I had a free weekend and some energy, so my mission was to bike East to Siem Reap to visit two of the new volunteers. It began with a 3.5 hour bike ride from Siem Reap to Ann’s site. There was a shortcut that could cut off about 15 kilometers, but there are no road names here and it would require a few turns to stay on track. Ann is based at the foot of the long ridge line of Kulen Mountain, as I got closer, I began just to head towards the large landmark. In doing so, I got off the short cut and had to take a different road which maybe added another 8-10 kilometers. The ride was beautiful though, towards the base of the mountain I saw acres and acres of cassava farms. cassava is a small tree which after about 9 months has big tuber roots like a potato. Along the sides of the road, people were sitting and chopping up the roots by hand and laying them on mats to try out in the sun. There was so much cassava out drying, that both shoulders on the road were completely covered with drying roots for about 5 straight kilometers! unfortunately, for 5 kilometers of aerobic exercise it smelled more like rotting potatoes than drying potatoes. The lane in the middle of the road was only big enough for one car, if two came in opposing directions, they would just drive over the cassava at full speed and pass each other.
Cassava along the road
After getting directions from a woman at the market, I rolled up to Ann’s house where she had a pack of children hanging out. I showered up and her ultra-friendly family prepared excellent lunch, Ann and I got to do the dishes afterwards. Some of the kids guided us to the nearby pagoda at the foot of the mountain, it was beautiful, and rather than a giant golden compound which is the usual pagoda, this one had lots of deconstructed elements all over and around the mountain side with elaborate staircases leading to them. At the edge of the pagoda, spring water runs down the mountain and over some rocks, creating a slippery mud coating…perfect for a natural slip-n’-slide! The kids slid all over and collected rocks with Ann, the water was FREEZING! It was easy to see how much they love her already. Then we skipped over to another bathing area where the water was a little deeper, but just as cold, to collect some more rocks and splash around.
At Ann’s pagoda
Rock slip-n-slide
If that wasn’t enough physical activity for the day, Ann, two of the girls, and I decided to bike 10 kilometers each way to “Bong Maleah” Temple. Ann and I biked, each with a kid on our bike racks, there was even a little elevation to ride on these roads! The temple was really beautiful and quite large, part was still in excellent shape, and part was destroyed by the encroaching jungle with the iconic trees growing around the walls. 10 kilometers back home! After another scrumptious dinner, Ann taught a group of girls English up in the house, then we watched TV with her family before turning in for the night and sleeping on the wooden floor with her host father. In the morning, we bought some snacks, then went to her Health Center to meet the staff and hang out for the morning. Her staff is super friendly and welcoming, and the Health Center is beautiful and open. I’m always amazed by the incredible work other PCV’s are doing at their sites, it’s wonderful to see their situations first hand!
Bong Meleah Temple
Ann’s host family
After lunch, Ann and I packed up our bikes and set sail Eastward to visit Olka! This was about a 2 hour ride down a mostly deserted dirt road. Ann was flooring the pace, I felt like I was back home adventure racing with the Adventure Racing Maryland gang! It was quite hot and we didn’t stop, so was ready to arrive and refuel. About 1km from our destination, there were two medium-sized pigs on the left hand side of the road. As we approached to pass, one got spooked and cut in front of us to the right hand side of the road. It all happened in slow motion…the pig cut hard to the right…Ann locked up her brakes into a tail skid…the bike came out from under her…she’s over the handle bars with hands out…she’s on the rocky dirt road in a roll. She popped right up like a champion, a little cut up from the abrasive surface, hands, knees, feet slowly oozing. She cleaned up as best we could with some water and continued to Olka’s house about five minutes down the road.
The famous pig incident
There was a big crowd of kids and adults there to welcome us, Ann took a bucket shower to clean up the cuts. She then borrowed Olka’s first aid kit and bandaged herself surrounded by a crowd of some 20+ people all getting in on the action…that counts for health education right?!?
First Aid class!
