3rd Year Possibility

Hi! So, I've been pretty busy lately. I was recently in Phnom Penh for a meeting and the K5 cohort's Technical IST (In-Service Training). I helped facilitate some small group discussions for the IST; the presenters were very impressive in their delivery which resulted in some very intelligent discussion between all of the volunteers. The week was such a treat as there were probably about 75 volunteers in town for various reasons. It was really nice to catch up with some of them and in these various ways:

- Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace 3D (It was pretty cool, but it would have been cooler were it Episode IV)

- Ngon Restuarant (Vietnamese/Cambodian cuisine: a new place for me. It was tasty and cheap!) There was a dessert/drink there that was coconut milk with a bunch of delicious jelly-like things. It tasted like cereal milk! mmmm)

- Friends trying to drink strangers' beverages that were left behind

- etc.

Anyhow, that was all fun, but getting to the title of this blog:

3rd Year Possibility

So, I met with Population Services International (PSI) on Thursday to discuss a potential scope of work, and we came up with this:

1) Linking PSI to Peace Corps

• Hopefully, my potential counterparts and I can come up with a way that can better partner PSI with PCVs out in the field more effectively.
• Explore other ways to partner with PCVs further.

2) IPC (Interpersonal Communication) Support + Monitoring

- Some of the things discussed were project oversight responsibilities: working with PSI community volunteers as well as project managers for MVUs and Roving Units to create more efficient ways of reaching out to the community.

3) Photo Skills Capacity Building

• Working with the current PSI photographer to build knowledge and skills in the technical art of photography
• Building photographic libraries and taking stock photos for IPC Tool Development

Their technical director wants to utilize my skills as a photographer to help build capacity of the HCNs (Host Country Nationals) that work with PSI and to assist with the potential revamping of IPC materials. Essentially, a lot of the aid world uses pictures and drawings for health messages/educational games. They're finding that photographs may be more clearly understood.

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Anyhow, I'm not sure how it will all turn out, but I will be sure to update you all when I know more.

Talk to you soon,

Garrett

Khmer New Year Vacation

It's settled. The tickets have been purchased. There's no turning back. The flight leaves from Bangkok and heads to...Hanoi!

I'm going to Vietnam for 2-3 weeks with two wonderful friends of mine. Where will we go in Vietnam? I'm not sure yet. I would venture to guess:

-Hanoi

-Halong Bay

-Da Nang

-Hoi An

-Dalat

-Nha Trang

-Ho Chi Minh

-Phu Quoc Island

Google all of them.

I leave March 31st!

Talk to you soon,

Garrett

When You Don't Use an E-mail Account for Some Time

Recently, I was looking around online and ran into a Flickr account that I started a few years back. There were some bad photos that I wouldn't have minded deleting. So, I went to log in.

"Please enter in your Yahoo ID and password."

...wtf. Yahoo??? When was the last time I used...right. 2008. Well, I'm sure I just used..my...nope. I don't remember my username whatsoever. So, I clicked on the I'm-an-idiot-and-never-wrote-this-crap-down button. It says, do you want us to send it to your t..............@gmail.com. Oh god. TheNewStravinsky@gmail.com (pompous, now, I know). Okay, no problem, I'll just go on and sign into that e-mail account that I haven't been using for over 20 months, now. I definitely used that one password.

"Either password or username was incorrect."

No problem. I probably just typed it incorrectly.

"Either password or username was incorrect."

Maybe I used this other password.

"Either password or username was incorrect."

Oh, come on! Alright. So, I click on that you-really-forgot-all-of-this-information-too? button. And it asks for my security information. I used some stupid word that I made up like 10 years ago, and I guess I didn't remember how to spell it. Okay, send it to my other e-mail address.

"Would you like us to send your information to your other account g.......@e****.a******.edu?

You've got to be kidding me. Okay, fine. I'll log into my school e-mail account. Apparently they extended the use of our school e-mail from six months after you graduate to when you die. Hmmm. Okay, User Name: gmatlick. Easy enough. Password: ********

"Either password or username was incorrect."

F***. Try again.

"Either password or username was incorrect."

Double f***.

Okay, wait. Security questions. Okay, and I got the information correct. I wasn't an idiot when creating security measures for my university account. So, I got into my @email.arizona.edu account, then subsequently accessed my TheNewStravinsky@gmail.com, then finally retrieved my Yahoo ID. which I then had to use to change the password for my Yahoo account. After all of that, I finally was able to remove the 7 pictures I didn't want up on Flickr.

