1. A few days ago I was running (for exercise) and I saw a water buffalo make a break for freedom. Water buffaloes are pretty massive. This farmer was leading two waterbuffalo down a slight incline and one of the water buffalo used its massive inertia to break free. Up until then I don't think I've ever seen a grown water buffalo do more than walk slowly. But this guy sprinted across the field. He made it about 500 meters before he stopped. Either he thought he had gone far enough or he got tired. I think the latter is likely since they don't move much on a regular basis. A sedentary lifestyle will not get you very far.
2. Today, this child was the last patient of the day. The kid was clearly malnourished and the entire time he was passed out, being held by his mom. He was sleeping, but the kind of sleep where you can tell he's tired cause he probably hasn't eaten much in a while. On his head was a large rash that ranged from his ear lobe to the top of his shaved head. There was scabbing where he had scratched and also some kind of crust that the mom may have applied as a traditional cure. I saw her waiting to get meds so I try to chit chat a litte. Always awkward. Typical conversation questions here are things that you would never ask in America, sometimes it's actually illegal. So I asked, what village are you from, what's wrong with your kid? I still remember how awkward it was the first time I had to ask those questions. It just seems sort of wrong to make chit chat when there's a starving child in front of you and no one seems to be doing anything about it. The midwife comes out and asks her how she got here. She rode on the back of a vehicle. By vehicle I mean an engine attached to a metal cart, literally. She begged them for a free ride and they let her off at the Wat. Then she walked to the HC carrying her kid. To get back she has to beg someone else for a ride. The midwife gave her 1000 riel, the equivalent of 25 cents. It costs maybe 5000 Riel, about 1.25 to get back. Plus, she didn't have the health insurance so she paid 1500R for the meds already. I was on my way out so I walked with her back to town, we were going the same way. Along the way I asked her about her family. She was pregnant with her 3rd child. From what I could understand she begs for a living, at least right now she does because one of the temples is having a festival that attracts a lot of people. On the walk, I gave her 5000R. I gave it to her because I knew she needed it. Because in the end the only thing that will solve her problems is more money. Education, health insurance, other schemes will not do anything if she doesn't have more money. It sort of just seems so futile to try to fix things when no one can even really touch the biggest issue. When we parted she reached out for my hand and wished me good fortune and to meet again. I don't know if she held my hand because I gave her money or if it was because I walked with her. I always hope for the latter but I don't blame her for the former. It's a bit ironic that her trip to the HC made her almost as much money as she would make working in the rice fields all day.
3. So, I've been teaching in the villages these past few weeks and as an icebreaker I have everyone go around and tell me their names, favorite vegetable, and whether they prefer cats or dogs. I was in a village last week when halfway through the activity a woman replied that she doesn't know if she likes cats or dogs cause she's never eaten a cat before. The villagers had thought I was asking if they preferred dog meat or cat meat since the previous question was about vegetables. I had to clarify that the question was whether you loved dogs more or cats more. I could see that everyone thought this was a much more appropriate question.
Friday, June 3, 2011
Friday, May 27, 2011
randoms
So, today I met with my school director to go over my summer classes and my plan to visit each 10th and 9th grade class to personally tell them about it. Really, this is the only way I can get info out in my school. I requested to see the schedule. Turns out, they lost it. It took about an hour for them to run to the copy center across the street and find it on the computer. How does a school function if the Director has lost the schedule?
I think waking up in the morning is always hard for people. The bed is a comfy cozy safe haven. A place of relaxation and no worries. And yet, every morning i'm forced to leave it. Mornings are hard. Especially here since I could potentially choose to never get out of bed and no one would think that its strange. Some people spend the entire day in a hammock. Every morning I make the choice to put myself through things I would rather not do. Like be ridiculed for my accent for the 5000000000000th time.
I was working on a grant proposal with some fellow volunteers this past month and it got approved! Now the real work begins. I'm trying to keep my girls' empowerment club going and will amp it up from once a month to 4 times a week. Only problem is that I am not fluent in khmer. Big surprise there. It has been so hard to find a counterpart, especially a woman counterpart. That's not even with the criteria that they should speak some english. I just am not sure how I'm gonna pull off 4 times a week if we can't understand each other. Anyway, hopefully this will work and then it'll lead to Camp GLOW (Girls Leading Our World). It's a 4 day camp for girls from 3 villages, we got the grant for this project. It won't take place until September so we have some time for planning, but time certainly does fly here.
I think waking up in the morning is always hard for people. The bed is a comfy cozy safe haven. A place of relaxation and no worries. And yet, every morning i'm forced to leave it. Mornings are hard. Especially here since I could potentially choose to never get out of bed and no one would think that its strange. Some people spend the entire day in a hammock. Every morning I make the choice to put myself through things I would rather not do. Like be ridiculed for my accent for the 5000000000000th time.
I was working on a grant proposal with some fellow volunteers this past month and it got approved! Now the real work begins. I'm trying to keep my girls' empowerment club going and will amp it up from once a month to 4 times a week. Only problem is that I am not fluent in khmer. Big surprise there. It has been so hard to find a counterpart, especially a woman counterpart. That's not even with the criteria that they should speak some english. I just am not sure how I'm gonna pull off 4 times a week if we can't understand each other. Anyway, hopefully this will work and then it'll lead to Camp GLOW (Girls Leading Our World). It's a 4 day camp for girls from 3 villages, we got the grant for this project. It won't take place until September so we have some time for planning, but time certainly does fly here.
