not your typical thursday afternoon

I actually felt busy today. It's nice to come home and feel like I haven't just chilled for awhile as this is not the norm for me nowadays. I would have killed for the lack of feeling like a chicken without it's head cut off in the past several years of life, so believe me, I am quite thankful for the new pace of life. Since I do not have a typical day-to-day to share with you, I did want to give a snapshot of my day so you can maybe picture what life is like at my site, especially since today was a little more happening than usual.

6:15 Woke up intending to meditate (something I do sporadically), reset the alarm since I slept well due to the aid of benedryl, but couldn't really go back to sleep.

6:35 Alarm went off again, read some Tao of Pooh with my headlamp and crawled out of the mosquito net, brushed teeth, put on sampot and button down shirt, ate a small banana (intending to eat real breakfast after class).

6:50 Biked to school to start class at 7, my co-teacher tends to be 5-10 minutes late, so I usually sit down on a bench in front of class to read, but no time today as he showed up about when I did.

7-8:50 Taught 2nd year students, reviewed for a semester exam next week with a week voice I thought I might lose as I had a bit of a cold the day before. Voice came back thankfully as I had to teach more later.

8:50 Headed to the market in teacher clothes which is exciting for the crowded market as I look more Khmer (despite my desired features of angular nose and 'white' skin), went to my favorite sweets lady where I got a small bowl of jek k'dtee (banana soup with tapioca, condensed milk, sticky rice) for 500 riels (~12 cents). She gave me some warm tea as the weather was pleasant/cold today, then I bought some yogurt at one of the few places that sells it in my town to eat later with cereal, bananas and some honey.

9:10 Arrived home. Changed to do some laundry, it had been 2 weeks so I had a fair amount to do. A new grandma ('yaay') that lives in my house, maybe temporarily, maybe not, asked me about how I do laundry in America and she observed me trying my hardest for a bit. Finished up the laundry around 10:40 after a rinse cycle with fabric softener which enabled me to check email, chat with a friend in America, etc. Changed again to teach.

11-12:10 Went to the vocational school where I teach everyday with my tutor, Sam Ang (the best person in Prey Veng) a free class open to the public. It's a fluctuating group of about 20 students, high school, university, high school teachers, focused on reading comprehension. Taught vocabulary related to braille to prepare for reading the article the next day. Sam Ang often buys me nice things to thank me for helping, today he got me a soy bean drink from the food shack at the school served in a bag with a straw. Delish.

12:10 Back home to eat lunch, usually eat with my family, but they were hungry today and my sister's were already napping. Lunch was left out for me, so I enjoyed on my own. Checked the internet again (I spoiled myself with unlimited internet), talked to Mom.

1:10 Headed out to adventure and meet up with a Khmer volunteer working with a Youthstar, a Khmer volunteer organization, I had met the previous Saturday. I was intending to meet up with her in her village and observe her English class to help her out. Her village is 7 km away so I set out biking in the heat of the afternoon.

1:40 Supposed to meet her at 1:30 but no luck finding her village. She calls and I put her on the phone with a woman on the side of the road to help find her village. She informs me that I have to go back to Prey Veng, then go 7 km in the other direction. Oops, guess I'll meet her next week. No problem (awt panyaha). Lots of construction on the main road, number 11, get hit by a few pieces of gravel, luckily not in the eye. I'm good. I'll go get a coffee in the market instead.

2:20 Get back to the market. Buy fried banana from a friend I haven't seen for a while, stop to chat. Then, head into the market to see my coffee stand friend (it's common to not address people by names, so all these friends of mine, are without name). One of the town crazies is sitting at the stand but I sit down anyway and pull out a book. My coffee friend moves me behind his stand to sit there instead since he looks out for me and this guy is staring at me and saying things. Hang out there reading Steinbeck's "To a God Unknown" for a while and chat with my friend. Leave to go teach my 4th grade once a week class at the primary school next to my Teacher Training school.

3:50 Get a call from my co-teacher asking where I am as I'm biking (yea, one handed mom and dad! don't worry I am good at it), I explain I'm on my way to school. He says I have to come as the students are having a cooking contest (again) and I have to eat num ban chok (noodles with fresh veggies and curry). No problem, I'm on my way anyway. Arrive at school, shove food in my mouth, tell them it's all delicious. Rush off to teach.

4:05 Arrived a little late to class, the kids are super excited. They have awesome energy and listen so well. We review last class's lesson of "Hello. My name is..." and simple commands. Today I teach them "Hello. My name is... What is YOUR name?" and directions to help them learn how to write. They all write the letter "C" and the bell rings. It's time for them to head home.

