this is a post about shooleys

Ben is in a bit of a silly mood today. For those of you who don't know what a shooley is let me explain:  "shooley" is the neutered term of endearment used by both Ben and myself to express our undying affection for one another.   Today ben is making up songs having to do with the word shooley and all it implies.  Usually when we ride in a tuk-tuk one or the other of us sing a little ditty, sometimes original, sometimes a classic.  

Today the weather in PP is reading at a balmy 81 degrees.  There is a nice breeze in the air and all things considered it is a fairly nice day in Cambodia.  Our Sunday will consist of Comme a la Maison, our favorite French breakfast nook, followed by church, a short stop at the Russian Market and Ben's soccer game.  Then a long ride out to our countryside school.  This week will be a bit off the norm, which we have just barely settled into.  Being New Years we have Thursday off, and neither of us teach on Wednesdays, so we will be back in the city and having internet access more than usual.  I leave on Friday morning for Thailand, where my next two weeks will be spent seeing doctors and waiting for the blessed child to arrive.  Ben is going to get a few more weeks of teaching in before joining me on the 17th of January.  This new year for us will mark some of the biggest changes yet in our lives.  Besides being in yet another new country, we will have our first baby, which is a step both of us are trying to prepare for daily.  It is daunting to say the least.  Thank you for keeping up with our postings and caring about the mundane events of our lives.  Seeing your comments and receiving your emails makes a big difference in our lives.  

Hopefully you all have a very Happy New Year and a find it also new and different for you.

These kids follow their mother about our dormitory while she cleans. I like to give them stuff and try to talk to them.

On the drive to our school this is typically what you will see...

One of the sweetest restaurants ever...

Christmas week in Cambodia...

Ben and I sit this lovely Saturday morning in Java coffee shop eating our yogurt, sipping coffee and waiting for signs of life on Skype.  It has proven to be more difficult lacking internet during the week than I thought it would be.  We are two of three Americans out at our campus, no one else speaks much English.  We live amongst Khmer students and Korean teachers, all very gracious and kind, but conversation is lacking to say the least.  Having barely a connection with the outside world is difficult, I think it is especially difficult being almost 8 months pregnant and knowing my little sister is going to deliver soon too.   Emotions run high. 

The weather is beautiful today.  Only 80 degrees and there is a nice breeze.  Besides waiting for family to pop on Skype we are going to take care of our car today, and move yet again. Let me explain... We bought an old school Jeep Cherokee with the hope that it will stay together on our bumpy road to and from school.  We needed something with a little more clearance than the Toyota we were borrowing.  The jeep does fine, but it is a rough ride.  It is definitely beat up, but for this time and place, that is good.  We will include a picture next weekend hopefully. Ben is pretty excited about it. He likes old beaters like that. We need to get the oil changed and the tires taken care of today though, simple tasks that tend to take hours more than you would think necessary. 

As far as moving AGAIN, our team leader had to leave the country for personal reasons so his house, which was our landing ground on the weekends, is no longer available. For the next few weeks we will house-sit for our pastor and his family while they are in the states for Christmas.  Then we will be staying with a family from our church when we get back from Thailand with a baby.  They have kids already, and they are really great people, so it should be a good fit, it just means being uprooted again.  

I wanted to include a few random pictures, but the thing isn't working right now. My sister mentioned, as well as another friend, that they thought we were roughing it much more than we are. Cambodia is definitely still developing, and they lack the infrastructure that makes life consistent, but we have electricity and solid walls.  The disparity of wealth and poverty is the most shocking thing about being here.  You can drive past a Range Rover and into the countryside to our campus where we have no water for hours and days on end.

Anyway, Merry Christmas to all, and hopefully you are enjoying your North American weather! We are missing it.

what a stud!

The Superstars of NPIC...

Well, we are still without the Internet at NPIC, and so communication has been a bit difficult.  When we come into the city on the weekends we are trying our best to post on our blog and send emails to all of you.  That being said, here is a quick recap of our week:

We made it back to the countryside Sunday evening, and relaxed a bit before starting classes again on Monday.  We are in our third week of teaching, and are finally hitting our stride.  Our students are wonderful, and we are regularly surprised with their command of the English language.  However, there are those few students who still stare at us with blank faces, which make it a little more difficult. 

Two events this week stand out as memorable, and consequently, both happened on Friday.  First, we had a small group of students over for lunch on Friday afternoon.  We made them Mexican food, which they had never had before!  It was a great experience.  Andrea and I handmade the tortillas, whipped up some seasoning for the beef, and splurged on some cheese.  All in all, I think they liked the flavor, but a few of the students found it just a little too foreign.  We had some great conversation however, and are thoroughly enjoying building relationships with our students.  They wanted to know everything about us, from what our friends and families are like, to how one eats a burrito, to why we celebrate Christmas.  Needless to say, we had a splendid time, and are really looking forward to our next gathering. 

Second, after our “Mexican feed,” we moseyed on over to the NPIC soccer field and watched the opening game of the NPIC soccer season.  It was the IT department versus the NPIC Superstars.  Why were the IT students playing against the Allstars, you ask?  Well, because the IT department has won the NPIC championship three years in a row now, so the University President decided to create an exhibition match so the IT students might experience the agony of defeat.  Hilariously, we were the guests of honor, so they sat us at the fifty underneath the shaded portion of the bleachers (imagine a medieval joust).  It was a great game, the students were thrilled that we were their, and the Vice-President of the university asked me and our team leader, Bryant, to play on NPIC’s teacher team, so…we’ll have to keep you posted on the NPIC teaches’ soccer season.  That being said, NPIC is beginning to feel more and more like a community, and we are slowly (oh so slowly) starting to view it as our home. 

