Lets all act like Oprah Winfrey Please!?!?

As the title suggests I need you all to act like Oprah Winfrey and pretend you all have a billion dollars to spare =) okay I am glad I have your attention or at least I hope I do. Great news Peace Corps partnership program has approved my groups project!!! Now I am left in hassling the world for the funds for this domestic violence workshop I have mentioned so many times before. I know your all thinking can I pull of being a monk and wearing an orange jump suit to get people to throw money at me and yes I to have thought about this but sorry its frowned upon or so Cambodians have told me when I ask about such ideas hehe. Also fyi I do plan to ask Oprah for a donation I know its unlikely but hey you never know. Okay now more seriously at the bottom of this page I will enclose the link but first I will try to get into more detail about this project. The overall aim of our workshop is to motivate community leaders to be more involved in cases of domestic violence in their communities, as well as to increase understanding about and causes related to domestic violence. In other words or lames terms we have teamed up with the ministry of women’s affairs and are working with some local ngos to educate people in the community who work with villager’s ie village chief, hospital staff, police etc. it is also a good way for group networking in the kp chhange province because many ngo’s we are working with have similar goals as far as women in Cambodia and specifically domestic violence with all the facilitators for this project working together they will also gain funding and other support they might need down the line from one another this is know as capacity building. Thus far with the help of Ministry of Women’s affairs we have been able to come up with a little over 2000 dollar of in kind donations my group still needs to come up with the other 3000 dollars. In all honestly I do not want the majority of funds coming from you friends and family it is more my hope that yes maybe you could spare a dollar but to actually go to organization you might be volunteering for or if you know someone who has more or vested interested in this type of work to have them donate. I am fully a wear the United States of America lost its credit rating and I understand that many of you might be in a real monetary jam right now. However I hope you will not just believe all that I have told you about how poorly women are treated in Cambodia but that you may even do research for your self to know that I am not asking this lightly or merely as if you are helping me sell girl scout cookies when I was 10 but to know that I don’t just want your money but your true desire to create a safer environment for women not just in Cambodia but all over the world. Just remember, “We can do no great things, only small things with great love.”  Mother Teresa with that said however you feel you could help with this project please do so it would not just mean the world to me but the world to those who do not have a voice and who suffer everyday because they can not be heard.  I get questioned over and over again about my reason for joining the Peace Corps it is because each time a man (or women) stands up for an ideal, or acts to improve the lot of others, or strikes out against injustice, he sends forth a tiny ripple of hope... and crossing each other from a million different centers of energy and daring those ripples build a current that can sweep down the mightiest walls of oppression and resistance. Robert F. Kennedy in short I want people to see my life is the message! If you have any further questions about my project let me know I can meet you on Skype to talk face to face or just send you an email back thanks for all the work I hope you will do.  

https://www.peacecorps.gov/index.cfm?shell=donate.contribute.projDetail&projdesc=303-017

Best Wishes

Eileen McCormick 

TRIP TO STUNG HAV

The fact most of my peace corps friends live no where close to be and most times in the middle of nowhere it makes it pretty hard to get out to see their sites and host families etc its something I want to try to do more often in my second year. My Friend Taylor lives in kp som you might rembere she is who I went on the trip to Indonesia with any ways she got I guess you can call a peace corps promotion which sadly meant she had to leave sites though. Well I don’t know if I have ever explained something sort of weird about peace corps Cambodia but when we all got are invitation letters it states what are jobs will be etc however with peace corps Cambodia some of those jobs didn’t actually exist for me not such a big deal I was nominated for both health and youth development there is no youth development program.  For obvious reason this is a big let down for some people who had a lot of experience in what they were nominated for vs being forced to teach English Taylor was one of these people hers was for Teacher training education which ment she should have been working with teachers in college but instead was put at a local high school but recently peace corps Cambodia has made some corrections to their error by attempting to make some positions available for what people where nominated for.  