Christmas in Cambodia

My first Christmas in Cambodia was awesome!



It started with getting a Christmas package from my Nonna and Poppop. They sent me candy canes, Christmas chocolates, a stocking, and best of all… Christmas cookies! Not just any Christmas cookie, they were Cherry Winks. I opened up the package with my friend Liz, who was visiting from the town over. I gave her, my host brother, Niza, and myself a cookie. Liz and I took a bite, looked at each other and then started crying. My host brother, Vann, not knowing the awesomeness of the cherry wink looked at me to ask what you call the cookie, then noticed that the Americans were having a moment and quickly looked away (Cambodians are not one’s with the public show of emotions).




On Christmas Eve I went to Koh Kong, with a bunch of other PCV’s. Koh Kong is a very tropical province that borders Thailand. It is really different than the other provinces that I have visited, and it was really beautiful. When I got there all the volunteers went out for a fancy dinner. I got pasta, and it was magical!





On Christmas day, the volunteers who live in Koh Kong organized it so that we got a two-story ferry out to a deserted island in the Gulf of Thailand. The ferry out there took us about two hours. Once we got there we all stripped down to our bathing suits (for the girls this was the most naked we had been in public for 6 months!) and jumped off the top of the ferry. Once everyone was in the water, some people swam to the island, and those of us who would have drowned took the little boat to the island. Then people swam, snorkeled, chatted, and sang Christmas carols. The water was crystal clear and the sand was white… it really was a unique Christmas.

Once we were done swimming we got back up on the ferry and had Philly Cheese steak sandwiches. They were delicious! Then we ferried back as we watched the sun set.

Even though I miss my family and friends so, so much, I was really lucky to get to spend Christmas with some really great people.

Get to Know Cambodia

Part 1

I have noticed that even though I write about the happenings in Cambodia, I have not given a lot of basic info about life here. So now I will try and fill in the blanks.

Bathrooms

There are 3 options of bathrooms 1) the full western toilet 2) A Cambodian-western toilet 3) the squatty.
A full western is a toilet just like in good ol’America. You have the porcelain thrown that flushes and you can use toilet paper. The toilet paper here is pink, because Cambodia has not yet gotten the memo that colored tp gives you UTI’s. Also, these fancy toilets (yes, fancy! They are usually only found in hotels) have a thing I lovingly call the Butt Blaster. The Butt Blaster is a hose located next to the toilet, and you use it to rinse off your booty and your pocket book after you use the bathroom.

The second option is the western toilet seat, which is what I have at my house. It still looks like a toilet in America, but it requires a little more effort because these toilets do not flush. To flush you must pour a bucket of water into the toilet. They also do not accommodate tp, so you have to do a splash and rinse with a bucket of water. When the situation requires more than a splash and rinse, you add soap to the equation. For this you have one had that is your soapy/washing hand and the other is your clean splashing/rinsing hand. After this is done, extreme hand washing is a must.

This same cleaning process is used for the final option, the Squatty. The squatty is basically a porcelain hole in the ground. There are two grippers for your feet/shoes and then a hole in the middle. The squatting position took sometime to adjust to, but if your hips can handle it, it is not that bad. Squatting is also the go to position when any Cambodian does not want to stand.

A day with Ming Own…

I have been a traveling fool lately, so this was the first weekend I had spent at my site in a few weeks and I was looking forward to it. Preparation for my Saturday started Friday night when I went to bed. I had the forethought to put my earplugs in the mosquito net with me so that I could block out the 5am chicken wake-up call. So at 5am this morning when the hens/cows/dogs all started waking up I popped in my earplugs (same ones I used in nursing school during my tests, I am convinced they have magical powers!) and managed to sleep until 8! To prove the magical powers of the ear plugs at around 7am Niza and Bpo opened my window and yelled “Bong Taylor! Bong Taylor!” for about 5 minutes, and the earplugs let me keep sleeping.

When I finally got out of bed I did my normal routine of bathroom and shower, brush teeth/floss/Listerine (little did I know that moving to Cambodia would give me the time I need to have great dental practices!) get dressed, and then sweep the house. Then I made oatmeal (on the weekends I cook myself breakfast) with crunchy peanut butter and ate it while watching Friends (The episode with Unagi). Niza and Bpo sat with me, so I shared my oatmeal with them.

Then Ming Own (Bpo’s mother, and my host aunt/neighbor) came in and asked if I wanted to go to the market. So I went to the market with her and she got meat and vegetables, while I got laundry detergent, fabric softener (first time I have used it and it was awesome, my clothes smell super good and are kinda soft too!), and a new dress. Since I did not have rice for breakfast Ming Own was convinced that I was still hungry so she got me dessert. It was this banana dessert that is one of my top 5 favorite Khmer desserts.

Then I came back to the house and was able to skype with my family. However I was somewhat distracted by a muddy Jack chasing a chicken into the house and leaving a combination of muddy puppy and chicken prints everywhere. Niza also got to say hi and impress my family with how many chocolate rolls she ate (half a pack). After saying bye to my family I did my weeks worth of laundry I had been avoiding, and used my new fabric softener. Then I mopped my house to remove the mud.

By then it was lunchtime. After lunch I repeated my morning routine of shower, brush teeth/floss/Listerine, get dressed, and then sweep the house. Then Ming Own came to my house with bon chio. Which is very tasty, and kind of looks like Cambodian omelet (but with no egg and made from rice). So we sat outside and hoovered bon chio. Then she said something I didn’t understand and all I got out of it was “go with her”. So I went with her. She ended up taking me to a rice field to show me her portion. It was beautiful. There were rice fields for miles and in the distance you could see mountains. Sometimes I get these “holy crap you are in Cambodia” moments, and seeing that view definitely induced a holy crap moment. It is the beginning of harvest season so the rice fields are still green and full. There was even a few people harvesting rice while we visited.

After that we went to pick up Bpo and Niza from school, and went to visit my host sisters family. I spoke with her dad (who has great English) about Cambodian healthcare (he is a doctor in Phnom Penh). He asked me if I would be interested in working with him on educating health center staff on infection control, and I couldn’t say yes fast enough. After talking for awhile I noticed it was beginning to rain so I went back to my house because my laundry was still outside. After bringing in my clothes I showered and got dressed in my dinner clothes (for dinner I wear long sleeve shirt and pants because the bugs are intense!). Now off to dinner!

Overall a good Saturday thanks to my unpredictable neighbor/aunt Ming Own.

Thanksgiving in Cambodia

For Thanksgiving all of the volunteers that live in Kampot got together for a Thanksgiving feast. The turkey came from my front yard, but I was lucky enough not to have anything to do with the killing process. We had mashed potatoes, stuffing, cranberry sauce, turkey, salad, bread, and apple crumple for dessert. It was delicious!