Skewed Views of a Nation or As a Result of Poor Communication/a Language Barrier or Goal 2

Goal 2 of the Peace Corps' three goals reads: "Helping promote a better understanding of Americans on the part of the peoples served."

Back in June, I was watching Rambo II with a few of the bankers in one of their rooms. One of them, who's grammar is pretty awful but manages to have an oddly wide vocabulary, was asking me many questions about the movie and if there were many people that looked like Sylvester Stallone (Google, by the way, recognized that name in its dictionary). After answering his plethora of questions, the conversation turned slightly political asking about the many policies of America, particularly its foreign policies. I was intrigued with where the conversation was going, and it only seemed to steer towards information rather than opinions, so I was happy to indulge him. Then, out of nowhere he asks me, "What is America's policy [on] Islam?" Huh? I was confused. I asked him to repeat the question again. "What is America's policy [on] Islam?" "Well, America doesn't have a policy on Islam. There are no policies on any religion," I said. His response, "No. No. I know. I know. America has a war on Islam." I'm pretty sure I knew what he meant, but I wanted to clarify. So I asked him where he got the information, and he told me, "My friend tells me this. Yes. My friend, he speaks English." I ask if his friend is Cambodian, he is. "Where did he learn English?" I ask. "He learned in school. He was the top of the class. Now, he works at the bank in Phnom Penh and makes a lot of money," he responds. My friend (and I'm assuming his friend) is 28, meaning he most likely stopped learning English roughly a decade ago. So, being the diplomatic person I am, I responded with, "I speak English, too. It is my native language, and I am from America. I know a lot about the policy of America. I think I can help explain." So, I do. I begin to explain to him that America declared war on a couple of countries whose main religion just happens to be Islam. Still a little in disbelief, he asks, "So, America does not war on Muslims?" I tell him no, and he seems to understand a little better. When I explained that sometimes it's best to get your news from a newspaper, and if you were to do so, you should make sure you find a credible one. They read the Phnom Penh Post every evening before dinner, now.

Four months later, when I returned from Pre-Service Training in Takeo province, I was at my health center when my health center director called me over and said there was something he really wanted to show me on the computer; the health center had internet, now. All I could think of as I walked over to his office was, He's going to show me porn. This is just great. He's tried several times before, asking if I had heard of sites like xxgirlazee.net, to make one up (I checked; it doesn't exist). I come into his office, and he pulls up a chair and asks me to sit down. He shows me a website that contains half of the country's name and a bunch of repeating numbers. He clicks on "Weapons Photos" and it eventually leads to 2 line articles stating "America has war on Russia! Russia is angry!" with a large picture above of some large missile. "Look," he says, "big missile!" He laughs heartily. "Isn't it impressive?"--this conversation is in Khmer--"Are America and Russia very angry with each other?" (He can read the English alphabet and knows very few words like war, beer, meeting, information, project, money, sexy girl). After a brief explanation, I ask him if this is where he reads the news, and he says yes. He tells me that he does not read the Phnom Penh Post, which, while not the most critically acclaimed newspaper in the world, is much better than his current source of information and is in Khmer. I made it his home page.

Where do these strains of skewed information come from? Are they opinions passed down as facts, or are they simply mistranslated information from unaccredited news sources? Everyone is more than entitled to their opinion, but sometimes people do not believe it is their opinion of the matter; they believe it is truly factual information.

Talk to you soon,

Garrett

If You Want to Feel Good About Life,

just stand at the end of the finish line of any half marathon/marathon. It's probably one of the few moments you will see someone giving all of their physical being to completing something, mostly, for themselves. I was at the 16th Annual Siem Reap International Half Marathon this weekend, and I saw much of that after I had finished the 10K. It wouldn't matter what language they speak, what country they come from (about 50 different ones represented), how much money they make, or what they had done with their lives before that moment, you felt proud of all their efforts in that final stretch having finished running 21 kilometers.

