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Tuesday, March 27, 2012

Day 7 of Technical Exchange (Kampong Cham - Lauren's Site)

Hey there, so today was my last full day in Kampong Cham, and it has been a fantastic one so far. I only had to wake up at 6:30a today and had a great pork and rice breakfast at 7:00a which included condensed milk and ice with a splash of coffee, so I was sugared up and ready to go! Today, we traveled to Lauren's site in Bos Khnor (pronounced: Boh K'now). We met Lauren at her health center, which she's been repainting and fixing up for awhile, now. You can really tell the fantastic work that she's done there as you pull up and see the faded sign and some of ceiling and unpainted parts. I was very impressed. After we walked in, we immediately went to one of the nurses in the back and explained again (Lauren had explained the day previous to her health center director) what we were there for. Shooting, today, was surprisingly easy. Within 15 minutes, we had a pregnant woman who was willing to have her photo taken and some random construction worker who was mixing cement outside. We got several shots of a couple walking in and greeting the midwife, sitting down for a consultation and two of two separate women staging a birth (it was actually quite classy). Additionally, we got some portrait photos that we may be able to replace with some we had shot already.

We left the health center (by the way, we originally drove past the health center for about 10km...whoops) around 10:45a and went to Lauren's house where we hung out. I got to see her home, which was really quite nice. Her host mother made us food and we bought some Cokes to pass around. Lunch was fish and soup with rice. After this, we hopped in the car and got this one shot labeled: "Woman Enjoying Her Lifestyle": this basically means a few women sitting around a table laughing and having a good time. We had bee trying to get this to happen the past 3 days! We found our "talents" within 5 minutes and got the shots within 40. The women who helped us were in such a bright mood, which allowed for some great photographs! Once we finished up there, we dropped Lauren off and headed back to K Cham town, where I am typing up this blog post, now. It's really nice to finish the day around 2:15p. I look forward to getting some other work done and simply relaxing. Maybe I'll even take a nap! I haven't been to take one this whole week, and it's just been a travesty!

The plan for tomorrow is to go out and do a couple of more shots at a nearby health center, grab some lunch, then head back to Phnom Penh (hopefully, we'll arrive around 4p or so). I pack up my stuff tomorrow morning, sleep in Phnom Penh tomorrow night, then head back up north where I'll make my way up to Bangkok and leave for Hanoi on Saturday where I'll be there and the rest of Vietnam for 2 1/2 weeks!!! I'm so excited.

Talk to you soon,
Garrett

Monday, March 26, 2012

Day 6 of Technical Exchange (Kampong Cham - Kampong Cham)

Finally! Today, I got to wake up at 7a, fall back asleep, then wake up again at 7:30a. I took my time, showered, then headed to breakfast at Destiny, where I had mixed nuts (cashews, peanuts, and almonds) with muesli, yogurt, and mixed fruit (bananas, ripe mangoes (the best part...'tis the season), apples, and pineapples). It was definitely worth the splurge. Ah! I'm hungry for it again just writing about it....

Today was slower, because we had to change our plans to take some photos for another PSI project which involved "entertainment workers" (EWs) or prostitutes. So, today, I started off my work day by going to two different brothels. I'm still unclear about the exact project PSI has in mind, but I'm fairly positive it has to do with promoting the use of contraceptives to EWs in order to mitigate the spread of HIV/AIDS. That's one of PSI's main sectors here. The other three are: Child Survival, Family Planning, and Malaria Prevention. Anyhow, back to the story, I was in a brothel. I walked into a barren wooden house with spaced out floorboards. There was a brown leather couch to the left that was completely torn apart. The left side of it had a giant hole filled with newspapers and various fabrics so that one might find some comfort when sitting down on it. One of the girls stood up, and walked over to her room, which simply had a mattress on the floor and pictures of various Cambodians with different hair styles on the wall (not really that far off from the norm). I took shots of her putting on make up and talking on the phonewith the obligatory product placement of "OK" brand condoms (which PSI manufactures and produces) in various places. After that, we walked back out and had her sit with another one of the girls on the couch. To be honest, some of my favorite shots are the ones that won't be used. Bunsak kept talking to the girls and making them laugh, and that was fantastic. Most people picture EWs with faces devoid of emotion, but these girls were sassy and had plenty of laughs when given the opportunity. The second place we went to was even darker than the first. I had to set my camera to 6400 ISO, which is extremely light sensitive (we had no tripod). It might lessen the quality of the image a little, but the lighting was perfect. I'm so glad we weren't forced to use a flash (I try to avoid it if I can). Anyhow, there were 5 or 6 red plastic chairs lined up in a row along the wall which I assume were meant for the girls to sit in when a client would come in a to "choose a girl". We had five girls sit down as if they were simply waiting for someone to come along, and these were the most striking images of the day. Each girl had a drastically different expression and pose. We ended up shooting two of the girls individually, one in her room (all the rooms had locks on them), and the other leaning against her door post. The last girl's room had no windows, and the only light was a small light bulb that gave off a low red-orange glow. All of the girls signed consent forms for PSI, (PSI attempted a photo shoot like this in the past but never had any consent forms/compensation in place at the time, so they've been cautious to use any of their past images) and we were on our way to continue our photo shoots for the IUD health education game.