However while this is what she wants to do for her service it is also a huge challenge to up and move communities and family to a whole other situation .It really does take a year for you to feel that you can start projects and receive help from community members because you have to think they are used to also sorts of people, ngos etc coming and going so they don’t just trust you once you step foot into the village. This is a situation a lot of volunteers are left with for obvious reason most people want to do the work they set out to do vs just shitting the breez with people so a lot of people have been adjusting. Well that’s the background story of why I ended up in Stung Hav well Taylor needed some help with packing and just overall emotional support with leaving her family which she was extremely intergraded into. First she actually came to my site and I did the normal roaming around when people come to vist me go see monkeys say high to all the random people all of this helped each of us gain perspective into the other personal life and you can see the differences from one site and type of people etc. well any ways her site is really remote about 30 mins off the major high way however her site is much bigger then mine and their was more economic development with fishing so we now joke around the my village people look a little rough where hers they put on nice clothes. Her village is on a mt that over looks the beach from far away which is really pretty it was nice bc her site felt like a real village some peoples sites is just one really long stretch of rd less centralized to feel like part of a community. Her house was a palace she even had a shower head I gasped when I saw such a thing lmao she said until she had to shower outside at my site she thought her situation was not that great however now that she realizes I shower off the major high under Neath some tress that she had it made. Her situation which I don’t know if it would be a good fit for me was a bit college dormitory style like her house was in the school grounds and a lot of other teachers all share house their as well. I sort of like the freedom I have at site to make relationships with people all over the place I feel her setup would have sort of forced me to be only be friends with people at the school. Her family is far more educated the mine and their ideals where just a lot different it was nice to see the male of the house hold also cook and to see the oldest daughter pre paring to go off to college, her family was a lot more sopheaup then mine that is Khmer for polite in a very specific way to gender and cultural ideals which made me really miss my family and appreciate them more. My family wears tank tops and we joke around about things which not to many people would ever say even my host mom I just felt more free at my site to be who I am visiting Taylor I felt I had to bring it back a notch. Because her site is a lot of fishing means there is also a huge male population to female their so she has a lot more of a social life I think then I ever did at my site we even went to some ladies house where I guess their was a gathering of men getting off work not quite sure about the why part where I don’t really do that at my site ever my excitement is getting people coffee and going around taking walks to peoples houses.  At the same time thought I don’t think I could handle that macho Cambodian atmosphere for a long time they are pretty relentless on getting married to an American and wanting to kiss an American blah blah blah. The dileact of Khmer is deff different from my site as well however her family spoke very slowly and I think I actually understood a lot of what was being said. Because the trip was for taylor to pack up and leave it was at time awkward to see it all go down to say the least well peace corps didt give her much time or the family really any notice so we were their for a day and a night then had to go. Saying good-bye to that many people and getting them to understand your leaving is no easy task in Khmer not just the la but culture. For one we tell them we will be their for two years and its not like they ask you once everyday they ask you for I guess conversation with you so they all know. Then there is the re assuring them you are not leaving them bc u are not happy aspect which makes you have to keep going on about how unhappy you are to move and that makes it harder to mentally be okay with moving. I would say the family situation is the worst of all though besides the money part while I don’t think Taylor’s family counted on the money like my family they are sending a child to college so maybe the choice to do so was based on the money they thought they would get. Her mom was the most heart broken Khmer women I have seen in a very long time she just kept saying how unfair it was that peace corps did this to her how she loves Taylor and how could they take her away how much they lied to her about her being hear for 2 years then how once Taylor leaves that’s it her doors will be closed she never wants to see peace corps again it was all quite drama filled and hard to watch for everyone involved. Despite the shenanigans of her leaving I still really had a good time just seeing another volunteers situation and seeing the things I like about my site a bit more=) on other news they finished building the new delivery room at my hospital the head of world vision came and now wants to be best friends with me he was telling me his life story for no lie an hour while he was supposed to be checking out and giving speeches but that irbing was good because now I know I can most likely get meeting with him directly and get maybe more funds for feature projects I want to do with vhvs excited about that.! My host family has been selling some new fruit that I don’t know the name of in English but its been keeping my host mom busy every time it’s a new season fruit I learn something new in Cambodia and its fun to watch people come to my house in droves to buy from her and just the types of people who buys who just comes to stare at me its like a fun game I play. With it being planting of the rice season my life as far as work as been dead at the hospital no one comes in everyone works on the rice all day so I have been reading lots of books and sending emails out on different projects. On other exciting news I bought plant tickets to go to China in oct with my friend Helen who is a fellow New Yorker with the added bonus of speaking Chinese and having some family in China I think it will make for a unique trip so if any of you that have visited this country be4 have any really cool places I should see that are not in lonely planet im all ears! Till next time peace out from the other side of the world!

