Sometimes there is just not enough time in a day the last 6 months are looming upon me as far as being a peace corps volunteer in my village the irony of all this is finally all my project are panning out with a few bumps along the road of course because it is Cambodia. So I know its been a year running me talking about the ministry of women affairs while I have had some major growth with working for them I have also had to really do a lot of counting to 10 as to hold my tongue. How to explain this in a polite way but it is commonplace in Cambodia to make excuses for almost any organization because they are paid to little, my thinking is everyone is paid the same money then its not more or less then the next organization so it should not be the right of that organization to either work as little as possible or take bribes. By the way the bribes are from cops not the women’s affairs but never the less people take this as an okay behavior and buy into the poor them mentality which gets old real fast because the sellers etc who make even less don’t get to bribe people or just lay around bc they feel the prices they sell for are not fair. Why am I venting about this type of work ethic is because time and time again not just me but other volunteers cow down to this cultural mentality and for the most part you can stop working with whoever your working for in a few months but I have had the privilege of spending almost my entire peace corps service working with women’s affairs and I might have reached my limit to what I will excuses. When we first met with them it was we understand so much blah blah however soon it became we don’t know that much to teach about these things can you teach us. Okay so me and the other volunteers I am working with re did the whole budget because we never planned for this we did not have the money so we took out some people from the big workshop just for them to have a 3-day training to be ready to teach. This past week we implemented this training I even prepared a lesson on gender for the guy who speaks Khmer and Eng. Before said workshop we meet with them re go over what will happen they then ask about 20 dollars we have to explain for all of this they can not be paid its their workshop and part of the PCPP agreement which was translated in Khmer and not sure they read or kept but requires them to give in kind donation for us to get the money we did. After going back and forth for a while they finally get that they can not be paid which left them a bit bitter I think but at the workshop they seemed to have gotten over it. However a few people who were going to come did not because their was no money when we told the ngos who we are working on for this project they were pretty pissed bc they are the ones making lesson providing materials to them for free but they cant show up for free. So after much talk the NGO’s said it’s a waste of time and resources to only train 6 people to get other people which we did a bunch of students at the local university and some other ngo staff. With out fail the ministry was late to every meeting at least 30 min to an hour while the students etc showed up on time keep in mind they asked us for this not the other way around. After the 3 days we had to plan a time schedule for the big workshop which then they spring on us they want to change it up acting like they had no idea that the small workshop was what we planned for the big workshop which was said like 1000 times in meetings so frustrating. Well in between that I had to run to Phnom Penh for a meeting about tom shoes which the lady wrote me an email extremely late to tell me she could not make when I have explained about how much effort it takes me and other volunteers to get into the city but it was not a total wash because things were figured out with Khana which by the way the head guy who was helping us from their just left and never said anything so now we have a new counter part. This new person was on it though and we figured out how we were going to better work with Peace Corps volunteers that matched more of what TOMS wanted. The next thing on my list was to deal with books for the big workshop so we forgot to put photo copies into our budget so now we have to hope that some big organizations like U.N etc. have enough copies of various books we need copies of which took the whole afternoon me going around talking to them I still have to go back in and talk to GADC. Once again this would be much eaiser for the ministry to just call there head office to get us the books we need but seeing as they don’t take responsibility it makes it so difficult to count on them. The only other two things we asked of them was to make the invitations and hand them out which they told us they no longer wanted to do and talked to the school director for the classes rooms which they also told us they don’t want to do. Having them call in for books just seemed like just as much work as me asking for them my self which should tell you how pathetic their work ethic is. I had one day be4 I had to head back to kampong Chhnnang for a workshop in between that time it was Chinese new years and lots of parties to go to. My host family was really sad that I had to leave Sunday they kept trying to steal my phone bag and computer so I could not leave but I made a commitment a while ago to attend the workshop so I could not back out as much as I wanted to. The next week I spent time with a counter part from world vision on a program called PD Hearth which stands for positive deviance behavior training the major purpose is to use people in small villages and have them learn from one another to help malnourished children. It was pretty cool going and doing out teach for it ill post pictures but you should know weighing kids is like torture to them almost everyone freaks out. The purpose of bring a counter part from world vision is that I want to do it however it takes money and time etc which my counter part will have once his boss approves it. Anyways some stories to tell you about some convos I had during said training first step is to do a measuring and weighing to determine families that are model family’s and those who need help. After this we went to do interviews to see if they particles overall good health who takes care of the child etc anyways at this point I meet this lady who has a son who is only 1 kilo more then from the day he was born and is severally malnourished and she informs me he has constant diarrhea so there is nothing she can do to help him gain weight. This leads to me ask her a few simple questions like have you given him ORS taken him to the hospital. She just looks at tells me no because there is nothing a hospital can do he is possessed by a ghost humm okay how can I culturally be sensitive about this okay well then did you take him to a krew-ka-maie natural medicine healer yes did he/she help no. Okay well maybe now you can try the hospital since your tried to rid the ghost that way maybe some medicines will help your son. She just told me she would think about it I guess its better then nothing but I have a feeling that will end up being a no. Another good story was some little girl was really intrigued by my piercings so she kept asking me if I was from India how a 4-year old associates that with India does interest me. The last night all of us volunteers and counter parts were going to be together the counter parts requested we did something all together I was thinking sure why not we can go for a walk get ice cream or something nothing crazy but not what they had in mind. So after dinner we meaning all the volunteers go to meet up with them when low and behold there is this big truck waiting for us that IRD owns that’s an ngo anyways they are like we will go to the club I was like wait there is a club in kampong chhanag? Well it cost 3 dollar to get in o I forgot to talk about how poor I have been this last week so because I have been on constant going back and forth I spent so much money on transportation etc this month that I didt have enough money to buy food this week =( it was quite said to just eat plain white rice or bread but good news got paid today yay. Anyways so this 3 dollars I did not have so my counter part ended up paying for me because he wanted me to go so bad which I felt bad about because I don’t want someone like him paying for me. Anyways we go in and its hilarious so I am thinking we just paid 3 dollars to stand by are selves but nope there was people ages 10-50 I wish I could have you picture what this club looks like but think about some video arcade from the 80s with a club twist. I could only stay 30 mins because I had to get back to where I was staying another volunteers house Khmer people pad lock things pretty early which I think my counter part was sad about. Before leaving I did dance which good thing about this country you can never look to retarded dancing bc Khmer people are always worse and seeing them dance American style is pretty crazy. Till next time peace out from the other side of the world!!!!!!

my host dad and churey asking for luck etc to the ghost.happy chinese new year time to burn the money to make money?yea in america kids freak out about shots but in cambodia its everything.this is the lady who told me her son has the ghost issue. one of the many children we made cry see the desperation it serouslittle girl who thought i was from indiaThis is the tree to show how many health and unhealthy children live in the villagecooking ba-bow-ia aka rice porridge with veggies and fish

My life is now plagued with the smell of fermenting fish everywhere I go no really can you imagine be in trapped in a car with no ac and fermenting fish in the truck yea its not good. While I may hate the smell I cant resistant an opportunity to be apart of anything supper crazy and Cambodian so I helped in the process of making the pro-hawk this has to be done either jan or feb bc that’s when there is lots of fish in Cambodia and it cheap. They make enough to last about a year so I am told my host mom came back with a car load full of small size fish I don’t know the name of the fish but just stream looking fish. Anyways we had to cut the heads of the fish off and sort of gut them now I have never done this before so I got made fun of a lot I guess I did not help matters bc I put on medical gloves to protect my hands from the smell that plan failed. At first I was laying the fish flat to cut its head off which makes it really hard to gut so finally after they saw how slow I was going they had to teach me to cut in more in a 3d way top of the head down this did help a lot as far as gutting goes. So the four of us cutting took all afternoon no lie noon to 5 and I should mention I was stuck in a Khmer squat the whole time there is a stool under me but its pretty much for balance my legs back et were killing me by the time I was done I don’t know how Khmer people can spend hours in that position and not end up screwing up their bones. There was no de boning of the fish however the bones were sharp aka y my glove plan failed and only made Cambodians laugh that much harder at me. Next stage was mushing the fish bodies this done by first putting the fish back in water then in a basket that gets mashed with ones feet just like grapes for wine its then left out till the next day when a huge amount of salt is added. After that it goes into this huge basin the one that collects water anyways where the fish will stay to ferment however long I am not sure about this but it smell’s horrible. This is a Cambodian wide thing so there is no escaping it fyi I have tried pro-hawk don’t like it except it is in this Khmer noodle dish I like so ill say ill only eat it in that to Khmer people which still seems to make them happy. However thanks to luis all I hear about is how he will eat pro-hawk and how he eat the same as a Khmer person that is because he really will eat anything! On other news the pig luis gave them money for is so big and another fyi the family no refers to this pig as Eileen’s boy friend pig so I just call this pig Luis now lmao anyways is so big that it has escaped twice in 1 week the rope can not keep him in place this is how it all went down all of a sudden me and jentee were having our afternoon coffee when this fat thing run across the yard that looks like it is covered in mud quickly jentee jumps up and yells ja-rook pig in Khmer. This pig escaped and went to play in the mud where I take my shower but we had no way to really capture this thing I was sort of thinking it was not going to happen but jentee just runs after it long enough it gets cornered and is back to be tied up. Round two I get up in the morning while the family is all cooking and selling I walk to go to the bathroom when I see this thing bucking its feet around in the mud and im like man I cant capture this thing lack of skills and jentee is selling so I attempt to get my host dad who never understands a word that comes out of my mouth. I am like pia jarook rut translation dad the pig is running my host dad no idea me again I try to use the word for went for a walk still he is not getting it he follows me and then is starting to get it and he is like OOOO JA-OOK-IA I notice Khmer people when shocked they put like an ia sound at the end of their words I think its there version of an! Mark he capture it back up since then it’s been okay. My home news paper also wrote up a small thing about my work in Cambodia I will put the link at the bottom try to drum up some press for my self to raise more money feel like my work is never done. I have a lot of workshops etc planned this month so I am sure I will be all over the place from training the ministry of women’s affairs to PD hearth training with a world vision counter part 2012 is starting with a bang. O yes I need to tell you about my random encounter with the monks from Rhoad Island apparently they are from the wat my brother viou stays at while he is studying anyways some how they are know jentu who is know by the name sonic no idea. They came all the way to her house to bless everyone in the family now I was hoping I could maybe skip this event bc I knew if I joined it would end up me front and center and sure enough that’s exactly what happened. this whole thing lasted a while no idea what was said but I got splashed with water a lot monks spit on me the normal. Where it took a turn of confustion was when the two oldest females my host mom and jentus husband mother sat with their feet in water and everyone had to go and clean their feet and cleanse them everyone eles got to go with someone else but I had to go alone it was awkward to say the least making up what to do. My host mom was estatic at me doing this so I don’t know if I really explained to you how much my mom believes certain things and she has always wanted 5 children she thinks 5 is some sort of lucky number to have for children so she has convinced her self that I really am that 5th child I know my parents will be supper excited to no she now has claimed own age over me. I did not realize at the time but the foot thing was meant for their children only but the monk asked me to go up my mom later told me that the monk told her I am her child this this just re confirms her belief that I am the long lost 5 child she has always wanted. The next day I went to a psych that spoke in tongues my host sister had to translate because it was best way I can describe to you if you have ever seen the poltergeist movie from the 80s and there is that short midge lady that talks really odd I met the Khmer version of that. well water incenses is involved we had to wait some time apparently this particular village psych is right she predicts peoples death etc when it was me and jenta’s turn jenta was going to go first however she went to this medicine man early this week one that is no where close to the village bc her ankle would not heal anyways the lady new this and told her she could not read her bc the medicine man that she went to was bigger then she was as in more powerful that was sort of odd. I was next she said I would be staying in Cambodia for 5 years and I should go home to visit or my mom and dad would be angry but it would be the wrong time for me to move back to America because this is to much turmoil for me in America. She knew the organization I worked for only lets me work for them for 2 years she knew that I liked to walk and she mentioned me always working to oudong and said she is scared for me because while she thinks I am scared to ride mottos (its not that its just peace corps would kill me) she doesn’t want me to walk she says its to dangerous. Due to the fact by the Chinese calendar it is the year of the rabbit aka my year this lead her to see that I have only been blessed once and that until the day before I was soy which I think is worse then bad luck in Khmer I take it has almost like rotten luck vs just bad luck I should also mention my host mom deiced to show up for this and heard about all of this now hearing words like soy to a Khmer person is horrible to see her face you would think someone told her I was dying of a rare disease. So then she made me pay and extra 500 real for a bottle of blessed water from this lady and promised this lady that she would make she I received 2 more blessing one of which apparently she has to do because she is my mom. It was not all to insightful of a reading except now my host mom has been going around my room spraying and lighting shit to protect me. Until next time peace out from the other side of the world!!!!!!

http://gardencity.patch.com/articles/garden-city-alumni-where-are-they-now-eileen-mccormick

okay so last year I told you we can take a look and see how accurate this is based on what i write this is 2012 Aquarius horoscope once again thank the lifetime gods for this one. i do want to revisit my 2011 horoscope so we can really check to see what happened and did not. look for that blog update soon!

LOVE & RELATIONSHIPS
Are you ready to get a little more intimate? From January through July 3, passionate Mars will be visiting Virgo, your eighth house of shared resources and permanent bonding. This can be scary terrain for Aquarians at first, since you prefer to keep things at emotional arm’s length. You’re a free-spirited sign, and when things get toostable, you tend to shake them up. Mars can make you enthusiastic and stressed-out in equal doses. On the upside, you could enjoy a strong physical attraction, a reawakened sex life, or a relationship that leads to engagement, pregnancy, moving in together or financial success. You might be ready to make a big move, and with proactive Mars here, you may cast aside your usual reservations and just go for it.

During tense moments, you could fight over sex, money, personal space and jealousy issues. One or both of you may be feeling unusually possessive during this cycle, as the eighth house can bring up some buried control issues. Take care not to be overly secretive now, as this will only fuel the fire. If one of you is out of work or dealing with financial issues, this could cause extra friction. Couples therapy wouldn’t be a bad idea in some cases, especially while love planet Venus is retrograde (moving backward) from May 15 through June 27. The eighth house rules both marriage and divorce, so some Water Bearers may be dealing with a contentious breakup or a division of joint property. If you want to keep the house or your fair share of the pie, you may need to fight for it, as Mars awakens your warrior spirit.

Children and family can also be a front-burner issue for the first half of the year, while expansive Jupiter is in Taurus, your domestic fourth house. You may decide to get pregnant, adopt or move into a bigger place. Your mother, a female relative or another important woman could play a role in your life changes. Spending quality time with female friends will help you keep perspective in your love life — you need that supportive boost of estrogen, Aquarius! Overall, this is an important time to slow down, tend to your emotions and take extra-special care of yourself. Let yourself do some nesting, too — when’s the last time you gave your bedroom a makeover or bought a new set of dishes?

The second half of 2012 will be a lot more fun and playful. On June 11, optimistic Jupiter will begin a yearlong visit to fellow Air sign Gemini, your fifth house of romance. This is a great time for new love or just starting fresh with your current partner. You may trade in your girl- or guy-next-door image for a glamorous and head-turning new look. A long-distance or cross-cultural affair is possible, and this would be a good time to keep an open mind to different types than you usually go for, too. You may be attracted to people who are creative or artistic or who wear their hearts on their sleeves. Coupled Aquarians will want to break out of a romantic rut and enjoy more dates and activities together.

Alas, Jupiter won’t take away all of Mars’ fireworks in time for the Fourth of July. The fifth house can also be dramatic, so there may be a few more intense moments in your personal life, especially at the May 20 and November 28 Gemini eclipses. These eclipses, which have arrived every six months since December 2010, are gradually reshaping your approach to love and passion. The fifth house rules fertility, so there could be an unexpected visit from the stork at one of these eclipses, too. Or, perhaps someone will arrive out of the blue and steal your heart. With eclipses, you just never know!

WORK & MONEY
A 14-year chapter of your life is coming to a close — and you might be happy about it. Since 1998, foggy Neptune has been visiting Aquarius, slowly leaving its imprint on your life. Under Neptune’s spell, you may have explored more creative, artistic and humanitarian avenues through your work. Your image may have shifted to a more glamorous look, or perhaps you took on a public role championing a cause. At times, Neptune may have made you feel self-conscious, or uncertain of your identity. If you spent this time wandering and trying on different roles, Neptune’s departure will make it easier to figure out who you are — and just how important you are to the people who depend on you.

Neptune’s next journey will be through Pisces, your second house of work and money. Between now and 2026, you may become interested in doing work that heals the planet. Since both Neptune and Pisces rule the sea, you may take a special interest in the world’s water supply, saving the oceans and other natural bodies of water from pollution. You could become involved in film, photography, theater, music and all things avant-garde, either as part of your career or as something you do for greater personal satisfaction. You’ll want to earn a living with a conscious twist, and perhaps even a spiritual one. Your own intuitive powers can grow and become an invaluable part of how you do business.

Meanwhile, your ruling planet Uranus is visiting Aries, your communication sign, from March 2011 through 2018. The way you express yourself could become a lot bolder, and you may become involved in writing, sales or teaching. If you’re the shy type, this would be the year to take a public speaking workshop — though most Aquarians have incredible powers of persuasion. Uranus rules technology, so you may begin using social media or a digital platform to spread a message. Brush up any rusty computer skills, and if you own a business, freshen up its image with a rebranding. Look for innovative new collaborators, friends and colleagues. A community project could put your name on the map, so think and act locally!

Ready for the big leagues? In October, structured Saturn begins a two-year visit to Scorpio, your 10th house of career. Saturn is the personal-trainer planet that throws you challenges designed to make you stronger. Between now and 2015, you could rise to serious heights of prominence and responsibility. If you’ve been screwing around or putting off figuring out what to do with your life, the jig is up — it’s time to take your professional path seriously and set some lofty goals.

Saturn is also the planetary “integrity cop,” so if you’ve been cutting corners or doing things that aren’t 100 percent on the up-and-up, Saturn will blow the whistle. Some Aquarians may lose a job, close a business, or need to restructure plans in some way. What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger under Saturn’s reign. Our souls know when we’re being sneaky, so you’ll want to deal with whatever’s driving you to act in a shady way — perhaps self-doubt or an old scarcity mind-set? It’s time to do the hard work to overcome this and set your efforts on a clean, honest trajectory. You may also experience difficulty with authority figures during this time, or perhaps a valued colleague will depart your workplace. Slow down, stay humble and perhaps even look elsewhere. The Scorpio solar eclipse on November 13 could bring a thrilling new career opportunity out of the blue — either near this date or in the six months that follow. Keep your ears open!