In other news, Andrea’s pregnancy is moving right along.  We are buying tickets today for her flight to Thailand on the second of January (I will be shortly following behind her on the fifteenth), and each day we are able to make out the movements of our daughter a little more. 

Well, the rice patties behind our dormitories are being harvested, and that can only mean one thing: CHRISTMAS!!!  So, we put up a small Christmas tree in our kitchen room, however, no matter how many trees you see, or how much Christmas music you listen to, it’s a little hard to get into the mood when it’s eighty degrees outside.  But, the season is here, and all of you are increasingly on our minds.  As a matter of fact, tonight we will be going to a Christmas concert that a local high school is putting on in Phnom Penh.  It should be a good show, but it is still difficult being away from friends and family during the holidays.  We miss you all and love you, and we hope you’re having a wonderful holiday season.  Until next weekend…

Ben and Andrea      

We are finally teachers

Teaching is here and it is awesome.  (Ben is convinced he needs to teach his students the word awesome.) We have been teaching all week and enjoying the educational profession, Khmer students and our newfound pace of life (which is still very chill).  A typical day in the Cambodian countryside might look like this: we get up around 6 am, make breakfast in the room we have converted to a kitchen, stop by the office to pick up teaching materials, and head to our respective classes.  We both teach third year English classes but in different concentrations, I teach in tourism, Ben in electrical engineering.  The students all over campus know who we are and where we live.  We are the only white people around for literally miles and it is funny how they stop and stare. As we walk around campus students step off the sidewalk to get out of our way and always bow and say good morning or hello. In class they all stand when we come into the room and stay standing until asked to be seated.  Upon leaving class they will do the same thing. All classes in Cambodia have a class monitor who is in charge of bringing the eraser, erasing the board, taking attendance and opening the windows if that is what the teacher desires.  If something were to change in the schedule or all the students in class needed to be reached the class monitor is responsible for this, one of the only sensible things you will find in the Cambodian educational system.

After teaching we usually have an afternoon to ourselves.  We spend this either making lesson plans, grading, or reading in our little dorm room.  I am trying to befriend the children of the woman who cleans our dorm.  They just follow her around all day while she sweeps.  They are usually naked and quite dirty.  The three of the (mother, daughter and son) come up to our third floor landing to take a nap every afternoon and when they wake up I usually offer them a snack or try to talk to them in my limited Khmer and sign language.  I bought a small toy for both of the kids last week and I would love to develop a relationship with this family so the kids could play with me while the mom cleans, but that is a ways off I think. 

We then make dinner in our awkward kitchen and sit around talking after dinner for a good long while as a team.  Life in the countryside is slow and it makes you focus on relationships. We have time to focus on our marriage, our team relationship and getting to know students and staff.  They are a very warm people and easy to get to know. Everyone you meet in Cambodia is dying to learn or improve their English.  It is fun to be a part of something that is simple, but can make such a drastic difference in people's lives.  Thank you all so much for your support in sending us on this journey.  It is hard, but it is good, very good.

Unbelievable!!!

This morning I felt a real need to write about our experience because it was so ridiculous I had to share it. Try to visualize as you read because I am sure my words can only give you a partial picture of how this played out. In our room on campus we have a speaker on the wall. I never noticed it before, nothing has ever come out of it before, but this morning it spoke.
If you have seen the movie "Grease" then you might remember the little jingle they play on the zylophone when they make announcements in the morning. The same jingle woke me up at 5:30 and it was followed by a Khmer voice rattling something unidentifiable. Then another jingle. Then another announcement, then another jingle, then another announcement.
Fully awake I texted our teammate who speaks Khmer to ask if there was a fire or something. Surely they wouldn't make such a long announcement so early if it was not of the utmost importance. He said they announced to please turn the water off when you are done showering. Hmmmm. No fire.
The announcement would have been bad enough, it woke me up well before my alarm clock and it persisted far longer than it needed to, but to top it off the person on the other end of the speaker decided to play Khmer radio for the next 40 minutes. Forty minutes of Khmer music at 5:30 in the morning, with no possible way to shut it off. I got increasingly more angry and I finally got up to take a cold shower. It is mornings like this that make you feel like you are living some kind of candid camera.
It also makes me a little sad. The Cambodian people may have hated it, but no one would try to do something about it. They don't have a concept of their privacy being violated. They have had such a culture of doing what they are told and being unable to change anything that they accept whatever may happen, bad or good. In some ways it is more healthy that they can let things roll off their back, but it has also proven to be detrimental to them. For example, in our talks with college students, we have not found one who even cares what happens in the tribunal to convict the leaders of the Pol Pot Regime. They are completely ambivalent to it. I find that to be quite tragic.

Just a quick note to say we are safe, sound, and celebrating Thanksgiving the best way we can: by driving into Phnom Penh from the countryside, and celebrating at Freebirds—deep fried turkey buffet, anyone?  We love and miss you all, and thank you for the masses of birthday emails and packages.  Have a wonderful day, and please eat some pie for us. 

PS-We have finally started teaching!  Our students are wonderful, and they wish you all a happy Thanksgiving as well! 

Right now we do not have access to the Internet where we live, so our posts will be infrequent until we can find a better solution.  Take care; we will write more soon.       

getting started...

