Sua sadie Chnam Tmie!

 Just an example of how unbelievably artist some of my students are.  The assignment was to "draw your favorite place" and this student drew Angkor Wat. 

Sua sa dye ch’nam t’mai! (Happy New Year!) Over the course of this year, I have already celebrated two New Years and I still have one more to go.  Western New Year was celebrated in Kampot with a bunch of volunteers and Chinese New Year was celebrated in Battambang with my Khmer family, who knows what the last New Years will bring…

Chinese New Year was a riot.  The first day, which was Friday, February 13 was probably the biggest day.  There was a really big lunch with all of my host siblings and their spouses and children.  My oldest host brother, Manlee (who is Chun Lai and Chun Liap’s dad) came home for the occasion.  He has been working construction at Banan Mountain, which is still in Battambang, but it’s pretty far away.  From what I can gather, which usually isn’t much, he is working construction on the road.  The meal was amazing, as it always is.  After the big lunch, I went to a meeting at the UME for our International Women’s Day event, which is coming along really well.  We expanded the schedule to include a workshop on public speaking, which will present a project for the students, which will be to speak to the females at their schools about what they learned at the session.  It will be very beneficial to teach the girls a skill as well as presenting them with information on women’s affairs in their province and country.  We ate left overs for dinner that night from the luncheon feast. 

 The offerings to the ancestors on the first day of Chinese New Year

Saturday was day two of Chinese New Year, as well as Valentine’s Day.  If you are wondering, yes, Valentine’s Day is a huge deal here.  There were stalls selling roses, blasting Khmer love songs.  I did what I do on most Saturdays which was to meet up with the other volunteers in town at what we call, “The Spot” which is actually the “Espresso House Café”.  That is the family that I have become friends with after the mother, who was a cook at a restaurant run by Americans quit and started her own restaurant with her husband and four children.  The kids are all so hard working and they balance their education and running their small business.  We always try to send people there to eat because the food is really good and they are such a nice family.  Their business has been doing really well.  So, we went to breakfast there then I came home for lunch with my family.  While eating there, my brother Huck told me that it was Chun Lai’s birthday and there was going to be a party.  I didn’t really know the protocol for birthdays, so I called up Darlene and we went to the market and bought him two trucks and a police car.  Since there aren’t really any Hallmark stores here, I took the present to my friend who owns a little café/bakery/western store (the place that made my birthday cake) and asked them to help me wrap it and she did a wonderful job making it look good for him.  I came home with Darlene and people starting coming in for the party.  We ate a feast of shrimp, fried spring rolls and of course, rice, on bamboo mats outside of the house.  We ate cake before dinner then after we ate fried water beetles, at least that’s what I think they were.  They were actually really good and I ate two.  They weren’t cockroaches but I don’t really know what they were.  Better not to ask questions sometimes.  Huck gave me some sparkling grape fruit juice, but some man (I have no idea who is he, a friend maybe?) handed me a beer and told me to drink.  I didn’t really know what to do because it was the first time I was drinking with this family.  Just to remind you, Khmer people don’t really sip on beers, they cheers and chug.  It is always really difficult to strike a balance between not being judgmental but not getting smashed.  My host cousin asked me if this is the first time that I tasted beer and I didn’t want to lie, so I said that I have tried it before.  My host sister was drinking and was pretty drunk after only a few drinks.  My host mother was really concerned that I was drunk and everyone kept asking me if I was drunk.  I only had one beer, but that is enough to do in most Khmer people.  I didn’t want them to think that I was drunk, but I also didn’t want them to know that my tolerance is probably better than most of the men there, not because I drink that much, but just because it’s in my genes to be able to drink more than the average Khmer person.  My host sister’s brother in law took a liking to me and gave me a rose (that he stole from his sister in law) and gave it to me out of friendship for Valentine’s Day.  It was so awkward because I didn’t want to insult this man by totally rejecting him but I also didn’t want to give off the impression that I was interested in dating him, because I’m not.  The best way to avoid these situations, I have learned, is simply ignorance.  Literally ignoring the comments or just pretending that I don’t understand what he is saying worked like a charm.  My family was getting a kick out of it and I made a joke out of it, so it was fine.  My family would probably love for me to marry a Khmer man, especially one that they know and really like.  Don’t get me wrong, he is a nice guy, but I didn’t really come here to get married.  If something happens, ok, but it’s not my goal.  I actually had a conversation during the week with my host mother and sister about how I came to America to teach and help, not to have a boyfriend.  They thought that it was funny when I explained that I am taller than most Khmer men, so I can’t have a “song saa” (boyfriend) who is Khmer because they must be taller.  That night, I ended up staying up until 9:30, which is so late for me.  I’m sure that they were confused when I didn’t head to bed at the stroke of 8, which is what I do every night. 

Yesterday didn’t really feel like Chinese New Year because no one at my house was really home.  I was actually sort of happy that we didn’t have a huge celebration, again, because two days was enough for me.  I’m not as young as I once was, so I can’t party for three days in a row.  

This week is testing for grade 11, so I will not be teaching.  My coteacher asked me to come and I said no, because I am not going to be involved with the tests.  He doesn’t agree with my no cheating attitude (rather a think for yourself attitude) so I decided to avoid the frustration and instead get some other work done.  We will be going into PP next week for 8 days, so I want to do as much work as possible for this International Women’s Day event before we leave.  I will teach all through March, but there isn’t much school in April because of Khmer New Year and I will most likely be in Vietnam, so this school year is really winding down.  After April, we have class in May and the tests start in June for semester 2.  The time is really flying and before I know it, we will be at the year 1 mark.  

 This is a close up of the New Years tree that was set up near one of the spirit houses.  It's decorated with Chinese ornaments and lights.  Reminds me of another holiday I know....

I will be leaving for PP on Sunday and until then, I will be tying up lose ends here and maybe even visiting an orphanage or exploring BB a little more.  We all kind of realized that coming back to site after a trip sucks at first, but giving it a few days to get back in “volunteer” mode really makes it enjoyable.  

Today (is in Tuesday) I taught 10Q and did laundry.  I am going to set up another meeting for our event then probably just hang out with the babies.  Today I was playing with both Lai and Liap and they were just beating me up.  Hitting is affectionate but also out of anger.  This, I guess, was affectionate, but it really hurt.  Liap slapped me across the face then laughed for 5 minutes and pulled my glasses off my face.  Perfect.

I'd rather be.....

Hello everyone!!! I heard that there is a lot o snow in America now! Just wanted to let you know that, unlike America, the cold season has officially ended, and that means that sweaty teacher has made a comeback.  I am so hot when I teach class (outside it is about 90 degrees and the classes don’t have electricity) but I have gotten over the embarrassment that is my life a long time ago.

I have been traveling on the weekends and it has been pretty fun.  But on the bus home, I always feel a sense of remorse because I feel like I am living a double life and after the bill of the weekend, I realize that it is excessive.  But, I am able to see a lot of Cambodia with people that I really enjoy, so I shouldn’t feel guilty.  I guess the guilt is a good sign, but it would be rather wasteful if I didn’t take advantage of how small (and amazing Cambodia is).  I always feel really refreshed after these trips and it is actually really important for my metal health.  My mom put it all in perspective when she said that on those trips, I am actually being myself because at site, I am a teacher, constantly concerned about being conservative, I am at home by 6:00 at the latest and when I am away from site, I can let my hair down (literally), speak English and literally be myself.  I realized, though, that in transition, I am able to meet people that I would never have the opportunity to meet.  There have been many people who say that they have never hear of Peace Corps or even talked to an American.  So even when I am traveling, I am able to converse with people that I would never have the chance to outside of sitting on a six-hour bus ride from PP.  It is just a really weird change once I step off the bus. 

