Thanks for Giving!!!!

So, basically, Thanksgiving was amazing.

Participants:

Banteay Meanchey K2s: Myself, Anthony, Deidre, and Dan...

BM K3s Lisa, Kenny, and Emily...

Battambang K2 Bob

Siem Reap K2 Adrian

Pursat K2 Tyler

Kampong Chhnang K2 Greg

BM Australian Anne

BM Brit Jen

Here's the Menu.

Appetizers:

Cheesy Spinach Dip with Bread

Carrots and Bread for Dipping

Vinegar and Olive Oil Dipping Sauce

Summer Sausage, Cheese, and Crackers

The Main Course:

Roast Chicken

Mashed Potatoes and Gravy

Stuffing

Macaroni and Cheese

Corn

Cranberry Sauce

Dessert:

Caramel Slice (British deliciousness)

Apple Crisp

Apple Pie

Pumpkin Pie (with some sort of whipped cream)

Carrot Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting

Domination

November 7, 2009

I’ve seen the boys play it for entire afternoons, entire days, with any number of people and colors… They sit on the floor for hours and we lose them to the trance that they fall under. They barely come up for food or water, which is surprising given how much I’ve seen any one of them eat at a time. Eventually they get out of the game, one at a time, until the winner emerges and they start over again.

The game: Risk
The players: Male PCVs of several provinces

The place: Dan’s House

Why do I bring this up, you wonder? I’m not a boy… I don’t generally fall under a game trance… I’m usually doing other things while they play…

But not today. Today, for their last game of the afternoon, I caved and decided to give the game of world domination a try. I got an early hold on Africa and watched as Dan took the Americas and Kenny took Europe, with Anthony holding strong in parts of Asia and Australia. I was a bit stagnant, building up my armies and defending my territory from the invaders. But then, in one special turn, I turned in my cards for some new people, took my people though the middle east and into Australia, took my place in Siam and the “sk” countries of north Asia, and received enough armies to rampage through Europe and continue on to the Americas, where I crushed everyone and finally dominated the entire earth.

May I add that I am the first woman to play amongst the men for the right to the world and that it was my first time playing the game ever.

May I also add that given the circumstances of the barang population in Cambodia, the boys may hold the title for most games of Risk played in a single day (or ever) and that I could possibly hold the title of first woman to win the game of Risk in Cambodia. I may add that to the special skills section of my resume… Undefeated Risk Champion. Armies: Pink.

Student Wisdom

I’m beginning to keep track of some of the more interesting things that I read in my students’ work…

We just studied a chapter on Farming and I had them write some essay about farming in Thmar Puok. Here are some of the more entertaining morsels:

[Cambodia] has a good climate. In most all sections of country it is possible to live comfortable during the whole year without snow, violent storms, earthquakes, volcanic eruption, etc.

Rice is important for people in the world.

About farming, there are many crops which grow on the ground in Thmar Puok like: rice, corn, potato, banana, bean, bread fruit, coconut, custard apple, mango, longan, cucumber, papaya, cassava, sapodilla, wood apple, watermelon, chili, marrow, pumpkin, and a lot more that I cannot count all.

In Thmar Puok district is the place where people always make a lot of crops but I want to write an essay about corn…. In the end I think corn is a crop which I most prefer.

At all for me, I have no ideas to write more.

Things that bring joy to my life

I’ve found, after living here, that it is the little things in life that make it fabulous. In case you are curious about how little the things are that bring happiness to my life, here is a list of a few…

Freshly washed sheets paired with freshly washed pajamas

A new podcast on my computer

A hug from my yiey (grandma)

Showers, especially hot ones

A smile from the girl at my most frequented restaurant

The smell of jasmine near my window

Group get-togethers with homemade Western food and lots of entertaining conversation

A question from a student in any language

Velveeta Shells and Cheese

Anything that comes from an oven

Finding email in my inbox after I’ve been away from internet for awhile

Ice

Plum and peppermint foot scrub and vanilla deodorant

Anything that allows me to scrub the grime off of myself

When my yiey says, “Yiey Sralang Jchaio,” or “Grandma loves Granddaughter”

The smell of Protex Propolis Honey scented soap

Pulling my mosquito net down before I sleep

Learning Aussie and British slang

Dancing with the oldest man in my village

Things from the bakery in Sway

A surprise phone call from friends or from abroad

Spicy Thai chili pepper sauce

Brown sugar and the oatmeal that I put it in

Full seasons of TV shows for less than $5

My Ipod

Hearing the word “Cher” (Teacher), instead of “Barang” (French/Foreign)

Exercise

Photographs

Surprising people with my Khmer after I’ve heard them talking about me

Staring back at anyone who is staring at me and watching them get uncomfortable (I practice this in moderation)

Things that bring the opposite of joy to my life

Not that I focus on the negative, but I’ve got to be honest… Some things here bother me almost all the time. And people should know.