Things are slowly starting to take shape here. We returned from Siem Reap to find NPIC just as we left it only with a little more gecko poop on the floor.  We were told to report to teach on Monday morning, but given no time or location.  We tried to be there early and to find our way, but there was no need to stress. We arranged desks and were sent away, told to return to teach Wednesday morning, Tuesday for schedules.  Then a text comes on Monday night telling us to be in the office by 8am Tuesday morning cause we will have classes Tuesday(still we have seen no schedule).  How students know when to show up to this fiasco is beyond me.  We get there early since we haven't seen any classrooms or made any copies yet, but they say, no maybe tomorrow.  I sit here on Tuesday night and all my American sensibilities are violated.  I never would have been able to sleep the night before teaching my first class in Colorado.  It still was hard for me to sleep every Sunday night, even if I had the up coming week well planned, copies sitting in my classroom.  I have come so far. Or something like that. I am learning a hard lesson in patience and flexibility. 

In other news, we borrowed a car from a couple who is in Japan delivering their baby and Ben has been driving to and from NPIC the past few days. Braving the roads here is stressful to say the least. Motobikes and cars pop out everywhere and you have to have your head constantly on a swivel. He is doing very well though, I have no intention of driving the duration of the time we are here. 

Finally, to update you all, I am 29 weeks pregnant which means I leave for Thailand BY MYSELF in five weeks, maybe six if I am lucky. It will be an adventure, and to be honest, I am not in the mood for an adventure right now. They always make good stories later but they really suck at the time. 

Siem Reap

We are currently discovering the wonders of Siem Reap.  It has been so fun to get out of Phnom Penh and see this site that is truly amazing.  Siem Reap is a very different town than PP. It is much smaller, and it is full of tourists, people just coming through to move on in a few days.  I somehow don’t feel like we fit that category because we aren’t leaving Cambodia any time soon.  I think the most significant difference is that we know a little bit of Khmer.  When someone asks me about being pregnant or we ask their name in Khmer they smile from ear to ear.  Not many tourists do that here.

Angkor is unbelievable. Our pictures aren’t all that great cause the weather was very gray, but it was well worth choosing an overcast day to walk around for 8 hours, especially being nearly 7 months pregnant.  We went into the day thinking we would be in and out much faster than that, but the hours kept ticking by and we were still curious about what we might find in the next temple.  I wish there was a better way to describe these temples. I am still in awe at the architecture.  Some of them were built over 1200 years ago.  

The builders had to make little rivers and rafts to float the massive stones to the building sites, as there are no mountains near by; or they would use elephants to carry the stones.  It must have been such a massive undertaking.  The detail on each stone is mind-boggling too. 

The three main temples we visited were very different. We saw other smaller ones, but these are the most famous and hopefully I will be able to get the pictures to match what I write. The first was Angkor Wat and it was the most impressive simply because of its magnitude. 

This is the temple that usually shows up when you google Cambodia.  It is also the background of our blog page. It was originally built as a Hindu temple but later converted to a Buddhist temple. 

The second temple is called Bayon and it is famous for the massive and serene faces on each of the towers.  There used to stand 54 towers, but only 39 remain (I think), and most of them are only partially standing.  Each tower has four faces, pieced together with huge stones. It is also famous for its bas-reliefs that show scenes of mundane everyday life but also mythological and historical scenes.

The final temple is Ta Prohm, which is familiar to anyone who has seen Lara Croft, Tomb Raider, as a few scenes are shot on these grounds.  This was probably my favorite temple, although it is hard to choose.  It is unique because when the temples were starting to be restored at the beginning of the 20^th century this one was left in its natural state, which is quickly becoming part of the jungle. Huge trees are growing out of the walls surrounding the temple and over the top of it.  It is truly beautiful.

We miss you all, and look forward to hearing from you.  We will put more pictures up soon, and write again when we can.

 

The lost images of Sihanouk Ville

Our First Visitor...

We had a friend come this last week to visit. It was so great to see a familiar face and to be able to show someone around our new home. Tom was a fantastic guest, the lowest of maintenance required. I think he only brought a few changes of clothes, but had no desire to do laundry. He didn’t complain about the makeshift bed he had to use on the floor, and he asked all sorts of questions about life and politics and history of Cambodia. Tom Haines went to high school and college with me, but our real bond began when we studied in New Zealand together. Tom is a world traveler and was in Nepal so he took a detour and visited us. He is a dedicated friend- the journey took him way too long. He had to skip between bus, moto, and taxi to get into the country, and do the same leaving; very long journeys both directions.

Our gratitude goes out to Tom for going to the effort to see us, as well as all those who are supporting him in his work, which allowed for his visit as well. We needed the encouragement.

Frustration...

i have no idea what is going on with our blog. i have tried too many times to fix it. i am sorry some of the pictures aren't working and the text is getting all screwed up. i really wanted to share some of those pics. maybe they will work next time. i am getting to frustrated to mess with it any more today. thanks for reading, on to the next adventure...Angkor Wat.

Sihanouk Ville

We had the great experience of teaching in Sihanouk Ville last week.  It was a nice break to work.  (Yes, that is what I said.) We drove into the city after four hours on the Mekong Express, the nicest of Cambodia’s bus systems.  It was air conditioned, they provided snacks, and only a few seats had leaks over them.  The Koreans who run Life University met us at the bus stop and took us to lunch at a very nice, very vacant hotel.  We had a lovely meal, and truly enjoyed the company.  The Koreans spoke beautiful English and made us feel welcome from the beginning. 

They took us then to a hotel where we were to stay for the week.  We were intending to stay on their campus but it filled up more than they expected so they paid for our hotel, which was directly on the beach.  I have included some pictures of our hotel, because although it was more than I expected, I don’t think we can communicate the weirdness of it unless you see pictures.  I could never tell if it was being put together or taken down, but there was almost no furniture in the whole place, and although we were their only four guests we were on the third floor, away from the ocean.  The beach was virtually unusable, as there were no chairs or tables outside, and it was covered with trash and had a concrete beam was running through it.  If you walked down a ways it was usable, but the beachfront property was wasted on our hotel. 

