BARONG!

Today we had a little free time so I thought that I would use this window to let you all know what is going on in Tramkak....
Here are a few more updates to life in Cambodia in general:
Learning the language: In my town, there are 4 language groups and mine consists of JaNise who lives the closest to me and Nick, who lives second closest to me. We are lucky because most groups have 6 members, but we only have three. Some on that is luck and it also is because our 4th member, Jan, broke her ankle one of the first days we were in Tramkak and was sent home, unfortunately. So, learning the language for us is a good time because we come up with stupid pneumonic devices for everything. For instance, the word for yesterday sounds a lot like “muscleman”, so we all flexed our muscles and said the Khmer word in a manly voice. Our LCFs are patient in general, but for them to handle our actions and jokes after every word makes me think that they are going straight to heaven when they die (although they believe in reincarnation.) Also, verbs are usually coupled with water or rice because those are the two main things Khmer people eat and drink. For instance, instead of saying, “I am going to eat” the translation is “I am going to eat rice”, as if there was ever a question of what they are going to eat: it is always rice. To say I am full, it is “I am full of rice”. We laugh every time we learn a new verb because water (tuk) or rice (bye) is most likely going to be added on.
Daily life: Everywhere we go, we are still gawked at. There have been a few cat calls but the most common form of “harassment” as Peace Corps defines it, is people calling to us “Hello! What is your name? Where you go?” There is no time to respond and if you do, they have no idea what you just said anyway. We also get a little peeved when we see the same people who ask us the same question every single day. You know I am going to study Khmer and that my name is Kealan. On the really long days, we tend to get annoyed, but when a super cute kid works up the courage to speak to a “ba’rong” (foreigner), it always brings a smile to my face. It cracks me up about how much we complain about being the only westerners and how everyone always stares at us because we are so different. But, the second another westerner comes into Tramkak, we stop what we are doing and stare at them like the Khmer villagers do to us. We all whisper to each other what we think they are doing here and where they are from. This hypocrisy makes me laugh because it puts us in such a bad mood when we are on the receiving end, but the second we have a chance to gaze at on outsider, we are all over it.
For those of you who are looking to send things over, disregard what I said in my last post. We went to Takeo for a seminar day and they gave us peanut butter and jelly sandwiches and I have never been so excited to eat the simplest American meal. So those of you who want to send things over, not only will I be eternally grateful, my diet consists of broth with some boney meat, green veggies and maybe bamboo on a good day over rice. Honestly, I will take anything. We are able to get some things, but the Japanese cannot do junk food like Americans can.
We went on a field trip to Phnom Da on Saturday and it was great to see some more of the country. I was also able to learn a lot more about the history of Cambodia, which is not really emphasized. Just to give you a background, history is not a requirement in high school. We took a boat 40 km through some of the prettiest scenery I have ever seen. Since it is the rainy season, we were able to take a boat taxi. During the dry season, however, the “river” transforms into rice patties. After 30 minutes, we landed about 5 km away from Phnom Da (phnom means mountain) and went to a museum with artifacts from the Funan dynasty. We got back on the boats and went to 10 minutes to Phnom Da, which is the name of the wat and temple, it isn’t the name of a city, like I thought. As soon as we got off the boats, we were swarmed by 30 little kids, asking for food or money or both. They walked with us up this little hill and we went to the ruins of the wat. There was an unbelievable view of the water and surrounding area. The Vietnam border is only 5 km away, so we were able to see Vietnam from the mountain. We then went to a little temple that was a 5 minute walk from the wat. We ate lunch as a group and gave our leftovers to the “Lord of the Flies” group of kids that didn’t leave our side for the day. We walked around the inside 3 times, which is supposed to bring good luck. Hopefully it works. We then walked through the forested area to get to the most disappointing waterfall I have ever seen. It was basically a 5 foot pool full of green water. Since the wet season has not been very wet, the waterfall was not much of a waterfall. We walked back to the boats
Tomorrow, Keiko, Jessica and I are heading out on our “Kampuchea Adventure.” That basically means that we are going to visit a K2 in her permanent site. The K2 is Whitney and she is in the Pursat province. She is in the provincial town (which means that we will be staying at a guest house!) The funny part about staying at a guest house is that it makes hostels look like the Sheraton. We slowly downgraded in housing from San Francisco to Bangkok to Phnom Penh to Takeo. When we got to Takeo, the bathroom consisted of a sit down toilet and hose (notice lack of toilet paper) and a shower head. When we signed up for Pursat, we were so excited at the thought of a sit down toilet and shower head. We met Whitney when we first got to Cambodia and she is extremely helpful. We will be gone from tomorrow (Thursday) until Saturday. When I told my family that I would be gone for 3 days, they all told me that they would miss me (at least I think they did, my Khmer still needs to improve a lot).
Sometimes we get frustrated with how little Khmer we know, but we have been here for less than 3 weeks. It feels like much more than that.
On another note, malaria pills make you have weird dream. Bridget- Paige was in my dream the other night and I brought her to Cambodia. I don’t want to share some of the others because they are really weird. They have been really vivid and sometimes I wake up and need to assess where I am. My host parents have a habit of waking me up just a few minutes before my alarm clock is supposed to go off and I am not sure how they are able to manage that. But, when I wake from these weird dreams, I feel really discombobulated and it takes me a second to realize that I am not in Jersey or Oak Park and this person saying my name with a weird accent is my new roommate.
A few of us have come up with a little quote to help us when we start to feel bad for ourselves- this is my life. For instance, when I was practicing Khmer and a beetle the size of my ipod flew into my face and I screamed and my family laughed at me, I simply said to myself, this is my life. But there are other times, like when I finally make a complete sentence in Khmer that my family can understand and I comprehend the answer, I feel good while saying, this is my life.
I miss you all and for those of you that have little babies (Kel, Bridge and soon to be Col) I would love to get pictures and such of the babies so I feel like I can actually see them grow up a little.

This blog does not represent the Peace Corps or the U.S. government. This blog represents my own thoughts and opinions.