Any combination of staring, old dirty men, military clothing, and conversation about the ‘barang’

The above thing in a place that I consistently frequent

Wedding/Funeral/Festival music blaring across the village at 5:00 in the morning

Drunken men with no filter trying to hit on the white gal

Roosters, and the fact that my house has a ton of them

My co-teacher slacking off, as he does more frequently all the time

Hallowater Here I come!

Now, you may ask yourself what kind of nonsensical English “Hallowater” is, but first, let me explain. You may have thought of last week as the week of Halloween, the holiday of sugar rushes, costumes with varying degrees of cleverness, construction, and even sexiness, but Cambodia thought of last week as the week of Water Festival, also known as Bon Om Tuk.

Last year, I celebrated this holiday by going up north a bit to Banteay Chhmar with my family and inviting all of the PCVs from my province to join me. There were some boat races, some exploration of the local temple ruins, and lots of food and drink. All in all, a pretty excellent week.

This year, however, found the two holidays put together, with our vacation time for Bon Om Tuk coincidentally at the same time as the vacation we may have taken for Halloween. Life was good, and we decided to celebrate over in Siem Reap. Closer than Phnom Penh, but with the most options for night life and Halloween celebrating, it seemed like the perfect escape from the life that we are still enjoying but sometimes tire of; after all, those of us who can travel across the world don’t necessarily like to stay in the same place for 2 solid years, especially if that place is a bit more rural than we would prefer. Either way, after I had a quick stop with our new K3 Lisa at Deidre’s house on the road to Siem Reap, climbing a mountain and enjoying some great fish, we were on the way. We stayed with the K1 RPCVs who now live and work in the town, in their beautiful house with such amazing things as a microwave, a washing machine (which it took at least an hour for 3 of us to try to operate), and a basket of Hallowater candy courtesy of the amazing host called Kara.

Now, Siem Reap can get a bit tiresome for us at times. Things are extremely expensive in comparison to other places around the country, there are so many tourists that the whole town feels a bit like a rip-off, and the tuk-tuk drivers are some of the most obnoxious in the country. Beyond that, though, we blend in, which is a pleasant experience, and we can stock up on our favorite western cuisine and relax. This was one of the most pleasant of my weekends in Siem Reap; perhaps because of the crowd, perhaps because of the holiday, perhaps because of the activities, I’m not sure.

Our first day in the town consisted of a long pool trip – a small secluded place with a little waterfall and good fish and chips and shopping at Lucky Mart for all of our groceries… we did these things in an illogical order and took all the groceries to the pool…

Other activities throughout the weekend included watching The Shining with popcorn (!) on a big screen TV… Having a fantastic massage at a place called Bodia courtesy of our (have I said amazing enough times yet) hosts… Vegging out in front of the TV for hours… Vegging out at a local café for hours… Watching Dan cook a Hawaiian dish called moco loco and then enjoying it… Watching the boat races of the holiday and seeing huge crowds of Khmer folk around… Buying massive amounts of new music for the iPod… Finding most likely the smallest pork and rice stand in the town… and, of course, going out to celebrate Halloween!!!

