Happy Holidays!

Happy New Year everyone! I just got back from a week long sort of vacation all over Cambodia.

It all started the day after Christmas. I came down with a pretty bad fever and sore throat. It is pretty common for me to have throat issues if there is a change in season. It was a pretty crummy feeling to be so far from home during the holidays and then to get sick on top of that. I called the medical officer and went into PP. Everyone was there celebrating Christmas and it was really fun to get to see everyone. My original plan was to stay in Battambang for Christmas then travel to Kampot in the south. But since I went into PP for medical, I just decided to travel to Takeo to see my training host family in Takeo, which is 2 hours south of PP instead making the 6 hour trip back to site. I spent a few days with my training family. I was really refreshing to see them and it was a great escape. I was surprised at how at home I felt. Keiko and I were joking that Takeo is our stomping ground, so it was very familiar to go back. There were a few changes that I noticed immediately. First, it is harvest season and my host family is part of the vast majority of Cambodians that are farmers. They were harvesting rice and I was able to see the process. The fields were stripped of the crop and my family hired a man to come and essentially pound the rice grain against a table to separate the rice. This is the table that my host sisters ate on in the kitchen when I lived with them, but for harvesting, they moved it outside. The table is made of really thin planks so the rice falls through the cracks and creates a pile on the ground. Needless to say, there was a lot of rice around the front of the house. The second huge difference was that upon my arrival, I wasn’t greeted by five children sprinting down the lane, only two. The other three were studying English. Liney, the oldest who is in 8th grade studies at school and takes private classes at night, like most Cambodian students. But her sister, Lineat, who is 7, hasn’t started English at school (they don’t start studying English until 7th grade) was at a private class with her cousin, Jan Bo, who is 5. Just to be clear, my host family lives right next door to my host uncle, so the kids are really close and essentially split the time between the two houses. Although I technically lived with three host sisters, I feel like my two cousins were around just as much. Lineat and Jan Bo, the two younger ones are taking a class called English for Children, which is really great that they are starting out early. Learning English is so important for children because Cambodia is supposed to be the next up and coming country out of Southeast Asia. Learning English opens the door to much better jobs. For instance, Cambodians that work for Ngos make much more money than other jobs. In addition, bank tellers need to have some sort of background in English and that is a good job because there are so many banks all over, in the countryside and in the urban areas. Once they all came back from studying though, I was reuinted with my original posse, consisting of about 10 Cambodian kids all under 12.

I spent my time with my host family and was able to see a few other volunteers who were traveling there. There is a volunteer living and working in our training village and I was able to see him a lot and see what is happening at his school. Also, one of the Peace Corps language coordinators lives in Angtasom (the name of the village) and she has an amazing house and amazing family. We were invited over there two nights in a row to eat pizza and hang out. She rents rooms out to travelers, so we ended up just staying there at night. There was a family from New Zealand staying there and the dad gave me two wooden bats that he had a bunch of tennis balls. It was really nice of him and will make a great addition to the growing amount of equipment.

I went to Kampot, which is in the south on New Years day. A bunch of volunteers were there and we were all able to celebrate with each other, which is always really refreshing. We are all pretty isolated and far from each other, so it is really enjoyable to relax and get some reassurance that we are all in fact, going through many of the same things. It’s nice not to have to worry about lesson planning or grading papers and such. From Kampot, a group of us went to Rabbit Island, which is a small island off of Kep. We had to take a boat there and we stayed in little huts that didn’t have electricity most of the day and only cost $7 per night. The bed bugs bites that I discovered on the way home were not a surprise at all. We basically laid out and relaxed. The pace of life is pretty slow in Cambodia and it is even slower on the island. No one was in a rush to do anything and we were really able to enjoy each other’s company and not have to worry about much. The island is pretty small and there are a lot of Khmer people who come during the day to swim and then leave at night. There were some tourists, but it was never really flooded with people. The whole trip was pretty inexpensive considering how amazing the view is and how much fun we had.

I had to travel all the way from Rabbit Island yesterday and it was not fun. Rabbit Island is about 4 hours from PP and then BB is about 6 hours from PP. I had to stop in PP to get the H1N1 shot, which took about an hour and I couldn’t get out until 3:15 which means that I didn’t get home until 9. I accidentally left my phone with my friend Jessica on the island, so I had no way to communicate with my family, so I just sort of showed up at the house at 9, right before bed. While I had an amazing trip overall, I am really happy to be back to my schedule. I realized that I really enjoy having a schedule and plans. Being spontaneous is really fun, but I prefer (especially as a Peace Corps Volunteer) to have a purpose to every day.

I taught class today and I was really happy to be back in the classroom. I think I am making some progress with my 11C, but they still have a long way to go. We decided today to have two sessions of the test to get into English Club. It’s tricky because the students are always in class. They are so busy. American students are too, but because teachers hold private classes outside of class time, it’s tough to find a time that works for everyone. I think it will work out though.

I started my day off today with Dunkin Donuts coffee sent from my mom for Christmas in the French Press mug from Matt and Katie and it made a huge difference. I also felt like such a teacher sipping some coffee while talking. Starting the day with a cup of coffee makes a huge difference. I always thought that those commercials were super lame, but it’s so true. I also had a Carmello from Curt and it is simply unreal what a chocolate bar can taste like when you haven’t really had one for almost 6 months.

As for what the next few months look like, I will be really busy at school and at the university. I will probably have little trips on the weekend, but I will probably staying really close to Battambang for a while due to lack of funds and due to how much work is unfolding. We have in-service training in February in PP, but that is about my only plan until Khmer New Year, which is in April. I will be taking a trip somewhere, most likely Vietnam, with some friends. Besides that, I am just flying by the seat of my pants. While I was really happy to take a break from Battambang for a while, I was even happier to get back to site and resume what I am here to do.