I'm in Phnom Penh

Hello. I'm finally back posting after my home stay of five days. It was an INCREDIBLE experience! I have so much to write about and such little time as our program is really busy from now until we leave for Bangkok on the 22nd. I'm in Phnom Penh now, having arrived last night from our village, which is north of here. We are staying at the finest hotel in Cambodia, the Raffles Royal Hotel. It was used in the filming of "The Killing Fields," which was a movie shot in the late 70s depicting the Khmer Rouge era and associated execution of 1.7 million Cambodians. We are visiting some of the real "killing fields" tomorrow, located just outside Phnom Penh. This hotel is really nice and really big! It was used by the Khmer Rouge as their headquarters, which is why is survived and is in its original condition. It feels weird staying here after our home stay, which was with villagers of very modest means (no flush toilets, no refrigerators, etc.). Anyway, today we are busy meeting with university students and faculty to be followed by a visit to Rehab Craft Cambodia, a nonprofit "fair trade" organization. So, during my home stay I could not post because no one in the village had Internet access. But, I wrote my posts long hand and will post them over the next couple of days. I hope you enjoy!


Home Stay-Day 1 -Thursday, July 12

I arrived earlier tonight to our home stay. We all arrived to a general meeting at Mr. Wa’s house. As we stepped off our bus there were a line of people greeting us and passing out lotus wreaths-they smell awesome! They called our names out and matched us up to sit with our hosts. My host is Meach Senkosal (called “Kosal”). He is 28 and has a son (Proseth) who is 3 and a wife Chanthy. We are actually staying at his uncle and aunts house, where he lives for four days of the week when he teaches at the local high school. Also living at my house with Kosal and Proseth is his aunt (Sokhei) and his cousins (Charya and Nita). He travels to Phnom Penh on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday to spend with his wife and son, who lives there while he teaches in my village, which is Tep Pranam. Although he is trained as a mathematics teacher, he teaches 9th grade English because he knows some English.

After the general meeting, we all load back up in our bus to take us to our houses. Kosal road his “motorbike” to the meeting, so he says he will meet me at the house. I quickly spot his “motorbike” and surmise that “motorbike” means scooter. His family doesn’t say much to me as he introduces me. I’m a little nervous after the introductions because they seem really scared of me. He shows me my room and I’m somewhat relived to find out that I have my own room, living room, and restroom that is all a separate building from the others. I throw my stuff down and admire the new, pink mosquito net over my bed.

Kosal comes in and summons me to come have dinner with him. He and I go out to a small, covered shelter in his yard where several covered dishes are waiting for us. His family does not eat with us as we begin to talk to each other. His English is very broken and somewhat hard to understand. I have to really concentrate to try to catch every 5th or 6th word that he speaks as his pronunciation is very cloudy. He explains that he lives here with his aunt and uncle (who is away grading national exams in Phnom Penh), his brother (who is at the University), Proseth (his son), Rasmek (his sister who is a primary school teacher), Linna (his cousin), and Nita (his cousin). They all are wandering around, but do not come and eat with us.

Kosal explains that his mother and father are rice and tobacco farmers that live in another province far from here. His aunt and uncle have supported his schooling, since his parents could not afford to do so because they struggle to survive on farming. His aunt and uncle also pay for his brother and sister’s schooling.

It is a difficult dinner as it is so hard to understand each other. His English is very broken and the Khmer pronunciations do not always translate well into English. But, we manage to finish our dinner of rice (surprise!), vegetables, and assorted meats. The food is really good! Everyone heads to bed after we finish dinner which is great as I’m exhausted from the anxiety of meeting Kosal and his family along with the complexity of trying to strain to communicate with him. I’m not feeling so great with the possibility of spending five days with people I can’t verbally communicate with regularly. It could be a long five days!





Home Stay Day 2-Friday, July 13

We wake up this morning for an 8:00 meeting at the Khmer coordinator of the home stay’s house. They have us divided up into 5 communities and I’m in community 2. Everyone in community 1 and 2 meets at one of the houses down the road from my house at 8:00. We take an excursion to a pagoda outside of town. The head monk at the pagoda was killed around 3 years ago and they never captured the murder. The pagoda is beautiful, much newer and cleaner than any of the the other pagoda I’ve seen here in Cambodia. It is also really huge, with many buildings. We visit one building with a was statue of the dead monk and next to his statue, a couple of steps elevated above us is, to my surprise, the preserved body of the dead monk. They have him encased in a glass coffin which is climate controlled. He definitely looks dead! We then spend the rest of the morning walking up to another temple (more like a shrine) up a mountain-the only such hill in the surrounding villages. It is actually a lot of fun, but everyone is tired when we are completed.

When Kosal and I return to the house his aunt has lunch prepared for us and we eat at the shelter again-this will become our usual dinning spot for Kosal and me. His aunt, sister, and cousin all eat near the kitchen, which is outside the house. The kitchen is primitive by our American standards, it is outside and the oven is nothing but wood that they burn in an open pit. There is no refrigerator, garbage disposal, running water, etc.-just an open pit to put wood to burn to heat water for rice or fry veggies. The aunt goes to the market everyday to get fresh food for the day. With no refrigeration, this is the only way to have daily fresh food. The market is crazy! It is the busiest place I’ve seen. People everywhere, food everywhere, goods everywhere-all compacted in a series of open “stalls” that people can go and buy food, hardware items, clothes, etc. It is so busy and parts of it smell due to the meat (just lying out in the open for people to inspect) and other enticing products for sale. It is unlike anything we have at home. They also sell crickets and other assorted bugs for consumption. Luckily, Kosal and his aunt do not offer any bugs to me!
I take a long nap which is awesome! It is so hot and humid here that just laying down and not moving feels really good. Any attempt to not create energy or extra sweat is huge. Luckily, I have a fan in my room, so I point it towards my bed and the wind searches its way through the minute cracks of my mosquito net to sooth me as I sleep. It’s better than a sleeping blanket!

Stay tuned. There is more to come...