We decided on Mexican food for our dinner that evening – It’s American-like and it was $1 Margarita Saturday… Our costume was a group one: Gang Green. Each one of us (Myself, Deidre, Stephanie, Adrian, Tyler, Anthony, and Dan) had one a green shirt and we walked together in unison. We felt clever. We went out for a few more drinks after dinner then went dancing at the closest thing to a club in the town. It was a blast, and there were plenty of other costumes. I saw togas, wings, chains, fake moustaches, and any number of oddly put together costumes. In fact, the guy that I danced with throughout the evening had a piece of the fake spider webs on his upper lip… It was quite a party, though I won’t bore you with any more of the details J

I feel that I must devote a paragraph to the foods that I ate over the course of my holiday. It may not be what you expect, from me or from any PCV. After weeks and weeks of rice, the things that I begin to crave are varied… I’ve begun to note that anything with dairy, or grease, or excessive sweetness makes me amazingly ill. It took over a week for me to recover from the food that I consumed this weekend… Fish and chips, Chicken and Camembert Salad, Cheese Quesadilla, Pizza, a Massive Cheeseburger, Pancakes, Grilled Cheese, Cereal and Yogurt, and a few Khmer dishes. Incredible. Sickening. Well Worth the Misery. And I can say that about any weekend of travel…

On being busy.

I can’t believe how busy I’ve been the past few weeks! It is amazing to have things to do, work that needs done, responsibilities to uphold. A soon as I get a taste of this, I never want it to end… So I’m trying a few new things with the hope that it doesn’t – things like assigning homework and actually checking it (though only one class actually does it themselves…the rest copy off one person). I’m planning on writing a blog each week, even when not much is happening. I’m planning on organizing everything in my computer as an extra only child thrill. I’m planning on learning how to cook all the things that my host mom can and more. It should be an eventful winter.

I’m also planning on finishing this project, the Appropriate Projects Bathroom that I just got funding for. At the moment, and for the past year, there has been no bathroom at my school, which is quite a problem for my female students, some of whom live several kilometers away from the school and who have to bike to and from school. We’ll begin construction this next week, I hope, and finish it soon.
http://appropriateprojects.com/taxonomy/term/33

In addition to all of that, my classes are doing well, and I have my own classroom to teach in as well, which means that I can do all sorts of things that I couldn’t do before. For example, I can play any manner of loud games that would otherwise distract all the other classes… I can put up artwork and visual aids for the English learners… I can even move the desks around however I wish. For those of you who don’t know, the normal way of things over here is for a set class of 40-50 students to have their own class (ie 11 A, 11 B, 11 C…) and their own room for their class alone. They stay in their same seats every hour of every class and the teachers move around. Most of their classrooms are bare, some with a picture of the king or a Khmer proverb, one with a painting of a dinosaur (?), and there is certainly no way to leave a visual aid in a class without worrying about its safety.

My school only has enough classrooms for 3 grades, even though it hosts 6, so in the mornings grades 9, 11, and 12 come to school and in the afternoons grades 7, 8, and 10 come. It is slightly inconvenient for any teacher who wishes to do something with art, granted that only teacher is me. So far, I have hung a map of the US and a Nat Geo map of space in my class, and the students LOVE it. They read all the names of the states and one even asked me where “Lo-a” is… He confused the “I” for an “L” and I didn’t know what he was saying until he spelled out my state.

The bottom line is that things are going well. I’m running into a bit of cultural misunderstanding with my co-teacher, but we’re working on things. I’ve also found that I’m a bit more sensitive some days to what used to be a bit of a novelty. People talking about me in front of me, being harassed a bit by strangers in places that I consider my stomping ground, staring and hellos… they’re all things that I’ve dealt with since the beginning, though I imagined that after a year in a single place that they would be a bit less pronounced. They’re not, and I’m beginning to regret my previous expectations.

However, I did get my first invitation to a party that was just for me, and that is pretty thrilling. I went, paid my respects, took some photos, and had a wonderful time. The to-be monk, the brother of one of my students, was super sweet, as was the rest of the family. He also looked fantastic – with blush and lipstick on… not to mention the drawn-on eyebrows. When I asked my family about this, they said that the monks need to be pretty for the party, which they can’t be after they have shaved their heads and their eyebrows off. He was also wearing a crocheted top and shiny pants. I was pretty happy around all the Khmer folk and the groups of yieys. I should also add that later that day I got a free ride into Sway because I “help Cambodia.” Unlike that last paragraph, this is what I would cal a “good Khmer day.”

There’s also the religious festival that I went to with my grandma. There was a money tree… need I say more?

About the weather – Rainy season is almost over and I am beginning to feel a chill in the air, something I have been looking forward to for about 7 months. A few more weeks and we will be in full winter… hello 70s!

