Sunday, March 6, 2011

Kampong Cham and Phnom Penh

This past week was pretty epic. I went down to Kampong Cham for the weekend and visited my first host family. I think I ate twice the number of meals I normally eat and had a fruit shake for every meal. The reason for all this is because I went with Saeed, who was my neighbor during training. His host fam and mine are related so he's sort of like my cousin. After I eat at my house I end up at Saeed's house eating a second meal. It's actually a pretty good deal. I also had a ton of free time so we went running every morning and played bball every afternoon. Playing 1 vs. 4 kids is actually really fun because even though they can barely make a basket they force you to be quick on your feet. Little kids can turn on a dime though they have some trouble anticipating your moves.Yea, the highlight of my trip was hustling little kids. I'm not ashamed though maybe I should be.

After Kampong Cham I headed to Phnom Penh for IST (in-service training). Which was basically a series of meetings, informative and boring. Though really, no one can make these meetings interesting all the time so there's no one to blame. We did get to have two days of it in a super nice hotel. Like 5 star hotel...maybe. My standards for hotels have changed drastically since I moved here. We had a free 22 dollar buffet both days and free snacks and tea/coffee during breaks. It was awesome for us. Unfortunately, the second day was a conference with Cambodian counterparts. Some of the people at that meeting had never left their provinces and had never had Western food before. It really made me realize how ridiculous the hotel was. Even though we were in their country, the Cambodians were the ones that probably felt the most uncomfortable. Cambodians would be the ones asked to leave if they acted the way Cambodians normally act. The presence of hotels like that are preposterous.

1 comment:

  1. Don't be ashamed! Show them your mad bball skillz!
    Also, free buffet and drinks that are not water? :(

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