4:55 Started my English club with 2nd year trainees which meets every Tuesday and Thursday. It usually has about 6-10 people who come which is a good number as we practice a lot of pronunciation and word stress. We also tend to chat and I answer questions they have about my culture and personal experiences. We switched off between the students figuring out the correct word stress in a laundry list of items and them asking me about why I like to travel and where I have volunteered before. There is often a monkey running around at that time too, which I love. Unfortunately, today there was trash burning on both sides of us, but I tied a bandanna around my nose and taught anyway.

6 Arrived home to the whole street torn up. Check it out. Prey Veng is having major construction, it seems like all the roads are being revamped. It will be nice for biking when it's all done. Took my clothes in from the line outside with the help of Daibee. She likes to hold up my underwear and clothes to herself and say "tome!" which means 'big'. We spoke in gibberish and played on my computer a bit.

7:15 Ate dinner with the whole family: sisters, mom, dad and yaay. Had a spinachy green sauteed with egg, fried eggs, sour mango with fish sauce and rice, of course. Shared a sweet mango with the family and told my mom, sister and yaay about the monkey at my school today, my love of monkeys as long as they're not too daring, and the cooking contest.

Camera 1

Camera 2: This lady is headed off to a wedding

Hope you made it through not completely bored. I guess a lot does happen here in a day. Even when I think I had a pretty uneventful day, when I start cataloguing the small moments, it's actually quite infinite.

choices

With the start of the new calendar year, many emails reminded me of the American tradition of renewal come January 1st. I have never been much for resolutions or thinking of this time as a new start, which actually jives quite well with Khmer culture. Although January 1st is another holiday here, there's not much celebration here except for in the bigger Western influenced cities. In April, it is Khmer New Year which I'm told is quite a big deal as schools often suspend studies for 3-4 weeks. I do like the idea of reflecting on the past to inform my only complete year I will spend in Cambodia.

As a result, I have spent a lot of time thinking about how teaching here has very little in common with my experience teaching in America. For example, I often take the time in class to discuss more casually (to the extent my students understand me) cultural differences, usually related to the lesson. In my community class I teach with my tutor, today I was told by a student that I know a lot about Khmer culture due to my astute comparisons of opposite sex friendships in Cambodia vs. America. While I am no expert on Khmer culture, I realized that I have gained a lot of knowledge as I approach six months here. It is also a constant challenge not to generalize about an entire culture based on some individuals, but it is something I find myself and other PCVs constantly at fault for doing as we try to make sense of our differences. I also speak in generalizations when describing Americans to Cambodians because, ironically enough, the culture of conformity is more familiar to Cambodians and speaking in generalities helps them to comprehend an unfamiliar culture. Teaching about individuality and diversity within other cultures is something I will try to explain at a later time when my Khmer vocabulary can more accurately aid in describing this.

Sometimes, my false sense of integration makes me feel a bit too comfortable and causes me to lose sight of obvious differences between my background and that of my coworkers, students and community members. I sometimes take the fact that I am a transplant adopted into this community for two years with a grain of salt. I have an ability to come and go from my site because I am accustomed to travelling and I desire to experience other areas of Cambodia. Over New Years, I traveled to Kampong Som to visit Sihanoukville and Koh Rong, a nearby island. Although my host family has been able to travel there as well as Siem Reap, I realize that the majority of Cambodians do not leave their province and most likely will never travel these distances despite the relatively small size of the entire country (Cambodia is slightly smaller than Oklahoma). This fact seemed to slip my mind as I was teaching my trainees today a lesson about the airport. I stopped teaching to ask "raise your hand if you've ever been to an airport". I was already pretty positive that for the twenty-five 18-20 year olds in front of me as well as my 30 year old co-teacher, the answer would be no. They also most likely will never go to an airport in their life. One had been outside of an airport but never inside, so I begin to describe some basic aspects of an airport and opened up the floor for any questions they had about flying and how airports function. I explained my journey to Cambodia from Washington D.C., how many stops the plane took, how many hours it lasted, etc. and it occurred to me that my students were unaware that this journey was one of many I have taken. In my nature, I have an urge to adventure and explore and I see my experience living and working in my community as part of that. Although I am content at my site discovering new people and places, I also have an inability to sit still which will always leave me thirsting to find more. I am fortunate enough to come from circumstances that allow me the freedom to be able to make such choices.