HEALTH: MIND, BODY & SOUL
Your personal life is expanding in ways you never imagined. Since June 4, 2011, visionary Jupiter has been visiting Taurus, your fourth house of home, family and emotional foundations. Jupiter is here until June 11, 2012, a cycle where many Aquarians could become parents, move into bigger homes, or perhaps deal with any lingering baggage from their childhood. Your relationship with a parent (especially your mom) or a child could be the focal point of this cycle. Perhaps one of your birdies is all grown up, giving you a case of empty-nest syndrome. You’ve definitely got the desire to nurture someone, so that may mean adopting a pet or spending more quality time with nieces, nephews, neighbor kids or young people (perhaps through volunteer work).

If you’re an on-the-go Aquarian whose favorite thing to make for dinner is reservations, you might derive surprising joy from getting acquainted with your kitchen. Take a cooking class, learn how to boil water, or ask a stove-savvy friend to teach you some tricks of the trade. Picking up a craft like knitting or learning to play an instrument can also help you channel nervous energy into a soothing outlet. With Jupiter in Taurus, you’re shifting from nomad to nester, and you’re especially sensitive to the colors, sounds and decor in your home environment.

In the fall, you’ll benefit from adding more structure to your life and by setting some clear fitness goals. With Saturn in your 10th house of long-term planning from October 3, 2012, until September 2015, this is an important time to streamline your life, prioritize and trim the excess. Working with a trainer, nutritionist or recognized expert will help you achieve impressive physical results. This is an important time to take care of your teeth and bones. Watch those daredevil stunts, boost your calcium intake (hello, dark leafy greens) and get that dental work done.

This is a throw back in time recognizing the valuable lesson I have learned from selling Girl Scout cookies and why it has made all the difference in my Cambodian life. At some point I am sure we have all had some 10 year old begging us to buy cookies from her most of you have had to deal with me doing just that ps sorry they make you give up your new years resolution. I was one of those kids who thought every prize they offered was just the best thing under the sun so I just had to sell as much as I could to get a pair of binoculars (which I think broke in a month). By the way I do realize I was used for slave wages lol I made Girl Scouts 1,000 of dollars and if was lucky got a prize that was like 10 dollars. Never the less I will count my experience in sales as my pay I used to go house to house set up stands have my mom bring in the sheet to work to sell 1000 of boxes. To do this was no easy feat one I had to learn to say the right things to get people to listen to me of course its hard for people to slam doors in a 10 year olds face however a few people would give you a piece of their mind or talk your ear off due to loneliness while never buying a box sigh back then I thought how that person wasted my time how wrong I was. It also made me take action even though I can’t say at 10 I knew what I was supporting besides those prizes. It prepared me for failure and success when it comes to not only selling things but also dealing with the psychology of people. The interesting thing about selling to new yorks takes on a life of its own I might add when I talk to people form other states they have had totally different experiences when it comes to being a Girl Scout. Selling in New York you might only be 10 but people will ask you why they should buy from you, which is the best if they don’t like it what happens. I had to have answer for the product I was pushing and when I could not answer them met with angry faces and doors in my face. So the Girl Scout saying is always be prepared now I can say new york girl scouting is not so much always be prepared for the big out doors because I don’t think camping in the Hamptons on the beach counts for the wilderness experience. However when it comes to more of the arts cultural life selling things I learned a lot. Most of you might know me I have tried to do many side sales from makeup to personal training and I am not exactly to good at forcing the notion of you must have this or else however when I find the right thing that brings about change I seem to be pretty good at getting the funds. This past month I deiced that I wanted to do another take back the night (this is to end gender violence) anyways to do this I needed money but since you guys were also so awesome for my D.V workshop I did not want to hit you all up again so I thought hum how can I get money to fund this. The answer came to me just like when you want to sell cookies for girl scouts I set up a stand! This concept or tactic is not used in Cambodia hehe so there is 0 competition. It’s important to note though besides monks homeless people and young kids no “regular people ask/beg for money” particularly white people. In America it sometimes difficult to get the good spots to sell things because often people want something out of it that you cant offer or its booked for years in advance this is not so in Cambodia. The biggest supper market in the city is lucky supper market they have a mix of both Khmer and foreign clientele, which was perfect for my plan of action. I met with the head of marketing got the okay to set up a stand and offer information on gender violence in Cambodia explain about my project and collect money. Pretty much all the Cambodians I told about this idea especially my family made fun of me for days they said no one would help they would laugh on me. My Khmer family sat me down trying to tell me how they think I will come back crying because no one will give me money. Turns out all of them where wrong so I had more people then I ever thought to be interested I ran out of materials which I had like 200 of 5 different pamphlets so many people donated it was amazing. Even better then money there were people who wanted to come all the way to my provenance for the event or just help out! One of the best things about all this is two people from my village came to help run the stand one being my host sister and the other being this girl across the street. Why this means so much to me well unless you have experience at a young age understanding how to sell and speak to people while standing out side takes a lot of courage, culturally when this is not done you have to go way out side your lines of comfort. When I first met my host sister Jentee I would have not been able to get her to do anything close to this and for her to have grown so much in a year I was like a proud mom that she came and helped from someone who had 0 self confidence to educating people on their way into lucky ment I might not fail as a volunteer because at least I changed one person for what I like to think is for the better. Fun little stories to share with yout before I tell you my sum of money =) okay well you would be shocked at how rude NGO workers can come off I had a few people just down right tell me that the work they did was better then mine and that they think they do enough already as if I am asking them for 100 dollars im begging for pennies. Then other people like I have to many charities’ support already once again I was taking 100 real, which is less then a penny. Some people just wanted to one up me on their work where you would think if this is work they are interested in they would want to help but it was like a pissing contest with some of them. I also learned a lot about how Europeans feel about Peace Corps and how French people feel about Americas. Either people worshiped the ground Peace Corps walks on or they would curse me out and tell me I am stupid for representing their organization how they destroy countries etc etc. you know ill give you my 2 cents well I get it now because multiple French people would give me 100 riel just to bitch about how much they hate Americans how we are always misguided in misdirected in all are work once again we destroy countries etc etc. Khmer people where funny to so like I said not used to seeing a white person ask for money so they did not know what to do they would look at me like o you want me to give you money how much money do you want and I am all like what ever you want they would ask if 2000 okay I am like yea that’s great! I also have my own observation and please feel free to comment but I think in America we are some how conditioned to think if we don’t have 5 dollars to give its to embarrassing to even bother where Khmer people would give me the penny and know it was enough. It is also funny because I know my self included I am just so desensitized to people selling asking for stuff that its pretty easy for me to just walk by it all and not think twice where Khmer people really would stop to read my sign etc. the last day of tabling this one little girl I would say maybe 9 or 10 came and was really curious about our work and both me and Liz got this feeling that one day she would be us so we gave her books and stuff she had to after words her mom came up to us thanking us and telling us that her daughter would really read it all and we just looked at her like yea we know. It’s never to young to get some little girl into thinking about her rights and how much she is up against the odds. Until next time peace out from the other side of the world!

Just for fun throw back to the Girl Scout LawsLawI will do my best to be
Honest and Fair,
Friendly and Helpful,
Considerate and Caring,
Courageous and Strong, and
Responsible for what I say and do,
And to
respect myself and others,
respect authority,
use resources wisely,
make the world a better place, and
be a sister to every Girl Scout.

Since this time of year seems to bring a lot of debate who should get more “own age” over the season I thought I would recognize why this is all just to celebrate the winter solstice. Sorry its taken me weeks to write up what I did for the season for xmas I went into the city with some friends my host sister also came it was just a quite day nothing to exciting went and got some fancy Italian food yummm. I spend the day by the pool and left the next day to go back to site. New years eve I went back into the city had Chines food went to this place called the FCC has a pitcher of long island ice tea then proceed to go bar hoping until an hour before midnight where I went to Naga World a casino in the city that has a fire works show. I met up with various volunteer it was interesting this being the second year away from a typical family holiday I think many of the volunteers were feeling it more so then last year but I was happy to get to Skype with most of you at some point this season =) new years resolution well me and Liz started to plan to write about on gender I would like to get that done this year, learn to read and write in Khmer and speak better Khmer, help my Khmer tutor start his NGO, complete projects I have started in Cambodia, learn some new hobbies, be come more of a courageous person and help those around me to be the same. Mentally prepaid for 2012 it could be the end to life as we know it! Take step that will over all help me reach self-enlightenment. Good thing about being in Cambodia my diet will be the same so I don’t have to add to that list lose weight exercises more because its already just apart of daily life in Cambodia so for the first time in my adult life I will not be putting it on my list =) !!! I hope you all have a wonderful 2012 may we all live though the apocalypses.

I know you all want to know what’s with this title and what the heck does it have to do with me in Cambodia. Lets just say someone with my writing style makes those who like to follow the English rulebook for grammar pretty annoyed. I have had people ask me do I spell check use Microsoft etc in the past and never seem to believe me when I say yes. People fail to see that when your spelling is so messed up not even spell checker can spot it or when you write a sentence how could Microsoft not catch it well I am here to state for my writing it does not. What to do in the past 10 years I have not seen anyone try to one up the Microsoft word checker until now! This is my Review of Grammar Checker www.grammarly.com You should check it out and test it out for your self do not just take what I say as the be end to end all as the saying goes. So a few weeks back someone from this company sent me and email to test the website out for a while, I have I will start with the positives. It is extremely in-depth like it will not just under line things for you it will state what grammar mistake you are making what rule your breaking show you examples. I think this would be invaluable to someone just starting out in America but also young kids. It would have helped me to better understand English grammar rules vs memorizing something for a test it would have made the whole process or writing more hands on. That is sort of an issue for me I honestly have no idea about all the grammar rules I seriously forgot the word for a period was clause why this made it difficult for me. Due to the way the website corrects me, it tells me what I did wrong but I did not thoroughly understand the jargon, they do have a dictionary of grammar words http://www.grammarly.com/handbook/. However if your trying to write a basic email to a NGO in my case I don’t want to spend 30-40 mins looking it all up. However on the flip side if I was not so out of touch with more of a school atmosphere or this was used on a substantial report it would be worth my time it depends what help you need. It not only tells you when you did something wrong but if it thinks you are being too wordy which, is a nice feature. It allows you to be more direct and to the point thus making you seem more intelligent and have better stated email reports etc. Another added bonus is the suggestion to increase or make certain words of higher vocabulary or at the very least helps you to see words similar to the ones you have used. I think the greatest benefit to this would be for those really trying to learn grammar rules that it would really keep working with you to help improve your writing style above and beyond what Microsoft is able to do currently. Now I will go “Debby downer” on this and talk about all the things I thought either did not work for me or could use some tweaks. Like I stated above it’s a excellent learning tool however, ill be honest I am sort of lazy and do not feel like taking the 30 mins to learn I want to write up things quickly and send them off at least with Microsoft when it does catch my mistakes they just auto fix them I don’t have to spent all this time figuring out what its trying to tell me to do. The pointing arrow that shows you what it wants to change is difficult to tell where it wants you to fix it will highlight a whole sentence not just that one part it wants fixed. The web site also has a function to be combined into your Microsoft word however; it would not work for me I am assuming because it could not support a mac. It was also sort of annoying that it did not like the word you it always wanted you to type out the person name. I know for learning purpose the set up they have is good but if you just want to go though your paper once you cant its not like Microsoft where you see the mistakes fix and go on sometimes you can re read the same 5 sentences because you do not correct it the first time around. Example it may want you to put a common in but then a few categories later it doesn’t like the world you used then it goes back to that sentences vs just telling you what’s wrong with the whole thing the first time. I will say all in all I will keep using it as one more computer device to check my papers however, while I am happy to finally see a advancement in spellcheck etc from what we had since the 90s to me this web site still needs to be fine tuned before I could say it is my life saver.

www.grammarly.com

Rocks that calm Baby fetus and help them not become stupid??? yea really

helping the monks outWater helps the sun swallow the moon the water then brings good lucki went around just banging on stuff to make cambodian's happyLuna Eclipse

Since the days of Jentee’s husband leaving she has been crying all the time is convinced she is pregnant and Peace Corps has come for a site visit. O and yes a lunar eclipse to add to that list which has been the hi-light of the week which will be sure to share pictures and details with you. Now that jentee is not so worried about the fact her husband doesn’t love her and realizes its all the god mom screwing things up she is more in love with her husband then ever however there is one issues with all of this their not actually married. They had a wedding the family tells me they are married but after the trip I realized there is no paper just a wedding party if you will which means there is nothing legal about this thing. I still worried the husband doesn’t understand what will happen if he doesn’t come back in a year or comes up with a better solution since she cant go to America. Peace Corps came to visit for their once a year visit, which is sort of more of a dog and pony show what I mean by this is the major disconnect between peace corps and my actual village life and I wish they understood how they come off. Ex my family think they lie because they say things to put people at ease without following though when I moved in they took down my sister phone number said they would call check in etc they never did. It was really funny she called them out when they came I guess they got lost and she was like well you would not get lost if you called me but I think u lost my number peace crops people were like no no we have it but jentee is pretty smart so she is like o yea then tell me what is it? Then they were all like well its not on us its in the office and she is like right sure. They come to help build the program in community but it just comes off like a yes yes conversations like they don’t really listen which, can be frustrating because when you really care about the work your doing and having Cambodian develop you want what your telling peace corps to matter which is just not always the case. Either way they don’t come off to well to people and that’s also difficult. Another downer to this visit I was sutel told that for people to extend they don’t so much want people to stay in the village but work in a bigger city for capacity building. Why this sucks for me the reason I am trying to extend with peace corps is my host family really wants me to say and I feel that I can do a lot of work still on a grass roots level other wise I could just go work in Phnom Penh with out peace corps. Speaking of another funny story my host family apparently wants to give me land which I didn’t really believe however they now have told peace corps they plan to do this and peace corps did not even know what to say because they were going to ask my family to take another volunteer next July instead they just had to keep quite. No its time mythology story time with out further a due what happens when there is a solar eclipse in Cambodia where this comes from no one can tell me but the way they say the word for eclipse is oute haow japp chan for the most part its consider good luck. People bang on tops of things and scream out loud to help the monks to bring the good luck and help the sun swallow the moon also to help the sun you leave out water right in front of the moon with incses over it. The other things you bang are fruit trees because its is the belief that the more you bang on a fruit tree with an eclipse the more fruit said tree will have. However its not all fun and games lol now if you are pregnant or they think you are with child you can not stand in front of the eclipse why??? Well simple the baby will be born stupid how to prevent upsetting the fetus you must go inside the house with rocks inside your shirt see picture. Due to the fact they though jentee eggo was prego I got to witness this first hand. FYI that next day we discover she was not pregnant so looks like she missed the eclipse for no reason. Anyways after an hour of banging and waiting for the sun to fully eat the moon it was time to take the water that helped the son and dump it on ur self and family members and house of course because now you will have sooooo much luck. Ironically that night I deiced to play with my tarot cards I guess I was feeling the luck of the craziness of the eclipse and the cards also told me jentee was not pregnant sometimes the cards know. I am currently trying to raise fund for a take back the night and Shisha and ngo that helps with rape victims anyways I just got word from lucky supper market I can hand out information on gender based violence and fund raise supper excited ill have to tell you how that goes until next time peace out from the other side of the world!!!

I have to say I have been know for my lofty ideas and sometimes they are winners and some are loser and some times they work out but not in the way I planned on either way I would not change any of them. This is the case with my idea for teaching about nutrition for the brain also explain how the brain works. A few months ago my friend Dara from world vision asked me if I could create a lesson for this health fair I was like sure but he stated he wanted me to try to do it without anyone translating it so you would think I would aim low. However I though hum they actually gave me a month to prepare I can have my khmer tutor help me and though some talk I was like well it would be cool to buy a cows brain and start a lesson with it. I thought I could play tag with them by showing them how the synapse and axon dendrites enzymes etc work then after teach them about nutrition. I tried to plan all this out so their was lots of games sadly though I was misinformed about the age they told me like 11-12 which would have worked but when I got to said out reach it was like 8 years old so a bit advanced. Not to worry though Dara just had to re explain everything I said in Khmer. I had some pictures to the tag also failed they ended up playing a Khmer version of tag that is called chicken but that is how things go sometimes. The nutrition lesson went smooth I had a poster some cards and they all played a game and understood the lesson kids in Cambodia are pretty smart with all the foods and names I swear I don’t know some names of fruit in English I only can call them the name in Khmer now. It was funny though because even with them being on different teams they still cheated with each other see pictures it cracked me up. In between all of this I played some Khmer games with them Dara made up some balloon bursting game were the kids had to bit on the balloon. Its cool when I have the opportunity to participate in a big out reach project like this one it gives me a chance to plan something bigger try new things out see if I can help teach things to village that most people automatically assume are above the heads of village people. While I can say there was not a real grasp on the brain neurology it did start them to think more about the human body and instead of just telling them eat good so your healthy I took a first step for them to think about how the body runs on food and how important the brain is. On another note I have put my hat in the ringer for my Peace Corps extension I word it this way because they only have 3 spots and 10 people want it =( and I am not exactly a favorite however they have asked that I try to partnership with an ngo to take on some of the cost and that it would help my chances. Due to money as well I may have to for go my ride home this summer, which is sort of a downer. The thing is this is how I look at it either way I am going to be working in Cambodia and will not have money to go back and forth so its not the worst thing. My action plan for my 3rd year ideally would be to work in gender and development I have emailed USAID Gender branch to see if I could work with them I also met with the U.N Women to see if I could have a chance to do something with them. Now I am not delusional I know gender is not on to many peoples top list so I have other plans for public health as well though world vision who I work with already or khana or I recently have met with Marie Stoops they work on family planning and I really admire all that they do for reproductive rights. Other then this I have no real plan of action just to keep working in Cambodia. Until next peace out from the other side of the world!