Nothing is more dangerous to the adventurous spirit within man than a secure future

I know it seems like all I wrote should be put into a few months of travel in Cambodia so that should tell you how much time we spend jumping from one place to the next to make the trip be as all encompassing at possible. Well after prey chore it was time to vist the Disney world of Cambodia seim reap (Ankor Wat Temple) the things most tourist come for and the place I get asked about the most by Cambodians. Well I wanted to take a taxi their and I asked around and was told this place skun had them however when we arrived I was told no such luck then we had all these motto dops and tuk tuk drivers annoying us and trying to rip us off however now im in a place I have never been when something life altering happens okay well maybe not that big but its this next story that is the one that will stick with me for the rest of my life. So we start to walk to a bus station that I guess is far away and then a young Khmer women stops and seems to know English however very little so I speak to her in Khmer and she ends up helping us get a bus but while waiting for the bus we have this long out conversation about her. She goes into how she has this adopted daughter who is hit by the teachers so much she is scared to go to school and how she pity’s her child and then tells me about her family etc she runs inside and gets this photo of pictures of this orphan the whole thing is just very sad this poor women sells and makes no money lives in a tin house and then proceeds to give me a picture to keep telling me how she wants me to be a god mother to her child now what do I do except give her my Cambodian phone number and say yes maybe I will see you again. Well the story doest end their then she gives me one of her kormas (a Khmer scruff with checkers) so I will always remembered her and how we can be friends. Things like this never leave me because someone who has nothing can give so much and while im a volunteer and really don’t have money etc she still could have looked at me and deiced that I am a rich American and asked for money like most Khmer people do but instead all she wanted out of this all was my friendship. Things like this help me put my life back into perspective I have mention I have read a lot of Ram Dass and one of the things he always talks about is how in life you meet people who are teachers while its important not to let the ego hold on to them to much you should take what they give and utilize it I could not help but feel after that conversation with her that it was one of my life lesson to help me on my path to enlightenment. Well semi reap was paved rds like in Europe little back allys full of 5 star places to eat with more tuk tuk drivers per capita then people we meet up with another pcv had some Italian dinner which was nice break. Well the next day we headed for the temples however with a devious plan in mind that went like this so everyone kept tell Luis how Khmer he looked and that’s when we deiced why not test this theory out to save 20 bucks… well I first had to get him a Khmer tight collard shirt and a pair of tight jeans made him take off his glasses and watch I thought humm seems passable to me. I know your all thinking well what’s going to happen when they ask him question and he cant speak khmer well we were on that to so the story went like this I am a volunteer and this is my older host brother who has a soar throat so he can not speak I know genus well not so much. Sigh so we get stopped with our tickets and they are like well can we see your passport to him I respond for him no bc he does not have one he is Khmer and poor this makes the guard laugh then he is like okay can I see his identity card which I think might be like a drivers license and I did not think of this so I still try to play it off that he did not bring it.  Now the guard is telling me he does not believe he is Khmer because not even lying about this he is to beautiful that his skin is more beautiful then Khmer person and his nose well I did not want to just let it drop so I try to tell the guard he is just as beautiful as the guard is and I say see the same color skin and he just is like okay go get a ticket the gig is up. For the record if he went with all Khmer people I think it would have worked but bc it was just me and him that’s why it was an epic fail. Inside the grounds was really pretty worth the trip and best part is its not like all uptight like in America you can touch things and climb on things its not all glass incased like it would be in America. After making 1000’s of year old stone building my playground we spend the rest of r time just exploring around eat some western food and enjoying the sites and sounds of Cambodia Disney world as I like to call it. That night we went to the night market where I kid you not they had perfume spraying so it smelled like you were walking past Hollister in the mall or something it was crazy I was like why don’t I smell fish something is up with all of this haha while no one else seemed to notice. Next on are list was where to go next and we had a hard time deciding bc our original plans were to go to Thailand but we just got caught up with seeing things in Cambodia it ment we would have been on a pretty big time crunch so instead we thought we would head