Thursday, May 26, 2011
"cambodia is not an experiment"
Something that has been bugging me more and more lately is the attitude of foriegners toward developing countries. So many people think developing countries are so messed up already that they can't possibly do any harm. As long as they come with an open mind and a desire to help everything will turn out hunky dory. WRONG. So totally wrong. Cambodia is not an experiment. It's not a place for people that have no idea what they're doing to come and play around. I think a lot of PCVs join up with this mentality that what they have to offer is better than nothing and I think some of us eventually realize that we can do better than just show up with a superiority complex thinking that we're better than anything the country itself can offer.
Yes, I am a native English speaker. Cambodians can't offer that. I can teach kids to speak English with a proper American accent, but what about the inferiority complex I may be indirectly causing. A lot of Cambodians believe that Cambodians are just not as smart as foriegners. They think this is a universal rule. A lot of Cambodians are so used to having foreigners come in to give them things that they never try to help themselves. And why should they? It seems so easy for the foriegners to part with a few bucks here and there. Foriegn aid is being spent willy nilly and completely wasted in some cases in countries like Cambodia all over the world. Why? Because there is a fundamental disconnect between the people of the country and those that are "just trying to help".
There are many levels at which this disconnect occurs. I think the most blatant occurs when some foreigners come in and just give things away. They have all this money and they build a school. Yes, people need schools. But, who's gonna use those buildings? Who's gonna teach? How are the students going to get there? Who's gonna figure out a way to feed families so children can leave the fields and go to school? In my opinion, People that just give things away are the people that want to make themselves feel better and think that they can fix it all with money. Sometimes its not money, sometimes its those pesky tourists that just pop in for a week or two, teach some english and then flit away back. You think you're not doing any harm? How about all the kids that became attached to you during those two weeks that you just leave behind? How about people like me that are trying to build relationships while you make it harder by demonstrating how temporary I really am? (Yea, I'm very personally biased in this respect). But really, I'm not angry at these individual volunteers. They are trying to help and for many this experience may be a stepping stone to a longer committment. My short time in New Mexico has definitely influenced my time here. The people I really hold responsible are the mid-level organizations and groups that perpetuate this structure, where responsibility sort of goes out the window. They throw people that have done no research, no training, no cultural climatization, and just blindly believe that no harm will be done. This is the exact opposite of the "Do no harm" philosophy. There's no initial training, no monitoring during service, and no real evaluation. Peace Corps is not exempt from this criticism either.
On another level, there are people and NGOs that start out really well. They do the research, take the time to understand the culture, work with Cambodians to make curriculums and programs for Cambodians. And not just Cambodians from Phnom Penh, but getting the input of Cambodians in the villages or whoever their target group is. But then they never really figure out if what they're doing is effective. Essentially, the problem is that change isn't 'mainstreamed'. In any organization, there needs to be a certain amount of felixbility. A willingness to throw out the current model and put in something new because people change, communities change, problems change, and solutions NEED to change. So, you need to constantly have a way to figure out if your solution is still working or if it ever worked in the first place. You need feedback from the people and communities you are helping, constantly. Otherwise, what you are currently doing is probably useless. The people in the villages are tired of projects that don't work, they lose faith, stop being interested in helping. Add to this mix the 50 NGOs that are all trying out a slight variation of the same model that doesn't work in the same villages and you can imagine the magnitude of the indifference that is being created.
How can we fix this? I don't think we can. I try my best to not exacerbate these issues. I tear my hair out trying to find people in my village to work with, try method after method, discussion after discussion and I will keep trying even though doing things by myself is extremely tempting. But I know my two years are not nearly a long enough commitment.NGOs are also too big, too many, and too stubborn. I wish someone with a clear view of development work and Cambodia could just come in with a magic wand. They would magically make either ALL the NGOs better or get rid of all the crappy ones (though after this we might be only left with a handful of small ones). I wish we could start again so that, this time, we would do our jobs right and do it thoroughly.
Yes, I am a native English speaker. Cambodians can't offer that. I can teach kids to speak English with a proper American accent, but what about the inferiority complex I may be indirectly causing. A lot of Cambodians believe that Cambodians are just not as smart as foriegners. They think this is a universal rule. A lot of Cambodians are so used to having foreigners come in to give them things that they never try to help themselves. And why should they? It seems so easy for the foriegners to part with a few bucks here and there. Foriegn aid is being spent willy nilly and completely wasted in some cases in countries like Cambodia all over the world. Why? Because there is a fundamental disconnect between the people of the country and those that are "just trying to help".