We walked down to Olka’s health center to meet some of the staff. Olka’s Khmer is remarkable and she had very strong relationships around town and with the health center staff because of it. Before dinner, Olka teaches English to about 40 small children under her house. Everything from using a white board, to singing “Old McDonald” to playing “Simon Says”…she crushed it! After class, we all went across the street and played a game similar to dodgeball for about an hour. I have no idea where Olka gets the energy, but she didn’t stop for even a second! I recall dragging myself around everywhere like a sloth the first few months at site with no energy to do anything but keep my eyes open! Her family cooked up a really nice dinner, and Olka even cooked up a nice vegetable dish that her family ate right up. We took showers, watched a little TV, then rolled under mosquito nets to sleep on the wooden floor.
Olka teaching and singing Old McDonald
Olka teaching Simon Says
Dodgeball game
Olka cooking
We woke up at first light to catch a 6:00 pick-up truck into a town about an hour away. A small, standard size truck with a bench seat in the cab. Yet we fit 7 adults into the cab, 6 massive wooden slabs, both Ann’s and my bicycles, and about 10 additional people in the truck bed! After the hour ride to the town, we transferred to the back of another pick-up truck for a two hour ride back into Siem reap to complete our travels!
Truck ride back to Siem Reap
Halloween in Siem Reap! Always a fun tradition amongst the PCV’s and a good chance to catch up and hang out together. I kept it simple and went as a cyclist with a helmet, gloves, shorts, bike socks, and my ARMD jersey. I got lots of Lance Armstrong comments, but I was delighted when an English woman asked me if I was Bradly Wiggins, a famous English cyclist!
Coming back to site after Halloween, I was nearly home, biking the last few kilometers to my house down our rural road. A villager came along side me on his moto and we had a chat. Then he invited me to hold his hand and using the moto, he towed me back to my house without me having to pedal!
One morning, K’nick asked me to wake up early and ride her to the market on my bicycle so she could by some small clam-like shellfish. We were celebrating Halloween that night with the kids, so I needed to get some pumpkins also. We got come funny looks from the market folks as we biked home a foreigner with a khmer girl on the bike rack with a 10 kilogram bag of clams and three pumpkins! Back home, I helped K’nick make the popular shellfish snack. First, we rinsed them a few times and picked out all the broken shells and other debris. Second, put a big pot of water to boil. Third, but the shellfish into a pillow case and dip it into the boiling water for 2 seconds…literally that fast, as fast as you could put it in and pull it back out. Fourth, mix up a sauce of tamarind, chili peppers, salt, and sugar, then stir it into the shellfish in a big pot. Fifth and finial, put the shellfish out on a table to sell along the road side and allow the sauce to dry up in the sun until it’s sticky! They sell for around $0.20 for about 8 ounces.
Making the spicy clams
K’nick putting the spicy clams out to dry
Spicy clams
The kids were pumped for Halloween this year after doing it last year. It drew an even bigger crowd, we put on music and carved some faces in the pumpkins, took lots of pictures, goofed around playing games, then put on a scary movie for movie night!
Halloween 2014!
Dinner with my sister and brother-in-law
One of the village kids, Hei, was having a ceremony at his house. The ceremony was for him and I translated it as something of a coming of age party to wish him good luck and good health for the rest of his life. The first day was setting up of the tents, inviting all the grandparents over to make decorations, the carving of banana tree trunks and food preparations. Everyone working all ate lunch together, then we got together a 12 person assembly line to do the dishes. Going back at night we dressed up and ate a nice dinner together (some 200 people) while a massive speaker tower blasted sound that could collapse a lung, then cleared the tables for some dancing. Things were slow to start, with just two couples having the courage to get out there. I was hanging out with the kids on the side and Hei took my hand to go dance. It was awkward for a few minutes dancing around with just the 6 of us, but once the foreigner is in there dancing, everyone else is close to follow! Towards the end of the night, a man pulled me out by the arm and took me to a table that had out village chief, a policeman, and a few other men that seemed to be important and were all drinking. despite them seeming to be irritated that I wouldn’t sit and drink with them, I wasn’t about to set that example in front of my entire village. We danced in the dirt until about 11:00 at night, walked home and took a bucket shower under a full moon! It was actually sort of fun now that I know so many more people and we are all comfortable with each other and I understand a little bit of the culture.