Yeah.

Talk to you soon,

Garrett

Missing/Stolen Kindle Found

At the beginning of December, there was a going away part for a dear friend who was moving back to England (and then on to Milan, where she is now). The day after, when I had gotten back to my site, I could seem to find my Kindle, so I could only assume that it was back at my friends' house in Svay (the provincial town, formally "Serei Sisophon"). One of my friends looked for a long while and found nothing. There had been workers coming in and out of the house to work on the roof, and things going missing had not been unusual (but never anything on that scale). We assumed somebody stole it. I was bummed, but hey, it's a thing. No one got hurt, but still. It was sad, as I was in the middle of a book that I was really enjoying. I tried to forget about and found out later that I might get a replacement when I came back home in August. A m mononth later, in Phnom Penh for New Year's Eve, I had put a bunch of books on my laptop that I could later transfer to my new Kindle 8 months from then. That night, a PCV who went home for the holidays asked me if I had any need to purchase her old Kindle. It so happened that she had received a Kindle Touch for Christmas and was trying to sell her first generation one. I asked how much: $5. Five dollars! That's just crazy. I gave her $10, even though that still didn't feel right. It was such a fantastic thing to do for someone, so I went on reading e-books until just two days ago, my friend texted me to tell me that it had been found! Joy! (That means "fuck" in Khmer, by the way; I meant it in the English definition, though) Who found it? Someone who frequented the house and had actually known that it was there since the very day after I thought it was gone! How was this possible? She simply thought that another volunteer was leaving it there on purpose. Hmmm, wouldn't you think to call said volunteer? I guess not. Either way, I wasn't mad, I was just happy that two things could happen: one, I get my Kindle back; two, I could find someone else to reap the joys of the Kindle. So, in celebration, I bought the most current edition of The Economist and The New Yorker. Okay, so I've read both magazines before, but I never remember them being so damn long! I've been reading it for the past three days, and I'm almost done. Ugh. I'm enjoy it, though.

Also more fun things, this weekend is full of a lot of things going on.

1) A friend's going-away party (they are early terminating [ETing])

2) Another friend's birthday

3) The first meeting of the Diversity Task Force (intense name, I know)

4) Foreign Service Officer Test (FSOT)...you'd think they'd call it an exam. That would just sound a lot more elegant. Anyhow, I'm not taking this test very seriously, so we'll see how I do and where it goes.

5) Hangin' out with a couple of friends that live in the capital.

Anyhow, that's it.

Talk to you soon,

Garrett

Keeping Music Alive

You know how time moves on, and there are things you wished would have kept up? Well, surprisingly, I'm able to do that with such a thing here: music. Are there rock bands in Cambodia? ehhhh, well. Let's just say no. Are there jazz bands and ensembles to join? Nope. However, there are cafés and other Peace Corps Volunteers who share my passion for music. A buddy of mine, last June, got together with the owner of a fairly new-to-town café in Battambang Town. She asked Dave (my buddy) to perform an hour to hour and a half set at Café Eden in Battambang. I happened to be there that night (and actually performed with him for one song), and it turned out to be a good thing. He's continued to perform and has added a second to his act, Peter. Peter and Dave have now performed four or five times; it's becoming a regular thing. A little more than a month ago, Dave and Peter asked me to perform a couple of songs with them: "First Few Desperate Hours" by The Mountain Goats (on harmonizing vocals) and "Day Tripper" by The Beatles (on Tambourine and harmonizing vocals). Well, as time went on that transformed into me performing "First Few Desperate Hours" solo and adding "Don't Think Twice, It's Alright" by Bob Dylan (on harmonizing vocals) and "California" by Josh Ritter (on lead vocals and guitar). I had performed once with Dave before, but it was nice to actually have a quite a few songs to practice on my own and with multiple performers. The show was last weekend (Jan 28th) and went very, very well. I had a lot of fun with it. I would say there were about 25 people in the crowd (6 or so of them being PCVs, not including the three of us). I hope this is something I can keep up here, and as I've realized, something I can continue to do back home in the States (wherever that may be). I'll post the videos when they get uploaded.

Talk to you soon,

Garrett

What Might I Do for Year Three?

