Awkward turtle

If you don’t know what awkward turtle is I think you should google it but the awkward part is what I will be focusing on. Granted for most of my time in Cambodia there has been a lot of awkward turtle however I would say the past two days have taken it to new levels. Cambodian people are very willing to let us as volunteers be extremely hands on which is interesting however sometimes its those moments when you know this has to be as another volunteer put it profoundly wrong. While its easy for me to change the things which might be considered rude in Cambodia but what about the other way around when they do something which is so rude in America well it makes it a lot more difficult to deal with and then its this huge mental block that has to be fought off. Due to the fact that I am a health volunteer i have to learn a lot of medical terms in Khmer but to prove that we learned enough of it this week the peace corps set up with the referral hospital in phey chore to go around and talk to patients which in the states would never happen because of hip laws. Besides feeling what we were doing was illegal it all so just felt extremely wrong to go up to sick kids and there family and try to speak in Khmer and say what is he/she sick with and the lcf made it extremely important that we got what they were saying so sometimes this was repeated. On top of that we do not have the langue skill to convey sympathy or condolences etc so I deff feel at times I had to have come off crude. A quick side note but there are no aids in hospitals hear so the family members must take off to take care of them which I would imagine to be stressful, so if I was looking at it from there prospective I would want to know why the fuck are these American bothering me. However that was not the case they were happy that Americans were taking interest in them. However most of us could not get over the fact of what we were doing when we tried to explain how wrong we felt this was the lcf told us to pretend to be Drs and keep asking anyways. In America being in a hospital is a very private experience not so in Cambodia rooms are opened with more then 2 people and some people are outside and its very okay for us to go up and ask them what in America would be very personal questions. Well after that instance how much more awkward could my life get in Cambodia I know I have told you on this blog numerous times how often I get called fat or ask why I am so fat but it went to a whole new level today ps I wish what I am about to tell you did not happen. After my morning bike ride and a nice afternoon I went and tried to spend time with the neighbors who instantly hang out in my drive way when no sooner do I sit down does my host mom go running off and everyone laughing I was still in my own world. Until I saw my host mom scurrying back towards me and in her hands she bought out a rice scale for me to stand on in front of everyone to see how taught (big) I really am of course I refused I was like I am a fat American I don’t need to know how much but then all of them went on it and then pretty much I was weight gang raped and they threw me up on the scale and im sure will have a good laugh at my America fat ass for a while. Then of course there is the random lunch in my host parents had and who ever they invited stared the whole time and whispered back and forth about me you know when you see a huge car pile up and you cant help but slow down and rubber neck it (look) well in Cambodia I am that car accident.