Things I don't want to forget: Weather and Animals

We have a few last posts of things we want to remember about Cambodia. Today's is a double whammy and we're remembering the weather and animals. It's good to remember both of these things because they're so drastically different from America, and I'm sure soon enough I'll forget them while I take advantage of the lack humidity in Utah.

Weather:
-How good the cool tile floor feels on a hot day.
-How much hotter the mosquito net instantly makes things
-How amazinly awesome the monsoons are.

-The amount of sweat a human body can produce just sitting still in the April heat.

-The amount of sweat my body can produce the moment I get off my bike after biking to school.

-Waking up in the middle of the night drenched in sweat because you tried to go an Apirl night without the fan.

-How no one goes anywhere if it's raining. Better wait until it stops.
-How after living in Cambodia during the dog wet season the cold season feels COLD. 60 Degrees means jackets and lots of blankets.

Animals:
-The deafening sound of frogs after it rains
-How dogs will howl in unison during the night and then stop all at once.
-That time a giant rat crawled down the TV cord from the ceiling when we were all in the living room and it didn't phase anyone but Hal and I.

-How roosters are the most evil animal ever and crow at all hours of the day and night.(according to me)
-How dogs are the most evil animal in Cambodia and bark at all hours of the night.(according to hal)
-How animals are in such bad shape because Cambodians don't treat them like pets.

-When students say they have cats that "eat at their house"...they aren't pets...they're just fed at their house.
-Seeing puppies down the street which look just like the dog with the icky fur next door.
-When I first got to Cambodia I remember thinking the cows were 2D because they didn't seem real, they were so skinny and their bones stuck out. Now I can't even remember what the cows in America look like.

Camp GLOW

My very last and biggest project I did in Cambodia finished up in our very last days at site. This project was probably 6 months in the making, involved 3 PCVs 2 husbands, 2 Cambodian counterparts, 2 NGOs and 4 NGO workers. I partnered with two other volunteers and all together we brought 39 girls into Siem Reap town for four days. Most of these girls are from semi rural villages and had never been to Siem Reap, or stayed in a guesthouse before.

Camp GLOW is a Peace Corps world wide project, and ours was dedicated mostly to teaching the girls things, especially health related, that they either don't learn in the school system, or at home. We wanted to give them an opportunity to learn things that aren't widely talked about in Cambodian culture. 

The first two days we were so fortunate to work with three lovely ladies from Our Strength, located in Battambong town. These ladies, and this organization is fabulous. I can be hard to find a really great female role model in Cambodia, and these ladies were the best role models we could have asked for. They interacted with the girls and were so happy to answer all of their sensitive questions.

Our Strength taught about STDs and sexual health, healthy relationships, pregnancy, maturation, and gender and more. At first the girls were a little timid and the room was very quiet. As the days went on the girls became more and more active in the lessons, and with teach other. Our Strength had multiple Q&A sessions which allowed the girls to ask questions as they became more comfortable. My girls seemed to really like the lessons about STDs and maturation, especially about their periods.

The third day of Camp GLOW we had a wonderful woman named Pisey from The Womans Resource Center in Siem Reap come. Although in the beginning Pisey's sessions were not as interactive, the girls seemed to absolutely love the information she shared. She taught about healthy relationships, domestic violence, and goal setting. The girls had an opportunity to do some lesson planning this day and almost all of the groups decided to lesson plan about domestic violence.

On our fourth and last day at camp we were mostly on our own. We couldn't have done it without the help of my counterpart though. She helped teach them how to lesson plan for their lessons they would teach back in their villages. Part of Camp GLOW is that they have to teach people back in their villages about what they learned. 

First they lesson planned for a short lesson and gave mock lessons to each other. Then they got into village groups and started lesson planing for their actual lessons.  

We ended the Camp with certificates, picture taking, and a slideshow of pictures from the camp.

I am so glad that I was able to go out on such a fantastic note, and that I was able to see how much not only my girls, but how all of the girls loved the camp. I couldn't have picked a better group of people to work with either. I hope the new volunteers coming to our town will keep my girls club going and do another Camp GLOW with new girls next year!

See more about Camp GLOW activities here. Or about my girls educating their community here.

Things I don't want to forget: Work

Today's I don't want to forget moment comes from our work here in Cambodia. My last couple of months I thought were going to be so slow work wise, since school let out, but between a camp I did (more info coming) and my private class, the last month at site was wonderful, and had mostly to do with my amazing students.