Bathroom Project

http://appropriateprojects.com/node/58

Hey check it out!!! My school is building a bathroom and we could use your help!

Ants Ants Ants

So, I’ve lived here for a few months over a year now. I love it; I feel healthy and generally pretty relaxed, I am happy and less focused on the minute details that seemed to take over my life back at home, and I feel like I am devoted to learning here. I just discovered a few new podcasts from howstuffworks.com, all about interesting history, science, politics, inventions, you name it, and I’m filling my brain full of knowledge. It feels great, and I’m actually able to devote time to it without being distracted at the time I am losing. Cambodia has slowed me down, thank God.

Anyway, my knowledge is not what I am devoting this blog to… Instead, I thought I would share a few fun facts about Cambodia with you.

This girl... who lives at the restaurant that I frequent... is currently learning how to walk.

There are some nasty ants here, who like all manner of things that I find a bit unusual. I have found them in the strangest things, which always upsets me given their tendency to bit me when I try to remove them from said thing. Their bites hurt worse than mosquito bites and make me more than uncomfortable. What are they into, you ask? Well let me give you a list…

I have found ants in the following places:
In and around my fiber supplement.
Inside my jars of peanut butter.
In the peppermint and plum foot scrub I have in the bathroom.
In my dose of one-a-day women’s multivitamins.
Eating chocolate.
In my containers of cotton swabs.
Pouring out of my light socket.
Filing out of my medical kit with my throat lozenges.
Diving into my damp clothes, most especially underwear.
In the trash can after Styrofoam donut boxes and any number of other things…
Chewing on bread.
On top of my bedside light.
In my pancake mix box.
In my bed.

Eating any number of dead insects.

In Deidre's Face Wash.

Eating pancake batter from Anne's stove.

Allow me to simplify… I hate ants and how much they like the same things I do.

In other news, I received my first invitation that was just for me and not just for my family. It is to a “becoming a monk” party for the siblings of one of my students. It was a fabulous little party... and the monk looked very pretty!

Most recently acquired fun fact from my podcasts…white-out was created by a Texan secretary and patented in 1958 because new typewriters were difficult to type with and hard to erase. She thought like a painter and the other secretaries began asking how she did it… amazing!

My Birthday!

I recently celebrated my second birthday in Cambodia… As my best friend said, “It’s 23, an unexciting age… Good thing you have Cambodia to make it memorable.” I had to agree. I’ve never really expected much from the birthday, at least as far as friends were concerned. It always seemed to fall at an inconvenient time… right after school began, when I didn’t know many people… Or around the time of a show in theatre. I didn’t even go out on my 21st…I was holed up in a theatre for the entire day! But this year, my birthday was amazing. Part of that, I think, is the fact that Cambodia and my life of non-stimulation make a lot of less-than-thrilling things pretty phenomenal. However, in this case, I think it would be great on any continent…

The birthday this year fell on a Thursday – which means that I had to go to school for a few hours. I went after a lovely breakfast at my favorite restaurant interjected with a States-side phone call (Thanks, Mom!). After going to school as usual, I may or may not have had a confrontation with my co-teacher because he wanted to not attend the 2 hours of class (the only 2 hours of class) that he and I had that day. I suppose I should have been excited about that, but he’s been getting flaky and we already get enough vacation time… almost to the point where the vacations outnumber the actual school days. Also, the day before had been a bit rough with me fielding some stranger danger harassment, and I wanted some student interaction to cheer me up. We ended up finishing our few hours of class, had a short, though heated, discussion about life and teaching and responsibility, and I went home for some rest. It isn’t often that I have to work that hard in a day.

I had a pleasant lunch with one of my favorite dishes (beef stew) which we subsequently had for dinner that evening, watched some episodes of the office and indulged in some purely only-child behavior… I re-organized photos and music on my computer. It was almost as good as organizing crayons like I did when I was younger. Side note: Dan, the other resident pseudo-only-child in the province told me that he used to organize and reorganize baseball cards – something about teams vs. card numbers – and we bonded over our OCD behavior.

