Out at Site

I’ve been at site for almost 2 weeks and now I finally have time to pre-write a blog on my computer at home so that it’s a bit more detailed than my other posts (I have plenty of free time now that’s I’m no longer in training!). First off, I live in the provincial town of Svay Rieng (SR), which is the province furthest south-east in Cambodia. The highway that goes through SR is the direct route that tourists take traveling to Ho Chi Min in Vietnam, so there are no shortages of big tourist busses cruising by when I ride my bike to the high school every day.

My house is actually REALLY nice and I’m not quite ‘roughing it’ the same way I was when I was living at my training house. My house here is a two-story concrete house, with very nice tile floors. It is a very big house, surrounded by fruit trees which my host dad planted himself when he moved here (including banana, coconut, and mango trees, which I can’t wait to eat when mango season comes in a few months!). There are plenty of hammocks to relax in, which I often do while reading a book. My room is on the second floor and is quite spacious. I have my own bathroom in my room with a western toilet, a shower (no more bucket showers for me!), and running water. My host-dad told me this is the only house in the neighborhood with running water (other families get their water from a well). When I moved in, the only thing in my room was a big bed with a comfy mattress, so I bought the rest of the furniture I needed from the market (which is literally a 3 minute walk from my house). I have now arranged my room around and feel quite comfortable with the desk, bookshelf, and dresser I purchased! I just have to put pictures up and I’ll be all set! Also, I have 24-hour electricity, which is very convenient. I honestly went from having one of the most rural houses during training to one of the nicest houses at site. I feel very lucky about my house, but even luckier about the family I am living with.

There are 6 people in my host family- host dad, mom, 9-year old brother, 15, 16, and 18/19-year old sisters (not sure how old the oldest one is). My host dad has been working for NGO’s for 17 years and speaks pretty good English, which is why he is able to afford such a nice house (NGO’s here pay much better money than other jobs in Cambodia). Unfortunately, he is looking for a job right now and hasn’t been able to find one for 2 months. I’m not exactly sure what happened with his last job. When he does find a job, it will most likely be in another province and he will only come home on the weekends, since there aren’t very many NGO’s here in SR. We’re all crossing our fingers. My host-mother is really funny and has a really high-pitched voice. She doesn’t speak any English, but we joke around in Khmai and she is really sweet. She is a very good cook and even made me French fries one night, which were ch-nyng (delicious!). My sisters are really sweet, although the older one is taking some time warming up to me. She dropped out of school after 7th grade and just does housework. Theavy, the 16 year old, is learning English and she asks me questions every day about what is grammatically correct. My 15-yr old sister is really funny and dramatic and loves to kiss me on the cheek, just to remind me she’s happy I’m here. My 9-yr old brother is a RIOT, and he cracks me up every day. He likes to eat packages of Khmai ramen noodles raw (that’s a popular snack here) and always offers some to me. He is super dramatic and likes to sing along to Khmai pop and dress up in sunglasses, pull his pants up to his chest, put on a backwards hat and rock out. Like I said, he’s hilarious and never ceases to amuse me. I really feel lucky to live with such a great family who has been so accommodating and generous! Volunteers spend a lot of time with their family (for the most part), so the family dynamic can really make or break the entire experience. I have absolutely no complaints!

As for my school situation, I am actually working at 2 schools- one is the high school, Hun Sen Chek, which is about 3-4 km from my house and along the main highway. The other is the Provincial Teacher Training Center (PTTC), where I will be teaching teachers who are training to become teachers (as the name suggests). I will be spending most of my time at the high school and haven’t even gone to the PTTC yet since it begins later than the high school. The fact that I am working at 2 schools has been a very delicate and complicated situation. The director at the PTTC is very strict and has made it very clear that he wants me at the school to develop the library, which is not what Peace Corps volunteers do. We develop human capacity, not materials. So this has been a huge source of frustration for me, especially since the first time I met him, he demanded that I spend half of my time there and half at the h.s. My co-teacher at the PTTC is the only English teacher there, and from what I’ve gathered, there isn’t much for me to do there. So I have ultimately decided to focus my attention at the high school. I have been trying to figure out how to incorporate the PTTC in my schedule, but so far, I have only managed to find 2 hours a week that don’t conflict with my time at the high school.

I am very excited about working at the high school. The school director seems like a really great guy, someone who wants to try to improve education for his students. He is very friendly and even speaks broken English (very rare for school directors since most are older and haven’t studied English). He is a younger man, maybe in his 40’s and spends most of his time at the school- even Sundays. Most of the teachers don’t speak English, but I have been speaking Khmai as much as possible with them, which they definitely get a kick out of! They all tell me I speak a lot of Khmai, especially for only studying 2 months, which is always nice to hear. I am working with 2 co-teachers right now, and probably one more starting next week. Pilot is one of my co-teachers and he is such a nice guy! He is 23 and speaks perfect English- he understands everything I say and responds with perfect grammar. His older sister, mother and father live in Salem, Oregon and he is planning on visiting them soon, or moving there- I’m not quite sure about this. Since I am only observing the first few weeks until I get the hang of things, I sit at the back of the class and watch. Pilot is a great teacher and also had experience working with Lindsay, the Peace Corps volunteer who worked at the h.s. before me. I am very excited to work with him. My other co-teacher, Phaneou, is also really great. His English isn’t as good, but he is a really helpful guy and is open to suggestions about teaching methods and so forth. He is 26 and finishing his last semester studying computer science at Svay Rieng University. He actually helped me reformat my computer so that I can plug in a wireless modem to my computer and use wireless Internet whenever I have free time and bring my laptop to school. He has also found a student at the university who is going to teach me Khmai for 4 hours a week, which is going to start next week. As for his teaching, I think there is definitely room for improvement (he speaks a lot of Khmai during English class), but I think we will be able to work well together. I am at the h.s. usually from 7-10/11 Mon-Fri and Monday afternoon. Right now, I’m at the PTTC only on Wednesday afternoons, but that is still TBD.

It’s only been a few days of observing the classes and I am already anxious to begin teaching! Every time I hear the teacher teaching something incorrectly, I immediately want to chime in and correct him. But I know I have to be patient and continue to observe until I feel like I’m ready to start teaching. Peace Corps suggests at least one month of observation, but I am almost positive I will start teaching sooner than that. As for what I do with the rest of my time, I spend A LOT of time reading. I also have been getting back into a running routine, which is difficult after being inactive for 2 months during training. But I have been running every day, and feel a lot better and more energetic. Although the constant and unpredictable afternoon rain definitely makes it difficult to form a routine- I just have to go whenever there’s a break in the rain. I’ve also been making oatmeal every morning and chopping up some fresh fruit to go along, which always starts the day off right. But I’m running out of oatmeal and it’s only available in Phnom Penh, so I’m definitely going to have to scale back on that.

As for being alone at site, it’s a difficult thing. I definitely miss the closeness of the other volunteers. Whether it is the awful diarrhea from an unidentifiable source, a new triumph or breakthrough, or that craving for all that is familiar, the PCV’s can relate. So not being able to see my close friends sucks. But I am lucky to have some pretty cool people in my province and I know I can see them whenever I want, so that is comforting.

And so that is life in Kampuchea in a nutshell. I am still wrapping my head around exactly what it is I am doing here. I was watching Blood Diamond the other day on my laptop and in one part, Leonardo DiCaprio says something like “The Peace Corps types only stick around long enough to figure out they can’t really do anything at all.” I found that mildly entertaining until I thought about that for a moment. What am I really going to accomplish in 2 years? Sure it’s a long time, but long enough to do anything? Well, I’m still figuring that out. To be continued…