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!

The Water Festival

From what I hear, Cambodia made the world news today. So I thought I would write and say that I am ok. I was not in Phnom Penh for Water Festival. Neither myself or any other Peace Corps volunteer or staff was harmed at the festival.


http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/23/world/asia/23cambodia.html

Water Festival is a big deal here. I have heard that over 3 million people travel to Phnom Penh to celebrate. Which is a crazy amount of people. The festival includes a lot of parties, concerts, and boat races. The story that I have heard about the event (which may or may not be true, but is what I have been told) is that there was a concert on Diamond island, that a lot of people attended. At some point a few people passed out, and people started to panic and run towards the bridge. The bridge is very small and could not accommodate the crowd so police used water hoses to push the people back. However there were exposed electrical wires because of the concert. Because of the water people starting getting electrocuted. And it is rumored that some people were afraid the bridge was falling because there were so many people. The panic got worse and people began jumping into the water, however most Khmer people can not swim.

It was a horrible accident, and we are all very sad to hear that it happened. It seems to be affecting people all over Cambodia. My host brother was unable to contact his cousin who attended water festival, so he traveled to Phnom Penh today to find him. Which he did, and he is fine. This seems to be a common problem right now. Many people are concerned about extended family, and everyone is contacting everyone else to check on them.

Hun Sen has declared today and tomorrow national days of mourning and has decided to give the families of the victims money to help them. Send good thoughts this way.

3 months 3 weeks and 5 days

3 months 3 weeks and 5 days is how long I lasted in Cambodia without getting sick. Luckily I just had a solid case of food poisoning, which has a pretty short time line.

So this is how it went…. Last week I went to Phnom Penh (the capital of Cambodia and where Peace Corps office is) for a meeting. There were a lot of other volunteers there. It was great to see people that I had not seen for a month. We were able to relax, trade stories, and eat western food! Well it turns out that even in the big city you can still eat bad food. On Sunday I got on a van that was heading the direction of my village. The van ended up making me wait a long time for various reasons, but what was in reality a 2-hour ride took us 5 hours. By the time I got to my house my stomach was hurting bad.

I dropped off my stuff at the house, and went to my host family’s house for dinner. But my stomach was hurting so bad I was pacing around the house. The neighbor came over and asked how I was, and I said “oohh chhooe-poa” (ooohh stomachache). They responded with the amount of concern that I was hoping for. Then dinner was ready (at this point I thought maybe I was just really hungry and that’s why my stomach was hurting). I took one bite of rice and the situation went from bad to worse. I immediately had to run over to the mud, as my body said no to the rice.

After that, my host sister laid me down on a cot in their house and this was went the crowd started to grow. First of all, in Cambodia when someone is sick or having any kind of “episode” they do this pinching type thing to the sick persons body. It is kind of like a massage but a little more violent and all over your body. So while I was wishing for death, I had 3 women massaging me, 1 woman on each arm, and 1 rubbing my legs. The crowd of on lookers included (but not limited to…) both host siblings, their child, my host sisters parents, the neighbor and her husband, the other neighbor and her husband and parents, another neighbor, and a few other small children.

My host siblings are both in the medical field, and my host sister’s dad is a doctor. They immediately called him to come to the house because the American is dying. So in between my exorcist-like vomiting episodes, I had people checking my blood pressure, pulse, and temperature. And when I was actively getting sick I had (again) one woman holding each arm, another holding the bucket, and another woman handing me water to rinse with. It was a family event.

When I was able to get myself off of the cot and back to my house all the adults came with me. After the worst of the food poisoning storm was over, it was decided that I should be “coined’. This is when a person has Tiger Balm (similar to Vicks Vapor Rub) rubbed on them and then a hard object (in my case the lid to the tiger balm) is rubbed over the skin in lines. In Cambodia it is thought that this can cure many different ailments. When in my opinion it just is just rubbing Vicks all over and busting capillaries. It leaves you looking pretty tigery. But by this point in the evening, they could have told me they were going to shave my head, and I wouldn’t have had the energy to put up a fight… so I was coined for the first time.




That night my host siblings and their daughter slept outside my bedroom, and Jack slept on the rug outside my door. And with their help I survived the night.