We spent one day on the popular Serendipity Beach.  Tourism is the main draw for this city, but they are seriously lacking on major fronts.  Don’t get me wrong, I would love to live and teach here next year, but things are just not what I know you may be picturing.  The tuk-tuk dropped us off at Serendipity at the top of a long steep hill that he could not drive down with his moto and tuk-tuk because it was so rutted out.  We gladly walked down the hill, but I was shocked that their main beach was so inaccessible.  There were some little shops on the side of the road, and many guesthouses to choose from.  The entrance to the beach was unclear.  You had to go around this little stand selling all sorts of random wares, to the right or the left, climbing down a concrete wall or over dilapidated stairs.  Both directions on the beach were lined with restaurants and bars, some belonging to guesthouses, some standing alone. They all had chairs set up to enjoy the ocean view, but the cushions on the chairs were wet and I am pretty sure never moved out of the elements. 

Sitting on this beach is tiring.  We came down mid-morning and until we left at 4 we were constantly surrounded my women offering manicures and pedicures on the beach, or massages, or a strange form of hair removal I didn’t want to know anything about.  Some were friendly, some pushy, but it was constant. There were others selling fruit, or seafood along with tons of kids selling all sorts of things, crafts they had made, bookmarks, bracelets, etc… Their goal seemed to be to get you to say, “Maybe later,” and then they make you pinkie promise that you will buy from them later, and no one else. They will remember you too, so don’t think you are getting out of it for one second.  It only took me one pinkie promise to learn this lesson. 

Before heading to Sihanouk Ville I read about how to treat the kids who sell stuff on the beach. It is understood that they don’t get to keep their money and they are sort of pimped out.  They all say they are paying for school but that is hard to believe since they are there everyday.  I tried talking to one little girl about the truth of this. She didn’t try to sell me anything, she just kept touching my tummy and asking questions about my family and telling me about hers’ when I asked in return.  She said she gets to keep most of her money, but sometimes bullies take it. She also told me about some other kids who sell on the beach who are her enemies because they are not nice. I don’t know the truth but it is hard to ignore all of them, and that somehow doesn’t seem helpful either.

All in all, our time in Sihanouk Ville was too short. I would have loved to stay another week and teach another course.  Our students were excellent.  They loved having us too.  When they finished their test we told them they could leave, but they all stayed until we absolutely forced them to go, which was 45 minutes longer than class was supposed to run.  They even gave us a gift when we left and they all put notes in it.  I am excited about the prospect of teaching there in the future, even if it is in small spurts like this last week was.

Hot Showers!!!

I took a hot shower every day this week!  Sometimes two a day.

Teaching at Life University

This week Ben and I have had the privilege of teaching at Life University in Sihanoukville, Cambodia.  We had to take a four hour bus ride to get here, but it was well worth it.  The fresh air of this ocean town rests in stark contrast to the pollution of Phnom Pehn.  Although the beaches here are still trash-laden the water is beautiful and the smallness of this place gives it a much different feel than what we have been used to.  This place is laid out a bit awkwardly as it stretches a long way down the coast.  The school is further in town, but it is on the side of a hill and therefore you get a clear ocean view from the balcony.  The breeze coming off the water cools things down considerably too, which is a welcome change.  

Ben and I taught a Public Speaking course condensed into one week.  The students did a fantastic job.  We spent 7 hours in class on Monday alone, which would have killed me if I didn't have his partnership. Ben is a great teacher.  He does a fantastic job teaching. He speaks slowly and clearly and can come up with a dozen examples off the top of his head, which I can never do. 

We wanted to get something up so that you knew what we were doing.  We will post pictures once we get home and much more of our impression of this town.  There is much more to write as it has a flavor all its own. 

Bacon served crispy…

Our last week and a half has revolved around meals. We broke bread with a Korean delegation from NPIC, a couple who have given birth in Southeast Asia, our French roommate, various ELI staffers, and one very enthusiastic Star Wars fan.

Our first big meal for the week was a welcome dinner for all the new teachers at our university. It was a pleasant enough evening. We ate Korean barbeque (surprise—it’s a Korean university) of which pork is, apparently, the main entrée. However, imagine pork sushi. They really didn’t cook the pork thoroughly (by that I mean at all), which provided a strange sensation on the palate, but the Korean sauces were amazing. Food aside, it was a wonderfully good evening. We had some fun conversation with our Korean liaison Mr. Cho, and were also able to meet some new teachers that had just arrived in Cambodia from Korea.

Our next meal was a twofer. One of the ELI staffers we are working with is a huge Star Wars fan, and really wanted to throw down a Star Wars episode one through six marathon. Obviously, this wasn’t going to happen, and so we compromised. Basically, we decided to go over to his house once a week to eat home cooked food while simultaneously partaking in the splendid universe of George Lucas. I really don’t think Andrea is a big fan of Luke Skywalker and company, but a genuinely home cooked meal is rare thing in Cambodia so she’s willing to put up with it.

Next, we met a really nice couple from a local church we are attending. They invited us over for dinner and conversation. They made us a real American chicken pot-pie. It was awesome! We also got to pick their brains on giving birth in Thailand, and raising kids in Cambodia as they have two of their own.

On Saturday, we grabbed a quick dinner with our French roommate, and then headed to the Gasolina. Now, for those who don’t know, the Gasolina is a local restaurant that serves great food, but also sponsors the soccer team I play on. Anyway, this particular night we headed to the Gasolina because our French roommate was in a Khmer fashion show! Yes, you read that correctly, a Cambodian fashion show. It was…an interesting experience, and still proves to be fodder aplenty for our relationship with Alex.