Integration here is a really strange concept.  Everyone talks about “being integrated”, but what does that even mean?  How does one even become integrated and how do we even know when we get to that point?  Well, I realized that maybe I am becoming “integrated” (whatever that even means) last week.  I had a flat tire when I came out of an internet cafe.  I knew that are places to get a flat tire fixed on my side of the bridge, so I decided to just walk my bike there.  I ran into a man who is a “motodup”, which means that he drives his moto for a living.  He is always parked outside of a restaurant that I eat at every now and then and he always tries to chat with us.  I saw him while I was walking my bike and he directed me to a place that he knew.  Furthermore, he stood with me and made sure that it was fixed properly.  It turns out that he has a daughter who lives in Chicago and before I knew it, we were talking about the price of the electricity that we get from Thailand.  I could tell that this guy had been dying to talk to an American.  As you are reading this, you probably don’t understand how this little, minute action really made me feel at home.  And of course, I will be looking up his daughter once I go back to America.  When I got off the bus, I saw him and we had a little conversation but it was more personal this time.  I was walking to get my bike, which I had left at a restaurant in the center of town.  Darlene and I have become friends with the family and I asked them if I could leave my bike in their house and they looked after it.  When I got there, my bike had (yet another) flat, but their son took the bike to a bike repair shop on his moto and got it fixed for me and refused to accept money.  If you are wondering how he got my bike there, he rode his moto while holding onto my bike as it rode passengerless.  These two very, very small interactions really go a long way when you are a 23-year old year old living in a different place.  It was really reassuring to know there are some people that are really looking out for me.  Battambang is a big place, but I continue to feel increasingly comfortable here.

 Our trip on the bamboo train. 

As for teaching, I have really hit a wall.  Of my four classes, I really enjoy two of my classes but the other two are a little more difficult.  It’s tough to teach when the curriculum consists of a book that is ten years old and has lessons on windsurfing, which is a word that I have never even said until I came to Cambodia.  Plus, there are literally no resources besides a chalkboard and chalk.  But, there are small accomplishments that really keep me going.  For instance, we played “Robot” in my class after learning how to ask indirect questions using “Can”.  For example: “Can you please tell me your name?” as opposed to “What is your name?”.  The way that the game is played (which I learned during training) is the teacher (me) is the robot and the robot has to do what the students ask so long as they as a question using “can questions.”  One class was asking questions about what I look for in a guy, but this class was more easily amused.  I actually danced for them and sang.  One girl asked me to speak in Khmer to the class and when I said “Kinyom chimua Kealan.  Kinyom mock bee Amerik bontai ail lonee, kinyom rua now Kampuchea” which means “My name is Kealan.  I am from America but now I live in Cambodia” they were dying,  I kept going and told them about when I tried to buy fruit.  They were all clapping and laughing so hard but I was happy that they got to see how shameless I am about speaking.  They actually told me that my Khmer was very clear, which made me happy.  After class, I was walking to my bike when Chakriya, who is one of my favorite students, asked me to come with them to the canteen.  They ordered papaya salad for me, which is so delicious, but super spicy.  While I really like spicy food, I am a huge baby.  They even ordered me the “at hul” (not spicy) and I was dying.  My lips were on fire when one student looked at me and said “Cher, you need water”  I tried to play it cool, but I chugged that glass in a second.  They were asking about the upcoming Chinese New Year (more on that later) and we talked about America and just life in general.  It is pretty amazing to be able to hang out with students in their true element. 

As for Chinese New Year, since my family is Chinese, it is a pretty big deal.  It will be a three day even starting on Sunday, which is also Valentine’s Day, which is a big deal here, or so my brother Huck and my students tell me.  So, Chinese New Year is a three day event with a lot of food, drinking, music and pretty fun parties.  It is pretty unreal how universal holidays are.  When it comes down to it, it is really simple- there are customs then after, everyone enjoys themselves and the company of family.  It always makes people reflect on just how lucky we are to be alive and to be around each other.  Of course there is the ritual of the pre-ceremony fight, which I witnessed first hand during training.  My host family was preparing to go to the wat and my sisters and mom were all yelling at each other.  I don’t know what they said, but it was so obvious- my mom was yelling at my sisters for being too informal, to which the girls all responded that they don’t have any clothes to wear.  But once that issue is resolved, it is really uniform how people sit down, eat the traditional food and simple enjoy themselves.  There is so much preparation (my family has been preparing for weeks) but once the tables are cleared and the dishes are washed, that is the real holiday- being around each other.  Simply having a day set aside (or in this case three) to simply appreciate the past year and celebrate what is to come is customary, regardless of religion, language or country.  We tend to complicate the process, but it’s the end result that is the important part.  Maybe this is just me not having a holiday that I am used to for a while, but it is actually rather obvious when you back up and look at it from the side of the world.  

 I talk about my friends here a lot, so here they are: (In the back, left to right) Jessica, Meagan and Keiko (in the front row, left to right) JaNise, Jacqueline and Me

As I have posted about a few times before, we are currently right in the midst of planning an event for International Women’s Day at the university which will focus on the importance of education.  We had a meeting and they approved the event, so now we will have another meeting tomorrow with the Ministry of Education, the university and the volunteers.  I am really thinking long term for this (as in making a weekend long event over the summer with a few volunteers from different provinces).  I asked a female Khmer teacher to be my counterpart and she was really excited about it.  Our game plan is to bring in 5 female 11^th graders from each of our schools (there are 6 volunteers participating).  We will make small groups of 4 high school girls and 2 university students, who will be the group leaders.  The event will be completely in Khmer, so the girls feel comfortable and so that they are able to express themselves.  We will have 5 speakers from 5 different professional careers (a doctor or nurse, a woman from an Ngo, a professor at the university, an accountant and a woman from PP who works in the international sector).  We want the women to talk about how education was the bridge to achieving their goals.   Many of the girls want to be doctors, but they have no idea how to become one.  We are all really excited and it is coming along really well.  We will be presenting our schedule and budget plan tomorrow. 

As for my home life, I came back from PP two weeks ago to find a new member of the family, which is common.  His name is Meow and he is a really annoying cat.  I guess he is a good pet because he only eats bugs and mice, but he always wants to come into my room and I get really stuffy around cats, so I have been trying to get him out.  Chun Lai is as great as always.  My family is trying to force him to call me “Ming” (aunt) or “Bong” (sister) but he doesn’t really do it and calls me Kealan all the time, which is fine with me.  Chun Liap is walking a lot, which is fun because she couldn’t when I first came.  It’s really enjoyable to watch her grow.  Except for when both Chun Lai and Chun Liap cry at 6am when I am actually able to sleep in… Chun Liap has cried a few times and the family passes her along to me when no one else can calm her down.  She is so cute because there are a few times when Chun Lai and I are playing and she will hear us from the kitchen and crawl as fast as possible outside.  She is a really loud breather, so we can always hear her breathing and laughing in anticipation of playing with us.  There are times that having babies around isn’t so fun, but they are a pleasure when I have had a crappy day because they are always there with a smile and a “sua sa die” (hello).  My host brother Huck is getting really good at English and I realized that when he picked up on how frequently I say “it depends” and he asked what it means.  He also told me that he was really confused on how I say “little” because it sounds more like “liddle” (said very fast).  It was pretty impressive that he was able to pick up on the slang because sometimes I forget that English isn’t his first language.