The next day I felt much better, but I spent the rest of the week sleeping and trying to regain an appetite. My sickness was talk of the town for the week, and many people came up to me and told me what symptoms I had. And if you were wondering, it is not fun to have people come up and remind you of the hours you spent in the fetal position. But now things are getting back to normal and I am back to eating full meals!

The great cooking adventures of a Peace Corps Volunteer... Part 2

While I was in Kampot provincial town this past weekend, I bought the fixings for an American meal. My host family had asked me a few times if I could cook them American food, so I decided to give it a try! I bought spaghetti, tomato sauce, peas, and bread.

Liz, a fellow PCV (Peace Corps Volunteer) who lives about 10k away, came into town to use my bank and decided to stay for the dinner festivities. It ended up pouring rain, and my host family still cooked rice and pumpkin (which is my favorite dish right now… its pumpkin and pork, and very delicious!), but we still had an American meal.



When first arriving in Cambodia, I quickly learned the saying “ah-che” which translates to “I don’t know how to eat this,” a phrase that every volunteer frequently uses in the first month of Cambodian food. Well upon seeing the pasta my host family looked at me and said “ah-che”. Liz and I got a kick out of it to say the least!
The spaghetti was somewhat well received. Everyone tried it, even the neighbors. There were many questioning looks, confused faces, and laughter.





...My host families faces when we explained what everything was




...First bite

We even gave some to Jack to see if he liked it, and he did!

Jack!

There is a new character in my Cambodian adventure… a puppy! His name is Jack and he is a Cambodian puppy (i.e. a mix of other mixed dogs). He is about 5 pounds of fumbling cuteness. My host family (having noticed how excited I get whenever puppies are around) brought him home one day.

Just hanging out with the girls…

I thought I should introduce some of the people I spend my days with, starting with the women. My host big sister is 27, her name is hard for me to remember and to spell. Mostly it is hard to remember because I hardly hear her name. She has a 3 year-old daughter named Daraniza, and people call my host sister “mother of daraniza” (ma niza) or “big sister” (bong sa-rye), which is what I call her. One of the neighbors is a girl who is 21, who lives with her husband and their beautiful little baby girl. She does not speak any English, so it forces me to speak my broken Khmer to her, but she is funny and super stylish! Then there is another neighbor, who I call “aunt” (ming). She lives next door with a lot of people, including her husband and daughter named Bpo. Bpo is 6 years-old and a ball of energy.

From left to right… Bpo is sleeping (which is a rarity), my host aunt neighbor, then my host big sister in the hammock.



This is my younger neighbor and her daughter.



This is my host aunt neighbor.


And Niza wanted me to take a picture of her on her bike.

The great cooking adventures of a Peace Corps Volunteer

This weekend two other volunteers came to my house for some good old-fashioned American cooking! We made black bean burgers and no-bake cookies. Well… we made modified black bean burgers and no-bake cookies. The black bean burgers called for chives and thyme, which I do not have at my market so instead was used green unions. Considering we forgot to add peppers, salt, and the fact that we did not have buns to eat them on, they turned out pretty good! Even though they were more like bean patties with unions, I still like it! Plus it was a meal that did not include rice so I was even happier!

The no-bake cookies were heavenly. However, they too took some creativity. I do not have chocolate at my market so instead I used powdered Milo (kinda like Ovaltine) and sugar. We left out vanilla, because once again… I don’t have that here. And because I do not have a refrigerator, I bought a block of ice, put it in a cooler, then put the cookie globs on plates on top of the ice. They required a spoon to eat, but the combination of chocolate powder, sugar, peanut butter is always a winner in my eyes! I have big plans of making them again in the near future and possibly just leaving it as one big blob and going to town!

Getting my nails did!

10/6/10

Today I went with my host big sister and her daughter to get our nails done. To give you an idea of the state of my toes before today, I was still wearing the same toe nail polish that I was wearing in America. Mom and I went and got our nails done together a few weeks before I ventured off to Cambodia (and when I say “wearing” I mean, I had some of the color left on both big toes, but that is it). After my host family noticed the state of my toes, they said I should get my toes painted. I had always tried to avoid this, but today I thought “what the heck”. So I went.
We went to the nail and hair shop/hut down the street. I sat in a plastic chair and she went to work. It was oddly nostalgic. Sitting in a shop with your sibling (in this case a host sibling), where they are talking a different language, and having your nails done. In the end, I walked out with my toes painted and my host sister’s daughter got her hands and toes done (she is 4 years old) and having only paid 1,000 riel (about 25 cents). My toes were painted half pink and half silver glitter. Now in America this would look pretty trashy, but here I actually fit in better with my nails glitterized.
This is now how my feet look in Cambodia... flashy toenails and a killer chaco tan line!


