LabarcaBlog

at home in Cambodia

2009-09-23T00:22:00.001-07:00

I've been hearing from people at home - with good reason - that it's time to update my blog. I moved to a new house at the end of July, and am no longer living with a host family. I also took a trip to Laos in the middle of September. But other than that I've mostly been at site, teaching a summer reading group, waiting for the school year to start back up, and getting used to living on my own in Cambodia. Here's some pics and descriptions!

1) my house!

2) living room / chill area: where I watch Khmer news and/or DVDs (the entire James Bond collection is $10 at Russian Market in PP)

3) some of the Khmer books I read/study on occasion

4) kitchen: a stove to boil water and cook; tupperware to keep the mice out of my food

5) bathroom: I have running water until 7pm. After that I get water from the big tanks. I also do laundry by hand in here a few mornings a week. There's ABATE in the tanks to kill mosquito larvae.

6) a mosquito coil to keep them away when I'm sitting in my house

7) bed with mosquito net (you see a theme here....?)

8) the side of my house where I wash dishes

photos

2009-07-03T04:50:00.000-07:00

My blog has been sadly lacking in pictures of late. Here's a few of some fields aroung my house, a pile of mangoes from the tree across the street, a random 'wat' in my neighborhood, and the Independence Monument in Phnom Penh.

go Lakers!!!

2009-06-20T20:01:00.001-07:00

a summer in Cambodia (or, what I actually do here)

2009-06-20T19:41:00.000-07:00

Now that the school year is pretty much over and I won't be teaching at the school again until October, here's a look forward at my plans for the summer. This is what I do.

First, I'm going to keep a project going that I started during the school year. My students just published a school newspaper....which is a really big deal here. As far as I know it's the first high school newspaper in Cambodia, although I can only say for sure that it's the first at any of the approximately 55 schools that have had a Peace Corps Volunteer (PCV). Issue #2 is scheduled to come out in July or early August.

Second, I'll be working on a library improvement project at my high school. The school has agreed to contribute a considerable amount to help with the project -- my school director rocks!! Also, I'm applying for a USAID grant to hopefully get the total budget up over $2,000. And with that, I'm hoping to turn an unused room with empty bookshelves into a first-rate library with a good selection of books, an English learning center, a video resource center where students can watch DVDs, and some comfortable places for students to just hang out.

I'm also doing a month-long summer reading group in August with ten of the most advanced 11th grade students. A friend back home is helping me get a few books for the reading group because she's cool like that. We're going to read "Children of the River," a story about a Khmer family that emigrates to America. Perfect for Cambodia!! I have over 60 students fighting for the 10 spots in the group, that's how bad kids over here want to improve their English.

I've got a few more things lined up, like I'm going to start playing basketball with some of the kids in my community. Hopefully, next year, I can move from casual play to starting a girls basketball team at the school (which currently has no formal sports). I'm also helping to edit a TEFL - teaching english as a foreign language - manual to use for training the next group of PCVs that arrives in July, and I'm hopefully doing a couple of career training workshops where I'm going to help people in my community learn how to write a cover letter, do a resume, interview, etc.

Best of all, my mom is coming to visit for a few weeks in July!! I'm going to show her all the beautiful places to see in this country...or at least the ones we have time to see. It's going to be a busy summer. But a good summer.

For all my friends out there, I'd love to hear about your summer plans!

living green

2009-05-30T20:19:00.000-07:00

I read Collapse by Jared Diamond not too long ago. A pretty interesting book whose main theme I'll try to sum up here: civilizations tend to collapse when they use resources at an unsustainable rate. It's a little more complex than that, but the point I'm getting to is that, after living in Cambodia for 10 months, that makes sense. I get it. Or at least more than before.

I think back on the way I lived in the States and there's so much waste. So much excess. Only I didn't think about it because that's how I grew up; that's what was normal.

Examples. Trash: I probably generate about a pint of trash a week here. If I had to guess, it would take me two months to fill up a kitchen trash can the size I had back home, where I was taking out the trash one or two times a week. Really, how much trash do you wheel out to your curb every week? Electricity: people are very conscious of electricity usage here because it's expensive. Turn off the lights when you leave the room. Unplug the phone charger if you're not using it. Don't use the fan if it's not hot enough to justify it. AC! Fugghhet about it. Hot showers are available some places, but even then there are machines that superheat the water as it comes through the nozzle. There's no boilers that keep water hot all day if people aren't using it. Dryers? Why use electric dryers when the sun will dry clothes for you? Toilet paper: okay, don't laugh, but seriously....I haven't used toilet paper in 10 months. They have butt blasters here, or ass guns, whatever you want to call them. After you're done doing your thing, you just blast your ass with water. I for one feel it's cleaner than using paper. And think about it. I figure one person uses about 24 to 36 rolls of toilet paper a year. If 300 million people in the US stopped using toilet paper you know how many trees that would save? That's a little extreme, but....just think about it....