We have had many other meals these last few weeks that have been memorable, but in the interest of space I will wind it down. On Monday we headed out to NPIC for a monthly English department meeting. It went well, and we are really looking forward to starting classes in November. In other news, we leave next week for Sihanouk Ville where we will be teaching a one week class at Life University on public speaking. This should break up our schedule nicely. Classroom time in Asia (at least in our experience) is greatly coveted. Also, Andrea has been under-the-weather a bit lately, and is just now beginning to recover from a minor cold. Despite a runny nose and a cough, she is as graceful as ever, and busy reading all of the baby books she can get her hands on.

We love you all, and will keep you posted. Hopefully our next blog will have something to say about the Cambodian classroom.

Ben and Andrea

Good Morning Cambodia...

As per the usual, we are currently sitting at the Java café in the heart of Phnom Penh writing this little update. Outside the weather is a wonderful autumn eighty-five degrees (with a hundred percent humidity, making it feel like ninety-five), and so we are trying our best to soak up the free air conditioning (electricity in Cambodia is equivalent to buying an H2 in the states). This very moment—Saturday morning—Andrea is looking up the definitions to baby names in preparation for our coming child, and I am sipping on a café au-lait in preparation for my afternoon football (that’s soccer) game. What a wonderful morning indeed!

Lately, we have really been hitting our language studies hard, or should I say “ch-ran” (make sure to roll the “r” [this of course means, “a whole lot,” in Khmer])! Our language teacher is named Damson, a twenty something Khmer with a law degree, who is a friend of our English teaching team.

In other news, the baby began to kick a bit. Unfortunately, it’s still an “it,” and so we are both having a difficult time grasping what it will mean to be parents. Soon enough though “she” will come, and our experience here in Cambodia will drastically change.

In about two weeks we will be teaching at a University here in Cambodia about four hours outside of the capital named Life University. We will be giving a week long course on public speaking, and so we are now in the process of developing our syllabus and lesson plans. It’s not exactly fun, but it is definitely helping pass the time until our full time gig at NPIC begins. We are also in the market for a car but the search so far has turned up nil. However, I did test drive a car the other day with a steering wheel on the right side of the car. It provided a strangely queer sensation: imagine compensating for extra space on your left side rather than your right, weird huh?

Other than that, we’ve also been hanging around with our French roommate Alex, a really nice and funny guy who provides the majority of our entertainment. It’s been a pleasure getting to know him, and has given both of us a new found respect for the French.

Well, that’s all we have for now. We miss and love you all.

Ben and Andrea.

Just some pictures to share...

The Pchum Ben Holiday

I thought the easiest way to explain the last few weeks would be with bits of an article I found online explaining the holiday. The whole face of the city is changed with this holiday well underway. Should you choose to read the parts of the article I have placed on this blog I think it makes quite clear the things we face in this country. Buddhism, which is such a deep part of life here, touches every part of a Cambodians life. Converting or changing beliefs that have been ingrained is much more difficult than one might think.

"The fifteenth day, of the tenth month, of the Khmer calendar marks the Pchum Ben festival. This is a time when the spirits of the dead ancestors walk the Earth. And the living can ease their suffering by offering them food to eat. At four in the morning, nearly all of the residents of Phnom Penh gather at the temple with offerings of rice, which they toss on the ground, feeding the dead ancestors.

According to Buddhist beliefs, the lives that we live, after death, are predicated by the actions that we took when we were living. Minor infractions would be punished with small punishments, such as being an unattractive ghost or having a small mouth. With a small mouth, it is hard to eat. Other, more severe, punishments could include being crippled or having no mouth at all.

At 8:00 AM, people return to the temple, with offerings for the monks. "They don't just give food," explains Mey Sameth, who was a monk for seven years. "They bring money and other things as well. As a monk we looked forward to this period all year long, because we could get new clothing and good food."

At 10:00 the people return with more food, which will be shared between monks and poor people. Os many of the Buddhist traditions seem to relate to feeding the poor. Disabled people also crowd around the temple begging alms. To give help to the less-fortunate, particularly during Pchum Ben, is to acquire merit. Many people explained that the offerings they made during the festival were to cancel out past sins.

Between 5:00-7:00 PM there will be more prayers for the dead. Most modern Khmers will say that the festival lasts fifteen days, ending on the fifteenth of the month. In actuality, the ancient, traditional festival lasted three months, ending on the fifteenth day, of the tenth month of the year.

The last four days of the festival were public holidays in Cambodia. Most Khmers visited the province where they were born, where they had family reunions. In observing friends and colleagues, it was amazing to see that even people who considered themselves only marginally religious still took the Pchum Ben festival seriously. They felt a real obligation to feed their ancestors, lest their suffering should continue. Even friends who claimed to have converted to Christianity, and who attended church regularly, took time out of their schedule to make the early morning pilgrimage to the temple, and feed the ancestors.

The Buddhist religion is such an integral part of the Khmer culture that neither political upheaval, economic crisis, the spread of foreign religions, or the intervention of modern society will shake the fundamentals of Khmer beliefs. It is refreshing to see that, although many aspects of the Khmer culture were lost during the Regime, the Khmers have managed to maintain their religious devotion and their family-centered way of life."

Update...

Much has happened since last we blogged.  For starters, Andrea flew back home at the last minute to attend her brother’s wedding.  We are very thankful to her family members for making this possible, as it was important to both her and her brother.  While the wedding was beautiful, it was a turn-around trip for Andrea who is now doing her best to recover from jetlag. 

