Internet!

I finally have internet for a few hours! There are already plenty of stories to share, but I don't know where to start. To give you some orientation, here's an idea about a typical day right now with my host family in my training village...

5:30/6:00 - Wake up in my mosquito net tent/bed to some morning noises - pigs, dogs, loudly blasting wedding music. (Yes, they start at or before 6am, even though it isn't wedding season.)

6:15-ish - Crawl out of bed, put on a sarong and kroma (checked scarf/cloth) to cover my shoulders while I walk to the bon dub tuk. In the bon dub tuk, pour about 15 bucket dippers of cold water over my head, shiver, lather, rinse, and repeat.

7:00 - Hop on my gong and head the few hundred meters to my teacher's house for class. Along the way, encounter the HELLO!!!! HELLO!!!s of the local children, be laughed at for my funny helmet, and, if it has rained the night before, try to avoid getting too much mud on my sampot.

7:10 - Maybe stop by the p'saa and grab some noodle soup, fruit, or baguette for breakfast.

7:30-11:30 - Attempt to learn to speak Khmer. This probably involves sitting with my teacher and group of 5 students under the shade of some fruit trees and playing some memorization games, periodically taking breaks to have a (glass) bottle of coke from the little stand on the corner or have some fried banana chips from bananas farmed, harvested, sliced, dried, and fried by the family whose house we use for class.

11:30 - Hop back on my gong. HELLO!!! HELLO!!!

11:45 - Arrive home and be ushered out to the table at the back patio. A tray appears with 3-4 dishes, usually some sort of soup with veggies, a plate of little fish with very small bones, and probably an omelet or hard boiled eggs. Sit down with my host mom, a tailor, and Lai, a 21-year-old who is essentially apprenticing with my host mom and lives at our house. Spoon a spoonful at a time of one kind dish onto my bowl of rice, 1-2 large plates of which are eaten at each meal. (Apparently I'm lucky in this, since some of my fellow trainees are being encouraged to eat three or more!) Try to describe or answer some questions about what food/clothes/people/houses/families are like in America.

12:30 - (Optional, once or twice a week) Attempt to do some bow ka aow (literally "throwing shirts and pants") which involves a struggle between me and an unwieldy bowlful of soaking wet clothes and water and soap in my little bathroom. By the time I have scrubbed each item, rinsed twice, and wrung out my clothes, I'm usually soaked myself. I hang up the wet stuff on the balcony upstairs and try to remember it when the afternoon rains start to threaten.

1:15-4:30 - Hop back on my gong. Have some sort of afternoon session about teaching English or the like.

4:30 - Head to the local coffee shop for a tea with sugar and condensed milk over ice or a durian fruit shake.

5:00 - Maybe stop by the p'saa again to buy some of the fruit that is in season right now - pineapple, longan, rambutan, durian, watermelon, mini bananas, dragon fruit, mangosteen, etc.

5:15 - Arrive home after a strenuous ride the length of town the few blocks along the main road from the p'saa to my house. Try to ask if I can help with cooking dinner. Be told to go take a shower. Throw another 15 buckets of water over my head and change into casual clothes. Maybe get to help with some of the minimal food prep after I look a little less grimy. Visit with the neighbors, most of whom are family of my host mother's, who roam in and out. Say hi at least to some of the regulars - two of my host mother's nieces, my host mother's sister, and various children. These include a little host cousin who may be the most adorable child in the world after my niece and one I've named Uht Tmun (Toothless) who is a bit older and helps me with some Khmer by reading the phrases I point to and ask about.

6:00 - Sit down to another dinner at the table on the back patio consisting of 3-4 dishes of fish, veggies, and eggs to be spooned over a bowl of rice. Depending on the particular day, I might be eating with my 24-year-old host sister and her 5-year-old son or, on the weekends, my host father (when he is back from working in the city) in addition to my host mom and Lai.

6:30 - After dinner, try to help with the dishes. Will probably not be successful, since after we are finished eating, a stream of visitors suddenly appears. This probably includes some more family and maybe some neighbors curious about the barang lady living at the house. Usually we move up to the third floor to sit on the roof patio and enjoy the breeze and view of the 'mountains.' (Cambodia is very flat, but we are lucky to have two small hills near our village that seem to be the pride of town.) For the rest of the evening, I sit on the floor with Lai and my two high-school-aged cousins who are studying English. They practically force me to bring out my Khmer grammar book to do some practice while they learn some English in the process.

8:00/8:30 - Be asked if I am tired. Take this as my cue to go down to my room. Refill my water filter so I will have my very own clean water to drink. Try to arrange any wet items to dry overnight. Climb back into my mosquito tent and enjoy the clean feeling of the new mattress, new sheets, new blanket, and new pillow issued to me by the Peace Corps. I have to say, being and feeling clean is a wonderful feeling when you're a little (or a lot) sweaty and dirty all day. Review notes, listen to music, or do Sudoku. (I happened to have this Sudoku book when I moved out of my house, and I've suddenly become a Sudoku fiend at night in Cambodia. I can't explaing it.)

9:30 - Realize I can't keep my eyes open anymore and turn out the flashlight on my cell phone (WHY DON'T U.S. CELL PHONES HAVE FLASHLIGHTS?!) so I can get some sleep.


We've only been in our training villages a week and a half, but this routine seems like it will be more or less accurate for the next 8 weeks or so. After that, all bets are off. I won't actually find out where I will be placed in country for a few more weeks. For the next three days, though, we're headed out around Cambodia to visit some current Peace Corps Volunteers at their sites. Myself, I'll be going somewhere near Pursat for the weekend. I may not have internet for another fair bit, but I trust if you've managed to find me here, you can take a look at it on Google maps if you're interested. For now, li howi.