3 Days to the End of the World... Oh Wait that's Not Right...

So in 3 days time the world will come to an end and I spent today making paper snowflakes to put on my door in the hottest holiday season that I have ever experienced and biking around to 7 different villages in my commune on outreach to promote IUDs. (Needless to say I can tell you A LOT about birth spacing methods!) But what is the point of telling women about a device that can prevent them from having children for up to 10 years if the world as we know it is fleeting? Well because the Mayan calendar got it wrong... instead it looks like we are just going to have a worldwide blackout. (And I am not talking about something like the Kenyon College blackout of fall 2008...)

According to my host family, people in my village, Cambodian pop culture magazines, and other such reliable sources, starting on Sunday December 23rd the sun will not rise for 3 straight days. That's right folks, the saying "the sun still rises if the rooster doesn't crow..." will be proved dead wrong. When I first heard about this phenomenon, I thought that it was just not understanding the Khmer and that they were telling me that an eclipse was scheduled to occur. But after more of the same conversations and some investigative research, I found that my ears did not deceive me: the sun would be taking a vacation. It gets better. My 12 year old host sister explained to me that I should, in essence, hibernate for 3 days. I was planning to visit fellow PCV friends to celebrate Christmas, but my sister logically pointed out that I will not be able to see anything and was thus adamant about me not leaving the house (despite that electricity and flashlights will still function...). 

So buckle up folks. Start hoarding food and enjoy the sunlight while we have it (sorry to those in the polar regions who don't have much anyway right now... then again you are probably better prepared than the rest of us...), because our stamina, survival skills, and tolerance for adversity will be tested in 3 days time. I will report back after the 3 day blackout, when the sun has risen again and we can all go about our lives. Good luck to all. Happy holidays and happy hibernation!

Keep the land safe!

Yesterday, marked the 15th anniversary of the Mine Ban Treaty (also known as the Ottawa Convention - signed in Canada). This anti-personnel mine ban resulted from collaboration of NGOs, INGOs, and governments and has been signed by over 158 countries to-date. The treaty prohibits the use, stockpiling, production and transfer of anti-personnel mines and their destruction. Weeks after the document was signed in December 1997, the International Campaign to Ban Landmines (ICBL) and its spokesperson, Jody Williams, won the Nobel Peace Prize. The treaty went into force on March 1, 1999 and was signed by the Cambodian government that summer. Work to clear Cambodia of mines and other unexploded ordinance (UXO) began in ernest January 1, 2000 however mine clearance in Cambodia has been happening since late 1992 and the near end of the civil war.

The Mines Advisory Group in Battanbang -
one of the main mine clearing INGOs in Cambodia. 

"MAG’s clearance and Mine Risk Education activities helps local populations reclaim ownership of their land and provides them with the knowledge to help reduce accidents in the future."

After a long history of war, Cambodia is still recovering. People hear call 1993 "Year Zero" - as in the year that they started from scratch. The scars from that history emotional and physical, individual and infrastructural. The work being done by the government, INGOs, and NGOs, to help those affected by landmines and to ensure that more are not affected is apparent. There are plenty of stories of people who have lost limbs because of landmines and/or UXO. (I have been told to avoid specific areas and how there were four or five deaths or accidents in my village as a result of contact with these dangerous objects.) And there are numerous rehabilitation centers and landmine clearing teams. I hope that these efforts to clear Cambodia of mines and UXO continue so that the next generations will be safer than their predecessors - playing, living, learning, and thriving in areas where those before them could not.

A good friend (thanks Mike!) passed this article and video along to me before I set foot in Cambodia. The article gives a good account of Cambodian landmine history and the video is pretty neat too. Be inspired.

Chasing History

This morning I ran in the 17th Angkor Wat International Half Marathon (http://www.angkormarathon.org/?lang=en). At the 6:30am start, it was announced that 58 countries were represented by over 5300 runners (38 of whom took potty breaks along the trail - yes I was counting! - and a good many more were running with cameras, myself included).

Me at the start with part of Angkor Wat at sunrise behind me

Waiting for go time!

The course took us around and through a number of the famous temple complexes including: Angkor Wat, Prasat Kravan, Banteay Kdei, Ta Prohm, Sarah Srang, Ta Keo, Bayon, Angkor Thom, and Phnom Bakheng. The temples are currently in varying states of disrepair (they are temple ruins after all), having been completed anywhere from 900 to 1218. My favorite temple views as I sped by - well kind of - were of Ta Keo and Bayon near the end of the race.

