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.