My first trip to a.....

Hi everyone. Sorry that the last post got messed up, not sure how that happened with that and this is the first time that I have been back to the internet cafe in town. I will try to pick up where I left off in Tramkak...
First of all, I love all of the comments and I feel horrible that I cannot respond as I wish I could. I hope you all understand how little time I actually have. We are also trying to indulge ourselves in the culture and the internet is not a huge part of their culture like it is in America. Plus the computers totally suck.
We went into the provincial town in Takeo for a seminar day. It was the first time that we were all able to get together, so it is a really good time. Our 2 days there consisted of more cultural lessons, health seminars, etc. So that night we decided to go out to dinner as a big group. The boys went to this restaurant across the street from our guest house and we met up with them. They were raving about how great the service was and the girls are used to it because men are typically treated better. It wasn’t until we noticed their clothes and when the boys told us that they were getting massages that we put two and two together and realized that we were at a brothel. One of the volunteers told us what to look out for so we don’t end up in another one. No wonder the food did not taste good; they weren’t cooks.
One of my favorite stories is that I wear a lot of headbands because it is so damn hot and my hair has a mind of its own with this humidity. My host cousin brought a towel from her house and tied it around her head to look like me, which was adorable. I gave my host sisters and my host cousin one headband each and I have not seen them without them since that day. They are the most enjoyable part of the experience.
Peace Corps intentionally makes training really busy, but we are all getting a little burnt out. We study Khmer from 7:30 til 11:30 and eat lunch right after. Our bikes are not the best, so I usually walk into town at 12:30 and we have culture lessons from 1:00-5:00 and we have to be home immediately after that. One day in particular, I was getting really frustrated with the set up and language. My host sister, who is 3 (I think), was really scared of me and whenever I tried to talk to her, she would run away. Well, this one really bad day I turned into the path to my host family’s house and my town littlest host sisters ran up to meet me, like they always do. But that day, my littlest sister grabbed my hand and held it all the way back to the house. It was so subtle, but it made me feel so much better.
Tomorrow, we are taking a field trip to Phnom Da. There are 5 different locations and group of us signed up for this one because it is an hour boat trip to the town. I am really excited to see another part of the country. Next week is going to be nuts, we are taking a 3 day field trip to see other Peace Corps volunteers who have been in Cambodia for a year already. It will be really great to see what life will be like.
As for the language, it hit me the other day how much respect I have for my language and culture facilitators (LCFs) because going from Khmer to English is so difficult. Khmer is so simple, it made me realize just how complicated English is. For instance, directly translating “I am mad at you” to Khmer is “I mad you”. They also have some words that have so many meanings. “Nom” is the word for any cake- rice cakes, donuts, banana chips, etc. We have a word for everything. They have spent so many years learning English and they decided to stay in Cambodia. They could have easily left and gone to another country, but they decided to stay here and try to make a difference. One LCF, Dara, learned both English and Thai in a refugee camp during the Khmer Rouge period. Thai is more complicated than English, he says. It really makes me have so much respect for them, because they worked so hard to learn English and most are teachers, and teachers make so little money here.
As for things to send to me, I would really appreciate just letters in general. I will be able to write more letters because it doesn’t require internet to respond. Unless you can send a deep dish pizza, there is not much that I really need or want. That also may change.

Please keep the comments coming! I love reading them although I do not have time to respond!

This blog does not reflect the opinion of the U.S. government or the Peace Corps. This blog reflects my opnions alone.