My life in nutshell

This has been an eventful week where to start okay well along with my host mom hacking fire wood with a sword she also apparently captures up scorpions so the other night im getting changed and I hear this hard knock which my host mom never knocks hard so I was like yea and she was all excited so I quickly throw on my srong and what do I see in her long thongs that she uses to start fires but a scorpion. I think my host mom is stating to get me she notices that I take random pics of geckos around the house and anything that I find interesting so she knew that I had to take a picture of it before she killed it by the way this thing was huge! On an everyday biases it’s a continual game of charades this was no different so I wanted to know where it came from the name of it in Khmer and once I got my host mom to understand that apparently it just showed up in the kitchen thank god she found it and not me bc I would have not even know what to do. My host mom has been bugging me why don’t I wear earrings so I told her that she should just get her lip pierced like me and now its our on going joke. My host family found out I will eat frogs so I have been getting that for lunch but she also found out I like French Fries that she makes by hand for me. This week in Peace Corps training its practicum week which means we get to put all our newfound knowledge to the test and roll with the knowledge we don’t yet have. As a health volunteer we had to go to some hospitals follow workers around still take technical la sessions teach a health lesson at the school and create a house hold survey and I thought my social research methods class was going to go to waste in life who knew. It has been really hectic with all these side projects going on well first ill tell you about this morning me and Helen both co teached with some of the eng kids on nutrition we came on this topic because we need something not to hard to teach in eng for the record I feel teaching any subject in eng to people are learning is a huge challenge and I really wish I could just do it in Khmer. Well the lesson went well played some games got them to understand you need to eat good things however I wish I had the la ability to better explain why we just split up things to eat into 3 groups foods that give you energy, foods that keep you strong, and goods that help you not get sick. We drew pictures and had them put them into groups and make different meals it was deff hard because we could not have to big of a vocab list but overall I think they understood and having no teaching training I think my group did pretty good. However I would say it was interesting to see how Cambodian’s in general learn you can really see how it is associated or connected with there way of life. For instances while in American schools it is always about problem solving ability and proving you can use what you learned all about the individual. Well naturally being American I try to provoke young minds helping them to think for them selves but this is a huge hurdle for Cambodia school age children they are all about the group dynamics they do not like to think outside the box or do something different from there class mates. Ex we played a matching memorization game but none of the kids would pick diff boxes so it took an exter 20 mins House hold surveys I am doing sanitation habits of food cooking, washing hands etc. however the kicker with this is I have to try to say my questions in Khmer there will be a translator with us aka an LCF but even when I say things right in Khmer people in this culture are not used to people knowing their la so I get looked at like I have 5 heads so I am never to reassured that what I am saying is being understood. Even though I have been hear for a month the neighbor hood kids have not tired of saying hello 500 times a day wait let me extend that to adults as well. I have a site interview today and then next Saturday I get to find out where this is awesome yet kind of crazy because I don’t know where it is but it will determines the rest of my life haha also new host family just has I am starting to get used to my host family I will be getting a new one. After class I have been able to play soccer with the local kids this has been fun but I have to admit im breaking all the Cambodian rules due to the fact I am the only girl that is playing with 30 guys o well. A few of the other volunteers are really good at yoga and started to give some time to do a group lessons I now aspire to do this crazy scissors move where you hold your self in air. Sigh the electricity has gone out so now it is lunchtime and im sitting in the dark with out a fan that’s life in Cambodia in a nutshell.