We got three shots after this and then got lunch. After lunch we spent 2 hours looking around and found no one to photograph. We finally found a woman and her husband who seemed willing. We spent 30 minutes waiting for them to get ready and another 30 shooting. While getting ready to place her thumb on the consent form, the wife changed her mind and decided she did not want her image being used. It was absolutely her call, and I completely understand why she made it. So, 3 hours went by and nothing. We spent another 45 minutes driving around, and at that point, it was, well, pointless. So, we headed back to the hotel where we got back just a little after 5p.

I finally got the plug-in for Photoshop so that I can read/see/edit RAW files from the Canon EOS 5D Mark II. I've gone through about 20GB worth of images and still have more to go through. I'm trying to get it down to 50-75 images (from 2000 [this far]) for my folder of slightly edited and shrunk photos (all of the photographs were 23MP and approximately 60MB per file. I got it down to 40kb (pretty good, yeah?).

Okay. Phew! I've gotten through writing about 6 days of my tech exchange. Only two more days to go, and then it's off to Vietnam!!!

Talk to you soon,
Garrett

Day 5 of Technical Exchange (Kampong Thom - Jane's Site)

So, as I said before, I got up today at 6:00a to meet for breakfast then head out at 6:30a, as Jane's site in Kampong Thom (the next province over) is about 85km away and takes about an hour and a half to travel there. On the way there, I got some work done on my laptop, read a little, and listening to my iPod. I was really looking forward to visiting Jane at her site, as I had mentioned visiting a long time ago, and it just never worked out. I talked the talk, but I wanted to walk the walk (as I attempted to explain to Bunsak...he used this idiom pretty often since he inquired about its meaning). Anyhow, when I arrived in Baray, Jane was busy Skyping with family in America (which always takes priority over anything else). This was fine as it gave us some time to explore around and get a few shots in, and we actually managed to get in 5! Jane met us at a nice restaurant (which hosts volunteers [usually from Malaysia and Singapore] who pay a pretty penny for it) 3k away. The waitress asked what I wanted. I ordered an "omelet", which was $3 for a small plate, so I declined and asked for this fish/vegetable soup which was $2. Well, I guess things got lost in translation, and I ended up getting both. $5 for lunch in a village is ridiculous, by the way. However, it was crazy delicious and well worth it. After lunch, we threw Jane's bike (like Lindsay's) in the back of the truck and headed back to her town...and then turned back, because we forgot the list of shots (whoops!).

When we got back to her town, we tried to find some women working in the field. At least, that's what Jane and I thought. We were training behind some truck going about 3 mph. This went on for 15 minutes until Jane asked Do'lah (the driver) why he was going so slow. They thought we were going to tell them were to stop to get to Jane's house. Whoops, again! We stopped at this house where several women were relaxing. We went over and did our spiel, and they seemed to be willing to go out to the fields with us. However, they thought it might take awhile to meet us there, so we all just hopped into the truck, Jane, Bunsak, and I in the back (which was difficult with the bike bike in the bed). After fearing for our lives for 15 min and ooh-ing and ahh-ing at the scenery around us, we arrived at this magical patch of green/golden-brown rice paddies, where we were able to get some fantastic images. This was definitely one of the most successful days, and it was an "adventure"!

