Disclaimer

This website reflects my own personal views and not that of the U.S. Government nor, more specifically, the Peace Corps.

Saturday, July 24, 2010

Kampong Cham

It’s Saturday, which means that I’ve been a Peace Corps Trainee for approximately 6 days, now. It definitely doesn’t feel like it’s been that long. Truthfully, it’s been about 5 ½ because of the time difference, but that’s what you get for traveling into the futuurrreee. Anyhow, I’m chillin’ out in my hotel with my roommate, who hunts tigers. We just decided to call it quits for the night on studying vocabulary, so I thought I might share some phrases/terms with you:

Joom reap sooa – Hello (formally)
Niak soksaa-by dtae? – How are you?
Kñom soksaa-by, awkun. – I am good, thank you.
Jo niak vwin? – And you?
S’raa – Alcohol
Pbuk – Drink
Deuck sot – Bottled Water
Deuck g’aa – Ice

Ordering Food

Kñom dtrou kaa niyam sai’(k) moan ch’muy bai chaa hi-nang pbuk dteuk sot

- I would like to eat chicken with fried rice and drink bottled water

La’a-na, awkun chrei

- It was very good, thank you very much.

Anyhow, this has been my life for the past few days in Cambodia. We’ve been up to our ankles in cross-cultural, language, and technical overviews and trying new foods (I want to say that I’ve had at least 3 new fruits and tried 2 new proteins. Don’t read this part, Kenny. Sorry in advance. I’ve eaten tarantula and crickets. They’re surprisingly very very good. La’a na. I believe we find out our host family village placements for PST (Pre-Service Training) on Monday. We’re getting split up into three districts within the province of Kampong Cham. So, we’ll be cut exactly into thirds; 18 people each. And to further cut the groups up, we’ll be with even smaller groups of 6 with an LCF (Language and Cross-Cultural Facilitor, who are local Khmer people, some of whom are teachers, and all of whom are really cool people). I’m looking forward to seeing who I get placed with within the district more so than the district I am getting placed in itself. I’ve gotten to know all 53 other trainees names and have had a substantial conversation with a majority of them. The age demographic ranges from 21 – 50. Everyone has different backgrounds, a decent amount who have taught English in Thailand, China, Japan, etc.

Things I learned today –

- how to take a shit on a squat pot
- how to pee at night when you can’t get to the bathroom
- how to tie a mosquito net
- how to wash my clothes
- how to shower
- how to behave respectfully at dinner
- how to eat dinner
- how to ride and maintain a bike
- how to mistake 10,000 CR for 20,000 CR and feel really dumb after contesting that I was still owed change. 10,000 CR is about $2.50, which goes a long way here
o Breakfast today – 2500 CR or $0.62
o Dinner tonight – 3300 CR or $0.75

Needless to say, the USD goes a long way here. I have a lot of basic life skills that have been blessed by running water and electricity to readjust to. I won’t be fully immersed in it until Tuesday when we all move in with our host families. It’s pretty exciting I have to say. We’ve all been living very comfortably in hotel rooms (not the hotels you would expect in the States) for the past 3 nights here.

Tomorrow’s Plans

- Choose a bike and ride it around
- Unpack all of my luggage to repack for the next 9 weeks
- Hang out
o Sundays are our off days, which will most likely be spent with our host families and doing laundry

There aren’t any written plans/assignment/specific duties for the Health Volunteers to perform, rather basic bigger picture ideas such as capacity building and mother and infant care at this point. All 18 of us really are the beginning of this progam. I feel like we have to set the bar high for the K5 Health Volunteers in 2011.

The infant mortality rate is about 10% (I think), and the maternal mortality rate is definitely between 4-5%. That’s ridiculously high. Basically, because “health clinicians” are only paid about $40/month, they don’t have the incentive to keep 24 hour health centers, so new mothers don’t have the needed pre and post natal observation periods. It’s on the right track, and hopefully in the next 10-15 years, it will be closer to what it needs to/should be. Basically, if NGO funding ceased, many health centers would simply become walls that encased what once used to exist. The Khmer Rouge was pretty harsh to this country, so I’m very excited to get this project underway. The language is coming along and so are the friendships; I was walking with another Trainee and we discussed how natural life seems in this country. It’s simple and beautiful. Mind you, this was conversed over a 20-25min walk along the Mekong River in what Arizona would consider a torrential downpour and what this country would consider a light rain. I wish you could all experience what it is like to live here, to be surrounded by nature and people, unobstructed by technology and a fast-paced society.

Talk to you later,
Garrett

5 comments:

  1. Wow. They must think you are RIIIICH. I wish the exchange rate was like that when I was in England!!!

    S'raa seems like a very important vocab word to know...

    AND OMG HE HUNTS TIGERS?! That's really kinda scarry...

    <3 u

    ReplyDelete
  2. Bring Back a Tiger Pelt!!!
    Those pics are sweet.
    Good Luck. Are you getting any personal reading done?
    -Ted House

    ReplyDelete
  3. Garrett! Your posts are so exciting. It's awesome to see how much new stuff you're experiencing.

    And you have pictures of the MEKONG!!! Jealous!!!

    <3 you, TM

    ReplyDelete
  4. Garrett, thank you for all the details! I love reading all about the start of your adventures! I love the picture of a simple lifestyle without technology. It must be so relaxing there!

    Also, you totally made me smile when you said that after 6 days you had already had a meaningful conversation with 50+ people. That's definitely the Garret I know! ;) One of many awesome things about you.

    Anyway, keep writing - I love reading! Miss you!!

    -Becky <3

    ReplyDelete
  5. I'm sending you a letter Becky. I hope it gets to you in the next 4 weeks? and :)

    ReplyDelete