A fellow PCV living my province visited my town yesterday which is much larger than his site. As I led him around the market looking for breakfast, he kept remarking on the variety of food options I have available to me. We walked down the fruit "aisle" outside the indoor area of the market with 20 or more vendors and explained his only options are whatever the one fruit vendor in his village is selling for the day. Many people fantasize about life in the Peace Corps as a possibility to simplify their day-to-day experiences by scaling down their scope. I am glad that I still have the ability to make simple decisions that may change the course of my day, such as choosing between breakfast options or what topic I might want to discuss with my English club. Even if my students will not experience an airport any time soon, broadening their awareness and opening up the possibility of choice is my current focus.

The following pictures are connected to my interest in the changing landscape of Prey Veng, which is a concept that extends to the rapid growth and development in other parts of Cambodia as well. I have seen and discussed the quick response to increased numbers of tourists in other areas of the country. Buildings are erected with rapid speed here. I see the same trend in my town in terms of construction and road improvement. Another intriguing facet of my town is evolving natural landscape as areas that are water filled during the wet months reveal land, thus enabling harvesting opportunities and community growth. New pictures have been added here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/sam_wise/sets/72157632187727135/

These shelters, small shops, restaurants, etc. have all been erected as the water revealed land

Street resurfacing adjacent the park

Note: For those who read this blog regularly, once or obsessively, I would really like feedback on things you want to learn from my experiences in Cambodia, modes of sharing (pictures, writing, etc.) and any other requests. I try to share themes that I find prevalent or inspiring to write/photograph in my daily life, but am receptive to suggestions as well to improve the content. Thanks a lot for your help!

for the visual consumers

happy new year all those out in cyberspace! some photographs to share from recent travels south to Sihanoukville area, site and Phnom Penh. Look in the sets "Dar Lang", "Phnom Penh" and "PCV Life"...check them out - http://www.flickr.com/photos/sam_wise/sets/

collective learning...on tests. not what I call integrity.

During training several months ago, I was warned that cheating is rampant in Cambodia and other PCVs and administrators suggested that this is probably a battle we should choose not to fight as teachers. I heard this advice, but chose to let it slide for the time being I think because I couldn't really fathom the degree to which cheating is acceptable and blatantly obvious. I remember during August seeing grade 12 students take their exam for college entrance with hordes of people waiting outside the gates. These people were not just waiting for them to finish, but they were texting answers to their relatives and "cheat sheets" were being passed through the classrooms or brought in with the students. As trainees, we were told that we don't want to interfere with the system as we could jeopardize the success of students by preventing some from getting the extra boost their classmates were getting. With this knowledge in mind, I entered into a week of testing prepared to be endlessly frustrated. I often approach situation with an even keel or think of the possible worst case scenario, so as not to be disappointed. The cheating was widespread and has left me ruminating over why this feels so different than the educational culture I was raised in and have worked for.

A test day in my prior teaching job was kind of a treat. I think this was a shared feeling amongst my colleagues as you could save up energy you would have used to present a lesson and instead sit back and watch your students work hard. The massive amounts of grading that ensued after were a bit of a pain, but you could see the fruits of your teaching and your students labor (hopefully) pay off. I came in this week ready to set expectations with my coteachers as they agreed we should prevent cheating. We asked the students to move their desks apart, and I told them they should not be talking or looking at their classmates' papers. They nodded fervently and the directions were translated into Khmer for those who did not understand. They seemed to be on the same page as me, so I felt some false confidence that they would follow through. I also explained that the test is to show what they know, not what their friend knows. This was a concept that probably got lost in translation, but I wanted to explain why they should be working on their own. As the test got underway, students turned to talk to friends, students held up their tests for others to see, they took out their notebooks and pieces of paper with prewritten work, they wrote answers and passed them to friends and they spoke (not so quietly) to others to ask questions or provide answers. Now, these things were happening sporadically, not like a constant barrage of cheating, but I was definitely playing whack a mole for two hours. Most of these actions were done not so secretly, even right in front of the teachers. Some students would giggle or had a sheepish grin on their face, but they were generally unapologetic. As a strong advocate against cheating (and as a former student who I swear has never cheated), I want to make ripples and flip this prevalent occurrence of cheating. However, in the moment, I ended up more frustrated and verging on anger than anything else. These emotions have no solution, especially when the root of the problem is a student who has no other option and sees copying as the only answer.

Many of my students hear this when I teach them English (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BZXcRqFmFa8). Cambodians study English formally from 7th-12th grade, but many cannot do much more than read and write. The majority of my trainees fall into this category, so when they see a two hour test completely in English they most likely freak out. The common solution for this lack of knowledge and their usual modus operandi in English class is to copy from the classmates who do know, or seem like they know, what's going on. As is common in Asian education systems, the emphasis is on the collective learning and shared knowledge rather than individual performance. Students tend to rely on possibly one student to provide the answers for the rest of the class. If no one else has held them accountable for their own learning, it is difficult to instill this value in students who are 18-24 years old. I am accustomed to working with malleable middle schoolers who are just beginning to develop their sense of right and wrong, and I am out of my element, literally, with a different age group and a foreign culture/education system. Knowledge is seen here as shared endeavor, so the idea of cheating does not carry the same connotation that I was raised with.