After the photo shoot and some jackfuit and coconut juice at the house where we found the women, we dropped Jane off at her house, and I got to see where she lived. It's really fun knowing exactly where people sit/lie down when they're chatting with you on the phone/online. It was a cozy nook with plenty of pictures and inspirational quotes; I was impressed. After we said our goodbyes, Do'lah, Bunsak, and I headed back to Kampong Cham. Again, going in and out of sleep was prevalent. We stopped at a PSI staff member's house and sit-played for a good 15-20 min before arriving back in Kampong Cham Town, where Kellie and Katie (whose site I visited on Day 3) met me to get dinner at a small mee cha (fried noodles) stand and had tuckalucks (fruit shakes with condensed milk). Another volunteer who lived in the provincial town, Stu, met us there. You know, overall, I've gotten to meet up and hang out with a lot of volunteers since the beginning of this technical exchange, and it's been one of my favorite aspects of it. Alright, that's all for today's story.

Talk to you soon,
Garrett

Day 4 of Technical Exchange - Kampong Cham (Lindsay's Site)

So, as you read earlier, I got back to the hotel at about 11:15p and typed up all of those blog posts until about 1:30a when I got to bed. Today started at 6:00a, so my alarm was set for 5:30a. There was not a lot of sleep involved. There actually hasn't been much sleep involved this whole time, but that means I'm working hard, right? So, where was today's trek? I very large district town about 100k away from the town, fairly close to the Vietnamese border.

We met Lindsay at a grocery store in her town. That's right, I just said, "...grocery store..." She put her bike in the back of the truck, and we went from there. The first shot we did was of a "happy family with smiling kids". It was a pretty good photo shoot, and I had a fun time helping make the family laugh to get those great teeth to show. You know, in this country, there are a lot of not so pretty smiles, but we just happened to be lucky coming across some great ones this past week. After this shot and some unsuccessful attempts at a couple of others, we dropped Lindsay off at her house and chatted with her family, who gave us iced coffees that were probably 80% condensed milk. Saying that they were sweet would be an understatement (her family has a coffee grinder in the back, by the way. Lindsay has said it is both a curse and a blessing; it's loud in the morning but it often smells fantastic). We chatted with Lindsay's family for a little while as she's headed back to America soon to begin her Masters/PhD in Theater; she's pretty awesome. After we left, we went and got some images of women in different professions including a manicurist and a seamstress. Both of them turned out great! We then got a few more happy family/sad family pictures before picking Lindsay up again.

The next part of the trek was a 2 hour "adventure" (according to Bunsak) through random parts of Lindsay's district she hadn't explored yet, which was cool to be with her for that. The families we met up with were very nice. I think I remember one woman saying no to taking her picture (this happened a few times). Afterwards, we dropped Lindsay off and headed back on the 2 hours drive to Kampong Cham. We intended to stop at the rubber tree plantation to get some more shots but passed out before we even reached the factory and were in and out of sleep for most of the ride.

Tonight, I met up with Kellie to get dinner at Lazy Mekong Daze where we got ice cold Sprites, coconut shakes and giant pizza baguettes (SO GOOD!) and chatted away until about 8:30p when we headed over to the MSF (Médecins Sans Frontières, or Doctors Without Borders) house, which was a 3 minute walk from the hotel I've been staying at, and watched The Artist on the top of their three-story house. Giant white cloth, projector, pillows, a beautiful breeze and (the best part) pretzels made by a German volunteer with one bowl of mustard and another of honey to dip it in. Amazing! It was a great night. We got to bed around 1:30a (again), and this time I had to be up at 6:00 (better, right?). Needless to say, it wasn't difficult to fall asleep.

