February | 2014 | Joely the Goalie

Well hello, hello! Looking great everyone, thanks for making it out tonight. We pick up where we previously left off…christmas! The weekend following Christmas, I gathered with fellow province mates for a gift exchange, playing games, eating good food, and missing our families together. It was wonderful to have the support of everyone and blow off some steam, i’m starting to see how getting away for a weekend can really improve my performance at site by clearing and refocusing my mind. The gift exchange was almost as good as my family’s exchange back home! I came home with a candle holder made of old bike parts by Meghan, something that my dad would have been super proud of since he always makes the coolest bike inspiried gifts. I was also fortunate enought to be able to skype with the other side of my family. When I signed on, eveyone was set up in the room, and to my viewing pleasure, they were all in goofy costumes! I love them so much, what a treat to be able to “spend the holidays” together.

Rachel with Emily’s present

Meghan’s present

Jeff, Meghan, and I went to a roller rink in Siem Reap and did some roller blading, it was wild, but now I understand the traffic patterns in this country a little better, it was complete and utter chaos…people colliding everywhere you looked. Jeff was super popular with the kids, and frequently had a chain of children holding his hips and riding behind him, sometimes 10+ people!

Rollerblading

Jeff and his conga line!

I picked up my new bike rack in Siem Reap, however when they went to install it, it was discovered that the break occured where a bolt had sheared off, but the remainder of the bolt was still stuck in the threaded hole. I was going back to site that same day, and the bike shop would not be able to fix the problem. So back at site, I have a quest! First I took the new rack to a motorcycle repair shop and asked if they could do it, they sent me to another motorcycle repair shop, who then sent me to a metal fabrication shop. To my pleasure, I was somehow able to communicate what I hoped to have done, and in about 15 minutes the technicions had drilled out the bolt and retapped the threads and my new rack fit like a charm! And all for the cost of $1.00!

I was meeting with a member of the village health support group when I met her neice. She was 31 years old and informed me she was getting married in 2 more weeks. “Oh congratulations! Are you excited?” I asked, to which she replied “not excited, just normal.” When I inquired how long they had been dating, she told me they had never met. Turns out, because she was a little older, and so was he, their parents had arranged the marriage. I had heard about arranged marriages, but sitting there talking with here, it hit me hard and I came to appreciate all the opportunities and freedoms I have. I realize it’s customary, and not out of the normal here, but I couldn’t help feel for her and the life she was about to embark on.

Look close…4 people on the bike!

Peace Corps hosted a traning event for our tutors. Any interested tutors traveled to a central part of the country, reimbursed for food, travel and lodging, for a day long class on how to better help teach PCV’s at site. I think it was a wonderful idea, and my tutor came home with a new passion and new patience. Very beneficial!

I watched all 3 Lord of the Rings movies (extended versions) with the cousins at site. They loved it, especially Gimli the dwarf who they would chear for when he came on. They got suck a kick out of the different heights and appearences of the different races. Durring the large battle scenes, “Law” was litterally convulsing with excitement he could not contain, cheering and sighing with each victory and defeat. I’m glad they got such a kick out of movies that my friend Chris and I have cherished for so long!

Movie night!

Last blog, I posted about a fishing method I did with the cousins where we used a bucket to transfer water from one side of a damn to another and then grab the fish with our hands. In Rohal, I would witness this taken to a whole new level. Here, they dammed off a section of canal about 100 yards long, then used a machine to pump the water out at many gallons per minute, then after 45 minutes or so, snatched up all the fish from the mud. Really cool stuff.

Grabbing fish out of the mud

On New Years night, I didn’t see any fireworks this year. Instead, my grandmother (Nanny) back home had mailed me several of the light stick glow bracelets. I gave them out to the cousins, we put on some music from my laptop and had a new years dance party in the dark up in the house. It was awesome, glow sticks everywhere, the kids can really break it down, there was even a headstand at one point! Thanks Nanny, you brought ear-to-ear smiles to many children once again…and that includes myself!

Check out the headstand in the background!

New Years dancing

Dancing for New Years

New Years

My middle school received a donation from a Korean School for $3,000. The school director has installed basketball hoops, a volleyball net, and bought some badminton raquets! Before english class some days my students and I will get together and hit around a birddie with the badminton raquets. One Saturday morning we had about 15 kids and teachers playing around together and I couldn’t help but look around and smile.