Grandmothers prepping the decorations for Hei’s dance party
Carving the banana trees
Dishes
finished banana tree carvings
Lunch service
The next morning, the villagers once again gathered at Hei’s house for rice porridge breakfast. After breakfast, we went up into Hei’s house, where a live band of traditional instruments was set up. Hei and two women got dressed in fancy, traditional clothing and set up in front of a small religious shrine. Then the music started…then the three of them began to dance! And dance they did, they cut the rug up there for a half hour straight in the sweltering heat of the house with some 50 spectators. At one point, hei fell over from exhaustion, so we took a break, got him some water and candies, then the band fired up for another half hour of jams and the three of them partied down! Good luck and a long life indeed my young friend!
The band and the dancing
Hei dancing
After the dancing festivities at Hei’s house, I wanted to bike into Siem Reap to witness the boat races for Water Festival. Many of the children expressed interest in going, but I didn’t think we could safely bike into town all together. Instead, I decided to rent a tuk-tuk driver, my neighbor, for $10.00 for the afternoon. Just when I thought we’d previously set a world record for the most amount of people on a tuk-tuk, we top it! 13 people including the driver…Nine of us in the back in the cab, two sitting on the metal platform that connects to the moto, the driver, and a kid riding in the drivers lap. No one seemed amazed except me! Upon arrival, managing 11 kids in a shoulder-to-sholder crowd was nerve-racking, I was counting them ever step of the way as their little heads disappeared into the crowd. finally, we set up a post near a bridge to watch the boat races, I set a time for them to meet, and the kids came and went for the next two hours while I stood in one place with my stomach in my throat acting as a tall foreigner beacon in the crowd for the kids to return to. The races themself were quite impressive, paddle boats with some 20 people on each, they were flying! And even more impressive, they all had to duck to get under the low bridges, now that’s a race! When our meeting time came, 5:00pm, the plan was for everyone to meet at the tuk-tuk. Unfortunately, I was short 4 children, luckily it was the oldest 4 and I knew they were all together, but none of them have cell phones. I began to get a little more nervous when 5:15 came around, wondering how in the world we’d go about rounding up 4 needles in this haystack of people. Luckily, we spotted them at 5:20, it turns out they did meet back at 5:00, but were just a little further up the street so we didn’t see them. I always appreciate how responsible they are, we couldn’t go on trips like this otherwise! The part of the trip I enjoyed the most? When I counted 13 people in the tuk-tuk and we set off for home, I could finally relax. Is this what being a parent is like? Geez, sorry mom and dad!
Water Festival
Water Festival
The crowd at Water Festival in Siem Reap
Tuk-tuk home from Siem Reap
After getting home from the Water Festival in Siem Reap, we bucket showered, ate dinner, and watched a movie. Then, it was off to a villagers house for a ceremony at 9:00pm (my usual bed time). Upon arrival, I had barely set down the kick-stand on my bike when the village chief took me by the arm and let me inside. “Leave your saddles here, it’s muddy” he said. A few feet away from a speaker tower that would put Woodstock to shame, was a pole in the mud and twenty some villagers dancing around. We danced the night away, with the cool mud squirting between our toes thanks to the days rain.
Around 10:00pm, a few monks rolled up to the house and sat on a table, everyone sat around on tarps covering the mud and we had a small ceremony. On a pole, parallel to the ground, there were 12 candles, one for each month of the year. After the monks did some chanting we lit all of the candles. Once all 12 were lit, the pole was rotated in a full circle so the candles went upside down, then came back upright. During this process, some of the candles would go out. We rotated the pole 12 times, one time for each month. Depending on the quantity of candles that went out, that was reflective of how much rain we would get for that particular month in the following year. The more candles that went out, the more rain we could expect! Then, all the candles were lit again, and the pole was rotated for the next month. After the candle lighting, we squatting and chanted to each of the 4 cardinal directions. From what I gathered, they perform this ceremony at the beginning of the rice harvest season each year as a celebration of the harvest.