I did take a short break from this exciting work… to make something even more exciting… BROWNIES! Now, I know I have mentioned before how much I miss things like that – basically anything involving an oven is non-existent here. But these I made in my house, with a big pot, a small tin cup, and a prayer, and it actually worked. We call it a Dutch Oven here, though the local Dutch folk have never heard of such a silly thing. And it worked surprisingly well, producing a nice batch of brownies that even the grandmas liked. Awesome. I lit a candle and blew it out with my family as they looked on in something akin to shock and confusion. I then proceeded to eat way too many brownies (despite my efforts to share) and get a tummy ache. It was so worth it.

And then… Friday.

On Friday I went down to Dan’s for a party that he was having with students from a club he had over the summer. They cooked a big (big!) pot of soup, some fried ribs with pineapple, and grilled fish at his place and enjoyed a big group lunch together. It was lovely, and improved with the fact that I had picked up a package at the post office before I came over and opened it while they were cooking. We’re saving the asparagus and cinnamon apples (!) until Thanksgiving, I think, but we tore through the chocolate and watched the movie immediately. Dan and Anthony did not appreciate Unaccompanied Minors as I do… maybe we’ll have to watch it closer to Christmas ;) I also received a lovely card from Deidre (hand-made!) with pictures from all the time I’ve been here collaged together on scented paper. I was so excited!!

More people filtered into Dan’s place as the night went on, and soon the majority of the Banteay Meanchey crew was there, as well as Matt, who came all the way up from Kampot (that’s way south, on the beach) to celebrate with us. The boys played Risk and the girls played cards and we kept ourselves segregated for the evening.

Saturday – the big party.

Saturday was a pretty busy day, well, relatively speaking. There was rice and pork for breakfast (Imagine a small restaurant with seven foreigners in it; two of them over 6 feet tall…ha!). Followed by cleaning and shopping. Followed by a nap. Followed by cooking. Some people also played Risk (Boys only). It was excellent.

The menu:
Starters –
Spinach Cheese Dip made with morning glory and laughing cow cheese served with shredded baguettes that were toasted with olive oil.

Mashed Potato Mayonnaise Veggie Dip served with chopped carrots and cucumbers.

Balsamic Vinegar and Olive Oil Dip served with French bread.

Peanuts.

Main Course –
Beef and Onion or Black Bean burgers served with sliced French bread and a selection of condiments including ketchup, mustard, lettuce, onions, and tomatoes.

Desert –
Banoffee Pie (British desert with a sweet bread base, banana layers, and reduced condensed milk slathered all over it)

Birthday Cake!!! It maybe had the wrong date written on it, but at least my name was spelled right!

Drinks –
Beer, beer, beer, and beer.

Beer Pong was also involved, which was great for our two non-American guests. Anna (Britain) and Anne (Australia) made up a very special team called “the commonwealth minus New Zealand” and tried to distract us by explaining cricket and Aussie rules football (which is just a fancy was of saying that there are no rules) and did fairly well with their first attempt at American frat house life! I partnered with Anthony and we are undefeated – Go Team America F*** Ya! We drank and chatted into the late night (almost 1:00!) and everything was wonderful.

It was a phenomenal birthday… there were tons of good friends (The Banteay Meanchay 7 + Matt + Adrian, Steph, and Will from Siem Reap), more food than I’ve ever seen, and a lot of great games, not to mention gifts and cake!

New tunes!

I just bought a few new albums from our local Boom Boom Room, aka the place where digital albums are a dollar and there are thousands of choices. I thought I would share this with the world, as it has made my most recent bus trip a little more bearable.

1. Jay-Z - Blueprint 3
2. Outkast - Idlewild (Movie Soundtrack)
3. Santogold - Santogold
4. Keri Hilson - In a Perfect World
5. Nas - Greatest Hits
6. Handsome Boy Modeling School - So...How's your girl

Just a few of the things running through my ipod right now as I also download some new podcasts about health, vocabulary, and trivia.

All about the summer....

It has been quite a summer! So exciting, in fact, that I barely know where to begin… although I think I may go backwards from this very moment.

At this precise moment, I am sitting in the living room of the apartment at the Himawari Hotel, where I stayed on my lovely Fourth of July adventure. Melissa, my host, was kind enough to let me back into her apartment, taking some pity on my Peace Corps lifestyle. So, I’m living it up – calling friends, doing laundry (in a machine!), baking, and playing with Wii and wifi and TV and all those goofy conveniences that have escaped me for the past year. It’s great – I feel very pampered and it thrills me to have all of these things so readily available.

