Domestic Violence Workshop COMPLETE!

Well just want to update you on the important news that 17 months of hard work has paid off the dv workshop is complete! I will post up pictures soon so you can see what all your donations got you once again thank you for anything you were able to contribute. Leading up to the conference I had to go all around Phnom Penh getting books and am soo grateful for the UNFPA and un human rights women’s etc and of course GADC all these people provided so many resource to the workshop of information in Khmer and Eng.  Well nothing I do can be with out a story so its 9 at night me and makara who is part of Peace Corps staff she is one of r counter parts on this project anyways we are sitting to finally get dinner when Hannah rides her bike over to us and its like there is a huge problem the school director said he did not have some sheet of paper that he needed and that we could not have the rooms for the workshop if we did not get it to him be4 tom well its 9 at night so wtf do we do. Soo there is all these different gov branches in Cambodia the one that is in charge of edu is the POE who we gave all this paper work to their director but it got lost. I should also mention to get said paper work we had to pay 20 dollars lets just say that fee is not a real fee but a fee you feel in heart to pay when you want something done in Cambodia call it whatever you like. Poor Hannah ran all over the place a week be4 our workshop bc we found out about said paper work then. I should also mention there was a bad falling out between the school and peace corps bc Hannah went to teach else where and by Cambodian standards I guess this is face losing and peace corps did not fix it by talking to the right people so basically any chance said school director got he just screwed with us bc he could. Anyways back to 9 at night Makara saves the day makes a million phone calls get this POE directors cell number or something we get the okay after 30 mins thinking this is it 17 month of our work down the drain. After all of this we have a talk about how if we did not have a Khmer person with us their would have been nothing we could have done and how there is just some scope as a volunteer you can not fix and this is something I think the staff can forget so Makara was like I think ill bring this up at next staff meeting. The next morning we show up early to set up but the ministry did not show up until 30 mins later but hey they did show up on time so that was a step in the right direction! In typical khmer style the opening ceremony has to last way to long because we had to have every important person their give a speech o yea I guess I did not mention that the deputy governor of kampong chhnang showed up apparently this is sort of a big deal. I help Makara write up her speech the night before and I think it was pretty short and sweet got the point across of thanking people for coming give us money etc and then talking about violence being a community issues. I have to say though the director of the ministry of women’s affairs though it was really long and I understood only some of her speech was BAD ASS!  What I mean by this is she called the police out in her speech and the chief of police was attending our event she was just like the police are to slow in responding to the crises in Cambodia they ignore violence in the family and it is only breaking our society apart. Its rare for me to see any one call out the Cambodian gov for fear of what would happen to them I mean some ngos will but not usually people working for the gov bc I am told their has to be favoritism to get into some positions and if you speak to much against the party you will be disfavored. After this we separated the groups to make them into 2 diff classrooms to make it easier for them to ask question and learn. I have to say the sessions were really well done the women working with the ngo they partnered with worked well  and I think a lot more people understood aspects of violence gender and culture. In fact my gauge for how much people were liking this workshop was that they showed up early and even when it rained in Cambodia this NEVER HAPPENS LIKE EVER I ALMOST DIED. The only thing I sort of struggle with in all of this is the notion of evolution of people understanding gender and violence etc like we in the states have gone though many stages and realized our mistake in the feminist movement etc to make it not only one dimensional however when this is a newer concept to people such as in Cambodia its like you have to re see the same mistake being made. EX okay so I really do like this ngo GADC they have a lot of really good materials in Khmer etc and they train men to not be violent towards women that it’s the mans job not to hit the women vs the women’s job not to get hit. While its all well it good that they are trying to take away from victim blaming it’s a paradime shift in my option because they are trying to say this is what a real man is he takes care of the family helps his wife doesn’t hit his wife etc but its only re enforcing the idea that there is such thing as masculinity which is exactly why they are trying to fight. Despite this observation from my self most people better understood why not to victim blame etc so I guess I can not totally knock this method of teaching. So at the end of the day we set up to give out money and this was going to be a shit show bc Saeed who was going to be in charge of this got sick and we did not have names but only like health person one this village village chife so on and so forth on top of this we did not take into account how many Cambodians can not read in khmer even people that are leaders in the community so their were people singing in the wrong area etc it did not get solved until the ministry actually read out the list which ended getting things back in order. Then we had these random ladies show up and we were like who are you and they are like o we are the victims and we are like wait what how did you find out about this because it was on advertised we had to hand out invitations anyways lucky for them we did in fact have enough money to pay them as well. Then the next outrageous thing happened so after these women who were basically the last people left there is this guy behind them and I joking around turn to Hannah and am like great this is the abuser but Maraka over hears us and thinks we are serous so doing the Khmer thing she just turns and ask him and he just openly admitted yes he did beat his wife but has changed his behavior once again on idea where this guy came from. At the end of the second day I just felt relived to know we did it and made it though working with the ministry like we did is not very typical in fact I don’t think anyone in peace corps Cambodia has worked on the level we did with them which as you have seen from other blogs has not been always easy. The chief of police ended coming up to talk to me after words he spoke a little eng and I was able to speak some Khmer so we had a pretty good conversation about the legal system and crime against the state like it should not be up to a victims family etc to releases an abuser from prison and he was telling me how he wants to work harder to help victim weather this is true not sure but he seemed like he ment it and he was telling me most times when he has learned about this stuff is been though foreign ngos and its not taught in Khmer so he only understood a little but this workshop being in Khmer helped him a lot and he wants to go back and share what he learned with other police and I thought that was really cool capacity building at work! We also had Cambodian news coverage so if I figure out how I can upload it to my blog I will try and I will add pictures soon promises until next time peace out from the other side of the world!!!!