Hi. Sorry, I've been absent for quite some time, now, and I can only attribute that to being fairy busy with program development an a myriad of meetings and events over the past 30 days. I calculated (typical me) that I was spending 7.5% of my time simply on buses over the past month (once this weekend concludes). That's absolutely ridiculous. To make it sound even worse, that's 54 hours spent on a bus (it takes me approximately 8 hours to get to Phnom Penh). How terrible it that? Come visit me, and you'll find out. Either way, I had a meeting on the 21st with Peace Corps about my extending. I assessed, throughout the meeting, that I needed to be a little more proactive, so two things happened: I e-mailed the NGO, Population Services International (PSI), and I was informed by a good friend that another organization, the Clinton Health Access Initiative (CHAI), was interested in partnering with Peace Corps/Cambodia and potentially utilizing a third-year PCV. So here are my current options (though not really options, because there have been no offers):

(NOTE: This is all probably extremely pre-mature to talk about)

CHAI: they might be looking into a third-year PCV working with them being based in Phnom Penh and on occasion, traveling to various projects to help implement their health-related projects. I probably couldn't have been more vague with that description, but that's the description I have, so you have about the same knowledge on the subject as I do. Anyhow, the have a meeting with Peace Corps this weekend, so we'll see what comes out of it.

PSI: First things, first. PSI is pretty legit. Check out their website at www.psi.org. They operate in 67 countries and are based in D.C. A brief description from their website: "PSI is a global non-profit organization dedicated to improving the health of people in the developing world by focusing on serious challenges like a lack of family planning, HIV/AIDS, maternal health, and the greatest threats to children under five, including malaria, diarrhea, pneumonia and malnutrition." They e-mailed me back just a day after inquiring whether or not they needed any "free" help. The response asked for a CV (curriculum vitae, for those who don't know; it's simply a more elaborate résumé), and within an hour of sending to them, I got a response back that said they could definitely find 20 hours of work for me but were slightly worried about specific projects that (they seemed to imply) required more time spent. I inquired about 20 hours/week, because I am interested in what is called a PCV Leader (PCVL), but I'll explain that afterwards. They suggested a meeting in April/May, which doesn't work for me as my COS conference (where details on extending need to be solidified weeks before) is the first week of May, so it was moved up to February 23rd. This meeting will discuss the potential scope of work (should they want me to work, well, volunteer with them). I'll keep you updated.

Point of clarification: when I talk about working with these organizations, I mean to suggest that I will be volunteering my time there as a human resource through Peace Corps. I will not actually be working for them, as I will not be getting paid. Were that the case--that I could be getting paid tens of thousands of dollars--things might be a little different.

Peace Corps Volunteer Leader:

"5.0 VOLUNTEER LEADER ASSIGNMENTS

In each of their assignments, Volunteer Leaders contribute their own unique Volunteer perspective

and expertise. Volunteer Leaders are generally expected to provide on-the-job supervision (that is,

provide direction or guidance), handle administrative tasks related to logistical support for Volunteer

projects, provide counsel and guidance to Volunteers, and be on the lookout for difficulties in job

relations or personal adjustment. Specific examples of appropriate Volunteer Leader assignments

include:

(a) Acting as liaison among Volunteers, host country supervisors, and Peace Corps staff;

(b) Assisting Peace Corps staff in site selection and placement of new Volunteers;

(c) Assisting Peace Corps staff in the design and implementation of Volunteer training;

(d) Assisting Peace Corps staff in the design and evaluation of Volunteer projects;

(e) Assisting Peace Corps staff in the provision of logistical and administrative support to

Volunteers and Trainees; and

(f) Providing Imprest fund services if designated as an Imprest fund Class B cashier or sub-cashier

within the provisions of MS 760, after having received the same training, directives, materials,

guidance, and supervision as cashiers who are U.S. government employees."

I figured that the text from the Peace Corps Manual would be the easiest way to explain. PC/Cambodia is considering (though I haven't heard final decisions and specifics yet) four PCVL positions (out of the 6 general 3rd-year slots). Those would be programmatic and regional, e.g. general volunteer concerns in the North and South regions; specific volunteer concerns related to ETTT and CHE programs. I am not sure exactly which one I'm interested in yet, but I will keep you updated. Should PSI ask me to volunteer for them for 40 hrs/wk in a role with more responsibilities, I might take up that. I have to consider the fact that what I do in this third year should compliment my career goals. Don't get me wrong, I like what I'm doing here, but if I were told to work at the health center again for a third year, I would elect not to as new volunteers can just as easily do that.

Anyhow, wish me luck. I'll hopefully have more to tell in the coming weeks/month.

It's February. How did that happen? 1/12 of the year is gone, or appx 8%! Crazy. Just crazy.

Talk to you soon,

Garrett