Work:
-The wonderful talks with co-teachers about Cambodians folk tales and problems that face Cambodia.
-Accidentally making a baby puke by putting the tongue depressor too far back in their throat.
-How babies cry when I look at them because they've never seen a white person before and their parents just laugh.
-The wonderful text messages filled with horrible English from students and teachers.
-When you see students helping other students to understand something, not just letting them copy.
-The sweet unexpected messages that students write to me.
-Being able to share a part of American culture that means so much to me with my students and having them love it.

                                   (Watching Harry Potter and eating spaghetti and garlic bread)
-The reaction of my students when I told them I was going home. It made me feel loved.
-Telling my students that they were getting a new volunteer a month after I leave, and having them tell me that they would still miss me very much.

-Finally remembering most of my students names, and how to pronounce them!
-Having my school director be so supportive of any of the projects I want to do.
-Having a female assistant school director who is so sweet.
-When my assistant school director remembered my love of puppies and let me play with her brand new puppies.

-So many of my students showing up to my goodbye party and just hanging out and dancing the night away with us.

Things I don't want to forget: Clothing

We're finally back home, but I'm going to continue these posts coming because there are still so many things about Cambodia that I don't want to forget. Today's post is about the clothing in Cambodia and how sweet and ridiculous their clothes are.

Clothing: 

-How popular angry birds is
-How tight mens pants are

-How men grow their nails out, especially their pinkie nails.

-How men use those long nails for picking at their ear wax.

-Their love for anything sparkly, bright, or bedazzled.

-How they wear pajamas as regular clothes. And if they've worn them as regular clothes that day of course they don't wear them to bed, they put on their regular pajamas.
-How they'll bejewel their canine teeth. They super glue a jewel to their teeth.
-Engrish shirts that often don't make sense or are very inappropriate, and they wear them even though they have no idea what they actually say. ex. we saw a teenager who definitely had no idea that his trucker's had said "eff off" on it...but not just eff...

                                                            (her shirt says Jesus got)

-How Bookie will walk around the house in the tank top she's wearing to bed, but if I try and take a picture, she immediately puts another shirt on.

-How Bookie and Moto Accident wear towels to cover their chests with a towel when wearing a tank top around the house.

-Towels = blankets. You will constantly see people wrapped up in towels in the cold season
-The 8,000 uses for a Kroma (a traditional scarf)
-When Cambodians are planning on being outside, they don't want their skin to get even darker so they cover every inch of their bodies. Sweatshirts, gloves, hats, socks and long pants, no matter how hot it is outside.

Coming Home

Well, we're finally home. After 25 hours, 13 hours of time travel, and after a total of 18 hours of flying Hal and I finally made it home. We ended up getting in at 12:30 a.m. We were so surprised and felt so loved at the showing of people we had to come greet us to the airport.

You know what's a great feeling? To be walking down the run way towards baggage claim and have everyone you love come running as close to the "Do Not Enter" sign as possible. Only 1 nephew fell asleep before we got there. I'm just glad my sisters were selfless and put up with tired kids the next day so I could see them at the airport.

Brownies and pear torte brought to the airport? Can it get better than that? Oh, perhaps it can....

Things I Don't Want to Forget: Pure Joys

Todays memories come from things that bring pure joy. These are often the moments that keep you going when Cambodia is really rough. This probably will give you some insight into the things that matter a lot to a volunteer.

Pure Joy:
-How the day can be suffocatingly humid and then all of the sudden you hear that thunder or that first trickle of rain which suddenly turns into a deafening monsoon and takes away the heat of the day.

-The pure joy you feel when you get a phone call from the post office saying you have a package. JOY.

-The pure joy you feel when you find someone in your town who has a washing machine, and that person is Hal's counterpart who won't even accept money for us to use her washing machine. After 9 months of hand washing increasingly dingy clothes, it's a MIRACLE.

-The excitement you feel when you share a bit of western food with your host family, and they actually like it! It's rare, but Silenceor loves anything sugary we bake, and Bookie likes pizza!
-When you walk out of what felt like your hot room and go into the bathroom to shower, and when you come out of the shower, your room feels nice and cool.
-When you finally get all of the ants out of the food you're trying to eat
-When you're out of western food and another PCV offers to give you a bite of their delicious western food

Things I Don't Want to Forget: Transportation

Today my memories come from transportation in Cambodia. Any Peace Corps Volunteer will tell you modes of transpiration are big parts of their lives. Between biking around town and the 8 hour bus rides into the capitol, different modes of transportation, and finding the cheapest ones has definitely been a part of my service here in Cambodia.

