State of National emergency

First I will explain what happened as far as I know luckily I got my internet back to see it all in eng trying to understand in khmer is not so easy and then ill tell you why this is all ironic as far as my life is concerted. http://edition.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/asiapcf/11/22/cambodia.festival.deaths/index.html?hpt=T1 so that’s from cnn if you did not see anything yet on it there is the video basically this weekend was water festival were they race boats it’s a pretty big deal fire works and such many people go into phnom penh big party. Anyways there was a few million people in for the event when I guess far to many people were standing on the bridge and it began to seem like it was going to collapses causing mass panic along with the police shooting water bombs to keep people moving it was the perfect storm if you will for a stamped. Many people jumped to there death in hopes to save them selves and then the lights on the bridge caused people to die of electrocution it has been a few sad day in Cambodia thus far 400 dead everyone that I know peace corps wise is okay as well as my family and friends in village. However there are still many people trying to seek medical attention and it is becoming near impossible as I have stated in previous blogs about the medial situation its not so good there are really not ambulances and not many people can afford them so that’s one issues then the amount of supplies in the hospital is pretty limited as well as beds so I have a bad feeling form the limited time I have worked in the health care system in Cambodia that more people will die as the days continue on =( so why this is all so ironic bc I had my phone stolen on Friday and while trying to keep it on the dl it had to come open full force when the safety and security officer of peace corps was trying to call me and when I couldn’t pick up a phone my sister and god knows who else got phone calls on top of that I used up all my internet mins so I couldn’t not even talk to people its pretty hard not to have a single form of media at one time. Just letting everyone im still kicking it hard in Cambodia ps have a good thanks giving and happy bday to Patricia and my Aunt Fran!

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder!

Let see well this week in the boat races in phnom penh so a million people have been asking me if I will be going but one I have no money right now and two I am still on lock down so a lot of people I guess are sad that I can not go with them. I don’t exactly know the story behind the boat races why its so popular im guessing its been happening for however many years and that’s what matters. In the absents of me going I have found local things to entertain me yesterday I went for a long walk and made a new friend him and his wife and the whole family want me to have sleepover and eat at there house lol but hopefully ill get to know them better as time goes on. This next part of my weekend is where the blog story start aka the title of this blog so my friend jentee and her sister get paid to do khmer makeup for weddings and she suckered me into letting her give me a make up to make me so very beautiful. I sit down to be a victim knowing full well that this is going to be one crazy makeover as im watching her pick colors and by colors which bright pink to use on me ahh I hate the color pink! Then I see the fake eyelashes that were going to be put on me and that’s when I knew it was going down hill from this point on. Okay so I don’t know if movie stars and people in America that use fake eye lashes have really nice ones but these ones were mad uncomfortable and made me look like a drag queen you can judge for your self. She also wanted to shave off my eyebrows to pencil them back on this is where I drew the line! While the make up aspect was over she just had to do my hair however my hair won for me so she was trying to do something khmer to my hair however as you can see from my pic that didt happen that’s bc my hair is really thin and would not do what she wanted to =) most people in Cambodia have curly hair where mine doesn’t like hairspray or do anything but lye flat. I should also mention this real quick side note that while she was doing my hair all I could think about was lice bc in the past month there was a huge outbreak in my village and the fact I have not had lice is a miracle bc its not just kids but adults and they come over and right on my table where I eat they help each other pick it out of there hair and they wonder why it never goes away. So besides watching people pick out lice all the time I cant help but notice this does not stop them from going to public places to get there hair done to infest more people eek so lets hope for the best that I keep these little sucker out of my hair. Anyways back to the story the aftermath of all of this is these pictures where now I am left to decide do I look more like a drag queen or some form of a cartoon character like Betty Boop. However I should also mention everyone that saw me thought I was so very beautiful minus my self and im sure the rest of America reading this blog so beauty really is in the eye of the beholder im living proof! On a sad note this week my cell phone got stolen from my room so I am without one for now I might buy one in a month ill see im taking this as a sign from the universe to live without it for awhile and utilize internet since I still have that. Although I wish I knew who took it so I could get the sim card at least for numbers also peace corps is pretty blah blah you better keep money on ur cell phone so im guessing me deciding to not have one is not going to go over well but ill cross that bridge when it comes.

pics of some more of my life

health center staff pics

Wish List!!!