Upon her return to Phnom Penh team Cambodia arrived in full, and headed out to the beach town of Kep for a five day “get-to-know-you/goal planning” retreat.  We were able to meet the other members of our team, experience the wonderful Cambodian countryside, and relax a bit in our own private bungalow.  Even though we were without air-conditioning, and the bugs/reptiles/furry creatures were rather nasty, we had a splendid time.      

On Sunday afternoon, sadly, we piled each team member into taxis and headed back to Phnom Penh.  However, our countryside journey did not end there!  Cruising on the narrow highways leading to the city, our taxi driver recklessly weaved between tuk-tuks, cars, motos, and bikers while keeping a steady sixty-mile-an-hour pace.  Needless to say, we were rather unnerved.  To make matters worse, halfway through our journey the taxi driver vaporized a mangy dog standing in the middle of the road—he dragged it a good quarter of a mile—smashing both his radiator and our hearts.  We waited by the side of the road for about an hour-and-a-half, got into another taxi, and were on edge for the rest of our long journey home.

So, what’s up next for us you ask?  Well, this week we will be making a more permanent transition to NPIC (our university in the countryside).  By this I mean, that Monday we are going to spend our day shopping for furniture that we will be trucking out to our campus housing on Wednesday.  Our future goal is to stay at NPIC Monday through Friday, and Phnom Penh Friday afternoon through Sunday evening.  So, our trial run of this schedule will start Wednesday of this week.  

We will spend the majority of our time studying Khmer (always), and preparing for a weeklong class we will teach in October at another school (Life University—our NPIC gig does not start until November fifteenth).

I know all of this is confusing, but we’ll keep everyone posted as to our comings and goings, and hopefully in time all will be made clear.  If there is one thing we have learned so far, it is that one must be patient in Asian culture, as our typical western obsession with time has no place in Cambodia!

We love and miss you all,

Ben and Andrea

Weekly update...

I woke up this morning and realized that we had not posted in quite sometime, and so I made “posting” my big goal for the day.

It is Sunday morning here, and I am currently sitting at coffee shop called Java, (we typically end up here at least once a day, or every other day, as they have good coffee and cheap internet) which is across from one of the few parks in Phnom Penh. Well, the term “park” is generous. Actually, it’s just a strip of grass in the middle of the city, but on a cool evening it has the tendency to feel “park-y.” It’s about one kilometer a round, and in the morning, if you’re in the mood for a jog, this is the place to go. Typically you’ll find walkers, runners, and a group of women doing some sort of yoga thing with a sword—I haven’t figured out exactly what they’re doing yet. Anyway, I am across from this park, sitting at Java, writing a post.

The last week has been hectic and relaxing; hectic because, Monday through Wednesday we were commuting back and forth from the city to our university about twenty kilometers outside the city. NPIC (The National Polytechnic Institute of Cambodia) is surrounded by rice patties and cows, no seriously, rice patties and cows as far as the eye can see. As our Korean representative said (it is a South Korean school), “It is the good country life!”

Anyway, on Monday NPIC sent a large moving truck to meet us in the city, so we spent the majority of our day arranging our new accommodations. Andrea and I were given two rooms on campus, one of which we converted into our kitchen/dinning room, and the other into our bedroom. We have a ways yet to go, but our new home is slowly coming together.

After our moving day, we trudged the twenty kilometers (I say trudged because without transportation it’s rather difficult getting there) back to NPIC to meet His Excellency, the Cambodian University President. However, plans were botched, and even though we ended up at NPIC we didn’t get to meet the His Excellency. So, we did some more arranging, a little cleaning, and headed back to the city for the night. Yet, late Tuesday night we received a phone call from the Korean University President (yes, I know, it’s extremely confusing) that we needed to head back out at the school at seven a.m. to try and squeeze in another meeting with His Excellency. We really weren’t happy, and let me tell you why: it had been raining all night and day. By this I mean we were in the middle of a Southeast Asian monsoon! So, we knew it would be a difficult journey. Yet, come the morn we put on our smiley faces, braced for the rain, and headed out. We grabbed a tuk-tuk to the NPIC shuttle pick up (about a fifteen minute ride) only to find out that the Korean President, though he demanded our presence, forget to tell the shuttle to pick us up. So there we were soaking wet, with no way to get to NPIC.

Now, in Phnom Penh you can’t just hail a cab, because cabs are only at the airport, so we had to hop back in the tuk-tuk, head to the airport, and grab a taxi out to NPIC. All in all, the trip was about two hours, and cost us about twenty bucks, but we made it. We met His Excellency, well “met” is a bit strong—we shook his hand. However, we had fulfilled our NPIC duty, and so we headed back into Phnom Penh. We will be staying in the city until the twenty-second of September, doing a little more training with our team, before we permanently move out to the country.

Needless to say, the first part of our week was a little hectic, but after that it settled down rather nicely. The last few days we have been studying our language, exploring the city, and training with our team. I (Ben) have a soccer match this afternoon, and am greatly looking forward to that. I feel like today is the day, the day I score my first goal…and don’t worry, I’ll keep you posted on that front.

I am also exuberant just finding out that Notre Dame beat Michigan! What a great day! I’m a little sad we couldn’t watch it, but for those of you who care, I got a feeling deep inside my bones that’s screaming out, “NATIONAL CHAMPIONS!” Well, okay, maybe not, but at least they beat Michigan (T.R., no offence).

Alright everyone, I am rambling now. I don’t even know that I said much, but I am glad to fill you in on a small piece of our lives. Take care, and know that we love and miss you.

little girls struggling to carry sticks on our street...

A little picture of the Russian market...

Tuk-Tuk rides rule

Things we want to remember to be thankful for (or at least something to ponder at Thanksgiving):

1) Lights that come on when you hit the switch rather than waiting, flashing, sputtering, and then coming on.