My life thus far…25

 So I guess its office my youthful innocents is over now when I ride Cambodian taxis I get asked where my 3 kids are o well. So its been 5 years since I turned 20 and left those teenage years behind me what I can now reflect upon. Most of you many not know this about me but at 20 I took hard look in and realized how big my ego was and really started to get into Ram Dass and other sort of life philosophers in order to these writers and books etc really helped me recognize my behavior and egotism in ways I cant always admit to my self even today. I will say I have come along way and what better way to truly celebrate a milestone like 25 then with a trip to india to see the Dali Lama speak! So for my actual birthday I kept it pretty low key as I had my conference in a 2 days and most of my ideas about being 25 lay in the northern Indian mts =)  my host family had a taxi go all the way into the city to get me a cake for my bday which was really nice I feel bad when they do things like that because I know they have no money and would not take the money for the cake. Some other people came over and just hung out for an hour or so like I said no bar hopping this bday. Since being in Cambodia I can say I feel my life path changing I just wonder where it will take me I can say 25 right now feels less of a choice of action and more of a flow that seems to be just taking me along for those of you who actually read this blog vs just looking at my pictures feel free to explain to me ur memories of being 25. Well valentines day just so happens to be my bday yea I know I am just a regular cupid however this yea instead of worrying about all the love stuff I have decied to take the feminesting challenge you should check out the blog http://feministing.com/ to take the chance to talk about reproductive rights. However I did this for Cambodians because thanks to Susan G Komen I now know how serious American women are taking their reproductive rights =) anyways just so you know I did not come up with this activity alone this 19 year old girl who is a first year med student came to my house one night to ask me to train her in out reach public health sort of stuff could she work with me this was the best news ever! So I gave her some books and materials I had and just asked her to pick what she wanted to teach and we could lesson plan etc after words.  She came back and said she wanted to sexual education at the school this meant permission from the school director who I had no idea who they were. Lucky for me the sub school director who I thought was just some eng teacher knew me bc I played soccer etc with him so I just was like can I teach health and got a yes. I taught 6 classes but they combined two each so not so many hours anyways thanks to my host sister I knew where to start explain the menstrual cycle yea my sister cant understand why you cant get pregnant in 2 weeks so I figured a bunch of 14 year olds would be on par with this belief. Next I had them draw the human male and female anatomy just to see what their understanding of it was before teaching it to them and guess what no one knew the female anatomy only the external male atomy can we say penis culture proof. Had them talk about pressures on both boys and girls in Cambodia to have sex get married have babies etc and overwhelming of them stated that girls are in lots of pain and will die while having a baby if you get married to early. I should also mention Cambodia lack education for even adults is provided on family planning and birth control so abortion is more common for whatever reason it would bring less shame on the family according to the students and also when I did the womens group to have the teenage girl who gets knocked up to have an abortion vs giving them birth control. However more of the students in the room also told me they knew where they could get birth control with out their parents knowing. Despite this though they had a lot of questions about abortion which is ironic because if I was in an American school omg would my ass be grass if I actually answered said questions but in Cambodia no big deal but they asked me where they can get one procedure side effect really detailed stuff. I then tried to change the topic back to using birth control and explain to them about plan b as well as I don’t want any person first choice of birth control be an abortion. Apparently their was also a big myth behind keeping condoms past the expiration date by freezing them this might explain why Cambodians have 5 kids jk. I also took the time to explain that you should never force someone to have sex with you which is a huge deal in Cambodia I am not sure if this was understood because pretty much the way they define boyfriend girl friend means you must have sex with that person even if you don’t want to. All and all it was an awesome time because pretty much I was told in Cambodian culture they would be to shy to talk about this etc and that most time the girls just opt out of the class. I think the reason I had such a large participation is one I gave out bubilicious gum sent from America lol but it was two girls vs a male which im pretty sure is how sex edu is taught and I am also an American and since im pretty sure every culture over sexualize Americans its okay to talk about anything sexual to an American we are just gurus on the subject. Since this blog is getting long ill save my needs assessments survey for another blog entrey. Just like to thank the world for my existence and thank all of you who have wished me happy birthday for the existence I have because seriously without all of you my life would be really boring and not worth living. Unit next time peace out from the other side of the world!!!!!!

