kind of like angelina...

A fellow PCV and friend recently said that our PC experience would make us very good celebrities. She means that the attention we get on a regular basis, whenever we leave our houses or travel throughout the country, gives us an idea of what it means for people to be interested in your presence constantly. As I have begun working with more organizations and teaching more students, it is much more common to run into at least one person I know when I ride around town or go get something to eat. The annual Trade Fair just came to my town which brings goods from Vietnam, a beer sponsored concert with Khmer popstars and a reason for families to gather from all over the province for 5 days. I went the opening night with some friends and could not walk a foot or peruse the shops without interacting with a student or a seller of some sort that I know from town; it was a pretty exhausting experience. It was probably the most popular I'll ever feel in my life.

Pictures from the trade fair and a recent snake encounter: http://www.flickr.com/photos/sam_wise/sets/72157632187727135/

april showers brings new projects

Over the last 8 months at site, I had a hard time discerning where else I could help out in my community since it's fairly large. I made some excuses for myself as I put off getting back in touch with initial contacts as it wasn't a good time to get started prior to the unknown schedule of April. My teaching schedule at the PTTC changed approximately every 2 months since the 1st and 2nd year students alternate when they do practicum and observing of primary school classrooms, so I never know when I could give time to other organizations and schedule other English classes. Peace Corps puts a lot of emphasis on secondary projects, which means any class, work or project outside of our "primary assignment" which is teaching English at a high school, training teachers at either a Primary Teacher Training Center (PTTC) or Regional Teacher Training Center (RTTC) or supporting and educating at the Health Center. This is because we are here to support the larger community, not just those who benefit from our work at our primary assignment, and also because in Cambodia, the work at our primary assignment only takes about half of our viable work time in a week (if everything is operating according to schedule). Here, in Cambodia, many volunteers find the majority of their success and enjoyment through these secondary projects because they can choose organizations they are interested in working with, have more flexibility when working outside of a government operation and can plan and implement with more independence. I've realized that I thrive working within a pre-established framework and structure, and I enjoy making change from within. I also believe that the more sustainable development we can enact as volunteers is done within the framework because Cambodian culture does not support and allow for much innovation. However, if I was to find any professional success working here, I had to reach beyond my primary assignment and get started because the timing would never be just right. Another volunteer pointed out that in American culture we value consistency to help others learn and make change, but in Cambodia, it's more about exposure and teachable moments rather than repetition.

So here are some new things I've gotten started in the last few weeks or have planned for the next couple months:

*Team Houses at Veteran's International (http://www.ic-vic.org/Clinics_PreyVeng.html): Through my tutor, I became aware of Veteran's International which supports physically disabled individuals from Prey Veng and Svay Rieng with many things, including prosthetics, equal treatment, education and more (check out the link below). I took over some English classes an Australian volunteer was teaching at the Team Houses, which house young men and women in high school or college who come from poor backgrounds and need support to complete their education. I teach the young men and young women separately as the live in different locations and am teaching basic grammar to start. These men and women are very enthusiastic and work hard to learn English, and I generally find them quite inspiring as they have gone through much adversity to become educated in a country where they are not supported.

*Mekhala House Orphanage and Learning Center (http://fdcc.org.au/): I bike by an all female (plus one of the girl's brother) orphanage down the street everyday and have often wanted to jump in to play soccer as it was so exciting to find a group of girls playing a sport in a country where boys dominate all fields and courts. After dropping by a few months ago, we were able to set up some ways I could help already existing programs or ones that needed support to continue. I began teaching nightly English classes which are split by level of about 8-10 girls every weekday evening. At my first class, I was blow away by the exuberance, confidence and level of English from the oldest high school girls. In addition to the nightly classes, I will be teaching 3 separate arts and crafts classes, one for primary and lower secondary girls (and boy) and two for the high school girls. From my first class, I can already ascertain that creativity will be a challenge to pull out of the girls since they only desired to copy pictures from books (which they were REALLY good at) as will teaching art solely in Khmer. Additionally, I plan on teaching baking to the girls which one of the Australian board members got started up during her annual visit as they have a well-equipped kitchen. They also need some help with career counseling and supporting a staff member to find speakers to help the girls. If they compete in a soccer championship in the future, I want to jump in on that.