There are many levels at which this disconnect occurs. I think the most blatant occurs when some foreigners come in and just give things away. They have all this money and they build a school. Yes, people need schools. But, who's gonna use those buildings? Who's gonna teach? How are the students going to get there? Who's gonna figure out a way to feed families so children can leave the fields and go to school? In my opinion, People that just give things away are the people that want to make themselves feel better and think that they can fix it all with money. Sometimes its not money, sometimes its those pesky tourists that just pop in for a week or two, teach some english and then flit away back. You think you're not doing any harm? How about all the kids that became attached to you during those two weeks that you just leave behind? How about people like me that are trying to build relationships while you make it harder by demonstrating how temporary I really am? (Yea, I'm very personally biased in this respect). But really, I'm not angry at these individual volunteers. They are trying to help and for many this experience may be a stepping stone to a longer committment. My short time in New Mexico has definitely influenced my time here. The people I really hold responsible are the mid-level organizations and groups that perpetuate this structure, where responsibility sort of goes out the window. They throw people that have done no research, no training, no cultural climatization, and just blindly believe that no harm will be done. This is the exact opposite of the "Do no harm" philosophy. There's no initial training, no monitoring during service, and no real evaluation. Peace Corps is not exempt from this criticism either.
On another level, there are people and NGOs that start out really well. They do the research, take the time to understand the culture, work with Cambodians to make curriculums and programs for Cambodians. And not just Cambodians from Phnom Penh, but getting the input of Cambodians in the villages or whoever their target group is. But then they never really figure out if what they're doing is effective. Essentially, the problem is that change isn't 'mainstreamed'. In any organization, there needs to be a certain amount of felixbility. A willingness to throw out the current model and put in something new because people change, communities change, problems change, and solutions NEED to change. So, you need to constantly have a way to figure out if your solution is still working or if it ever worked in the first place. You need feedback from the people and communities you are helping, constantly. Otherwise, what you are currently doing is probably useless. The people in the villages are tired of projects that don't work, they lose faith, stop being interested in helping. Add to this mix the 50 NGOs that are all trying out a slight variation of the same model that doesn't work in the same villages and you can imagine the magnitude of the indifference that is being created.
How can we fix this? I don't think we can. I try my best to not exacerbate these issues. I tear my hair out trying to find people in my village to work with, try method after method, discussion after discussion and I will keep trying even though doing things by myself is extremely tempting. But I know my two years are not nearly a long enough commitment.NGOs are also too big, too many, and too stubborn. I wish someone with a clear view of development work and Cambodia could just come in with a magic wand. They would magically make either ALL the NGOs better or get rid of all the crappy ones (though after this we might be only left with a handful of small ones). I wish we could start again so that, this time, we would do our jobs right and do it thoroughly.
Mental Health in Cambodia
So, there's this man in my Wat. (A Wat is a large complex that holds the local buddhist temple, monks' housing, maybe a small school, some places to put cremated people, and such stuff). This man has been there for months. He is tethered to a post. Yepp, tied by rope like a dog. He has maybe a 2 meter radius to walk around. Sometimes I see the monks take him out for a walk. I asked my khmer tutor why the man was tied to a post everyday and he replied that the man had a nervous issue. In other words, someone decided he was mentally ill. Apparently, he's tied to the post so he doesn't wander off and get lost somewhere. He's at the Wat because the monks to pray over him and bless him to treat his mental illness.
In Cambodia, mental health issues are everywhere. How can they not be with Cambodia's long history of genocide and oppression. Plus, its not like everything is all hunky dory now either. The problem is that no one really understands mental illness and there's really no one around to deal with it. The majority of medical professionals are midwives or nurses. There are very few doctors and most doctors work in expensive clinics or for NGOs.
I think this illustrates a fundamental issue in how the public views mental health in general. Clearly, if you have a physical ailment and die it doesn't matter what state your mind is in cause it no longer exists. There's enough need for professionals to treat physical illness in Cambodia to justify many more years of neglect in training mental health professionals. But that's precisely why it's so difficult to find treatment for mental health not only in Cambodia but around the world. People never think it's all that important. First, it's difficult to pin down, difficult to diagnose. Whereas a broken bone or a cold are fairly easy to diagnose. Second, it's difficult to treat properly.
But people forget that mental illness is illness of the brain. It is based on a physical organ. When people say "it's all in your head" that is, very literally, true! The chemicals and electrical impulses in your brain interact in an almost unfathomable way every millisecond of your life to create who you are. When shit goes wrong, its a physical ailment. The unique issue of mental health is that if chemicals make your thoughts then your thoughts also make chemicals. That's why going to a shrink works. When you talk things out, work out issues in a totally unphysical way all that talking results in a physical change in your brain (in my opinion your most important organ). That's why drugs work and talking works too. The physical is the mental and mental is the physical. Most people never grasp this relationship and dismiss psychiatry as a bunch of mumbo jumbo. However, neglecting mental health is neglecting your brain and without a brain you (at least how you currently view yourself) doesn't exist.
It's sort of insulting to your own brain to say that mental health isn't important enough to address.
In Cambodia, mental health issues are everywhere. How can they not be with Cambodia's long history of genocide and oppression. Plus, its not like everything is all hunky dory now either. The problem is that no one really understands mental illness and there's really no one around to deal with it. The majority of medical professionals are midwives or nurses. There are very few doctors and most doctors work in expensive clinics or for NGOs.