Jentee's Husband Arrives the airportthe crab was amazing!jentu and my grandmamamy host mom is ankle deep but needs a floating device hahaplaying in the waterfalls my host mom churey and mechurey dancing to the sunsetjentu playing in the waterfallsnot quite a title wave hehemy host dad with jentee's husband

What does it mean to be integrated while in peace corps training we were given markers of how many people ask you to eat rice with them or the amount of wedding invitations you get or even how many people want to drink with you. For me I never felt these markers fit my idea what integration was in fact I spent this last year really analyzing what would make me feel integrated and after these past two weeks I think I get it maybe? Well the peace corps markers that past volunteers left me with made me soon realize that’s more about popularity then actual integration so I started my search early on but now I can tell you its when people with in your community society can break down and cry to you scream at you trust you with every fiber of their being and not be worried you will shun them. It’s more about the disappearances of nationality into the humanness we all have. I think there are degrees in which one integrates as well and times we can fit in we can even become part of a family however to go past that is no easy feat and we or at least from my experience we don’t seem to get their to often and when we do its never what we except. These past two weeks have been an emotional roller coaster for me and I have had to really think about what is fair to write in this blog as for when I first started my blog it was all just free flowing I felt the information I had was mine to share with you my followers however slowly that has changed some things were no longer my secrets to share. It would be selfish for me to unload some things I have had to learn to deal with in part bc the person sharing the secret with me is clearly suffering far more then my self with that said if there are things missing in this write up that you wish you knew more about I am sorry but I can not share it on this public form and perhaps one day I will bare all to the world but for now you will have to take what I can give. This blogged is titled Better Late Then Never because my host sister American Husband finally came to Cambodia after a 4 year hiatus however with this preparation I had a lot of looming dread intertwined with complex thoughts where I don’t feel I ever reach a right answer to any of it. Even now as I am writing this blog way after the fact of meeting him can’t I say I know what’s best. My host sister has had to endure public stigmazation for her “husband’s” lack of support and stating he will come to see her and has not. When I first heard about this whole situation I feared the worst I am not going to lie I think some of my past blogs might reflect that. When you have to deal with the public shaming day in and day out you become numb to it and you start to lie to your self and others to the point you don’t even know anymore this is how I viewed my host sister. There is a quote from a movie goes something like this “don’t pretend to be someone your not because pretty soon you will forget you are pretending and so will everyone else” I didn’t want this for my host sister however I did not beat around the bush I took a weed whacker to it and that was no the best approach for a few month in the beginning I caused her to shut down on me. I thought at the time I was just trying to help her open her eyes and make her realize she is putting her self in a seriously dangerous situation at the time I didn’t know if this husband was some sort of pimp or what even just so desperate guy who wants a made. I truly feared for her life this was what sociologist called a fallacy of being to close to the situation I took my personal experience in the domestic violence shelter and could not see it any other way or would not. I learned a lot from this and I stopped and instead decided that my purpose was to make her happy now as you can guess sometimes what is best for someone and what makes the happy is not the same. That is a consequence I am prepared to handle down the rd. I will not go into details for this is one of those things that will not be stated on the public sphere of the internet. I started to help her Skype with the husband etc. and have had time to sort of help him realize what he was doing to her I think in some ways I helped force his hand to come and visit. Back on track to leading to the visit I came back from Phnom Penh it sort of hit me like a ton of bricks just how bad this situation could be or to know truly what it feels like to be 100 percent devastated. All my worst fears came out in this culturally polite conversation my host sister and mom had with me as to this god mom telling them to keep me quite so I don’t upset the husband what does that mean I don’t exactly know. I think I know enough however to know that what ever she is up to is not good and clearly she has some sort of ulterior motive I can not speculate as to what but I have not seen anyone in this life time act so worried about a relationship that is not their own unless they are getting something out of it. I just started to think the worst about this lady she was going to extort money or something I just did not trust her and I like to think I have pretty good intuition all I could think about is my sister is going to be sold or die or something. Have no fear though you guys it gets better from here on out. While I started the week off in my own boat knowing the real situation more so then my family was ready to admit they did join me soon enough! My week was filled with following the two love birds around to take lots of pictures I will post them asap. So its important to note there is a Cambodian law change that does allow foreign men over 50 to marry Cambodian women so jentee cant go to the states right now however the god mom started to act crazy telling her family she will make her husband divorce her etc. In sight to this law makes you think thank god right they want to protect women but if you dig a little deeper you start to see men in Cambodian society like that status quo aka more women to men this has allowed their cheating behavior to rule the roost if you will. Once this lady started to get real hostile with my family the walls all broke down and they were no longer defending her and so many truths came out of it. However so of this came at a hardship because as the saying goes the truth really does hurt more on that story first I will bring this to a happy note with the trip to kampong som. My host mom always talks about going to the beach down south and with jentee husband in town this was able to happen he bought a van for the family and we all went down to the beach real Khmer style by that I mean packed up van with cooked fished meat and anything else they could fit into 5 different coolers. This was the hi-light of the week for me it just felt like everyone was on neutral ground again ate all the crab I could eat played in waterfalls swam in the ocean etc it was great. At night it was me in the room with 10 other khmer people I tried to take a picture to show that they pushed all the beds together so we could try to fit as many people on and this left floor space for some more people. They put the 3 year old to sleep with me and does this kid sleep crazy and he wet the bed I was going to kill him but they don’t really train him to go to the bathroom or don’t know not to give a kid that young water be4 bed. Actually the next morning my host dad tried to get him to go to the bathroom instead he ran outside and peed off the 3rd story balcony thank god no one seemed to mind. With in the coming days when we got back my host mom realized how screwed up things were and that my host sister was trying to get pregnant I also happen to get sick from the AC. With no one around except me and the 3 year old despite my horrible khmer she just broke down. She was suction cupping me so I could not do much to console her at that time but she had her bubble burst after talking to me all week seeing the husbands actions (he is a good guy but supper slow) before she could not accept the situation for what it was and I cant really go into that much detail hear bc once again not my soul to bear but it was one of the saddest thing I have seen in all my time. All she could do want just cry into my arms and tell me how much she wanted better for her children then the life she had. That she disserves to die for not living up to expectation she had for her self and what she has done to jentee which was crazy to hear out of her mouth. She regrets ever trusting the god mother but as the saying goes its never to late to be sorry but sorry cant fix things after the fact. In the mean time the dynamics with in my family changed jentee who was once so closed off and didt trust a soul had no friends now relied on me and liz . She kept telling me all trip long she was happy to have me and liz as friends and that I am the same as her younger sister really. To see her change into this person who was just so happy around her husband it made me see how repressed she has to be for the sake of Cambodian culture. I joked around with her bc she gave me so many speeches about when luis came how I could not kiss him in public but she was so flirty in public I just kept saying u wait the next time my bf comes! I spent a lot of time with both of them and together they seem happy so what ever reservations I had about him being some sort of sex slave trade dude I don’t think that’s him. On the other hand though HE JUST DOES NOT GET THINGS LIKE DOES NOT! My family left me in charge of getting him to understand he has a wife not just some girlfriend he cant not tell people in America he is married he cant just come once in 4 years not have a house with jentee etc. still after numerous talks was not getting it finally a little beam of light came though when I asked him if he would want his daughter to be treated the same way as this whole situation as treated jentee and of course not BINGO! So he told me he was going to think of better ways to support them as a married couple not just do what he has been doing thus far I don’t know how well all my pep talks worked but only time will tell. This was an emotional tiring 2 weeks for me and has made me kick my self 100 times over for not speaking Khmer better. It was a transformation for my family has a whole and maybe I became apart of it and just can’t see it from my perspective. While I will always worry about this on going situation it has also made me realize that there is more to integration then meets the eye while I may never viewed in my community as Cambodian I am also not viewed as American I am viewed as “Eileen” these imaginary boundaries that we put on people when we first meet them seem to disappear as time goes on and for that knowledge I will forever be grateful to my experience in Cambodia. Until next time peace out from the other side of the world!

This will give away how much lifetime tv I watched as a kid but I do not know how many of you watched the Golden Girls but Sophia the old lady on the show would always start out funny stories with “pictures it 1889” then something about her being in Italy would ensue. I will start my story the same way picture it 2011 I am standing in front a few hundred people about to give a speech as an expert on human sexuality. I guess I should first start this whole fiasco from the start because after all one does not just end up on stage without a few events unfolding. As a peace corps volunteer one of the most valuable lessons we learn in training is all about IRBING this is a term that refers to making as many possible contacts to work with on projects etc while in country. About 5 months into living at site my counter part who is also studying to be a DR in Phnom Penh at International University has me take the IU van in with him to help him with a project it is during this faithful day I meet some higher ups in the university who talk about wanting to work with me more. However at this time, I am overwhelmed with so many other things at site I just put the offer to work with the university on the back burner. It was not until the end of the rainy season when I remembed their offer that I was like hum it would be cool to do something with this university of potential Dr’s and Midwives but what I had no idea. What I had in my mind was setting something up for drs to do more volunteer work or help them with out reach education which I do not think is ever really taught to them. In the meeting, I have set up I go back and forth with the international director who deiced he wants to start a potential class on human sexuality that would be more encompassing than just std type of education because he felt it could help with long term patient care. I sit back and cant believe I am hearing right that in Cambodia they are willing to teach a class about gender sexuality everything (my draw drops). I soon think though how can I help you with this? Once again though more talk they would just like me to come up with a prototype if you will on what a human sexuality course could look like. I take on this challenge they give me a dead line of the end of oct however, in-between all of this I was visiting china so this gave me to two weeks to create the course the pressure was on. Well when I came back from china I had the power point slides ready and had a date set up to meet with the director again of course by Cambodian standards you can not make a meeting in the beginning of the month and have it stand as is by the end of the month. Yea so it got canceled not to worry he would call me to re schedule me sigh o well had other things to do anyways. It was one fateful morning when my whole house came crashing down on me, it went something like this “Eileen I am so very surprised I see your poster at school you will be presenting” me to hong “huh what are you talking about right now” hong to me “yes there is a big poster of you saying you will talk about the human sexuality” inside my head “what the fuck did they do and why did know one call me to ask” few mins later in my own head “how am I going to deal with this sigh I guess I have to call and figure this mess out”. After a call, im told pretty much nothing except could I meet him this Saturday upon meeting the next wtf moment occurred going on the website to get the street address to give to a tuk tuk I see my picture now I know I am in deep. At this meeting, which he showed up to an hour, late my time is just no valuable I guess they inform me that they made these posters of the presenters and I would not mind right umm yea I sort of do mind. Like most things in Cambodia I am always pushed to go to new lengths to be culturally sensitive with this situation they would have lost face (a big deal in Cambodia) if I backed out thus causing me to lose face. I suck it up and said I will do it however, this leaves me with another issues what do I tell peace corps? Well once anything could be media related which at this point I clearly had no idea if it would or would not be I had to call the director to sort of explain this situation out. Which went something like this me I am presenting a small lecture (I didn’t know the number of people) can you just tell me what I can and cant say if the press is their… huh what exactly are you talking about me well I am presenting on human sexuality but don’t worry the university has labeled me a research from the USA nothing about peace corps (most of you are under the notion that you must have a PhD to be considered a research, me to but in Cambodia turns out not!) the rest of the conversation in confession umm just don’t talk about Cambodian politics and you should be okay. So now we fast forward to the day of and were back on all these eyes on me and I must start a presentation on the history of human sexuality with an emphasis on Cambodian history no easy feat since there is little to nothing documented on the subject believe me, I spent weeks researching it! Now for those of you who don’t know me I have a big mouth and tend not to shut up however, big groups are not my things I do much better in small groups. In fact, I don’t think I have ever gotten a good grade in public speaking in my life in all the classes I have had on the subject, I pretty much get a B if I am lucky. I also have this issues where I speak 1000 miles a min and I cant stop my self for the most part it takes a lot of mental power to slow down however, when you know your audience 2nd la is eng you have to speak supper slow which I tried my best to do. Now Cambodia is pretty much in the dark ages when it comes to talking about sex in public with this in mind I did not go to extreme however, I thought since I was dealing with med students I should not be too worried. I was wrong the maturity level of people who are this close to dealing with patients was no better then a 12-year-old boy in the states it was sort of sad. On the other hand, the people who were interested seemed to learn a lot though no one except one person asked a question after the lecture more on that in a sec. the mic kept cutting out which was annoying which im sure made it hard for people to understand me but the two people who came with me Liz and Taylor said overall it was good that it was not the train rec they thought it could be. I know you think I missed the bullet on that one but wait it only became a train rec after… so that one person who asked a question was this old Khmer guy who was also a presenter about erectile dysfunction now my lecture was the history of human sexuality so I just kind played off his questions of that is another topics one I can cover at a different time but just stating I am wear of sexual dysfunction in both men and women. This kept him at bay for the time being however bc he was also a presenter we got brought to a special room with fruit I bought both my friends in with me thank god for what unfolds next would not be believed if I did not have other witness. Now keep in mind the whole situation was confusing and his line of questioning didn’t make senses but by the end, all I can tell you is that he wanted to correlate his ed with virgins. This whole situation was extremely sexist and if you don’t believe that patriarchy behavior is alive and well I am living proof so its 3 girls on one side of the table and all the men on the other side when all of a sudden I will call him ED guy starts to questions the hell out of me. Wants to know my approach to human sexuality and I was like I have a social sciences background but then he started to imply a social sciences background in it self was not good enough and then proceeds to ask me this is the terminology he used not me by the way, yea this guy is a dr “have I ever been inside a lady’s secret parts” umm me no I am not a gynecologist I am a social scientist with an interest in women’s rights and human sexuality. Then he starts to talk about virginity this is where it just got so sexist I did’t even know what to do Liz was turning bright red I thought she might punch him so I am trying to just keep my composure. He starts to question how do I view virginity as a good or bad thing now I did not want to state my option for I knew what he wanted to hear but I also wanted to make him see the fallacy in his logic so I did not say what he wanted to hear instead I asked a question with a question can you define what a virgin is to me? Naturally he could not bc virginity at best medically is defined by loss of hymen which most people lose in various activities that have nothing to do with sex. The way we think of virginity and sex is more socially/ culturally constructed then anything else. Then he keeps going on about Khmer women and the collapses of the moral system as far as not waiting till marriage and stating that its because they follow the west aka American where there is not such thing as a virgin now he was trying to call the 3 Americans sitting in front of him sluts or broken. I was getting frustrated liz was about to punch him when we ask him well what about a man virginity and he was like well he cant loss his hymen he does not have one so it does not matter if he has sex or not (nothing sexist their). Then he goes back to Erectile Dysfunction and is trying to figure out how can we know who has the problem and what can help. Well I am like you know there is medicine however, are you aware that statistically only like 30 percent of women are capable of achieving orgasm so if you are worried as a doctor about sex dysfunction maybe you should start their. That’s when he turns his ed issues into the thought that having sex with a virgin would cure him that’s when I just dropped my jaw and had nothing else to say to this man. I guess I can say I am glad I got to have my first lecturing experience in a country that is more relax with things such as this. Until next time peace out from the other side of the world.

Thought the funding of world vision my hospital was able to hold a 3 day health education or women who are pregnant in my community. Sadly though, no one told me this was going to happen so I had mins to get ready for said education. Its always frustrating when you want to help and get utilized properly but instead get to find out the morning of this is happening. Well despite the rest of the staff being a wear they had to teach do you think they knew what they were doing nope not at all now if, they talked to me and told me what they wanted to teach I have lesson plans and materials they could have used err. Anyways I did what I could it turned out to be okay another pcv has this special project going on testing out this new text book on women’s health and asked us to help test it out and write up how well it works. The chapter was on family planning trying to get to the issues with why its hard for them to family plan the value of big and small family’s. The thing about Cambodian people they are taught not to think just given info so they can re say what they have heard from other ngos but, cant quite put the pieces together. This is where I like to think I can come in and help where I make them get in groups and ask for specific economic reasons vs them just telling me Cambodia has no money which if I had a penny for every time I hear that phrase I would be a million air but, that is besides the point. However getting them to think and talk and figure this out is like pulling teeth and its not just them its the staff to because they just like to read and be done with whatever it is so to have staff who was helping me with translation understand why I was making them do the activates I was, it was like beating my head against the wall. However by the time, I was done with the education all the women were genuinely happy and the good news is that they actually requested that I do more health education or them so while I was only allotted one subject the staff had to add me into more time slots =) the other good out come of this is they actually tried to copy my way of teaching for other topics they were covering. Another topic I covered was hiv and aids once again the way most ngos teach Cambodians is very basic and never go into scientific detail for fear it will go over their head however,I am not someone who likes to give up on people just bc it might take more time to learn maybe bc all my life I take a exceedingly long time to understand things. Anyways instead of just talking about the usual how to prevent hiv/aids I went though considerable length for them to understand how the virus kills the immune system showed them pictures did some role playing etc and by the end they actually understood complex ideas about cell biology and the body along with how to prevent hiv this made me immensely happy. Funny story with this education is that in the health center, there is a wooden penis that I thought I could use for a condom demonstration this however, went ary very quickly. I think last year I told you all about the story of having an argument about American condom brand vs khmer with the nurse who was trying to tell me khmer condoms are smaller well now I understand more so than before. I get this wooden penis and they give me an O.K condom (a popular brand of condom) and when I go to put it on said wooden penis it was to small so mean while all these women are watching me struggling with this hysterically laughing at me. In Cambodia, they can ask downright crazy question, for a culture that is supposed to be so shy about sex they all start to ask me if American penis is bigger than Khmer penis. I am like o god so I just answer the only way I could think of which was to say I am not married so I would have no ideas about such things. No lie they all were like we do not believe you bc Americas do not wait they all have sex so I had to debate them for like 10 mins that Americans do not all have sex. Anyways lesson learned Khmer condoms are actually much smaller than I knew and I should test out size of condom on the fake penis I will use for education in the feature. Until next time peace out from the other side of the world!

okay sorry but someone on Facebook posted this link up and i think its to funny not to re post on this blog. I would also like to say this occupy wall street has my support while i understand why some people may see them not pin pointing how to take action aka no solution to the problem and just whining they are making people take notice. I guess when you have no work to go to you mine as well OWS. however whats so concerning to me is that our own president condemned the way protesters in the middle east were being treated but when it comes time to see how american gov treats protesters the treatment is no better. I think no matter what most people are not happy with the current situation and want change however can we find a solution i don't know? anyways i copy and pasted both the web sites i have so enjoy!

