The Moment in which.....080208

08.02.08
The moment in which. . .

one actually goes through with it, and steps outside of their comfort zone.

I guess people always talk about “getting out of your comfort zone.” I guess we practiced it, heard about it, and learned about it. But then there’s the moment when you realize, in your head that you are actually in the action of ‘getting out of your comfort zone.’

Not that there should be some grand prize or anything for ‘getting out of your comfort zone” and not that it makes you some great person or anything. As there are people who don’t mind doing it and people who do. But when you’re one of those people who does like to try new things, it’s funny to feel that moment and know when you’ve actually crossed the line and have done it. I guess you feel proud of yourself … er something.

I guess for me, my very first moment was using the squat toilet in the house. No big deal or anything. You squat down to this lil toilet in the ground with your knees up and your butt down and then just do your thing. Then you wash yourself with a bucket, h2o and soap, and then use that bucket to flush some water down the toilet, then let yourself dry/air out (f.y.i. toilet paper doesn’t flush down those things), and you get on with your day.

Anyhow…
We’ve been in our training village now for four days. To be honest, it has been great. It has been nice to have been able to unpack our suitcases and actually put our belongings in a bedroom we know we’ll stay in for a while. (9 weeks left to be exact).

We were welcomed to this town by attending a special welcoming ceremony at a Buddhist Wat (temple). There were monks. There was incense. There was chanting. There was a lot of bowing. There were 11 American kids who got really sore from sitting on the ground with legs to one side (we couldn’t sit cross legged, it’s not polite) through the hour long ceremony. But seriously, how neat to be able to experience that. After the ceremony, they announced to all of us our host families for the next 2 months.

Our host mother, Sopeap, was there at the ceremony to greet us. A VERY nice and welcoming woman, with a beautiful smile who greeted us in Khmer (pronounced K-mai). She doesn’t really speak any English at all, but is a primary school teacher, and in the summer gives small private teaching lessons here at the house. Actually, tonight she gave both Will and I some Khmer activity books (which I have to laugh to myself, as they are the same books she has for her 5 year old students with pictures and everything), nonetheless it’ll be a good learning tool for us, and I’m sure we’ll practice with her tomorrow evening.

Her husband speaks very, very little English; a few words. He is also a police officer. Very early in our meek conversation with him, he brought up the fact that Pol Pot killed his brother, sisters and mother. Will and I really wished that we knew how to say “I’m sorry” in Khmer at that point but we didn’t. (For those that don’t know about the Khmer Rouge period (which I embarrassingly admit I didn’t know about until I started researching Cambodia) it happened approximately 33 years ago. Google it/Wikipedia it, look it up, or ask your parents about the mass killings that went on in Cambodia, or rent “The Killing Fields” or read “First they Killed My Father” or “The Gate” to get a grasp on what happened here in very recent history. So anyway – much of the population is still dealing with the effects of that time period; and I think that that time period has a lot to do with why Peace Corps was ever even considered to be invited to help out, in this country. But anyways, it caught me off guard that he brought it up so early because at our training sessions they mentioned that most people do not like to talk about that period at all.

Anyhow…… the rest of their family. They have a 15 yr. old son Daro speaks some English, which has been a blessing. Sopeap’s nephew also stays here while he’s attending school, and he’s 18, and his name is Riat. Their daughter, Dary is at University in Phnom Penh (pronounced P-nom Paeng), she is 17 and studying accounting. I guess she’s coming here to visit next weekend. Ha, oh I just got a text message from her, as Daro gave her my number. Ahhh modern technology.
Anyway, their house is great. To be honest, it is nicer than I was expecting. A lot of houses here are built up on stilts. At least the bedroom/main living portions seem to be upstairs for most houses. There is a porch/living room area upstairs, with some nice wooden furniture (couch and chairs) and a hammock. Our room is to the left as you come up the stairs. Our bedroom is actually bigger than our bedroom was in Big Sky (which is kinda crazy). Peace Corps gave us a king size bed, our own mosquito net, and a bedroom that is bigger than anything that Will and I have had together to date.

Then downstairs is the dining area which is enclosed, but then the cooking/kitchen area is outside under a tin roof with a tarp over it. Sopeap cooks with woks/pots and pans outside, using a wood fire. It struck me kind of funny as they do have electricity (no refrigerator), and for some reason she cooks her family’s rice over the fire, but she also has a rice cooker, which she makes the rice for me and Will. I haven’t figured out if she thinks that is better, so she lets the American married couple use the rice cooker, or what. But I just go with it. I don’t ask. Ha. I don’t know how to ask that one yet.