So some people have been asking me of things that I would want them to send me while really anything would do I decided to compile a list of stuff as of right now that seems to pop up where I am like man I wish I had that right now… I am also not sure if I ever posted my mailing address so ill do it right now P.O 2534 Phenom Penh, 3 Peace Corps Embassy Addressed to yours truly. Food items are a big miss especially since everyday all I get to eat is eggs and rice and some form of really grade F meat lol I tired to think of foods that would not go bad or could last so…
FOOD!
Peanut butter the big jar I go though one in like a month and half bc its so easy to eat and good, nutella, cereal the small boxes I really like honey nut cheerios, caption crunch peanut butter, Fruit loops. Pop tarts I like the cinnamon brown sugar or smore’s, chips I really have been craving the jalapeño kettle corn chips, franks hot sauce, Montréal spices bc I need some flavor to my food and the taste of oil might make my heart stop any day now, drakes coffee cake, really any of the snack cake would be awesome, candy etc.
STUDY Supplies
Index Cards they don’t sell anywhere in Cambodia and I need to use to memorize khmer words, tape, colored pencils crayons marker’s to make health edu stuff, glue, paint some water color paint as well once again for health edu. Battery operated long black light csi style once again edu I know its random lol.
Stuff for my room
Mighty putty http://www.asseenontvguys.com/mighty-putty.aspx , Incense, Candles, Led xmas lights, the awesome and classic sticky starts that light up in the dark when u put them on the ceiling of a room.
Really anything that you your self think you would miss if you did not have the option of getting it while aboard and just like to say thanks to those of you who do give me care package the thought has already made me supper happy!!! Even just one of the things of what I wrote about or something someone thinks of will make all the difference in my Cambodian daily life. I have to say before coming to Cambodia I under estimated the awesomeness of postal stuff that could be bc I have lived in the computer world for so long and thought humm snail mail I think not. As a volunteer however it’s like a kid on Christmas if you get a care package. The fact that there is no postal service in Cambodia always makes the challenge of getting the package real old school like you feel its this worldly event taking place. Miss everyone and hope everyone is having a good time back in America talk to you all soon peace out from the other side of the world!

Creepy Crawlers and Imagination land

I wish I could tell you I was talking about that awesome glue machine that let you make bugs and other critters but no… okay so I know im living in the jungle of Cambodia so I try not to be to squeamish as far as bugs and other animals go however sometimes it just gets taken to far by these creatures and I my self have limits! So the other day once I got strong enough tape to finally hang my tapestry I was all excited moving things around my room and when I moved my bag there was a huge scorpion all I can think is this for real maybe its dead like how long has it been living under my bag without me knowing or how did it get in all answers ill never really know next plan of action get a family member to take care of this bc I have no idea how to wrangle up scorpions turns out broom a scissor and a brick ill get to the killing later but first… once I get someone to show them which by the way bc of seeing one in training I actually know the name in Khmer so my brother comes in and is like yea then goes out to get a broom except when we return it escaped and my brother acted like o well however my ass could not even step foot in my room until that thing was out I was not risking stepping on it or something so I made him hunt for it we pulled apart my room and found it he swept it up cut its tail and then brought it out side and started to smash it with a rock crises averted for now except my brother thinks its so funny I was scared of it. Now my next issues is that frogs have been escaping into my house and it seems like no sooner do I help them escape that they come back along with them and the lizards I here scurrying about all night long not to mention some annoying sounds however this I can deal with but last night is when I reached my limits. About 2:30am I wake up bc a spider crawled across my back all I can think wtf how did it get though the misquote net so I get up to turn on the flash light to see where it went to get it out from under my net never found it must have escaped on its own. However now I am up and im like okay I have to just fall back to sleep however it seems tonight a frog has managed to make its way in my room so ill I hear is hop hop him knocking things over still im like don’t pay attention but this bullfrog wanted my attention I think bc soon enough it was underneath my bed hopping so hard it was hitting the bottom of my bed so the bed was shaking at this point I was like should I get up and look for him as I am debating this all of a sudden it jumped on the bed and slipped under the net and was staring me in the face it was huge anyways I jumped up which scared the frog and it was a good leaper it jumped to the other end of the bed by the time I got the flash light it escaped im pretty sure it left my room soon after bc I heard a lot of noise outside where I keep my laundry basin. Well now I am a wake and by the time I might have been able to go to sleep is the roosters started up there 4am wake up call. Then the rest of my day just got a bit odd so today the staff had a big meeting leaving us understaffed I didt know that this meant that I get to be 6 again and play make believe and by that I mean they deiced today was a great day for me to play dr. so im sitting down talking with the people up front about vitamin a shots and all of a sudden I here my name being called im like yes and I hear you need to take her into a room and check if she has breast cancer me what do you mean me lol you know I have no medical training at all.. I think you just check it will be okay umm me ????? so my 6 year old self must have come out bc I don’t remember actually going in the room to do this but I guess it all just sort of happened and I sort of remember just thinking about stuff I have seen in tv just like a 6 year old would do. This is proof if you cant sue hospitals or drs anything goes even someone like me playing dr scary stuff ill let you know how my first surgery goes I better start watching more medical movies jkjk or mabey I should practices on some frogs jkjk.