At this moment, a whole lot of people, most of them 15 to 20 years younger than me, are protesting in every major city. What are they angry about? A lot of things, some of which are partially my fault.See, I'm a part of Generation X, the post-Baby Boom era kids who grew up on a mental diet of Beavis and Butthead and Alice in Chains. We wrote poems about how angry we were at our fathers, wore goatees like weapons and made panties burst into flames by playing Pearl Jam's Black on our acoustic guitars. We were a bridge from the Baby Boomers to all you guys who are in high school and college now. And I'm pretty sure we fucked up that handoff pretty badly.This is not a sarcastic apology, I'm not a big enough dick to write all of this as a backhanded insult about how lazy and entitled you are. Because you're not.I'm honestly apologizing for ...#5. Making You Ashamed to Take Manual Labor JobsDuring one "Occupy Wall Street" protest, somebody from the Chicago Board of Trade dumped McDonald's applications on the protesters. This made me think of a viral Facebook post that David Wong showed me the other day:Via Weknowmemes.comIf you know who that came from, we'd love to give him/her credit for the post. And a high five or something.Because yes, you guys are getting hammered for being too lazy or "entitled" to take on a low-paying job, and for standing up and demanding help paying for college, etc., instead of just being happy "flipping burgers." People my age and older will go on and on about how in our day we weren't too good to get our hands dirty when the good jobs dried up.But I'm pretty sure we taught you the opposite of that. And the Baby Boomers taught us.Photos.com

"Lesson 12: When you have brown people over, always smile. They can sense your fear."See, we were raised on 1980s movies and sitcoms, and the "cold, unfeeling grownup who works too hard" was the villain in half of them. The whole point of these "body switching" comedies -- where a kid winds up in the body of a grownup -- was that the career-driven workaholic dad learned what life was really all about. The message was clear: If you work too hard, you'll lose your soul.The characters who worked their asses off were shown to be stiff prudes who come down on the lighthearted main character with an iron fist. Or maybe that person is the main character, but by the end they realize that the only way to truly enjoy life is to lighten up and embrace their inner child. They finally stand up and quit their grindstone job in a hail of applause, and live a life of stress free bliss. As a side note, at some point, those people had to urinate ... so the little kid trapped in the dad's body was physically handling his dad's cock. That image is on the house -- you're welcome.Photos.comBy the time the Grunge Era came around, the "slacker" and "loser" characters were heroes, the guys who knew that life was really all about having fun. We were a self-depreciating group of people who proudly declared that we were what our parents always wanted to be: laid back and carefree. "Loser" and "slacker" were terms of endearment. We knew that the whole suit-and-tie job was a one way ticket to becoming Principal Vernon from The Breakfast Club. So many of us ended up slacking our way into fast food jobs. We were the guys from Clerks.Flash forward a couple of decades, and most of us are now parents. We've since found out that there's not much market for making a really good honey bear bong or winning a contest for having the dirtiest flannel shirt (first place four years running, thank you very much). We've cut our hair, bought some decent work clothes and moved on -- lesson learned. But that fast food job stuck with us. It became a scare tactic to use on our own kids. We want them to have something better.Photos.com

"When we smile, it means that something that was recently inside of us ... is now inside your pizza."But here's the thing: Those Baby Boomers who started this "you don't want to flip burgers" bullshit did flip burgers. Or roof houses, or mine coal, or wax porn stars' assholes. And that wasn't something to be ashamed of back then -- that was the era before you needed a bachelor's degree to get a job waiting tables (but more on that in a moment). But at some point between my grandfather's time and now, getting your hands dirty became something to be ashamed of. My generation perpetuated that. We made it socially unacceptable to:A) Do any job that requires sweat and/or a uniform.B) Work 70-hour weeks to get ahead.So if you don't do either of those things, what's left? Getting an education and waiting for a good job in your field. But now, when we catch you doing that, we mock you and tell you to go flip burgers. And that's bullshit. We told you your whole lives that those jobs were for idiots and failures. You think you're too good for those jobs because that's what we've been fucking telling you since birth.Photos.com

"Give me shit all you want -- my car has gas and my fridge is full of stolen chicken."#4. Implying That College Would Guarantee You a Good JobLast month, I overheard a conversation between a steakhouse waiter and an older couple he was serving. He knew the couple, but not intimately. They politely asked how his classes were coming along, and he said that he had in fact graduated with a degree in architecture. For the next several minutes, the old couple awkwardly tried to reassure him that something would come along while he attempted to justify to them why he was serving steaks for a living.It was painfully clear that he felt like a failure, and that he dreaded having this conversation with every older member of his family he encountered. Having to put a positive spin on his own life, trying to reassure them that he wasn't a failure, or lazy, or hadn't dropped out of society due to a drug problem. Yes, I did get my degree. No, they're not hiring.Photos.com

"I cannot only tell you the year, but I can break down its exact molecular composition."So, here's the thing. You have to go to college. Your parents told you that, I'm telling my kids that. Every high school teacher you have or had told you that. ("You don't want to wind up flipping burgers, do you?")And they're not wrong; if I'm an employer looking at 200 applications to fill one job, and 50 of them have bachelor's degrees, those are going to be the ones I move to the top of the pile, even if the job is that poor bastard who shakes a sign outside of Little Caesars.The problem is that we've sort of set you up to think that after high school, the next step is college, and after that you just jump in and start working at the job you went to college for. We kind of implied that this "college to job" transition is as natural and orderly as "high school to college." That is, if you get the right grades, you "graduate" to it. That's not true, and it's our fault that so many of you think that.Photos.com

"A master's in psychology? Pretty impressive. How would you say that qualifies you to answer the phone?"See, our parents told us that because they didn't actually know. As a generalized whole, they didn't go to college. You have to realize how recent the whole "everybody goes to college" thing really is. It was only two generations ago that college educations were rare -- in 1950, less than 10 percent of adults had bachelor's degrees (hell, only half even graduated high school). People back then were less mobile and more likely to stay in the town where they were born. That meant that their options were limited; men joined the military, or went to work at the local factory/warehouse/whatever was hiring. Women got busy having babies and being waitresses/secretaries/whatever was hiring. College was something that smart kids and people with money did. And they probably thought those college kids had a free ticket to a nice job in an air-conditioned office.So when they worked hard and gave their kids the opportunity to get a degree, they thought they were giving us what those fancy smart kids got: an automatic job with a hotass secretary to feel up. Sexual harassment wasn't a thing yet.Photos.com

It was considered more of a perk than assault.Now everybody has a degree. It's the baseline minimum. So when you finally take those first steps out of university life and enter the work field, it's an absolute system shock to find out your $30,000 to $100,000+ bachelor's degree doesn't guarantee you a position in your field of study ... possibly ever. At least 40 percent of you who get degrees will wind up in jobs that don't require a degree at all. And the rest will wind up in jobs outside the field they studied.Again, it's not that you shouldn't get a degree. Far from it. It's that the system we've declared to be the default also happens to be fucked. And not in the good way ... in the "chick breaks a porn record" way. You're not going to use 90 percent of what you learn.I have dozens of examples of this in my inbox right now. People who have been where I've been -- poor and struggling, willing to do whatever it takes to get out of that soul-crushing hole. After years of it, they finally have enough and decide to go back to college. So I ask, "OK, that's a good idea -- then what?" And they don't know. They hadn't considered that even after graduation, they might be in exactly the same position as they are right now ... plus another $50,000 worth of debt. Nobody told them, or at least didn't tell them loud enough.Photos.com

"BRING LUBE!"So, yes, you're frustrated and angry about that. You have a right to be.#3. Adding Seven More Years to Being a TeenagerIn my parents' day, it was always just sort of assumed that at age 18, you pack your shit and get the hell out of the house. Go back 40 years and you find everybody getting drafted into the military at that age (Vietnam and before that, Korea, and before that, World War II). When you got back, you started having babies. So if you were still living at home at age 25, they made you stay in the attic and told the neighbors you had died from tuberculosis.Things started to change with the "everybody goes to college" era. Going to college means you're probably not supporting yourself, you're living in temporary student housing and your parents keep your old bedroom in place for when you come back for the summer. So then if you don't get a job out of college, you're right back home at age 23, possibly still sleeping on a bed shaped like the Millennium Falcon.Via Thechive.com

OK, so I actually would own that, even as a successful adult.So now you guys are living in a world where kids don't move away from Mom and Dad until their mid 20s to lower 30s. And it's the same story with marriage -- today you tend to marry in your late 20s, as opposed to my parents' generation, who did so five years earlier.But this has created a very annoying, ugly side effect in the culture: the phenomenon of the immature Man-Child. The twenty-something dude with his collection of anime action figures, the guy pushing 30 who's still sticking it out with his garage band and spends his nights getting in screaming matches with teenagers on XBox Live, the hipster who spends 80 percent of his income on wacky ironic clothes and mustache growth supplements.Photos.com

This man gets no apology. He brought that upon himself.In other words, we've extended the awkward teenage years into the mid to late 20s. Now, I would not be apologizing for this if it was just the result of social and economic factors outside our control. But the problem is that we made a hero of that person. Think Kelso in That '70s Show, or Joey from Friends. My generation aspired to be that guy, the kid in a grownup body with simple, childish appetites and aspirations. I was that guy for years -- a dude can get very popular doing that.But let me tell you from experience, the longer you put off adulthood, the harder the transition is.And staying home longer does delay it -- a huge part of becoming an adult is living on your own and finding out through trial and error what works, living through seemingly simple things like balancing your budget, cooking your own meals and learning how to get blood stains out of your ceiling without repainting.Photos.com

Long story.And what's going to happen is you're going to run into a whole lot of people who still judge you according to the age scale set by my parents' generation -- that you should have your shit together by 23.So you grow up in a culture that tells you maturity is for boring assholes, and then suddenly you get dumped into a world that expects maturity.

Read more: 5 Ways We Ruined the Occupy Wall Street Generation | Cracked.com http://www.cracked.com/blog/5-ways-we-ruined-occupy-wall-street-generation/#ixzz1dmNejG8E

So, what are the protesters so upset about, really?Do they have legitimate gripes?To answer the latter question first, yes, they have very legitimate gripes.And if America cannot figure out a way to address these gripes, the country will likely become increasingly "de-stabilized," as sociologists might say. And in that scenario, the current protests will likely be only the beginning.The problem in a nutshell is this: Inequality in this country has hit a level that has been seen only once in the nation's history, and unemployment has reached a level that has been seen only once since the Great Depression. And, at the same time, corporate profits are at a record high.In other words, in the never-ending tug-of-war between "labor" and "capital," there has rarely—if ever—been a time when "capital" was so clearly winning.Click here to see what the protesters are so upset about >
Let's start with the obvious: Unemployment. Three years after the financial crisis, the unemployment rate is still at the highest level since the Great Depression (except for a brief blip in the early 1980s)Image: St. Louis FedJobs are scarce, so many adults have given up looking for them. Thus, a sharp decline in the "participation ratio."Image: St. Louis FedAnd it's not like unemployment these days is a quick, painful jolt: A record percentage of unemployed people have been unemployed for longer than 6 months.Image: St. Louis FedAnd it's not just construction workers who can't find jobs. The median duration of all unemployment is also near an all-time high.Image: St. Louis FedThat 9% rate, by the way, equates to 14 million Americans—people who want to work but can't find a job.Image: St. Louis FedAnd that's just people who meet the strict criteria for "unemployed." Include people working part-time who want to work full-time, plus some people who haven't looked for a job in a while, and unemployment's at 17%Put differently, this is the lowest percentage of Americans with jobs since the early 1980s (And the boom prior to that, by the way, was from women entering the workforce).Image: St. Louis FedSo that's the jobs picture. Not pretty.And now we turn to the other side of this issue... the Americans for whom life has never been better. The OWNERS.Corporate profits just hit another all-time high.Image: St. Louis FedCorporate profits as a percent of the economy are near a record all-time high. With the exception of a brief happy period in 2007 (just before the crash), profits are higher than they've been since the 1950s. And they are VASTLY higher than they've been for most of the intervening half-century.Image: St. Louis FedCEO pay is now 350X the average worker's, up from 50X from 1960-1985.Image: G. William Domhoff, UC Santa CruzCEO pay has skyrocketed 300% since 1990. Corporate profits have doubled. Average "production worker" pay has increased 4%. The minimum wage has dropped. (All numbers adjusted for inflation).Image: G. William Domhoff, UC Santa CruzAfter adjusting for inflation, average hourly earnings haven't increased in 50 years.In short... while CEOs and shareholders have been cashing in, wages as a percent of the economy have dropped to an all-time low.Image: St. Louis FedIn other words, in the struggle between "labor" and "capital," capital has basically won. (This man lives in a tent city in Lakewood, New Jersey, about a hundred miles from Wall Street. He would presumably be "labor," except that he lost his job and can't find another one.)Image: Robert JohnsonOf course, life is great if you're in the top 1% of American wage earners. You're hauling in a bigger percentage of the country's total pre-tax income than you have at any time since the late 1920s. Your share of the national income, in fact, is almost 2X the long-term average!Image: David RuccioAnd the top 0.1% in America are doing way better than the top 0.1% in other first-world countries.Image: David RuccioIn fact, income inequality has gotten so extreme here that the US now ranks 93rd in the world in "income equality." China's ahead of us. So is India. So is Iran.Image: G. William Domhoff, UC Santa CruzAnd, by the way, few people would have a problem with inequality if the American Dream were still fully intact—if it were easy to work your way into that top 1%. But, unfortunately, social mobility in this country is also near an all-time low.So what does all this mean in terms of net worth? Well, for starters, it means that the top 1% of Americans own 42% of the financial wealth in this country. The top 5%, meanwhile, own nearly 70%.Image: G. William Domhoff, UC Santa CruzThat's about 60% of the net worth of the country held by the top 5% (left chart).Image: G. William Domhoff, UC Santa CruzAnd remember that huge debt problem we have—with hundreds of millions of Americans indebted up to their eyeballs? Well, the top 1% doesn't have that problem. They only own 5% of the country's debt.Image: G. William Domhoff, UC Santa CruzAnd then there are taxes... It's a great time to make a boatload of money in America, because taxes on the nation's highest-earners are close to the lowest they've ever been.Image: National Taxpayers UnionThe aggregate tax rate for the top 1% is lower than for the next 9%—and not much higher than it is for pretty much everyone else.Image: G. William Domhoff, UC Santa CruzAs the nation's richest people often point out, they do pay the lion's share of taxes in the country: The richest 20% pay 64% of the total taxes. (Lower bar). Of course, that's because they also make most of the money. (Top bar).Image: G. William Domhoff, UC Santa CruzAnd now we come to the type of American corporation that gets—and deserves—a big share of the blame: The banks. Willie Sutton once explained that the reason he robbed banks was because "that's where the money is." The man knew what he was talking about.Image: APRemember when we bailed out the banks? Yes, and remember the REASON we were told we had to bail out the banks? We had to bail out the banks, we were told, so that the banks could keep lending to American businesses. Without that lending, we were told, society would collapse...So, did the banks keep lending? Um, no. Bank lending dropped sharply, and it has yet to recover.Image: St. Louis FedSo, what have banks been doing since 2007 if not lending money to American companies? Lending money to America's government! By buying risk-free Treasury bonds and other government-guaranteed securities.Image: St. Louis FedAnd, remarkably, they've also been collecting interest on money they are NOT lending—the "excess reserves" they have at the Fed. Back in the financial crisis, the Fed decided to help bail out the banks by paying them interest on this money that they're not lending. And they're happily still collecting it. (It's AWESOME to be a bank.)Image: St. Louis FedMeanwhile, of course, the banks are able to borrow money FOR FREE. Because the Fed has slashed rates to basically zero. And the banks have slashed the rates they pay on deposits to basically zero. So they can have all the money they want—for nearly free!Image: St. Louis FedWhen you can borrow money for nothing, and lend it back to the government risk-free for a few percentage points, you can COIN MONEY. And the banks are doing that. According to IRA, the "net interest margin" made by US banks in the first six months of this year is $211 Billion. Nice!Image: Institutional Risk AnalyticsAnd that has helped produce $58 billion of profit in the first six months of the year.Image: Institutional Risk AnalyticsAnd it has helped generate near-record financial sector profits—while the rest of the country struggles with its 9% unemployment rate.Image: Reuters (Felix Salmon)And these profits are getting back toward a record as a percentage of all corporate profits.Image: The Big PictureAnd those profits, of course, are AFTER the banks have paid their bankers. And it's still great to be a banker. The average banker in New York City made $361,330 in 2010. Not bad!Image: New York Times, New York State ComptrollerThis average Wall Street salary was 6X the average private-sector salary (which, in turn, is actually lower than the average government salary, but that's a different issue).Image: New York Times, New York State ComptrollerSo it REALLY doesn't suck to be a banker.And so, in conclusion, we'll end with another look at the "money shot"—the one overarching reason the Wall Street protesters are so upset: Wages as a percent of the economy. Again, it's basically the lowest it has ever been.Image: St. Louis FedSo now you know what the protesters are upset about!Image: AR McLin via FlickrNow check out...15 Mind-Blowing Facts About Inequality In America

Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/what-wall-street-protesters-are-so-angry-about-2011-10?op=1#ixzz1dmR0D8HY