2) Air conditioned houses, every room.

3) Showering with a need for hot water, rather than showering only to feel the cold water.

4) Regular Internet access, it doesn’t even have to be high speed.

5) Enjoying a nice cold beer, emphasis on cold—well, and on beer.

6) The service industry: waiters, waitresses, hostesses, and clerks.  Tell someone thank you today just for caring about your opinion.

7) Traffic laws—who would have expected to miss such a thing?

8) Fall in Colorado, needing a jacket in the evening, seeing the leaves change, and enjoying the fall flavors of coffee and pastries, i.e. Pumpkin Spice Lattes, and Pumpkin Pie.

9) Coffee you can count on being good, or at least drinkable.

10) Not having lizards fall on you while eating dinner.

One night in Phnom Penh...

We are slowly figuring out our way around the city.  We know how to get home (usually) and we know major landmarks, but there are new sites everyday.  If I get lazy and don’t bring my camera, I undoubtedly wish I had.  Some things however, cannot be captured in a picture.  Words are limiting too, with my novice skill, but an attempt must be made in order to share our lives with you.  Last night we enjoyed dinner and were having a lovely tuk-tuk ride home when we decided to stop at the grocery store.  I believe Ben already wrote about tuk-tuks, and I will include a picture soon, but to summarize, they are open on all sides and pulled by a motorbike.  Ben and I were actually enjoying our tuk-tuk ride so much that we were making up a song; a little pastime you may not have known about us.

Suddenly we found ourselves surrounded by street kids.  We had ventured onto a busy street to go to the store, and although it was late at night the kids were out begging.  Three small children, none older than 7, jumped on board and started speaking rapid Khmer asking for food or money.  This may not be such a big deal, but they were not just riding with us.  The moto driver was going at least 15 miles an hour, and the kids were jumping on and off our tuk-tuk.  The smallest boy in particular was running along the cement divider between the lanes of traffic and was scaring me silly.  I was sure we were going to see his head hit the cement before we made it to the corner.  How badly I wished our Khmer lessons had started a week sooner.  Ben and I just sat there dumb-founded.  All I could think to ask was “where is your mother?” but that was obviously lost on them. 

As we reached the corner we found another few kids who, I can only assume, were part of the group.  A small girl was sitting on the cement divider holding a very small baby.  She didn’t ask for money or even move much; she just sat holding the child. 

How does one respond to this?

Phnom Penh...

On Saturday afternoon, after a brief layover in Laos, we arrived in Phnom Penh. Our joy and excitement at finally reaching our terminal destination is ineffable. Right now we are living at friend’s house in central Phnom Penh until we can move into our campus housing on September 16^th. The university we are teaching at is about 18 kilometers from downtown, and according to our sources, “is good Cambodian country life.” All that being said, we have a few wonderful antidotes to share with you since our arrival: the airport, French soccer, and tuk-tuks.

The International Airport of Phnom Penh is actually rather small, comprised of only two terminals. Being so small, one would think it easy to find the arriving party you are looking for. However, after we had already paid for our visas, and made our way to the baggage claim, our university’s representative ran up to us waiving a sign reading, “PETERS.” The bad news was that he wanted to pay for an official visa—we had already paid for a tourist visa—and insisted on going back through customs with us. Thus, what ensued was an hour long debate with Cambodian officials on visas: the ones we paid for, the ones our attaché wanted for us, and the ones the Cambodians felt we should have. It was insane and awkward. The university official with us was Korean, the Cambodian official was Khmer, and of course we are American; talk about culture clash. Eventually we worked it out, and Mr. Cho—our Korean university official—took us out to Chinese, because he felt bad. It was a great “hello” to Cambodia.

After Chinese, we moved into our new place. Another teacher with ELI lives there, and while he is gone for the summer, we will be taking over his space. There is only one catch; he has a French roommate named Alex. Now, Alex is a great guy, but since our French is non-existent we can only communicate with him through broken English. During our first conversation with him we drifted to the topic of soccer. He really enjoys soccer, and plays in a few leagues here in Phnom Penh. He said, in his broken English, that we—Ben and Bryant (a guy teaching with Andrea and me)—should play in his French league the next morning. He said, “don’t worry, we will provide the shorts, and jerseys.” Needless to say, it was a rather official game, but we figured…yeah! Why not?

So, Sunday morning we woke early and headed down to the Phnom Penh soccer stadium; yes, we actually played this game in a real-deal soccer stadium. Bryant and I donned our jerseys, warmed up on the pitch, and quickly were relegated to the bench. Yet, thirty minutes into the game, the French players were getting tired, and so the coach called our number. Out we ran onto the field, the crowds roared (not really), and we took our positions as mid-fielders. I played right-mid, and Bryant played center-mid. Now, I have never in my life played soccer, but that did not stop me. Within a few minutes of play a ball plopped down in front me with nothing lying between me and the goalie. So, I dribbled the ball down field (as I fended off a Khmer defender with my right elbow), took aim, and let loose. It was a beautiful kick. Quickly it shot out from my foot, curved left, the goalie dived, he fell short, and I realized, he missed! Holy crap, I am about to score my first soccer goal ever. I am in Cambodia, under the blistering humid sun, in an official soccer stadium, playing on a French team against a Khmer team, and I am about to score a goal. Then…CLANG!!! It hit the post, rolled in front of the goal, and out of bounds. Seriously, five centimeters to the left, and my fate as a soccer hero would have been sealed. As it was, I was pretty stoked I even hit the post, and due to my small success, am planning on playing in the weekly French games.

