one a day

I've been focusing my time on trying to capture something interesting everyday. It can all be found here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/sam_wise/

Some highlights are...

Phnom Penh

Outside PP

Election Day - Prey Veng

Jawng Pawm - Prey Veng

My tutor, co-teacher, friend, and Khmer father

Always an artist during our tutoring sessions

Sam Ang is somewhat of a renaissance man. I met him my first week at site as a suggested tutor from a former volunteer at my site. His command of the English language was astounding as was his vast vocabulary. His resume includes teaching at the Regional Teacher Training Center, Director of a Primary School, private tutor to anyone who requests his help, English Teacher, NGO Consultant, Author/Historian (has written one book about the history of Ba Phnom – his hometown and a biography coming soon), Co-Founder of a traditional Khmer Dancing organization, Houdini at escaping death (31 times mostly during the Khmer Rouge), fisherman, water-bearer (walked miles to get water for his family), and many more jobs I’m not even aware of. Not only did he tutor me, but he introduced me to one of his free private classes which I soon took on co-teaching with him. Over the last year, he has been a consistent presence in my life, someone to ask any and all language questions, cultural confusions, teaching frustrations and reassuring company. He is a great teacher who cares about each of his students and has been offering free private classes in Prey Veng town since 1996. He would commute here from his hometown 30 kilometers every week and stay here, away from his family, to serve his students. Last week, he told his students that he would no longer be coming as it was time to dedicate his attention to his family. His daughter was married earlier in the year to a Khmer-American (the wedding he asked me to participate in as a bridesmaid) and he and his wife were getting the opportunity to visit her in the Boston area this summer. I felt the sadness and tears of the students who were losing probably the best English teacher they’ve had or will have the opportunity to learn from.  I also would miss him undoubtedly, but it was hard to grasp what these students were losing. I will definitely miss our conversations and time together, but I can find another tutor and like all things in Cambodia, I will adapt to the change as a short time resident of this community. He is an embodiment of continual learning which is something not often valued in Khmer culture. He uses every interaction with his English speaking students to learn new words and phrases. He always has reference books and dictionaries handy to learn words he has yet to encounter. He tirelessly works for a better quality of life for his family.

The wall in his classroom where he writes down vocabulary he learns

At 63 years old, he never stops, waking up at 5 am (or earlier) everyday to write, work on his farms, teach or whatever else comes his way.

Visiting Sam Ang in Ba Phnom

I asked some of his students to describe why Sam Ang is important to them. This is what they said (with some edits for grammar by me):

“He asked me to show my ability to my classmates. He made me know who I am…He would travel far from his family in order to teach us. If he could keep teaching me, my destiny would be brilliant. He always makes me feel happy even if he’s in the USA or any particular place.”

“He’s a strict person also, when he is angry. So all of his students love him and miss him when he goes. He’s very friendly and funny with his students and other people.”

“I was a lazy student before, but when I came to study with him, my habits changed…He’s a highly knowledgeable teacher and his high morality.”

“Sometimes when he is sick, he still teaches me if he can. I also learn from him about living. He never blames me when I did something wrong, he always corrects me…I learn a lot about history of Cambodia from him. I think he is the best teacher.”

“I think that teacher Sam Ang is very important for me. Why I say like that? Because he is a best teacher. And he always gives a lot of advice for me, taught grammar, gave new information to me, encourage me all the time, taught about social fabrics of today and pronunciation like a native. One more thing is he always respects time, respects other and himself all of the time. And he is a man of his word.”

With a couple students in front of his classroom, he's been teaching here since 1996

baby you're a firework

I will divert your attention to my fellow PCVs blog that I guest blogged on this week: http://60x27.com/2013/07/07/happy-birthday-america/

Check out some additional pictures below from the same event. Happy Birthday America!! Man, you're getting old.

The tent for the official reception

Ryan posing with the contortionists blending right in

Meg and I at the photo op with the Ambassador's armored Suburban

Garrett trying to consume all 3 ice creams because PCVs never let free food go to waste

Mike and Ryan at the Harley Davidson photo op

Peace Chorus buddies: Maria, Garrett, Leah and Ryan

when people stop being polite...and start getting real

We feel fairly safe entering the world everyday without brutal honesty and judgement hitting us in the face. We do our best to project ourselves confidently through our actions, speech and appearance, and hope to receive mostly positive responses. Most of us desire critical feedback, but only when requested, in order to grow and make improvements.