I could go on with more examples. My point is, if everyone in the world lived the way people in the US did we would have a major crisis very, very shortly. How scary is it that China (1.3 billion people - 4 times the size of the US) is modernizing as quickly as it is? You can't blame 'em. Who wouldn't want to live at the level Western countries do? But the world's resources are not going to be able to handle it. The fact is, we can only maintain our lifestyle if we ensure the rest of the world doesn't live like we do. Ouch, right?

Anyway, I've never been a hard-core environmentalist, but being here in Cambodia certainly has added some perspective when I think about issues such as resource consumption, global warming, and what the next 30 years might be like if the world's population keeps increasing.

the sun

2009-05-30T20:11:00.000-07:00

May has been brutally hot, and it happens to me often here that people ask me the following question: "Teacher, it's very hot today. Why are you wearing a short-sleeved shirt?"

Uhhh....because it's hot and I'm cooler in short sleeves. That's what I think. But I understand where they're coming from. Khmer people cover up completely to protect themselves from the sun. It'll be 100 degrees out, and the women are riding bicycles in jeans, a shirt, a jacket, a scarf, and a hat.

It kind of makes sense. My forearms and neck are really dark - farmer's tan! And Khmer people think dark skin is not as pretty as white skin. Some people who do a lot of physical labor don't cover up as much, especially men, but I would guess that in general the skin cancer rates here are a lot lower than in Western countries where tanning and sunbathing are common.

fruit!!

2009-05-05T19:52:00.000-07:00

it's mango season in Cambodia, which means I've been eating about 5 mangoes a day. (Somebody's gotta eat 'em before they spoil...) In honor of this marvelous bounty of fruit, I've decided to break down the fruits I've been eating over here, their season, and their Khmer names.

July - October: oranges (kroach p'sat), sweet grapefruits (kroach t'long), custard apples (tiep), "mien," dragonfruit (sroka niek), and rambutan (saomao).

December - March: milkfruit (plai dteuk ta goa), watermelon (owlook), and papaya (lahoang).

March/April: asian plums (mat yoang) and mangoes (swai).

May: durian (toorien).

Here are a few more fruits that are available year round, or I just don't eat them enough to know when they're in season: bananas (chayk), coconuts (doang), jackfruit (k'noal), grapes (??), "lamot," tamarind (ampuhl - personally I think these are disgusting), and "kuy."

vacation update (2) - Singapore

2009-04-27T09:32:00.000-07:00

I spent four days in Singapore. It's an amazing city, a first-world city, which I was in awe of after 9 months in Cambodia. It's extremely clean, there's good, cheap food everywhere, everyone speaks English well, nice beaches, movie theaters, etc. Also, the public transportation is the best I've ever seen. Metro trains run every three minutes, there are bus transfer points with clearly marked destinations at every metro terminal, and they use a smart pass that you can keep in your wallet as you swipe to pay for the metro ($.60), buses, and even taxis.

We went to the zoo one day. Very fun! They have polar bears! And walked around the city another day, just checking out the business district, the convention center (which looks like a giant durian fruit), the park, city hall, etc. We also rode the gigantic Singapore Flyer! We had drinks at the Long Bar of the Raffles Hotel, birthplace of the Singapore Sling. A day at the beach. And good food every day. It was great!

vacation update (1) - Cameron Highlands

2009-04-13T19:38:00.000-07:00

hola todos.

I'm in Kuala Lumpur right now, in Chinatown, just taking a quick internet break before heading up to Little India and the Petronas Towers. So far the trip has been amazing!

Our first morning in Malaysia we all took a bus up to the Cameron Highlands (4.5 hrs), an elevated plateau that is renowned for its tea plantations and strawberry farms. Having eaten ZERO berries of any kind in the last 9 months, this was very exciting. Also, because it's approximately 6700 feet elevation, it was refreshingly cool, perfect weather after the brutal hot season in Cambodia. We stuffed our faces with delicious Indian food, took a short - 1.5 hr - jungle hike past a waterfall, toured a tea plantation and learned how tea was made, ate fresh, warm, home-made scones with freshly picked strawberries, and one evening we snuck into the TV room to watch The Daily Show. Really, does it get much better than that?