Lastly, tuk-tuks! Tuk-tuks are carts strapped on the back of motor scooters. For about a dollar a ride you can travel all over the city. It is really an easy and convenient way to travel. However, last night on our way to the grocery store street kids began to crawl and climb all over our tuk-tuk looking for money or food (what they called, “yum-yums”). It was heartbreaking; no more than six years of age, in tattered cloths and shoes—some with babies—we saw, face-to-face, the poverty hidden amongst the economic growth of Cambodia.

In our short time in Phnom Penh, these are just a few of our experiences. It is wholly different from Vietnam, and, like any traveling, will take time for us to adjust. We miss you all so much, and look forward to sharing more of our journeys soon.

journal article for class (one frustrating moment in southeast asia)...

On Friday afternoon the ELI team went to the Vietnamese Museum of Ethnology. All-around, it was a wonderful cultural and learning experience. However, there was one situation in which I became rather frustrated. Let me fully explain: the museum is made up in two parts. The first part is an indoor exhibit focusing on the various ethnic groups comprising Southeast Asia. The second is an outdoor walkabout showing interested tourists and locals how these various ethnic minorities live. The museum is home to rebuilt huts, developed dwellings (i.e. community centers), and villages. The incident in question happened at one of the aforementioned community center buildings.

The community center was about four stories high after accounting for the fact that it was about two stories off the ground. In other words, in order to get into this particular dwelling one had to climb about ten feet via wooden logs that had been notched out with foot holds. Once up the logs, there was a common area, or what we might call a deck, where people milled about waiting to take off their shoes before entering the structure. On the far end of the deck, opposite the “stairs,” was a small door.

After climbing the stairs myself, I made my way across the “deck” to the entrance of the community hut. I slipped off my sandals, and began to enter the lodging as an Asian woman was slowly making her way out. I kid you not, she stopped in the doorway, sat down—blocking the way completely—and began to, turtle like, put on her socks: first sock, a break, second sock, and then—apparently strained from the socks—it was time for a breather. She looked about. She soaked up some sun. She allowed the humidity to wash over her like a warm shower. Then, ready for the shoes, she began to put on one shoe followed by the other. But wait! Not to be rushed, she languidly went back to the first shoe and, taking her time, began to lace and tie her sneakers; this, painfully, followed by the second. Then, as if it could not be anymore torturous, she put elbows to knees and took in the scene. Like she was on her own back porch! Mind you, I was literally two feet away from her this whole time waiting to get inside this ancient structure of minor ethnic groups in Southeast Asia. We were ten feet in the air waiting on a porch, and I was getting really, really hot. MOVE already!!!

Finally, she moved. I entered. And I had a good story to tell.

If you had not already noticed, while this woman was sitting down enjoying the day, I just stood there. Like the big goofy American I am. Who knows? Maybe she was just messing with me, but I have a hankering to believe that what I should have done is, politely, yet uncomfortably, walked past her. I assume in her mind my walking past her would not have been an invasion of privacy, for either of us, but to me it would have seemed awkwardly close. Next time I’ll just move on past.

my brief moment of panic...

There are a few things about the hotel we are living in you must first understand in order to fully visualize my moment of panic. Let me state first and foremost that we are staying at a nice place. Throw out the image in your mind of hotels you have been to, it is not the same, but it is enough.  Culture affects everything, especially the trade of hospitality.  Our room is decent, the beds are comfortable and we have all our needs met, namely AC. 

Things you must understand:

1) When housekeeping finishes with the room they turn off the power to the room in a little box OUTSIDE the door.  Power is valuable, why waste it if we are not even there? It does not matter if there is food in the fridge or if the room gets quite warm in your absence. Along with that, there are commonly power outages, and if we are lucky the generator will run to keep lights in the ballroom where our class meets.  No power in the rest of the hotel for hours at a time. 

2) The second thing is that we have one metal key to access our room. There are not multiple copies should you both need one.  Additionally, the door does not stay shut unless it is locked, so you must lock it when you come and go. The funny thing is that you lock the door either from the outside or the inside, both are secure, therefore you can get locked in. I think you see where I am going.

3) The bathrooms are nice, but privacy is something to be desired. Each bathroom shares a wall with the hallway.  Not that strange you might think, except that there are two rather large windows from the bathroom into the hallway that open about 6 inches each.  There is someone down the hall for example, who has rather loud morning habits that wake me up.  I am not sure of the purpose these windows serve, but they let in sound and air.  They also let our air conditioned air out into the muggy hallway.

Which brings to mind the fact that the whole hotel is not air-conditioned, only the bedrooms and the restaurant, and the ballroom.  When the power goes off it gets warm quickly.

To my story: I woke up yesterday not feeling 100% and Ben let me sleep in.  He left while I was still asleep so he locked the door behind him so it would not fly open.  I was sleeping soundly when I heard the air click off. I lay there for a while longer but I started to get hot. I rolled over to turn on the light…nothing.  Interesting. I walked to the door…locked. I stepped up on the bathtub to look out the window… no one.   I walked back into the bedroom to try to figure out what to do. I knew Ben would come, at very least, around noon when class broke for lunch, but it was only 9:30 and I had no lights, no phone, no air and I was trapped.  I went back to the bathroom to try to see if I could reach my arm out to the power switch on the wall in the hallway, but I could not get close.  I sat back down on the bed trying to decide how to best entertain myself for what could be hours in a hot, dark room.  I was just starting to get desperate, deciding if I needed to just start wailing on the door to get a housekeeper to come, when I heard the lock on the door click and in walked my knight in shining armor.  Ben came to check on me during mid-morning break!!! My hero!!! It turned out the whole hotel was out of power and needless to say it got really hot really quickly. I was still happy to be let free. Just one of the little joys we face in Hanoi.