These past couple of days I have really learned a lot about my job, the previous volunteer at my site, and how much this community expects of me. My counterpart, whom I met yesterday and I will be traveling with tomorrow, gave me a completely different perspective about what PCVs do and it was incredibly overwhelming. I am going to a site that fits me very well, but I am nervous about how successful the last volunteer was. The community is glad to have a new volunteer, but I have very big shoes to fill, and I am afraid that people will not remember how long it took Jason, the previous PCV, to feel comfortable and master the language. My co teacher seems to think I am going to pick up right away where Jason left off. Oh well, I go to my site tomorrow to meet my host family and meet everyone I will be working with. I'll have a better feel for what the next two weeks will be like after this weekend. Meeting my new family also is a little nerve racking, but I at least know a little more Khmer this time around.
The saving grace about my site is that Savin, one of our Language and Culture Facilitators (LCF), is actually one of my co teachers. He speaks English very well, is enthusiastic about the Peace Corps, and understands that it will take me some time to fully adjust. If not for this, I think I would be a lot more nervous. On the downside, there is very little electricity, so the internet is out of the question. The closeset connection is about 14K away, and very overpriced at 5,000R an hour. Internet shoult be about 3,000R an hour, or about $0.75. This might seem trivial, but I live on about a dollar a day at site. Spending a day's worth of food money on an hour of internet time is very steep. Even then, the connection is slow and unreliable.
My house is apparently a hopping spot in town. There is "pub" on the ground floor and all the teachers, police, and indian chiefs frequent it. Jason apparently also frequented the pub with all of these people, so my family knows him very well. This is situation is a plus for networking potential. We'll see what I can make of it.
Ok, I'll post next week when I should have internet again. I'll include a description of my house, family, and school.
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Your dad says that when he was a PCT he got 1 Zaire a day, but when he became a PCV that was upped to 4 Z a day. Won't you get a raise when you become a PCV?
ReplyDeleteglad the book helped, sorry i missed your gchat the other day. sounds like everything is going well! I forgot to tell you that when/if you go to Siem Reap there is a bar there called Angkor What?! and you should absolutely go there
ReplyDeleteWill is leaving for DC tomorrow and then flies to Peru Thursday! I'll keep checking though infrequently as I'm leaving on my eurotrip in a week.
Have fun!
--Anne