New basketball hoops at the school

Playing badminton before English class

“Law” and I had some downtime on a Sunday morning. He took me back to his house, we grabbed some string, some bamboo, and some reed plant. From there we shaved the reed, notched the wood, tied some knots, sharpened the bamboo and off to the fields we walked. Around the edges of the rice fields we looked for holds dug into the sides…a rat’s nest! Once located, we hammered the wood into the dirt outside the hole, stuck the sharpened bamboo into the ground further away, bent the bamboo down until the reed locked into the notch on the wood and wa-laa! We had a small noose with a slip not positioned directly outside of the rat hole. When the rat would enter or exit, the loop would catch on it’s neck, slide the reed off the notch in the wood, and FLING…the bamboo would spring load back and you’d have a rat suspended in the air. We checked the traps twice a day to see if we had scored a catch. While “Law” has previously scored many a rats for meals, our traps have not yet been sprung.

Parts of the rat trap

Setting the rat trap

Rat trap in place

While were on the subject of hunting small game. Most of the boys in town have sling-shots and frequently try to shoot birds or any other small animals. I enjoy going on these adventures, and take turns shooting with the cousins. Now i’m ready to construct my own! The first day, we didn’t see any suitable tree branches. But on day two, “Law” saw the perfect “Y” in a tree branch, the only problem was that it was about 20 feet up in a tree. Dispite my protests, he climbed the tree quickly with machete in hand and cut down the branch. Back at the house, I whittled away with a large audience. I’m not sure what type of tree we cut, but the wood was the hardest I have ever worked by hand and the going was slow. At this point, I have the basic structure carved out, but I have a few more final touches, then i’d like to do something ornamental on the handle. I’ll keep you updated on it’s progress!

Making a sling shot

Slingshot prior to charving

Slingshot after shaping

The roads are still under construction in the commune. During the dry season, they are putting down many dump trucks of dirt and rolling it out. Rumor has it, that eventually the goal is to pave the main road in the commune, but I have heard varying time frames as to if it will be this year or next. In the mean time, the road has been hectic with all the vehicles and loose dirt, but as they finish sections, they are nice flat dirt and it’s a pleasure to ride on!

Dumptrucks for re-surfacing the roads

Speaking of dump trucks, one of the neighbors pulled up to the house in his dump truck one day and we loaded a good pile of clay bricks into the bed. They were taking the bricks to the pagoda to build a new shrine for my deceased grandfather. I got to ride in the bed of the dump truck to the pagoda, which got a lot of interesting looks. At the pagoda, we unloaded, then it was off to get some dirt. We stopped at a house near the pagoda and 4 other men jumpped into the bed of the truck with their shovels. We drove deep into the rice fields to the edge of a pond, where a huge mound of dirt was located. The truck was parked into the middle of the mound, I grabbed a shovel, and the 5 of us shoveled dirt for a half hour until we filled the truck. Sitting on top of the dirt, we road back to the pagoda and dumped the load, my neighbor paid each of the other shovelers $0.50 for their work and we returned to my house.

Riding to the Wat in the dump truck

5 shovels and 30 minutes

While studying with my tutor, she got a phone call, a few words were exchanged, she hung up and tears were streaming from her eyes. Her grandfather had passed away. We stopped studying, and she would later invite me to come to the ceremony. On a Sunday morning at 7:30am, I biked to her house. I sat with some men and ate rice porriage, there was some praying, lots of hanging out and chatting with folks, my tutor was busy running around fetching things for everyone as they continued the funneral preperations. We put spoonfuls of rice into large bowls for the monks. Finially, around 3:00 we grabbed the “coffin” and eveyone processed down the road 300 yards or so to the place where we would cremate the body. The body was placed into the banana tree enclosure, some praying was done, the enclosure was loaded up with wood and set ablaze. At 75 year old grandfather that is a village health volunteer with the Health Center was part of the ceremony and was one of the 4 men who set fire to the enclosure. After the fire caught and quickly turned into a raging bonfire, he turned to me, fire behind him, we locked eyes and with his arms spread wide he simply yelled “Cambodia…” It was a powerful moment of emotion, scenery, sensory overload, and one I may never forget. A moment when you ride home to a beautiful sunset through the rice fields and wonder what the heck your life is and how you every got so lucky to experience these moments in place and time.

Cremation Pyre

Funneral ceremony

Cremation

Praying at the Funneral

Some nights, my cousins invite me to eat dinner with them. We set an empty rice sack on the ground and sit around a bowl of rice by the fading sunlight or oil lamp and share laughs. Khmer picnics!

My parents sent me a package!!! Snacks, bike lube, power bars, colored pencils, a large batman poster for coloring, and frisbees! Great stuff, great motivation and inspiration. My job is made easier when the fire is stoked by so much support back home. Thank you mom and dad, and everyone back home who continues to go above and beyond to support myself and all the volunteers world wide.