Talk to you soon,
Garrett

Friday, March 23, 2012

Day 2 of Technical Exchange (Kampong Cham - Chris' Village)

I woke up at 7a, showered, packed, then headed to PSI's office at 8a. We left around 9:15a to Kampong Cham province. There was plenty of talking and napping in the car on the way there. We checked in at our hotel (fan room), got lunch, then promptly headed to Chris' (PCV) village where I actually did my training more than a year and a half ago. Oddly, I had not been back since then. I know, it sounds terrible, but I live 12 hours from there! Yes, Rachel, if you're reading this, I know you've been back 3 or 4 times. Way to make me look bad! Anyhow, it was fantastic getting to hang out with Chris and have him suggest a few places for us to shoot. It was amazing getting to see Taboung Kamum district again. That place is gorgeous. Seriously, if you've ever tried to picture what Cambodia looks (or should look) like in your head, that's this village. It's surrounded by rubber trees and it stays green year-round.

Our first shot was of a poor-looking family (this probably sounds strange to you all back home, but in Cambodia, pointing out socio-economic distinctions is not uncouth. In fact, many people would be happy to come up to you to say "Hey! It's been awhile. You looked prettier before. Oh, and you're a lot fatter. Did you eat a lot of rice when you were away?" and they would mean nothing harmful by it). It went really well. this is probably one of the most striking images that was taken so far (I'm at the end of Day 3 right now). I can't wait to get a hold of all of these photos from Bunsak's laptop. I really enjoy feeling this productive. I hope this is something that can continue into next year (which I should know about by the end of next month, which is so soon!!!! ...but I wanna know, now! I want it, now!)

After the photo shoots, which went until about 4:30p, I saw my host family from training, which was so fantastic. They were really happy to see me, and the kids had grown so much (it had been about 18 months!). My host dad brought out jake chop (banana chips with caramelized sugar...this stuff would be excellent in a bowl...with cold milk...and a spoon), nom bao (giant dumplings with pork and a duck egg), and some Coca-cola. We chatted for about 30 minutes, and then I had to head back to the provincial town. When I got back to town, I met up with Kellie (another PCV) and grabbed some food and chatted about the mysterious and fascinating histories in our families.

Talk to you soon,
Garrett

Day 3 of Technical Exchange (Kampong Cham - Sam and Katie's Village and Skun)

Woke up at 6:15a. Great.

I was so tired. But, I had to get up. I thought to myself, "Why did I agree to do this technical exchange for so many days?!" I met Bunsak (the other photographer) and Do'lah (the driver) downstairs at 7a to head out to breakfast. We all got some pork and rice and iced coffees and headed on our merry way to a village 35km away form the provincial town of Kampong Cham, where my friends Sam and Katie (PCVs) live. After several concussions (I'm sure) and plenty of bruises on my left arm (yet to be seen)--the ride was bumpy, to say the least--we arrived at their village with the absolutely beautiful Mekong river flowing right in front of us. It was just breath taking. The first thought on my mind was "how did those two get so lucky?!" Sam met us at the river and Katie followed shortly thereafter. They took us to the market where took several shots of two women (one selling coconuts, the other selling chicken). The shots we got at the market were fantastic. The lighting was just absolutely perfect. After the market, we took some shots at the bank (we needed nine photos of women in different occupations), then headed to the health center (where Katie works) and took some shots of one of the midwives. After that, we went to the primary school next door. The students adorably all "Joom-reap-soo-ahd" (yes, I can make that a verb; it's a formal "hello", by the way) us and we got some striking shots of two students writing in their notebooks.

At this point, we headed towards a random house where Bunsak's cousin apparently lives. Of course, in typical Khmer fashion, we sit-played (sat down and chatted) for 20 min and drank from coconuts. After this, we went to Sam's house and got her neighbors to come over and take shots of them smiling at their children laughing and playing with toys (fantastic!). Okay, so, at this point, I believe it's important to note that it's two men going to random villages asking women if we can take their pictures and put them on cards for a game about birth control ("birth spacing" in Cambodia). Surprisingly, about 90% of the women we asked said yes. Again, it's important to note that we are extremely honest when asking their permission. We state everything, they take a couple of moments to think about it then say, "Yeah, okay. Sure." (or "Bahn..." or "Ja Jaa")

So, after Sam's, we went and had lunch at a near-by house and chatted about idioms, Afroman, and the Khmer Rouge. Yes. All of those topics came up in conversation over the span of about 45 min. The man who spoke about the Khmer Rouge told us that he was one of the soldiers that replaced some of the Vietnamese ones when they came in to oust the Khmer Rouge. He still has some scars for shrapnel (from a mine) that entered his thigh and his head. After lunch, we found a woman carrying a couple of cartons of eggs and did a photo shoot of her looking depressed (this game is going to be sets of cards of matching opposites) with a crying baby. It worked out pretty well, and she seemed to be pretty glad to help us out (also important to note: the women sign agreements and are compensated).