Ta Keo Temple
a sand stone temple dedicated to Branmanish and built from 960-1000 under Jayavarman V's rule

Bayon Temple in Angkor Thom complex
a 3-story high sand stone temple mountain of giant sculptures of Jayavarman VII's divine face built from 1181-1218

The temples together made up a vast city until the Jayavarman dynasty before the decline of Khmer Empire and now are popular tourist attractions. We ran by souvenir shops and monkeys along the trail all the while dodging between tuk-tuks, motos, and on one occasion I had to give an elephant a wide berth. It was a beautiful run that I highly recommend no matter the level of training, because really it is about being with friends and seeing the sites, absorbing the history as you chug along.

3 PCVs nearing the East Gate of Angkor Thom complex

Me and my friend Sam after the race :)

Traveling to Cambodia

No, this is not a post about me traveling back to Cambodia after being out of the country (until last week I was in what PCVs like to call "lockdown" where you are not supposed to leave your province - the PC staff does not approve of the term...) nor is it advice on the best way to get here (although if you want to come visit, let's talk!). Instead I want to discuss some notable and quite newsworthy events that have happened in Cambodia over the last month about which you may not be aware. (I will be backtracking quite a bit and I apologize - I hope to be more timely with my posts in the future, pending internet issues.)

My last blog post was about my experience(s) throwing balls of rice and candy into wicker baskets to fed the ancestors at 4:30AM at the local wat as part of Bai Ben (October 1st-14th this year), the 15 days leading up the the Cambodian Buddhist festival P'chum Ben. On October 15th, while I was preparing to leave for a boat tour of the Tonle Sap (the largest lake in the country and the source of water for the river system known as the Mekong), I got word that the King Father of Cambodia, Norodom Sihanouk, passed away just over two weeks shy of his 90th birthday. Although he ceded the throne to his son Norodom Sihanmoni in 2004 and his declining health forced him to seek care in China, the ceremonies and response to the King Father's death showed that he was loved by the vast majority of his people. (King Sihanouk's reputation internationally is a bit more complicated as explained in this article.) His body traveled back to Cambodia from China, ending up in the Royal Palace in Phnom Penh where it will be on display for the public for 3 months. The processional from the airport to the resting place at the palace was well televised and over the course of the week I saw the same documentary segment about the King Father's life on a continuous loop on many of the TV stations. The framed photograph and memorial at the high school, the black ribbons pinned to white shirts, the 261 Cambodian flags that I counted lining the national highway from my site to the nearest volunteer 15K away, and the fact that everyone (except me) could clearly see the face of the King in the moon every night are examples of how devoted the Cambodian people are to the memory and honor of their late King.

While Cambodia was and continues to mourn the King Father, back in America there was this little thing called an election. As you probably know President Obama will be serving a second term (if this is the first source that you have heard this from, you should probably read some real news sources...), "boon ch'naam howee nung boon ch'naam tiet." Translation: four years already done, four more years to go... very similar to my explanation of my service: "boon kai howee nung bee ch'naam tiet." Anyway, today was a history-making day for those of us with ties to both America and Cambodia, as President Obama became the first acting US President to visit Cambodia. For the next couple of days, he and Secretary of State Clinton will be attending the 2012 Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) Summit at the Peace Palace in Phnom Penh. (For more on the Summit and for a perspective on the diplomatic relations or tensions because of issues related to human rights read this.) Unfortunately PC has informed us all that we will not be able to meet the President because his tight schedule will not allow for a 2 hour detour to Takeo - where we are staying for two weeks for in-service training - nor are we allowed to make the trip into Phnom Penh because of a travel ban. Maybe next time when the stars align...

Until then, let me leave you with this photo of 3 turkeys wandering around my site oblivious to the fate of there cousins in America because of a holiday that is just around the corner...

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!

All Quiet on the Southeastern Front (or not)

Over a month ago I was plopped down in the middle of Siem Reap province and told to get to know my community. So what does that really mean?? Well a lot of unexpected things. Taking people up on offers to visit their homes, walking around and just chatting, and saying sure to invitations to events I have not the slightest idea what they will entail. Getting to know a community is about doing, participating, observing, and asking a lot of questions. As I look back on the past 5 weeks I can see progress and also a long long way to go. 

