Today we leave our hub site in Takeo province to move in with our host families! We leave here around 8:30 in groups, and will take a couple of vans each to get to our villages. Mine is called Traing, and it's about 10 km from our hub site, where we will all be meeting once a week for technical training together. There are two other training sites that will also host volunteers, one about 10 km away and the other about 40.
I am really excited to meet my host family, and, of course, nervous. It will be a pretty drastic jump, moving from staying in "guest houses" where there's running water, internet access, and a western style toilet, to a Khmai house where water comes in the form of rain or a well, there's an outhouse, and likely no electricity. So if you don't hear from me for a while, don't think I'm being negligent; I may just not have the means to stay connected for the time being.
We will be in our PST (pre-service training) villages for the next two months, until we swear in as official volunteers on Septemper 23rd, at which point we move to our permanent sites.
When we get to Traing today, my group will go to a Wat to be greeted by the monks in a welcoming ceremony where they bless us with water and throw flowers on us two by two. I am almost more anxious for that than moving in with my host family; there's so much ritual involved and certain ways you have to sit, look (not look in my case, since I am a woman) at the monk etc. Hope I don't screw up! ;)
Now it's time for my last Western shower and a quick ride to the market for breakfast before we leave. Joom riep lia! (Goodbye!)
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