This is me in front of my house in Tany district, Kampot Province, Cambodia

“Come see our American!”

10/4/10

Monday through Friday from 8-11 I go to the health center. It is a large health center that is next to the referral hospital for the area (there are 4 buildings total, all facing each other with a courtyard in the middle). Because I am still learning the language and getting my routine down, Peace Corps has advised us to observe the clinic for 3 months prior to starting any projects. Giving the clinic staff time to get to know us, and not feel threatened by our presence. As a result, the 3 hours I spend at the clinic currently involves a lot of sitting and small talk.
The chief of my health center, knowing that I currently can only sit, study, and chat decided to give me my own office. A very kind gesture, yes. However, My office includes a desk, a chair, a fan (which I LOVE), and a window. The window has bars to the outside walkway. Well people have taken to standing in front of my window and having their favorite pastime “watching the American”. It is very similar to when we go to the zoo. People come and watch me as I sit behind the bars. It’s weird. But I do get to sit in front of the fan while they stare!

French Fries

9/30/10
Today my host big sister made French fries for lunch, so I had French fries with my rice for lunch and it was beautiful. I kept saying how great they were, and having everyone try them, and then asking them if they like them. My host family thought I was crazy. Then they asked me if I wanted French fries everyday. It was, to say the least, a very tough decision, but I told them “No, I would be fat” but I quickly followed it up with “but every once in awhile is good!”



This is a picture of my host big sister's daughter. Her name is Daraniza, and she is 3 years old. She is super cute and a total drama queen!

The Great Laundry Day of 2010

9/29/10
Today was laundry day. Excuse me… the laundry day of all laundry days! I had not done laundry in about 2 weeks, which is crazy talk in the world of PCV life. So instead of taking my afternoon nap I did laundry all afternoon. It took me about 2 and half hours, of squatting in the bathroom and scrubbing clothes my clothes, but I did it.

However that evening it looked like it was going to rain, so I had to move everything inside. I currently have laundry in various places around the house. Including a laundry line completely dedicated to underwear going through the kitchen. Then it not only ended up raining, it down poured. I was sitting up at my host family’s private clinic, listening to the rain hitting the tin roof (which is super loud, if you aren’t used to it), when I started worrying about leaks in my house. So I wrapped myself up in my raincoat (thank you Stephen Lush for the best raincoat a PCV could ask for), and ran back to the house.

That was where I found that the basin in the bathroom (that holds all the water) had overflowed (it has piping that collects rain water from outside) into the kitchen, leaving 2 inches of water in the kitchen and still going. I had no clue what to do. So I went to the front door and yelled “Chewy Pong!” (“Help!”). My host brother walked up to me, and because I have no clue how to explain that in Khmer, I just lead him to the kitchen. And he said “oh!”

It took the efforts of myself, my host brother, and my host sister to try and mop up the water. We ended up using a combination of just kicking the water into the bathroom (where there is a drain), scooping it up with a dustpan, and soaking it up with rugs. Surprisingly the dustpan worked the best.

**Correction: It has been brought to my attention that the "best raincoat a PCV could ask for" was a gift from Stephen and Lindsey. So thank you to my best sister and my best brother-in-law.

Pumpkin Spice Pancakes

9/27/10
I am an official Peace Corps volunteer now, and so you may be asking yourself “well what is the next step?”

The next step was to get to my permanent site and start volunteering. Easier said than done. My site is along the road that the buses take, so some other volunteers going to Kampot and myself decided to take the bus. We were not in a hurry so we got tickets for the 1:45 bus (the latest bus leaving Phnom Penh). I got to the bus station, with my backpack, two handbags, and my purse. In them were tons of clothes, books, movies, and various other supplies I would need for the next 3 months (for the first three months of our stay at permanent site, we are not allowed to leave our province, so it requires some preparation). The bus trip is approximately 5.5 hours from Phnom Penh to Kampot, but I was planning on getting off when we passed through my town, which was about 2.5 hours into the trip.