This was the first race I had ever been a part of. I had cheered on my fellow Peace Corps Volunteers at last year's race as I had competed in the 30k bike race. It was such an amazing feeling coming into that last stretch. Just as I felt like I wanted to give up and walk the rest of the way, hundreds of people in the last 200 meters wouldn't let me do so. I got this euphoric rush. I ran 10k, having only stopped once to power walk for about 10 seconds after 7.5k, in 1:02:28. This time isn't anything to brag about, as I was just hoping I wouldn't run past my playlist of 1:30:00. So, I think I did alright.

Kudos to all of my fellow PCVs who ran and biked this weekend. I'm impressed by you.

Talk to you soon,

Garrett

Extending My Service

Surprising? At the moment, to me? No. Would it be to me 3 months ago? Absolutely!

Now, before I go any further, I have to state that I am only heavily intrigued and quite serious about the prospect of extending. Notice all the non-committal words in there. Now, I'm actually committed to the idea of extending my service another year, however, it's not quite that easy. The Peace Corps/Cambodia senior staff have to approve such a request, and not everybody who wishes to extend will get to do so; there are quite a few people interested. I will have a much firmer idea by the end of February; people's minds will change, and I will know how the staff will feel at that point. I mean, if I run through my town naked singing songs in Thai, I might not exactly get the vote I was hoping for. As well, who knows if any job opportunities will present themselves. It's definitely up in the air. At the moment, however, I do have some ideas of what I would like to do:

1. Working with a major health NGO, collaborating their efforts with individual Peace Corps Volunteers

2. Collaborating with major health NGOs, in general, networking them with Peace Corps/Cambodia

3. Designing country-wide health projects for CHE PCVs

etc.

I don't know exactly what I'll be doing though as I 1) am still researching opportunities 2) will need to align/collaborate/compromise with Peace Corps/Cambodia on what I'll be doing, should I be granted an extension. When I do, I'll be sure to let you all know.

Until then, here's a fun story of how my mind changed.

During the last weeks of K5 PST:

K5#1: So, Garrett, you're involved in this training, so you must really enjoy working with Peace Corps. You'll probably extend right?

Me: What? Hell no.

K5 #7: Garrett, are you thinking about extending?

Me: You know, I probably won't. Funny you should ask, though.

K5 #12: Garrett, I bet you're going to extend right? You seem to really like it here.

Me: Well, I'm not so sure about that yet, but I'm not closed off to the idea.

K5: #20: Hey, Garrett. How are things? Do you think you'll extend?

Me: You know, I've been thinking about this a lot, and I'm definitely exploring my possibilities in to the matter.

Yes. K5s, I mostly blame you all.

As well, I had a lot of influence from a K2, Greg, who was a technical trainer with me during training. He was a 3rd year volunteer who was, technically, in his 4th year half way through training. He had explained to me that his 3rd year was when he felt most productive and when his Khmer really took off. Kristin, a K3 (who was also a technical trainer for training) was a half ETTT (English Teacher/Teacher Trainer) and half CHE PCV. She had many ideas of what the first extending health volunteer could do, and it just got me thinking.

Questions you might have:

When will I know for sure? Mid-March

Would I get to come home? Absolutely. I'd be home, theoretically, Aug 3rd - Sep 2nd, 2012

When would my service actually be complete then? Either Sep 2nd or Oct 2nd, 2013.

Would you still live in Nimitt? No.

Where would you live, then? Not quite sure yet, but most likely in a provincial town.

Are you actually happy in Cambodia? Yup! I actually am happy here! I spent a lot of time thinking about this question and mulling over my feelings here. To be quite honest, I've felt quite comfortable and at home here since training began in early July in the provincial town in Takeo province.

Are you doing this to avoid the economic crisis affecting the U.S.? No, but I like to think of it as me freeing up another job in the market, not that I'd be assured one anyway. $6k/year isn't exactly ideal. If I were really just doing this to avoid the job market, I'd simply just go find a job with an NGO somewhere and get paid.

It's December, and things change.

Talk to you soon,

Garrett

p.s. Wish me luck in my 10k race on Sun!