down south and go to the boarder of Thailand to a place called kok kong first we had are usual stop over in the city trying to figure out taxi’s etc because on the way back from semi reap we had no choice but to take a bus and that thing broke down on us so many times the ac broke and the bus windows don’t open so at this point Luis had his fill of buses. When we got to kok kong it was not this tropical beach I imagined you cant really swim in the water near the main part of town you have to take a bridge or boat ride sort of far out for the prettier tropical water which was not so easy with it being rainy season. It was not as nice as kp som but it was a different place to see went to the zoo saw some monkeys box each other went to the biggest man grove tree in all of south East Asia. I guess my end thoughts of this trip would be similar to Luis in that this place is for the person who seeks adventure wants to live on the edge and do stuff that 95 percent of other people will not get to do in a life time! Lucky for me I get to live it everyday and have not grown tired of it yet. Nothing is more dangerous to the adventurous spirit within a man than a secure future. The very basic core of a man's living spirit is his passion for adventure. The joy of life comes from our encounters with new experiences, and hence there is no greater joy than to have an endlessly changing horizon, for each day to have a new and different sun." Chris McCandless With this quote in mind I know some of you are looking to escape from the secure life you thought you created and wanted to something un like anything else if so Cambodia just might be the place for you. Till next time peace out from the other side of the world! 

Cambodian the Real deal

Okay sorry I have not written in quite a while I have to be in the mood to come up with interesting things to talk about and get it across in the right way and im not exactly the best writer lets be honest im no Stephen king. I was initially waiting on Luis to write up his version of things before I did since he is the new perspective for you all to get a feel from the none integrated way of life in Cambodia but as with most thing he takes to long for my ass to wait. I honestly don’t know where to start or what you the reader wants to read about luis trip but ill just be all over the place just like my wacked out brain that over does things. Well when his plane landed it was nervracking waiting for the love on my life to get off the plain who I wondered the whole time how much has he changed in a year lucky for me not to much =) in the mean time between worrying about that moment I have my host family who decided that they wanted to meet him who are at this point an hour late no idea what’s going on with them now im left thinking in my head I don’t want to wait around for them luckily they made it 5 mins before he got out the door. Well like I said in the blog above how its this huge deal to come to the airport so there is all these khmer people crowding the door and im thinking ill wait on the out skirts no big deal well my host mom would not have this so she drags me over and soon enough luis gets out now is the whole introductions how will this go… okay well he has to sort though his bags so this way we did not have to carry the suit cases with us but give them to the driver I paid he rushes me over bc once again he wants to kiss me but I told him he could not do such a thing in front of the Khmer family who would be to shy to see such things and im pretty sure they might think that leads to me being knocked up (lack of edu abstinence or other wise) but my host family is soon to come over and ask him if he wanted help etc where he starts to whip out his Khmer and they were so impressed with him it was funny however Luis is all or nothing so throughout the whole trip he never felt the little Khmer he knew was enough despite being in Cambodia for only 2 weeks. So now there is a big group of us that squeeze into the taxi and Luis takes us all out to eat where he has his first meal at this point I can just tell he has to take in to much at once. All these people are asking him questions most of them not in eng then there is all the sites sounds and smell along with not being able to really focus on me he sort of got thrown into Cambodia the real deal from the start as the saying goes their was no turning back =) I know this play by play is getting to be a bit much but the first hours in Cambodia really are a play by play situation anyways that night we go explore the city get food and meet up with some other volunteers this is when luis learned what I ment when I said “the best advice I got from peace corps was from my medical team who said walking across the street in Cambodia always think thai che” well no matter how many times I told this to luis before he came it took him walking into on coming traffic to see why or to fight why. To me freaking out over traffic was so long ago I just could not help but laugh and he was getting really mad that I thought it was all funny until the end of the second week he understood what I was laughing about but where not quite their yet. Well he was giving me this whole speech how it will all catch up to me and I will die and im just like umm this is just how its done in Cambodia well I have to admit I like to some times prove