At what cost

I had a very long day today I had to take a 30 min ride for a big peace corps meet up which I think we do once a week which is nice to see the other volunteers! But a long day bc there is a lot to learn today it was all about water filters and some games with prizes but my group did not win so no snickers’ for me I think the prize’s started to make everyone think about American food way to much so I have entered a mind set while being here that I don’t know what American food is also I keep acting like I have never had anything be4 so its like I am not losing anything it makes being here a whole lot easier. For those who don’t know since reading be here and be now I have become somewhat in love with Ram Dass philosophies so I feel Cambodia is an opportunity for me to move past what I think I know I am to the actualization beyond me now, the example he uses is does the caterpillar know it is changing into a butterfly or does it just happen and that is the same with human transformation into realizing! All I can say is I rather be in any 3^rd/4^th world country then stuck behind some desk from 9-5 at least in Cambodia I can honestly say I feel I am living being an active participant in life being hyper aware of my surroundings has made me realize how much I was on autopilot like most days I did not even realize how I just said the same things or answer to the same things (paper or plastic, have a nice day, when do you have work etc). I will stop going all deep into my psyche and come back to the reality most people want to here about, anyways my teacher came over to tell my host family about my up coming schedule and a lot was able to be understood such as I know what to do with my garbage yay. I know your all like how come you did not know well in Cambodia there is no sanitation of any kind so everything has to be burnt but at my house I don’t have a backyard which I think is where most families burn theirs and were I live in the market I see a lot of people do it right on the street but I was very unsure if this is what my family does or not turns out no, instead they put it in a potato sack and give into to someone to take to the field to burn. If I have time for another side project because my ideas for this place r filling up fast I would like at least in my village want to set up more places to throw out trash bc I am starting to think of that commercial from the 80s with the crying Indian dude bc of all the trash in America well its 100 times worse here no one has any trash cans one is excepted to just throw stuff on the ground and I felt bad doing that so I have been storing water bottles and other plastic thing in my desk =( I had no idea what I was gonna do in a few days I was running out of room. Naturally as many of you know trash brings bugs and disease so being a health educator I feel I have to get this to work out in my village fingers crossed which will require me to come up with some free way to make trashcans or it will not happen. Turns out my host mom thinks im soo funny even though she has no idea what im saying I guess my mannerisms r enough in Khmer when you do not know something you do this thing with your hands and say attae (no) which seems to make every Cambodian laugh when I do this but at least they understand I have absolutely no idea what they are saying to me. While most volunteers also have to deal with la barriers with families a lot of them have kids in them which most young kids learn some eng in school so it helps a bit for me it’s just me and my boa and mia (host dad, mom). For now I must go but I will leave you with a little Ram Dass wisdom… If you get so efficient if you’ve got to turned off to all the vibrations of the scene (life) bc your so busy about the future or the past or time has caught you it cost to much!