Disclaimer

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

Tuesday, October 25, 2011

Relief Efforts for the Floods in Cambodia. Please Help Support a Good Cause

Dear Readers,

I typically would not solicit the soliciting of funds, but this is for a good cause.

A peer of mine who volunteers in Baray District of Kampong Thom Province in Cambodia, teaching English and assisting in Youth Development, has been witness to one of the worst floods in SE Asia in the past decade. She, her co-teacher and a local NGO, Action for Development (AFD) are asking for any donations which will go towards the purchase and distribution of emergency kits containing food, a water filter, and sanitation products. Each kit costs $25 (for a family of 4). These kits are indeed only a temporary fix but for hopefully, a temporary problem. The idea is that this will help sustain them until the flooding subsides. Any help, I know, will go a very, very long way.


Thanks!

Talk to you soon,
Garrett

Monday, October 24, 2011

Should I Stay or Should I Go? (100th Post!)

Don't worry. This blog isn't about me leaving Cambodia. It's about exploring it.

Many people contemplate whether or not they should stay at site while they are serving their communities throughout the two years as a Peace Corps Volunteer or if they should go out and explore the country. There are many arguments for or against why one might do either, so I thought I would provide some personal insights (take them as you will) about it.

Staying at Site: This is what it means to be integrated right?! Staying at site. If you leave, the community members will all talk about it: "Why does he/she leave so often?", "Maybe he/she has a lot of money. He/she says he/she does not have a salary, but I do not believe that." Okay, so I might be being facetious a little, but there may be a little truth to this. The truth is, a good portion of the volunteers I've spoken with who stay at site for long periods of time seem to be very happy there. You begin to find a balance at site. You have your alone time, but you make friends with people in your community and it keeps you sane. You might have projects that require you to help with during the weekends. You may just be broke and don't want to spend money on transportation. You may just actually like being there. I've found that the longer I am at site for one period of time, the more people will miss me and want to talk when I return after a trip. Peace Corps sure doesn't give you a lot of money to travel around, but it's plenty enough for hangin' around site and comin' into town once a week. I've begun to make some new friends here and to be honest, I really enjoy the time I have to myself. I've absolutely been able to contemplate the things that happen to me and simply, the things that just happen here. It's also possible to lose a little bit of perspective; if you're in one place for too long a period of time, it's difficult to see things in a different light. Sometimes it drives you crazy, but I sleep easy in the comfort of my room.

Pros: - Integration
- Learn more about your community
- Potentially make new friends
- Definitely save a lot of money

Cons: - Idleness (Stir-crazy)
- Small loss of perspective

Traveling: "OHHH MY GODDD!!! LET'S GET THE HELL OUT OF HERE!!!" Okay, so it's not always like that. But yeah, sometimes it is. Again, being facetious, but at the same time, not really. I've traveled a lot around this country and it's given my eyes a much wider scope of not necessarily the way things operate, but simply viewing those operations. To elaborate a little, I've visited many volunteers at their sites and their provincial towns. Before, I really only knew a little about Kampong Cham Town and my training village. Now, I also know about my permanent site along with Sway or Svay or Sisophon or Serei Sisopon (the real name) or Sway Sisophon or Serei Sophon or Banteay Meanchey (all alternative names for the provincial capital). You gain a little perspective by moving villages and by moving provinces (if you do). I think it's becauseyou see what different foods people eat, the way they react to certain questions/gestures/responses. What is acceptable in some communities? What isn't? Do women drink or are they sopheap (polite)? Do men work the town or is it mostly women, because the men are off working across the border? A lot of times, I think we travel from our sites in order to escape a little. We need to gain a bit of perspective before coming back. Sometimes we let things fester and we have no one to talk to about it in English. It's hard to admit, but sometimes you just hate this country and you need to vent about it before coming back. How do you go up to someone you have just made friends with in your community and say, "I hate the way you do things here! It's wrong. It doesn't make sense. Why can't you just do it this way?!" Given, you don't always feel this way, and that's simply a part of culture shock, but culture shock is a part of life when you first get here. There are four main stages of this: Honeymoon; Rejection; Sociological; Acculturation. The previous sentiment would be going through the rejection stage. Culture shock is basically a wave of emotions that eventually evens out. Unfortunately, the down side to using this as a coping mechanism is that if it is used too often, it becomes the only thing you look forward to. Be weary. On the contrary, I find it interesting to think about what we bring home about the countries we serve in in the Peace Corps. Goal 1: Send skilled men and women to countries seeking their help. Clearly, staying at site and performing your primary task, but I always wondered about Goal 3: Bring it home (Share the cultures of Cambodia with the peoples of America). Everyone...everyone will have a different perspective and a different story to tell even if you live in the same country, province, district and are in the same program with any Peace Corps post. Many people will go back and tell of their training site, their permanent site, and some provincial towns to which they escaped every now and then. I find it useful to go back and talk about other villages across Cambodia. There are different terrains, different climates (slightly), different peoples, different attitudes, and sometimes even different languages if you live close enough to a border. I find it useful to not only explain my experiences, but to be able to share the experiences of others.