When I mentioned this trend to family and friends (even PCVs within Cambodia), they were not only astonished but also generally baffled why they wouldn't want to gain the knowledge for themselves. I explained that often the cheating happens between friends just to get something down on paper, and then result is two tests scoring 3 out of 42. I asked one of my higher level English speakers who is opinionated and did not cheat on his test about why he thinks this is commonplace in Cambodia. He said some teachers are more strict than others on preventing students from copying, but he thinks it comes down to students lacking confidence in the answers. This is definitely the case as about 2/3 of the students in each of my class rarely generate answers of their own, and tend to wait for the answers to be written on the board by their classmates or teachers. When I think back to the repeat offenders in my past teaching job as a 7th grade English teachers, they also seemed to do it for a lack of confidence and desire to turn in something complete, rather than lose points for an incomplete. They also developed an itch to cheat I believe because it had was permissible in the past, either because the teacher didn't care or the student had gotten away with it. In either case, the temptation to cheat feeds on successful exploits.

I had trouble explaining to my coteachers why this is an issue I care so much about and was often left with very few words trying to explain that cheating is "bad" and "wrong". I wondered if I only viewed cheating in this way because I was culturally engrained to whereas I always felt like this value was more of a human instinct. I did start to see glimpses of reality within my frustrations when a student who spoke no English was disadvantaged in their score because I was not allowing them to cheat. They were instead left with blank portions of the test and unintelligible English using letters without forming words. From what I can tell, intellectualism in the setting I teach is not prized. English is a vehicle for some to a better job or opportunity, but many other trainees do not see learning this language as a priority. I hope to push the students willing to go there to promote integrity and a desire to gain knowledge and I hope that my coteachers will strive to do the same.

1st year students in blue (L) and 2nd year in white (R) finishing up the morning flag salute

They seem mostly focused, but you may note the two women in conversation in the back

Tried to help them be quiet with a visual, mildly successful

Statue of a PTTC trainee

naptime

i did not in fact win the marathon...

Exercising is a common part of a PCV's life in Cambodia. Whether it's going on runs, playing sports with Khmer friends or kids, working out with youtube in your room, or most commonly bike riding, all PCVs partake in some way or another. Even if that person was never a regular excersizer in America, the majority do here out of a combination of excessive free time and the desire to move their body to break from the seated inertia we experience throughout most hours of the day. Exercising (hatt pbraan) is not common for Khmer people and I had to establish myself as a regular hatt pbraaner when I first arrived at site several months ago. My family, as mentioned in past posts, is very understanding of my differences and doesn't question my desire to bike just for exercise or go on runs that turn my face bright red. They know that it is good for one's health and couple the immense amounts of rice I eat with my appetite established through regular workouts. The rest of my town continues to be fascinated by my runs which has prompted me to listen to music in order to tune out the attention I draw for a) being a barang and b) exercising. If I choose to walk a block rather than bike, I'm always asked if I'm exhausted ("hot dtay?"=are you tired??) I was able to explain for the past month that I was exercising to prepare for the Angkor Wat International Half Marathon which would be 21 km. Most students, co-teachers and my family would ask me if I were going to win the race. I would always disappoint them with the truth that it was pretty unlikely that I would, but I was sure to finish it. They were fairly uninterested in this answer and were usually left a bit perplexed as to why I would run the race. They did understand that the allure of this race was probably so I could see some of the temples in the Angkor Wat complex as Khmer people understand this to be the central destination for all tourists/foreigners in Cambodia.

The race took place on Sunday, December 2nd, and I was pretty scared as I came down with a sudden knee pain the few days before. As a person who rarely experiences body issues, it freaked me out and the timing was pretty terrible. I was pretty certain that I wouldn't be able to run as I had trouble walking more than a few blocks without pain, but I headed off to Angkor Wat with about 12 other PCVs who were also running the race at 5:30 AM. My friend Meghan, whose excellent blog about the history of our run is below, made sure that I got my knee wrapped with an ace bandage prior to starting. It worked wonders and I was able to finish the race with no pain at all. The stats of my run were the following: finished 449 out of 840 women who completed the race, 1221 out of 1894 overall and completed the 21 km in 2 hours and 25 minutes. I have never been concerned about my time when running, so I was really happy to have this experience running through the ruins and making it all the way through. I took some running shots, as I refused to stop to take a picture, which can be found on my flickr in addition to the few here. This was my first touristy experience in Cambodia so far, and although I did not take my time inside any temples, which I greatly look forward to doing in the future, I am very happy to have been part of this event. My family was also very proud when I brought home my heavy medal that said "finisher". I tried to explain that everyone who completed the race received one of these, but I just ended up telling them that I won anyway. I think they understood I was joking...