We couldn't find anymore people to take pictures of in Sam and Katie's village, so we headed out to drive around one of the national highways to take one more shot, which we found, and it turned out pretty well. When we finished up with that photo shoot (pause. I just need to let you know that today was crazy hot. I think I, now, have a permanent sweat stain [in the shape of a "v"] on my shirt....continue), we drove to Skun district to meet up with another PSI mobile video unit (MVU) that had an event in a very rural town that evening. Basically, what MVUs do is park in various villages, set up film projectors, a giant projector screen and a small tent. They show a drama with a strong health message (and various plots that involve cremations, police arrests and knives...) about the importance of birth spacing (again, the same as "birth control"). After the movie, the emcee asks for four volunteers to come up to the main banner and answer questions about the movie. When they're done, everyone claps, and they'r given some PSI swag. They then have to tear open the packaging and put on that swag as fast as possible to win various prizes (kroma, sarong, money [?]). After this, they put on some hilarious Chinese B movie that's dubbed in Khmer with Chinese subtitles. In order to put on this event, PSI contacts the commune chief who tells everyone to attend. There were about 200+ people at this event. My job was to help photograph the event, and I think I got some pretty good shots (again, photos to be posted mid-April). It was a LOT of fun, however, I was beat. The day started at 6:15a and there were no mid-day naps! It was a travesty, an absolute travesty! However, by the end of the day, I was absolutely elated at the opportunity I was given to come out here and help make some of the components of this health-education game and get to know the staff at PSI a lot better. I'm very excited for tomorrow!

Bunsak, Do'lah, and I got some late dinner (10:30p) and headed back to the hotel, where I am, now, typing this out.

Alright. I'm tired (I also wrote these first three days out of order, which just goes to show how tired I am). I wrote "Day 1" with Day 1 material. Then, I wrote "Day 2" with Day 3 material. Whoops. Ugh. I'm off to sleep. Tomorrow, I'm off to visit my friend Lindsay (another PCV) who lives about 100km (2 hours) from the provincial town. I'm very excited to see her and her site again. Note: at first when I mentioned that I could probably contact some PCVs in the province of Kampong Cham, the technical director said, "Oh! That's fantastic. How many people are out there?" I told her about 10, and that if they wanted to venture out into any other province, that I would know people there. She responded to that with "This is the power of Peace Corps." Whoo! Go Peace Corps!

Talk to you soon,
Garrett

Day 1 of Technical Exchange (Phnom Penh)

I arrived at the PSI headquarters where I met with Sokea, Bunsak, and Alysha to discuss the schedule of events for the following eight days where I would be helping PSI out with a project. I quickly realized that I would be leading much of this activity and with minimal direction, other than a list of photographs to take. The project that they are undertaking is creating a health education game that promotes the usage of IUDs (intrauterine devices). So, they gave me their new Canon 5D Mark II that they just purchased and let me throw it around my shoulder and ride off (on my bicycle) to play around with it for 4 hours before coming back (how nice...and trusting of them to do so). Before I left I was introduced to the country director and much of the staff that works there.

I got to the Peace Corps office and just stared at the camera (glad that it didn't fall off my shoulder in the middle of the Independence Monument intersection (for those of you at home...this is probably the most dangerous place in all of Cambodia) absolutely elated. I went back to the PSI office at 1:40p (as was requested) but waited around until 2:20p until we actually left. Wait! Garrett. You didn't tell us you were going anywhere. Oh, right. Sorry. I forgot. They asked me to help shoot some staged photographs of their women's health hotline, which happens once every month. Basically, women don't feel comfortable going to the health center to ask particular health-related questions (i.e. family planning), because they might feel embarrassed for others to know they are thinking or talking about it. So, PSI created a women's health hotline for them to call anonymously and receive advice/help. The photo shoots were somewhere around Sorya mall and were a bit mundane and slow at first until we started interacting with the women and directing them (this is really difficult in Khmer). You would think simple things like "please turn your body a little bit to the left and rotate your head towards the corner of the room" would be...so simple. It's not. Anyhow, we got some good shots and one of them (not sure which one yet) ended up in their annual news letter; that's neat.