And yesterday in KL we watched a movie in a real movie theater. This is the good life.

St. Patty's Day!

2009-03-25T20:07:00.000-07:00

I've gotten to know an Irish volunteer who lives in the provincial town. And she had her friend from Ireland visiting last week. So when they said they were having an authentic St. Patty's Day party at their place last weekend, how could I resist?

I went to buy some beers for the party. Until then I didn't know that cases of Guiness were $26 a pop. I showed up with some Leo.

We couldn't really make any Irish food because of the foods available in the markets here. But we ate a lot of curry, drank a lot of Leo and Angkor, and then spent quite a while dancing Irish dances whose names I forget. It was great fun. I learned that I need to improve my whirling skills. I have a tendency to whirl my partner dangerously close to walls.

The only thing I was disappointed about was that Irish people don't wear green on St. Patrick's Day, and they don't pinch each other for failing to wear green. I mean, c'mon!!

burning corn party

2009-03-21T01:15:00.000-07:00

I was invited to go "burn corn" the other day by some 12th grade students. It was in the afternoon, at 2pm, so I pulled off a swap to let me ditch class that afternoon (and go in on Friday instead), because hell if I was gonna miss out on burning some corn!

I rode my bike about 6k out to a random field, deep in farm country, accompanied by a little posse of 12th grade students and three of the younger teachers. We settled in on a giant tarp, eating some green mango and hanging out while the students made a little bonfire. I had thought we were going to burn off some giant piles of corn shucks and the leftover stalks in the field, going "oooohhh. ahhhh." while we watched a huge fire scorching the earth, secretly hoping it would go just a little out of control and I'd have a bad ass story to tell later. My inner pyromaniac was pretty excited. But they just made these little fires and then cooked the corn in them.

It was still really fun though! We got some beers and drank with the students, and more food started to emerge from nowhere: skewers of bbq beef, coconut desserts, etc. Then, after the fires had died a bunch of the students ran around smearing ashes on each others faces till everyone was out of breath, faces smudged and black, with big smiles everywhere. Except for this one guy who was being really obnoxious. A group of girls grabbed him and threw him into a pond. Awesome! It was good-natured though. Just added to the fun.

And then - this is one of my favorite parts - while we were sitting there starting to get red-faced and tipsy, a cow behind us gave birth! Just like that. Like, "Hey, Dan, turn around. There's a cow giving birth behind you." "Huh? What? Oh, shit! That's gross..." Really, births are pretty gnarly. Especially when the mom is about fifteen feet away licking the blood, amniotic fluid, and goop off her baby. It was amazing, though. I grew up in cities. The closest thing I've seen to a real birth is that one movie they showed us in maybe 9th grade: "The Miracle of Life."

Anyway, after a few fun-filled hours of burning corn, drinking beer, and enjoying the miracles of nature, I biked home with yet another productive day in Cambodia under my belt.

a break at school

2009-03-13T23:26:00.000-07:00

In between classes at school there is a 15 minute break to start the hour. Here is a short summary of a recent break during the hot season:

A younger, male teacher approached me in the office to see if I could help him troubleshoot on his cell phone. The porn he had downloaded wasn't playing for some reason. I hopelessly tried to explain in Khmer that he needed to download flash player. Meanwhile, two other teachers played ping-pong shirtless and barefoot. I couldn't help but be impressed by the fact that the winning player was smoking a cigarette as he demolished his opponent.

on vacation in Kep

2009-02-26T06:12:00.000-08:00

I took a few days off after our recent 7-day training and conference. A few of us went down to Kep, a small beachtown in southern Cambodia, and it was amazing!! We were only there for a day and a half, but I was able to relax on a small, virtually private beach/bungalow area. I lounged, slept, and ate during the day, wth a little light reading sporadically along the way.

Then, in the evening, we made sangria on the beach and drank together while watching the sun set over the small islands just off the coast. Once it was dark, we went for a night swim in the delightfully warm ocean. The water was shallow, between my knees and chest for over a 100 yards out from shore. The sand was soft and velvety. There was no light pollution, so we could see the milky way and countless stars above. Best of all, the water off the coast is filled with phosphorecent plankton that sparkle and glow underwater as you move through it. In short, beautiful and perfect.

