I Saw a Dime Today

Do you remember those sarcastic remarks your friends would make when you would tell a very bland, boring story? "Dude, guess what?! I found a quarter on the ground!" Well, guess what, I found a dime (Rachel had it in her purse), and I almost peed my pants it was so exciting.

A Potential Beginning

So, as I've waited around doing, what I believe to be, much of nothing in this village (of which I wouldn't be lying to say I've been content with it), I asked my health center director if he would be interested in starting a guppy farm/series of information sessions about them. His answer, "Yes. That is very good. I will buy the water jar. You will have it in a month." Note: It would not have sounded that elequent in English. As well, he now wants me to get started on a more immediate project in the mean time (the guppy project won't be able to be put into full effect until February or March, at least, on account of breeding the fish). So, I think I'm going to have an information/cooking session on exclusive breast-feeding and nutrition for new mothers/weening poridge. Essentially I will need three things: A Khmer counterpart who plans on sticking around this village for awhile; to get the word out to expectant/new mothers; to have those expectant/new mothers bring a vegetable/some rice/pots/stove/water. Nothing is as effective as teaching someone to do it themselves with their own local materials. I plan on executing this great (sounding) project for early December just before I come home. I won't lie; I would very much enjoy coming home with some stories of productivity.

A few more things:

- U of A lost to USC, but I don't blame Nick Foles. You did well, Sunshine

- I am distracted on my sadness and disappointment of the outcome by Oregon State's loss to Washington State. This is Washington State's first Pac-10 win in a 10-15 game losing streak? Yeah... embarassing. I laughed plenty. (you can correct me if I'm wrong)

- The Three Musketeers is a really fun/fast read. I recommend it already, and I've still 158 pages left.

- Thanksgiving is soon. This will be my first Thanksgiving not in the country that celebrates it. Kinda strange to think about, but I don't feel too detered by it as I will be spending it with many people who have celebrated it just as I have the past 23 times.

Talk to you soon,
Garrett

p.s. Cellcard (one of the cellphone services) has hundreds, maybe even thousands, of banners all around Cambodia that say $2 + $4 = Cellcard. Hmmmm, I persistently hope for a banner that will say "...= $6." However, I think I'm just giving myself false hopes.

-

Today is a Good Day

So, today I got a text from my Khmer tutor, Rath, who was also an LCF (Language and Cross-Cultural Facilitator) during my training, that he was free at 3:00p - 5:00p to teach a language lesson. This bode particularly well for me, because that gave me the notion that I could potentially have a solid lesson every week as he could only really teach me on the weekends, of which you never know where I may be (i.e. Battambang for IST [Inter-service Training])! Anyhow, he drove on his moto over to my town (he lives 25k away in Sway [the provincial town]) and we had sort of an introductory lesson to figure out where my skills where at post-training. That went well, I learned a some useful words for going fishing, and now, we, potentially, will be having lessons Wednesday, Saturday, and Sunday, which bodes well for me as I've been needing some more "stuff" to do in my life here. By the way, do you notice that I, Garrett, have been using a lot of commas in this blog, nonetheless through the entirety of my life, if you've known me long enough? Or at least long enough to muster through that sentence. Okay, seriously, though; enough of that. I'm sure my misuse of commas and semicolons are making some poor stranger cringe. Anyhow, the point is: I have something new to add to my agenda/look forward to.
All I can really say, is that right now, I have a really great set of friends (PCV/Khmer) that keep me goin' when things start to slow up. I also have a (expletive deleted) ton of movies and a good set of 600+ page books to keep me busy. Hope things are keeping well. Use plenty of silica-gel packets, and I'll see a good portion of you in 5 weeks.

Talk to you soon,
Garrett

This "Shift"button sucks

I don't think I've ever used such an awful keyboard in my entire life. Why these buttons are so hard to press, I'd rather not ask. However, the one question one might ask is why there might be giant wax sculptures of dinosaurs, Disney characters, elegant forest/jungle animals, and one character from World of War Craft, I'm pretty sure, are in the middle of the most (almost) northwestern province of Cambodia. It's like a side attraction on the side of I-10 on the way to Texas, headed east, or somewhere on Route 66. Needless to say, it's an experience one should experi...well, okay, maybe should just picture in their head about what it might be like. Will there be pictures eventually? Absolutely. Will I get them on here in an expedient manner? Probably not. Anyhow, that's about the only interesting chapter in the story of my life at the moment. This month should be a pretty laid-back one until Thanksgiving, which I very much look forward to. I haven't had the opportunity to see everyone all at once since Swear-in, so it'll be nice to gather together everyone and potentially eat some pretty satisfying food. Okay, that's it for me, now.

