Swearing In

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Where to start. So we are actually full blown official Peace Corps Volunteers (PCVs). I don’t know what the Peace Corps’ obsession with acronyms is, but they sure do like them. I personally think to a point they can be ineffective rather than efficient. Like, I think they’ve done studies on the value of acronyms and when they’re appropriate to use. But that’s a whole different blog entry and I don’t really feel like delving into that now.

So we were sworn in on Saturday October 4th in Kampong Chnnang Provincial Town. It was a nice little ceremony. The day before, we had a school director’s conference in which each volunteer’s school director was invited to meet together and learn about the Peace Corps and what expectations they can have with us here new volunteers. It went well. It was somewhat awkward. We had a similar conference a month or so back with our co-teachers, but at least they spoke English (for the most part). On the contrary, not very many, if any of the school directors spoke English at all. Nonetheless we had our LCFs (Language and Cultural facilitators), K1 (Kampuchea 1) volunteers who spoke pretty good Khmer and other PC staff to do the translating. We got through the day and we were able to inform the directors our goals and expectations and they politely seemed to accept and be willing to help us in any way they could.

The ceremony was led by the Director of Peace Corps Cambodia, his Excellency the Minister of Education and Youth Program Sports and the Charge de Affairs/Acting Ambassador for the USA. All of our language teachers, most of PC staff, all the school directors and all of us soon to be volunteers were in attendance in our best attire. (They told us that this would probably be our most formal event during all of our service so Will wore his newly tailored pants and a tie and I wore a new skirt and traditional white top (ow pa) that Sopeap had sewn for me. We looked sharp if I do say so myself.)

Anyway, Adrian played the violin while Matt sang the American national anthem. A small group of us had rehearsed the Khmer national anthem (in their language of course) but before we could even make our way to the front, they played a tape recording of their national anthem. We were disappointed, but what could we do. Sigh. There was obviously miscommunication and we weren’t going to tell them to stop the tape. Three volunteers gave short speeches in the Khmer language. And the three main guests of honor also gave their speeches. We swore in and repeated our oath after the acting Ambassador of the US – and we also had the one moment where she read too much of one of the sentences we were supposed to repeat and all of us sort of had to mumble through the last part of that sentence, pretending that we remembered what she said. Kind of embarrassing. But she re-read the 2nd half of the sentence and we were able to repeat our oath. There was press. There were cameras. There were reporters. Ha- we all felt pretty important… and I admit it was kinda fun! AND later on that night, our host brother back in Kampong Tralach text-messaged me to tell me that he saw me and Will on national news that night.
All good stuff.

On a more serious note, my favorite part of the whole ceremony was when the Minister of Education, Youth and Sports stopped midway through his speech in the Khmer language and broke out into very fluent English. I believe it caught all of us off guard as we were all beginning to have glazed over faces dozing into the wonderland we go to when people begin to speak too fast without our comprehension. Although, as soon as we heard English come out of his Excellency’s mouth all of us sort of perked up and sat up straighter in our chairs and began to listen intently.

His Excellency began to speak about how appreciative he was and how lucky Cambodia is to have so many volunteers coming to help with the quality of education in this country. His voice was so sincere. He had this charisma about him and you could tell his words were touching all of us in some way.

He went on to explain that it has taken almost three decades. Three decades to get to where this country is in education. During the Pol Pot regime, nearly anyone associated with education or the government was killed. Doctors, scientists, teachers, engineers, leaders, businessmen. People who wore eyeglasses. Anyone who could speak English or French. Anyone who lived in the city. People’s families were split apart. Thousands were murdered for having an education. Those who weren’t killed were able to conceal the fact that they might’ve been associated with any sort of education or higher status in society. People were sent to work the fields in the countryside. If they didn’t cooperate, they were murdered. Over three million people died. They died in the killing fields. They died of hunger and starvation. They died of disease. Just over 30 years ago this country had fallen completely to pieces and been torn apart by civil war, strife and death.

Now here this country is, 30 years later still working to build and improve their educational system, and get it back to where it once was, and maybe someday even better. He said that there is still a massive amount of work that needs to be done and it has been a long time waiting for the kind of support this country needs to bring them up to their full potential.

He told us that he was very proud and honored to have all of us here to help work towards the goal of having a better quality education.

After the Pol Pot regime ended, he was one of the original people with a small group of others to start up the education system again from absolutely nothing; from scratch. He made it through the Khmer Rouge. Here was this man, in his sixties, speaking clear English to all of us very American kids who have absolutely NO idea what it was like in this very country, province, commune, city, town or village thirty years ago. I mean, what was the view from the window of the room of very house I’m typing in right now in October of 1979? EVERY family we introduce ourselves to was affected by that period in Cambodian history. Just last night we had dinner at Will’s co-teachers house, and I was talking to the co-teacher’s father-in-law who is 70 years old in my broken Khmer, and asked him how many people he had in his family (only because it’s one of the few things I know how to fluently ask); and he went on to say he used to have 4 children, but now only three. Pol Pot took the other one. I mean – what am I supposed to say to that? I don’t have the vocab yet to tell this man that I am so very sorry for what your country and your people went through. Every family lost family members during the Khmer Rouge regime. Every family was affected and has a story to tell about the horrors of that time.

Yet the Minister of Education was still there talking to us, with a gentle smile and twinkle in his eye – with excitement and enthusiasm in his voice, conveying his sincere delight in the fact that we have all come, and taken time out of our busy American-dreamed lives to be here. We have traveled half way around the world to be here and to help out and to teach. And for that, he thanked us.

. . .

I got goose bumps during his speech. Up until that moment, nothing had made me feel as good about my decision to become a Peace Corps Volunteer as he did. Before I even knew which country we were going to be placed in, I knew we would volunteer and try and help out in whatever way we could. But after his sincere speech full of many words of truth; a rush of honor overcame me and I felt very good about just being here. Right at that moment, I felt proud. And I hope that I can remember that moment during all of my time here.

. . .

I think sometimes you wonder what affect you can truly have. I suppose a lot of us volunteers wonder that. It is so easy to lose sight of a very simple goal in the midst of the newness, the busy-ness, the foreignness, the completely different culture and all of the frustrations and challenges that we face on a daily basis by just being here and living this different life.

But that is all a part of it. Our simple notion of just being here is a start … and it is something. It may not feel like something. But it is something that is only building upon something that was once nothing. At least that is what I’m going to tell myself, as we begin the new school year. That’s what I’m going to tell myself when I’m going over simple pronunciation with a few of the English teachers at my school. That is what I need to remember when all of the daily frustrations seem weigh too much on my shoulders.

As an American Proverb so is the Khmer proverb: drop by drop the bottle will become full.