Khmer lesson #1

2009-02-05T18:57:00.000-08:00

a brief sample of Khmer. (Note: Khmer has its own script so this is just me writing out the sounds in my own way with our alphabet.)

K'nyom ch'moo'ah Dan. = My name is Dan.
aroon susedai = good morning
K'nyom dtou sala. = I'm going to school.
Nieng sa'at. = She is pretty.
dteuk dtoh goa = milk ('water breast cow')
dteuk trey = fish sauce ('water fish')
dteuk gork = ice ('water frozen'- you get the point)
p'tayah bai = kitchen ('house rice')

there are at least seven ways to say 'eat':

si bai: for animals and informal situations with friends
nyam bai: common
hoap bai: common
peetsa bai: very respectful for use with much older people
chann bai: for use with monks
soy bai: this is only for the king
(I forget the 7th way.)

the mouse

2009-02-05T01:27:00.000-08:00

There was a large mouse in my bathroom this morning. We had a staring contest while I was taking a crap. I was multi-tasking....but I still won. I think it was a pyhrric victory.

high school in Cambodia

2009-01-30T17:58:00.000-08:00

High school here is completely different from high school in America. The students go to school from 7-11am in the morning, have a two-hour lunch break (because most of them go home for lunch, sometimes biking 10k roundtrip) and then study again from 1-5pm. Monday through Saturday. The first 15 minutes of every hour is a break. At school, the students stay in the same classroom all day. They all wear uniforms. It’s the teachers that rotate around to the different classes, and when they walk in all the students stand up to show respect. They also stand up whenever they answer a question or say anything in class. But having teachers rotate means that there are no science rooms or labs, the teachers can’t put anything up on the walls, and the same students are in every class together. Every classroom looks exactly the same. There are no honors classes and sometimes the gap in ability level – from strongest to weakest student – is tremendous.

There are, of course, challenges. Most classes have between 40 and 55 students. I can’t speak for other subjects, but in English class only about half the students have books, so they usually share with a partner. However, a lot of times we’re short on books and some students just have to get by without one. Another challenge is time. Cambodia has the most holidays of any country in the world, so it’s hard to have any consistency. For example, my school basically shut down for Chinese New Year, a 3-day break. And even Thursday and Friday only had about 75% attendance. Also, the teachers here are so poorly paid that every single one has other part-time jobs so they can earn enough money to live. This means that teaching at the public school is often a low priority, and if they have other things to do they just won’t show up.

Which brings me to my final point. Most teachers teach private lessons before or after school, or at lunch, or on the weekends. But only the students who can afford to pay for lessons (about 20 cents an hour) can go to these private sessions. All the students who can’t afford to go, or who are busy working in the rice fields in their spare time, or taking care of the house and their younger siblings, etc…… these students fall behind. So if you can’t afford private lessons you’re pretty much guaranteed to be behind the other students. My host sister, for example, studies about 20 hours a week in private lessons. That’s a lot of extra information.

Whoops, here’s the actual last point. There are no extracurricular activities. When I did a lesson about education in America the students were really curious about things like student government, yearbook, school newspaper, music, dance, etc. The only sport they play at my school is volleyball, and it’s not organized. The students don’t play against other schools; they just play when they have time.

a new look for a new year

2009-01-05T18:59:00.000-08:00

Greetings everyone. For those of you who don't know (i.e....everyone), my buddy Anthony who lives about 8 miles away hasn't shaved his beard or cut his hair since the swear-in ceremony in October. This inspired me to grow my beard for 3 weeks in December, quickly outstripping the piddling growth he was able to muster over the course of several months. That sounds cocky but it's true. Anyway, beards aren't very popular here in Cambodia, so for now I am staying clean-shaven. For fun, I shaved my beard in stages, and Deidre and Kelsey took pics along the way. I'm aware I look ridiculous, especially since I was shirtless, but I hope you're as amused by them as I was. Enjoy!

Before:

just the cheeks:

don't ask....we were just goofing around:

the grand finale: creepy-moustache guy

Happy Merry Christmas! (as they say in Cambodia)

2008-12-25T20:29:00.000-08:00

Christmas in Cambodia. What can I say? It was a hot day. I sweated. Over the course of the week I taught 10 different classes how to sing "Santa Claus is Coming to Town." Which was fun. Especially when I laughed my Santa laugh, or joked about Santa eating his reindeer, or did a jolly, fat man walk while stroking my 2-week long beard.

