Absence

Sorry I've been absent for a little while. As most of you know I've been really sick. Last weekend I was medically evacuated to Thailand with a bad case of dengue fever.

I've been surviving with my phone and wifi while I've been bored out of my mind, recovering. Tomorrow I finally get to go back to Cambodia! I never thought I would miss it so much.

Please keep your fingers crossed for me, that I can make it back tomorrow. I've been trying to get back for three days. Peace Corps has finally deemed me healthy enough, and bought my ticket, so keep your fingers crossed that it happens because I have a husband I'm dying to see!

Valentines day in Cambodia

Hal and I had a great valentines day. Our Valentines experience really started almost 2 weeks ago when we went on our first date in 6 months to Siem Reap (more on that later). What makes a date for me...a little shopping! I've never gone shopping in Siem Reap outside of the Khmer market, so this time I wanted to boutique browse. It was a sad day when I stumbled upon this beauty, which ended up being way out of my poor PCV  price range. So we took pictures and I hoped to get it made.

I even made my friend go back there with me and take more detailed pictures so I could get it made exactly like this. I remember saying 'Oh Dang, the XS has already been sold." Little did I know it would be hanging in my bathroom waiting for me when we came back to site :) I was so shocked. SO shocked. Then I felt real dumb because everyone we were with knew that he had gone back and bought the dress and I just kept blabbing about it all weekend long.

 It was nice to be reminded that Cambodia doesn't have to suck all the romance out of a relationship. It's so easy to not feel romantic when you spend so much time with each other, and when half of that time is spent sweating your brains out or being sick.

The second half of our Valentines experience was so sweet and unexpected. I was surprised how many Khmer  people already knew about Valentines day. I decided I wanted to teach my students how to make valentines. The day before I taught them how to make some cute ones, and then they all brought colored paper, glue, scissors, and their array of colored pens and went to town. They made valentines for each other, but they were so sweet and made valentines for me, and even one for "Teacher Hal" Here are their versions of the valentines I showed them. I was SO excited to see how creative some of them got. If you know anything about Cambodia, creativity and critical thinking is hard to come by. One of my students made the coolest angry birds valentine. I won't lie, I was a bit disappointed when he didn't give that one to me.

And for my favorite two valentines that my students made me, who both get points for being extra creative.

3-in-1 valentine, how's that for creativity?

After spending an hour and a half making valentines with my students I came home so a great surprise. Hal had taken down the mosquito net, made the bed, and set out our Valentines Day treat. Back in the US that may have been a small gesture, but for me, here, it was huge. Sometimes you just can't handle laying within the confines of the mosquito net anymore. Oh and he loaded one of my favorite movies, Young Victoria, which I wish I had brought with me, and was so glad to be able to watch it again. Oh and he made a yummy pasta dinner. This made my valentines to him, which I had spent most of the class period making, seem small in comparison. Twice this month Hal has spoiled me and reminded me of how sweet he is, and how lucky I am to have him here with me.

So we ended our night with our special treat and a great movie.

Happy 60th Birthday Dad

My dad celebrated a big birthday last weekend. He turned 60...shh don't tell him I told you that. Well I was bummed that I wasn't home to celebrate such a big birthday, so I decided to do something a little special for his birthday.

I've been making everyone birthday cards and e-mailing them, using Picnik (which I'm SO sad is going away in April, but I'll take advantage of the all the free tools until then.) So I made him a lovely little card, but I wanted to do more than that for such a big birthday (can you tell I like to celebrate birthdays?)

Well I lucked out and got an amazon gift card, so we bought him a web cam. I've been in Cambodia for almost 7 months and have hardly been able to actually talk to, or see my family. Hopefully now that will change. Well, we didn't know if it would arrive on time, so I thought I'd do a little something here in Cambodia, and got some of my favorite people involved.