Booked Solid

Sometimes there is just not enough time in a day the last 6 months are looming upon me as far as being a peace corps volunteer in my village the irony of all this is finally all my project are panning out with a few bumps along the road of course because it is Cambodia.  So I know its been a year running me talking about the ministry of women affairs while I have had some major growth with working for them I have also had to really do a lot of counting to 10 as to hold my tongue. How to explain this in a polite way but it is commonplace in Cambodia to make excuses for almost any organization because they are paid to little, my thinking is everyone is paid the same money then its not more or less then the next organization so it should not be the right of that organization to either work as little as possible or take bribes.  By the way the bribes are from cops not the women’s affairs but never the less people take this as an okay behavior and buy into the poor them mentality which gets old real fast because the sellers etc who make even less don’t get to bribe people or just lay around bc they feel the prices they sell for are not fair. Why am I venting about this type of work ethic is because time and time again not just me but other volunteers cow down to this cultural mentality and for the most part you can stop working with whoever your working for in a few months but I have had the privilege of spending almost my entire peace corps service working with women’s affairs and I might have reached my limit to what I will excuses. When we first met with them it was we understand so much blah blah however soon it became we don’t know that much to teach about these things can you teach us. Okay so me and the other volunteers I am working with re did the whole budget because we never planned for this we did not have the money so we took out some people from the big workshop just for them to have a 3-day training to be ready to teach.  This past week we implemented this training I even prepared a lesson on gender for the guy who speaks Khmer and Eng. Before said workshop we meet with them re go over what will happen they then ask about 20 dollars we have to explain for all of this they can not be paid its their workshop and part of the PCPP agreement which was translated in Khmer and not sure they read or kept but requires them to give in kind donation for us to get the money we did. After going back and forth for a while they finally get that they can not be paid which left them a bit bitter I think but at the workshop they seemed to have gotten over it. However a few people who were going to come did not because their was no money when we told the ngos who we are working on for this project they were pretty pissed bc they are the ones making lesson providing materials to them for free but they cant show up for free. So after much talk the NGO’s said it’s a waste of time and resources to only train 6 people to get other people which we did a bunch of students at the local university and some other ngo staff. With out fail the ministry was late to every meeting at least 30 min to an hour while the students etc showed up on time keep in mind they asked us for this not the other way around. After the 3 days we had to plan a time schedule for the big workshop which then they spring on us they want to change it up acting like they had no idea that the small workshop was what we planned for the big workshop which was said like 1000 times in meetings so frustrating. Well in between that I had to run to Phnom Penh for a meeting about tom shoes which the lady wrote me an email extremely late to tell me she could not make when I have explained about how much effort it takes me and other volunteers to get into the city but it was not a total wash because things were figured out with Khana which by the way the head guy who was helping us from their just left and never said anything so now we have a new counter part. This new person was on it though and we figured out how we were going to better work with Peace Corps volunteers that matched more of what TOMS wanted. The next thing on my list was to deal with books for the big workshop so we forgot to put photo copies into our budget so now we have to hope that some big organizations like U.N etc. have enough copies of various books we need copies of which took the whole afternoon me going around talking to them I still have to go back in and talk to GADC. Once again this would be much eaiser for the ministry to just call there head office to get us the books we need but seeing as they don’t take responsibility it makes it so difficult to count on them. The only other two things we asked of them was to make the invitations and hand them out which they told us they no longer wanted to do and talked to the school director for the classes rooms which they also told us they don’t want to do. Having them call in for books just seemed like just as much work as me asking for them my self which should tell you how pathetic their work ethic is. I had one day be4 I had to head back to kampong Chhnnang for a workshop in between that time it was Chinese new years and lots of parties to go to. My host family was really sad that I had to leave Sunday they kept trying to steal my phone bag and computer so I could not leave but I made a commitment a while ago to attend the workshop so I could not back out as much as I wanted to. The next week I spent time with a counter part from world vision on a program called PD Hearth which stands for positive deviance behavior training the major purpose is to use people in small villages and have them learn from one another to help malnourished children. It was pretty cool going and doing out teach for it ill post pictures but you should know weighing kids is like torture to them almost everyone freaks out. The purpose of bring a counter part from world vision is that I want to do it however it takes money and time etc which my counter part will have once his boss approves it. Anyways some stories to tell you about some convos I had during said training first step is to do a measuring and weighing to determine families that are model family’s and those who need help. After this we went to do interviews to see if they particles overall good health who takes care of the child etc anyways at this point I meet this lady who has a son who is only 1 kilo more then from the day he was born and is severally malnourished and she informs me he has constant diarrhea so there is nothing she can do to help him gain weight. This leads to me ask her a few simple questions like have you given him ORS taken him to the hospital. She just looks at tells me no because there is nothing a hospital can do he is possessed by a ghost humm okay how can I culturally be sensitive about this okay well then did you take him to a krew-ka-maie natural medicine healer yes did he/she help no. Okay well maybe now you can try the hospital since your tried to rid the ghost that way maybe some medicines will help your son. She just told me she would think about it I guess its better then nothing but I have a feeling that will end up being a no. Another good story was some little girl was really intrigued by my piercings so she kept asking me if I was from India how a 4-year old associates that with India does interest me. The last night all of us volunteers and counter parts were going to be together the counter parts requested we did something all together I was thinking sure why not we can go for a walk get ice cream or something nothing crazy but not what they had in mind. So after dinner we meaning all the volunteers go to meet up with them when low and behold there is this big truck waiting for us that IRD owns that’s an ngo anyways they are like we will go to the club I was like wait there is a club in kampong chhanag? Well it cost 3 dollar to get in o I forgot to talk about how poor I have been this last week so because I have been on constant going back and forth I spent so much money on transportation etc this month that I didt have enough money to buy food this week =( it was quite said to just eat plain white rice or bread but good news got paid today yay. Anyways so this 3 dollars I did not have so my counter part ended up paying for me because he wanted me to go so bad which I felt bad about because I don’t want someone like him paying for me. Anyways we go in and its hilarious so I am thinking we just paid 3 dollars to stand by are selves but nope there was people ages 10-50 I wish I could have you picture what this club looks like but think about some video arcade from the 80s with a club twist. I could only stay 30 mins because I had to get back to where I was staying another volunteers house Khmer people pad lock things pretty early which I think my counter part was sad about. Before leaving I did dance which good thing about this country you can never look to retarded dancing bc Khmer people are always worse and seeing them dance American style is pretty crazy.  Till next time peace out from the other side of the world!!!!!!