Monks at the umbok ceremony
Candle turning ceremony
Candle turning
There is a Khmer food called “umbok” which is sort of like rolled oats, but it is dried flattened rice kernels, often times eaten with banana or coconut and a little sugar. After the chanting, the monks headed home and the dancing resumed with renewed fervor. Different villagers each had various ingredients of “umbok” and we fed each other to build the snack in each others mouth. For example, one man fed me some banana, another put some of the rolled rice in my mouth, and a third villager topped me off with sugar, then chew it up as normal. Simultaneously, as we fed each other, we also just took the rice flakes, and sugar and threw it in the air like confetti and let it fall down all over each other and we hooted and hollered like a bunch of hooligans dancing around a pole! Probably my favorite cultural experience so far, especially not knowing what it going to happen when you get to an event, so it’s all a big surprise every time we do something. Around 11:00pm, K’nick and got on my bike and rode home. She sat on my bike rack and hugged me around the waist resting her cheek on my lower back. We crept down the road under a sky brilliant with stars. She is the closest thing I have to a daughter in this world, and there’s not a thing I wouldn’t do for her. How will I ever say goodbye to this place?
On the third and final day of Water Festival, some of my villagers decided to chip in and rent a truck to ride to the next province over to visit a large lake for the day. Mom, sister, brother, brother-in-law, baby, cousins, aunts, uncles, and I…we were all going. We waited in front of the house for the truck to arrive. It was a medium size, blue transporting truck with an open bed, and wooden boards had been run across to use as benches for the trip. In America, I would guess this could seat about 20 people…it already had about 30 people in it when it pulled up to our house. My uncle climbed aboard and did some meticulous rearranging, having the small kids stand and sit on laps. We put down the tailgate and tied it flat so some people could sit or stand in the back. After over 30 minutes of trial and error, we squeezed everyone in, some sitting on the roof of the cab, I was standing on the tied up tailgate with a corner spot so I could hold on, maybe some 40 people! Off we went, 2.5 hours down the road! But FIRST…200 yards down the road was another family of 5 waiting to board…Another 30 minutes of impossibly squeezing people in. I was standing on the tailgate with one foot, one foot in the air off the side, one arm on the railing, the other arm on my brother-in-laws back to brace myself, but to also brace him since he had no railing in the middle. As we set off, I was having an honest mental conversation with myself, that I couldn’t maintain this position for 2.5 hours and would fall off at some point. Luckily, I only had to support this stance for another 300 yards, because we stopped in front of another house where 7 more people were waiting to board! At long last, it was decided we had reached critical capacity and despite trying, we waited in the shade a made phone calls to get another smaller truck to come out and go in two groups. The second truck was more comfortable, but we still all had to stand for the duration of the ride. It was a nice ride though, the wind in our hair, beautiful golden rice fields on either side and clear blue skies.
Loaded up truck to go to the swimming lake
When we arrived at the lake, everyone was glad to pile out and stretch out on some tarps in the shade and we all gathered around for a picnic with food we had brought. Some people swam, the boys climbed a pole in the water and did flips off it, some kids rented inner tubes to lay on. We went out on a boat ride around the lake for $1.25 a person. Some of us swam through the mouth of the dam to where some small retaining areas had been built to reduce erosion. A wonderful time with the family and friends and playing in the water all day.