I will be in PP next week for in service training, which basically means a week of sessions during the day and pizza at night.  We found a bowling alley in PP and that was a blast! There is also a movie theatre, so maybe we will go there too…..

I realized that teaching is not really my cup of tea (as in I don’t want to do once I get back) but I am trying to make the most of it and enjoy it the best that I can.  Starting this International Women’s Day event has really kicked my mental health back up.  I feel better in class simply because I now have a project that is not related to teaching English.  Don’t get me wrong, I love my students and I am really liking my job as a teacher, but sometimes it feels like the barriers are a little too much and it really weighs me down.  This project has really revitalized me.

Last two things: fashion here cracks me up and despite the conservative nature of clothing here, I think that it is pretty funny to note two very popular t-shirts in the BB currently.  The first is “I f***ing love to cuddle” and my favorite “I’d rather be snorting coke off a stripper’s ass”.  That is not a joke.  Anyone want one?

The tale of Dara

My house on a typical day

Well, I am currently into the second half of my four part service and it has really made me reflect on my time here so far. Much like any endeavor we take on, it is difficult to know if you are doing the right thing at the time. Sometimes we realize immediately if we acted in the right way or the wrong way and sometimes it is not so cut and dry. With Peace Corps, it is the same. You can do something and immediately regret it and sometimes it takes weeks or months to see the reaction to your action. The reason that I am even saying this is because I had the rare experience of seeing first hand the fruits of my labor. For the sake of this story, I will call the student Dara (I still do not know all of the names of my 350 students…) Well, Dara is a boy in my 10Q class and he is probably the biggest trouble maker of all my students. For the most part, the entirety of my 10Q really makes an attempt to learn, although they are still not as strong as many of the other 10th graders. Well, Dara is pretty inconsistent in attendance but very consistent in making trouble for me during the class. The class is pretty dominated by girls and the boys sit together in the back. Within this group of boys, there are probably 5 boys that participate and are at the top of the class (they are also in English Club). So, when Dara comes to class, he sits in the back and distracts all the boys, never takes notes and refuses to speak English. When I ask him where his book is, he will say “now pdaia” which means at home. Much is the same when I ask him where his homework is, “at mein” which means I don’t have it. Well, this week, he was especially rowdy with his two cronies in the back. We started an exercise with seven questions and I told them that they were each to do one. They didn’t understand, so another boy explained it. They kinda freaked out and tried to plead with me, but my response was that if you come to class, you come to work, not to sit. Everyone is fair game in my class. So, the other four students wrote their answers on the board and these three boys went to the board and wrote their answers. One was right and the other two were just completely wrong. One sentence said “I never used to eat to the moon.” (The exercise was to take words from a table and construct a sentence.) Well, we went over the answers and I was very patient with those two and we all worked on the answers together. My coteacher usually calls those boys “not clever” and makes fun of them, but I decided that I wanted to show them they can actually do this. I tried to praise them as much as I could and make fun of myself to divert the attention from those students. Well, the next day, I was waiting outside the classroom when Dara came up to me and started a conversation. Now, he can’t really say much in English, so his questions were “House, where?” After he asked a few questions in English, I decided that he felt really uncomfortable, so we spoke Khmer. He asked about my siblings, if I am happy in Cambodia, do I miss my family, etc. He also told me a little bit about himself. He lives at the pagoda and is from a district pretty far away. There were some kids making fun of him but he didn’t really care and we actually had a nice conversation. I thought that maybe he was just trying to suck up after the class before, but when I walked into the class, he moved his seat away from his posse of boys and instead sat next to my coteacher. He took notes all class long and when I used a little Khmer, he said “very good” and gave me two thumbs up. I noticed that he was talking to the coteacher a lot and pointing to the board, which I took as an indication of asking her a question related to the class. Maybe it was an act, but I really think that he made a turn around. He is a total tough guy. What really stood out was that he moved seats. When I first came to Battambang and was trying to figure out what classes to teach, I was really torn up as to whether or not I would be able to teach 10Q. I knew that the class would require much patience and that the students wouldn’t understand me. I mistook their confusion as laziness for the first few months, but now I really understand the class and I can honestly say that this class is my most rewarding. Who knows why there are in that class, maybe learning disabilities, eyesight issues, they are poor, etc. I knew that I wanted to teach classes 11B, C and D because their skill level and interest would be high. I was torn up about 10Q because I didn’t know if I would actually do it because let’s be honest, patience isn’t my strong suite. But, this whole experience is about challenges. I want to develop these skills and teaching this class is really helping me to learn. Of course I am learning so much with my grade 11 classes, but it’s different. I am seeing the growth of a different kind of student. These are kids are different from the other ones. There are a lot of those kids in my English Club and teaching them can be so frustrating, but when they understand, it is the best part. Last week, we listened to “Real Love” which was originally written by John Lennon, but Regina Spektor sang it for a charity CD for Darfur. We listened to the song and wrote out the lyrics then talked about the meaning. They were so proud of themselves when they got all of the lyrics. I had to help them with a lot of the lines, but they were so happy and after we ended, I heard a bunch of the girls singing the song as they walked away. All in all, it is so important to remember that this is a marathon. I am in the second part of a four part series. You can have your highest highs and lowest lows within hours of each other. But those little victories along the way are what is keeping me going. I am curious to see how Dara progresses now that he (hopefully) has made the decision to study.

Peace Corps came for a health site visit and I went with the two medical staff (one is from America and the other is the sweetest Khmer woman named Navy) to this hospital called Emergency. It is really close to my house and I ride past it everyday, but I have never gone in. We went in to look around and it is simply remarkable. It is an Italian ngo and they cater mainly to accidents from all over the country. The medical care is completely free and the staff consists of medical professionals from Italy as well as Cambodia. They train doctors and nurses so that the international staff can phase out, which means that the hospital will be completely Khmer run and operated. It was a really great experience. I was able to get to know Navy, who is the newest Peace Corps medical staff member. She studied medicine at Tulane and UC Davis. She is a remarkable doctor and an even better woman. She embodies all the characteristics of being a powerful woman. She survived the war and educated herself, but never lost touch of her roots. She is extremely gentle and affectionate, which is very common amongst women here. I cannot say enough about her and I really look forward to getting to know her.

Darlene and I are working with two K2’s to plan an event for International Woman’s Day, which is on March 8. The event will hopefully be at the University of Management and Economics. We will meet in a week from Monday with the university and a ministry official to talk about the details. We want to pair up our high school girls with university students as a sort of mentor program. The theme will be about the importance of education and we will have guest speakers. Many of our female students know what they want to be, but not necessarily how to become it. We will most likely have 3-5 girls from each of our schools come to the UME and have the girls work together. It is going to be a really fun event and I am hoping that I will be able to lay the foundation for the girls’ camp that Keiko and I are planning. One of the amazing parts of Peace Corps is that we have this ability to say “Ok, I think that we need to work on empowering girls, let’s have a camp.” We are going to identify girls that we think are the best candidate for this position of leadership. At my school, we will most likely have an essay contest involving everyone interested.

The statue upon entering Battambang (symbolizes the tale of manu battambang, which means the man with the disappearing stick.)