Transportation:
-How 5 people on a moto is no problem.
-Toyota Camry = a taxi.

-How 10-11 people in a 5 passenger Toyota Camry is also no problem.
-How the driver often shares his seat in order to fit more people into the car or van.

-How there's no limit to the amount of people who can sit in a touri(a 12-16 passenger van) 25 people? Oh sure, we can fit a few more.

-How often Cambodians throw up on bus rides. They keep plastic bags on hand, just for this.
-How freaking loud they play movies, music, and comedy shows on the buses. Hands down the comedy shows are the worst.

-How monks ride side saddle on motos because their robes are like dresses.

-How you can get a bus to stop anywhere along their route, at any time to drop you off or pick you up. The routes take so much longer because they're always dropping people off and picking people up. Your 45 passenger bus could stop like 20 times within the last hour of your destination to drop people off.

-Cambodian road flares, or emergency blinkers = a bunch of tree limbs in front of and behind the car pulled over.

-Garages? Oh, you mean the living room? Yes, that's where they park their cars.
-Need to go to the bathroom while on public transportation? They'll stop pretty much any time. Men just go on the side of the road, and women bring kromas (large scarves) to cover up themselves.
-A host mom telling a volunteer to just put that kroma over their face, and no one will know it's them going to the bathroom, so it's no problem.
-The wonderful people we've met from hitchhiking around Cambodia.

Things I Don't Want to Forget: Cambodian People

Today my don't want to forget memories come from just Cambodians in general. Cambodians are some of the most amazing people I have ever met. I hope this helps you get a better picture of what Cambodians are like.

Cambodian People:
-How Khmer women click their tongues to get animals to stop doing something.
-How Cambodians have no fear of GIANT spiders or poisonous scorpions, but they are afraid of geckos.
-When you tell Cambodians what you're doing in Cambodia and they sincerely say thank you for trying to help their country.
-How a Cambodian woman can school me any day of the week at washing clothes by hand.
-How Yays (Grandmothers) are freaking BOSS. They rule Cambodia and can do whatever they want.
-The way Yay can just tell you what to do, and you do it.
-The scary black witch like smiles of Yays(grandmothers) from chewing an addictive leaf.

-How yelling does not mean you're angry. I'm not really sure what does mean you're angry, but Khmer people are very uncomfortable about crying.
-How they can step out of their flip flops as they enter a building without breaking stride.

-How they love foreigners and little kids run to the street to yell "Hello" at you as your ride by on your bike.
-How the little kids will learn your name and say "Hello, Sam" as you ride by.
-And how they're amazed if you yell back "Hello (insert their name)"

-How they'll pick their noses at any moment and any time, even when they're talking to you.
-When a baby starts crying and whomever is holding them just starts making noises equally as loud to get them to stop crying.
-How Cambodians will tell you one of two things when they meet you - your skin is beautiful, your nose is beautiful and pointy.

In one week

In one week:

- I'll get to see my family again
- I get to take my munchkin nieces and nephews to the zoo.
- I'll have access to both air conditioning or heating everywhere I go.
- I can drive again.
- I'll have access to whatever food my heart desires
- I'll be able to eat yummy desserts again
- I'll be able to make delicious foods with whatever ingredients I want.
- I'll have access to a grocery store with almost anything I could dream of.
- I'll get to meet Hal's parents new dog.
- I get to snuggle with my kitty cat
- I get to sleep in my own comfy bed again
- I'll get my closet back
- I can shower every day with hot water.
- I'll be able to understand what people are saying to me.
- I'll have to find a job, and fast.
- I will have endless luxury at my fingertips.

But in one week:

- I'll miss my students
- I'll miss my host family.
- I'll miss my host mom's laugh.
- I'll miss being able to teach my students new things they never even thought existed.
- I'll never get to finish teaching them the book we've been working through for the last year.
- I'll miss my PCV family.
- I'll miss the excitement of finally getting some decent western food.
- I'll miss the ridiculously cheap prices for western food (by american standards)
- I'll miss riding my bike through town.
- I'll miss being a local celebrity.
- I'll miss being blessed enough to have the smallest bit of Cambodian luxury in my flushing toilet and running water.
- I'll miss kids calling out to me as I ride by on my bike.

But most of all I'll miss Cambodia.

I'm not sure I'm ready for this transition yet.

Things I Don't Want to Forget: Host Family

I realized that I talk a lot about what Hal and I do outside of site, but not a lot about what we do at site, or just little every day things. I've been trying to blog more about those things, but I need to get better. There are just so many little things about Cambodia and Cambodians that I don't want to forget. I'm going to try and write more about these things, the hilarious interactions we have everyday with the people in our village and the things they do that are wonderful and so different from America. It's fulfilling a PC goal right? Sharing with my mostly American readers about what Cambodia is like. Just nod yes.