I was working on a post about the things in my current life that I have become accustomed to living in a foreign culture that would still sound rather strange to others, but I put those thoughts on hold to address one of my biggest challenges I still face living here. This is something that I have not been able to get used to as merely a cultural difference. I have addressed appearance and image in prior posts, but it’s often on my mind and I believe my thoughts on the issue to be evolving the longer I am here. I hope that looking back on this blog, it will be representative of reflections that dominate my mind as will the frequency with which I address the most pervasive themes in my everyday life.

I realized recently that I have become more self-conscious when it comes to my physical appearance than I remember being in the last 8 or so years of my life. This has become more dominant in the past month or so, whereas at the beginning of my time in Cambodia and at site the constant comments about appearance didn’t quite penetrate my subconscious. When I first arrived, entering the market meant comments on my pointy nose and white skin (highly desirable traits) were coming from every which way contributing to how sa-at (beautiful) I was considered. While this got tiring and I even complained about constantly hearing how beautiful I was, it never quite bothered me the way it does when I’m told I am toe-at (fat). Other than being a rather unfortunate sounding word in Khmer, the labeling and judgement I assume comes with this comment is troublesome. Here being called fat is not the same as if a stranger were to do so in America, but coming from American culture, it doesn’t hurt any less when this word is slung at me. At first, I would always explain that I’m just bigger than Khmer people and I’m normal sized in other cultures, but when you hear this word often enough, it makes you wonder. I should explain that it’s not meant as an insult here; people would prefer to not be so skinny but their childhood nourishment of mostly rice stunts their growth quite a bit. Another thing to note is one day you may be fat, but the next you could be skinny again. I even start to believe that it’s possible I visibly gained 5 pounds from one day to the next.

When people are constantly commenting on my appearance or clearly sizing me up with their eyes, my gaze turns inward more than ever. Comments like these have felt more noticeable as of late because the receiving line of housewives and yeays (grandmas) that keep my host sister company as she works have become more vocal. The front of my house is my host sister’s tailoring business. She sits at all hours of the day at her sewing machine working. The front of our house thus serves as a gathering point for women, babies, yeays and anyone else who’s looking for a place to gossip and ongui lang (sit-play). Any time I exit the house, I am subject to their comments which used to me more asking where I was going and at this point are strictly regarding my appearance. This can get old quick and obviously kind of frustrating. My host sister is very understanding of difference and Western culture in a way that most Khmer people aren’t, so she is not one to launch these comments at me. However, this doesn’t lessen the onslaught from the others. Fellow PCVs and I have expressed concern that we will also lack the filter expected in American culture upon returning home and will blurt out blunt judgements as we have become accustomed to receiving here.

I started to think back on the last year before I moved to Cambodia and how my perception of my body image could have changed so drastically in this transition. Prior to this, my vanity was under my own control. I was never big into mirrors and didn’t spend too much time in front of them. I would spend 5-10 minutes getting ready every morning; I would dress myself without a mirror (maybe a bad choice), put up my hair and add some jewelry. I used clothing and jewelry to express myself and my individuality to my students, within the limits of business casual, who were my audience everyday. I would spend the next 12ish hours focused on my work, my students, my lessons, my co-workers, food (Canto6), and daily tasks. My own appearance didn’t enter those 12 hours as I wouldn’t hear comments (aside from the occasional 7^th grader pointing out a zit on your face) about my looks and my mind and body were completely consumed by my job. Besides, in American culture, friends and co-workers are expected to compliment rather than insult. This weekend on a bike ride, I was listening to a TED talk titled “What is beauty?” where a model was giving her thoughts on the modeling industry’s standard of beauty. She remarked on how the public is unaware that models are in actuality the most insecure women on the planet. She said she feels insecure because she has to think about what she looks like everyday. This comment resonated with my current situation because I effectively have to put on armor before exiting my room each day in preparation for what someone might say about me. Their looks and opinions, whether or not they are founded in truth, are the reality of my life as a strange foreigner in a superficially homogeneous culture. My difference draws attention and interest everywhere I go; I’m still trying to figure out how to accept that.