English Club is going well. The grade 12 students are super busy because they have tests coming up, so they haven’t really been coming. But the grade 11 and 10 students are really consistent with their attendance. On Wednesdays, I usually meet with a group of grade 11D students in the library and we just talk and work on writing and they ask me questions. One student asked me if he could make a presentation to the group about Cambodian customs, which was such a great idea. So, we decided that every Wednesday, one or two students will make a presentation on something that interests them. We will all have a discussion and give feedback. That way we can work on public speaking as well, which is important. My goal for English Club was to have the students really run it, but I just monitor. This was such a great first step. I will be there to guide them and correct them, but they are really taking initiative in their club and their education.

A typical classroom in Cambodia (70 students to each class means about 3 students to each desk

I also went to PP this weekend. A bunch of volunteers went in and essentially did what our friends are doing at home- eating pizza, going to bars and seeing other Americans. What we do in PP is basically all of the stuff that we can’t really do at site- spend money, eat western food, buy bootleg DVDs and show our knees and shoulders. It is really refreshing to go into PP and really not have to worry about being really conservative and have our guard up. Obviously we have to be careful in PP, but I am at home by 5:00 every night in Battambang, but in PP I don’t have to worry about offending my family. While going into PP is a great break, I am always really happy to get back to site. There are currently tests going on at school, so I didn’t have class yesterday or today. Tomorrow classes start again and so does English Club. I’m excited to get back to the daily grind.

Typical wedding clothes for women

6 month mark!

So, today officially marks the 6 month point in my service.  I left Chicago exactly 6 months ago, which equates to one quarter of my service here.  Pretty crazy to think about. 

So, my birthday was on Sunday and I was prepared for it to be a regular day, but there were a lot of people who really made it a special day.  My coteacher told our classes (in Khmer of course, so I couldn’t understand) that it was my birthday and they raised some money and I got three presents from the classes.  It was really unexpected and extremely cute how the students presented the gifts.  I had just arrived at school and there was a group of girls standing near where I always park my bike.  I was talking to another student and they kind of waited around, then handed me the present, which was wrapped and had a card from the class.  The first gift was a wooden carousal that plays music as the Ferris Wheel of teddy bears revolves.  There is a windmill has four planks that read “Best Wishes For You”.  They were really cute about it and a few took pictures, so hopefully I will be able to put those up.  The second gift was a box with two pairs of earrings.  Khmer fashion is pretty centered around jewels and sparkles, so these earrings are really sparkly.  I have never really been that flashy with my jewelry, but when in Rome…. So I wore one pair on Monday and every female that saw them complimented me on how beautiful they are.  The last gift, which I think is my favorite, is a Mickey Mouse lamp/ night light.  It’s Mickey in a glass of ice cream. I put pictures on facebook of all of the gifts, so log on and check them out! 

My student Vida, aka Elvis Presley, also got me a gift.  I was concerned that he spent money on it, but he reassured me that he didn’t.  I know that he doesn’t have a lot, so I didn’t want him to spend what little he has on me.  One of his friends makes jewelry and keychains out of coconut shells.  So, he had his friend make a cross necklace.  The cross is actually the name “Jesus”. It is hard to describe, so hopefully I can upload a picture onto this blog to show you.  The other thing that he gave me is a keychain in the shape of Cambodia with my name engraved.  His friend has made a little business out of it and I would love to help him, so if anyone is interested in getting one, I have some visitors coming over soon(ish) and maybe something can be arranged.  While I would love to do a mail order thing, it probably isn’t the best idea because for one, things break on the way and also it may not go over so well with Peace Corps if I am working in a business. 

Darlene also came through and bought me a cake and brought it to my class on Monday, which was 11C.  I was not shocked to see every kid in that class when there usually are about 20 out of 70 on average.  The cake was made by our friends who just opened a western store (it’s a Khmer family) and are quickly adding on- a little café, garden and bakery are the latest additions.  They are a really great family and the boy who made it told me today that he put a lot of chocolate on it because he knows I like it.  The class really liked it.  Again, there are pictures on facebook of the occasion… I also met with Leah and Eddie, who are K2s who live in my province.  We went to lunch and ice cream and basically planned what we will do for International Women’s Day (which is March 8^th) and caught up.  It was a very relaxing birthday and again, the weather makes it so confusing because my birthdays are always really cold.  Time is totally standing here, but I have grown accustom to writing 2010 and saying “Kinyom mein au ma-pie bye chnam” which means I am 23 years old. 

This week really marked the beginning of my busy schedule.  I am meeting with English Club 5 times a week and the English Club on Mondays and Fridays.  It’s nice because the English Club at my school is really me calling the shots and settings up, but at the UME, the club is already up and running, I am just there for guidance.  I will be meeting with the club on Monday and discussing the readings that were assigned the Friday before.  We are able to have more in depth discussions about really important issues- health, environment, AIDS, etc.  On Friday, I will come in and work for one hour on a skill (this week it is the Do’s and Don’ts of using PowerPoint in a speech, next week is The Importance of Body Language in Public Speaking).  The second hour will be really general, open for questions, discussion, etc.  I am very happy that my projects (teaching formal class and the two clubs) are very different, so I’m not getting bored.  The next project, however, will probably be unrelated to teaching English.  Like I said, we are trying to start a project for International Women’s Day.  We want to have some girls get together and discuss their goals, options and futures.  We will probably focus on education and how to get to university and stay there.  It will also be a great way to plant the seed about our girl’s camp that will be over the summer.  Needless to say through all of this that I am super busy.  But, I didn’t come here for a break or to relax.  There’s a lot of work to be done here.  Some days are really tough, but that’s part of the job.

I am steadily making more relationships with my students.  There is probably one student a week who works up the courage and asks for English help or asks a random question.  I realized really early on that the high school is my way into the community and it’s going well.  There are some students who are still really scared of me, but I find myself not really being alone much when I am at school.  There is one student, Houert, who asked me today to help him learn how to teach.  He juts got a job teaching children English.  I could tell that he is really proud of this and we arranged a meeting for tomorrow to talk about techniques.  One of the goals of Peace Corps is to teach teachers how to be better teachers and focus on student centered learning.  I never realized that by teaching my students American techniques in the classroom that they will be able to carry them over.  I’m not sure if it’s just a coincidence, but this boy Houert has a job as an English teacher and Vida (aka Elvis) is trying to get a similar job.  Just to clarify, most Cambodian students study full time (at a school like Net Yong) and then what they call part-time, which is at a private class and is paid for.  There are a lot of schools that are private where students come to learn after school.  So, they are trying to become teachers at those schools.  That is also a reason why a lot of kids ask me if I will charge for English Club and when one boy said he wanted to study with me, he quickly added, I will pay.  I constantly have to reinforce the “smot jet” (volunteer) status.  It is not the money but rather the fact that my schedule is steadily becoming more and more full.  I am literally exhausted all the time because of the workload and the heat.  But that’s the way it’s supposed to be. 