There are so many things that I don't want to forget about my time here in Cambodia. Today I'm sharing funny moments and memories with my host family. Please enjoy and hopefully you can laugh and get to know my host family better.

Host Family:
-How X-Ray one very drunk night tried to get into our locked room which he thought was his room, and Bookie had to stop him.
-How when we first got to site, we had this old lady yelling at us in Khmer and directing us, and then she smiled and her one tooth showed and I thought, "hot dang, this is our one toothed yay." Seriously, that's how I recognized her.

-How Bookie sometimes steals our pancake mix to make Cambodian desserts more delicious.

-How Moto Accident sounds like she's crying whenever she laughs.
-How the moment our door is open for a significant amount of time our host mom is in our room trying to clean something.

-How X-Ray giggles the minute he sees Hal or I, at any time of the day.

-How Bookie loves to be involved in whatever Hal and I are doing - especially in the kitchen which sometimes leads to interesting pancakes or her throwing away food she thinks is bad, but in fact, has not gone bad.
-How we've had birds living in our ceiling this entire time, and our family keeps saying they'll take care of it, kind of like they said they'd put a screen on our window and put in another window...and then you wake up to them banging a piece of metal to cover the only source of light in our bathroom....we think to make it cooler? Sounds logical.
-How Bookie is very concerned about the amount of mosquito bites I get since I had dengue and lights mosquito coils when I'm in the kitchen or living room.

-How my training host brother used to pee onto the bathroom floor from standing in the doorway so he didn't have to actually go in. Found out kind of late that's why our bathroom always smelled like pee. SO glad that we always wore flip flops in that bathroom.
-When Moto Accident does my nails and does them super amazingly Khmer.

Why Peace Corps Was The Best Decision I Ever Made

The other day as we were riding our bikes through our village Hal asked me if I'm glad we did this. Both of us answered that we were so glad that we did this. It has been an unforgettable experience, a life changing experience, and experience I will be forever grateful for.

Before we joined Peace Corps I'd say we were in a life slump. Ok, I was in a life slump. I didn't have much of a direction in my life other than wanting an adventure and wanting to serve people. In Peace Corps I got both of those things. I've seen part of the world, I've lived in a foreign country, I've lived with a native family and come to love them. 

I think that just being here and fulfilling that part of me that wanted adventure so badly gave me clarity. It helped me realize that I'm really lazy by nature and I need to get my butt up and moving. It helped me realize I love helping people and sharing knowledge. It helped me realize I do have ambition. It helped me realize what I want to be after all of this over. It has helped me become flexible, frugal, open to change, and new ideas.

It has taught me a lot about myself, but the biggest realization I have come to, is that I did the absolutely right thing by marrying Hal. It's 100% true that Peace Corps will make or break your marriage, and luckily for us, Peace Corps has made our marriage stronger.

One of the best things Peace Corps does, is give you unique view of the country you serve in. No, I'm not some dumb tourist wearing ugly baggy fishermen's pants and a light flowy linen shirt. You can pick out those tourists a mile away, who think they are just so cool and fit in with the locals in their ugly fishermen pants. Well guess what, Khmer people hate those pants and most fishermen fish in their underwear. Khmer people love it when you dress up in a skirt and a button up shirt, when you wear clothes that fit you well. They love it so much when you can say anything in their language.

You learn about the people, the heart of the country. A country is so much more than the sights it has to offer. I'm not sure I would have ever made it to Cambodia if it hadn't been for Peace Corps. I am so glad I had the opportunity to live here for the last year. Cambodians are seriously the best people I've met. 

Living in a village, being able to speak the language, and having a Khmer host family to look out for you makes your experience feel remarkably different than just being a tourist, or even being an ex-pat. I've only lived here a year, but sometimes I just feel like I'm Cambodian, and living here will be my life forever. It has made me want to experience every country the way I have experienced Cambodia

Even though we're leaving early we still have gotten so much out of our service here in Peace Corps Cambodia. Even though we're leaving early, it doesn't change the fact that serving in Peace Corps was the right thing for us to do with this year in our lives. So even though Peace Corps isn't right for everyone, and it wasn't right for us for a whole two years, I will still always count serving in Peace Corps as probably the best decision we have made as a married couple.

Cambodia has stolen my heart, and I'm not sure if America will ever get it back.