I think this illustrates a fundamental issue in how the public views mental health in general. Clearly, if you have a physical ailment and die it doesn't matter what state your mind is in cause it no longer exists. There's enough need for professionals to treat physical illness in Cambodia to justify many more years of neglect in training mental health professionals. But that's precisely why it's so difficult to find treatment for mental health not only in Cambodia but around the world. People never think it's all that important. First, it's difficult to pin down, difficult to diagnose. Whereas a broken bone or a cold are fairly easy to diagnose. Second, it's difficult to treat properly.
But people forget that mental illness is illness of the brain. It is based on a physical organ. When people say "it's all in your head" that is, very literally, true! The chemicals and electrical impulses in your brain interact in an almost unfathomable way every millisecond of your life to create who you are. When shit goes wrong, its a physical ailment. The unique issue of mental health is that if chemicals make your thoughts then your thoughts also make chemicals. That's why going to a shrink works. When you talk things out, work out issues in a totally unphysical way all that talking results in a physical change in your brain (in my opinion your most important organ). That's why drugs work and talking works too. The physical is the mental and mental is the physical. Most people never grasp this relationship and dismiss psychiatry as a bunch of mumbo jumbo. However, neglecting mental health is neglecting your brain and without a brain you (at least how you currently view yourself) doesn't exist.
It's sort of insulting to your own brain to say that mental health isn't important enough to address.
Thursday, May 12, 2011
food?
It's really odd that I haven't put up a post about food here in the 9 months that I've been writing. Food is such a big part of my life and I know you all know it. Let me start with saying that I am probably no longer the girl that can go to the bakery, then sushi, then applebees, and then white castle in a single afternoon though I would like to do that loop again with some of my fave girls from home. This morning I had delicious pumpkin spice pancakes for breakfast...and I couldn't finish them. There were only two! (No, my host mom didn't make them. They were from a western restaurant in the city)
I think most of you know that I will eat pretty much anything and I have eaten pretty much anything. I'm always offended by tv shows about "gross food" because most of those foods come from China and are on my list of favorite foods. Stewed pigs feet, tripe, chicken feet at dim sum, chicken gizzard, fried frogs. All delicious. Don't judge. I think in my lifetime I've eaten at least three different kinds of brain. (Which, with the discovery of prions I would no longer recommend.) Here in Cambodia, everyone eats mashed fermented fish. Which sometimes I can't stand. It's in the same category as japanese fermented beans and stinky tofu (though I love stinky tofu). But, sometimes it's delicious. I really only like it hot. Sometimes people eat it cold and it's just too fishy for me.
I also eat a lot of fish. Sometimes I have 5 different kinds of fish during the course of the day. And sometimes I can't take it anymore. The bones. The bones. Especially when a small one just sticks straight up into your gums and you can't get it out. Most meals consist of a fish based soup and a shit ton of rice. LIKE A LOT. Not those wimpy chinese bowls of rice. I'm talking a dinner plate of white rice and then you HAVE to refill. One dish is never enough or my host mom will be offended. The soups are not bad. My fam knows I like veggies which they never stop telling people. Usually it's just a fishy veggie soup and that's pretty good. On days with pork or beef I make sure to clean my plate so she knows I like it. It's all about subtlety. Once in a while I get stirfried veggies too. Another staple, at least in my household, is salted dried fish. It is exactly what it sounds like. Hard dried fish, heated over a fire, and it is super salty. Eaten with rice, as always. Sometimes that's all people will eat. I can't do it.
Rice porridge. A staple of mine since childhood, but with a twist. Here, you can buy rice porridge with the works in the market. Usually cooked in fish or chicken soup. Chunks of meat, organs like liver, fried minced garlic, add some pepper. Pretty delicious. But, the plain white rice porridge you make at home...different story. In America, there was nothing I loved better on a Sunday morning than heating up some leftover rice, adding water and then eating it with some side dishes. Plenty of pickled veggies, fermented bean curd, stirfried edamame with pickled cabbage, homemade sour cabbage and turnip, kimchi. God, writing this is making me sooooo homesick. Here, you HAVE to make porridge from scratch. No using leftover rice. Which means it takes like an hour. Then all you eat with it is dried salted fish or sometimes just soy sauce. And not even good soy sauce. No kikkoman's here man. I was sick two days ago and my host mom is super nice and kept giving me sugary drinks and made me some plain porridge cause I just couldn't stomach anything else. I would have traded my computer for some of my dad's stirfried edamame with pickled cabbage. MY COMPUTERRRRR. Or some plain chinese noodles with salt in a light chicken broth. yea, the chicken broth is a stretch.
I will probably talk about food again now that I've opened the flood gates. Be prepared.
I think most of you know that I will eat pretty much anything and I have eaten pretty much anything. I'm always offended by tv shows about "gross food" because most of those foods come from China and are on my list of favorite foods. Stewed pigs feet, tripe, chicken feet at dim sum, chicken gizzard, fried frogs. All delicious. Don't judge. I think in my lifetime I've eaten at least three different kinds of brain. (Which, with the discovery of prions I would no longer recommend.) Here in Cambodia, everyone eats mashed fermented fish. Which sometimes I can't stand. It's in the same category as japanese fermented beans and stinky tofu (though I love stinky tofu). But, sometimes it's delicious. I really only like it hot. Sometimes people eat it cold and it's just too fishy for me.