Two days ago marked the 7^th anniversary of the death of my host sibling’s father.  Because he was ethnically Chinese (his parents were from China) many of the traditions that we took part in I would imagine stem from his Chinese roots.  The day before, Huck told me to eat lunch at home (I usually eat at a stand on the way home from school) so I knew that I was in for a feast.  I got home from school to see a legit spread on the table and it was only 11:00.  My host sisters were cooking all day and we had some awesome food.  We started out with Fried Noodles, which are so good.  I had to pace myself because then we sat down to a feast of rice (obviously) chicken soup, mushroom and chicken stir fry and to my surprise, peas and vegetables.  I totally forgot about peas.  It’s weird how acclimated your body gets when you have changed climates, diets and lifestyle.  We ate then I napped for a little before going back to school with a completely full stomach.  Before the meal was the tradition, and I guess ceremony if you will.  The food was used as an offering to the prayer houses(my family has three, one outside, one right by the front of the house and one on the wall in the sitting room).  When everyone arrived (as in my host brother and sisters who do not live at the house), they lit incense and prayed for their father in front of the table full of food, incense and candles.  Again, check out the pictures to be visualize it.  So, basically, there are two prayer houses that they prayed in front of, in addition to the huge table of food, incense and candles.  They put the incense (they usually light three, five or seven at a time, but this time I noticed it was seven because it’s good luck and symbolizes family) in the pots in the two prayer houses inside then in a holder outside of the house.  I always wondered what that was used for because it looks like the thing that contains the holy water inside churches.  My question was answered.  As I was riding back to school and writing in my journal later that night, I was really impressed with how happy the event was.  I thought that it would be really sad because from the stories that I hear, he was very well liked.  “My father always cooked while my mother worked, which is opposite in Cambodia.”  The entire time, everyone was really happy and enjoying the company.  People always say that we should celebrate someone’s life, but I have never really seen that until now.  He thought that family was really important and you could tell by looking at his kids.  They included me in on the process and I was very happy to be there.  It was probably the first time that I didn’t feel awkward at a ceremony.  It was really intimate and personal. 

English Club is currently working on creative writing.  This is a difficult concept to get across because they simply don’t write for fun.  I was so happy yesterday because I had two students, both 11 graders, read each other’s story then give feedback and suggestions.  One of the students was Vida (Elvis) and the other was a girl (I don’t remember her name, Khmer names are tough) who has really come out of her shell recently and is opening up and speaking up more.  They felt really weird at first, but they sat together and talked about their impressions of the other person’s story.  It was really heartwarming to see because at first, they said that they wouldn’t be able to because they don’t know how to say it in English, but they tried and they did a really good job.  What I am trying to do is to have the students work more with each other instead of relying on me to correct and fix.  It was a great first step and I hope that things continue to move forward in this direction.  Some of the stories are really great.  We are planning on having a meeting where the parents, siblings and friends can all come to listen to the stories.  We will also make a book of all of the stories.  It is really a long project, but I want this to set the stage for what we will be doing, which is working on things over time and using each other to learn.  I can already see HUGE improvements and the students have no idea.  It is really a pleasure to watch the whole process.

That about sums up what is happening currently. In between running to class and club, I am trying to spend time with my family and friends in Battambang as well as plan future events.  My group of girlfriends are going to try to plan a trip once every two months (at least) to get to each other.  The problem is that we are all so far from each other.  Keiko and I are about 3 hours away, which isn’t bad.  But you have to travel through PP for most trips down south, so it’s another 2 hours to get to PP.  From PP, Jessica lives about 2 more hours to her provincial town then another half hour to her site.  Jacqueline practically lives in Vietnam.  If I were to travel from my site to hers, it would take about ten hours.  But our plan is to meet in other locations, so in February we will go to Siam Reap.  We are also planning some international trips, most likely Vietnam in April then Australia this summer.  It helps to plan these things because it gives us something to look forward to.  If we were at site with no trip on the horizon, it gets tough.  Plus, we will be able to see a lot of the country this way (actually the continent if we have our way…)

Well, I have to sign off now.  Hope all is well with everyone back home.  As for the weather, it rained for the first time in 2 months for about an hour yesterday and the day before.  The “cold” season (cold being about 70 degrees) will end in about two weeks with the beginning of February and the hot, dry season starts.  That should be fun to teach in.  I am still hot and it’s “cold”.  People are actually wearing winter jackets.  I have to admit that it is pretty chilly, but hopefully that means that I am used to the weather.  If not, I am in big trouble when the hot season comes around. 

"Mein scacroap diet Bong Kealan?"

This is my last post as a 22-year old. With the new age (since it didn’t really feel like a new year, I will use my birthday as a new start…) I have grown to be very patient here, but there is always room for improvement. My number one goal is to be a better teacher, however. My private classes and English Club come very naturally, but working within the confines of a ministry developed book poses its problems. Honestly, as a teacher, I have never learned more in my life.

I cannot emphasize enough how much of an emotional rollercoaster it is to do Peace Corps. The problem is that it doesn’t bad days happen that frequently (probably once a month or less) but when things come crashing down, look out, it’s not pretty. It literally comes out of nowhere. Today, for example, was an ordinary day, then all of a sudden, I was walking home in a sampot, having just reamed out my 11B class contemplating if I am even doing anything here. The ish really hit the fan this morning in my 10Q class when ONE student turned in her homework. Yes, 1 out of 67. I was so upset not at the kids who never do anything, but the kids who I know are really into learning English. There are about 10 kids in that class that are really promising not because of their skills, but rather their determination and perseverance. I said my piece to them about the need to due their homework and felt better about it. They probably didn’t understand because I was speaking fast, but those who did are the ones that I was really talking to- the ones who are the heads of the class and have a chance to do something with English. During training, we were told that scolding the students doesn’t work because they aren’t used to that, but to that I say, they aren’t used to anything that I do. Talking wasn’t working, so raising my voice a little let them know that I was upset. I wasn’t upset about the lack of attendance or the amount of kids that come late, I was upset about their lack of effort, and they knew how wrong they were.

11B was just a bad class to start out with. Teaching on Wednesdays from 2-4 is just recipe for disaster. The building is always really busy and the classroom is close to the roundabout, so the cards are always stacked against getting anything done in this class. They are really bright but they LOVE to talk. That wouldn’t be a problem (it would be totally welcome, as a matter of fact) but they refuse to speak English when I ask them to, and instead they have a bunch of side conversations. No one was really paying attention, so I threw my book down on the ground to get their attention. I tried sushing but that wasn’t working. Those of you who know me best know that throwing things is my favorite way to release anger. It worked, but after the break, they were doubled in noise level and when I walked around to check on their work, there were 3 students actually working on the classwork and the other 60 students were on their phones, doing other work or just talking in Khmer about other things. I am embarrassed to say this, but I totally lost it. I wasn’t yelling by any means, but I pulled out all the stops of a typical teacher rant. I told them that coming to class simply isn’t enough. They have to work for it. If you don’t want to learn, you don’t have to be here. American teachers say that all the time, but this is so true in Cambodia. If you skip class at OPRFHS, the attendance office calls home and you are in trouble, unless you answer the phone yourself. Nothing like this exists here (much like every other country in the world…) I am not proud of how I said what I said, but I was glad that I said it, I think that they needed to hear it.

I asked them if they wanted to continue the lesson or just cut their losses and head home. They wanted to stay and we finished the lesson, but there was tension, awkward is probably the best word for it. I apologized that the end of the lesson, but the students said that they were sorry for not working. I explained to them just how frustrating it is because I want them to learn English so bad (clearly, I left America for it) and when the students just sit there and don’t work with the teachers, it’s is really frustrating.