At the health center things are starting to pick up for me. I have attended a staff meeting, a village health volunteer workshop, and a meeting at the operational district (OD) health office. Since I have observed (and my observation have been confirmed by reports from the OD's office) that antenatal care and birth control services are being utilize effectively due in part to financial incentives and good staff counseling, I have started to turn my attention more to new mothers. I make sure that they weigh their children and then look at the child's growth chart with them and talk a bit about nutrition. It has been nice to establish my niche in the health center with this type of work. I am hoping to get some videos about various health topics to show in the waiting room and to bring coloring book pages about the body and healthy behaviors and start coloring with the children who come in. 

In the ANC room 

Our Country Director, Penny, came to do a site visit last week and snapped this shot of me explaining the antenatal care books that all the pregnant women are given to Cynthia, the Director of the Office of Innovation in Washington, DC. It was nice to show them around my health center with  the newly renovated delivery and post-delivery rooms and to spend time with them at my house.

Me and Penny outside of my house

I spent last weekend in Siem Reap proper with the other 7 PCVs in the province, celebrating our first month at site - eating ice cream and pizza and swapping stories. It was nice to explore the city and to hang out. When I got back I found my house was full. My host father had returned, my host sister is home for the month and now I have two adopted sisters who live with my family during the school year so that they can go to school - they are from one of the floating villages in the Tonle Sap. There is a new energy and enthusiasm that runs through the house. In my free time I draw, color, sing, dance, learn the Khmer alphabet (with all 23 vowels, 32 consonants, and don't forget the 11 independent vowels and consonant subscripts!), and hang out with my sisters. It has been exhausting but in the best possible way. 

Unfortunately there is no fall foliage here. Instead, October in Cambodia is marked by the start of the school year and one of bigger holidays, Pchum Ben (* see the page on the right for an explanation from one of the Peace Corps staff members).  In essence it is a 15-day festival for the ancestors and I have the last 5 days off from work at the health center. For different people Pchum Ben is celebrated differently. For me it has meant 3 dinners at the Wat and 3 Wat ceremonies at 4:30 in the morning. Here is a picture of the children in my extended family with the offering plates for our trip to the Wat (across the street) in the morning. 

Ready to go to the Wat in a few hours!

There was a lot of confusion the first time that I was invited by a friend to go to the morning ceremony. She kept saying tonight ("yoop neh") which I assumed was 4PM, however if the sun hasn't risen, it is still considered night. Needless to say I missed the first ceremony (I showed up at her house 12 hours late!). For the morning (or rather pre-dawn or drag-me-out-of-bed) ceremonies you have to sit with your feet positioned behind you or in a flat-footed squat which is supposedly a cinch for Khmer people. While everyone from old women to infants look like they could stay in these positions comfortably for hours, after five minutes my legs are asleep or tingling and I am praying to the dead ancestors and the monks in front of us to end the pain. (A little over-dramatic, but when I can't understand what they monks are chanting anyway, I like to add my own dialogue.) After a half hour or so, the over 200 people (mostly kids) get up and we walk barefoot in circles around the temple throwing money, sweets, and balls of sticky rice into wicker baskets for the ancestors. There are a few youngsters wearing giant headlamps who crouch over the baskets and intercept the sweets as they are thrown in. No one tells them not to, but I think maybe the ancestors aren't too happy with them. Or maybe it is just me... 

Other moments of note from the past month: 

- wearing bright yellow Angry Bird pajamas to the Wat for one of the morning ceremonies

- playing hand-badminton with the neighborhood kids - picture a birdie, no net, no rackets, and hours of entertainment

- seeing a full double-rainbow before getting caught in a downpour biking home from a spaghetti lunch and visit at a fellow PCVs house (22K away)

- talking with my host grandfather about the history of the community - "are there landmines here?"

- having a tour of the edible plants around my house conducted by my cousins 

- more play-dates with my little friends

- eating rice with BBQed crickets

- Khmer dance parties

Both rain and sunshine are needed to make a rainbow.

One of nature's little reminders that there is so much to be thankful for when the going gets tough. 

Singing in the Monsoon

Two weeks have passed at site and my new home. It is raining a lot, but we don't have the flooding here that they are experiencing farther north. Each day I am reminded that it rains because the pile of laundry that I have to do gets bigger and bigger because I have have the excuse that it just won't dry. "Maybe tomorrow" is my motto for now. 

