cambodian holiday and commemorates Cambodia’s independence from France. I had no idea that I would not have to work that day until a student came to my house the Saturday before and told me (if it wasn’t for him I would have showed up at my school, books in hand, waiting in an empty classroom for tardy students that would have never showed up). Anyways, I had not planned anything to do that day and so it took me by surprise. My town is only so big. And by so big, I mean very small. There aren’t many options for things to do in your free time unless you count housework or planting or replanting rice as options. On holidays I usually see groups of men sitting in a circle drinking shots of palm wine, playing cards, and eating. The children run around and lately (I assume because now we are out of the wet season) have been flying kites. They make these kites themselves and I have been impressed at how well, and how high, they fly.
We do have a thriving market that is very busy in the morning which becomes a ghost town after noon except for a few tailors and seamstresses. Don’t even think about going at 4 pm, you will be the only one there. So I went to the market, ate breakfast (Ramen – no meat- and iced coffee), and wandered around. I bought some clementines (which are in season here and are awesome) and some nome tian (a gelatinous ball made of rice flour and filled with coconut, cashews, and sugar). After which I sat and gossiped with a friend of my host family who has a shop at the market until about 9:30 am. After which I decided to go home, where I stayed for the rest of the day. Don’t get me wrong, I wanted to be social but it gets so hot during midday and with having nothing to do I saw nothing better than resigning myself to a lazy day at home. I ate some clementines with my host sisters while chatting with them and then sat down with a book until lunchtime (lunch was stir fried pork and pineapple with rice). After which I took a three hour long nap and, after waking, proceeded to read again. I read until dusk (when the electricity turns on) and went about finding a way to assess my students’ knowledge of English on my laptop. And at 8pm I went to bed.
Instead of just sitting down and to read one book I have decided to read many books at once. This often helps me when I have an exceptionally long day with many hours to kill. Currently I am reading “A Walk in the Woods” by Bill Bryson, “Tellers of Tales” an anthology of short stories from 1947, and “A Prayer for Owen Meany” by John Irving. They have kept me very well distracted from otherwise itching my mosquito/unidentified insect bites or getting upset over the fact that the ants had got into my peanut butter AGAIN.
I promise you most days I am not that lazy. So if you are looking at become a Peace Corps volunteer or have recently been accepted to go to Cambodia, let me tell you it is no 'walk in the park'. During the normal school week the days go by very quickly and I do not have that much time to read or sleep the day away. My days go somewhat like this:
5:15 am: Get up and go running.
6:00 am return home, take bucket shower etc.
6:30am eat breakfast at a local food stand (usually I eat a sandwich or noodle soup accompanied with a few shots of delicious Vietnamese coffee).
7:00 am arrive at school and start teaching
7:05 am the class monitor tells me that the coteacher has a meeting in the provincial town and that I will be teaching the class myself. As my Khmer language skills are elementary (at best) I resort to doing lots of miming and drawing of the English words on the chalkboard in order help the students translate the words into Khmer (how do you draw the word "cause"? Oh let me show you...). I do this until I realize that there is a dictionary in the back of the teacher’s book which translates the words from English into Khmer.
9:00 am move to the second class of the day. The coteacher shows up on time and everything goes smoothly until I am broadsided by a question about an obscure grammar rule from my coteacher in front of the class. I try my best to bs through it until I must give up and say I will come back with a better explanation at the next English class.
11:00 am I go home to read and prepare for class in the afternoon
12:00 pm I eat lunch with my host family (Yum, fish soup and fried frogs).
1:00 pm take a nap
2:00 pm I grab some coffee by the market and, literally, jump on my bike so as I am not late for class. When I arrive the coteacher has just arrived as well. It is his turn to teach and so I sit to the side of the classroom and assist with pronunciation and reading dialogue.
4:00 pm take a short bike ride with my friends Nary and Narin.
5:00 pm stop by the Metphone business. I have made friends with the manager and a few days a week I can go there and use their internet. This can only happen when the town has electricity between 5:30 pm and 10 pm every day.Recently I have discovered that Metphone blocks facebook. FACEBOOK?!? My only real reason to go on the internet now a days... urgh.
6:00 pm after using the internet I go home. I visit my sister who is cooking the dinner for that night in the back of the house. As we don’t have electricity everything is either fried, barbequed, or boiled over an open flame. We have lots of sour fish soup and boiled frog (I made the mistake of saying that I like frog to my family and now I have it about four times a week. I appreciate them trying to accommodate me but I can only eat so many frogs. )
7:00 pm I sit down to dinner with my entire host family and their friends. They seem to be constantly hosting guests at our house. Currently there are 8 people living in the house and with the additional guests it brings the party to 12. I spend the dinner time answering questions about why I ride my bike everywhere, if I miss my family, why I choose to wear short sleeves, and why I am so fat.
8:00 pm I take a bucket shower and settle down in my bed to listen to BBC radio on my shortwave and read a little.
Around 8:30pm or 9:00pm I go to sleep
Of course that is just an example of my schedule. Lately I have come to find that an entire class of students may be excused from class to harvest rice, or if it's raining, may just decide not to show up at all. On those days I just sigh, get my books together, and head to a coffee stand to sit and practice Khmer with some local people. For the most part the students themselves seem to be motivated to learn English. There is one class though that I feel like I am pulling teeth to get any student cooperation. I have started to incorporate more games into my lessons. It gets them more involved in class, but I fear it isn't doing much for their language ability. My bachelor's degree in History really did not prepare me to teach English to Cambodian students. I work hard every day though to take notes and work on my lesson plans in order to more effectively teach them. Some days seem awfully futile.
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