I left the class pretty embarrassed that I came at them like that, but I felt a little better. Until I realized that I locked my keys in my room, for the second time that I have lived here in Battambang. So, I started the 1.5k trek back to my house in a sampot thinking about what just happened. Maura, I have that really weird cramp thing in my foot that I had in Italy again, so walking wasn’t fun. I was supposed to get my bike and go to the post office to get a package for my friend and meet her at the bus stop while her bus stopped in the BB, but that clearly wasn’t happening. I felt a little better walking, but I was still upset. Here I thought that I was making some strides, then I have a day like today. I realized that my anger should be directed at myself. It is my job as teacher to teach the students. I need to make learning English as appealing and fun as possible. So, I got my wallet/keys and turned around and made the 1.5k trek back. Usually people make no notice of me here, but for some reason, there were a lot of people taking interest and when you are in a bad mood, it’s not fun to have an audience. When I got back to school, I ran into a girl from my 11B class, the class that I just let have it. She apologized again for the class and said that she doesn’t know why her class gets like that, but she knows how I feel. While we were talking, this boy David (that is his birth name) rode up on his moto and we got to talking. His English is unbelievable, but when he comes to class, he just sits in the back and sometimes participates. His dad is French and his mom is Khmer, but they are divorced, so he spends a lot of time in France. He told me the first time I talked to him that we are alike because we are both not Khmer. He is a really great kid and he always comes to class, but never really says anything. I asked him today why he doesn’t do anything during class and he said that he doesn’t want everyone to rely on him. I pointed out that I could really use his help to inspire the class to speak more and that way he can be useful in class instead of just chilling in the back. We were talking about how little the class talks when David said, “Cher, you don’t understand. Before you came, my class NEVER spoke, now they speak a little.” He probably didn’t know how much that meant to me because during that whole walk back and worth, I was thinking about how little of an impact I have made. It gave me some reassurance. The three of us got to talking about how we can improve the class. I tried doing groups in my 11C and 11D classes, but it never really took off, so I decided not the try it with 11B. David suggested that we should try it, but he offered to help. “Cher, I can help you to make the groups. I know my classmates. We will put the weaker students with the stronger students to help.” When I told him that I wasn’t sure because my other classes had no idea what I meant by group work, he said “Don’t worry, I will help.” It made me feel so much better because at the tail end of my walk, I remembered what I have always thought about these situations, that I cannot control other people, I will never be able to. What I can control is how I teach, and that is what I need to change and make better. These two students offering to help with the class understanding the vision was simply remarkable. This kid David has literally nothing to gain by helping me out with the groups, but he is doing it anyway. So, starting next week, we will be working in groups. We will probably have group competitions and it will be really fun.

After David left, I continued to talk to the girl, Chakriya, for another half hour. We began by talking about her class and it got way more personal and we were talking about her problems with her friends. She is a ball of fire and is really assertive. She is always happy and is a really reliable friend. She was telling me how important her studies are, but she thinks that it is also really important to be happy and have friendships. “You never know when you are going to die, so you shouldn’t waste time being mad or sad.” She is totally right. She works hard but also plays hard. She really impressed me with her maturity because girls are girls wherever you go, so those pesky, little fights happen everywhere. It was perfect timing to have this talk because Keiko, Darlene and another volunteer, Lisa, are in the preliminary stages of setting up Camp GLOW, which stands for girls leading our world. Our vision is to have girls from Keiko’s province (Kampong Chhnang) and Lisa’s province (Beantay Meanchay) come to Battambang for a weekend camp for girls’ empowerment. We will have guest speakers, self-confidence seminars and the like with all of the girls. We are in the very early stage, which is observation. We are trying to find a handful of girls from our schools that really show the qualities of a leader. Chakriya really embodied everything we are looking for and I was really happy after this talk. We are all really excited about this camp, but it will talk a really long time to plan and there are a lot of aspects that need to be sorted out. We will do it probably in Septemberish. Tonight, after dinner, I got a text forward from Charkriya. The text forwards are really cute. Sometimes it is a poem, sometimes a picture made of symbols like *, ~, ], { etc. This particular one was a forward. I really enjoy getting these texts because they always add a personal note on the end. The text was about being happy and how important it is to smile (how totally appropriate) and at the end, she said thanks for talking to me today. Although sometimes the students are the toughest part of this job, they always prove to be the best part as well.

It’s simply crazy how quickly things can turn sour. For those reading this, you probably think that I was upset about something so miniscule and I probably was, but Peace Corps is all-encompassing, so when something heads south, it really involves all facets of your life. But just as important is how quickly things turn back around. Here I was throwing a pity part in National Road #5, complaining about something so ridiculous, and these two kids completely turned around my state of mind. They have no idea that they did this, but they really found the positivity that I needed to reverse my thinking and now I have two potential projects to improve the youth of Cambodia. One of the most important things to remember is that we are trying to help Cambodians help themselves. I will not change the system, but I hope to change the student that will one day.

In other news, my schedule is insanely busy. I started my English Club this week. We had the tests on Saturday and I was kinda put off by how few students showed up, but the concept is totally new and probably really confusing for them. I gave the test to about 60 12th graders and of those students, I chose 13 students. There were plenty of kids who cheated, and I marked their papers and refused to grade them even. For 11th grade, only 8 kids came and the same was true for 10th grade. Not a coincidence, the kids who came were all from my classes. At first, I felt embarrassed that not that many kids came out, then I realized that these are kids who I teach 4 hours a week and they want more time. It was really touching when I got over the initial shock of not having a lot of kids. I set up this club to study with kids who are serious about studying. It’s more important to have the kids who have the dedication as opposed to the kids who are the best at English but don’t give a hoot about the club. We met for the first time Tuesday and it was a success. We all introduced ourselves and went over why there is a club. There were some ground rules- come prepared and ready to study hard, listen to each other, don’t laugh at each other for mistakes, no Khmer and most importantly, don’t be shy. There are some kids who are really coming out of their shells and it is a total pleasure to see. I have a wide range of students in the club, from 12B to 10Q, but I did this on purpose. I want the 10th graders to study with the 12th graders because it will really help improve their level. The 10th graders are so cute and were really excited just to be there. The only problem is scheduling. That is a really common theme here, especially in the schools. The students hardly have free time because all of them have regular class, private class or work. What we ended up coming up with is 5 meeting times per week- one for each grade separate, 10th grade and 11th grade then we will meet all together once a week. The only time that we could all get together is on Saturday night. I don’t really want to “work” on the weekends, but this is really important too, and I want them to all come together at least once. I also want to instill really early on the importance of the students running the club, so the weekends that I am not there, hopefully they meet and get some work done. Saturday night for me is like any other night (I know hard to believe that my college days are over…) so it won’t be a big deal when I am around to give up my Saturday evening, because we all know I’m not doing anything anyway…

I will start working with the English Club at the UME (University of Management and Economics) on Monday. The way that the club is set up works perfectly for me- it is student run and the group consists of ten small groups and they have a theme for the week (AIDS, environment, etc) and they read about the topic then make a PowerPoint presentation in front of the club. I will be meeting with each group once a month and I will have 2 open hours in the American Corner, which is funded fully by the US Embassy and has a library, computers, essentially the resources that are really rare at any other school. When I met with the man who runs the English Club, I originally planned on meeting two or three groups per week then having one open hour to anyone who wanted help, but after some twisting of my arm, I agreed to two hours on Friday, one hour for open correction or question and answers and one hour of a public related speaking skill (for example, week one will be Do’s and Don’ts of making a speech and using PowerPoint.) Between my regular teaching hours (16 per week), English Club (about 10 hours per week) and the UME English Club (another 4 or 5 hours per week), I have a really full schedule and I for sure have my work cut out for me. But, I didn’t come here to have a two year vacation; I came here to do some work. I am happiest when I’m really busy and thoroughly enjoying what I’m doing. Besides today’s actions, I have been really happy and things have been going well. Those moments will happen, it simply comes with the territory. When you are really emotionally invested in something such as this, it tends to have a greater effect when things come up.