I just came to Phnom Penh yesterday. We came in to celebrate Dan’s birthday. He is now, officially, 30… which was very exciting for us. I rushed to bake a yellow cake with chocolate frosting for him, and we spelled out the word “old” with the candles. It’s our running joke as he is the oldest in the province. Our little party consisted of some good Italian food, a cake that we brought out to the Khmer birthday song, and a good selection of friends: Deidre, Anthony, Matt, Adrian, and of course, Dan! And then we went out to a dance bar and taught Adrian some moves while Matt got hit on by some tiny Khmer ladies… all in all, a lovely evening!

We did rush the birthday cake a bit… Dan, Deidre and I just came back from a Kampot and beach adventure. Talk about relaxing! Two days in the capital of lazy Kampot province, relaxing by the river with fish and chips and barbeque, walking around the little town and seeing the sights, having fun with some children at the pagoda, and seeing a new pace with new people. We found our way to Rabbit Island, after a lovely boat ride in the Gulf of Thailand and relaxed on a beach for a night of bliss. I had my first plate of crab, which I thought was delicious, learned how to devour fresh fish, which I liked, tried some squid, which I wasn’t a big fan of, and devoured some fried prawns, which were damn tasty… My east coast/west coast friends taught me the nuances of getting to crab meat without any cracking tools and the fine art of dining on prawns and whole fish. We swam, we laid out, we read books, and I got a true vacation.

Vacation from what, you may ask? Well, my big project this summer has been Camp GLOW (Girls Leading Our World)… Basically, it is a 3 day workshop for fifteen grade 10 girls focused on leadership, careers and scholarships for the future, and self-confidence, something which the girls here are lacking a little. We held our first camp in Banteay Meanchey, my province, and it was beyond successful. And now, we have another camp in Pursat this week! It’s been a thrilling project, $3000 of fun, and I am so happy with the results. I’m also happy with the TEFL Manual for fellow Volunteers and the training that I presented it at, as well as the travelling that I’ve had the pleasure of doing, and with the career workshop that the BM crew put together!

I travelled with my mother! And how exciting life was; I’m pretty sure she had a good time, despite the water rooms with butt blasters and the ridiculous heat. Life was perfect – in Bangkok, our teary eyed reunion…to Sway, our first Cambodia experience…to Thmar Puok, where we got the full rural tour…to Siem Reap, full of temples and tasty food…to Battambang, for birthdays at Riverside and high mountains…to Phnom Penh, the bustling capital, full of life and fun…to Kampong Tralach, where families love their host kids’ friends…and back to Phnom Penh for more shopping, more entertainment, and another teary eyed goodbye offset only by Deidre’s presence. It was easily the best two weeks ever… and my whole family is dying for her to come back.

So, that’s been the past few months, minus a few details of course. Life is good, and my summer feels fulfilled in a way I never expected. I love this place and I am so happy to have shared it…

A Year In Review

It has been one year since I left my mom and grandma in the Des Moines International Airport and jetted off to my new life here in Cambodia. And, as our new shirts say.... we can go no farther than this. I am around the world. I can barely believe it; the time has gone by so fast, even though the days themselves often seem long and lazy. And there is so much to say about a year here…

I’ve gotten to know this place, this tiny Southeast Asian country sandwiched between quickly developing countries though doing very little developing itself. I know that Siem Reap, the province with the famous temples, is one of the poorest provinces despite the massive tourism draw that it brings. I know that most of the country is more rural than Iowa and that the cities aren’t equipped to handle the number of people in them. I know that the barang population is substantial, though I wouldn’t want to be around the majority of them. And, I know that this place continually surprises me when I least expect it – mostly, I’ve found, by showing me how little I know about where I live, or how to live here, or the people who have mastered the art of living here…

But even still, I do feel like I know my way around. I can travel with no trouble and I know the language well enough to figure out what I need to (especially with my family, since they understand that special blend of words that I call Khmer and take the time to figure out what I am trying to express instead of just what I am saying). And with each visitor that I meet from abroad, be it friends of family, I gradually learn just how ingrained certain aspects of the culture have become… When Dan’s mom was here, Deidre and I slipped off our flip-flops to enter a market stall out of pure habit; I feel like I’ve spent half of my time here barefoot, something that I fully intend to bring back with me. Deidre’s twin remarked on how unusual the breakfasts of hot noodle soup or rice with pork and pickled veggies is, though I quite enjoy both of these meals and have since forgotten the greasy feasts I had back home. I’m sure that my mom will open my eyes to even more things that I have grown accustomed to and the ways that I have changed…