This is my response for the time being

"j-factor": velociraptors and girl's empowerment

You may wonder what these things have in common. The genius volunteers of Prey Veng province found a way to join them together, while some remained skeptical. When planning our province's first Camp G.L.O.W. (Girls Leading Our World), we decided to keep it as simple as possible: we kept it to 1 night and 2 days and tried to utilize the resources PV has to offer us. We invited an American volunteer with Mennonite Central Committee to show the girls how to use art to illustrate their strengths, a KOICA (Korea's PC) volunteer to lead a session on healthy habits, Youth Council of Cambodia to discuss leadership, Khmer friends and counterparts to explain healthy relationships and signs of domestic abuse, a nearby Youthstar volunteer (Khmer volunteer organization) to discuss the importance of volunteering in their own communities, and an American friend working for KHANA in Phnom Penh to lead a session on reproductive health. Where needed the volunteers jumped in to lead sessions on exercise, yoga, nighttime games in the park (water balloon toss and an intense game of soccer), "girly bonding" (friendship bracelet making and painting nails extravaganza), career and educational opportunities and the highlight for many - a newspaper fashion show which took place within the last 30 minutes of the camp. The 5 volunteers from across Prey Veng province came with an entourage of 10 girls each and a counterpart to help facilitate activities as the majority of the camp was conducted in Khmer.

The higher education/career planning workshop

During the abusive relationships session, the girls completed the phrases "Love is..." and "Love is not..."

It was a whirlwhind 32 hours; the high of being surrounded by fifty 10th-12th grade girls, working with 4 other volunteers and various counterparts and facilitators, coordinating materials for sessions and keeping to a tight schedule was a huge change of pace from the last 10 months of work. I had some flashes back to the last two years when I took my 7th graders in Boston on their year end trip to Philadelphia. The stresses were different, but the youthful exuberance of working with a large group of engaged students was very reminiscent. Although we taped the doors of our girls as we did our good night check, I wasn't concerned they would try to sneak out to explore the town like my rambunctious middle schoolers. Similarly, it was the first time many of these girls had been to Prey Veng town, which is only roughly 40 km from the farthest village, and it was the first time many of my 7th graders had seen a city beyond Boston. It was an opportunity for the girls to step out of their comfort zone as most have never spent the night away from their home. They made new friends and demonstrated trust  for them within hours of meeting one another when it came to discussing sensitive topics and sharing a hotel room. Most importantly, it was a rare environment separate from male students, siblings and parents to be themselves and talk about topics that are not usually open to discussion. They had the opportunity to have their voice be heard and to receive answers from adults who are there to answer their questions and support them.

A student explaining her strengths from her "power collage"

My crew of girls, 8 come from the orphange I work at and 2 are my teacher trainees

Often times I wonder how my experience as a trained teacher specifically for American "No Excuses" charter schools comes into play in the Cambodian education system. The style of teaching and learning the students are accustomed to is far from my Boston classroom for the last 3 years. Something my colleagues and I would try to incorporate into every lesson and the structure of our class in America is something called "J-factor" which stands for "Joy Factor". It always seemed kind of sad that I had to plan joy into my classes because I always thought the joy they should get from learning should be sufficient. I used my stuffed animal (his name is "Tray", you can see him below) as a student in my classes to show them that I'm not always so serious. The idea is that this "J-factor" should keep the students interested and engaged because they're having some fun with their learning. I often forget that Cambodian students, like all kids, just want to have some fun as they are very obedient and respectful of the teacher (for the most part) seemingly naturally. Nonetheless, that's where our friend the velociraptor comes in...Some of us in Prey Veng call ourselves "the Prey Veng velociraptors" for alliterative purposes and because who doesn't love dinosaurs? When designing the shirt we decided that the dino should be included somewhere in a subtle fashion. Although I for some reason see pink as an evil color, I gave into this "Barbie" pink which the girls were thrilled about. I think the combination of the subtle dinosaur on a background of hot pink lava turned out rather well. Initially we didn't much consider how the girls would take to our beloved dinosaur, but within the first few minutes of the camp, Diana began to explain the velociraptor to the girls. Some quickly embraced it by drawing it onto their name tags while others said they were afraid of it even though we tried to explain that they are extinct. We started making velociraptor roars intermittently throughout the camp and the girls quickly followed suit mimicking our dinosaur cry. I think of it as one of those camp "inside jokes" that the girls will take back to their communities and laugh over with their friends. It was also a chance for the girls do get a little weird in an environment where that was encouraged.

Tray came to Cambodia to meet his friend the velociraptor, even my 20 year old teacher trainees like him

The G.L.O.W. Velociraptors doing their best dinosaur cry

I want to send the gratitude from all the girls, the volunteers and our Khmer counterparts to the friends and family who donated to make this camp possible. It was a very memorable weekend for us all and it wouldn't have been possible without you.

I will be adding all the pictures from the Camp to my Flickr this coming weekend, until then my friend and fellow blogger, Kirk, kept a "live blog" of the action as it occurred. Check out his blog for many entries of succinct explanations (something I'm not good at) and great visuals. http://60x27.com/

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/