Cambodia meets Taiwan

Back in senior year of college, when I was fundraising to go to Jordan, my lovely friend Tiffany was fundraising to go to Taiwan. For the past two years, Tiffany has been living, teaching English, and participating in the Church in Taipei. Since I moved to Cambodia last fall, the two of us have been trying to plan a vacation together, but we are both terrible advanced planners. So, we ended up last minute deciding that I needed to go visit her since she is returning to the States at the end of July. So, last month I took my last week of vacation time for the year (don't worry; my year restarts in September) to go hang out with Tiffany in Taipei, Taiwan. This was my first trip to an East Asian country other than Cambodia, I was amazed how developed and different Taiwan was from Cambodia. I had an amazing time running around the city with Tiffany, going on late night adventures, exploring the mountains that border the city, and learning about a new place and culture. I even had the opportunity to meet  and catch up with a classmate from my study abroad in Northern Ireland while I was there. It was a joy and a privilege to get to see a bit of what Tiffany's life has been like for the past two years. While, I am very sad that she is leaving me as the only one of our friend group on this side on the world, I am excited to see what God has in store for her next and in the years to come.

Taipei

Taipei

Trying snake blood, venom, and bile

Eating mango shaved ice

Fuzhoushan Park

View of Taipei 101 from Fuzhoushan Park

Midnight hike in Fuzhoushan Park

Chiang Kai-shek Memorial

Chiang Kai-shek Memorial

Art in the subway

MaoKong Gondola

Taipei 101

Taipei 101

Taipei 101

National Palace Museum

First play in two years!

Pictures from Hot Season

 It's been extremely hot this spring here in Cambodia. I've been told this is the worst hot season anyone can remember. It's been about 100F (or above) with high humidity for the past 2.5 months. Because of that my adventures have been more or less limited to finding the closest place with air conditioning. In spite of that, I do have some fun pictures!

River dolphin watching in Kratie

River dolphin watching in Kratie

Visiting my host family

That time I dyed my hair pink

Khmer New Year in Sihanoukville

Horseback riding in Sihanoukville

Horseback riding in Sihanoukville

Moto riding in Sihanoukville

View from the RISC office

Pink hair round #2

Hosting some MCC board members for dinner

Attempting Routines

Khmer New Year dinner with MCC Staff

 In the States, we really like schedules. We plan things well in advance- parties, meetings, other events. Last minute changes tend to make us stressed- or at least that's how I feel. This is a cultural difference that I've really had to confront here in Cambodia because things are much more likely to be planned last minute here- which makes trying to balance working at three different organizations and attending events for a forth kind of difficult. Thankfully, I've settled into a (very) general routine:

Motoing with one of the SALTers

Monday: I work at the Peace Institute of Cambodia (PIC). I leave my house around 7AM because with traffic it's about an hour of driving each way. Most day I'm there I have a meeting with the director to go over plans and the things that need to be done. I've been working on collecting contact information for potential international academic partners, and I'll start working on the website next week. I get home around 6PM and after a quick dinner, I meet up with some friends at one of the local movie theaters to watch one of my favorite TV shows.

Dinner with some WPM staff

Tuesday and Wednesday: I work at Women PeaceMakers (WPM). I write and edit reports and grant applications for funding organizations, and basically end up writing or editing anything that's needed in English. At least once a week I meet up with one or two of the SALTers for lunch since many of them work in offices near WPM. These are also the days that I run to MCC if I have anything I need to do there, because the WPM office is close to the MCC office.

RISC Staff

Thursday and Friday: I head on over to the Returnee Integration Support Center (RISC), and hang out and work with those guys. I'm currently working on updating their website and assisting with analyzing a survey they are conducting with the returnees to see how they are doing as an organization. I also get to go along on site visits with the other staff. Almost every month, I go visit some returnee's who are in prison near Phnom Penh. Prisons here provide very little, so RISC brings them toiletries and some money to buy food and water every month, along with just checking up on them and being smiling outside faces.

