TEFL Conference, Site Visit, and Sammies.

I am back from my week in Phnom Penh! It was a good week, but I am glad to be back at my site. The TEFL conference was interesting and I definitely took away some new ideas from it, but it was very long: Seven and a half hours in the same room, every day for six days, gets a little torturous at times. Three days might have been more manageable. When we were focused and engaged, the sessions were productive and our Khmer counterparts got a lot out of it. But when we were exhausted, particularly towards the end of the week, it was harder to focus enough to absorb much of anything. Overall, though, I think the conference was pretty helpful and I’m glad I went. There was one session in particular that Mr. Chuon Nam Heng (my counterpart) and I loved. We were doing exercises to show how differently stressed syllables within a sentence can change its meaning (“You like teaching, don’t you?”- if the tone goes down at the end, you’re sure, whereas if it goes up, you’re unsure). Everyone in the room seemed to think the exercise futile for the Cambodian classroom, but my counterpart and I appreciated the nuances and eagerly analyzed the sentences together like the couple of nerds we apparently are. This confirmed in my mind that we were meant to be (counterparts).

The King’s 90^th birthday was on Monday so there was a parade that started from Independence Monument in the morning.

At the end of the conference, we took a boat ride out on the Tonle Sap River with our Khmer counterparts, the director of the conference, and the country director of Peace Corps Cambodia.

I got home from Phnom Penh on Monday, and spent two days in my village before leaving again for a meeting in my provincial town with my program manager and P.C. Cambodia’s director of training. The drives in Cambodia are always a blast. And by that I mean, I am almost always scared for my life. “Chicken” is a regular past time between drivers on the highway, horns being the only means of division on the road, drivers swerving in and out of “lanes.” When I was in Italy, driving on the highway for the first time with my host family and sputtering in disbelief about the seeming chaos of it all, I remember by host dad turning to me, waving his hand nonchalantly and saying, “the lines are just a suggestion.” The same applies to traffic in Cambodia.

Once safely in Prey Veng, I dropped my stuff off at the guesthouse and went on my way to meet up with two other volunteers who live in the provincial town, and another who lives in a nearby village. We all had to come to town for this meeting, so we took advantage of our time together by running around our tiny, dusty provincial town, taking refuge in the Tela (an air conditioned gas station) whenever needed, eating mi chaa (fried noodles), playing with the kitties at a nearby Wat, and stopping to gawk at the giant pot-bellied pig who also inhabits the place (what it is with Wats and giant pigs, I really don’t know. The contrast of gluttony and asceticism seems unfortunately ironic to me).

Frighteningly large pig at the Wat in Prey Veng

After dinner and drinks on the river, it was time to head back to the guesthouse. My friend Diana had received a package from Phnom Penh, and we were anxious to see what marvels it held... We walked hurriedly, cursing the dogs that barked at us as we passed and trying to convince ourselves we were bigger and stronger than they are (for their size and general manginess, the dogs here can still be intimidating, especially at night).

Receiving a package is like Christmas. Actually, truth be told, it’s better than Christmas. Christmas, you probably know what you’re getting, and after opening your presents, the excitement quickly fades. Maybe I should have asked for this instead… You think to yourself, dully. The whole thing can be pretty anticlimactic. Not the case with packages in Cambodia. Opening a package merits the special attention of a ritual. It is a treasure that will be savored… A package of Oreos! A bag of Candy Corn! Even if ants find their way into these delights, Peace Corps volunteers will honor them all the same, brushing away the occasional bug or justifying it as extra protein, which we all surely need.

So naturally, Diana was very excited to open her package. She carefully cut the tape, using the tiny pocketknife I keep on my keychain, to do so, as I looked on, mesmerized. She folded back the cardboard flaps expectantly! … Only to find that a container of Marshmallow Fluff had exploded its contents on the entirety of the package…

Fluff on the books, fluff on two recorders (Diana was a music major), fluff on the Post-Its, fluff on the box of Cinnamon Toast Crunch… You name it, it was covered in Marshmallow Fluff. Our hearts dropped. Being the thrifty Peace Corps volunteers we are, however, we quickly recovered and began to take stock of our resources, assessing the needs of the situation. Since we were in a hotel room, the disaster was not quite as catastrophic as it potentially could have been had Diana been at site where there is no running water, where the ants would surely have congregated in masses towards the fluff the moment the package was opened.

With baby wipes and water, we were able to scrape off the fluff, leaving the contents of the package as good as if they’d never been assaulted in the first place, establishing Diana’s package once again as a blessing and a joy.

Adding to my less than clean record with hotel rooms: I came out of the bathroom and saw this. It may be hard to see here, but those fingerprints are a deep red color…

So now, finally, I am home once again, this time for a while. This week has been The Week Of Sandwiches. While in Phnom Penh, I bought sliced bread and cheese to make my family a good old-fashioned sandwich when I got home. The second my Bong S’rei Ohn heard about this, she insisted I come over the following day to make her sandwiches too. The sandwiches I made for my family had cheese, tomatoes, cucumbers, and lettuce, and today I added a fried egg. S’rei Ohn was beyond thrilled about the whole thing, but took a bite of hers and immediately made a face, saying “Ought jeh niam.” (I don’t know how to eat it). My Ma Ma, however, loved them, and wants me to come over tomorrow to make them again.

Sandwiches: round one, with my family. My nephews didn’t like them, but they were huge supporters of the Oreos.

Sandwiches: round two! Ma Ma frying the eggs. “Ma Ma jeh niam” (I know how to eat them) she proudly remarked after S’rei Ohn proved incapable.

More soon!