Talk to you soon,
Garrett

p.s. Even though Arizona lost to Stanford, the rankings still state: #1 Oregon, #6 Stanford, #18 Arizona. And that is pretty awesome for the Pac-10. We'll just forget about Washington State, who's the ugly red-headed step-child of the Pac-10 family. Sorry, Cougs.

The External (Health) Battle

I've realized something recently.

I have had absolutely no (except for a cold that lasted a day) internal health struggles. Yup. That's right. I haven't had diarrhea, a fever, or Dengue Fever. What an immune system! However, what I haven't had much luck with is the external health battle.

- bug-bite turned infection on my ankle (which gave me considerable trouble walking)
- falling off of my bike before even getting to training
- cutting myself with glass (notice these two would probably happen anywhere)
- contact skin dermatitis from strange plants on my left eyelid (not fun)
- contact skin dermatitis from strange plants on my right arm
- etc...

Some of you could just agree that I'm a clutz and physical injuries are bound to happen to me, but I swear, my skin just doesn't like this country (or DEET).

Hopefully my body will grow used to this place and then again, maybe not.

Talk to you soon,
Garrett

p.s. I just potentially found a temporary tutor. Whoo! I will be happy to have an actual tutor rather than relying on myself as I have the past 5 weeks.

Power

So, I'm sitting on my bed, charging my iPod, listening to iTunes and am connected to the internet. How? Because I have power once again to my computer. I can't explain how happy I am to have the ability to chat on Skype for more than an hour and fifteen once every week or two. Awesome! Thanks fam. It is well appreciated. Now, I just need to look for a surge protector...

So, what's new. Well, my town definitely flooded. I had to walk calf deep in water to get water to fill my filter and watched families walk waist deep to get to their homes. Did I say this already? I don't really remember and am too lazy to go back and check. Anyhow, after about a week and a half, I can take a shower and not immediately dirty myself with gross stagnant rain/dirt/fish water. I had fish swimming in the back of my house...

Things at the health center are going well. There seems to only have been one case of Malaria and no cases of Dengue over the last year, so, it appears doing a guppy farm and mosquito-prevention workshops close to my house are out of the question. 20k bike rides, here I come. Basically, how this works, is I have to order giant jars for water, and travel 80k to a buddy's site to get 20 fish in a bag...odd, right? Then, I put them in a few ginormous jars of water and wait for them to get at it. Within weeks? months? I'll have hundreds of little mosquito-eating fish. This is just an idea, but it's one method of killing off mosquitos that like to breed in the stagnant water in peoples' homes in Cambodia, and other mosquito infested countries for that matter.

Okay, my fingers are tired... perhaps another blog soon. Hopefully I can load some photos of my previously flooded home soon.

Talk to you later,
Garrett

Chatting with America

So, I got to Skype with Kim and Michael (and see Erica and Marcos?) today. Definitely the highlight of my week, seeing as the back half of my house did actually flood, a lot. I went to fetch water for my filter...thigh high! Anyhow, it's nice to see missed faces and know I'll be seeing them again 8 weeks from Thursday. I wish upon my laptop charger to get here faster. As my friend, Julie pointed out,--and as it's true, it's worth noting-- it's been a good experience living without my laptop for the past 3 months. I learned that I can read a lot more than one should in one day, for me at least, and there are other forms of entertainment, like watching the fish swim in your flooded back portion of your home. But, come the time I get my charger in (thanks fam), I'll be very glad to continue my Bond marathon, the other bagillion movies I now own (thanks again fam) and start House and Battlestar Gallactica.

Anyhow, life is good. Life is wet, but good. It didn't rain yesterday or today (knock on wood) thankfully, so we'll see how that continues. November is inching its way in which means Battambang, friends, Thanksgiving...all at once!

Hope things are well. Talk to you soon,
Garrett

p.s. I know what you're thinkin': 'Garrett, how can you claim to say you've learned an experience of living without technology while you seem to post something once-twice a week?' You're right. I probably should be holding my tongue, but lets face it. I enjoy communicating with people. I'm checking my peace corps phone: sent txts: 1602 received: 1464