Khmer sunscreen

Previously in a package from my parents, they sent me “speed stacks” to teach the children about cup stacking. They love it, the pyramids are cool, but they also like just building a huge spire to see if they can balance all 12 cups. Cool stuff!

Cup stacking

mid-topple!

I recently heard that the annual budget of Peace Corps is less than the cost of some fighter planes (about 375 million). This reminded me of a cambodian proverb, as it is with health care also, that “prevention is more excellent than a cure.”

Temple!

I paid a visit to Meghan and Emily’s site an hour away. Emily had to go to work, but Meghan and I took our bikes and visited my host aunt and uncle who live in her commune. They were thrilled to have us over, and it was so great to be able to visit their house. Their hospitality was great, my uncle climbed a palm tree for some coconuts. The little girl cousins, Malee and Teary are nothing but a cute bundle of smiles and giggles, I am unable to stop smiling in their presence.

The Joel Express

There is a man in town who had a bit of a reputation as a drinker. When I first got to site, I spent a fair amount of time with him though as our paths crossed frequently. I had previously discussed issues about drinking with him such as the cost, the health effects, and the exmple it sets for his children. We both became fairly busy, so I hadn’t seen him regularly for some time. On a Sunday morning, he had a bit of free time and came to my house to chat. He informed me that he had stopped drinking, he opened a school in the nearby town, he now saves $20 per month in an account for his children’s future education, and when he as free time he intentionally rides his bike to work instead of his morotcycle for exercise. WOW! I don’t know how much I had to do with this behavior change, if any, but what a thing to hear as a health volunteer and a friend!

When I teach English at my house, the high school boys had been goofing around a little more than usual and chatting rather than listening or practicing. I instituted a push-up rule. They can talk about anything they want, but it must be in English, if I hear Khmer…they owe me 5 push-ups! This has proved greatly successful so far, both for laughter and for practice. As I have discovered over 6 months, the best way to learn a language is to speak it, speak it some more, and keep speaking it, so…that’s what we do.

The 7th of January is a holiday in Cambodia to mark the end of the Khmer Rouge. This year, my mom and some family were heading to the next province over to visit some extended family. They asked if I wanted to go, they may have been joking, but I took them up on the offer! At 7:00am on January 7th, our taxi pulled up… a Toyota Camry…there were 10 of us including the driver…2 children and 8 adults…in a Toyota Camry…two in the front seat with a child on the lap, 5 across the back steat with a child on the lap! Down my bumpy dirt road, then to the paved “highway” for 2 hours. After 30 minutes, we slowed down and pulled to the side of the road, there was a women standing there with her arm out…what the heck? What are we? No, we can’t be…Yup, we were picking her up. She shared the driver seat with our driver, the driver towards the center consel, and her on the door side. 11 people…9 adults and 2 children…in a Toyota Camry…for 1.5 hours. I laughed so hard at the whole thing, but it was completly normal for Cambodia…and I was thrilled to be sharing this moment with my host family. Once at our destination, I got to meet lots of extended family and we went from house to house and enjoyed the day reconnecting relatives. My grandmother, uncle and cousin had come up the day before, but were coming home with us. At 3:00pm, we loaded back into the Toyota Camry…this time with 13 human beings! 3 children and 10 adults (2 grandmothers!)…in a Toyota Camry. 2 on the driver seat, 2 in the passenger seat with 1 child on the lap, 5 across the back seat, 1 sitting on the center consel facing the back window, and 2 children on the back seat laps. Count it again…13 human beings, 2 hours. A Toyota Camry has 5 seats. Once again, I was thrilled to be there sharing this experience with my host family. This trip had it all, my aunt was breast feeding at times, a person vomited into plastic bags on 4 occasions before tossing it out of the window and it was getting hot inside. We stopped for a moment to buy a snack through the window, no one dared get out or we would have spilled out into the road. The snack they purchsed was several small tubes of a white/grey gelatinous substance, they shared a tube with me, I was starving. I bit open the package and extruded the 3 inches of substance into my mouth. I will describe it as a Khmer Slimjim…salty and spicy fish meat with a chewy gelatin texture…with a full chili pepper consealed inside the meat paste! So, one hour into this tortous ride, my mouth is on FIRE with salty, stank fish flavor…not exactly an improvement. What can you do in a situation but laugh though. For another hour, I put my mind into a special place of isolation and was quite happy when the Green Toyota Camry came to a halt in front of my house…but this would be just one of two car stories for the day!