Pros: - Coping with idleness/forelonging to see friends
- Seeing/learning about different terrains, people, languages, methods of life
- Gaining a greater perspective of the country you live in
- Reconnect with people

Cons: - Over-traveling -->; disinterest in going back to site
- Community members wondering if you are happy
- Not being happy (The reason why you might travel so often. This is not necessarily always the case, just an example)
- Expensive --> go through your monthly living allowance very quickly

The thing is, both are great things to do, however, it's all about finding the right balance for you. There is no perfect equation or recipe for what it is to be a successfully integrated Peace Corps Volunteer. It is up to the individual what experience they have. A K3 volunteer once told me an anecdote:

"There once were two volunteers around the same community. One of them was middle-aged who taught the women of the town the marketable skill of basket making. She didn't travel very often, nor did she try too hard to learn the language. She was happy and enjoyed conversations with her host family. When she left, the town was sad but was left with at least 30 women who could now sustain themselves. The other volunteer was young and in his twenties. He taught English but did not enjoy it very much. In fact, many of the students did not really want to learn. He left on long vacations, but stayed in the town often. He learned the language at a very proficient level and spent most of his time in hammocks talking with community members, laughing and drinking with them daily. When he left, though he only actually taught English one or two hours a week, the town cried."

How are we supposed to define what it means to be a "good" volunteer. Is it about becoming a great friend and giving perspective to the community, or is it about leaving them with skills they did not have before? The first goal of Peace Corps tells of sending skilled men and women, yet much of the training teaches about the importance of the relationships that you build. Like I've said many times before, and I plan on sticking with it, it's about what works for you. Are you happy? Can you create the balance that you need to feel such an emotion and be productive. What is productivity? What does it mean to you? It's all about the balance of things. Should I stay or should I go? That's up to you. Take into account your community, but also don't forget to take into account yourself.

Talk to you soon,
Garrett

P.s. My next post will be about the flood relief efforts in Cambodia. A friend of mine who teaches English has partnered up with her co-teacher and a local NGO (Non-Governmental Organization) to help with the disaster. So, keep your eyes peeled, and hopefully I'll have a little blurb and a link to the site when its up and running.

Monday, October 17, 2011

Flooding in Cambodia

In the recent months, this country has seen the worst flooding in decades; it's plagued at least 13 of the 24 Cambodian provinces affecting 200,000 families and leaving 164 dead. Several of my peers have had school cancelled until the earliest, Nov., due to the flooding. It's so bad, that the citizens in those communities are using the schools as fishing ponds and even navigating by boat at times. The province of Siem Reap is so flooded that every street in the main part of town is flooded up above one's ankles. As a result of the flooding, the Prime Minister, Hun Sen, has even cancelled Water Festival (one of the biggest holidays in Cambodia) stating that the country needs to focus this current problem. Can you see a little irony in this? Either way, this is a very sad time right now for the countries in the SE Asian region. Thailand and Cambodia have been hit the worst. Thailand has had approximately 240 deaths so far. To add to that, and you wonder how you can make it any worse, I read in the Cambodia Daily that 20-30% of the rice crop has damage or affected in some unfortunate way. Anyhow, let's hope the rainy season ends promptly.

Talk to you soon,
Garrett

Wednesday, October 12, 2011

(WARNING: GRAPHIC!) Cellulitis or Something Similar

The Lead-Up:

So, it's around 6p at night, visiting a friend in Takeo province. We'd been going around town meeting all of his friends/teachers/family around town. We're sitting down and enjoying a good conversation and a good drink when all of a sudden...Ooh! Ow! Ah! What?! Ooh! I tried to stand up when a huge rush of pain went to my right shin. I try to walk it off, and...Hey! It's alright! We head out to his co-teacher's house to sit down and chat. After a half-hour, I go to stand back up and F&@%! What IS this?! The pain turned into a throbbing one and all at the same time I started to work up a fever, which I found out later was 101, and it lasted for 15 hours.

Well, it still hurts, but it's not as bad as before. I'm going to visit some friends out in the town of Angtasom (You're thinking: Man! Is he dumb?!). After a nice tuk tuk ride and a good walk (if you're one of two people, you know what that means), I arrive at my friend's house. We decide to cook up some french fries and onion rings. The pain comes back little by little, but it's nothing I can'....hmmm, maybe I should sit down. I lay down for awhile while my friends grab me some water. I try to sit ba...nope! Nope! That's not happening either. I call the PCMO (Peace Corps Medical Officer), and she suggests some Ibuprofen and to ice the leg and keep it up above my heart. Also, I forgot to mention, my leg is hot to the touch. I can't actually move around, so they call me a tuk tuk. When the tuk tuk gets there, both the driver and one of my friends have to help me in. By the morning, I can't even get my phone, so I call back the PCMO, and she has me come into Phnom Penh.

