Koh Kong and Bangkok

MCC Cambodia Program Staff (and families). Photo courtesy of Binu Rai.

The other night, I was on the phone with one of my friends. I was telling her about all the things I've done in the past couple weeks.
She sighed dramatically, "Your life is just amazing isn't it." Of course, I denied it. "Oh come on, admit it. Your life is amazing."
"Well, I mean these past two weeks have been, but they aren't representative of my day-to-day life," I conceded.
"Yeah, but your life includes opportunities to do these awesome things. Just admit it. You get to do cool things."

While, I try to downplay it most the time, she has a point. I've been given amazing opportunities: to live abroad, to travel, to meet people and see things that I never would have otherwise. These past two weeks have been great reminders of all the things I have to be thankful for.

Standing near the top of the Tatai Waterfall in Koh Kong 

The week of November 19th, I went with MCC Cambodia on retreat to Koh Kong Province. The retreat was an opportunity to get out of Phnom Penh, to a part of the country I've never been to, and to spend time with the rest of the MCC Cambodia team. While we were there we took trips to Boeng Kayak Mangrove Forest in Peam Krasop Wildlife Sanctuary and to the Tatai Waterfall. We also spent time in a mini-workshop, discussing cross-cultural communication and relationships, including strategies, when it's difficult, and how we can work bridge cultural gaps.

View of the Royal Palace from the Chao Phraya River in Bangkok

The MCC team returned to Phnom Penh on the evening of the 22nd, I had one day in the city, and then boarded a plane to Bangkok, Thailand bright and early on the 24th for a vacation. I've done solo trips before, but this was my first solo international vacation. I decided that I wanted to stay in one place, so I just hung out in Bangkok for the week. I slept in and stayed out late, visited the National Museum, spent time in some of the parks in the city, visited a huge mall and watched a movie, did a canal tour, and, spent a lot of time relaxing and people watching. Bangkok is a huge city, and very developed, in comparison to Phnom Penh. It was amazing to see how different two capital cities in bordering countries can be so different. While I enjoyed my time, if/when I go back to Thailand, I think I'll hang out at the beach instead of Bangkok.

Sometimes, I have to admit to myself that my life is pretty amazing. And that I'm thankful and grateful for all of the opportunities I've been given, even if I don't always appreciate them for the gifts that they are.

Bangkok, Thailand

Conflict Management Workshops

Conflict Management Training participants

A few weeks ago, I was invited to go to with Women Peacemakers to Seda Commune, Camber District, Tboung Khmum Province to assist with the Conflict Management Training, one of the follow ups to the Community Nonviolence Workshops I attended in March. And by assist I mean, I observed the training and took pictures, while my amazing co-workers lead the sessions in Khmer and explained parts of the training to me in English.

Road to the school

We headed out off Phnom Penh, because the workshops were held from Saturday through Tuesday, and WPM did follow up interviews on Wednesday and Thursday. I returned to Phnom Penh on Monday though, because of work with my other organizations.

The training was held at a school building located in the middle of a field. Many of the training participants had met the WPM staff members on earlier trips, so I was the only person in need of introduction. The director excited explained that my name is Hannah, that I'm from America, and that I work with WPM part time. She then remembered that I can introduce myself in Khmer, so she had me repeat the information myself. I added that I have lived in Cambodia for one year. During the workshop, several of the participants made a point to come over and speak to me. One woman thanked me for working in Cambodia, one old man brought me a fruit and asked me if we have it in America, and one of the commune leaders told me that I was doing a good job respecting Khmer culture by wearing the traditional sampot skirt- but that I should wear long sleeves next time to really be a Cambodian lady.

Wearing my sampot during the workshop

The WPM Director and two of the staff members jointly lead the trainings. They taught the group about self-reflection, perspectives, stereotypes, prejudice, conflict, alternatives to violence, and many other things that I'm sure I was unable to understand with my limited Khmer. While much of Cambodian education focuses on rote learning, WPM makes a point of having their trainings be participatory. The students were encouraged to speak, hold group discussions, do small group work, play games, and use their creativity.

