As promised...

Picture Time!

Villagers attending a health promotion meeting.

Hanging out in the back of a pickup truck speeding over a bumpy road.

Aw...sa-at!

It's been pretty muddy in Lvay Em. Enough said. Mom and dad, thanks for the sandals. They work remarkably better than the flip flops most people wear here.

The roads are a bit dicey, to say the least. Especially this week, when it rained a lot. Channeth and I have only fallen off our moto twice so far! Here she is (left) making her way across a particularly tricky spot. I opted to walk to give her a bit more stability.

And perhaps my favorite mode of transport so far is this little ferry, which we took to get from one village to another because the roads were too mucky.

So that's all for now. Congrats to Miriam on her grad--sorry I wasn't there, but check the messages on your machine!

Month-in Musings

In honor of the one-month anniversary of my arrival in Cambodia, I thought I’d share a few of the things I’m beginning to get used to:

1. SWEAT. I have become much more accepting of sweat—both my own and others’. While it feels and smells kind of gross, it serves a practical purpose for which I’m very thankful. And mopping up buckets (literally) of sweat is a great reminder to drink more.

2. HEAT (closely related to number 1). Rather than seeking out air conditioning, I now tend to avoid it in favor of fans. The shock of foggy glasses and instant sweat as I walk out of an air-conditioned building is soooo not worth the brief reprise I enjoyed while inside.

3. HOURS. I am (slowly) beginning to get used to two-hour lunch breaks. Office hours are 8-5 with a two-hour break…which is more than enough time for staff to cook, eat, and nap together. I’ve also shifted my schedule forward a few hours—I’m really excited if I’m still awake at 10 pm, or if I manage to sleep past about 5:30 or 6:00. The roosters, cement workers, temples, babies, birds, and other beasts begin to stir as soon as there’s a hint of daylight. And it gets dark as soon as 7 pm, so in the village everyone goes to bed incredibly early.

4. LANGUAGE. Until I learn enough Khmer to respond and defend myself properly, people will talk about me while I am standing there. The language barrier is the most frustrating aspect of my time in Cambodia—whether buying food in the market, playing bowl with AOC staff, or attending a village meeting, I always feel a bit out of the loop. I can pick up enough words to know the general subject of a conversation, but I miss most of the details. But this provides fantastic motivation to learn fast!

5. NAMES. I am no longer Naomi. With Khmer people, it’s usually “OWE-me,” or “Naaah-OWE-me” if I’m really lucky. I’ve also acquired a plethora of nicknames from the wonderful family I’m staying with in Phnom Penh. Among these is “Ruby-booby,” which really seems to have stuck. Do I ever regret revealing the nickname I used to use to tease my brother!

6. BEAUTY. The people are beautiful. The lush green vegetation is beautiful. The fruit tastes heavenly. One of my favourite Khmer words is “sa-at.” Guess what it means!

7. CHANGING PLANS. Plans change on a regular basis, and are always affected by the weather—especially as the rainy season takes hold. I’m here to work on a bioSand water project, but just got to spend the last two days helping a dental outreach team in a nearby village. It was a great experience. I am now pretty skilled at hand-mixing tooth fillings, and I know all the Khmer words for "open big," "where does it hurt," "close," etc. One of my favorite memories so far was the ride back—hunched in the back of a pickup truck in crazy traffic and a spectacular downpour. I have never been so drenched in my life! When I got home, I thought I had acquired a wicked sandal tan...but it washed off in the shower.

8. RAIN. As I just alluded to, the rainy season has officially begun. I am already skilled in wading through knee-deep puddles, and have learned to keep my wallet and camera in a large ziploc even on the sunniest-looking day. Apparently the district we work in (which has awful roads) will gradually become more and more difficult to travel in. I already think they are border-line impossible, and I say a little prayer every time I hop on the back of a moto. By August or September, we will need small boats to visit some of our community leaders. No joke. I'm pretty excited for that!

Yep…Cambodia’s an awesome place! I have a few pictures I'd love to share, but I'm not willing to wait the several hours it would take to upload them. Expect a pictoral post next time I have fast internet!

Three Cambodias

Over the last three weeks, I have experienced what seemed to be three completely different Cambodias.

The first Cambodia: Phnom Penh. This crazy city I am calling home is a bustling centre of jarring juxtapositions: orange-clad monks skirting speeding scooters; gated buildings looming over open street vendors; scents of Kentucky-Fried Chicken blasting out of air-conditioned buildings to mingle with the fish oil, deep-fried bananas, dust, and sweat in the humid homes next door.

The second Cambodia: the urban slum. Just over a week ago, I had the opportunity to visit one of Samaritan’s Purse Cambodia’s project sites in a community on the fringe of Phnom Penh. This area was settled several years ago by people displaced from their urban homes due to the lack of effective land rights legislation. I was shocked by the amount of litter strewn between houses—and my visit followed an extensive clean-up effort in the community!

This community has received so many hand-outs from so many NGOs since its inception that there is very little sense of community ownership or responsibility; the people expect solutions to be given to them. However, there are some who really do want to change their community for the better. Some of these were parents of children in a childhood nutrition program run by SP, which we got a chance to observe. This involves not simply handing out food, but teaching about proper nutrition and how to obtain the nutrients needed for healthy childhood development once NGOs pull out of the community. Here is one little boy getting measured to determine whether the nutrition program is helping him to grow.

The third Cambodia: the rural village. This week I was able to spend my first two days in the district where AOC works. I will spend 2-3 days there each week, traveling to and from Phnom Penh on the back of a motorcycle—which should get increasingly interesting as the rainy season progresses. 

 Crossing the Mekong to reach Lvae Em

Compared to the urban slum, this district is remarkably clean; it is obviously a poor area, but is well cared for and has many leaders who are eager to make a difference. AOC works to train local community leaders, who then organize the bioSand water filter construction and monitoring, small home churches, and other initiatives.

Playing a game of bowl behind the AOC staff house on one of our many breaks

Where to begin?

So much has happened that I can’t believe it’s only been a week and a half since we got here! I certainly won’t bore you with all the details, but here’s what we’ve been up to:

We spent a few days as tourists in Phnom Penh, eating lots of good food (including tarantulas!), and visiting the royal palace and other attractions. We spent two mornings at Toul Sleng Genocide Museum and the Killing Fields. Together with Vietnam’s War Remnant Museum, these somber sites were a chilling reminder of the horrendous costs of human hatred. It was heartbreaking to realize the extent of the devastation that arose from the Khmer Rouge in Cambodia and the war in Vietnam; the impacts of these events are still evident today. 

 Skulls piled in a memorial at the Killing Fields

But why was I in Vietnam, you ask? When we came to Cambodia, we were unable to obtain NGO visas. So, unfortunately (or not!), we HAD to take a weekend border-run trip to Ho Chi Minh City. It was certainly a hardship, but I managed to eat lots of good Vietnamese food to make up for it! 

 For Miriam: look who I ate in Vietnam!

We’ve also been struggling to learn Khmer, with three hours of language training every day. The language has sounds that I didn’t know mouths could produce! We’ve been practicing on children at a school near the language centre, and have gotten used to people laughing at us as we slowly, painstakingly, produce the approximately correct sounds to ask them how they are doing or how they got to school.

Today’s language class was particularly exciting, as Andrea and I got to ride an elephant! I felt kind of bad for the 50-year-old pachyderm (the only one in Phmom Penh, apparently)…but it was fun to lurch around the temple on his back.

 Yes. It is pooping.

Jim reap leer!