So here we are.....(crickets) or more appropriately (frogs croaking)....
Last weekend we were in Phnom Pehn for our swear-ceremony. It was a lot of fun with lots of dairy consumption (my last bites of pizza before the three month long lock down), laughs over beers, and massages ($7 for a 60 minute Thai massage-heaven! I got one two days in a row....shhh).
The swear in ceremony was in the NIE (National Institute of Education) which is a very nice building in Phnom Pehn. The minister of education as well as the U.S. Ambassador to Cambodia both gave speeches (check out my photo with the both of them...yea, I was feeling pretty important that day!) and many returned peace corps volunteers, other expatriates, and all our school directors were in the audience. It was pretty fun!
The day after swear in it was time to say our good-byes and head out to site. It was a little bit sad and strange saying good-bye to my fellow trainees knowing that I wouldn't see the majority of them for longer than I have even known them. For two months I had spent every day with them- struggling through four hours of Khmer language every morning and making stupid jokes to keep each other awake during our long meetings after lunch when everyone else in the country seemed to be napping to escape the heat. It was daunting to let go of the escape of being able to walk next door to my next trainees house, or the short bike ride to the market where we could share a coconut (and maybe a beer when we were feeling crazy) and vent about how I just couldn't sit through another Peace Corps safety session..how how much I really missed toilet paper.
So the morning came where it was time to pack up and jump on the bus. I was lucky to have 2 other PCV's (Peace Corps Volunteers) on my bus. I hopped off at my site with my huge western backpack, bags of western groceries (oatmeal, peanut butter, and mac and cheese for a lonely day), and my yoga mat - and said hello to my new home. This time around, it didn't seem so small and claustrophobic, in fact, it looked pretty big! I had only been there for one weekend before, so I headed down my little dirt road hoping that my memory served me correctly and I would find my new home. While walking down my muddy dirt road I came across a pack of half naked five year olds. On cue they started screaming 'HELLO! HELLO! AMERICAN! HELLO WHAT”S YOUR NAME! WHERE DO YOU GO?” and they walked me all the way home. Haha. I was quite the spectacle! And it was a really nice way to be welcomed into my new community.
My family was there to greet me- two older sisters (age 40, and 43) one of their husbands, and a grandpa and showed me my room. My room is so awesome- it's huge and has a big beautiful bed (same Peace Corps “mattress” and a nice wooden desk and....electricity! Woot woot!. I immediately unpacked and it already feels like my room. I have my books and DVDs all lined up, my world map, and I'm trying to find a creative way to put up my pictures. I have a really nice bathroom with running water and a toilet that flushes- I'm the envy of all my fellow PCV-ers.
School hasn't officially started but I showed up the last few days for the school clean up. (Yes, here the students come to school a week early to clean...can you imagine that happening on Mercer Island?) Before the clean-up the students all line up according to their grade while the director made announcements. I was just sitting there in silence and kind of zoning out since I couldn't understand half of what was being said. Then all of a sudden the school director shoves the microphone in my face and tells me to introduce myself in Khmer. So I got up and made a really awkward speech in front of two thousand students in Khmer...hopefully I gave them something to laugh about in their day.
All in all things haven't been as scary as I thought. I've been keeping busy going to the market in the morning and making friends with the market ladies. I even have a free hook up at the bike parking stand – that saves me 300 riel! (about 8 cents). There is this one lady named Sutjeeah that sells vegetables in the market that is my homie. I go to her house in the afternoons and chat with her and her 18 year old daughter. I also go on long bike rides...the other day I was laying in my room with nothing to do, and I probably would have slept away the day if I didn't force myself to get out of the house. So I planned on going to the market to go chat, then at the last minute decided to take a left and discover the rice fields. I ended riding for over an hour in the fields. Its so beautiful out there- just green fields and rivers and palm trees that go on forever. That's also where the serious poverty is. People just live in homemade huts that don't even have a bathroom (which is why you don't go swimming in their streams).
I'm also very lucky because my site was one of the training villages for the volunteers last year. This is great because people in the community are very aware and supportive of Peace Corps and had some people very excited to meet me (i.e. vegetable lady). It's also great because lots of volunteers come back to visit their training families. Just today two volunteers visited and I got to crash their lunches with their families, and on Friday another volunteer is coming to visit. The other K3's are jealous of this as well I think.
Well I seemed to have written a short story so I'll leave it at that for now. I'm really excited to be here, and I think I have some tricks up my sleeve to fill my free time to keep myself from going crazy (yoga and poetry in the jungles of Cambodia?...and lots of DVDs from the Russian Market). So i'm feeling really positive...although it also means that I need your care packages/emails/letters more than ever. =) I love you guys! Thanks for all your support and don't forget about me!
Haha, I wish people would yell at me nice way every day when I go off to work. Instead I accidentally trip in the neighbors cat that is in some kind of comatose state? Look out for a care package. Hold on there, and if you need to, try to watch Spice World. That makes EVERYONE feel better!! :)
ReplyDeleteBeautiful story-you sound as if you landed on your feet in a wonderful place! How fun to be escorted by those darling little kids announcing your arrival to all. You write so well that I could picture it all. I look forward to your next update. Take Care.
ReplyDeleteKeiko, it is an all great story and your picture which you contrived to us. But it is not so easy for you to move on every day at your new place. It is an interesting to hear that you and students are coming to school to clean up the room which is same as culture that I grown up in Japan. I didn’t really like it, but it was normal for us. But I also think like you that Mercer Island kids (or all American kids) will be very upset to hear of this school system. I told you that I sent you the big package and I have one more package to go soon. My last trip to Japan with your father, he was so popular in Ibusuki at Taiyo. Many kids were looking at your father. Say ‘Hi'for me to your neighborhood of half naked children. Speak to them in Japanese next time!!!! Mom, Dad and Gino are thinking of you very day and your great friends here and everywhere, too. Take care, love mom
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