First my students offered to sing to him. I was so glad, I was my day off from teaching them, but they asked me to come anyway so they could sing for him. How sweet is that? (Ignore my loud, not so nice singing)



Next I told my host family  it was my dad's birthday and asked if they knew how to sing Happy Birthday in Khmer. I had just learned it a few days before, so I was excited to sing it. They were so nice and gathered around  the table to sing with me.



I already shared these videos with my dad, but I thought maybe everyone else would like to see what great students, and what a great host family I have been blessed with.

And Happy Birthday to my amazing dad. You've been such a great father and example to me. I'm sorry that I missed your birthday, and hope that these videos help make up for it at least a little bit.

The luxury of running water

"Bookie, why is there no water?"
"There's no water? Oh, there's no water. Your soup is burning. Here call this number and ask why there's no water."
Hands me the water bill for last month, almost entirely written in Khmer.

Having running water in Cambodia is a luxury. I realize that after having no running water all through training. It's amazing to have a real shower, even if it's freezing. It's amazing to be able to really was my hands and do my dishes. And it's even more amazing to have a toilet that flushes without the use of a bucket full of water.

Having running water is also a big burden when it's not working. That means no water at all. Like no water. That means no hand washing. No washing our dishes after dinner. That means no filling our water filter that's empty. That means no showering after a long hot day. That means that you can't go to the bathroom....at all.

Bookie brought out a small bucket of water from the small cistern of rain water they have, and did our lunch dishes (I know, we're spoiled) and told us to do dinner dishes in the morning. I laid in front of the fan in my underwear until my sweat dried and I was left feeling as sticky as a little kid's hands after eating a sucker.

Two hours later...

HUZZAH, the water's back on and I shall end my night with a freezing cold shower and use of the toilet.

Khmer nails

I read another volunteer's blog last week and loved how she's given everyone in her host family nicknames. So, since I haven't really introduced anyone in my host family yet, I thought I'd steal her idea. More on that later, but for now I need to show you how my host sister (henceforth known as "moto accident") khmer-ified my nails.

I have exactly 3 nail polishes in Cambodia. Cambodian women get their nails done all the time for weddings. I randomly felt like getting my nails painted so I asked my host mom (henceforth known as "bookie") how much it cost to get her nails done. She told me that Moto Accident could do my nails for free! Huzzah.

I brought out my nail polishes and Bookie and Moto Accident argued over which color my nails should be. They settled on red, "because I have white skin, and that would be soooo suh-aht(pretty).

I was very happy to find out that Bookie is going to send Moto Accident to school to learn how to do hair and nails after high school. I was very worried they would marry her off when she graduates in June. After the color is on Bookie gets the great idea to add stickers. Stickers make the ultimate Khmer nails, and thus I ended up with the ultimate Khmer nails.

Are you prepared for this?

If you look really closely you can see that the stickers are of two wedding rings as bride and groom. They're pretty much amazing. And you bet cha I got quite a few compliments on these bad boys.

Shoes in Cambodia

Most people go around Cambodia wearing flip flops, or plastic sandals. I don't play that way. I wear socks, you see; this I wear flats. When packing for Cambodia I wasn't really sure what I was going to do about the rainy season. I debated bringing my rain boots. Haha, I'm so glad that I didn't. It's so stinking hot that I don't think I would have ever worn them.

I brought three pairs of shoes to Cambodia. My tennis shoes, my traveling shoes, and a cheap pair of shoes from Payless that I didn't care if they got ruined. I have a lot of shoes, so only bringing 3 pairs was tough.

Cambodia is hard on shoes. The roads are dusty and during the rainy season your feet get soaked every day. These are what my cheap payless shoes look like after the rainy season.

This is what my traveling shoes look like after living here 6 months. I love these shoes, I've taken them with me on every trip I've gone on for years. They've held up amazingly well.

and finally here are my sweet mustard yellow flats I had made here back in October. They took a while to stretch out, so I didn't wear them a lot until rather recently, but they've still taken a beating.

I'm thinking about getting another pair of leather flats made for the rainy season, so send me links, or tag me in pictures on pinterest for really cute flats.