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!
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