SO - We've Moved!

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While I do feel bad about leaving the host family we were with as they were very nice people and I got a kick out of them and I was really growing to like their nephew baby named, Yeut – Will and I are VERY glad to be in a MUCH MUCH quieter neighborhood.

The move went really well – and we explained to the host family that we want to remain friends and visit them often. They seemed to think that was okay, and also understood our reasons for leaving.

Yea – I do have to say that living right on the national road, this close to Siem Reap – which is ALSO under construction was TRULY way toooo much to take. It was so loud constantly and because of the thin walls and open air- it truly felt like our bed was right next to the freeway. Well actually – it was literally right next to the freeway, because thin wooden walls and open air windows can’t really compare to a home w/ insulation, or even a house with cement walls.

Not to mention the neighbor’s geese; and their dogs that would really, really howl anytime an ambulance went by, and the last few nights their cat was in heat – and wow could she meeeeow.
Needless to say we weren’t getting nearly enough sleep - and it’s truly kind of hard to put on your happy face and speak another language you’re just learning when you weren’t able to sleep the night before.

--- Peace Corps understood our concerns, and so did our old host family – and they helped us find a new place to live.

Our old peace corps nurse happened to be friends with a volunteer doctor in Siem Reap – who happens to be married to a Khmer woman, (named Thea) who just happened to be from the town we are in. The nurse was helping us to try and get a new place and asked this lady if she knew of anyone who might be interested in hosting a young couple who are here to teach English.

She went back to her house and asked her mother, and the first suggestion out of her mother’s mouth was, “Why don’t they stay here! We have two rooms in the house that are not being used, and we might as well have some Barangs (foreigners) here.”

So we met the family and saw the house – and fell in love with it right away. The family is very nice. They have the the one daughter named Thea – who works as a nurse in Siem Reap and is married to the American doctor who volunteers at a children’s hospital. They’ve got another daughter Sopeap, who is married with 3 kids and lives in Phnom Penh, and then Dara who is 14 years old and is here at the house.

The host mother’s name is Socheat and the host father is Vonn. She works as a midwife in our town hospital and the father stays at home and does house work and tends to their garden. I believe he used to farm rice, but hasn’t done that in quite a while, as I believe they used to have land in Battambang province, and things I believe got shuffled around after the Khmer rouge.
Anyway- a VERY nice family and we couldn’t be more pleased.

We’ve got two nice rooms with some beautiful traditional Cambodian wooden furniture, along with a little patio area with our own bathroom and kitchen area. It’s perfect. It’s like our own little apartment. And BEST of all – we’ve only got one neighbor to the south of (which is even a little ways away b/c the family has a large yard) and other than that we’ve got rice fields to the north and west of us.

It is quiet. It is sooo nice. I cannot even explain. I think we’ll be pretty happy here. It’s funny – now at night I can hear the faint sound of some bass from music in a bar somewhere (the Macarena seems to be big here); whereas before I couldn’t even hear that. In the mornings at the old place, I couldn’t even hear my cell-phone alarm clock go off in the morning because the large trucks, horns and traffic was too loud. (Luckily OR unluckily –however you want to view it; I was already awake. There was no way I could’ve overslept at the old place). Have I mentioned that there are virtually no traffic rules in Cambodia? The way they alert everyone to know that someone is coming from behind you is by honking horns.

Anyhow.--- we’re getting settled in here. We will be doing most of our own cooking which will be nice; but will eat with the family maybe 2-3 times a week. We had our 1st meal with them tonight --- and boy was it delicious! We had quite the spread of stir-fried vegetables, fried and battered fish and then this HUGE bowl of baby shrimp that came from the Tonle Sap lake. It was wonderful.

I’m so excited to FINALLY be able to settle in somewhere and unpack our clothes for good for a while. It’s a good feeling. And I’ve also got a good feeling about this new place. More as it comes.