I also eat a lot of fish. Sometimes I have 5 different kinds of fish during the course of the day. And sometimes I can't take it anymore. The bones. The bones. Especially when a small one just sticks straight up into your gums and you can't get it out. Most meals consist of a fish based soup and a shit ton of rice. LIKE A LOT. Not those wimpy chinese bowls of rice. I'm talking a dinner plate of white rice and then you HAVE to refill. One dish is never enough or my host mom will be offended. The soups are not bad. My fam knows I like veggies which they never stop telling people. Usually it's just a fishy veggie soup and that's pretty good. On days with pork or beef I make sure to clean my plate so she knows I like it. It's all about subtlety. Once in a while I get stirfried veggies too. Another staple, at least in my household, is salted dried fish. It is exactly what it sounds like. Hard dried fish, heated over a fire, and it is super salty. Eaten with rice, as always. Sometimes that's all people will eat. I can't do it.
Rice porridge. A staple of mine since childhood, but with a twist. Here, you can buy rice porridge with the works in the market. Usually cooked in fish or chicken soup. Chunks of meat, organs like liver, fried minced garlic, add some pepper. Pretty delicious. But, the plain white rice porridge you make at home...different story. In America, there was nothing I loved better on a Sunday morning than heating up some leftover rice, adding water and then eating it with some side dishes. Plenty of pickled veggies, fermented bean curd, stirfried edamame with pickled cabbage, homemade sour cabbage and turnip, kimchi. God, writing this is making me sooooo homesick. Here, you HAVE to make porridge from scratch. No using leftover rice. Which means it takes like an hour. Then all you eat with it is dried salted fish or sometimes just soy sauce. And not even good soy sauce. No kikkoman's here man. I was sick two days ago and my host mom is super nice and kept giving me sugary drinks and made me some plain porridge cause I just couldn't stomach anything else. I would have traded my computer for some of my dad's stirfried edamame with pickled cabbage. MY COMPUTERRRRR. Or some plain chinese noodles with salt in a light chicken broth. yea, the chicken broth is a stretch.
I will probably talk about food again now that I've opened the flood gates. Be prepared.
Thursday, April 28, 2011
April (Most of it) (04/18/2011)
These past couple of days have been spent on vacation due to Kmai New Year. I spent all of the New Year at site, but before New Years I did a little traveling, mostly to Phnom Penh for some awesome free books for the school library. The other traveling I did involved scenic biking, some mountains, forests, leeches, lots of leeches, sun, rain, and seeing some good friends. There are plenty of pics up on facebook. Let me know if you can't see them because they were taken by Peace Corps friends. Also, you should check out the leech vid, its a cute clip of my favorite foresty friends (on my leg).
New Years here was fun, but actually not so eventful. We ate a lot of good food and tons of fruit. At night we went to play some games, though I guess my host sister is still hanging with the hs kids. I feel a little out of place because I'm technically an adult. It's weird to feel out of place there, but kids in HS are just at an age of silliness that I can no longer purposefully imitate. I'm totally fine speaking nonsense and running around with/like the two year-old, but being one with the HS kids is just too close for comfort. I offered food to the monks at the Wat and sort of messed up, but he gave me a redo so my karmic points are all good. We also caught the ice cream moto man so it was a really good trip to the Wat. I also went to Siem Reap city for a few hours with my host sister and brother and I showed them around the supermarket.
At first, they were sort of hesitant to enter. Then even asked me if they could just go in to look and not buy anything. I was like...yea. Then I sprayed my host brother with some random Adidas cologn to show how much you can take advantage of the supermarket's hospitality. Then we went around and compared the prices of everything to our local markets. Of course, a lot of stuff in the supermarket you can't buy anywhere else, but they really do jack up the prices of things. When we were about to leave my host bro runs back to the Adidas section and sprays himself some more. I'm glad I picked out a fragrance that he enjoys. Then we went to this carnival place on the side of the road. I've been there a few times before, but this time we didn't go to ride the rusty ferris wheel. We went shoe shopping. Here, you can get a pair of used shoes for a dollar. Not used Cambodian shoes, you can't really sell those used cause they fall apart in a few weeks. You got italian shoes, korean shoes, other random country shoes. I'm sorta thinking that expats decide to throw away their shoes and they somehow end up here and I end up buying them for a dollar. Though I actually didn't buy anything this time. I feel like, for a dollar, these shoes better be perfect so I'm waiting for a time in the future.
At the carnival we met up with a classmate of my sister's at midwifery school. In Cambodia, midwives a licensed medical professionals with responsibilities similar to those of nurses and with the complete lack of doctors they usually take the place of doctors in most Health Centers. I'm pretty sure there's some kind of gender barrier for women that want to study to be nurses. For sure, no men are midwives because men can't possibly deliver babies in this country, the gender roles are too strict in this area. Anyway, we meet up with her and her dad drives her here on his moto. I feel sort of bad because my bro just waits for us the whole time. I thought he'd go do something fun...