This schedule often gets interrupted though- by holidays (which all of the offices might take or only a few will), MCC events, and special events as well. I'm starting to relax more, and just go with the flow- even when I have mornings like today that just feel like disasters. I drove all the way out to PIC just to realize that it's a holiday for that office. I try to keep an open mind and to just be open to the new adventures that each day holds.

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.

Khmer Wedding

Wedding Venue

Yesterday, I attended my first Khmer Wedding. And by attended, I mean I was a guest at the dinner, which is a very small part of the wedding. I still don't know all the details of what happens at a wedding, but I do know that the ceremonies start for close family and friends the evening, then begin again the next morning with a fruit procession prior to breakfast. There are other ceremonies throughout the day, up until dinner, which is the part that most of the guests (normally numbering around 200 people) are invited to, which is followed by dancing. All these events include several outfit changes for the bride, groom, bridal party, and close relatives. While I do hope to attend more part of weddings in the future, I did enjoy just attending the dinner reception for my Rep's sister.

At the wedding with some of the MCC Staff

Khmer weddings are not only long affaires, they are also very formal- especially for women. Men can get away with just dress shirts or traditional style silk shirts, slacks, and dress shoes (no ties necessary), but women go all out. Many female guests go to the salon to have their hair and make-up done professionally, including up-dos, fake eyelashes,and lots of powder. Dresses are extremely formal. Wedding guest attire for women ranges from traditional (or modernized traditional) style blouses and silk skirts, to extremely formal (and often slightly gaudy) gowns, to western style short dresses. These dresses are often either made specially for the wearer by a tailor, or are hand made at a market and tailored to fit.

Posing with MCC Staff

Since it was my first wedding, and I've been warned that I will probably attend many over the next 2.5 years, I bought myself a locally made gown. One of the other MCC Service Workers kindly accompanied me, and we walked around one of the markets for a few hours looking at and trying on dresses, until I circled back around to one of the first ones I tried on. I considered getting my hair and makeup done, but I decided just to do it myself- especially since not much can be done to dress up my hair as short as it is.

Inside the wedding venue

I arrived at the wedding, which was held in a fancy tent on the street in front of property owned up the family, by tuktuk with some of the other Service Workers around 5:30pm. We were greeted by the bridal party and other members of the family at the entrance, which was also set up for formal photography. We then found a table and waited for the other MCC staff who were attending, as well as some representatives from our partner organizations, to arrive.

Dinner at the wedding

Once our table was full, we were served our 7 course meal. Each guest had a glass, a plate, a bowl, chopsticks, and a soup spoon. The food was placed on a turntable and we each served ourselves by picking what we wanted up with our chopsticks. I am still not very adapt with chopsticks (ok, fine, about all I can manage to eat with them is noodle soup) so I tried to be patient with myself. The meal included cashews, fish, duck, noodle salad with shrimp, and several other mostly meat dishes- the last dish before desert though was the obligatory rice. While we were eating a band played for us.

Our table spent some time chatting after we finished eating, but we soon all decided that we were not going to stay for dancing- we all had to work the next morning. So we gave the family our wedding presents (envelopes with money, as is expected), took pictures with the bride and groom, took some more group pictures, and then were on our way. The other Service Workers and I were give a ride to the MCC office by some friends, and then drove our motos home- which was a feat in my gown.

Moto Adventures

This holiday season has been full of unexpected, moto adventures. I knew coming to Cambodia that I'd have to learn to drive a motorbike (it's more of a motorscooter than a motorcycle). My first driving lesson was during my first week, when I went with the YALT group to Prey Vang. It wasn't a very long lesson, because it started raining during my 2nd lap of the street. I didn't get on a moto, solo, again until the end of November. During that lesson I did a couple laps around the block. I managed to fall 3 times in less than half an hour. But, my wonderful teacher Tony didn't see me, and some really nice motodop drivers helped me pick the moto back up- it was clear to them that I had no idea what I was doing.

After that I was on my own. I knew I needed to learn to drive, but I really didn't want to. I was so tense and nervous during my second lesson that my upper back and shoulders were sore the next day. But, I did it, I made myself drive on the back roads around the office. A few weeks later I made myself drive over to the grocery store. But, I still hated having to get on the moto. 