my host dad and churey asking for luck etc to the ghost.

happy chinese new year time to burn the money to make money?

yea in america kids freak out about shots but in cambodia its everything.

this is the lady who told me her son has the ghost issue. 

one of the many children we made cry see the desperation it serous

little girl who thought i was from india

This is the tree to show how many health and unhealthy children live in the village

cooking ba-bow-ia aka rice porridge with veggies and fish

What is that smell…Pro-hawk Season yikes

My life is now plagued with the smell of fermenting fish everywhere I go no really can you imagine be in trapped in a car with no ac and fermenting fish in the truck yea its not good. While I may hate the smell I cant resistant an opportunity to be apart of anything supper crazy and Cambodian so I helped in the process of making the pro-hawk this has to be done either jan or feb bc that’s when there is lots of fish in Cambodia and it cheap. They make enough to last about a year so I am told my host mom came back with a car load full of small size fish I don’t know the name of the fish but just stream looking fish. Anyways we had to cut the heads of the fish off and sort of gut them now I have never done this before so I got made fun of a lot I guess I did not help matters bc I put on medical gloves to protect my hands from the smell that plan failed. At first I was laying the fish flat to cut its head off which makes it really hard to gut so finally after they saw how slow I was going they had to teach me to cut in more in a 3d way top of the head down this did help a lot as far as gutting goes. So the four of us cutting took all afternoon no lie noon to 5 and I should mention I was stuck in a Khmer squat the whole time there is a stool under me but its pretty much for balance my legs back et were killing me by the time I was done I don’t know how Khmer people can spend hours in that position and not end up screwing up their bones. There was no de boning of the fish however the bones were sharp aka y my glove plan failed and only made Cambodians laugh that much harder at me. Next stage was mushing the fish bodies this done by first putting the fish back in water then in a basket that gets mashed with ones feet just like grapes for wine its then left out till the next day when a huge amount of salt is added. After that it goes into this huge basin the one that collects water anyways where the fish will stay to ferment however long I am not sure about this but it smell’s horrible. This is a Cambodian wide thing so there is no escaping it fyi I have tried pro-hawk don’t like it except it is in this Khmer noodle dish I like so ill say ill only eat it in that to Khmer people which still seems to make them happy. However thanks to luis all I hear about is how he will eat pro-hawk and how he eat the same as a Khmer person that is because he really will eat anything! On other news the pig luis gave them money for is so big and another fyi the family no refers to this pig as Eileen’s boy friend pig so I just call this pig Luis now lmao anyways is so big that it has escaped twice in 1 week the rope can not keep him in place this is how it all went down all of a sudden me and jentee were having our afternoon coffee when this fat thing run across the yard that looks like it is covered in mud quickly jentee jumps up and yells ja-rook pig in Khmer. This pig escaped and went to play in the mud where I take my shower but we had no way to really capture this thing I was sort of thinking it was not going to happen but jentee just runs after it long enough it gets cornered and is back to be tied up. Round two I get up in the morning while the family is all cooking and selling I walk to go to the bathroom when I see this thing bucking its feet around in the mud and im like man I cant capture this thing lack of skills and jentee is selling so I attempt to get my host dad who never understands a word that comes out of my mouth. I am like pia jarook rut translation dad the pig is running my host dad no idea me again I try to use the word for went for a walk still he is not getting it he follows me and then is starting to get it and he is like OOOO JA-OOK-IA I notice Khmer people when shocked they put like an ia sound at the end of their words I think its there version of an! Mark he capture it back up since then it’s been okay. My home news paper also wrote up a small thing about my work in Cambodia I will put the link at the bottom try