Where I Will be Living for the Next Two Years

So, we're waiting with anticipation in the Provincial Teacher Training Center (PTTC) for the announcement of where we are going to be living for the next two years of our lives. We have no clue where we're going, nonetheless what it means when we find out. I mean, we've only been here for a little over 5 weeks. So, after nonchalant threatening messages about how we might be disappointing the country of Cambodia should we deck out after a week at site, they take us downstairs to an equally-sized room with a map of Cambodia and its provinces drawn in chalk on the floor with hollowed bricks with sawed off bamboo sticks indicating where each of us were going. Our names were written on 52 envelopes with the contents inside our future. The first names gets called (don't you enjoy the anticipation), and they are going too... Kampot!!!!!! WHOOO we all clap in excitement. The next envelope is drawn, and they are....also going to Kampot!!!!!! After about 5 or 8 more people, my name is finally drawn, and I walk to the center of the room, becoming increasingly nervous as the next two years of my life are the belly of my envelope. I open it up, I think, it must be Svay Rieng, it must (not because I was banking on that province, but because I just had a feeling.) be. The results:

Banteay Meanchey!!!!!!

Just look at the map at the bottom of the page. My first though: "Holy ... that's far!" So, I will be one of the furthest volunteers North. My site is literally a 20k bikeride from the border of Thailand. How freakin' sweet is that, minus gambling, traffiking and corruption known in border towns. Awesome. I'm not in the border town, but pretty much the next thing East.

Housing Situation:

-Livin' with a 50 year-old woman, who rents out the extension of her house to staff from the nearest bank.
-I will have electricity, so I will be able to respond to e-mails and Skype more often than I would have thought.
-The health center that I will be working at used to be a District Hospital, so my HC serves 3 communes, 27 villages, and 27,633 people.
-The local high school is 1k away

That's about all I know. I will be visiting this week to my permanent site at Banteay Meanchey, so I will have pics that will hopefully be posted by my parents when they get my SD card.

People in my Province:

- Absolutely stoked! I am friends with and/or really like all the K4s and K3s in my site. My buddy, James is in Siem Reap which is the next province over, so that's pretty ballin'. Go Cats!

So, that's that. I don't have much more.

Books I've Read Since Here:

- Eat, Pray Love (Thanks, Terra)
- The Quiet American
- Medium Raw by Anthony Bourdaine (sp?) sorry, Tony.

Talk to you soon,
Garrett