Okay well in light of two major events I have caught in the limited American news I know about one being the College Football couch selling boys and the second that guying running for office who is lying about sexual assault. For this post you will get an earful from my over educated self in women studies and perhaps I am a bit to much on the war path these past couple of weeks but the news of these two things only pushes me further. Often the person who has to debate these issues with me is Luis who actually pretty much never agrees with what I am saying so I am used to being tuned out if this is what you decide to do. First off I would like to state how screwed our culture is that never once in all the media videos I have seen this far have I heard anything about the psychological state of the victims but all about what this means for Penn state football team is it me or is that screwed up??? This is all after the fact of course but how about all the people who knew and said nothing for fear what shame it could bring the organization (once again what about the victims shame). Today I read the psychological excuses behind why an organization with more men tend to believe in a highartical order and feel less compelled to stop the person higher in the social order. That women are better able to asses the victims needs over that of the social group while men turn to each other forgetting the victim. The problem with all of this is right now we must remember this is a male social organization so even after the fact that this is all going down its major focus is still on the male group of the college institution and what will happen to the football team. Now some of you might think what no your crazy, just count how many people have posted on twitter Facebook about the situation what are they saying? Exactly my point! Now to be fair and so I don’t seem one sided its not just this male football organization the students knew about this to but this brings me to ask you do we live in a rape culture? Rape culture is an umbrella term for all the things that enable people to consider the willful violation of another person's sexual consent less than a gravely serious and violent crime, and usually focuses on how many aspects of culture can be used to normalize and trivialize sexual violence against women or in this case a young child. Ex anyone can say that child wanted to help the team by prostitution thus making it mentally okay in their head that they are ignoring the fact that they know rape is occurring. Not to mention as a whole rape on college campus is often unreported and dealt with internally anyone see why this could lead to problems with justices? Now people sit around and wonder why the police where not involved because more times then not they never are. I know where I went to school the campus police where more powerful then the town cops. If any of you doubt this is rape culture look how the student body is reacting protesting the firing of a couch that covered up sever sexually abuse that occurred for years. If you think rape culture with this particular example will end just wait till next football season I should know I went to a “football school” where the student body sells shirts of a graphic nature of the opposing team lets just say nothing is crossing the line. Why I bring this up well I would bet you 100 dollars there will be shirts joking about not taking your kids to that game on a shirt or don’t take a lollipop from the couch sort of a deal I guess we will have to wait to see if I am right. As always though, nothing wrong here just day to day normal culture of our values system one I hope we don’t stand for much longer. Some of you might not know I have a huge vested interested in studying non verbal communication particular lying any way’s with that show lie to me on fox it has taken my interest to a whole new level. I don’t have 24 media access to who is running and honesty grateful for that but I happened to get board one afternoon and after seeing on Khmer news their was “allegations” of sexual harassment from that Cain I was like hum I wonder if I could YouTube it to see his body la I know that’s how sick my mind is I just had to see if I could practices my skills. Okay I would like you not to just watch this clip but let it dl fully then keep pausing it like every 2 seconds and look at him tell me what you see how many times can you see him lie. I can tell you what caught me right off the bat was how many times he stuck out his tongue a tell tell sign he backed away from what he said multiple times. Well a few YouTube clips down from my search I saw one of him on some type of morning new talk show admitting to knowing that their was a payoff and over stating his marriage of 25 years??? Just so you know I get it all politicians lie and I think most of them have had women on the side if not all of them you can also look at Bill Clinton’s denial speech. If you want to see a good one of how much Obama’s staffers esp Nancy dis like him look no further then this video. What gets me is I can accept if you want to say alleged sexual assault however its like the false claims that was never proven we just paid these women off. Next victim blaming he has now set up a web site to discredit his victims by stating how they have had money issues and so on I know a lot of people buy it to with out realizing hey anyone can be raped or sexually assaulted even with bad credit rating. A lot of people believe its about the money however im guessing if that was the case they would have been paid off before coming out bc after the fact they cant get the money with out huge public ramifications and I don’t know to many people who would go though that. It would be far easier to just blackmail him before coming out don’t you think? To top it off how does he end this by singing songs about Jesus what is he trying to say symbolically that he is innocent and just like Jesus being hung on some sort of cross he does not disserve lmao sorry I just cant by it and I cant wait for it to come out and be proven how much he is lying just like all the other male politicians before him (there all wrongly accused until their not!). What has got me standing on my soap box for this blog is that well when ever I have talks with people about equality time and time and again esp in America how everything is so fair that all I should do is look at the middle east to see how good we have it bc there is nothing sexist here in American not at all. Though we still blame rape victims talk about a rape victims appearance we cant even say the word rape in the media instead its sexual assault we care more about the legacy of football then children. This of course is cross cultural as well Cambodian women are no different they see nothing wrong with the way they are treated anymore then the way Americans view how women in our country are treated. There is something within us that never wants to be viewed in a victim status so to say there is a status quo that must be met in all cultural and society would mean realizing that you don’t meet that and what you get instead is inequality where you are on the bottom half. So to say there is nothing sexist here is just down right wrong but hey if you want me to give you more proof just ask I have read far to many books lately on the invisibility of women world wide I would happy to further defend my argument if it does not yet meet your standards of proof. Until next time peace out from the other side of the world.

Okay Video one pause at (10 sec, 22 blinks eyes pause on word sexual harassment, 26 sec bits lip sticks out tongue, 35 sec once again pause on the word sexual harassment, 47 sec states he recused him self but pulls back he was asked to leave, 1:03 lip lick yet again, 1:10 body fully turned away protecting him self, 1:12 bites lip, 1:15 lack of eye brow expression of surprises very aware of the situation (later in a talk show does admits to knowing about pay off), 1:18 lip lick yet again) Video two victim pause at (3:49, 3:52, 3:55, 4:00 mins) its hard to capture lies unless your the guy from lie to me however are face leaks out micro expressions all the time unless very well trained we as humans can not control them when you pause at these moments what emotion is leaked out? who is telling the truth? for your exter blast from the past enjoyment i did post up the video of bill clinton and the one of Obama.

yea word choice is key with him put if you stop it at 22 sec you can see he is sad like a dog that puts its tail between its legs no lie.

39 signs of lying enjoy!

http://hellosmarty.com/how-tell-if-someone-lying

First before I start to ask for things just want to say Thanks so much to anyone gave money to my domestic violence project it has now been fully funded!!!!! The workshop will not be until feb of 2012 but ill be sure to take lots of pictures so you can see where your money went =) some people have been asking for things I want this year to be sent to me once again im not in direr need of anything only some things that might be able to better help me with my work in Cambodia.

I will be doing another take back the night sending plain old shirts would be great

1 year subscription to scientific America

USB memory stick with a lot of memory to back up my files 64-128 gb

books

Telling Lies: Clues to Deceit in the Marketplace, Politics, and Marriage, Third Editionhttp://www.amazon.com/Telling-Lies-Marketplace-Politics-Marriage/dp/0393337456/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1319890733&sr=8-1

https://face.paulekman.com/face/productdetail.aspx?pid=21

http://www.amazon.com/Encountering-Development-Arturo-Escobar/dp/0691001022/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1319892209&sr=1-1

http://www.amazon.com/History-Development-Western-Origins-Global/dp/1848131887/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1319892293&sr=1-1

http://www.amazon.com/EMERGENCY-SEX-OTHER-DESPERATE-MEASURES/dp/B0014JUGXC/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1319892373&sr=1-1

http://www.amazon.com/Turning-World-Upside-Down-Century/dp/1853159336/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1319892707&sr=1-1

http://www.amazon.com/Gender-Equity-Development-Theory-Practice/dp/0822336987/ref=pd_sim_b_1

Also if you have any goodnight moon children type of books to donate my way It is all part of my way to teach some kids some eng.

I do a lot of out reach and always am luging my computer would be nice to have something lighter so if anyone has a used ipad that has a sim slot I could use it for when I am out in the middle of no where doing education.

Fajita mix big bottle not the small packets huge bottle.

Spices in general would be great.

Life cereal

Cinnamon pop tarts

Gum mint flavored

Coffee cake

Chocolate any kind is fine the two-year in my family will help me polish it off.

Peanut butter creamy

Frebreez

The biggest bottle of Excedrin migraine

Nose canceling head phones wedding season is upon me I need to stop the music at 1 am-5am Long unclosed black and dark grey leggings tights

“Korean style” is pretty popular as well so if you see anything really crazy I can deff get away with it ex

http://weblogsurf.com/coolest-collection-of-stylish-black-silk-bandage-leggings/

http://www.google.com/imgres?q=leggings&um=1&hl=en&newwindow=1&biw=1187&bih=595&tbm=isch&tbnid=4b-IVFXEpKmZhM:&imgrefurl=http://fashionesedaily.com/blog/2009/05/13/shredded-cut-out-leggings-yay-or-nay/&docid=-az1YD69D0I8MM&imgurl=http://fashionesedaily.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2009/05/shredded-leggings.jpg&w=480&h=480&ei=WeusTt7xM8SiiAflzbi1Dw&zoom=1

Black queen size fitted sheets

Leapfrog alphabet trying to teach the 3 year old however anything that has pieces will be lost quickly so whatever vision of educational tool you find for learning the alphabet try to make sure its hard to destroy.

So I am in need of some hands on visual educational materials some of this stuff is more money then its worth so if anyone has the ability to make it them self (sadly I lack these types of talents) or has away to get it for free would be great!

http://www.anatomywarehouse.com/5-month-fetus-female-1257

http://www.simulaids.com/LS03768.htm

http://www.a3bs.com/Pregnancy-Childbirth-Education/Cloth-Breast-Model-Beige-W43044,p_1208_346_1178_4858.html

http://www.a3bs.com/Sex-Education/Female-Condom-Model-L41-2,p_1208_346_52_16775.html

http://www.a3bs.com/Sex-Education/IUD-Trainer-W44615,p_1208_346_52_5199.html

http://www.global-technologies.net/details.php?id=480&idor=1410&c=&s=&pqn=&name=Deluxe-Condom-Training-Model,-Beige

For my family

One of my sisters likes jewelry so costume jewelry similar to this would work wellhttp://www.madaboutjewellery.com/acatalog/crystal_dallas_y_necklace.html

my host mom could use a pair of slip on all rubber sandal similar to this style she wears a size 9http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00404USZE/ref=pd_lpo_k2_dp_sr_2?pf_rd_p=486539851&pf_rd_s=lpo-top-stripe-1&pf_rd_t=201&pf_rd_i=B004C8Y3AE&pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_r=0KRBH16TR0DXSWHSM51Q

my host dad is really into American army gear don’t ask me why but if anyone could find some fake dog tags I think it would make him happy.

For my host brother if anyone has a used pair of soccer cleats size 9 or soccer shorts

Dark colored socks

The 3 year old really likes cars and trucks so if anyone could send some would be great.

One of my sisters has 2 teenage girls so makeup perfume costume jewelry similar to most American girls really.

My sister is studying Korean and about to move there so this book could be easy access to help her.http://www.amazon.com/Oxford-Picture-Dictionary-English-Korean-Bilingual/dp/0194740161/ref=sr_1_fkmr0_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1319962187&sr=8-1-fkmr0

my other host sister is all over the place so something zen to chill her out rain chain wind chimes mediation aid would be good.

Also if you are looking for unique gifts to give people this year that might help man kind you might want to look into an organization called kiva. Okay so kiva is an ngo that helps with micro finance women all of the world. They offer gift cards so the person you give the card to can choose what type of person or business venture they would like to help get funded it’s a really unique way to help see what other people around the world go though and how much they are trying to make there lives better. http://www.kiva.org/gifts/kiva-cards#/print . I would like to wish you all luck this holiday season as I have already seen far to many adds on my aol account to know that advertising season has already started with out a hitch and once again I get to miss most of it! Thanks for all your help in support while I have been living in Cambodia its meant so much getting even snail mail letter always makes that week so exciting so thanks! Peace out from the other side of the world.

The train to shanghai was supper big and relaxing nothing like taking Amtrak they even have plug outlets for your computer! On this ride there was these to ladies on the train who only spoke Chinese but talked Helens ear off asking all sorts of questions. All I can say is despite not speaking the la they were a riot I nick named them Thelma and Louise bc of how they interacted with each other and the type of question I could just tell they were asking Helen. Initially we had no where to stay when we got to this new city so there is this really cool web site for any of you traveling on limited means or just want to make some new friends you should check it out its called couch surfing. You make a profile and it allows people to check you out to make sure ur not a crazy person and vice versa any ways we found someone to stay with this way. We ended up staying with this expat with 2 kids from Iowa this guy was supper help full gave us mats told us good places to see provided us with some wine and cheese good conversations added a little randomness to the trip. It was a pretty sweet deal bc when u think about trips where ur going sigh seeing most of ur day is spent out and about and only time ur in ur room is to sleep so this helps you not blow all ur money on a few hours of sleep =) well one of the big things to see in shanghai is the city line but they want 20 dollars to go up to the top so me and Helen went on a mission to the Raitison hotel for free it worked out no one stopped us we just had to find the right elevator. We also went to the market saw the bridge and went by the water front their was also a time sq type of place. While their we met up with Helens uncle who took us around and took us out for a lot of really good meals which was supper nice I sort of felt awkward that I could not talk to him or her aunt once we met up with her at all. We went to the science and technology museum, which actually was a nice break from all the old Chinese history stuff we did in Beijing. They had this cool machine where you could play someone by using brain waves to push the ball to the other player side Helen and I played I won looks like my brain were just stronger jk. They also had this cool room that made you feel like gravity was messing with you im still trying to figure out how it made you feel like their was a ton of bricks on you weighing you down. One of my favorite things in Shanghai was the acrobatic circus, which was pretty cool to watch I really liked the music to that went with it all I wish I could have taken more pictures but they don’t let you so sorry about that. For a few days we left the city to go about 3 hours out side to a place called Hangzhou this is also a pretty big city however it has large amount of tea fields and pretty parks and lakes. All though out the park was wedding pictures being taken it was like being in a Zen garden the whole place had flowers and weeping willow trees while Chinese natives where practicing thai-chea it was like a movie really so relaxing and just scenic. We went to explore the tea fields and then went to the tea museum where we had free tea tasting after of course ur sort of haggled into buying some tea I bought some mix I don’t remember the name but it was sweet enough tasting. We also found a place to couch surf here as well which was cool meet a nice native couple to the area I think the guy worked for the Gov. and was really nice to talk to we did not have that much time to get to know this family but it was still interesting to get to know another person. We had to fly back soon after that in all honesty I was ready to get back to my life in Cambodia sometime ideas just start to fester in my head of projects I want to do when I am gone for so long. Well until next time peace out from the other side of the world!

so as stated in my post i had to know who eats the most rice bc china did not have it at every meal cambodia is on the top 10 list but i know you are dyeing to know some random facts about rice so here you go.

FactsRice is the staple food for more than half of the world's population.There are possible tens of thousands of varieties of rice grown on every continent of the world except Antarctica.91% of the world's rice is grown in an Asian country, and about 55% accounted for by China, Taiwan and India alone.In many places around the world rice can be the difference between life and death.An average person eats about 300 to 400 pounds (130-180kg) of rice per year.The average person in Asia eats rice 2 to 3 times a day.The average person in Myanmar eats 195 kg of rice each year.The average person in Lao PDR and Cambodia eats about 160 kg of rice each year.The average European eats 3 kg per year and the average American eats 7 kg.Only 5% of the world's rice is exported, therefore 95% is consumed in the country where it is grown.It takes 5000 litres of water to produce 1kg of rice.

Me on top of a mt off the great wall it was really windy.yea me and helen the hair is proof of how high up we got.the hike was no joke up i hit my knee a few time of the steps i felt very midget like climbing up.all around few of the wallour picnic on the wall...nothing like a eating exactly what you did when you were 10!so they the great wall is a stair way to heaven this is proof.the mts with the leave changing color so pretty and i though i would not see fall this year. scared of hight's? haha the wall and how you go feels never ending.

Tiger Fur but no pedia to be found whats with that? Ghost street but no where to give the ghost food or money this made me nervous... you know you have lived to long in cambodia when you fear the ghost will be mad. scorpions on a stick helen forbidden city rub the knobs for good luckForbidden City

decoration of the buildings.

so across the street from the forbidden city is this other place a king or someone hung him self from the top you can over few the city which is cool... although very smoggy Panda Bear

I have started my vacation in china the first week has been spent in the city of Beijing China and its been interesting and exciting. Well most of you have asked me about how is the culture of china was it was you expected. So before going into what I did in china I will try to give you the reader a brief over view of my feelings about the culture and people of china. This is also a quick disclaimer I hate to pidgin hold a group of people as one so this is all very generalized aka not every person can be the same. The few conversations I had about the gov was like it was this mystical thing that no one really felt apart of just knew it was there and kept you in line. Its like people didn’t exactly agree or disagree with the way things where just more excepting that it is. I don’t know why you call colonialism when its not the west but the Chinese people seem to be pretty on board with countries that have large Chinese people in them should sort of just be part of china. In America we see people in the news etc but in china you really never see the high up people instead you have cameras as stand in on the street and soldiers who stand by x ray machines as you enter subways. This next part is what really threw me for a loop okay so to an extent I really feel the form of government any country practices to a large extent becomes part of that culture ex look at America we take democracy in all forms work family etc we never wanted to be limited bc we are free we have the right to express what we want its in stilled in our culture and politics. One would think china would be the same but not so much on top of that as far back as I can remember I was taught that places like china are all about the group which from being their I can say I disagree with for instances I guess you can say china has instilled an idealism behind communism in fact many of the books stores in front of the stores have communist manifesto by Karl Marks. However in day-to-day life does communisms seep into their lives their culture and it does not it is a very cutthroat individual culture. People do not go out of the way to make sure the group around them is happy or doing okay which I would think would be something that communist education would instill upon its people. This made me think of something else that happened a few months ago to me when I was trying to figure out something else for my host mom to sell bc I was asking her basically why do you all sell the same stuff you know my cap list mind went right to supply and demand and I could not wrap my head around why she would not want to drive out her competition to make lots of money. Then she simply explains to me that we all sell the same fruit (based on the season) so more taxi drivers know this is where you can get it and then they all can make lots of money. So this left me in china reviewing this conversation and I thought hum I never once got that vibe from people in china despite what their ideals should be based on a culture of communism. Well enough about my crazy thoughts on to the adventure of Beijing the subway system served me and Helen well we were able to go most places for 2 dollar is was an interesting place to see. Most other tourist who were America were older a lot of tour groups I was lucky to have Helen with me who speaks Chinese pretty much fluently though a lot of things are color coded and hard to mess up so even if you go with out a native speaker. Taxi are way cheaper then ny and they cant really rip u off either bc they have to print u a recite off and I am pretty sure there is laws to protect people from that stuff. I was able to see most of the tourist stuff forbid city lots of temples. I got to see some pandas in china kick the bucket list although I really wanted to see them in the wild however I was not in that part of china o well. We stayed with Helens friend from college it was really on the go type of trip walked around for 10 hours a day had some good food though most of my money went to coffee its hard to get coffee when the country as a whole loves tea man. Another news flash about food is rice is not eaten at every meal I was like what I had to ask for rice with food and when they came out with it is really small bowl. This has lead me on a research path of which country eats the most rice ill post that for you in another post just so you can see how much more rice per capita Cambodia eats then china despite the huge population of china. Once someone told me Chinese people eat everything except for pandas and I think now I can attest to that they have on the food karts start fish sea horses and everything in between. O yes be for I forget one of the biggest downers with food THERE IS NO SESMIE CHICKEN like that is not real Chinese food only American Chinese food take out imagine having your heart set of having ur favorite American Chinese dish in china to discover it’s a lie there is not such thing. I guess I cant say I dug the total vibe of the old city but its worth the trip for sure to see what all the old kings and queens have created by far my favorite part I think of my entire trip to china was the great wall. By the way I did not see any dead bodies in the wall I did look so I could report back to you on that jk okay anyways there are many part to the wall however when you want to go off roading the wall where less people are in other words it takes a lot of work. I can say one of the benefits to having native Beijing people to talk with allowed us to not be stuck in a crowd of tourist and tour groups. So we had to take a bus to this spot and then get a taxi now if I didt have Helen with me I don’t know how well this would have worked out and the taxi driver did rip us off so we did not take a taxi on the way back we found this other bus which ill go more into later. Well we get their and they have options of what you can buy such as taking a type of ski lift thing up if you don’t want to walk and on the way down you can take a toboggan so we opted for that package. We decided the hike is what we needed and any time we came to a Y and had to decided on a direction e flipped a coin in the end the coin was right just fyi but it did take us on a harder climb I guess you can say. The further up you go to the less the wall is fixed or restored so it gets a bit harder but one of the benefits of that is maybe there is 20 other people climbing it with you vs 100s on the part of the wall that has been finished. The wall it self was cool to see but the few is what had me being that high up in the mts we went on one of the few clear days yea that’s something to note for you all china has massive smog unless its windy out pretty much u cant see I think the pictures I have from the forbidden city can show you the difference between the two days. Hiking up this wall that is so old into nature was just so freeing it really just made me feel this is where I should be to top it off me and Helen pre planed to have a picnic on the great wall so we went out the grocery store and bought some bread and peanut butter and jelly and Oreos a really elementary school kids lunch and sat on the wall and had lunch. The whole day was just such an experience it makes me wish I could be one of the backpackers I saw that I think sleep on the wall and r going to every spot you can get to. On that ironic not at the same time you see these dressed up pretty Chinese girls in high heals about to fall over it is a funny mix of people. Once we reached the top and started to go off the wall we found some cool little hidden treasure and caves and what have you we started to head back down to where we could catch the toboggan. Now this looked like it could be lots of fun it was deff the longest one I have ever seen I think I rode one has a kid in pa but that was mad short this really did go all the way down. What went wrong well when there are 5 Asian girls in front of you who keep stopping the ride sucks and guys on megaphones r screaming at them to keep going not to stop this did not help any. Me and Helen were both kind of bumped about how slow we had to go and im not even a ride type of person so that should tell you how slow they really did go haha. Well we then went to go wait in line for the bus wait the line we though existed but its china so no line really existed once that bus came… okay so how to explain how much I understand we need those ropes in America to keep people in line u know when you go to the bank you think hum are these ropes necessary well after china yes apparently. Okay so these two girls that came from behind us kept trying to cut us except im fatter and bigger so I was stopping them for the time being but as soon as the bus came it was seriously a stampede like people pushed other people down just to get a seat on this bus! Being a new york you think u can handle the crowds however in china its taken up a notch seriously so despite being on what was a line we did not get seats and had to stand for an 3 hours it sucked!!! I wanted to punch those to girls cuz they did get to cut the whole line though I don’t know how it drove me crazy. The next morning we took a train and head to Shanghai more about that next post till next time peace out from the other side of the world.