As for my family life, I have created a monster in Chun Lai. I gave him Jolly Ranchers and he is addicted. Every time I come out of my room, he is standing there and he says “Mein sca-cro-op diet?” which means “Do you have anymore candy?” We ate the last of the candy tonight, so we will most likely go back to regular. He is still as cute as ever and has been making many comments such as “Chun Lai doy-ka bong Kealan” which means “Chun Lai is the same as Kealan”. He usually says these things when we are “journaling, eating or playing. Chun Liap is equally as cute and she is growing so fast. She is ready to walk and has taken a few steps already. They are really fun to be around and though sometimes it is difficult to live with too children, our relationships are really growing. Even the other day, Chun Lai came into my room early in the morning and crawled under my mosquito and into my bed. He just wanted to play, but I told him that I needed to shower, go back outside and wait. But there was a cockroach on the ground, so he said “Kinyom klight!” and I told him not to be afraid, I will be out there soon.
One more note about teaching here: everyone is really worried about the semester exam, which comes out of the “English for Cambodia” book, which is not the best. It is difficult to strike a balance to cover what will be on the test but also making it fun. I will figure it out though, that’s what this whole thing is about. Mistakes will be made. It’s actually a bad sign, I think, if I am not making mistakes because that means that I am not taking any chances. This is pretty unchartered territory and it’s important to remember that mistakes usually bring progress and growth. You just figure it out as you go and it all seems to work out, somehow.

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.

Santa Claus is coming to Battambang

Hello family and friends! I hope that everyone had a really great holiday season! I am posting this on Christmas Eve, after teaching my 11D class. So, Merry Christmas to those back home! This is going to be a loooong entry, to brace yourselves!

Tomorrow, for Christmas, I will be celebrating in a rather unorthodox way. I only teach one class on Friday, which is 11B from 7-9. Those students are really great, so I decided to have a one hour Christmas party from 7-8 and then let them go an hour early. We will eat candy and listen to Christmas songs then I will then rush across the street to get wireless to call Maura on skype and talk to my whole family at the Annual Christmas Eve party at the Waldron’s. There are so many new babies, I cannot wait to meet them!!! It will be really great to talk to everyone. Although I am not homesick, I wish that I could magically appear at the house for the party then head back here. But, clearly that is impossible, so I will do the next best thing, which is to call and talk to everyone. Thanks goodness for technology!

I was able to go to my first wedding on Friday, December 18. Wedding season takes place during the dry season, usually. Cambodians are, generally, very superstitious and many of the traditions within the Buddhist religion here in Cambodia are dependent on the lunar calendar. A perfect example is weddings- the time of year you get married in depends on the year that you are born. I have heard my host brother Manlee talk about his star sign a lot- he is a rat and his son is a pig. The first time he mentioned it I was really confused as to why he kept calling Chun Lai a pig. So, therefore, someone who may have to get married during the rainy season or the hot season because of the year they were born in. So, the wedding that I went to was the daughter of one of the teachers at my school. Now, you are probably confused as to why I was even invited, but weddings are very open, so therefore the bride’s father invited literally every teacher at the school. The first time I talked to him was when he handed me the invitation. It’s also a really big deal to have foreigners at weddings, and that was very clear when I walked in with two other teachers and the former school director. Traditional Khmer wedding clothes for women are really extravagant and colorful, but I haven’t really had time to get any clothes made for the occasion. My host mother makes wedding clothes, but she has been so busy lately, I didn’t want to ask her to take time out of her busy day to make some clothes for me, but at the same time, it would probably be insulting if I went to another tailor. As for the invitations, in America, it is pretty much standard to send a save the date a few months in advance, but engagements here last only a few months on average, so there is not much notice. I got the invitation maybe on December 9th and the wedding was on the 18th. I knew that it was going to be weird, but there are few encounters these days that aren’t. The wedding started at 11 and we arrived around 11:15. I noticed right away that the room was divided into males on one half and females on the other half. I walked in with three middle aged men and didn’t know what else to do, so I sat with about 9 middle aged men. It became very obvious that not only was I one of about 5 females on the wrong side, but I was the only westerner. I also was one of the only women without wedding clothes. It’s important to note that wedding clothes for men are pretty standard. My coteacher wore the same thing he wears to school. Formal occasions for women here seem to be so stressful. They have these beautiful, elaborate dresses with updoes that must take hours and loads of make-up. Like most Asian countries, most people usually apply skin-whitening lotion daily. I often talk to my family about how my view of skin is just the opposite of theirs- I want to have their skin and they want to have mine. It’s funny how at first I didn’t understand how they can want so badly to change their complexion, then I realized that I am the same, it’s just that I pay of lot of money and spend a lot of time to make my skin dark. I was accidentally using a whitening face wash and my face looked really weird. So, the makeup that the women wear makes their skin look very light. I have a picture in my most recent facebook album of a girl about my age going to a dinner dance party. It is a prefect example of what dress up looks like here. Besides the clothing, there really weren’t that many differences in weddings. Granted I did not attend the actual ceremony but rather the reception. The reception is much the same in Cambodia as it is in America. They cut the cake, throw the bouquet, everyone eats a lot and drinks even more. There was a band and a DJ. Cambodians know how to have fun. While it was really awkward during the meal, the men did not waste much time drinking. Because of my Irish heritage, I can appreciate the rush to drink as much as possible, I have been there myself a few times. It is a very strange position to be put in because it was a Friday afternoon and I had a private lesson with a student at 2, so clearly I didn’t want to drink before that. In addition to that, half of the boys from my 11B class were working the reception, filling up ice and handing out drinks and beer. I drank Coke through the meal and it was obvious that the people I knew there (the teachers) did their fair share of drinking and man, they were so much fun. I haven’t really been able to get to know them personally because it has been at a school setting, but we were able to put our guards down and have some fun. Three of the teachers got on stage and sang karaoke and one even did a duet with the singer of the band. Cambodians love music and love to sing. So, once the meal was over and everyone was mingling, most of the teachers came over to talk. I was rather taken aback when I realized that many of the teachers who aren’t English teachers can actually speak English. As is the custom in Cambodia, you always do a little cheers before you drink and clink glasses with everyone you are with. All of the teacher who came over to say hi and chit chat were cheersing my Coke, then one teacher took an ABC beer and filled me glass. It’s tough to strike a balance between not really wanting to take part in the festivity of drinking without coming across as condescending or awkward. So, I though that one beer would be ok. So I drank my one beer and had a good time with the teachers. A few of them have students that I teach and it was really great to get to know them. We left around 1:30 and I was dropped off at home. I went to the basically deserted school and met with the student that I have been working with. A few teachers were at the school when I finished tutoring Elvis. I don’t think they taught- I think that they came to school just to continue hanging out. I talked with them for about ten minutes and they asked a lot of questions about me. Here is verbatim the conversation I had with a teacher:

Teacher: Are you married?
Kealan: No.
T:Why not?
K: I don’t know, I haven’t met anyone that I want to marry.
T: How old are you?
K: 22.
T: Well I have a son who is 25 years old and he came back from Malaysia to marry you. He is very tall and very handsome.
K: Oh really? Well, he probably doesn’t want to marry me, I don’t think.
T: Are you drunk?
K: No, I only had a half of a beer.
T: I think you had 5.
K: Nope, only one.
T: How long will you stay in Cambodia?
K: 2 years. But I must go home now.