Living with a different host family had been a bit of an adjustment, but we are starting to get one another. I live with a host mom and dad. Their kids are away studying in Phnom Penh and the dad is traveling a lot because he is a soldier. So basically it is a lot of alone time when I am at home which has been good for studying Khmer on my own - although I have a tutor now and he is wonderful! I live in a block of three houses that includes the extended family and each day I piece together another part of the family tree. My host mom teaches 5th grade but school doesn't start until October so she sells frogs and snakes in the mornings and has private lessons in the afternoons. (I have yet to try barbecued snake, but I can tell you that frog on a stick is not too shabby...) 

I work at the health center Monday through Friday in the mornings and spend the afternoons networking around town. At the health center I talk to some patients, especially the pregnant women in for their check-ups, and do a lot of observing to get a better sense of how the health center operates. Observing is an ongoing process. Last week I spent three days attending birth control distribution workshops for village health volunteers (VHVs) at three different health centers in the district. My brain felt fried by the end because it was entirely in Khmer, but the presenters were absolutely wonderful and by the end of it I was understanding a good portion. Here is a picture from one of the workshops. 

In my free time, these are some of the things I have done thus far: 

- gone on exploration runs and bike rides

- chatted up too many people in the community to count (remembering all the names is a struggle!) 

- "dao layng"(ed) in the market (in essence strolling without purpose) 

- visited a fellow volunteer in her district town (35K round-trip bike)  

- been visited by a fellow volunteer (48K round-trip bike)

- taught an English class to eleven high school girls

- had three play-dates with the neighborhood kids in the local Wat

Let me explain the last one in more detail. My best friend in my town is a girl who claims that she is eleven years old. I say "claims" because most Cambodians will say that you are one year old on the day you were born and when asked when their birthday is many will say that they don't remember. Plus this girl is tiny and looks like she might be pushing nine - at 5'7" I am constantly told that I am very tall and my friend comes up to my hip bone. I met her the second day I was here when I was having a rough day and she sat with me and held my hand and invited me to her home. She lives behind the Wat (pagoda) in a house that is in the middle of a major renovation. So logically we play games in the Wat complex. (Yes, I have asked everyone and their grandmother or "yeay" if this is culturally acceptable and everyone has given me the okay. Yet it still surprises me that the rough-housing and running is okay...) We play variations of Tag, Red-Light-Green-Light, Heads-Up-7-Up, and Simon Says. Good thing I am a quick learner because the group of kids are pretty bad at explaining the games in simple enough Khmer for me to understand. Decisions for who is IT are made exclusively by a quick round-robin-loser-moves-on variation on Rock-Paper-Scissors. I can't seem to tell if it is a democratic process or just based on pure dumb luck - I like to think it is a combination. Here is a picture of the kids and another of me with a bunch of them. 

Aren't they beautiful?! I tell them that everyday, but they say "no, white skin is better." Then I proceed to explain that in America many people will sit in the sun for hours in order to get tan or darker skin. This is met with confusion in a place where you get out of the sun and where soap without bleach in it is difficult to find. I hope to someday be able to show them how truly beautiful people they are inside and out. 

Ready, Set... Siem Reap!

After saying "good-bye" to my training host family on Wednesday morning- well actually "see you in November," because we are having 2 weeks of training then and will be staying with our same families - we traveled to Takeo via tuk-tuk to get some last minute training and await site placement and swearing in. On Thursday, we walked into a large conference room that had a map of Cambodia ducktaped to the floor with the provinces outlined and X's to show the spots where each PCT would be going. After a long build-up it was announced that I will be in Siem Reap Province! This is a large province well-known for Angkor Wat (or as some of the K5 PCVs say "Wat Disney"). Siem Reap has an airport (hint: come visit!) and there is a half-marathon being held there in December. I will be a good bike ride away from the provincial and district towns, so away from the real touristy areas, and will be working in a health center that serves more than 18,000 people. I am really looking forward to meeting my new host family with whom I will be living for the next 2 years.

Even though we received our site placements, we did not officially become Volunteers until yesterday afternoon. Our swear-in was a beautiful ceremony that consisted of the Khmer and American National Anthems, speeches from our country director, Takeo's governor, and 2 fellow K6s, and an unbelievable amount of photos. Here is one of me:

wearing tradition Khmer attire

So here's to another chapter of this adventure! Rooich howee knom dtao. (And here I go.)