So welcome to Pachume ben 2.0 new version of last year’s version. So this is a big Cambodian Holliday where you must worship your dead ancestors with food. My friend liz from pp came in to chill and go to the wat with my family this made them supper happy. This year my host mom tried to teach me and liz though she deff gave up on me way sooner then liz on how to make something called onsom jarook and onsom jake one is pork the other banana rolled up and steamed in a banana leaf. However you have to tie them just right and you tie it with dried leafs and me cooking anything is a disaster but my host mom never believed me before. In the past she asked me what I could cook and I joked around and said mie which is khmer version or roman noodles and she laughed at that for a few days she was like but all you have to do is boil water I was like that’s pretty much all I can do. Anyways she gave me 15 mins and when I was joking around with her bc the way I tied them up was really messy I kept telling her how it was the most beautiful more beautiful then hers and she was laughing and then would un tie mine and re due them all. She had a pretty strict standard with them bc we had to bring them to the wat to give to the monks. The thing about khmer holidays that sucks is that all men do is sit around and get drunk and women must slave to make sure they are having a good time while preparing time consuming things to give to dead people really! For the record the food doest get wasted they give it to the orphans at the wat. Anyways after being silently banned from making onsom me and liz went for a walk played some Frisbee and just had a good time. That night however my host sister jentu wanted us to sleep over o yea I should mention the day be4 we were at her selling stall helping her aka being eye soars and her giving us free clothes good times it was then we promised a sleepover the next night. We did not do to much that night she made me french-fries yumm and me and liz just watched a movie bc the next morning we had to go to the wat for the worshiping. The next morning we get dressed in what I feel r okay wat clothes but by jentus standards not so. So we go get food coffee go to jentu’s stall and just talk with her. When all of a sudden this guy comes up and starts to compare me and liz who is prettier then the other (this always happens when there are two white people in the same place). Most of the time I just ignore it however jentu is way crazier then even the rest of my family and have to say is very protective over me my host mom always tells me how much bong loves me anyways she turns to this dude and tells him off that if we wanted his option we would ask then she turns to both of us and says we are both pretty don’t listen to him and then goes off on him some more in Khmer I don’t understand he runs away embarrassed lost mad face. Then she looks at us again and she gets that look in her eye the same one she got before I had my wedding pictures taken and is telling us how r shirts where not pretty and to come back to her house now I knew this could lead to no good. She whips out a bunch of white Khmer wedding shirts of course im first up in this dress up gone wrong. I have this crazy beaded shirt with the added benefit of a bib next liz is up the shirt is way to big for her so my host sister pins it. I go up to look in a mirror and decided I can let her go this far I make her change my shirt to one with out a bib not that its all that better but some how it was. An hour ago jentee told us she was on her way with the tuk tuk mean while that hour took her to get her hair and makeup done I swear Cambodians… they finally make it and we head to the wat where we blow through in like 10 mins giving of all the money this year I was on it with small bills my host mom wanted me to take lots of pictures so I did. Only on special occasion is this one part of the pagoda grounds open where it had this really huge Buddha and awesome pictures it was really cool. The monk spoke to me telling me he didt know eng I think my host mom was nervous the whole time either me and liz would do something stupid I think we did a pretty good job of keeping up. Before we left to go to the 2nd wat where my grandmamma was I had to go inside and pay for a monk to spit on me for 2 reason one it is the year of the rabbit Chinese zodiac so I was supposed to get it done a while ago and the 2nd bc my family thinks I don’t have good luck that’s bc I have really weird luck I don’t like to say bad just not good. So while in America its pretty rude to spit on someone however in Cambodia I pay for this privilege and hoping I will have some good luck though its questionable. So we leave and go to another wat down the rd not as nice but that’s where my grandmamma and churey were ther was a big lake with a cool statue more food and orphan kids at this one. But soon we hop back on said tuk tuk to head to the mt where the monkeys are except unbeknown to me we were going far into the mt where their was another watt. However this time it was so my grandmamma could go find the monk that went to the hospital im still not sure we found said monk but we did stumble onto another Cambodian awkward moment. So there is this food offering ceremony for the monks with a small group of people nothing like I have done before but the person running in a Buddhist monk was soo excited. First she goes up to liz I was still not down the stairs yet and ask in eng this 70 year old nun did speak eng so odd about where was liz from and she told her and then made her get up and sit in the front to help with what in catholic religion would be like alter boy stuff with out the training. I wanted to avoid joining that situation like the plague no such luck so I tried to lie saying I was Khmer some how it just was not believable so I to became some sort of Buddhist alter boy. My host mom now looked like an anxiety attack was going to ensue with watching us about to screw up this all up having no idea whats going on anything we messed up not my fault I was forced. So there was us having to put hands on this plate to hand off to the monk lift up a table where the monks where sitting. Next was poring water into this thing of rice with a cigarette in it don’t understand the spirituality behind a cigarette then they came around with I guess holy oil that I had to rub on my head into my hair. Keep in mind all of this stuff is said in sand script on top of it nothing is in Khmer I guess u can say its like if church was still preached in Latin. After this we had to eat with everyone and the nun came over to talk with me. She wanted me to come to her house today to eat rice with her I had to tell her I was busy this lead her to ask for my phone number. I know your thinking what I did what’s the worse that can happen if I give some old nun my phone number ill have you know she has called or texted me everyday since. Well more fairly her grandson so im trying to figure out if this is a set up for me to marry her grandson or what jentee think is the nuns of like an office sort of a deal and she wants money from me assuming im rich. I don’t think I can keep her at bay to much longer so at some point ill find out her motive. I doubt some 70 year old nun wants to be my friend man even nuns have alter or motives. Until next time peace out from the other side of the world.

Sorry its been a while but my life has been not so lucky where to begin. Well first off my family has had some drama Khmer one that is because well jenta the middle one is planning to live in pp for a few months to go study Korea my host mom supports this idea. After she studies the plan is for her to go live in Korea for 5 years. Why the drama well this really fucks my other sister jentee over because she would have to watch churey jentas son and my host mom is not happy with her not willingness to help jenta. Me my self and I have the option of the middle man my host mom is a real big idea type of person which makes it fun to be around her but I can see how it screws people over. Ie she came up with the game plan for jentee to marry the American however once it was not so easy I think she quickly changed all her eggs to put it in jenta’s basket. This can obviously leave a lot of issues between everyone she sort of starts things and excepts them to work in her favor. Anyways another issues is jentee has no more money it all goes to her brother schooling and her husband is coming in nov so she wanted to save money for that but now all the family money will also have to go to jenta rent and Korean lessons. This has left jentee pretty devastated and frustrated so I have been trying to help her out. Though I understand the benfits of jenta going to korea I just think her son should go with her is all but khmer people look at that stuff way different. I just think you leave a kid with abandonment issues and they r screwed for life its already started I can tell with him. Next bad thing is my computer well my laptop is done I had to buy a new one. So I was stuck outside in a Cambodian monsoon while my laptop was in a backpack it was not enough some how water got into my screen and then it just would not turn on my hard drive went with it to. Note to self-buy external hard drive really really. Now the last and the reason for this title is angel of death well my Khmer grandmamma Grandson was in a horrible motorcycle accident. Apparently he feel off but then another moto came by and ran over his head it was so sever they had to take him into a hospital in pp. well a week goes by and I don’t know to much about the situation however I was in pp for a meeting and jentee calls me to come to the hospital so we can take a taxi home together so I was not excepting to go into said hospital. Anyways when I got their I though like the last time no one would let my brong ass in but nope this time they did and what I say is one of those life changing events. Okay I get told that they want me to go see him I should mention there is no waiting room so everyone is out side on the curb in the raine with matts sleeping their. Sorry to digress trying to pain you a picture so I go inside and I grab a yellow surgical apron (re used over and over) but the point is for germ protection right haha. I walk a few steps down the hall into the open doors to this smallish critical care unite that was open with 25 people packed in like sardines most of them im pretty sure goners in diapers and not breathing on their own but that was not for me to think about. I see this young boy 16 who I guess if family and then I see the rest of the family doing all sorts of things for him massaging his legs etc. when all of a sudden I hear an American voice I think this is an inter dr for drs with out boarders or something but find out soon she is just a missionary from California but has been their long enough for me to get a better idea what is going on. So I see that this white substances is being shot up into a tube so I ask what are they injecting into him girls response rice portage (pretty sure that has 0 nutritional value). Come to discover it’s the boys dad the situation in Cambodia is like this there is absolutely no nurse aids etc to help in any capacity it is all on the family while I have seen this on a small scale when people have fevers. To see it on such a scale when someone is on the brink of death but the family has to sit their and not only watch it but try to keep him alive is a bit much even for me. I think I have mentioned on many occasions that it doesn’t matter I have no medical degree in the village I am know as the dr so I come to find out I was brought it for my “medical option” which if I did not watch so much er and house I might have none of any ways thank god for tv jk. Anyways they wanted me to take his plus however there was a monitor which they didn’t know what it was measuring that much I did know so I told them and this impressed them upon words even though there is a picture of the heart then the pulse next to it. His heart rate was low at this point he was in Acoma with no response to light I did fear the worse even though im not trained to fear the worse I just knew it was not good. Next they take off his eye bandages to ask me why his eye is so swollen now keep in mind my Khmer is not up to the sympathy needed to convey that sort of thing with out scaring them but I tired anyways because he had sever bleeding in his brain I was trying to explain the brain was swelling up pushing on the eye sockets think it was conveyed. Next up on my medical duties that I would be sued for in America going to talk to the dr about the ct scan man I sometimes I really wish I had even a year of medical school under my belt for this craziness no such luck. Sever bleeding in what looked to me like the occipital lobe of the brain the back part. Well the fun news is this dr is one of the few who don’t speak eng (I found out later that is bc this was a French run hospital) so I have this broken convo in khmer with a little bit of help. So I ask him about surgery and he just looks at me and tells me they cant do surgery that it to high of risk that he will only have a 10 percent survival rate humm guess u don’t have to be a dr to know if you don’t stop bleeding in ur head death. Then I ask him about passing urine etc which has blood I guess earlier that day they finally stopped internal bleeding anyways then I ask how much oxygen was he on 100 percent I was told. Well all those thing to me equal not good out come so then I ask the question I was dreading how long does he have to live dr reply o he can live a while on machines he will not die soon. I know you would think he told the family this but no the dr had 0 communication with the family talk about shity bed side manner and was not planning on telling them so he could make a few hundred dollars a day. So I come out side and just say I know nothing which jentee knows im lieing but I just didt have the balls to tell my aunt your son is going to die and you have to pull the plug. However jentee quickly pulls me aside and I quickly ask her how much she wants to know and she is like no tell me so I do and then she tells the boys aunt and the whole taxi ride back their asking me question hysterically crying. So I had my first experience explaining why you don’t want to let a brain damaged person with no chance of surgery to live how its not a quality of life. ill keep you posted on all of this until not peace out from the other side of the world!

Let me first off by saying thanks for all the donations thus far and then I will get into why one should stay away from monkeys. How this all started was I went to prey veng where there is a place with monkeys however do to rainy season the rd was flood which required a boat to get their I know believe me when I say this was a crazy exertion. Well Taylor was telling me about this place that is just a wat with monkeys and I think why not well we go to walk their and we get to a part of the rd where its flooded now we are thinking humm do we try to walk across anyways then we think of r pcmo officer who is in charge of are health would kill us if we had to call with a case of leeches so we decide against this idea. The thing about Cambodia no one ever seems to have answers for you so we ask and keep asking up the block of were the rd is flooded is their a person with a boat that we could ride with well with in time we did find someone. We wait for a while talk about a price of 4 dollars for 2 of us round trip and 20 mins late out of the bushes and weeds where there used to be a rd comes this boat from far away inspection did’t seem to have any holes fingers crossed I should know. Anyways we should have know things were going to get a bit shady later on with the boat drivers when they made us wait another 15 mins for them go and buy rice wine yes me and Taylor had to drive though trees while the drivers were drunk yay for risking ones life on the account of monkeys. So after we make it out of the woods we get their pretty quickly to discover no monkeys at first this island wat is really pretty in the shade with lots of trees interesting animals bridges etc and due to the fact is almost nearly impossible to live or vist this area this time of the year we had the place to our self besides the 4 people who I guess actually live their. The drivers and some random people who rode the boat for free started to eat and drink and then all of a sudden one of the women comes up to taylor saying to leave island we must pay more money 10 dollar each lmao I know yea right! While this is all happening im still exploring taking pictures which I will post soon. Well when I get back the lady is still their and im like yea sorry I have no more money and I keep telling her how we are volunteers we are poor. Side note to all of this most Cambodians like to think all Americans have so much money however when u speak khmer with them it should be a flashing red light in their brain to why if they were smart. Anyways the police chief is ocd about taylor living in Prey Veng so lucky for us we saw him on the way to the boat where I guess he wanted to jot down that another brong was in down as well me haha this guy I guess needs to know when any who is not khmer is around I say good bc we used him as away to get them to budge. While we waited two hours going back and forth on getting them to leave the island the monkeys started to appear and where NOT HAPPY! Okay so they were I think in mating season and really hungry bc they are monkeys trapped on an island with no food and no tourist of khmer people bring them food. For some reason monkeys seem to hate taylor more then me we learned this in monkey forest in bail and how you need a stick to beat away the monkeys. However do to the nature of these monkeys state of mind sticks and throwing rocks at them were not deterrents in the past stomping at them and just staying away form them was enough however bc they wanted food from us which we had none of they tried to attack as a group even the crazy boat lady was freaking out! At this point we convinced her taylor lives in pv has a family and her uncle was the police of chief and if she died it would be a big problem for them so we won the stand off of 2 dollars per person but sort of paid a little bit in the end. I know your wondering what do you mean well that marsh land water on the way back that may have been invested with leeches we had to walk though it to get back to land I can safely say no leeches and I did no see any snakes I am alive to tell the story =) after words we treated r selves to a big lunch and coffee and did some bike riding around the area I personally think I like the big town of kp chhange better but it was still cool to see another site and I can say Taylor has a posh core life with her Barbie dream house. Its fun for me to vist rich family’s bc mine is so poor and I dunno just really like the life I get to experience in my village life! Peace out from the other side of the world.

https://www.peacecorps.gov/index.cfm?shell=donate.contribute.projDetail&projdesc=303-017