So we finish, and I think we're heading home, but we end up eating Mee Cha for dinner. This is a dish sort of like stir-fried noodles. Can't really describe how it's different from chinese takeout noodles, but it's different. I'll make some for you guys when I get home. The girls' dad pays and then we head off again, only to stop once more at the girls' house. It's only polite because her dad paid for dinner. We chit chat a bit and by we chit chat I mean I go through the usual first meeting blurb with the parents, while the kids play on the new laptop (its a typical first year of college Dell, actually sent from Boston by a relative, hopefully it won't go the way of Kerry's laptop). Near the end of the convo the dad asks me a question. I'm not sure I get it so I ask him to repeat. Then I repeat the part I'm sure I understood" You need how much ___(blank)___ to get a wife?" The word in the blank was money. I had heard correctly the first time, but cultural differences made me unable to comprehend. I responded that you don't need to give money for a wife, though in some cases I guess that can be debated. He understands instantly, "Oh you marry for love". I heartily agree with firm nodding of head. I ask him, "how much does it cost for a wife in Cambodia?" His wife replies, "10,000....Dollars" I was like ")*@#*(@&# shit" That is a fortune. Anywhere, but especially in Cambodia. I think she notices my shock and quickly tells me that sometimes its only 5000 or if they are really poor sometimes 200. But, I guess that the value of a woman's life here.
New Years here was fun, but actually not so eventful. We ate a lot of good food and tons of fruit. At night we went to play some games, though I guess my host sister is still hanging with the hs kids. I feel a little out of place because I'm technically an adult. It's weird to feel out of place there, but kids in HS are just at an age of silliness that I can no longer purposefully imitate. I'm totally fine speaking nonsense and running around with/like the two year-old, but being one with the HS kids is just too close for comfort. I offered food to the monks at the Wat and sort of messed up, but he gave me a redo so my karmic points are all good. We also caught the ice cream moto man so it was a really good trip to the Wat. I also went to Siem Reap city for a few hours with my host sister and brother and I showed them around the supermarket.
At first, they were sort of hesitant to enter. Then even asked me if they could just go in to look and not buy anything. I was like...yea. Then I sprayed my host brother with some random Adidas cologn to show how much you can take advantage of the supermarket's hospitality. Then we went around and compared the prices of everything to our local markets. Of course, a lot of stuff in the supermarket you can't buy anywhere else, but they really do jack up the prices of things. When we were about to leave my host bro runs back to the Adidas section and sprays himself some more. I'm glad I picked out a fragrance that he enjoys. Then we went to this carnival place on the side of the road. I've been there a few times before, but this time we didn't go to ride the rusty ferris wheel. We went shoe shopping. Here, you can get a pair of used shoes for a dollar. Not used Cambodian shoes, you can't really sell those used cause they fall apart in a few weeks. You got italian shoes, korean shoes, other random country shoes. I'm sorta thinking that expats decide to throw away their shoes and they somehow end up here and I end up buying them for a dollar. Though I actually didn't buy anything this time. I feel like, for a dollar, these shoes better be perfect so I'm waiting for a time in the future.
At the carnival we met up with a classmate of my sister's at midwifery school. In Cambodia, midwives a licensed medical professionals with responsibilities similar to those of nurses and with the complete lack of doctors they usually take the place of doctors in most Health Centers. I'm pretty sure there's some kind of gender barrier for women that want to study to be nurses. For sure, no men are midwives because men can't possibly deliver babies in this country, the gender roles are too strict in this area. Anyway, we meet up with her and her dad drives her here on his moto. I feel sort of bad because my bro just waits for us the whole time. I thought he'd go do something fun...
So we finish, and I think we're heading home, but we end up eating Mee Cha for dinner. This is a dish sort of like stir-fried noodles. Can't really describe how it's different from chinese takeout noodles, but it's different. I'll make some for you guys when I get home. The girls' dad pays and then we head off again, only to stop once more at the girls' house. It's only polite because her dad paid for dinner. We chit chat a bit and by we chit chat I mean I go through the usual first meeting blurb with the parents, while the kids play on the new laptop (its a typical first year of college Dell, actually sent from Boston by a relative, hopefully it won't go the way of Kerry's laptop). Near the end of the convo the dad asks me a question. I'm not sure I get it so I ask him to repeat. Then I repeat the part I'm sure I understood" You need how much ___(blank)___ to get a wife?" The word in the blank was money. I had heard correctly the first time, but cultural differences made me unable to comprehend. I responded that you don't need to give money for a wife, though in some cases I guess that can be debated. He understands instantly, "Oh you marry for love". I heartily agree with firm nodding of head. I ask him, "how much does it cost for a wife in Cambodia?" His wife replies, "10,000....Dollars" I was like ")*@#*(@&# shit" That is a fortune. Anywhere, but especially in Cambodia. I think she notices my shock and quickly tells me that sometimes its only 5000 or if they are really poor sometimes 200. But, I guess that the value of a woman's life here.
Monday, April 4, 2011
It's almost New Years!
Edit: Pics are up on facebook!
Yepp, New Years is almost here. It'll be here in about a week and I'm not really sure which year it'll be but its definitely a new one. This'll be my third new year in Cambodia so far and not only is it a New year, but somehow Khmer New Year lasts three whole days! I'm anticipating a ton of food and parties around twon starting this Wednesday. School has already stopped and won't start again for 3 weeks. Unfotunately, or fortunately, the Health Center doesn't close for quite so long. I think we get 3 days of vacation time. More updates on that as the days roll on.