Loading the Taxi with 13 people

On January 7th around 7:00pm, a dump truck pulled up to my house, the same one I had filled with dirt just days before. This time the bed was filled with fellow villagers, I climbed in with my dad and some cousins, then we made a few mor stops until the bed of the truck was packed tight with about 50 people standing VERY close together, I was scared we would loose someone over the edge. 20 minutes down the road, there was a large carnival in the district town with people galore. Full with trampolines, carnival games, a ferriswheel, and a dance area. It was PACKED! I stuck around with the kids, and surprisingly saw a lot of familiar faces for it being such a large area. I paid for myself and the kids to ride the ferriswheel and we all jumped on the trampolines together, otherwise it was lots of people watching and trying to keep them all together as there was no other adult supervision. Towards the end of the night I unfortunantly I saw my 16 year old brother drinking beer and smoking cigarettes with some other adult villagers. I would later have a talk with him about it, but it does not seem like he has any intentions of stopping. At 11:00pm, we met at the dump truck to head home, it seemed like there were more people this time, I was along the back edge this time, and the railing came up to my knees, and the road is bumpy, it would be all too easy to fall out of this thing. I sat on the edge, but there was literally no room to move. My arm was death gripped on the side, smashed between my father and the wall, my face was smashed into the back of the stranger in front of me who was standing up, and I had kids on the ground between and under my legs. A bouncing we went down the road, my face sweating all over the back of the person in front of me, it didn’t matter though, we were all in this together. When I got off that truck on January 7th, I was tired, I was sleepy, I was exhausted, it had been a long day. I was happy to be home, I was happy to have had that day…I was happy.

In the dump truck on the way to the 7th of January fair

I bought a 5 gallong construction bucket with a lid and leave it outside of my bedroom. Inside I keep the frisbees, yo-yo’s, stacking cups, balls, etc so the kids can borrow and play with them even if I am not around to unlock my room. My only stipulation was that things get returned to the bucket when they are finished. So far so good!

One of the village health volunteers shared a sad story with me one day: She is an older woman in her 60’s and lives with her son. She described her son to me using the word “broken” then elaborated that he goes to work as a construction worker, but spends all of his money every day on alcohol, so he is no help financially and is either not home or he is drunk so he is no help around the house. She has a 3rd grade education because she was forced to stop during the Cambodian wars. She had 4 siblings, but all 4 were killed during the Khmer Rouge time period, she was the only one to survive. She is the mother of 7 children, however 3 of the 7 were also killed during the Khmer Rouge period. It really makes the small problems in our lives feel trivial, don’t forget how fortunate we are.

I tasted dog meat. It was pretty tasty. It was marinated in some sort of teriaki sauce and grilled, so it mostly tasted like the delicious sauce.

My all-star medical officer from Peace Corps Cambodia, Joanne, along with one of the Peace Corps drivers, Charlie, payed me a visit at my site becasue they happened to be in the area. It was so nice for them to meet the family and gave them some health tips for things to do around the house. Unfortunantly, I was running out to coordinate a health class at the middle school. The class was education about alcohol, smoking, and drugs and was taught by the phenominal staff of the Khmer Youth Association. I had a few meetings with them and with my school director to get it set up, but the process as a whole was pretty straighforward and I think the students got some great information from it! Joanne and Charlie came and visited the school on their way out and sat down with the director and some teachers to chit-chat. They stressed how beautiful the school was, and how thrilled I was to be so included in what goes on at the school. I know the school director got a huge kick out of having them visit, and I was very happy to have them there as well.

I’ve always wanted to whittle a wooden ring. One day, I had some time and did it, took me about and hour, thought it turned out well. “Knick” asked if she could have it, so I obliged and fit it to her. She lost it that same day!

My family has a small plot of land near the health center where their house used to be 16 years ago. Recently, my mom decided to plant some fruit trees there, so several evenings we have gone over to “mow the grass.” Specifically we are cutting out some short thorny plants. Tools of choice?…Machetes! It’s slow as you can imagine it would be to mow a yard with machetes.

Our cow had a baby girl at 1am one night! Now there is a cute little calf that runs around all jankey, it cracks me up! But don’t get too close to momma, because she will charge!

Baby Cow! One day old

As a child my father played a game with us. When he had to fart, he would put out his finger, we would pull it, and he would fart at the same time. I got years of laughter from this. I taught this to my cousins, and i’m still laughing all these years later. Usually, it’s me doing the farting, or doing the pulling. But for the first time one night I saw little “See da” put out his finger to “Bun ya” who pulled it and there was a fart followed by infectious laughter. To see them put this into action by themselves made me strangly delighted. It’s the little things in life! (How do you say fart in khmer? -pom!)