As the title suggests I need you all to act like Oprah Winfrey and pretend you all have a billion dollars to spare =) okay I am glad I have your attention or at least I hope I do. Great news Peace Corps partnership program has approved my groups project!!! Now I am left in hassling the world for the funds for this domestic violence workshop I have mentioned so many times before. I know your all thinking can I pull of being a monk and wearing an orange jump suit to get people to throw money at me and yes I to have thought about this but sorry its frowned upon or so Cambodians have told me when I ask about such ideas hehe. Also fyi I do plan to ask Oprah for a donation I know its unlikely but hey you never know. Okay now more seriously at the bottom of this page I will enclose the link but first I will try to get into more detail about this project. The overall aim of our workshop is to motivate community leaders to be more involved in cases of domestic violence in their communities, as well as to increase understanding about and causes related to domestic violence. In other words or lames terms we have teamed up with the ministry of women’s affairs and are working with some local ngos to educate people in the community who work with villager’s ie village chief, hospital staff, police etc. it is also a good way for group networking in the kp chhange province because many ngo’s we are working with have similar goals as far as women in Cambodia and specifically domestic violence with all the facilitators for this project working together they will also gain funding and other support they might need down the line from one another this is know as capacity building. Thus far with the help of Ministry of Women’s affairs we have been able to come up with a little over 2000 dollar of in kind donations my group still needs to come up with the other 3000 dollars. In all honestly I do not want the majority of funds coming from you friends and family it is more my hope that yes maybe you could spare a dollar but to actually go to organization you might be volunteering for or if you know someone who has more or vested interested in this type of work to have them donate. I am fully a wear the United States of America lost its credit rating and I understand that many of you might be in a real monetary jam right now. However I hope you will not just believe all that I have told you about how poorly women are treated in Cambodia but that you may even do research for your self to know that I am not asking this lightly or merely as if you are helping me sell girl scout cookies when I was 10 but to know that I don’t just want your money but your true desire to create a safer environment for women not just in Cambodia but all over the world. Just remember, “We can do no great things, only small things with great love.” Mother Teresa with that said however you feel you could help with this project please do so it would not just mean the world to me but the world to those who do not have a voice and who suffer everyday because they can not be heard. I get questioned over and over again about my reason for joining the Peace Corps it is because each time a man (or women) stands up for an ideal, or acts to improve the lot of others, or strikes out against injustice, he sends forth a tiny ripple of hope... and crossing each other from a million different centers of energy and daring those ripples build a current that can sweep down the mightiest walls of oppression and resistance. Robert F. Kennedy in short I want people to see my life is the message! If you have any further questions about my project let me know I can meet you on Skype to talk face to face or just send you an email back thanks for all the work I hope you will do. https://www.peacecorps.gov/index.cfm?shell=donate.contribute.projDetail&projdesc=303-017Best WishesEileen McCormick

The fact most of my peace corps friends live no where close to be and most times in the middle of nowhere it makes it pretty hard to get out to see their sites and host families etc its something I want to try to do more often in my second year. My Friend Taylor lives in kp som you might rembere she is who I went on the trip to Indonesia with any ways she got I guess you can call a peace corps promotion which sadly meant she had to leave sites though. Well I don’t know if I have ever explained something sort of weird about peace corps Cambodia but when we all got are invitation letters it states what are jobs will be etc however with peace corps Cambodia some of those jobs didn’t actually exist for me not such a big deal I was nominated for both health and youth development there is no youth development program. For obvious reason this is a big let down for some people who had a lot of experience in what they were nominated for vs being forced to teach English Taylor was one of these people hers was for Teacher training education which ment she should have been working with teachers in college but instead was put at a local high school but recently peace corps Cambodia has made some corrections to their error by attempting to make some positions available for what people where nominated for. However while this is what she wants to do for her service it is also a huge challenge to up and move communities and family to a whole other situation .It really does take a year for you to feel that you can start projects and receive help from community members because you have to think they are used to also sorts of people, ngos etc coming and going so they don’t just trust you once you step foot into the village. This is a situation a lot of volunteers are left with for obvious reason most people want to do the work they set out to do vs just shitting the breez with people so a lot of people have been adjusting. Well that’s the background story of why I ended up in Stung Hav well Taylor needed some help with packing and just overall emotional support with leaving her family which she was extremely intergraded into. First she actually came to my site and I did the normal roaming around when people come to vist me go see monkeys say high to all the random people all of this helped each of us gain perspective into the other personal life and you can see the differences from one site and type of people etc. well any ways her site is really remote about 30 mins off the major high way however her site is much bigger then mine and their was more economic development with fishing so we now joke around the my village people look a little rough where hers they put on nice clothes. Her village is on a mt that over looks the beach from far away which is really pretty it was nice bc her site felt like a real village some peoples sites is just one really long stretch of rd less centralized to feel like part of a community. Her house was a palace she even had a shower head I gasped when I saw such a thing lmao she said until she had to shower outside at my site she thought her situation was not that great however now that she realizes I shower off the major high under Neath some tress that she had it made. Her situation which I don’t know if it would be a good fit for me was a bit college dormitory style like her house was in the school grounds and a lot of other teachers all share house their as well. I sort of like the freedom I have at site to make relationships with people all over the place I feel her setup would have sort of forced me to be only be friends with people at the school. Her family is far more educated the mine and their ideals where just a lot different it was nice to see the male of the house hold also cook and to see the oldest daughter pre paring to go off to college, her family was a lot more sopheaup then mine that is Khmer for polite in a very specific way to gender and cultural ideals which made me really miss my family and appreciate them more. My family wears tank tops and we joke around about things which not to many people would ever say even my host mom I just felt more free at my site to be who I am visiting Taylor I felt I had to bring it back a notch. Because her site is a lot of fishing means there is also a huge male population to female their so she has a lot more of a social life I think then I ever did at my site we even went to some ladies house where I guess their was a gathering of men getting off work not quite sure about the why part where I don’t really do that at my site ever my excitement is getting people coffee and going around taking walks to peoples houses. At the same time thought I don’t think I could handle that macho Cambodian atmosphere for a long time they are pretty relentless on getting married to an American and wanting to kiss an American blah blah blah. The dileact of Khmer is deff different from my site as well however her family spoke very slowly and I think I actually understood a lot of what was being said. Because the trip was for taylor to pack up and leave it was at time awkward to see it all go down to say the least well peace corps didt give her much time or the family really any notice so we were their for a day and a night then had to go. Saying good-bye to that many people and getting them to understand your leaving is no easy task in Khmer not just the la but culture. For one we tell them we will be their for two years and its not like they ask you once everyday they ask you for I guess conversation with you so they all know. Then there is the re assuring them you are not leaving them bc u are not happy aspect which makes you have to keep going on about how unhappy you are to move and that makes it harder to mentally be okay with moving. I would say the family situation is the worst of all though besides the money part while I don’t think Taylor’s family counted on the money like my family they are sending a child to college so maybe the choice to do so was based on the money they thought they would get. Her mom was the most heart broken Khmer women I have seen in a very long time she just kept saying how unfair it was that peace corps did this to her how she loves Taylor and how could they take her away how much they lied to her about her being hear for 2 years then how once Taylor leaves that’s it her doors will be closed she never wants to see peace corps again it was all quite drama filled and hard to watch for everyone involved. Despite the shenanigans of her leaving I still really had a good time just seeing another volunteers situation and seeing the things I like about my site a bit more=) on other news they finished building the new delivery room at my hospital the head of world vision came and now wants to be best friends with me he was telling me his life story for no lie an hour while he was supposed to be checking out and giving speeches but that irbing was good because now I know I can most likely get meeting with him directly and get maybe more funds for feature projects I want to do with vhvs excited about that.! My host family has been selling some new fruit that I don’t know the name of in English but its been keeping my host mom busy every time it’s a new season fruit I learn something new in Cambodia and its fun to watch people come to my house in droves to buy from her and just the types of people who buys who just comes to stare at me its like a fun game I play. With it being planting of the rice season my life as far as work as been dead at the hospital no one comes in everyone works on the rice all day so I have been reading lots of books and sending emails out on different projects. On other exciting news I bought plant tickets to go to China in oct with my friend Helen who is a fellow New Yorker with the added bonus of speaking Chinese and having some family in China I think it will make for a unique trip so if any of you that have visited this country be4 have any really cool places I should see that are not in lonely planet im all ears! Till next time peace out from the other side of the world!

I know it seems like all I wrote should be put into a few months of travel in Cambodia so that should tell you how much time we spend jumping from one place to the next to make the trip be as all encompassing at possible. Well after prey chore it was time to vist the Disney world of Cambodia seim reap (Ankor Wat Temple) the things most tourist come for and the place I get asked about the most by Cambodians. Well I wanted to take a taxi their and I asked around and was told this place skun had them however when we arrived I was told no such luck then we had all these motto dops and tuk tuk drivers annoying us and trying to rip us off however now im in a place I have never been when something life altering happens okay well maybe not that big but its this next story that is the one that will stick with me for the rest of my life. So we start to walk to a bus station that I guess is far away and then a young Khmer women stops and seems to know English however very little so I speak to her in Khmer and she ends up helping us get a bus but while waiting for the bus we have this long out conversation about her. She goes into how she has this adopted daughter who is hit by the teachers so much she is scared to go to school and how she pity’s her child and then tells me about her family etc she runs inside and gets this photo of pictures of this orphan the whole thing is just very sad this poor women sells and makes no money lives in a tin house and then proceeds to give me a picture to keep telling me how she wants me to be a god mother to her child now what do I do except give her my Cambodian phone number and say yes maybe I will see you again. Well the story doest end their then she gives me one of her kormas (a Khmer scruff with checkers) so I will always remembered her and how we can be friends. Things like this never leave me because someone who has nothing can give so much and while im a volunteer and really don’t have money etc she still could have looked at me and deiced that I am a rich American and asked for money like most Khmer people do but instead all she wanted out of this all was my friendship. Things like this help me put my life back into perspective I have mention I have read a lot of Ram Dass and one of the things he always talks about is how in life you meet people who are teachers while its important not to let the ego hold on to them to much you should take what they give and utilize it I could not help but feel after that conversation with her that it was one of my life lesson to help me on my path to enlightenment. Well semi reap was paved rds like in Europe little back allys full of 5 star places to eat with more tuk tuk drivers per capita then people we meet up with another pcv had some Italian dinner which was nice break. Well the next day we headed for the temples however with a devious plan in mind that went like this so everyone kept tell Luis how Khmer he looked and that’s when we deiced why not test this theory out to save 20 bucks… well I first had to get him a Khmer tight collard shirt and a pair of tight jeans made him take off his glasses and watch I thought humm seems passable to me. I know your all thinking well what’s going to happen when they ask him question and he cant speak khmer well we were on that to so the story went like this I am a volunteer and this is my older host brother who has a soar throat so he can not speak I know genus well not so much. Sigh so we get stopped with our tickets and they are like well can we see your passport to him I respond for him no bc he does not have one he is Khmer and poor this makes the guard laugh then he is like okay can I see his identity card which I think might be like a drivers license and I did not think of this so I still try to play it off that he did not bring it. Now the guard is telling me he does not believe he is Khmer because not even lying about this he is to beautiful that his skin is more beautiful then Khmer person and his nose well I did not want to just let it drop so I try to tell the guard he is just as beautiful as the guard is and I say see the same color skin and he just is like okay go get a ticket the gig is up. For the record if he went with all Khmer people I think it would have worked but bc it was just me and him that’s why it was an epic fail. Inside the grounds was really pretty worth the trip and best part is its not like all uptight like in America you can touch things and climb on things its not all glass incased like it would be in America. After making 1000’s of year old stone building my playground we spend the rest of r time just exploring around eat some western food and enjoying the sites and sounds of Cambodia Disney world as I like to call it. That night we went to the night market where I kid you not they had perfume spraying so it smelled like you were walking past Hollister in the mall or something it was crazy I was like why don’t I smell fish something is up with all of this haha while no one else seemed to notice. Next on are list was where to go next and we had a hard time deciding bc our original plans were to go to Thailand but we just got caught up with seeing things in Cambodia it ment we would have been on a pretty big time crunch so instead we thought we would head down south and go to the boarder of Thailand to a place called kok kong first we had are usual stop over in the city trying to figure out taxi’s etc because on the way back from semi reap we had no choice but to take a bus and that thing broke down on us so many times the ac broke and the bus windows don’t open so at this point Luis had his fill of buses. When we got to kok kong it was not this tropical beach I imagined you cant really swim in the water near the main part of town you have to take a bridge or boat ride sort of far out for the prettier tropical water which was not so easy with it being rainy season. It was not as nice as kp som but it was a different place to see went to the zoo saw some monkeys box each other went to the biggest man grove tree in all of south East Asia. I guess my end thoughts of this trip would be similar to Luis in that this place is for the person who seeks adventure wants to live on the edge and do stuff that 95 percent of other people will not get to do in a life time! Lucky for me I get to live it everyday and have not grown tired of it yet. Nothing is more dangerous to the adventurous spirit within a man than a secure future. The very basic core of a man's living spirit is his passion for adventure. The joy of life comes from our encounters with new experiences, and hence there is no greater joy than to have an endlessly changing horizon, for each day to have a new and different sun." Chris McCandless With this quote in mind I know some of you are looking to escape from the secure life you thought you created and wanted to something un like anything else if so Cambodia just might be the place for you. Till next time peace out from the other side of the world!

Okay sorry I have not written in quite a while I have to be in the mood to come up with interesting things to talk about and get it across in the right way and im not exactly the best writer lets be honest im no Stephen king. I was initially waiting on Luis to write up his version of things before I did since he is the new perspective for you all to get a feel from the none integrated way of life in Cambodia but as with most thing he takes to long for my ass to wait. I honestly don’t know where to start or what you the reader wants to read about luis trip but ill just be all over the place just like my wacked out brain that over does things. Well when his plane landed it was nervracking waiting for the love on my life to get off the plain who I wondered the whole time how much has he changed in a year lucky for me not to much =) in the mean time between worrying about that moment I have my host family who decided that they wanted to meet him who are at this point an hour late no idea what’s going on with them now im left thinking in my head I don’t want to wait around for them luckily they made it 5 mins before he got out the door. Well like I said in the blog above how its this huge deal to come to the airport so there is all these khmer people crowding the door and im thinking ill wait on the out skirts no big deal well my host mom would not have this so she drags me over and soon enough luis gets out now is the whole introductions how will this go… okay well he has to sort though his bags so this way we did not have to carry the suit cases with us but give them to the driver I paid he rushes me over bc once again he wants to kiss me but I told him he could not do such a thing in front of the Khmer family who would be to shy to see such things and im pretty sure they might think that leads to me being knocked up (lack of edu abstinence or other wise) but my host family is soon to come over and ask him if he wanted help etc where he starts to whip out his Khmer and they were so impressed with him it was funny however Luis is all or nothing so throughout the whole trip he never felt the little Khmer he knew was enough despite being in Cambodia for only 2 weeks. So now there is a big group of us that squeeze into the taxi and Luis takes us all out to eat where he has his first meal at this point I can just tell he has to take in to much at once. All these people are asking him questions most of them not in eng then there is all the sites sounds and smell along with not being able to really focus on me he sort of got thrown into Cambodia the real deal from the start as the saying goes their was no turning back =) I know this play by play is getting to be a bit much but the first hours in Cambodia really are a play by play situation anyways that night we go explore the city get food and meet up with some other volunteers this is when luis learned what I ment when I said “the best advice I got from peace corps was from my medical team who said walking across the street in Cambodia always think thai che” well no matter how many times I told this to luis before he came it took him walking into on coming traffic to see why or to fight why. To me freaking out over traffic was so long ago I just could not help but laugh and he was getting really mad that I thought it was all funny until the end of the second week he understood what I was laughing about but where not quite their yet. Well he was giving me this whole speech how it will all catch up to me and I will die and im just like umm this is just how its done in Cambodia well I have to admit I like to some times prove my point in a very passive aggressive way by this I mean I told him okay well how would you like to get across and I sat on the side of the street waiting for him to decide when to cross which lead to him running for dear life eventually and me slowly moving behind him feeling 10 times safer then a run it really is the opposite of nyc think thia che and u are golden run and your likely to get hit. He really did give me a serious of lectures on my chances of death to only in the end stop fighting it and except walking into on coming traffic is normal (I do worry about this habit I picked up for when I get back to America but ill deal with it then). Well he got his taste of city life but it was time for the real deal Cambodia to take a step up to my village life something that most of you or travelers will never get to experience and for that he gets mad props for living my life and walking in my shoes for however short of a time. My host family was hilarious about him staying the night with there princess like view of all Americans even though im American and I live with them its like they phase out the fact im American so their stereotype can stay. Well I think at first having Khmer food was fun until he had to have rice for the 4th time in a row and there is not to much variation in food to the extent that we in America are used to its like we have the whole worlds food at our finger tips but living in Cambodia that gets taken away to Khmer food only so that is still an adjustment for not just Luis but my self a year later. Besides him being the guest of my host family he was also the talk of the village many people met him he had to listen to a lot of khmer got to see my health center which I think he said my pictures don’t really due it justices you have to see it to believe it sort of a deal. My staff on the other hand loved him and to this day I get told how much better he is then me and I just smile and agree. After a tour of the village a late night trip to my grandmama’s I can safely say he meet at least half the village all who wanted us to eat rice with them and know so much about him which im still not sure how he really feels about the insight Khmer people want to know about him. Throughout his stay he was over fed like some farm animal which is pretty customary in Cambodian culture if you can make your guest gain weight it gains face in the village really it’s a sing of having money so im pretty sure that was my host family plan even if luis was unaware of it at the time. He also had a chance to take an out door shower which was funny for me to watch yea he made me take pictures for proof I actually like showering out side more then inside now bc every day is like an herbal essences commercial with big tress around me and fresh air its nice and freeing really! He did not seem to get annoyed by the screaming hello’s which I sort of tune out now since I get it a good 5 times a day from each kid. Best part of all the conversation of my village was… so all the time ask me when I will get married and it gets pretty annoying to answer but with luis being the man and older he had to take on that answer everyone would always tell him he is so old why is he not married yet and he would stumble and then I helped him come up with the excuses that like Cambodia he had to buy me for lots of money and give it to my parents which he did not have enough of this is something all the villagers understand. Once we left site I went for what I thought would be a free ride with the military instead ended up being so expensive sigh but I just kept thinking soon enough we would be heading up north to the jungle to ride my elephant however the trip their was more beautiful/ adventurous that I could have excepted. I should first note that before we left I came down with what I thought was some weird 24 hour bug the day we spent in pp before we left I ended up throwing up all over the orussy market. Before I knew it 5 different yays old ladies coining me in the middle of everything and Luis just sitting their wanting to know does this always happen these are the things I write about but its not real until your with me so im glad he got to see it and can attest that I am not so crazy after all everyday something supper Khmer just seems to happen to me. After dealing with my random bug (which turned into deungay more on that later on) we head for what we at first think is a 12 hour taxi ride luckily only 8 but this leave luis him and his atlas self trying to figure what rds we took considering we were on no rds for about 5 hours I would say the maps he looked at did not have the rds that we actually took its important to note between major high ways there is unpaved dirt rds for like 100 miles before you hit the next major high ways so you have to be a native to really navigate long trips. I was not sure what up north would be like but it interested me how much their would be a village with like 5 houses total which seems sort of crazy for any one wanting to live their once we got into the provential town it was similar to most towns except I thought the people were pretty open and nice some places are not so welcoming their was no other brongs around except us so we go to a few places pricing around for are elephant treck to the waterfall and just generally what there is to do and of course had some food by this point Luis tapped out on Khmer food while I was like ahh I can do more rice no problem. The next morning was an adventure of a life time and I have to say I am sad not everyone will have the opportunity before they die to experience what it feels like to ride on top of this big 2 ton animal that is just so docile and then have it walk around and stop right on top of a waterfall that is 60 feet in the air it really puts a new meaning what its like to feel alive and full of sprit and energy. I do have to say it was pretty funny this elephant deff needed to eat and a lot so we did not go to far on r journey more just stopping in the random jungle forest letting him eat banana leafs etc kids in the jungle would also come out to feed him, that the other thing the people up this way were less Khmer looking and more native Indian looking it was cool and they had some cool clothing that I do not see down in what people in ratanakii refer to as low land areas. One particular thing I just feel in love with was these woven backpacked basket that they call ka-pia I ended up going on a whole separate adventure in the market to find this unique item with the limited Khmer I knew always a challenge. After the elephant ride I spend some quality time with the elephant getting up close to him and just really having a once in a life time opportunity to really observe this majestic animal when its nervous it sucks its thumb like a child its all just so crazy to see and explain and it swings its tail when its happy like a dog I guess also help project it self from bugs. It has hair that really does hurt when you touch it for protection and its skin is so thick I wonder if a misquote would die just trying to suck blood from it. Soon enough we had to keep going to see the rest of the waterfalls where they just got bigger and more beautiful one right after the other with random shrines and cultural artifacts at different waterfalls. Towards the end of the day we went to this big perfectly circle lake that of course has a Khmer tale however before we go for a swim we stop to eat and see these crazy dried out sloth esck type animals for sale now I just had to know who would by such things and why because I knew my family did not own anything like that well naturally this thing was for good luck specifically for health. Well down my a lake is a big sign about the mythology behind this lake but all I can tell you is its magic a giant made it into a circle and that no one can build on it the king however many year ago tried and all his houses etc went up in flames so naturally the creatures of the lake will not allow vacation homes etc to be built it was cool to swim in and a nice break from just looking at the waterfalls. I wish we could have stayed longer to explore but we had to move on the next day towards prey chore where a whole other village was waiting to meet us. My two families while both amazing are deff diff I think luis was seeing it pretty quickly as well and the market and just everything in prey chore is bigger more people have money and seem to be more okay with modern way of thinking. We met up with another pcv and went to a Cambodian resort there are lots of these but they have thankful not made lonely planet yet but they are nice places where you can see more rare things in Cambodia so first place was a stream and the other was just a place you can sit on top of the water in hammocks both really relaxing time and yet another adventure that reminded me of my time up north (I want to find all these type of resorts before I leave Cambodia bc I know its only a matter of time be4 they land up in lonely planet which will take away from the Khmer culture of it all). My prey chore family was happy to meet him and more excited to see me too which was nice its funny going back bc my sol purpose when living their was learning Khmer so they are still are all about teaching me Khmer pointing to things or watching animal planet etc and going back and forth with the names of the animal in both eng and Khmer I sometimes miss that with my permanent family working so much. I think Luis being around reminded them of me when I first came to them and how I knew nothing it sort of made them all laugh about the situation looking back on it they also meaning not just my family but anyone with in that 5 mile ratios’ to talk about how fat I was and how my legs are half the size now from what they were that happened a lot and Luis just sat their being like what??? You know how you never think you really impact people lives around you I deff have that thought process but every time I come back to prey chore I am reminded how not true that is I always assumed people would have moved on who am I to think I matter so much but these group of teenage girls are always so excited to see me and this time was no different except they stopped by to ask if they could make memory with me did I know what they ment know did I just say yes anyways of course lucky it was just pictures however it was in the big picture booth where they all had these wallet size pictures to keep with them at all time if you think Luis escaped you would be wrong they also have a picture of me and him lmao who will see these pictures I have no idea. This is the end of week one I will continue this is the next blogs so it’s easier to read…