my point in a very passive aggressive way by this I mean I told him okay well how would you like to get across and I sat on the side of the street waiting for him to decide when to cross which lead to him running for dear life eventually and me slowly moving behind him feeling 10 times safer then a run it really is the opposite of nyc think thia che and u are golden run and your likely to get hit. He really did give me a serious of lectures on my chances of death to only in the end stop fighting it and except walking into on coming traffic is normal (I do worry about this habit I picked up for when I get back to America but ill deal with it then). Well he got his taste of city life but it was time for the real deal Cambodia to take a step up to my village life something that most of you or travelers will never get to experience and for that he gets mad props for living my life and walking in my shoes for however short of a time. My host family was hilarious about him staying the night with there princess like view of all Americans even though im American and I live with them its like they phase out the fact im American so their stereotype can stay.  Well I think at first having Khmer food was fun until he had to have rice for the 4^th time in a row and there is not to much variation in food to the extent that we in America are used to its like we have the whole worlds food at our finger tips but living in Cambodia that gets taken away to Khmer food only so that is still an adjustment for not just Luis but my self a year later. Besides him being the guest of my host family he was also the talk of the village many people met him he had to listen to a lot of khmer got to see my health center which I think he said my pictures don’t really due it justices you have to see it to believe it sort of a deal. My staff on the other hand loved him and to this day I get told how much better he is then me and I just smile and agree.  After a tour of the village a late night trip to my grandmama’s I can safely say he meet at least half the village all who wanted us to eat rice with them and know so much about him which im still not sure how he really feels about the insight Khmer people want to know about him.  Throughout his stay he was over fed like some farm animal which is pretty customary in Cambodian culture if you can make your guest gain weight it gains face in the village really it’s a sing of having money so im pretty sure that was my host family plan even if luis was unaware of it at the time. He also had a chance to take an out door shower which was funny for me to watch yea he made me take pictures for proof I actually like showering out side more then inside now bc every day is like an herbal essences commercial with big tress around me and fresh air its nice and freeing really! He did not seem to get annoyed by the screaming hello’s which I sort of tune out now since I get it a good 5 times a day from each kid. Best part of all the conversation of my village was… so all the time ask me when I will get married and it gets pretty annoying to answer but with luis being the man and older he had to take on that answer everyone would always tell him he is so old why is he not married yet and he would stumble and then I helped him come up with the excuses that like Cambodia he had to buy me for lots of money and give it to my parents which he did not have enough of this is something all the villagers understand. Once we left site I went for what I thought would be a free ride with the military instead ended up being so expensive sigh but I just kept thinking soon enough we would be heading up north to the jungle to ride my elephant however the trip their was more beautiful/ adventurous that I could have excepted. I should first note that before we left I came down with what I thought was some weird 24 hour bug the day we spent in pp before we left I ended up throwing up all over the orussy market. Before I knew it 5 different yays old ladies coining me in the middle of everything and Luis just sitting their wanting to know does this always happen these are the things I write about but its not real until your with me so im glad he got to see it and can attest that I am not so crazy after all everyday something supper Khmer just seems to happen to me. After dealing with my random bug (which turned into deungay more on that later on) we head for what we at first think is a 12 hour taxi ride luckily only 8 but this leave luis him and his atlas self trying to figure what rds we took considering we were on no rds for about 5 hours I would say the maps he looked at did not have the rds that we actually took its important to note between major high ways there is unpaved dirt rds for like 100 miles before you hit the next major high ways so you have to be a native to really navigate long trips. I was not sure what up north would be like but it interested me how much their would be a village with like 5 houses total which seems sort of crazy for any one wanting to live their once we got into the provential town it was similar to most towns except I thought the people were pretty open and nice some places are not so welcoming their was no other brongs around except us so we go to a few places pricing around for are elephant treck to the waterfall and just generally what there is to do and of course had