Anyway, we didn't get the day off, but I'm meeting some friends this weekend to drink egg nog and watch Bad Santa. Which I will be doing while wearing the Santa hat that one of my students gave me as a gift. Thanks Pheakdey!

things that are funny (2)

2008-12-19T19:44:00.000-08:00

I've been having my 11th grade classes do skits (i.e. role plays), which they don't ever do in the schools here. This makes it a novel, challenging, scary, yet fun activity for the students. I told them they could use visual aids for their advertisement role play, and one of the groups who presented a beer advertisement actually pulled out some Black Panther beer, poured a round, and drank it in front of the class as part of their skit. I looked over at my co-teacher, but he didn't blink an eye, so when they finished and the applause was over I just said "All right....next group."

Khmer names

2008-12-19T19:33:00.001-08:00

So, I've decided to give people back home Khmer names. Just imagine the scene from Animal House, and pretend I'm walking down a row, stopping in front of you, and saying, "your Khmer name is......" then slapping a dried fish or something in your hand before moving to the next person. If your name isn't on here and you want a Khmer name, just post a comment or email me or something and I'll add you to the list. (p.s. Sophie and Silinda, I know you're Cambodian but you're getting Khmer names anyway)

Michael Boyd - Chhunlearng
Junayd - Pheakdey
Big Dawg - Mum
Jeff - Soveat
Armen - Tola
B.K. - Reaksmey
Beth - Phearoom
Keonoi - Malis
Stewart - Thea Vuth
DTeasley - Peakleakha
Brooke - Nimol
PRich - Sokrath
Boyajian - Vitya
Mom - Navi
Dad - Theang
Liana - Chiv Heun
Silinda - Chakriya
Sophie - Vanny
Emmanuelle - Socheata
Brian B. - Soknann
Brian R. - Somnang
Jess - Marady
Nina - Samet
Anna - Bopha
Laura (in Boston) - Ly Chhun

my Khmer is getting better

2008-12-16T12:28:00.000-08:00

I know this because I was able to tell my 9-year old host brother that if he drank a unicorn's blood he would live forever. We then moved on to discuss the eating habits of a T-Rex. (There was some miming involved in this conversation, but mostly because it's fun to be a T-Rex.)

whoa....chickens!! I don't like 'em!

2008-12-08T14:18:00.000-08:00

Chickens have to be the dumbest animals in the history of the world. I know what you're thinking, and no, it's not manatees, or dodos, the three-toed sloth, or any other animal. It's chickens. If humans didn't like to eat chickens I honestly think they'd be extinct by now. I mean, seriously, they can't even fly can they? The worst part is that chickens aren't even delicious in Cambodia. They're stringy and bony and tough. And I somehow always end up eating chicken-necks. Gimme a nice hunk of pork instead. Why this low opinion of chickens, you may be wondering? It's hard to explain. Just come live with me for a few months and it'll all make sense. Have you ever read Fantastic Mr. Fox? I have to see if I can get a copy of that. He had the right idea.

(Editor's note: Bob's blog has several homages to chickens. We've agreed to disagree on the chicken issue.)

a warm blanket

2008-12-04T23:29:00.000-08:00

The weather has gotten cold these last few weeks. It's perfect during the day, but taking cold bucket showers in the morning or evening is un-fun. Goosebumps, for sure. The little cold-water-dance after pouring the first bucket over your head. Anyway, the best part about the cold weather is saying, in Khmer: "it's cold today. I want a warm blanket." Which is an ongoing joke in Khmer culture, another way of saying I want a girl sleeping with me to help keep me warm. And when I say it, it's hilarious! So basically, I've become less sweaty and more funny. Go figure.

weddings

2008-12-04T23:05:00.000-08:00

In the last two months I've been to three weddings. For those who want to know, yes, people get wasted at Khmer weddings just like they do at American ones. Except that women don't drink alcohol here, or at least not much. That's one part of the culture that female volunteers have to contend with. But gender roles in Cambodia are a whole 'nother topic. Let's get to the weddings!!

At one of the weddings, the groom was a fellow teacher at my school, and he was kind enough to invite me to both days of the wedding. Day 1: the ceremony. Day 2: the reception.