After a year of service here, I feel like a changed woman. I’ve had more time, and more opportunity, to think and reflect than I’ve ever had before. There’s no TV to drain the life out of me for hours at a time, no college work to draw me in 20 different directions, little occasion or desire to indulge in retail therapy, and so much waiting that my mind has gone into overdrive thinking of ways to spend my time. The barang population in my area is small and tight-knit, and we talk, and talk, and talk… about anything and everything. I’ve read a book for every week I’ve been here… from Lolita to Eat Pray Love. I’ve also begun to see myself differently, because the woman in the mirror is 70 pounds lighter than the one that I saw a year ago. Dan and Deidre laughed at me the other day, I tried on a shirt that Dei’s mom sent her and had an irrational show of joy because it fit me… and it was a size small. A new body, a new culture, a new crowd of people… it is impossible to not change.

I’m even learning about cultures that I didn’t expect to – I can now make Irish potato cakes and have learned that the Brits have very different dessert customs than the Americans. Did you know that they eat Jell-o (well, they say Jelly) with ice cream and cake without ice cream (supposedly because their cakes have filling that makes ice cream unnecessary). In fact, for being pretty similar in people, in language, in tradition… the American Volunteers and British/Irish Volunteers can find a lot of differences to talk about. I never thought that I would get such a broad scope of experiences here!

Speaking of experiences, you have never lived until you have gotten drunk with a group of yieys (grandmas) from this culture – they are the coolest. And, my grandma is (by far) the coolest person in my host family, with her sniff kisses and her smile with her prominent front teeth, and her odd repetitions of English words that I say and actions that I do, and her cheering whenever I dance to the music in my iPod. You should also attend a Khmer party and dance in a circle, just to see how many drunk men lose their inhibitions and try to hit on you. Or, get in a jump roping competition with a 14 year old boy who doesn’t really know how to jump rope. Or, watch your little brother go through a big bottle of bubbles in a matter of days. Or, find some very cute Khmer children who like you and watch them smile every day (my favorite one is at the restaurant where I usually eat breakfast in the mornings). Or, pass the day with a book in a hammock. Or, go to a house party full of barangs from different places and share food like banoffee pie (Banana + Toffee) and games like pass the parcel (Or, Paarss the Paarcul) while you tease one another about accent and common slang or word usage (this occupies a majority of our time). Or, just get back to the simple life – and love it.

There is too much to say about a year here – too much happens in too little a time, even though it seems that time stands still. Cambodia feels like it is suspended in air, like they are waiting for something to happen that never will. And I feel similarly, as I try to change the habits of a few people… nothing ever really seems to… I can only hope that at the end of my 2 years that I will see something from my efforts. We will see – One more year to go!

In short…

Things I miss
-Grandma’s cooking and the smell of her kitchen on Sunday morning.
-Driving.
-Dairy products.
-NPR Radio.
-Snow… even though it will brutally readjust me to an Iowa climate.

Things I don’t miss
-Wal-Mart.
-Advertisements.
-Commercialism.

Things I want to bring back
-The idea of a Water Closet, a big room where water splashing is perfectly acceptable.
-My yiey.
-Living with a breeze always flowing through the house.
-Long bike rides through rice paddies and energy for exercise.
-Family style dining (ie sharing a few main dishes with only a personal bowl of rice).
-Shoe-free zones.

Things I don’t want to bring back
-The word, “Hello,” which is screamed at me constantly no matter what I do to try to escape it.
-Incessant stares while I do the most menial of tasks.
-Ants that eat: cotton swabs, plum foot scrub, light sockets, underwear, me, peanut butter, computer guts, trash, raincoats, and medicine.
-My current ignorance of all cultural trends of the Western World.

The Fourth of July!

Independence Day

Like Christmas and Thanksgiving and Easter, I have never in my life done anything different for this holiday – that is, not until this year. And I was not disappointed. For this year, on my nation’s birthday, I had the honor of singing the National Anthem (of Cambodia) for two very different parties at the Embassy – which means that I was invited to and enjoyed two different parties at the Embassy.