Meghan's blog about the specifics of the temples we saw: http://henshallincambodia.blogspot.com/2012/12/chasing-history.html

Before the start of the race: in front of Angkor Wat 

Many fans lined the roads and this runner was pumped about it

Not exactly sure which temple...but one of my better in action shots

Meghan about to enter one of the gates in Angkor Thom

bow cow ow

 I could write about so many things such as the Angkor Wat International Half Marathon, returning back to site after some additional Peace Corps training in Takeo, getting back into a teaching schedule (kind of...), but the main focus of this post with be about doing LAUNDRY (bow cow ow). I have spent most blog posts waxing philosophical from which I have been getting positive feedback from readers, but I realized while talking to my (American) mom today that some of the things I now experience as normal, are still probably very confusing to family and friends back home. My social world currently consists of Khmer and PCVs, so things like doing your laundry, working/not-working, biking, pooping and reading are regular topics of conversation. I'm going to take you as best as I can through the process of doing my laundry, which usually takes me between one hour and an hour and a half. My mom asked why I don't take my laundry to someone since doing laundry sounds pretty challenging here. It just becomes another task folded into the day with some slight back discomfort thrown in there. I also realized while documenting this process today that my host family is totally understanding of silly foreigner things I do, such as wearing my big Nikon on my back as I scrub my clothing. They even wanted to take a picture of me so my mom and others could understand what doing your laundry is like in Cambodia. Let's get started:

1) Notice the laundry in the hamper. I usually do my laundry once a week, but sometimes that ends up being a decent amount of clothes. This is behind my house, and no, I don't do my laundry in a sink.

2) Detergent is on the left. I have been using the same bag for approx. 3 months and it costs about 3000 riel (75 cents). The "Hygiene" is fabric softener which is pricier but essential to making your clothes seem cleaner and smell nice. It unfortunately spilled all over my floor today, but now my room smells pretty.

3) Source of my laundry water. We have running water that my family fills this cistern with. Families without running water, like my training host family, use collected rain water.

4) First I put in some detergent, then a small amount of water to wash each clothing item individually. I also sit on this tiny "stool" as I am not truly Khmer and can only squat for maybe a minute comfortably. I blame it on my sizeable muscular legs.

I'm also supposed to scrub each item with a bristle brush to really clean it. If my host family sees me feebly rubbing my clothes together, they make me use the brush. Although it does make clothing fall apart quicker, it really gets stains out as well.

After only a few items of clothing, the once clear water turns murky and the suds quickly disappear.

5 & 6) After "scrubbing" each item (or sometimes just dipping and swishing around), all the clothes go back in the tub and get a lot of water poured on them for rinse #1. Each item is dunked in and out several times to get the soap out. I usually do this standing and bending over. Then you squeeze out each item before a second rinse. Rinse #2 involved some fabric softener. I then let the clothes soak for about 15 minutes before ringing them out and hanging them up. The fabric softener ensures that the poor job I did cleaning will be unnoticeable due to the camouflage of the fresh scent.

Host mom was sure to catch me in the act. She didn't give me any pointers, but I think she gave up on that a while ago. She respects my laundry method at this point, although I'm sure other PCVs and definitely Khmer people would dispute my method. 

7) After each item is wrung out, it is hung up on the clothes line and you really hope that it won't rain at any point during the day. Luckily, we're now in the dry season, so this will most likely be the case. My youngest sister helped me today as she is much more adept at housework than I and she also has become really interested in spending time with me since I've returned back to site.

Formatting makes me exhausted. I'll have to return to the other items initially listed sometime this week. Until then, you can check out some pictures from training P3 and the Angkor Wat Half on my flickr page (http://www.flickr.com/photos/sam_wise/sets/72157632187727135/).

Also a friend sent me this quote: "You need intelligence and you need to look. You need a gaze, a wide gaze penetrating and roving - that's what's useful for art." - Toni Morrison

I do admit, coming back to site this week has been more thought provoking than my first 2ish months at site in that I have been questioning my effectiveness and usefulness a bit more. The things I already take for granted as easy or everyday will in the long run amaze me and widen my perspective. It all seems commonplace and at times monotonous now, but that will not always be the case.