We finished around 5p and I headed back to the PC office to send some e-mails and then go to dinner with a couple of friends. So far, so good.

Talk to you soon,
Garrett

p.s. photos will come mid-April.

Monday, March 19, 2012

Technical Exchange with PSI

So, I will be traveling with a photographer from PSI to both Kampong Cham and Kandal provinces to do several photo shoots for about week. Our shots will consist of mainly women and some babies (babies are always good to take pictures of). This is for a positive image campaign for IUDs (intrauterine devices). PSI deals a lot with family planning here in Cambodia, so I'm really looking forward to getting this window of opportunity to see what it will be like to work with some of the staff from PSI. Also, I got to bust out my light meter, which got me all giddy. Yeah, I know. I'm a geek. If I have permission to, I'll be sure to post some of the finished products on this blog if it's possible.

Talk to you soon,
Garrett

Monday, March 5, 2012

Foreign Service Officer Test

Do I have your attention? I certainly have mine. I, honestly, think I'm kinda crazy for having signed up for the Foreign Service Officer Test (FSOT). Then again, I'm most likely extending my service in the Peace Corps, so I guess it's not that crazy, huh? Anyhow, about a year ago I had seriously thought about the Foreign Service. I even had an hour-long conversation with the then Country Director of PC/Cambodia to discuss his personal experiences raising a family abroad. Flash forward one year, and on a whim, I decided I would apply for the FSOT and see what would happen. I, honestly, did not study for the test. A K3 PCV had given me a study guide that was dated to 2006, and I merely skimmed through it. I took the test on February 4th of this year and then promptly forgot about it, knowing that I would not receive my results for another 6-8 weeks. Well, only four weeks later, I received an e-mail from the Department of State:

"Dear GARRETT L. MATLICK ,

Congratulations! The scores you achieved on your Foreign Service Officer Test (FSOT) qualify you for the next step of the Foreign Service Officer selection process, which is your prompt submission of a personal narrative for review by the Qualifications Evaluation Panel (QEP).
As you know, the Foreign Service selection process is a series of evaluations that can lead to an offer of employment as an entry-level Foreign Service Officer. Now that you have received a passing score on the FSOT, you must submit responses...which are known as the Personal Narrative (PN) questions..."

So, there's that. And now that I've moved on to the next step in the process, I'm finding myself taking this application process much more seriously than I had intended to. I have filled out all of my PN questions and am quite happy with them. To be honest, they were incredibly difficult to answer.

Now, this will not affect my extending for a third year in Cambodia. The Department of State actually offers the opportunity to defer the start of your 18-month clock for up to two years if you currently serve in the military or...the Peace Corps. It turns out that you actually get bonus points on the total review of your application (should you get to the end) for having served in the Peace Corps, proving a certain level of language fluency, and/or being an armed services veteran (Sweet! 2 out of 3!).

What's the next step in this process if I pass the PNQs? I would be invited for an Oral Assessment (OA) somewhere (usually D.C., but who knows for me). If I pass that, then I'm placed on a wait list for Foreign Service assignments. This wait-time is good for 18 months (read above about the "18-month" clock). If you're not so lucky, I believe you have to start the whole process again; how terrible!

Talk to you soon,
Garrett

Friday, March 2, 2012

Create Cambodia

Hey family and friends! Out here in Cambodia, where a large percentage of the population is under the age of 18, visual and performing arts are not focused on, and children do not often get the opportunity to express themselves through creative outlets. I try not to do too much plugging out here, but this is really great opportunity to donate to a wonderful project. Even if you can donate $5, it would go a long way, and if you can't that's okay, just tell your friends!

I don't personally have students who are participating in this project, but I truly believe it is something worthwhile:


Talk to you soon,
Garrett