In other news, I finished my first major/minor project! I've done some other things but I think this is my first project where a start and finish are easily identifiable. Though, as with any project, you don't want it to ever really end because you hope that the change will last forever. Anyway, what i did was a reading contest at the local primary school. A few months ago I started hanging out at the primary school because my khmer tutor taught private english classes there 5 days a week to the high school students. Every once in a while the library would be open late enough for me to hang out there a bit. It's a fairly new library, very cute and well stocked. It's the perfect environment for young children to hang out, play games, and read some books. But, I rearly saw other kids there. So, I remembered that during summers at home in NYC I'd go to the library every week. Mostly because i was a nerd and I loved to read, sometimes I went multiple times in one day. But also because the library would have summer reading contests where you read as many books as you can over the course of the summer and you qualify for prizes. Along the way you have to record your books, give either a verbal or written summary, and have it checked by the librarian.
This project costs relatively nothing, just costs for prizes and photocopies. For prizes I gave some pens and some cute notebooks. In total, about 3 dollars per winner for 4 winners, and that was a splurge on my part. I proposed it to the school director in early February and he agreed immediately saying that he wanted to do something similar, but he couldn't think of a less labor intensive way. His idea was for each child to provide a lengthy oral summary of each book, which actually could be a great contest on it own. I remember we used to have storytelling contests in elementary school. So my plan was that my khmer tutor and I would make out a standard recording form, and write out directions, and photocopy everything. After that, it was up tot eh teachers to explain the contest and the librarian had to approve every sheet that the students turned in. At the end of two months I would collect back all the forms and figure who won. The top kids in each grade level would get a prize and all participants would get a certificate. At the end of the two months, the school would also organize, on their own, an award ceremony for the kids. So mostly all I did was work out the logistics with the school director and make a lot of photocopies. The school handled the rest and I tried really hard to trust them.
It all came down to last week. I sat down with all the forms, organized them, and wrote out about 90+ khmer with the help of one of my host cousins. She's 8 and has better handwriting than me... I was really happy overall because we had about a 25% participation rate in the end, if you count the kids that cheated. Which is a hilarious anecdote of its own. So i first became suspicious when I noticed some of the forms were photocopied. I thought that maybe they just wanted it to look neater. Then I realized that the forms were the same, which really was obvious because the handwriting was so distinct. Some of the kids literally took the form, photocopied it, then crossed out the names and put their own. Some were a little more highclass and used whiteout. Most of these kids were in 3rd grade, so in a way its understandable.
I had the school director make the decision on those and surprisingly he made the same decision I would have made and I didn't even have to lead him in that direction. He told me to just leave them out, even when it was obvious who made the original and who made the copies. At first he wanted to give the originals the certificates, but since it wasn't always clear he just made it a blanket ruling. Which in my mind is the most fair. My khmer tutor did protest, saying that these were just kids. And it made me hesitate, just a bit, but then I said that kids will never learn if you let them get ways with it all the time. And maybe he agreed. But part of me does feel really bad about the 3rd graders.
Anyway, the day of the ceremony rolls around and I really have no idea what to expect. I go to work for 2 hours in the morning and then I walk over to the school. To my delight, there's a huge crowd of kids. Some desks neatly organized. Flowers in vases, even a megaphone! Some teachers are there to help. I enlist some in taking pics, which will be up at a later date. The whole thing is a huge success. The certificates even go the official school stamp and signatures on them. The kids were all super happy and when I go home I saw my 8 year old showing off her certificate to everyone. I made a speech, the director made a speech. He even bought the water for everyone like we arranged and had an actual receipt which i had asked for! The clouds wnt away and the sun was shining, but it wasn't too hot. Everything was so perfect.
Overall I thik the project was a success. I'm hoping to see book borrowing rates increase and this project definitely solidified my relationship with all the teachers and students at the primary school. Some things I would have liked to fix : 1) having the school come up with the idea on their own or asking me for help to make their idea happen instead of me proposing the idea. I tried to emphasize open communication in all my meetings and my speech so maybe this'll be better later on. 2) increased participation in 3rd and 4th grade with no cheating. I think it's really important to get people reading early on and these grades had the lowest participation rates. I think partly because they don't really know how to read. My host mom, a 5th grade teacher, told me once that her students didn't know all the vowels. Granted there are like 20+ vowels, but still...This is a problem that won't be addressed by a reading contest necessarily. I think this contest really will only push kids that were on the edge toward being better readers. Kids that just needed a little more motivation to go to the library regularly. It won't teach kids to read. 3) The library at the high school is not very good so after 6th grade there are no age-appropriate books available to the kids. That sort of just kills the sustainability right there.
In a week I hope to go to Phnom Penh to pick up some books from Asia Foundation which will then be donated to the library. I'm also hoping for some health education books because I haven't seen any of those in Khmer around. Pics will be up soon! I promise.