Pchum Ben trip to Kep

Hiking in Kep National Park

Boat to Rabbit Island

Cambodia has several long, important holidays. The longest of those is Pchum Ben, translation "Ancestor's Day". Pchum Ben is a 15 day religious festival over which Cambodians pay their respects to their deceased relatives of several generations (up to 7 according to wikipedia). Cambodians return to their homelands to give food and monetary offerings to their ancestors and to Buddhist monks. While the holiday is 15 days long, the government traditionally gives the last three days off as a government holiday.  This year though, because the three days for Pchum Ben fell during the same week as the Commemoration Day of the King's Father (also a government holiday), the government announced about two weeks before that the entire week would be a holiday (why work just one day in a week?).

Bungalow in Kep

With all the time off, two of the other MCC Service Workers (Audrey and Vince) and I decided to get out of Phnom Penh and head over to Kep, a little town about 94 miles south-east of Phnom Penh, near the Vietnam border, on the Gulf of Thailand (which should take about three hours to get to on a bus, but because of traffic our bus took 6.5 hours.). It's a quiet little town, catering to mostly Cambodian tourists. Audrey and I shared a little wooden bungalow at the base of the mountain, facing out over the Gulf. It was so cool at night in Kep that we were perfectly content with just a fan.

My monkey friend Kiri

For all that we thought this trip was going to be quiet we had a lot of adventures! We made friends with a cow who then tried to head butt Vince, went hiking in the Kep National Park (on the aforementioned mountain), befriended a tame, orphaned monkey- who fell off my lap, scared herself, and tried to bite me for it, and then proceeded to steal and eat one of Audrey's earrings, went to a butterfly farm, explored old, decrepit buildings from Kep's hay-day in the '60's, took a boat out to Rabbit Island and hung out on the beach there, visited an organic Kampot Pepper farm, and haggled with shop keepers for crab at the Crab Market. And we ate lots, and lots of good food, including an all you can eat breakfast buffet, tacos, and fresh caught and steamed crab with black pepper sauce.

Relaxing on Rabbit Island

We returned to Phnom Penh on Wednesday, and I spent the rest to the week relaxing in city and doing very little of anything.

Cooking fresh crab at the Crab Market

Community Nonviolence Workshops

Community Nonviolence Workshop in Sapour Village

Prepping for workshops

Here in Phnom Penh, I work with two different organizations, Women PaceMakers (WPM), Returnee Integration Support Center (RISC), and I have just agreed to partner with a third, Peace Institute of Cambodia. I spend my working hours split between the organizations.

Rumpeak 2 Village

I have been especially busy with WPM. In December and January I helped to write a grant application, a progress report for another funder, and a completion report. Since then I've written a concept note for a potential funder, and have worked on the 2014 annual report. Though most of my time is taken up with writing, and leading English conversation classes with my coworkers, recently I was able to go with several of my coworkers to conduct some pre-workers out in the province. 

Workshop in Rumpeak 3 Village

WPM conducts workshops focused on peace and women's issues. Out in the provinces WPM does women's rights and conflict management workshops, while in Phnom Penh we conduct workshops for empowerment of young adults and active non-violence. Before conducting new full length workshops, especially in the provinces, we first conduct always a series of "pre-workshops" in order to introduce ourselve to the communities and to get to know their specific issues.

Rumpeak 1 Village

This past month, I joined with two of my coworkers and the WPM director as they conducted such pre-workshops in 8 different villages in Tboung Khmum Province, which is about a three hour drive from Phnom Penh.  Over the course of three days we conducted 8 one hour long pre-workshops. The workshops were conducted in homes, at schools, and even at two Mosques. All of the workshops were conducted in Khmer, so I didn't understand much since my Kmher is so limited, but the villagers seemed to appreciate that I could introduce myself and tell them where I'm from. To make myself useful I played photographer for the week, taking pictures of the workshops and villages we visited. 

Khmar Chum Village

Though I couldn't understand much, I appreciated the opportunity to witness village life and to watch how the villagers interacted with one another, and to participate in the work of WPM.