Picnic at the lake
Picnic
Boat ride
Host mom and niece
Don’t worry, he didn’t land on the pole
The men had spent the day sitting in a circle getting drunk and when it came time to board the truck to head home, they instructed all the non-drinkers to stand in the front of the truck bed (15 of us) so that the drinkers (9 of them) could continue drinking the entire 2.5 hour ride home. They put the cooler of beer down and 3 of them even had room to sit down indian style, while the others stood along the railings. So after a quick stop to buy a case of beer and ice, we chugged down along the road, the children and responsible teenagers jammed in the front and the men in the back. The clapped, they screamed, they sang, they danced…at the highest volume they could manage…for 2.5 hours. The drinkers would occasionally try to pressure two of the responsible teenagers into drinking a beer and would tease them when they said no, or physically put it up to their lips. We made another pit stop for them to buy snacks and they harassed the young woman sellers, although they laughed it off and didn’t seem to mind. One of the young sellers asked one of the drunkest men what he wanted to buy, he responded, “I don’t want to buy something, I have a headache!” And all the men bust out into hysterical laughter. This man then continued to strut around repeating himself at least 15 more times, “I don’t want to buy something, I have a headache!” With about 30 minutes left in our journey, I could almost see the light at the end of the tunnel! As if things weren’t crowded enough up front, my brother-in-law began intentionally falling over into the crowd of people and squashing us all together even more so. The problem was that half of the front crowd was small children under 10 years old getting smashed between toppling adults. And even if this was funny the first time, he continued to do it every other minute for the remainder of the ride home, maybe 10 times. For 2.5 hours, I was so blown away by the actions of these men and the situation we were in, I was so sad for the families who had to deal with this behavior, I mentally checked out and had to take my brain to another place to deal with the absurdity. Once home, my brother-in-law went straight to bed, no help with the baby. I watched from the darkness of my room as my brother stumbled to the outdoor water basin on the shoulders of my host mom and sister, he sat in the dirt while they poured water over his head and bathed him. In a long effort between my mom, sister, a host cousin and I, we got him to eat some rice and convinced him not to go back out for the night. That was until my drunk uncle was heading back out for the night and began yelling to him through the fence to make a break for it and run…”You’re a grown man, you don’t have to listen to your mommy and sister anymore” he shouted. I give a lot of credit to my cousin’s husband who is the same age as my brother, and hadn’t gone out that day so was still sober, he did an incredible job of distracting my brother, talking him down and convincing him to head up and go to sleep. I usually don’t discuss my difficult experiences on the blog, but this was a hard day for me that I wanted to share. Hard to see a wonderful day crumble under the effects of alcoholism. Hard to see the gender inequality first hand. Hard to see the unconditional love of my host mother continually disregarded by my host brother.
Crushed in the front on the ride home
On a lighter note, the following night there was a carnival at one of the local pagodas. My jolly band of teenage boys and I biked over in the dark and enjoyed the festivities. Carnival games, snacks, jumping on trampolines, and live theater! I ran into one of my older English students and he introduced me to his older sister. A beautiful young woman who spoke great English and invited me to her house in the future to help her teach English to kids in her village at her small home school.
My host dad moved away to another province for a month to harvest rice. He’s pretty quiet, so things weren’t too different around the house. Despite her telling me no, I think my mom even missed him!
One weekend, the kids and I biked over to the large Ankor resivior to meet up with new K8 volunteers, Ann and Roger. We all enjoyed some swimming. It took some convincing, but we got little Tee into a life jacket and the boy loved it! He swam around on his own like a fish for hours, he couldn’t get enough! Ann and Roger joined us on the ride home and were coming to my house for a sleep over! We ran into my friend, Tann, along the road and we joined him for a quick session of throw net fishing. Roger, Ann, and I all got to take turns with the net…and all came up empty handed despite our excellent form! The sleep over was fun, we hung out with the kids for a bit, ate sensational dinner, watched a movie, then turned in for the night, Ann in my room, and Roger and I on a mattress on the floor. In the morning we chatted for a bit before Roger headed off for an hour ride home, and Ann biked 5 HOURS home to her site by herself, what a machine! I think we may have a future adventure racer on our hands!!!
Roger and Ngaa
Borah’s frog splash
Ann
Ann throwing
Roger throwing
Taan’s wife, baby and a neighbor with an IV
Borah in Roger’s shirt
Another afternoon trip to the concrete bridge to do some swimming. The water was to shallow to jump this time, but we could wade in the waist deep water. It had a little bit of strength to the flow, so the little kids stayed near the edge. There was a point where the concrete under the water dropped away and it became mud and got deeper, only the stronger and older kids swam out there, even little Borah, my newest swimmer could handle the out-and-back trips! We threw around a ball and splashed each other and all was fun. One of my younger female students, Gaa, joined us for this trip. She was tall enough to stand out in the water on the concrete pad area and we warned her that it got deeper where the concrete ended. It turns out, she got too close and swam beyond the drop off to where she could not swim. I didn’t see any of this happen, I heard my name being shouted, and turned around to see Gaa in a panic, and Borah was screaming my name and in a supernatural effort keeping her afloat. I got to them in a matter of seconds and Gaa was a bit shaken up. Let me say again, how outstanding Borah was this day, this little boy who only learned to swim himself a few months ago, just had the strength and guts to help her and the wits to get my attention at the same time. My hero.
A grandfather taking my bike for a spin
Joely the Goalie 