Well about 45 minutes into the trip the buss broke down. Crap. But then after about 15 minutes it started working again! Yay! But it was a fake out. After another 20 minutes it broke down again. But this time it broke down good. So we all got off the bus, to wait for another bus to come get us. We ended up waiting about 2 hours. This would not have been such an issue if I was more acquainted with my permanent site, because the delay in the bus ride made it just dark enough outside that I could not recognize my site until we had passed it. It went like this… “This may be my site… maybe?... Yep that was it.” Luckily another volunteer was in the same boat, because it was even darker by the time we got to her village. So we just stayed on the bus for another 2.5 hours and went all the way to the provincial town in Kampot. Which did allow us to have a night in a hotel, and to wake up the next morning and have pumpkin spice pancakes. You read right… Pumpkin spice pancakes.





There is a western restaurant in Kampot called Sisters. It was opened by some women who were raised in an orphanage and who send a portion of their profits to orphanages in the community. There are a couple of Sisters restaurants in Cambodia, and the owners are all women who are friends from the same orphanage.

After the pancakes the other volunteer and I managed to organize a taxi to our villages.

Once I got to my village I was reunited with my duffel and trunk! It was beautiful! When we first got to Cambodia (I mean first thing, like we walked off the plane), Peace Corps asked us to pack a backpack of things we want for training and the rest of our stuff will stay with Peace Corps. So I have not had the majority of things that I brought to Cambodia. But now that I am at my permanent site, I have all my belongings. It was actually a little overwhelming! I have not had this many possessions in over two months.

The first thing I did was unpack my books. My host family gave me a bookshelf, which I immediately filled up with novels, health reference books, and dvd’s. Then I decided to take a shower to cool off. This was when I noticed that none of my host family’s stuff was in the house. Later that day I asked them were their things were, and they told me that they moved into their private clinic, which is just about 20 yards away, by the main road. This means that I have the whole house to myself. A big change from what I had grown accustomed to. This is a very kind gesture, and I was very, very appreciative. The house has two rooms, one room has a corner closed off as my bedroom, and the other room is the kitchen/eating area. The bathroom is off of the kitchen. They also installed a shower! Shower is a strong word, it is really just a showerhead, but it is glorious. I have not figured out how it works, but I am enjoying it while it lasts!



My first afternoon in my new site, I spent watching Avatar with my host brother’s brother-in-law and a couple of neighbors. The brother-in-law brought over his computer and asked me if I like movies. So of course I said yes. It was interesting watching an American movie with people who have never been to America. They kept asking me if certain things were “real” and if America had them. Such as the lab and the helicopters in the movie. They did seem disappointed when I told them that we did not have them and that they were not real.

I plan on taking pictures soon, so that you can actually see what I am talking about!

It has become very real that I have just started my routine that I will have for the next two years. Every time I meet someone new (which is constantly) I hear someone say “bi chnam” (two years). Reminding me that I will be here for two years, which is totally overwhelming. But I am trying to look at this as an opportunity rather than one big booty of a challenge. I hope all is well in America. I miss you all so very much! Stay happy and healthy, and enjoy that air conditioning and recognizable food.

With love,
Tay

Health Fair

As a part of our training we were asked to have a community project. The trainees in my villages decided to have a Community Health Fair. There were 3 stations: Self Defense, Frisbee, and Hand washing with healthy snacks. I will give you one guess as to which station was my contribution to the fair... haha yes the hand washing with snacks!

I had gone to the market and bought two tubs for a hand washing station, that the kids would stop at to wash their hands before they were allowed to get a snack because "It is important to wash your hands before eating". The kids were great sports and all washed their hands, even the Peace Corps staff washed their hands before they got their snacks!

It went really well. We had the fair at the school and over 100 children from the community came. For the rest of our stay in the village we saw children practicing self defense moves on each other and playing Frisbee.

Cambodian Fruit

These are pictures of some of the many fruits in Cambodia. My favorite are the little purple ones that kinda look like plums, but then you mash them and peel off the shell and the inside is white and almost tastes like banana. It's wonderful!

The pink fruit with the polka-dot inside is my second favorite, it's called Dragon fruit. It is sweet and kinda tastes like watermelon.

Swear-In

On September 23, 2010, I was sworn-in by the US Ambassador as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Cambodia.