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…