to drum up some press for my self to raise more money feel like my work is never done. I have a lot of workshops etc planned this month so I am sure I will be all over the place from training the ministry of women’s affairs to PD hearth training with a world vision counter part 2012 is starting with a bang. O yes I need to tell you about my random encounter with the monks from Rhoad Island apparently they are from the wat my brother viou stays at while he is studying anyways some how they are know jentu who is know by the name sonic no idea. They came all the way to her house to bless everyone in the family now I was hoping I could maybe skip this event bc I knew if I joined it would end up me front and center and sure enough that’s exactly what happened. this whole thing lasted a while no idea what was said but I got splashed with water a lot monks spit on me the normal. Where it took a turn of confustion was when the two oldest females my host mom and jentus husband mother sat with their feet in water and everyone had to go and clean their feet and cleanse them everyone eles got to go with someone else but I had to go alone it was awkward to say the least making up what to do. My host mom was estatic at me doing this so I don’t know if I really explained to you how much my mom believes certain things and she has always wanted 5 children she thinks 5 is some sort of lucky number to have for children so she has convinced her self that I really am that 5^th child I know my parents will be supper excited to no she now has claimed own age over me. I did not realize at the time but the foot thing was meant for their children only but the monk asked me to go up my mom later told me that the monk told her I am her child this this just re confirms her belief that I am the long lost 5 child she has always wanted. The next day I went to a psych that spoke in tongues my host sister had to translate because it was best way I can describe to you if you have ever seen the poltergeist movie from the 80s and there is that short midge lady that talks really odd I met the Khmer version of that. well water incenses is involved we had to wait some time apparently this particular village psych is right she predicts peoples death etc when it was me and jenta’s turn jenta was going to go first however she went to this medicine man early this week one that is no where close to the village bc her ankle would not heal anyways the lady new this and told her she could not read her bc the medicine man that she went to was bigger then she was as in more powerful that was sort of odd. I was next she said I would be staying in Cambodia for 5 years and I should go home to visit or my mom and dad would be angry but it would be the wrong time for me to move back to America because this is to much turmoil for me in America. She knew the organization I worked for only lets me work for them for 2 years she knew that I liked to walk and she mentioned me always working to oudong and said she is scared for me because while she thinks I am scared to ride mottos (its not that its just peace corps would kill me) she doesn’t want me to walk she says its to dangerous. Due to the fact by the Chinese calendar it is the year of the rabbit aka my year this lead her to see that I have only been blessed once and that until the day before I was soy which I think is worse then bad luck in Khmer I take it has almost like rotten luck vs just bad luck I should also mention my host mom deiced to show up for this and heard about all of this now hearing words like soy to a Khmer person is horrible to see her face you would think someone told her I was dying of a rare disease. So then she made me pay and extra 500 real for a bottle of blessed water from this lady and promised this lady that she would make she I received 2 more blessing one of which apparently she has to do because she is my mom. It was not all to insightful of a reading except now my host mom has been going around my room spraying and lighting shit to protect me. Until next time peace out from the other side of the world!!!!!!

http://gardencity.patch.com/articles/garden-city-alumni-where-are-they-now-eileen-mccormick

Aquarius Horoscope 2012

okay so last year I told you we can take a look and see how accurate this is based on what i write this is 2012 Aquarius horoscope  once again thank the lifetime gods for this one. i do want to revisit my 2011 horoscope so we can really check to see what happened and did not. look for that blog update soon! 