*Prey Veng Camp G.L.O.W.: This is a project I'm doing with the other 4 volunteers in my province, but is a widely popular project in many Peace Corps countries and almost every province was able to organize and implement one this year. This will be the first to occur in my province and I want to thank family and friends who donated to support the funding of this camp. It will take place the first weekend of June and will update on any developments and of course on the camp itself. The description for the camp is as follows:
              The 2013 Prey Veng Camp G.L.O.W. (Girls Leading Our World) is a two-day girls’ empowerment camp. In June, fourty-five female secondary students and teacher trainees from five villages will participate in the camp in Prey Veng. Over the course of the camp, experienced and dynamic Cambodian educators will lead interactive sessions on women's health, rights and opportunities, with a focus on developing self-esteem and leadership skills. In the typical classroom, female students are less likely to participate and tend to defer to male students due to lack of self-esteem. Cambodian women are disadvantaged solely because of their gender and without adequate education, they are not likely to find opportunities to rise to leadership positions.This camp will give these students the space, tools and role models to build their positive identity and set goals for their personal future aspirations and those they have for their communities. The community will work together to make this happen by providing a space for the camp, local speakers for workshops regarding domestic abuse and volunteerism, and workshop facilitators from local NGOs to educate on personal safety and women's health.


I hope that this new found busy-ness stays strong, but I'm not holding my breath as flexibility is key to happiness and success here. I also just returned from exploring some down south locations in honor of the 3-day holiday for the current King's birthday and you can enjoy some pics here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/sam_wise/sets/72157632472618289/

landscapes

Kampong Trabek, Prey Veng

Side of Road 11, Prey Veng

Dentist office, Phnom Penh

Why is this holiday different than all the other holidays?

A couple of weeks ago, after returning from Thailand, I celebrated Khmer New Year, year 2557 (year of the snake), with my host family. This is the biggest deal holiday of them all here, even though sometimes there is a holiday every week, but I still expected this week to be drastically different than all others of the year. I heard there were traditional games and I'm not really sure what else I conjured up in my head, but for the most part, this holiday was not much more than rest, much eating and drinking with family, travel to the homeland and 2-4 weeks off from school. The holiday is officially 3 days, but my town was fairly non-functioning for a week. It was similar to most big deal holidays in America in that families gather together and drink A LOT. Some activities happen at the Wat which often acts as a community center: games, dancing, attacking one another with baby powder and hanging out. People honor their deceased ancestors either at the Wat or in their homes which seems to happen whenever the family is gathered, although the official holiday for honoring the ancestors occurs in October (Pchum Ben). Otherwise, this holiday did not seem as religiously focused as others for my family, since we only went to the Wat to dar lang (walk-play/wander) and dance. I had heard that in Thailand during Songkran (New Year) water fights and baby powder are inescapable, so I figured it would be the same here. I was looking forward to being doused in water since April is the hottest month here, but I was only fortunate enough to be bombarded by cooling baby powder, some of which ended up in my mouth as I was riding my bike around town. Some highlights from these few days are:

*On a visit to my host dad's hometown, we did family "trick-or-treating" where we stopped by all the friends' and family's houses in the village to do some ongui lang-ing (sit-play/hang out). They had never seen a foreigner before as far as I understood and I had the same conversations repeatedly about my ability to speak Khmer, my white or black skin depending on their interpretation, my straight nose and lack of husband.
*One of my yaay's (grandma) said I look to old to find a husband with my numerous gray hairs and proceeded to pull them all out for about 15 minutes. I didn't really say no as we had already drank several beers and it was 10:30 AM.
*The same morning, we had a ceremony for the deceased ancestors at the house with a monk and a priest-like man to bless the family. Immediately after, we ate the 2nd or 3rd meal of the day, drank and I made friends with a 7 year old girl. She wanted to drink beer which her mom had no problem with, so she took what was left in my can, poured it in her glass, then threw the can at the wall. This is pretty normal to throw trash wherever, but it was still saucy behavior for a 7 year old.
*As I rode my bike around my deserted town I only encountered small parties at people's houses and bands of drunk men screaming at me in English. At one point, I was halted by a group of rowdy teenagers who smothered me in baby powder and screamed jol ch'num tmai! (happy new year!).
*I went joy riding around my town in the back of a pickup truck, that apparently belongs to my uncle, at night and with 8 little cousins swinging around the bars and 3 women. We would cheer every time we passed a family celebrating the New Year in hopes they would give us a cheer back. We scouted out the happening Wat party where we danced to Gangam Style and Khmer music and were "filmed" by a man impersonating a cameraman using a beer box for a camera with a bright shining light emanating from it.

More pictures at the end of this album: http://www.flickr.com/photos/sam_wise/sets/72157632187727135/

Daibee running in the rice fields

Trick-or-treating

New drinking buddy - that's not apple juice...

Blessing for the ancestors

Post-baby powder attack

Hanging at the wat