Yepp, New Years is almost here. It'll be here in about a week and I'm not really sure which year it'll be but its definitely a new one. This'll be my third new year in Cambodia so far and not only is it a New year, but somehow Khmer New Year lasts three whole days! I'm anticipating a ton of food and parties around twon starting this Wednesday. School has already stopped and won't start again for 3 weeks. Unfotunately, or fortunately, the Health Center doesn't close for quite so long. I think we get 3 days of vacation time. More updates on that as the days roll on.
In other news, I finished my first major/minor project! I've done some other things but I think this is my first project where a start and finish are easily identifiable. Though, as with any project, you don't want it to ever really end because you hope that the change will last forever. Anyway, what i did was a reading contest at the local primary school. A few months ago I started hanging out at the primary school because my khmer tutor taught private english classes there 5 days a week to the high school students. Every once in a while the library would be open late enough for me to hang out there a bit. It's a fairly new library, very cute and well stocked. It's the perfect environment for young children to hang out, play games, and read some books. But, I rearly saw other kids there. So, I remembered that during summers at home in NYC I'd go to the library every week. Mostly because i was a nerd and I loved to read, sometimes I went multiple times in one day. But also because the library would have summer reading contests where you read as many books as you can over the course of the summer and you qualify for prizes. Along the way you have to record your books, give either a verbal or written summary, and have it checked by the librarian.
This project costs relatively nothing, just costs for prizes and photocopies. For prizes I gave some pens and some cute notebooks. In total, about 3 dollars per winner for 4 winners, and that was a splurge on my part. I proposed it to the school director in early February and he agreed immediately saying that he wanted to do something similar, but he couldn't think of a less labor intensive way. His idea was for each child to provide a lengthy oral summary of each book, which actually could be a great contest on it own. I remember we used to have storytelling contests in elementary school. So my plan was that my khmer tutor and I would make out a standard recording form, and write out directions, and photocopy everything. After that, it was up tot eh teachers to explain the contest and the librarian had to approve every sheet that the students turned in. At the end of two months I would collect back all the forms and figure who won. The top kids in each grade level would get a prize and all participants would get a certificate. At the end of the two months, the school would also organize, on their own, an award ceremony for the kids. So mostly all I did was work out the logistics with the school director and make a lot of photocopies. The school handled the rest and I tried really hard to trust them.
It all came down to last week. I sat down with all the forms, organized them, and wrote out about 90+ khmer with the help of one of my host cousins. She's 8 and has better handwriting than me... I was really happy overall because we had about a 25% participation rate in the end, if you count the kids that cheated. Which is a hilarious anecdote of its own. So i first became suspicious when I noticed some of the forms were photocopied. I thought that maybe they just wanted it to look neater. Then I realized that the forms were the same, which really was obvious because the handwriting was so distinct. Some of the kids literally took the form, photocopied it, then crossed out the names and put their own. Some were a little more highclass and used whiteout. Most of these kids were in 3rd grade, so in a way its understandable.
I had the school director make the decision on those and surprisingly he made the same decision I would have made and I didn't even have to lead him in that direction. He told me to just leave them out, even when it was obvious who made the original and who made the copies. At first he wanted to give the originals the certificates, but since it wasn't always clear he just made it a blanket ruling. Which in my mind is the most fair. My khmer tutor did protest, saying that these were just kids. And it made me hesitate, just a bit, but then I said that kids will never learn if you let them get ways with it all the time. And maybe he agreed. But part of me does feel really bad about the 3rd graders.
Anyway, the day of the ceremony rolls around and I really have no idea what to expect. I go to work for 2 hours in the morning and then I walk over to the school. To my delight, there's a huge crowd of kids. Some desks neatly organized. Flowers in vases, even a megaphone! Some teachers are there to help. I enlist some in taking pics, which will be up at a later date. The whole thing is a huge success. The certificates even go the official school stamp and signatures on them. The kids were all super happy and when I go home I saw my 8 year old showing off her certificate to everyone. I made a speech, the director made a speech. He even bought the water for everyone like we arranged and had an actual receipt which i had asked for! The clouds wnt away and the sun was shining, but it wasn't too hot. Everything was so perfect.
Overall I thik the project was a success. I'm hoping to see book borrowing rates increase and this project definitely solidified my relationship with all the teachers and students at the primary school. Some things I would have liked to fix : 1) having the school come up with the idea on their own or asking me for help to make their idea happen instead of me proposing the idea. I tried to emphasize open communication in all my meetings and my speech so maybe this'll be better later on. 2) increased participation in 3rd and 4th grade with no cheating. I think it's really important to get people reading early on and these grades had the lowest participation rates. I think partly because they don't really know how to read. My host mom, a 5th grade teacher, told me once that her students didn't know all the vowels. Granted there are like 20+ vowels, but still...This is a problem that won't be addressed by a reading contest necessarily. I think this contest really will only push kids that were on the edge toward being better readers. Kids that just needed a little more motivation to go to the library regularly. It won't teach kids to read. 3) The library at the high school is not very good so after 6th grade there are no age-appropriate books available to the kids. That sort of just kills the sustainability right there.
In a week I hope to go to Phnom Penh to pick up some books from Asia Foundation which will then be donated to the library. I'm also hoping for some health education books because I haven't seen any of those in Khmer around. Pics will be up soon! I promise.
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