Day 1: The ceremony began early-ish, around 730am. And it started with a wedding march. Here, all the guests were given a plate of food, mostly fruit, but a few plates of crackers, bread, and even cans of beer. Then, everyone walked about 200 meters to a gathering point where we found our partner (the other person whose plate had the same fruit or whatever). I had oranges. In a two-person column led by the groom, the whole party then marched up the road with their offerings. And, yes, I was the tallest person in the procession. Because I'm a giant. At the house, the ceremony was elaborate and I can't possibly explain it all. A boy and a girl fed each other fruit (very cute), there was some singing, then the parents of the couple blessed them. And then there was breakfast. At around 1pm there was another ceremony, the hair-cutting ritual. I have to find out more about the symbolism here, but most people at the wedding got to fake-cut the hair of both the bride and groom. There was a lot of ritual and ceremony involved, which I mostly didn't understand. Finally, about 3pm, the bride, groom, and others took an excursion to a wat in a nearby town.

Day 2: This is the reception. It's a giant feast, with beer and food flowing out your ears. There's music, and dancing. The women dress up and it's about the only time you'll ever see bare shoulders and backless shirts. I also think, that in a period of about 3 hours, I saw the groom in at least four different outfits. Basically, wedding parties are great. I can't afford to go to too many, though, because the guests give money to the couple....maybe $8-10. And that adds up quickly on a PCV's salary.

Thanksgiving in Cambodia...

2008-11-28T19:13:00.000-08:00

is just another day in the life. I did, however, teach a Thanksgiving lesson in 9 classes. At 45-50 students per class, that's 400 people in Cambodia that now know about Turkey Day and Black Friday. The toughest part to explain was what a cranberry is, given that I haven't seen a single berry of any kind since I got here. (random berry quote: "the snozzberries taste like snozzberries!!")

Thanksgiving lunch was good. I ate with a few British and Dutch volunteers, and one Kenyan woman, who live in my province. Even though Thanksgiving is an American holiday one of the (wonderful) volunteers made a delicious pumpkin soup with cumin and coriander. It was amazing! And for dinner....rice and fish. Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

on 'bean juice'

2008-11-11T02:07:00.000-08:00

My host sister taught me to make homemade soy milk, and I can tell you that the literal translation from Khmer, "bean water," is much more accurate than 'soy milk.' The most time-consuming part of the production phase was crushing enough beans to give me a couple liters worth of bean juice. Add a bit of sugar and voila....bean water!! I mean, soy milk.

Oh, and the Khmer word for milk translates literally as 'water-from-the-cow's-nipple.'

things that are funny

2008-11-08T20:50:00.000-08:00

I was riding my bike the other day and saw a man on a moto stopped by the roadside. It was raining a little. He was stuffing chickens up his jacket.

a day in the life....

2008-11-08T20:39:00.000-08:00

okay, so here's a (probably over-detailed) account of one fairly typical weekday.

540am: wake up, hit snooze
600am: get out of bed; put up my mosquito net, then power shave (poop, shower, and shave)
620am: bike 3k to town and eat a pork and rice breakfast, with iced milk coffee (total: 3500R or $.88), at a restaurant owned by one of the teachers and where a bunch of teachers hang out in the morning
700am: get to school and watch the students line up for the flag-raising ceremony and school director announcements
720am: start co-teaching
800am: hour break to lesson plan while watching English Premier League highlights on the office TV
915am: co-teach again
1000am: sweat my balls off (not literally....that'd be gross) as I bike home to: read (currently working on The Third Policeman; I recommend it); study Khmer; eat lunch; wash & hang laundry; and clean mud off my shoes. Most of this done while wearing only my 'kroma'
130pm: change back into clothes and bike back to school
215pm: co-teach for two hours
400pm: bike home, stop at the smoothie stand to eat a delicious smoothie (1500R or $.38) and chat with some students
440pm: back at home, back in the 'kroma'; do stuff, e.g. exercise, chat with host family, text with Bob about ants, rain, and Obama's historic victory (Bob's from Indiana, which a democrat hadn't won in 44 years; he studied at Testicle Tech, otherwise known as Ball State), collect and fold laundry
600pm: play with my family's dog, Doooooh, which basically means slapping him around until he growls at me and runs off to chase motos and bicycles
601pm: bathe - this always immediately follows playing with Doooooh (Cambodian dogs tend to be unclean)
700pm: eat
730pm: help my host sisters study English
800pm: more doing of stuff
900pm: read in bed
930pm: I'm done

