Bike Racing and Delegating

First off, let me tell you how awesome the Angkor Wat International Half-Marathon and Bike Race was: Awesome. Seriously, though, I had a very new experience this past weekend. I've never really been a part of any mass athletic competition. It really puts into perspective where you lie on the scale of dedication. On a scale of 1-10, I believe 4 would be an appropriate place for me at this point in my life. And, I'm absolutely okay with that. It's not a 1, and I don't have to put out the effort that says I stand in the middle or closer to having to be absolutely serious about it. On to the race: It was a 30k (18.6 mi) race through some of the ruins and area surrounding the Angkor Watt temple. I finished 20th out of 295(?) with a time of 1:05:55. I'm really pleased with my time, but it's absolutely nothing compared to the intensity of one of the volunteers who raced 100k (62 mi). Crazy! Props to you, Bill. So, by having registered to race, I was able to walk through Angkor Watt, and see the temple. And by able to, I meant that I had the ability, too. As you can imagine, I wasn't exactly in the mood or state to walk-play around all of Angkor Wat. I wanted to go back, take a shower, and take a small nap. So, today, I woke up early to grab a tuk-tuk (moto-driven carriage) back to Angkor Wat to try and get back in to see the sights. Well, when we got there, it was 50 min into the race, so of course, we wanted to see who out of our friends was going to finish the half marathon first. Now, don't get me wrong; seeing everyone finish what they'd been trainjing for for weeks/months was exhilerating. There's nothing like rooting on your friends who are accomplishing a very physically tasking experience. What I'm getting at, though, is that I still didn't visit the temple. Famous temple. Cambodia. $20 to get in for a day, normally. Few opportunities in your life time to see such a site. Yup, I didn't go. I did however get to watch the sunrise, seeing the details of the temple from afar as I waited for the race to begin. Beautiful. Absolutely beautiful.

Delegation:

I've come to realize that the importance of my position here is less in the actual teaching of simple health practices and more in teaching those who have no plans to leave my site how to teach those simple health practices. For the Community Health Education Volunteers, the key word is "sustainability". I can teach one thousand lessons on how to wash your hands, properly treat water, protect you and your family from mosquitos, what to do if you have severe diarrhia, and how to make weening poridge (is that how you spell it? Google "define" says porage, but I don't believe that for a second), however, once I leave maybe one family will have taken something out of it, which is great. Maybe others will catch on. But potential isn't the purpose of me being here. Needless to say, I plan on getting the cellphone numbers of the few Village Health Support Group (VHSG) members so that I can begin working with them. So, now you might ask how delegation comes into this. It's fairly simple. I meet with this VHSG on a weekly basis, teaching them how to effectively communicate the right information, so they can combine it with their respect in the community along with their knowledge of the culture and language and apply to more effective health education "seminars." I believe I will end up acting more as a coordinater of sorts, setting up the time and place, the topics, and the support and itinerary required. It sounds like something I may have done in college. Amazing how those things can have real-life applications.

Talk to you soon,
Garrett