A Surprise Event for me???

You know how in movies when everything is all normal there is some sort of music jam playing in the background well pretend with this recount of events that I was on my way to work music background u chooses and all of a sudden ziiiiprip I show up and there is this huge colorful tent with chairs and a lot of people around the hospital. Thoughts that go though my head did some one plan a wedding on hospital grounds no I don’t think so humm I spot the dude that speaks eng yes big event today what for because of volunteers and you look on my face????? I decied not to push it further and take the wait and see approach maybe he just said it all wrong in eng and all of a sudden my older host sister the one who I thought was my mom is calling me over and im like great they invited family there must be a reason bc why else would my host sister a seller of eggs show up to the hospital so I go and sit by her why I wait for the rest of event to unfold. Once everyone started to take there seats I selected mine as careful as I could or in other words which would be the seat I would be least obvious in however I did not get my way the director of my hospital and the guy who speaks eng made me move all the way up to the front and when the speaker started all I understood was something about being here and then an announcement of my name for what I have no idea as for the other volunteers world vision is giving us money to build a maternity ward so I guess they just combined everything into some sort of big event without telling me that’s for sure. Mean while plan for that day was to talk to my mom and Luis on the phone for Luis bday and the middle of this thing my phone rings im like well maybe I can hit ignore I did but of course I knew they would call back so I was like screw it and just got up and left and talked on the phone after all in Cambodia I seen people on stage answer phones and they never told me about such event so I have no idea as to how many names my name was mention or what for but all I know if I was the guest of honor I was deff MIA. Other worldly news from yours truly I bought INTERNET okay so I thought it over for a couple months and deiced that I spend more time and money traveling and paying for internet then if I just got this usb stick and pay 3 bucks for 800 kilobites so I did it as of this week I can get online when ever I want however I don’t want to abuse my new privilege I was almost scared to get it bc I don’t want to just be an online junkie hopefully self control will be with me. I also got it bc I have been trying to contact various corporation and such to get donation from and waiting 2 weeks is way to slow of a process if I really want to get things done on the fly and most of you know me I hate to sit on the bench and watch so now with the world wide web at my finger tips im ready to go. I think I have mentioned in this blog at some point in time I love to go for long walk into the middle of nowhere well I guess that must stop bc people I work with were very upset that I would walk so far keep in mind the fact I even walk is a foreign concept to that so while im used to walking avenues in New York City they went on and on how dangerous it was and how come I was not scared I know your thinking just don’t let them know and I would agree but how they found out in the first place is exactly how they will know… at the big event there was people from all over my district anyway they some of them decided to inform my director of my on goings and ask why do I go for walks so far this of course lead to mass panic and lectures I really cant sneeze in Cambodia with out it becoming gossip. This week me and my host brother had an interesting conversation so the other night I was cutting out stuff from mags to make an art project for my room and I hear noise from the window and my brother peeking in I ignore it at first but it kept happening so finally I was like yes can I help you (he speaks eng one one) so he responds yes I wants to see’s you’s (cambodians love to add s to the end of eng words don’t know why) so after he stops peeking in though my window he comes in and sits down I think he has been nervous to come in my room except other family members will come in so as to why I don’t know never the less he came in to see what I was doing and then to play with my ipod and computer he was telling me how much he loves my ipod and how he wants one. Most Cambodians don’t have anything apple bc its a lot more expensive however they all have phones sometimes 3 phones and they download music to it so I was asking him about his phone does he have a lot of music however I guess he does not have a phone which I was taken a back buy bc everyone eles in the family minus my host mom and dad who r like 70 have a phone he was telling me he has no money for one the best I can figure it I think he spends the most amount of time in private classes eng etc and I don’t think the rest of the family takes school as serous as him so it might be why no phone. We got to talking about music and I thought my sister Patricia would be amused to know one of his favorite American artist is Taylor swift that made me laugh he also likes Justin beaver I don’t even know how to take that one. Since I had him talking I was like humm I need to find out how big my family is because I think its huge and im pretty sure there might be more siblings living eles where so he tells me about another brother and 2 more sisters except 3 years ago one of his sisters died of malaria and that his brother lives in Malaysia I was happy to have a real conversation with someone in the family because for the most part day to day its just them starring into my window.