Friday, August 28, 2009

Kampuchia Momment

I just remembered this...

Last week I was biking home from afternoon language class in my training village. The village has a national highway that runs through it, so I was moving pretty quickly down the asphalt to my dirt road when I looked up, into the sparse oncoming moto traffic and laid my eyes on a scene that made time stop.

Two people on the oncoming Honda Dream come into view. A toothy twenty something male and a smiling woman behind him. We start to pass each other while the woman yells, "Helllooooo" as they pass me. My hand shoots up, in a reflexive wave, and my mouth drops in ghastly astonishment. Straddling the back of the Honda is a typical Khmer girl. Black hair, big smile, and two bare breasts catching some sunlight... wait a minute... yeah that's right. Tucked between the man and woman is a newborn nursing from the one breast not wildly attempting to obey the law of gravity. Up comes the mother's hand to wave, while the other tenderly nurtures her new born at 35km/h. Just as suddenly as my mind is blown, the moto egresses behind me, and is a metallic blur headed away from Vietnam.

Instantly the image of gymnasts come to mind, and the future of the Cambodian Olympic Gymnastics team seems pretty good. At 35km/h, with no free hands to hold on to something, and still mustering the gusto to wave to a foreigner, while holding a baby, it dawns on me that Cambodian women are have untapped potential. The balance required to pull off such a stunt is unimaginable. Somebody please send me a spring board and a vault! Watch out China, Cambodia is going for the gold in '012!

Site Visit and Counterparts

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.

Tuesday, August 25, 2009

Posting

So, the internet has been a real hassel as of late. Good news is I am half way through training and just recieved my posting today. I will be in a rural site in Kampot Province. Google Kampot Town and check out my provincial capital. I am pretty happy, needless to say. A lot of people are excited, some are upset, but I just feel really lucky. I'll post as soon as possible.


Monday, August 10, 2009

A lot has happened this past week. I ate dinner in a brothel, walked in a landmine field, and started lesson planning training.

Completely by accident, last Tuesday on our last visit to Takeo, five of us went out to dinner. No big, just looking for some rice, pork, and beer. Right across the street from our guest house was a river side establishment that was vacant and actually sat on the water. After a long day of traveling and lectures we really just wanted something close by, so we ventured in and sat down at the farthest table from the door, and closest to the water, and most importantly the breeze. Immediately there were five female servers for five guests. Promptly beer was served and we placed our orders. At this point we just assumed that it was a slow night and that the girls were bored, so one server per guest did not seem suspicious. Following taking our orders they did not leave us though. So Terry, the redhead from Wisconsin, started to ask the girls questions in his limited Khmer. We all followed suite. Unfortunately at this point in our training the only questions that we knew well were, “What is your name?”, and “What is your age?” Obviously two questions that were posed innocently enough, but inadvertently triggered strange responses from our servers that would have even made Chris Hansson blush. My server started rubbing the back of my neck. Across the table the other servers started tweaking Christian’s and Terry’s nipples and Ryan and Nick were made to flex their biceps. Very quickly we realized that the girls were trying to bait us and we couldn’t figure out what to do. Fortunately other PCTs came in and sat down to order food. Long story short the food was great, no sex was bought, and the hookers were pissed off all night because they had to serve food. Hopefully I can update with stories about the mine field. Until then Lee-hi!

Oh, and if you wan to send me mail/ care packages, here is the address. Thanks for your support!

Ben Kubaryk PCT
Peace Coprs
PO Box 2453
Phnom Penh 3, Cambodia

Saturday, August 1, 2009

Traing for Training

Well, I am now in my training village, Traing, living with a host family. No running water, no electricity, and very little language that I can actually use. My house is the furthest from anybody, way behind some green rice paddies and bomb craters from some of our B-52s. I am a mere 25-30 kilometers from Vietnam and my village was bombed during the war. My host family is very accommodating, but I am living in a very rural village. This precious internet access comes after three hours of one way traveling, Amazing Race style, across the country.

Currently I am in Tramkok, the other training site visiting with friends on my day off and hopping online for a minute. The experience has been very intense, a bit of struggle, but already incredibly rewarding. Unfortunately there are no USB drives on these computers, so the pictures will have to wait. I am in one piece though, dengue free, and having a blast. Hopefully in the next two weeks I can update this again with some of my stories. I already have many. They range from squat potty use (no toilette paper), hand washing clothes with a platoon of Khmer women barking at me, and just plain developing world craziness.

I'll update in a couple of weeks. Until then, Lee-Hi!