Then on the day of the MCC Christmas party I found myself in a sticky situation. All of the YALTers were in town so all of the MCC bikes were in use. Without a bike my choices of transportation to the party, at the Reps' House, were to walk, motodop, or drive myself. I called my parents before the party so I didn't have time to walk there, and I never learned the landmark to use to tell a motodop how to get to the Reps' House. So, after an internal pep talk, I forced myself to drive the moto. It was a quiet Saturday morning, so there wasn't much traffic on the main roads. I was able to easily drive myself to the house, even through the round about. At the end of my party I gave myself another pep talk and drove on home again.

The only time after that I needed to give myself a pep talk to drive was on Christmas Day when I met up with some of the other Service Workers for Christmas Dinner. 

Next thing I knew, I was driving everywhere. I drove to WPM, and then after work drove out to the River Side to meet up with a visit from Swarthmore. I didn't exactly know where I was going, so I almost ended up driving over a bridge and out of the city. Thankfully, there was a place to make a u-turn before actually getting on the bridge. According to Google Maps the drive should take about 15 minute, but between traffic and my unexpected detour, it took me about 40 minutes. Thankfully the people I was meeting were extremely understanding.

Since then I have made moto my primary form of transportation, including driving the 30+ minutes to RISC multiple times now. And I've even driven with someone else on it with me (which I will admit was pretty stressful and difficult at first, but got better as the day went on). I'm going to try to keep riding my bike for shorter trips, but I've learned that I really enjoy motoing places. Maybe I'll get a motorcycle when I'm back in the States...

Moving Out

Hanging out on my balcony

Moving into my first apartment didn't involve searching for the perfect furniture, or picking up a free old sofa on the street, or getting sheets and towels from my mom. Instead moving into my first apartment involved searching through the Reps' house for furniture and housewares left over from former MCCers. This meant that after the big move I realized I had an abundance of some things (40 dinner plates, anyone?), a lack of some necessary items (why are there no extension cords?), and a collection of things that I don't know how to use or are not useful for me (anyone need to know how to store breast milk?). All in all though, moving out on my own has been just as much of a wacky experience as I expected it to be.

View at sunset from my balcony

I knew coming in that I was only going to be living with my amazing host family for two months, and despite loving them with all my heart I was ready to know the sound of silence again. Near the end of October, Denise helped me look for my own apartment. Back home apartment hunting would involve looking on Craigslist and other websites. Here in Cambodia, it meant driving around the city looking for "For Rent" signs. Denise and I spent several hours riding around on her moto trying to find an affordable and nice place. After looking at or inquiring about 14 different places, we decided to head back to the office and call it a day. We took one of the back roads, and noticed another "For Rent" sign. We decided to check it out.

Current bedroom decorations

The landlady came out to meet us and agreed to show us the apartments. She explained that they were just finishing renovating the house. The third and fourth floor were completely redone, and each floor was one apartment. We first checked out the apartment on the third floor. It was very nice. A little over budget though, and I really had no need for a second bedroom. So, we asked to see the one bedroom apartment on the fourth floor. I was skeptical from the moment I saw the stairs- it was basically a ladder placed at an angle. Then we stepped into the apartment. It was beautiful! A big open main room to be used as a kitchen and living room, a spacious bedroom with double doors out to the wrap around balcony, white tile flooring, lovely seafoam green walls, and lots of light throughout. Denise and I kept looking at each other with expressions that clearly said, "This is it!" We had an appointment to see another apartment the next day, so it was a few days before I could officially agree to rent to the place.

Elephants in my kitchen

Two weeks later, with the assistance of the Reps and several MCC employees, I moved into my apartment. I've been living there for almost a month now, and I love it. I'm still in the process of making it feel like home, but it's coming along and I have big plans (ok not that big, creative decorating is not my strong suit, I just want some plants and lamps and stuff).

Make-shift curtain until they're made

Living alone is very different from anything I've ever done before, and a lot quieter than living with a host family, but I am truly enjoying it. Hopefully the alone time will encourage me to actually pick up some hobbies (goals include sewing and yoga, but neither have made any headway yet).