some food by this point Luis tapped out on Khmer food while I was like ahh I can do more rice no problem. The next morning was an adventure of a life time and I have to say I am sad not everyone will have the opportunity before they die to experience what it feels like to ride on top of this big 2 ton animal that is just so docile and then have it walk around and stop right on top of a waterfall that is 60 feet in the air it really puts a new meaning what its like to feel alive and full of sprit and energy. I do have to say it was pretty funny this elephant deff needed to eat and a lot so we did not go to far on r journey more just stopping in the random jungle forest letting him eat banana leafs etc kids in the jungle would also come out to feed him, that the other thing the people up this way were less Khmer looking and more native Indian looking it was cool and they had some cool clothing that I do not see down in what people in ratanakii refer to as low land areas. One particular thing I just feel in love with was these woven backpacked basket that they call ka-pia I ended up going on a whole separate adventure in the market to find this unique item with the limited Khmer I knew always a challenge. After the elephant ride I spend some quality time with the elephant getting up close to him and just really having a once in a life time opportunity to really observe this majestic animal when its nervous it sucks its thumb like a child its all just so crazy to see and explain and it swings its tail when its happy like a dog I guess also help project it self from bugs. It has hair that really does hurt when you touch it for protection and its skin is so thick I wonder if a misquote would die just trying to suck blood from it. Soon enough we had to keep going to see the rest of the waterfalls where they just got bigger and more beautiful one right after the other with random shrines and cultural artifacts at different waterfalls. Towards the end of the day we went to this big perfectly circle lake that of course has a Khmer tale however before we go for a swim we stop to eat and see these crazy dried out sloth esck type animals for sale now I just had to know who would by such things and why because I knew my family did not own anything like that well naturally this thing was for good luck specifically for health. Well down my a lake is a big sign about the mythology behind this lake but all I can tell you is its magic a giant made it into a circle and that no one can build on it the king however many year ago tried and all his houses etc went up in flames so naturally the creatures of the lake will not allow vacation homes etc to be built it was cool to swim in and a nice break from just looking at the waterfalls. I wish we could have stayed longer to explore but we had to move on the next day towards prey chore where a whole other village was waiting to meet us. My two families while both amazing are deff diff I think luis was seeing it pretty quickly as well and the market and just everything in prey chore is bigger more people have money and seem to be more okay with modern way of thinking. We met up with another pcv and went to a Cambodian resort there are lots of these but they have thankful not made lonely planet yet but they are nice places where you can see more rare things in Cambodia so first place was a stream and the other was just a place you can sit on top of the water in hammocks both really relaxing time and yet another adventure that reminded me of my time up north (I want to find all these type of resorts before I leave Cambodia bc I know its only a matter of time be4 they land up in lonely planet which will take away from the Khmer culture of it all). My prey chore family was happy to meet him and more excited to see me too which was nice its funny going back bc my sol purpose when living their was learning Khmer so they are still are all about teaching me Khmer pointing to things or watching animal planet etc and going back and forth with the names of the animal in both eng and Khmer I sometimes miss that with my permanent family working so much. I think Luis being around reminded them of me when I first came to them and how I knew nothing it sort of made them all laugh about the situation looking back on it they also meaning not just my family but anyone with in that 5 mile ratios’ to talk about how fat I was and how my legs are half the size now from what they were that happened a lot and Luis just sat their being like what??? You know how you never think you really impact people lives around you I deff have that thought process but every time I come back to prey chore I am reminded how not true that is I always assumed people would have moved on who am I to think I matter so much but these group of teenage girls are always so excited to see me and this time was no different except they stopped by to ask if they could make memory with me did I know what they ment know did I just say yes anyways of course lucky it was just pictures however it was in the big picture booth where they all had these wallet size pictures to keep with them at all time if you think Luis escaped you would be wrong they also have a picture of me and him lmao who will see these pictures I have no idea. This is the end of week one I will continue this is the next blogs so it’s easier to read…