my technique is sloppy

2008-10-24T02:14:00.000-07:00

Okay, for those of you who don't know, Cambodians usually eat family-style, which means everyone has their own plate/bowl of rice and then shares the main dishes. Only, it's rude to take more than a spoonful or two of food at a time, so everyone is constantly using their spoon, which is the main eating utensil (the fork is used only for helping get food onto the spoon), and getting bites of food from the center of the table. Only problem is my technique is sloppy, so I'm always dripping bits of food from one dish into another, or onto the table, or otherwise exhibiting poor spoon-to-bowl etiquette. Though I have become a master of plucking fish and pork bones from my mouth and chucking them out the back door, which is a required skill and in no way un-polite.

elections

2008-10-24T02:07:00.000-07:00

It cost me half a day's wages to send my absentee ballot to California. I voted for Obama, who's going to win in California regardless of my one, lonely vote. But it's the principle!! Also, how cool is it that I can vote from, what, 10000 miles away?

movies i wish they'd never dubbed into Khmer

2008-10-20T08:00:00.000-07:00

Battlefield Earth

riding a 'kanoat'

2008-10-18T00:46:00.000-07:00

A few days ago my host family took me on a day-trip to a wat about 30k away. We got there by 'kanoat,' which in my case was a 15-foot long canoe-like boat powered by a small, noisy motor and capable of reaching speeds of 10mph. The journey took us down a small river, then across a plain of rice fields that I'm not quite sure how to describe. It's green, open fields that stretch for miles, off into the horizon, and during the rainy season the plain becomes a giant aqueduct about 4 feet deep, submerging the road that winds through the fields. So, during these months, people take their boats down a labryinthine stretch of open water, about 6-8 feet wide, that connects the two districts - a road on the water. It was amazing to travel that stretch, watching a far mountain (our destination) slowly begin to loom over us as we got closer to land. And, once at the top of the mountain, during a Buddhist celebration I can't even begin to describe, I was able to look out at the landscape and see, from a birds-eye view, that glistening ribbon of water stretching off into the distance through an otherwise solid, green backdrop. On the way home we also rescued a baby from a leaky boat that swamped as we passed it.

motos

2008-10-18T00:37:00.000-07:00

Volunteers are forbidden to ride on them, but motos are one of the most convenient ways to get around Cambodia. They're usually about 125cc, and are fascinating mostly because of the people/things that are sitting, stacked, piled, tied to, or otherwise located on the moto. Here's a brief and incomplete list:

a family of 7 (amazing, really); gigantic blocks of ice; countless upside-down, live-but-docile chickens (for further reading on the docility of chickens see Bob's blog); 4 queen-sized mattresses; 1 large pig in a basket; many small pigs - piglets - in many small baskets; tall stacks of empty crates, tires, and other non-heavy objects; short stacks of bags of rice, beans, water-bottles, etc., often with people riding these stacks; oh, and how could I forget coconuts?

For the sake of brevity I have omitted the countless objects - including other motos - that can be towed by motos.

Training: an overview

2008-10-07T20:11:00.000-07:00

weeks spent in training: 10
trainees in my village: 11 (then 10)
LCFs (Khmer teachers): 3
average bedtime: 900pm
average waking up: 600am
wats in biking distance: at least 8
# of inappropriate conversations held at wats: countless
favorite food: this is a tough one.... i'm split between fried bananas and fruit smoothies
least favorite food: turtle butt
most listened-to song: Today Was a Good Day
mosquitoes killed while squatting on my toilet: hundreds
record for one sitting: 5
injuries/damage to myself: 1 gigantic knee scrape, some torn rib cartilage, and multiple assorted insect bites, including spider, ant, and mosquito
top 10 favorite moments (in no particular order, and in fact this could easily be top 20 or 30 or 100)
1. chillin' with Bob at the "beartuary" and watching bears rip open coconuts like they were made of cotton candy
2. talking with the American ambassador at a pool party (with hamburgers!.... a rare thing)
3. Team Wet Balls!!
4. being bears
5. party shirts....both shopping for them and then wearing them
6. 400am rice-ball-throwing at the wat
7. losing a key
8. the amazing dance performance at the orphanage
9. scavenger hunt in the Penh
10. "is it true?!"
least favorite moments:
1. when Katie left
2. saying goodbye to my host family
3. accidentally swallowing a saomao whole

pictures: my host mom and niece; the view from my room/balcony