But I will start at the beginning. On the 2nd of July, my buddy Deidre and I took the very long bus ride down to Phnom Penh from our provincial town. Neither of us are in the provincial town, and with the rainy season destroying the road, it takes me about 1½ hours to get from my home to Sway. Deidre, with her new road, only needs about 20 minutes to make the same trip. But it takes both of us about 7 hours to get down to the Penh.

Almost as soon as we got in, we went to the Peace Corps office and jetted on to the Embassy for a rehearsal – this was more fun than it sounds, because the five of us (myself, Deidre, Matt from Kampot, Lydia from K. Cham, and Steph from Siem Reap) we so excited to be on American soil, especially when it was decorated so well. The whole courtyard was a splash of red white and blue and the stage had carpet on it. We went through the program with the embassy staff and ended up at our homestay…

Now when I first heard the word ‘homestay,’ I began to think of the houses that the Peace Corps staff have – Cheryl, my boss, has a gorgeous home, with all the amenities of home that I am no longer accustomed to (See: oven, kitchen utensils, AC, TV in English, carpet, furniture, etc, etc, etc). This blew away all of my expectations. Our homestay happened to be with a person who stays in a hotel – the Himawari hotel – arguably one of the nicest hotels in the country (See: pool, sauna, fitness room, buffet breakfast with bacon, eggs, toast, OJ, oatmeal, and then some, kimono robes, Bath and Body Works toiletries, fluffy towels… Plus our host had Wii and excellent cooking skills). We were in heaven, and that is not an understatement. This is one of the nicest places I have ever been in (ever!), let alone coming from a simple life in the Cambodian countryside.

I could go on and on, I’m sure, but I’ll progress to the party. After getting our hair done at a salon, the four gals got dressed, picked up our solitary male, and headed over to the Embassy in our fancy white Khmer shirts and traditional skirts. It was even more decorated than the day before, with tables set up throughout the area, a Statue of Liberty ice sculpture, and food stations everywhere. I should elaborate, perhaps – Free food stations. But we’ll get to that later.

We sang our song, which was beautiful, watched the marines, took some photos, met the Ambassador and chatted, met some other people from the Embassy, talked with our host (Melissa, FBI), and generally enjoyed the ambiance. We dug in to the food – a buffet with all kinds of foods – and stuffed ourselves full. We also enjoyed the free Swenson’s ice cream and the (prepare yourself) chocolate fountain with the strawberries, muffin bits, kiwi and grapes that accompanied it. Oh – did I mention that there was free liquor? Glass by glass, the white wine disappeared, usually to the group that surrounded the chocolate fountain.

We ended the night by heading over to the nicest bar in the city (in the Raffles hotel), where a kind RPCV and his friend, in town write a book about Cambodia, bought us all drinks and told us stories of the old days…

The Next Day

Breakfast – I have to reminisce – fluffy scrambled eggs with onions and peppers, cocoa peppers, apple juice, mocha, bacon, cheese, toast and jam, mmmmmm…..

After some chill time in the hotel, we went on to our second engagement. We were looking sharp in new white shirts and our jeans, and went in like rock stars through the back entrance of the building. We sang our song as the Marines presented the colors again, and then we enjoyed the party.

I’ll set the scene for this one: food stands throughout the yard, with barbeque, Mexican, and any number of other semi-American things, Coke included, for sale; hot dog eating contest (which was won by one of the color-presenting marines as his leader cheered him on); a band with a gal in heels and a corset top and two boys singing American tunes (one of the boys kept winking at us the night before, and was very nice); children with blond hair (you may need to visit before you understand the rarity of said sight); American flag sheet cake; circus people (jugglers, tumblers, clowns, and the like… from the NGO circus in Battambang); English-speakers as far as the eye could see; Barack Obama mask; and some pretty cool Peace Corps Volunteers.

It was perfect. There was no parade, no pancakes, none of my family, but this was the best place to be besides back at home.

And then…
Upon returning to the hotel, I joined Deidre and some of the other girls for a night out on the town in celebration of Deidre’s birthday! We ate tapas at a place near the office, went out to a loungey bar, and went dancing, and life was good once again…