Closing Time

I still have 2 months in Cambodia, but with all the pressure to wrap things up, I feel like singing this 1998 classic by Semisonic. Not really pressure, just a sense of approaching finality. Mainly since our close of service (COS) conference (although PC likes to call it the "continuation" of service conference since we are expected to bring our country of service back with us, figuratively, and share) was last month...

The ones still standing. For more info/cool stats check out my friend Evan's blog post "By the numbers - Peace Corps Cambodia K6 Volunteers."

And then there's me.

...and the vast majority of the education volunteers (refresher: there are two programs here in Cambodia, English teaching and health) will be flying out in just one month's time. See Kelly's "The End is Near" post that explains a lot of the conflicting emotions and expectations that come with "coming home." (I will be sure to write a similar post sooner to departure.) But don't let me get ahead of myself. There is still much to be done. And since I didn't post about the last month's happening, allow me to entertain you.

TRAVEL

I did a bit of vacationing and was away from site for a good chunk of May, between a yoga & meditation retreat, COS conference, a SCUBA trip on the Gulf of Thailand, visiting my training host family, a final GenEq committee meeting, an Ultimate tournament, and a trip to visit a nearby "mountain," Phnom Kulen.

Bohitree Yoga Center gang

Morning meditation

bat sunset exodus - Phnom Sampeau, Batambang

Ochres 2 Beach, Kampong Som

Where there be monsters...

Koh Tang bound!

SCUBA fun!

Phnom Kulen with Voleak

Diamond Island Warriors Team hundle

Warriors come out to play!

Cramming a bunch of unused Annual Leave (AL) days before it was too late to use them.
As much as it was nice to have a break from site and recharge before gearing up for the final months, the travel itself was quite exhausting. It is nice to be back and to see how the nutrition project is progressing...

It is good to be home with these hoodlums!

Being oh so PC at the HC.

Vitamin A Vaccination runs with Heang.

Enriched bobor feeding session.

ENRICHING THE FUTURE PROJECT

As with any adventure into the unknown there are bound to be some ups and downs. This is just the case with the nutrition project. One of the vendors, the wonderful Bong Samy has been selling the enriched bobor alongside the other rice porridge for over 45 days! On the best day, she had 12 buyers on the worst there were 3. It is still gaining traction and I am hopefully that it will continue to be (what I think is successful) for the next 2 months and then that she will decide that it is worth it to continue. Only time will tell. Right now is a hard time to be selling anything in our area because of an uptick in the number of people (including parents with children under 2 - the target population) who have migrated to Thailand for work. While the financial benefit can be seen by the increase in large homes being built (many of which then become vacant for the better half of the year, but alas is a symbol of wealth and status...), it is hard to see such a toil on the community at large. Many children are left behind under the care of lovely (yet set in their ways) grandparents. Additionally, rice planting and soon transplanting season is upon us, which means that many people are busy in the fields. In sum, business can be slow these days. And because of that, one of my vendors has pulled out of the project completely. It was a disappointment especially since there is such need in the area in which she was selling, but if you don't have the seller buy-in what can you do? On the flipside, the one VHV involved, Om Ruin (the 3rd and final seller who has a stand across the street from the health center) began selling finally on Friday! It is too soon to tell how that will go, but we are optimistic.

ONWARD!