LOVE & RELATIONSHIPS
Are you ready to get a little more intimate? From January through July 3, passionate Mars will be visiting Virgo, your eighth house of shared resources and permanent bonding. This can be scary terrain for Aquarians at first, since you prefer to keep things at emotional arm’s length. You’re a free-spirited sign, and when things get toostable, you tend to shake them up. Mars can make you enthusiastic and stressed-out in equal doses. On the upside, you could enjoy a strong physical attraction, a reawakened sex life, or a relationship that leads to engagement, pregnancy, moving in together or financial success. You might be ready to make a big move, and with proactive Mars here, you may cast aside your usual reservations and just go for it. 

During tense moments, you could fight over sex, money, personal space and jealousy issues. One or both of you may be feeling unusually possessive during this cycle, as the eighth house can bring up some buried control issues. Take care not to be overly secretive now, as this will only fuel the fire. If one of you is out of work or dealing with financial issues, this could cause extra friction. Couples therapy wouldn’t be a bad idea in some cases, especially while love planet Venus is retrograde (moving backward) from May 15 through June 27. The eighth house rules both marriage and divorce, so some Water Bearers may be dealing with a contentious breakup or a division of joint property. If you want to keep the house or your fair share of the pie, you may need to fight for it, as Mars awakens your warrior spirit. 

Children and family can also be a front-burner issue for the first half of the year, while expansive Jupiter is in Taurus, your domestic fourth house. You may decide to get pregnant, adopt or move into a bigger place. Your mother, a female relative or another important woman could play a role in your life changes. Spending quality time with female friends will help you keep perspective in your love life — you need that supportive boost of estrogen, Aquarius! Overall, this is an important time to slow down, tend to your emotions and take extra-special care of yourself. Let yourself do some nesting, too — when’s the last time you gave your bedroom a makeover or bought a new set of dishes? 

The second half of 2012 will be a lot more fun and playful. On June 11, optimistic Jupiter will begin a yearlong visit to fellow Air sign Gemini, your fifth house of romance. This is a great time for new love or just starting fresh with your current partner. You may trade in your girl- or guy-next-door image for a glamorous and head-turning new look. A long-distance or cross-cultural affair is possible, and this would be a good time to keep an open mind to different types than you usually go for, too. You may be attracted to people who are creative or artistic or who wear their hearts on their sleeves. Coupled Aquarians will want to break out of a romantic rut and enjoy more dates and activities together.

Alas, Jupiter won’t take away all of Mars’ fireworks in time for the Fourth of July. The fifth house can also be dramatic, so there may be a few more intense moments in your personal life, especially at the May 20 and November 28 Gemini eclipses. These eclipses, which have arrived every six months since December 2010, are gradually reshaping your approach to love and passion. The fifth house rules fertility, so there could be an unexpected visit from the stork at one of these eclipses, too. Or, perhaps someone will arrive out of the blue and steal your heart. With eclipses, you just never know! 

WORK & MONEY
A 14-year chapter of your life is coming to a close — and you might be happy about it. Since 1998, foggy Neptune has been visiting Aquarius, slowly leaving its imprint on your life. Under Neptune’s spell, you may have explored more creative, artistic and humanitarian avenues through your work. Your image may have shifted to a more glamorous look, or perhaps you took on a public role championing a cause. At times, Neptune may have made you feel self-conscious, or uncertain of your identity. If you spent this time wandering and trying on different roles, Neptune’s departure will make it easier to figure out who you are — and just how important you are to the people who depend on you. 

Neptune’s next journey will be through Pisces, your second house of work and money. Between now and 2026, you may become interested in doing work that heals the planet. Since both Neptune and Pisces rule the sea, you may take a special interest in the world’s water supply, saving the oceans and other natural bodies of water from pollution. You could become involved in film, photography, theater, music and all things avant-garde, either as part of your career or as something you do for greater personal satisfaction. You’ll want to earn a living with a conscious twist, and perhaps even a spiritual one. Your own intuitive powers can grow and become an invaluable part of how you do business.

