love the life you live Peace Corps Cambodia ☮: Summation of this summer thus far

This summer has been flying by with colors and sorry to report I have not kept you updated. First ill go into the cream of wheat guy came back aka my host sisters husband always a ranging good time. Issues number one everyone seems to assume bc I am American and he is America we will get along and have a great time. Things they fail to see he is as old as my dad speaks supper slow is racist and is not capable as seeing Khmer people as people. If this is all coming out bitter it’s because this last trip was a real dammed if you do dammed if you don’t type of situation or in khmer as they say on land there is tiger in water there is crocodile. This time around he took away the little candor he had the first time he came to vist and this caused a lot of issues for jentee and they’re for me. How to explain everything first ill start with “saving face” this is a khmer cultural concept that is used all the time and the rules are real hard to follow and I mess up on them all the time in all honesty ex if someone wrongs you its you who will lose face if you yell at them in public so basically being pissed off in public is bad. Well cream of wheat guy was pissed the whole time it rained to much he didt want to be in the village he didt want to be around chury the 3 year old or around my host mom the list goes on. However he did not just act agitated but stomping feet etc like a child who is not getting what they want. Now to save his face jentee says he is not angry im supposed to go along with this however here is the dammed if you do dammed if you don’t situation in America when someone is that pissed and you ignore them and treat them like a child it is really insulting and rude. Well I thought it was to obvious to play dumb and I hate how Jentee goes into denial with cream of wheat guy about almost EVERYTHING and it for the most part is actually hurting her relationship by American standards and in my option a form of self mutilation at best. My actions where the following I told him I understood even if most times he was being rude and to the people around him he was offending just saying he doesn’t understand and is slow. Well this makes jentee lose face bc you know saying someone is stupid is not nice in any culture but cream of wheat dude is not normal that’s all I know but ironically thinks he is soo much smarter then Khmer people it’s a train rec to watch. If you think this is all bad it gets worse well for someone like me I guess its no shocker to most of you but I have a pretty big hang up on human rights and even more so in women’s rights and while it takes every fiber of my being to tolerate him but for him to talk to me about his moral objectification to prostitution is where I went in the bathroom and scream no really. I don’t think I had any conversation that was not worry some however him telling me how much he thinks guys who sleep with prostitutes and especially child prostitutes should have there dick chopped off and how he wanted me to know that women get sold in Cambodia all the time…. I AM NOT KIDDING YOU I left went to the bathroom screamed came back out and then asked him about marrying someone he knew for 2 secs hoping he would connect the dots no such luck. I could go on about cream of wheat dude but ill spare you instead he informed me he was not coming back to Cambodia until my host sister has her interview which I don’t know if that will happen bc all the document I told him to bring where supposed to be new and he brought the ones from 2007 I swear I think he is playing stupid or something with me I cant figure cream of wheat dude out but it reminds me of the book of 48 laws of power. Well there is always two sides to every story right and seeing it from not the same cultural view point inevitable leads to issues which is was happened with me and my host sister jentee both of us were deff not exactly happen with each other but I just sat her down which im sure is not culturally the thing to do but I don’t care and just sort of hacked out a lot of stuff and things have been really good now with me and her. On other news the Asean meeting took place and Hillary Cliniton was in Cambodia at the last min Peace Corps invited some volunteers from a lotto system to attend a small meet and greet with her and I was lucky enough to get picked. It was held at the Raffle’s Hotel with a small group of people about 60 people all embassy workers and a special photo op setup for the kids of the embassy workers. Security was tight we had to show up real early and wait for a few hours then after had to wait more time so she could take more pictures out side the door with the military staff. Meeting her was interesting she has such a stoic clam presence and I thought it interesting to see how they “made her up” for south east Asian culture what I mean by this is she had on just the type of clothes and makeup that impress Cambodians her hair was slicked back and she wore this huge diamond necklace that the American media would have crucified her or any politicians for wearing. She only spoke for like 10 mins and it was pretty typical stuff of where Cambodia was and where they are now and how America played a role in helping achieve that. I mean don’t get me wrong I get its all saying shit for political stuff but its like every country not just American that comes into Cambodia says the same stuff and never calls out how corrupt so much of this stuff really is. However I also realize I am no better bc I have to work with in the system to. Some good new I found an apartment its 3 bed rooms wrap around porch and even has hot water in it!!!!! Its supper nice im sharing it with Liz and her boy friend Pon its all been exciting. My Khmer tutors younger brother just recently informed me about some course being offered in development at a local university that is made by NYU staff so me and him are planning to take some classes in the fall together I guess I should mention its taught in English and the classes are offered on weekends and I think it could be interesting to take a few classes to get a better handle on grant writing and development in general so these are I guess what im working towards for next year. Until next time peace out from the other side of the world!