Saturday, September 25, 2010

Going to Permanent Site

Today, I took the bus up to Siem Reap city. Tomorrow, I'm heading to my permanent village. I'll be there for the rest of my time in Cambodia and hopefully I'll like it there. I'll be living in my village with a new family and a new town and a new job to get used to. To top it all off I'll be in the village alone, as in the only volunteer. The next volunteer is about 15k away. Pretty much, my job is whatever I make of it. The first few weeks/months I'll just be learning to live again and getting to know people. I have to report to the health center every day, but I really can't do much yet because I need to learn a lot more k'mai. At the schools, it's a little easier to get started because they have a set national curriculum and also english speaking teachers. At the health center, a lot of it is just up to me and my own initiative. It's easy to just sit and give up. I have to make the right connections, identify needs, think of projects, start them, and finish them. There's not really a boss looking over my shoulder to make sure everything is going according to some grand plan. I hope I'm ready for that kind of responsibility because I know some days will be hard. Those days will be the ones where I'll be able to kick myself in the butt and make myself go to work and do what needs to be done.

On a lighter note, today my giant coach bus stopped by the side of the highway to pick up bags of cucumbers.

3 comments:

  1. Don't worry Helen, I know you can do it!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Don't give up! It's not worth it ;)
    And cucumbers rock.

    ReplyDelete
  3. wow i cant wait to meet up with you on your break. Want to see how everything is.

    ReplyDelete