So yes, there is electricity…. But no A.C. (not that I was expecting it)…. But the electricity often goes out once or twice a day. (But to be honest, where I was in Big Sky, the electricity went out fairly often oddly enough; so I am somewhat used to it). Off of the dining area they have the bathroom area. There are 3 doors, one goes to a bathroom (bon tuk) with a toilet that is more western style (you can actually sit on it) but again, no plumbing to flush; so you flush with a bucket of water. Then in the middle door, is the squat toilet room. Then on the right, just a bathing room. I guess you could say they have running water…. Sort of. There is a well in the back which somehow pumps from the ground. (I don’t see a pump, nor have I seen them pump any H20). They also catch rain water from the roof which drains into this big urn in the back yard, and they have that going thru pipes to a sink in the kitchen, and also an area outside where they do the dishes.

Khmer people seem to be fairly private people. We’ve only seen the kitchen, living area on the porch upstairs and our bedroom. I do know they have a TV. They also have a nice little Honda motorcycle and a car… which I’m sure is a bit of a status symbol. We haven’t seen them drive it yet; so I don’t know if it’s just b/c we’re here or if they just don’t drive it that often.

Hmmm…. What else. Ahh – going to the market (p’saa). That is quite an experience. It’s pretty much an open air market, with lots of tarps etc. covering all the goods and little aisles you can walk through to find things that you need. OH and there are TONS of people walking around everywhere. Think crowded. Think Asia. After you get over the part where EVERYONE is staring at you, pointing at you, or saying “HALLO” …. Or Barong (word for foreigner). You find some time to do some shopping. We’re still learning the whole bargaining thing (in fact that was in our language lesson today). But yes, this morning we rode our bikes into market and found it a little funny, as by the fruit section there were huge speakers blasting Santana’s ‘Oye como ova”. We were able to get a baguette, some oranges and some bananas for breakfast but were disappointed to find that our bananas were most definitely NOT ripe yet. Guess we’ll have to wait a week or so; as the chalky texture that was left in our mouths after biting into one was enough to not go near a banana for a week. . . . or so.

PC definitely keeps us busy. We have language lessons 4 hours every morning but Sundays. Then we usually have some sort of activity in the afternoon. We typically go home for lunch and dinner. Last night Sopeap let me cook. (Well basically she put in the correct portions of everything, and I basically stirred the stir fry). But I was impressed, as whatever it was we threw together was delicious (chngang). It had this really leafy green stuff, pork, garlic, fish sauce, oyster sauce, salt, sugar, and pepper and I think that was about it. Throw that business on some rice and you’ve got yourself a pretty darn good meal!

Tonight Sopeap showed Will how to make fried bananas. That was delicious--A nice little snack prior to supper. The breading was basically flour, sugar and salt mixed with water – then he put the cut up bananas in the mixture and fried them in vegetable oil and voile (sp?) a nice sweet treat before dinner!

Also typically with meals they serve a type of hot broth-y soup. (One wonders how on earth these people would find a hot, hot soup appetizing on such a hot and humid day.) But regardless, it’s part of the meal. They’ve usually been fish (tri) based… but tonight she made a beef (gko) based broth-y soup. It had some green stuff in it and fish sauce and lime juice in it and it was good. (I think Sopeap is realizing I’m not the biggest fan of fish. While I’ll eat it, I’m not at the point where I love it). Don’t worry mom- I REALLY am trying it!! --- But I think she notices that I let Will eat more of the fishy fishy dishes.

Hmm.. not too much else. I’ve already written a bit of a novel, but I’ve been enjoying our time just hanging out and pointing at things and asking “Nu chi ai?” (What is that?) and saying “Aht dung dei?” (I don’t know!?) with the family in the evenings. Even though language classes do kind of drag on, I’m really looking forward to getting a better grasp on the Khmer. I mean, on the first day here about 10 hours of language class lasted about 10 minutes in conversation with the family. (Hello, how are you. I come from America. I have 5 people in my family. Let me point them out to you in this photo.) AND that’s about all the Khmer I knew Wednesday afternoon after arriving here. I now know how to ask about how many times they do laundry, bathe, eat etc. as well as how to tell them how many times I do the same things. And as of today, I know a little bit about the market; how to ask/purchase/bargain and what some appropriate prices are for certain things.

Anyhow- Over and out for the moment. We have all day tomorrow off in which we’ll be doing laundry (bow cow ow) by hand, running to the p’saa (market) and helping to clean (___ don’t know pronunciation yet on that one. Charades on that one in the AM).

Anyhow… this won’t be posted till Wed. of next week –as we’re going back to the hub site where we can get access to internet…. But I had some time to type- so I thought I would.

Hope all is well back home… I think of you often, but know that we are having a great time here and are enjoying a much more laid back lifestyle. (Even w/ the busy PC training schedule).
Okay… goodnight- and lots of love to all. : )

-Smb.