The Process:

I get into Phnom Penh and the first place the driver stops at is a lab to get a blood sample (quickest blood draw, ever). Next stop is the Peace Corps office. I get a pair of crutches and lie down for a good 2 hours before the results come back. My white blood cell count: 18,000. Normal is 5-8,000. Sounds like a pretty serious infection to me. As the PCMO gets me into the car, I pass a joke about the leg, and she says, "Don't joke about that. Not right right now. This could be osteomyelitis (infection in the bone). I get taken to the hospital to get a blood culture, and then off to another hospital to get 2 x-rays taken; it's not osteomyelitis...phew! We head to the dermatologist just to make sure it's not anything other than a small soft-tissue infection. He takes a good look for a good 10 seconds. Yes, I think this is cellulitis. "We need to perform minor surgery." Huh? What? Excuse me? Can you please repeat that? "When would we need to do this?" "Now," he says. "If you wait two or three more days, I think necrosis." Oh! Great. (And here, I was just thinking I'd get some antibiotics to throw down the hatch) So they coat a nice bit of wax-based anesthetic (I mention this because now, I'm silky smooth there) gel on my leg. In about 20 min, they stick me with some Novocaine and cut into my leg a decent sized hole. After this, the dermatologist squeezes my leg tightly to relieve all of the infected fluid in my shin. Rather than closing up the wound, they shove a bunch of sterile, iodized gauze in my leg but just enough to leave the bottom of the incision open so that the wound can heal from the bottom up. They rub it vigorously with some iodine, rub a little triple-antibiotic on it then slap a loose piece of gauze over it. Then, they inject me with some antibiotics in both of my inner thighs. You'd think I was done, but you would be wrong. The continue to inject me IM into both cheeks, one is 1 cc, the other is 10. I get back up and they send me back to the office to lie down on the couch before taking me to my hotel room. For the next four days, the procedure is: stick around in the hotel room without moving and my right leg above my heart until the PC drivers come to get me. Usually, between 2-4, I get taken to the office and they inject me with the same antibiotics: one, 1 cc, the other, 10. One of the days, they spared my poor gluteus maximus and just had me on an IV for about 30 min. Each day, they also had to remove the gauze in my leg (which to me is best described as a magician pulling ribbons from his mouth) and replace it with just a little bit less gauze. On the fifth day, they started me on 250mg of tetramazoxafhirhhlrol and 250mg of Ceprofloxin two time, daily for five days total. After the 3rd day, the put me on some lactobacillus probiotics to heal up the damage from the antibiotics.

The crazy thing is: no one has any idea what actually caused it. Joanne (the PCMO) thinks it may have been caused by the simple scratch of a thorn or other sharp plant. I don't remember ever being abrased by anything.

Let me tell you: being put up in Phnom Penh sounds glorious and all, but you go a little crazy not being able to move around in that little room. I even got hooked on 5 t.v. shows that I couldn't follow up on! How cruel is that?!

Walking was a little difficult for the next week, but eventually, I was off the crutches and moving around alright.

Asante sana to several people:

Aaron for telling me: "Yeah. I don't think that's normal."
Libby and Danielle for helping me get back to Takeo Town.
Ashley for keeping me company the first night in Phnom Penh and bringing dinner up to me.
Angela, Hannah and Jane for keeping me company and bringing me food the next four.
The guy at the front desk at Phnom Penh City for getting me pork and rice each morning.

Mostly, thanks to Joanne for helping me not lose my right leg. I won't lie; it was pretty bad.

For your viewing pleasure:

The Gauze:

'

The Hole:


Talk to you soon,
Garrett

Thursday, October 6, 2011

I've Been Holding Out on You

Hi. How's it goin'? I haven't been here in awhile. Yeah, I know, but that's because I've been very busy with Pre-Service Training (PST) for the 5th group of volunteers (K5s) who all swore-in on Monday, October 3rd at the Korean Cultural Center in Phnom Penh. It was satisfying, relieving, and it made me proud to watch 59 trainees swear-in and become Peace Corps Volunteers at the same time that I was able to drop my tentative "title" of Cross Culture and Safety & Security Intern. It's nice to be back at site. Well, it was nice to be back after about 3 1/2 hours of cleaning. What do you think would happen when you leave a place for 3 1/2 months in Cambodia with no one tending to it? Let me tell you:

- caking of dust
- accumulation of spider webs
- holes in the edges of one side of my sheets because of mice
- dirty bathroom

So, what accumulated over 3 1/2 hours, I spent 3 1/2 hours cleaning, and now, it's impeccable. I feel clean, and the next time mice try to get in this room, I won't be as "nice" as I was the last time. And I wasn't very nice last time. Needless to say, my room is cleaner than it was when I had left it. So, I feel at home, relaxed, and most importantly, clean.

Some other things going on:
- The potential of a Domestic Violence (DV) workshop at the beginning of next year.
- Working with a committee to help better the health program here.

Alright, it's time to catch up on some much needed sleep and relaxation.

Talk to you soon,
Garrett