I went to a village chiefs house for the third time in as many weeks to attempt to introduce myself to him, but he was not there for the third time. On my way out, a man flagged me down from a rice field…the chief! We had a short chat before he two brothers showed up and invited me back to their house to harvest oranges from their small grove of trees. They were delicious, and we had great company of a few families and maybe 25 people picking oranges on not-so-structurally-sound ladders. I spent all morning there with them before they sent me home with a backpack full of oranges for myself and my host family. Just another day at the office!

Village Chief picking oranges

Picking oranges

I may have posted previously about the new puppy around our house “Lucky.” He is an adorable little crazy ball of energy who was growing rapidly. One morning “Law” told me he was sick and didn’t eat today and was skinny. I saw him two days ago, and he was playing with the other dogs as fat and happy as he could be, so I didn’t think too much of it. Later in the day, I saw lucky laying between two water cisterns near my bike. I checked him out and he was not doing well, he was so lathargic he could barely lift his head and looked skinny as a rail, you could see all his bones, and his eyes looked hollow. He wouldn’t eat, wouldn’t drink, wouldn’t do anything…definently not the lucky I know. I pet him, gave him a little bath in the heat of the day, and did not want to leave the poor guy. After 20 minutes of trying, I got him to drink a little water, and you could hear his stomach gurgling very loudly. He had a clear mucous around his mouth and looked at my with those bigs eyes asking for any help he could get. I checked with my brother in America, Brendan, who has worked for years at a vetinary hospital. He wasted no time in responding and let me know that perhaps it was parisites and we could try the medicine from the Health Center which is used for humans who have tape worms. First thing in the morning, at 6:30am, I walked to “Law’s” house to give them the information, when I asked “Knick” where Lucky was, she informed me that he died through the night and that our uncle had already butchered him in preparation to cook. Not a way I had hoped to start my day.

On a visit to an elementary school, a school director invited me to come back two weeks later when an NGO would be putting on a hand washing event. Shortly after arrival a group of 10 Australians working on behalf of an NGO called “Sea Beyond Borders” showed up and put on a sensational morning. They had a hand washing station that they taught the children how to wash their hands, and almost more importantly so, had community members help and even teach the children! They also taught the children how to brush their teeth before distributing tooth brushes and tooth paste. In addition to these two stations, they took height and weight measurements of the children to see how they faired compared to children of their age. Lastly, they did art projects with the children, which turned out beautifully. It was a marvelous event, and i’m so lucky both the school director and the NGO allowed me to be a part of it.

Teeth brushing education

Hand washing education

I biked 2 hours west to another district to meet up with 7 other volunteers to conduct a health fair at a high school. We set up 5 stations, the children would go to each station for 20 minutes, then rotate to the next station until all 5 groups had visited all 5 stations. The stations included: Nutrition, traffic safety, hand washing, recycling, and exercise. I had the pleasure of teaching exercise and we played some seriously cool variations of tag and there were squeals of joy as the children worked coorporitively to accomplish their goals. The best way, I found to describe the game of tag, is to say the person who is “it” has lot sof germs, and if they touch you, then the germs spread. Plus, it was a great segue into the next station which was hand washing!

Health Fair!

Most recently, I attended my first Khmer wedding in my village. On the first day I went, they had me stand behind the bride and groom and pretend to cut their hair for pictures, amongst other traditions. On the second day, we had a procession where everyone carried a plate of food or drink and we walked about 300yds to the brides house where we made the offerings. We later ate breakfast and eventually ate lunch. The food was excellent, 6 courses consisting of appetisers, noodles, organ meats, a large fish, chicken, and stew. I sat with several single men, all of which did not appear to know each other, so we mostly sat in silence. Well…I say silence, but maybe it was the tower of massive speakers directly next to the wedding tent that they must have rented from an experimental weapons company, they were unneccissarily loud! The outfits were beautiful, and it was quite a change of pace from the usual ceremonies I attend. To be honest, I was quite overwhelmed, maybe I was having a bad day, but the whole situation was difficult for me and I couldn’t quite put my finger on it. Such is life in the Peace Corps as I continue to ride the waves of emotion from day to day! In the late afternoon, I had a missed call from one of my favorite village health volunteers, so I decided to pay her a visit at her house. When I got there, she was not home, but her twin sisters were sitting down with two other super friendly women. We sat in the grass under the evening sun and chatting about anything and everything and ate freshly picked oranges. Just like that, my emotions were back on top, and I think I found a safe place where I can go and spend time with them when I am feeling down. A peaceful oasis to sip the sweet waters of comradery.