One week down....

I have officially been in Battambang for one week and I love it here so far.

First, family life: I live with a widow and she has six children, the youngest is 23 years old and studies at the University near my house. Four of her children live with us- the oldest son, his wife and their son who is two and scared of me, two daughters and another son. The other two live near our house and are married with children. They are all very nice and don’t speak much English, which will really help me with my Khmer. My house is about one kilometer from the school, but I have to ride in the really busy and scary round-about right when you get into town. At first, I took a much longer way to get to school just to avoid that round-about, but since it was infringing on my sleeping time, I just decided to tough it out and take that way. I haven’t been hit so far, so hopefully I can keep that streak alive… just kidding, don’t start freaking out Mom… But this family is very different from my last family. Since I had three tounger sisters and a billions nieghborhood kids, I literally couldn’t leave the house without a bunch of questions- where are you going? What time will you be home? Did you eat rice yet? Now when I leave, they let me go- it’s nice to have my independence again. I also have a really nice set-up and I just can’t really wait to get into a routine.

School: This could be one of the more frustrating parts of my day. I am not a patient person by nature, but I am learning very quickly just how important it is. I will be observing for about a month before teaching. Since there are 5 teachers in my school, I spend my days observing their classes and trying to figure out which classes I want to teach. It is time consuming because it’s tricky to make the schedule that I want. I will be teaching grades 10 and 11. I am just learning to sit back and watch and let the chips fall where they may. The classes are very enjoyable though. Many Khmer students are very shy and timid, but the students at my school are much less shy then the ones in Tramkak, which is a huge relief. Also, the classes were divided between boys and girls in Tramkak, but these classes aren’t really as segregated between the genders.

I am still trying to set up my room and my host brother Huk is going to take me to buy some more stuff today. The vendors like to jack up the price when they see that I am not Khmer, so having someone from here is a huge help. I printed out a lot of pictures and hung them up on my wall, which is a fun decoration and a great reminder of home.