This teacher is a Khmer Lit teacher and is a really nice teacher and was one of the first to talk to me and try to make me feel comfortable. The previous conversation was all in jest, not putting pressure on me in any way. He has a really contagious laugh and seems like the life of the party. I am really starting to pick up on the fact that many of the teachers, as well as the students, are starting to get used to me being here. In addition, they are realizing that I will stay here for a while. There was another Peace Corps volunteer who worked at my school maybe 2 years ago, but he was never at the school and kept to himself. He left after one year and it seems like he didn’t really have much to do with the school. They really don’t talk about him ever, so I take that as a sign that they must have been disappointed in his distance from the school. At first I was sort of upset that the teachers weren’t really trying to talk to me more, because Cambodians are so friendly and they want you to feel comfortable. I realized that it could have something to do with the previous volunteer and the way that he interacted with his colleagues. It makes me happy though that they are starting to go out of their way to talk. I have definitely noticed that there are a few teachers who always laugh and joke around with me. I think that it’s really important to have a relationship with the other teachers because one of the goals of PC is to teacher the other teachers student- centered learning strategies. There is no reason why I can’t be friends with the teachers too. I spend most of my time at the school, as do they, so the personal questions about me, my family and background make me happy.

I have two more weddings coming up. I have one on the 26th for a teacher’s daughter and then my host cousin, Makara, is getting married on the 27th. I told my host brother Huck that I feel so strange at those events because I don’t know anyone and I don’t know what to do. He told me that people get so happy when they are able to share a holiday with a foreigner. About two months ago, I went to a festival with my host mother at her brother-in-law’s house. I was pretty miserable, but the man who held the festival told my host mother that he was so happy that a “barang”, as we are called, came to his ceremony. It reflects really well on the family if a barang (which is the Khmer word for French, but Cambodians use this word to describe anything from the west) tries to take part in the service and is respectful. So, this is probably why people want me to come to their parties and events. It’s fine with me, they are super fun.

Life at home is going really well. My host brother and I get along really well and he is learning so much English. My room is really great and I have my daily and weekly schedule pretty much set. I am really independent and come and go without guilt or a barrage of questions (unlike at my training host family). But at the same time, I feel very integrated here. I spend a lot of time with my host niece and nephew, Chun Liap and Chun Lai. I always sit outside at the table and write in my journal every other day. Chun Lai, my 3 year old host nephew, usually sits with me and shares my iPod. Last week, he asked Huck for an old notebook that he now uses as his journal and we sit together and journal. Clearly he does not know how to write, but I think he sees me doing it and he wants to write, too. While we are writing, he usually pauses once in a while and asks (in Khmer, but I have translated…) “Sister Kealan, what are you doing?” I responded “I am writing in my book. What are you doing?” to which he responds “I am writing in my book, just like Kealan.” The first time he did it, it broke my heart. We usually chill together before dinner then for an hour after dinner. We have been playing this one game a lot recently. I like to call it the “wear a bag on your head while the other person tries to knock it off with a balled- up bag”. He loves that game. At 8:00 on the dot I retire to my room and usually go to bed shortly after. Am I embarrassed that my three year old host nephew stays up later than I do and wakes up earlier than I do? Maybe a little. We have a good time, though. The girl, Chun Liap, has downs syndrome and is very attached to her mother and father, but there have been a few times lately when we are playing and her parents try to take her away, she cries. She cannot really speak, but she does say “ba”, “be” and “by”. She always makes a point to say “ba bye” when I go into my room or go anywhere near my bike. Even when her mom takes her to bathe, she says ba bye. She is so cute and I really like to have kids around because it takes the stress away from not really being able to communicate. Chun Lai talks to me a lot and sometimes I understand, sometimes I don’t. But I listen to him talk and usually we just play. It’s a good stress reliever and it’s really great to come home and be greeted by smiling Cambodian faces.

I talked to my school director on Tuesday about starting an English Club for more advanced students. He was all for it and gave me total support. The plan of action is to have a test on January 9th for grades 12, 11 and 10. Of those grades, I will most likely take the top ten and start a club of about 30 kids. While I feel horrible that I will be turning some kids away, it is simply impossible to have a club with all of the students who are interested; there are about 1,000 kids in each grade. I am going to continue my office hours and work with any students who ask for help. My Wednesday sessions with Elvis Presley now include James Earl Jones and Horace Mann now. I think that more kids will ask for more help once they realize what I mean by having free time and wanting to work with them. The club will most likely meet 3 times a work during lunch and we will do more hands on activities such as student run discussion, writing assignments, peer revision, public speaking, etc. It is impossible to do some of these activities in class because either the students don’t understand what I am talking about or there is just not enough. For instance, in my 11D class, we read a little one page passage about education in Cambodia and I spent about 45 minutes explaining words from the passage that the students didn’t understand. It will be fun to be able to work with students who are able to do more accelerated activities. I have also been in contact with the University of Management and Economics (UME) about working there. I decided that I didn’t really want to teach and because Eddie and Darlene (two other volunteers who live in Battambang) are doing workshops, I agreed to work with their English Club. Working with them at the UME will be different than at the high school because the UME English Club is totally student run. I have to completely create this club from scratch at my school, but the club at the university has already been created the club. I will just offering some assistance in the way of correcting the students. The way that the club is set up at the university is the club consists of about 30 students, but because they can’t all meet at the same time (Khmer students are SOOOO busy), they broke the club into 9 groups of 3-4 students. I agreed to meet with each group once a month and hold one open hour a week for any of them to ask questions. That way I will be working with the club for 13 hours a month, which is reasonable, and I will be able to work with them all. This will all start after the new year. Between the two clubs and teaching, I will have my work cut out for me. This will keep me very busy for a few months, until I have that under control and then I will start something different, probably apart from teaching, maybe a sports team? Who knows. Weekends will most likely be my only free time, but I will probably find something really quickly to fill up that time.

The other day, I came across a blog and the person who wrote it was basically making fun of Khmer students trying to speak English. I want to make one thing clear: the only person that I intend to make fun on this blog is myself. I understand that I came into another country- they have their own culture, values and traditions, who am I to undermine them? I have a few skills that I am trying to carry over into this country to help further the development that is just starting here. There are some things that I are very different that I want to share with you, but I think it’s really important to keep in mind that I am not here to change their culture, rather I am here to embrace it and share mine. When I get back to America, I will want to share what I learned about Cambodian people, traditions and culture with you. The goal is to create friendships by realizing how similar we actually are instead of identifying differences and exploiting them. On the surface, we may seem different, but after five months, I can honestly say that people are people wherever you go. Likewise, on the subject of the students- it is so difficult to learn English when Khmer is your language. Khmer people are very laid back and have simplifying down to an art. While English is very complicated with tenses, subject-verb agreement and so on, Khmer language makes everything so simple. What I mean by simple is that in English we tend to throw in a bunch of extra words, but in Khmer, you get right to the point. For instance, in English, a common questions is “Do you have any water?” but in Khmer you ask, “Mein tuk at?” which very directly means, “Have water not” or as we would say, “Do you have water or not?” And the response is either “Mein” which is “have” or “at” which is “not”. The fact that the students have any sort of skill at speaking a language as complex as ours is a testament to their determination and hard work. I was really upset by this post because I know how much I struggle with learning Khmer. The mistakes that the students make are ones that in the end are really difficult to grasp. Instead of ridiculing the students for their mistakes, I think we should be praising them for their progress (which was a vocab word for grade 11 this week).

Have a great (and safe) New Year! I will be heading down to the beaches of Kampot with my friends to bring in 2010! Miss you all!