Meanwhile, your ruling planet Uranus is visiting Aries, your communication sign, from March 2011 through 2018. The way you express yourself could become a lot bolder, and you may become involved in writing, sales or teaching. If you’re the shy type, this would be the year to take a public speaking workshop — though most Aquarians have incredible powers of persuasion. Uranus rules technology, so you may begin using social media or a digital platform to spread a message. Brush up any rusty computer skills, and if you own a business, freshen up its image with a rebranding. Look for innovative new collaborators, friends and colleagues. A community project could put your name on the map, so think and act locally!

Ready for the big leagues? In October, structured Saturn begins a two-year visit to Scorpio, your 10th house of career. Saturn is the personal-trainer planet that throws you challenges designed to make you stronger. Between now and 2015, you could rise to serious heights of prominence and responsibility. If you’ve been screwing around or putting off figuring out what to do with your life, the jig is up — it’s time to take your professional path seriously and set some lofty goals. 

Saturn is also the planetary “integrity cop,” so if you’ve been cutting corners or doing things that aren’t 100 percent on the up-and-up, Saturn will blow the whistle. Some Aquarians may lose a job, close a business, or need to restructure plans in some way. What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger under Saturn’s reign. Our souls know when we’re being sneaky, so you’ll want to deal with whatever’s driving you to act in a shady way — perhaps self-doubt or an old scarcity mind-set? It’s time to do the hard work to overcome this and set your efforts on a clean, honest trajectory. You may also experience difficulty with authority figures during this time, or perhaps a valued colleague will depart your workplace. Slow down, stay humble and perhaps even look elsewhere. The Scorpio solar eclipse on November 13 could bring a thrilling new career opportunity out of the blue — either near this date or in the six months that follow. Keep your ears open! 

HEALTH: MIND, BODY & SOUL
Your personal life is expanding in ways you never imagined. Since June 4, 2011, visionary Jupiter has been visiting Taurus, your fourth house of home, family and emotional foundations. Jupiter is here until June 11, 2012, a cycle where many Aquarians could become parents, move into bigger homes, or perhaps deal with any lingering baggage from their childhood. Your relationship with a parent (especially your mom) or a child could be the focal point of this cycle. Perhaps one of your birdies is all grown up, giving you a case of empty-nest syndrome. You’ve definitely got the desire to nurture someone, so that may mean adopting a pet or spending more quality time with nieces, nephews, neighbor kids or young people (perhaps through volunteer work). 

If you’re an on-the-go Aquarian whose favorite thing to make for dinner is reservations, you might derive surprising joy from getting acquainted with your kitchen. Take a cooking class, learn how to boil water, or ask a stove-savvy friend to teach you some tricks of the trade. Picking up a craft like knitting or learning to play an instrument can also help you channel nervous energy into a soothing outlet. With Jupiter in Taurus, you’re shifting from nomad to nester, and you’re especially sensitive to the colors, sounds and decor in your home environment. 

In the fall, you’ll benefit from adding more structure to your life and by setting some clear fitness goals. With Saturn in your 10th house of long-term planning from October 3, 2012, until September 2015, this is an important time to streamline your life, prioritize and trim the excess. Working with a trainer, nutritionist or recognized expert will help you achieve impressive physical results. This is an important time to take care of your teeth and bones. Watch those daredevil stunts, boost your calcium intake (hello, dark leafy greens) and get that dental work done.

Selling Girl Scout Cookies: Gave me the Skills I Need

This is a throw back in time recognizing the valuable lesson I have learned from selling Girl Scout cookies and why it has made all the difference in my Cambodian life. At some point I am sure we have all had some 10 year old begging us to buy cookies from her most of you have had to deal with me doing just that ps sorry they make you give up your new years resolution. I was one of those kids who thought every prize they offered was just the best thing under the sun so I just had to sell as much as I could to get a pair of binoculars (which I think broke in a month). By the way I do realize I was used for slave wages lol I made Girl Scouts 1,000 of dollars and if was lucky got a prize that was like 10 dollars. Never the less I will count my experience in sales as my pay I used to go house to house set up stands have my mom bring in the sheet to work to sell 1000 of boxes. To do this was no easy feat one I had to learn to say the right things to get people to listen to me of course its hard for people to slam doors in a 10 year olds face however a few people would give you a piece of their mind or talk your ear off due to loneliness while never buying a box sigh back then I thought how that person wasted my time how wrong I was. It also made me take action even though I can’t say at 10 I knew what I was supporting besides those prizes. It prepared me for failure and success when it comes to not only selling things but also dealing with the psychology of people. The interesting thing about selling to new yorks takes on a life of its own I might add when I talk to people form other states they have had totally different experiences when it comes to being a Girl Scout. Selling in New York you might only be 10 but people will ask you why they should buy from you, which is the best if they don’t like it what happens. I had to have answer for the product I was pushing and when I could not answer them met with angry faces and doors in my face. So the Girl Scout saying is always be prepared now I can say new york girl scouting is not so much always be prepared for the big out doors because I don’t think camping in the Hamptons on the beach counts for the wilderness experience. However when it comes to more of the arts cultural life selling things I learned a lot. Most of you might know me I have tried to do many side sales from makeup to personal training and I am not exactly to good at forcing the notion of you must have this or else however when I find the right thing that brings about change I seem to be pretty good at getting the funds. This past month I deiced that I wanted to do another take back the night (this is to end gender violence) anyways to do this I needed money but since you guys were also so awesome for my D.V workshop I did not want to hit you all up again so I thought hum how can I get money to fund this. The answer came to me just like when you want to sell cookies for girl scouts I set up a stand! This concept or tactic is not used in Cambodia hehe so there is 0 competition. It’s important to note though besides monks homeless people and young kids no “regular people ask/beg for money” particularly white people. In America it sometimes difficult to get the good spots to sell things because often people want something out of it that you cant offer or its booked for years in advance this is not so in Cambodia. The biggest supper market in the city is lucky supper market they have a mix of both Khmer and foreign clientele, which was perfect for my plan of action. I met with the head of marketing got the okay to set up a stand and offer information on gender violence in Cambodia explain about my project and collect money.  Pretty much all the Cambodians I told about this idea especially my family made fun of me for days they said no one would help they would laugh on me. My Khmer family sat me down trying to tell me how they think I will come back crying because no one will give me money. Turns out all of them where wrong so I had more people then I ever thought to be interested I ran out of materials which I had like 200 of 5 different pamphlets so many people donated it was amazing. Even better then money there were people who wanted to come all the way to my provenance for the event or just help out! One of the best things about all this is two people from my village came to help run the stand one being my host sister and the other being this girl across the street. Why this means so much to me well unless you have experience at a young age understanding how to sell and speak to people while standing out side takes a lot of courage, culturally when this is not done you have to go way out side your lines of comfort. When I first met my host sister Jentee I would have not been able to get her to do anything close to this and for her to have grown so much in a year I was like a proud mom that she came and helped from someone who had 0 self confidence to educating people on their way into lucky ment I might not fail as a volunteer because at least I changed one person for what I like to think is for the better. Fun little stories to share with yout before I tell you my sum of money =) okay well you would be shocked at how rude NGO workers can come off I had a few people just down right tell me that the work they did was better then mine and that they think they do enough already as if I am asking them for 100 dollars im begging for pennies. Then other people like I have to many charities’ support already once again I was taking 100 real, which is less then a penny. Some people just wanted to one up me on their work where you would think if this is work they are interested in they would want to help but it was like a pissing contest with some of them. I also learned a lot about how Europeans feel about Peace Corps and how French people feel about Americas. Either people worshiped the ground Peace Corps walks on or they would curse me out and tell me I am stupid for representing their organization how they destroy countries etc etc. you know ill give you my 2 cents well I get it now because multiple French people would give me 100 riel just to bitch about how much they hate Americans how we are always misguided in misdirected in all are work once again we destroy countries etc etc. Khmer people where funny to so like I said not used to seeing a white person ask for money so they did not know what to do they would look at me like o you want me to give you money how much money do you want and I am all like what ever you want they would ask if 2000 okay I am like yea that’s great! I also have my own observation and please feel free to comment but I think in America we are some how conditioned to think if we don’t have 5 dollars to give its to embarrassing to even bother where Khmer people would give me the penny and know it was enough. It is also funny because I know my self included I am just so desensitized to people selling asking for stuff that its pretty easy for me to just walk by it all and not think twice where Khmer people really would stop to read my sign etc. the last day of tabling this one little girl I would say maybe 9 or 10 came and was really curious about our work and both me and Liz got this feeling that one day she would be us so we gave her books and stuff she had to after words her mom came up to us thanking us and telling us that her daughter would really read it all and we just looked at her like yea we know. It’s never to young to get some little girl into thinking about her rights and how much she is up against the odds. Until next time peace out from the other side of the world!

Just for fun throw back to the Girl Scout Laws

Law

I will do my best to be
Honest and Fair,
Friendly and Helpful,
Considerate and Caring,
Courageous and Strong, and
Responsible for what I say and do,
And to
respect myself and others,
respect authority,
use resources wisely,
make the world a better place, and
be a sister to every Girl Scout.