From the eyes of luis his first blog. So, I’ve got a confession to make: I have traveled to over a dozen countries, stayed in every possible living condition imaginable, but there was something about the prospect of visiting Cambodia that turned my skin inside-out. I’m talking about an apprehension that gave me nightsweats. Maybe it was my 3rd grade teacher, who when talking about extreme world poverty, placed Cambodia right at the top of her list. Maybe it was my travel clinic physician, who recommended 7 different shots as well as multi-drug resistant malaria pills. Maybe it was the fact that I was visiting Cambodia. Whatever the reason(s), it was fair enough to say that I had a challenge in front of me, one that I’d never seen the likes of before. So, in order to have a fighting chance of survival and not get completely “owned”, I decided to put myself through a 3 month, boot-camp style training period. Some of the daily fun meant: quick, cold showers, running through nature preserves and forested areas to expose myself to as many insects and animals as possible, a lot of insane gym workouts, a lot of Khmer language study at night, and reading/checking out every possible thing I could about the country itself. Consequently, all of the above was not done in vain: some of it, as well as my experiences in Latin America, helped, but not much... The Kingdom of Cambodia is a dichotomy on the world stage: a land of stunning beauty and promise in many ways, yet tragic, violent, and downright nightmarish in others. My journey began in the capital city of Phnom Penh, on a blisteringly hot day during monsoon season. From the get-go, I noticed some cultural peculiarities. For one, the bizarre Cambodian dress code. It was at least 85 degrees out, yet I saw few short-sleeved shirts, few shoes, no sneakers (just flip-flops) and absolutely no shorts. Many women and children wore full pj’s with cartoon characters as their street attire (?). Streets were narrow and cramped, with a 10 motodop (small motorcycle) per car ratio and the occasional tuk-tuk (moto w/ carriage) and fewer cyclos (old-style bicycle w/ carriage). People were cramped like sardines into share taxis (8 person minimum), as well as on motos sans helmet (with women seated at the tail end, perpendicularly). Many drivers and passengers wore surgical masks, adding an uncanny element to the cityscape. On our way into the heart of town, many beautiful wats (temples) and monuments were visible. However, one wrong turn and you ended up on a desolate street of dingy shacks and ubiquitous litter. For our first night, we decided upon Angkor Model, one of the many guesthouses the city had to offer. These are really inexpensive (median cost $6-8) yet safe, clean, and introduce foreigners to their first Cambodian bathroom experience: high pressure toilet water hose, no TP (usually), cold water shower with no curtain, floor mats or divider. Flip-flops, comb, toothbrush and a small tube of green, mystery paste are provided. On other nights, Townview II, our choice hotel, did offer the step-up, with Cable, AC, hot water and tubs. In either case, “assertive” motodop and a few tuk-tuk guys would promptly solicit you upon exiting. In retrospect, it seemed like the time we spent riding and haggling with them was more than with anyone else. Of course, you could always haggle with vendors at one of the many markets spread throughout the city. My personal fave was the Russian market, selling the best souvenirs and trinkets at rock-bottom prices. Watch out though, vendors are aggressive and have a really good game at price negotiation, although they will eventually usually acquiesce to whatever price you want. To the east, the long “Riverside” area is lined with shops and restaurants, as well as important buildings such as the Presidential Palace and National Library. This part of town is active at all hours and has a Greenwich Village-type feel. Despite rumors heard to the contrary, I found Phnom Penh to be a fairly safe city, that is, I never felt unsafe at any moment or around anyone. Of course, we weren’t out too, too late and did our best to evade the traffic and driving conditions, which were, to put it mildly, abhorrent. My first moto ride was actually in Oudong (the former capital) on our way to see a gorgeous wat and park area. Outside of tourist areas, barangs (western foreigners) stick out like the sorest of thumbs, with all eyes fixed upon you and young children shouting “hello, hello!” as you pass by. As we scaled the endless flight of stairs up the wat in the 90 degree weather, trying to evade the bite of wild monkeys on our path, I started wondering if I would stay sane for the duration of the trip. Mosquitoes were another issue: small and silent but as deadly as a WMD. We knew we were getting bitten left and right, but all you could do was cover up, apply more DEET, and hope they didn’t have dengue. Later that night, after my 5th bowl of white rice and some pieces of liver/intestine, I finally laid down surrounded by a mosquito net with the sounds of geckos, rats, and roosters in close proximity. 5 am is the approximate time most working Cambodians seem to start their day, as outside noise starts to pick up at around then. Most rural residents do not have access to a toilet or running water, so a bantup teuk (squatting toilet) and gmoot teuk (bucket shower) are the way to go. These weren’t that bad; you just have to make sure your standing water is mostly free of wigglers (mosquito larvae). Villagers and most Cambodians seem to like barangs, or at least get a kick out of them. Despite being of very modest means, many are very generous, and one is tempted to give them a hug and kiss for this. No way though, the sompah (bow) is more than accepted. On our way back to Phnom Penh, we were “fortunate” enough to hitch a ride with a couple of army guys, who later demanded 4 times the regular fare. No time to dwell though, we soon headed up Northeast to the rural province of Ratanakiri. The ride up “national highway 7” or just “muddy, dirt road” was bumpier than an old-school washboard (I actually felt worse for the van, that was ruined). The scenery was like that of the movie Platoon. On the way there, we made periodic stops at hung bais (small, local eateries) and had the chance to sample some of the insects de jour (I tried tarantula). Before we knew it, we were in Banlung, with Laos and Vietnam some miles to the north and west, respectively. The following day, we went on an elephant trek deep in the jungle, followed by visits to three gorgeous waterfalls, followed by a swim in an almost perfectly circular crater lake. All in all, the day’s events were some of the coolest experiences I’ve ever had. That night, we dined on a street overlooking a lake, where locals would dine on the lakeside sidewalk. The awesomeness of it all made me completely forget about any fears of getting sick or the like. The following morning, we jetted back south to the small city of Kampong Cham, where we witnessed our first road accident first-hand. Our van driver “accidentally” ran over a kid on a moto (with the kid and moto caught underneath the van). Miraculously, he wasn’t hurt and didn’t complain; he just started calling his dad on his cell phone. The nervous-as-hell driver wanted to pay him off, to which the kid just refused. After 10 minutes though, he finally accepted the money, which we calculated to be an enormous amount by Cambodian standards. No exchange of license/registration/insurance (lol) and the police never showed. After making a desperate attempt to stop at a bank, the driver then started picking up random things and people (pipes, poles, wood, cricket lady with huge pots of crickets, etc.). A young guy in the van asked me why I was riding in such a van (I told him how could I not). We soon arrived at the smaller town of Prey Chhor and met Eileen’s original host family, who were an absolute joy. The town offered a large market area, where we shopped for exotic fruit, clothing and trinkets. Markets, by the way, sell everything under the sun, with products ranging from car engines and industrial supplies to mystery meats hanging and live fish squirming in large bowls. We later took a tuk-tuk out in the burbs to a “resort” area, reminiscent of Banlung, with stunning views from shacks overlooking a lake and rice paddies. Before too long, it was time to hit the road again, this time to the “Disneyland of Cambodia”, the Northwest tourist city of Siem Reap. Here, quaint, manicured streets in the style of European promenades are packed with barangs, barang food and barang accommodations. Only 3 miles away, we then made a pilgrimage to the Mecca of Buddist temple complexes, the sacred Angkor Wat. The only downside during this awesome display of architecture was, again, barangs all around us. Everything in Siem Reap was a little too squeaky clean, including the market fish, so we soon felt the urge to head back down to the rawness of Phnom Penh. This time around, I decided to try something a little different. One of the things that every martial arts enthusiast dreams of doing is training Muay Thai in Thailand or Pradal Serey in Cambodia. I had the perfect opportunity this time, since the world famous Paddy’s Fight Club & Gym was right down the road. Just our luck, the Cambodian national champion happened to be sparring that night in the club’s main ring. We got to hang with Paddy Carson, train first-hand with the pros, and watch the Cambodian Pradal Serey titleholder fight at ringside. Unbelievable. Our last sojourn in Cambodia was to the small fishing town and islands of Koh Kong along the Southwest corner bordering Thailand. Actually, Koh Kong was practically Thailand, with Thai spoken, written and baht ($) accepted as the preferred currency. Not a whole lot to do, though I found it to be a pleasant, sea side town with great views. On our second day, we decided to take a moto ride across the main bridge into an undeveloped island-like area. Here, we had a fun time at Koh Kong Safari World, where you can see exotic birds riding bicycles, orangutans boxing and tigers jumping through fire-hoops. We also checked out a mangrove park area, filled with, of course, endless trails of contorted mangrove trees. The unaffected, serene nature of Koh Kong made a lasting impression on me, and added a nice close to the trekking portion of our trip. Cambodia definitely had its share of splendor, yet unfortunately, there were things maybe I wish I hadn’t seen. For example, the nightmarish images of dilapidated buildings that house child prostitutes, only blocks from the main boulevards and tourist areas. The faces of sickly beggars, young and old, that appeared out of nowhere, and prayed for your help. The desperation in the eyes of families living in tiny, straw shacks. Even more shocking, come to think of it, is the polar opposite contrast one sees upon returning back to the US, with the level of materialism and extravagance probably completely unimaginable to the aforementioned people. Despite the considerable level of poverty, and despite the horrific, recent past that families faced under the Khmer Rouge (check out the genocide museum and killing fields), most Cambodians welcome foreigners with open arms and seem happy on the whole. Keep in mind though that locals are typically charged several times less for most things, and that’s across the entire country (just one aspect that can wear you down, mentally and emotionally). Cambodians are also very straight-shooting, telling it the way they see it, though not necessarily with any negative intent. I soon came to really appreciate this direct and unpretentious nature, despite always feeling a little out of place and touch with their culture. In a place like Cambodia, one has to always search for the positive in a given situation, as well as how one can learn and toughen-up inside from it. If you can continually do this, and not let it get to you (no matter what), you’ll evolve in a way well beyond what you think you’re capable of. So..interesting experience, hmm? What’s the take-home? I’ll break it down to the skin and bones: you want sun and fun for the whole family, go to Florida. You want an intimate, relaxing getaway with your sweetie pie, go to the Caribbean. Now, you want an non-stop, adventurous journey into the wild that will test the inner sanctum of your mind and the very fabric of you being, come to Cambodia, where anything is possible.Choice is yours ;-). -------------------------------------

Stay tuned for Part II : A Basic Cambodian Survival Guide

sorry its been a while but i will write up about luis trip to cambodia soon until then ill slowly upload pictures its been taking forever to upload so it might be a few days but hope you enjoy ill try to make more post soon peace out from the other side of the world!

Okay well a few hours in counting till he lands in Cambodia supper excited!!!!!! Now I would by no means say my boo is high maintance but he has a lot of nerves that mean prep for those people around me. My host family I think is ready but they keep trying to talk me out of him spending the night because they think their house is not good enough I have a host sister who is close by who I guess has nicer stuff but I keep telling them no problem not to worry I live their don’t I like I am American if I can do it why cant he. Well its all because my host sister husband will not spend the night the one time he visited but that’s just not how me and Luis are so I keep telling them not to worry. Now that im pretty sure he has no internet connection I can post this but after my family worries they inform me they all want to go to the air port to meet him lmao yea he has no idea and is not even going to know what to do which will entertain me! I know im a horrible girl friend my family is really invested in me and they know how happy I am with him coming so when they came to me to inform me they wanted to do this I was shocked. For one they never leave the house bc “they must sell” “I want to cook” these are the answers I get ALL THE TIME WHEN I EVER ASK THEM TO DO SOMETHING FUN! And lets be honest in America picking people up at an air port isn’t not really on the list of things people like to do that combined with my host family always working never occurred to me to invite them to go to the airport. Last min planning well originally I sort of was like ahh their this saying this because like I said they never leave but yesterday when I realized they really ment it I went to my friend who lived in cali for awhile that is divorced I think I mentioned him in one of my first blogs anyways he has a car and I knew he would help me out for not to much money or so I hope. Now that I got the car I had to split into pp today for a meeting with coca cola about toms leavening my host sister with the money and told her she better pack that car up with 20 dollars worth of people lol and to stay away from the 99 (99 is a cheap brand of whiskey it’s the family joke) so this all might be sort of a surprise for me as well because I have no idea who from my village will be piled in this van. Next funny thing so they want to know how much stuff he has with him how many kilos is his bag I then have to inform them well he just bought a backpack but he has a bag all for me about 70 kilos they think this is soo crazy and I have to agree it is but its cheaper then shipping it ups but poor Luis has to truck around this bag all for me =) now for everyone’s 411 I really tried to explain to him how Cambodia will be and how it will be in my village but like most of you im sure you think some things I type or say to you are just me over-exaggerated sometimes I wish I was but pretty much his visit is front page news if their was a village news paper lmao. He has no idea in part bc I don’t want to overwhelm him to quickly but 10 different people have ask for us to go and eat with them I don’t know a single person who has not asked me everyday for the last 2 months when he is coming and when can they meet him and then ask if we will get married while he is in Cambodia (no we will not) this is just the way Khmer people’s thought process goes. He thinks he can just say hello and we will be on the move but he doest get that they will just invite them selves to my house to eat with him lmao and they will speak Khmer a million mile an hours expecting him to know what they are talking about it’s about to be a real shit show and with me in the front row seat watching with pop corn. Once he gets to experience this I feel it really will all click so until next time peace out from the other side of the world!

Yes as Peace Corps volunteer we gladly accept ideas of pizza parties just as excited as any 10-year-old kid would be! The idea was brought up to have a kp chhang pizza party Hannah started to ask at hotels around to see if we could barrow their kitchen we had a yes so the planning started which required a trip to lucky ps cheese is really expensive in Cambodia for one block of mozzarella is 20 dollars yea for real. In the end it just ended up being only K4 volunteers and some friends of Hannah’s. Naturally things being how they are in Cambodia there was some confusion the day of so I get into town to go to a meeting with women’s affairs’ and we discover the hotel doest have an oven humm now what to do. Thinking caps on well if none of the hotels have ovens next place to try… bakery bingo they had them but supper big and would not let us use it for what we wanted I even tried to offer him 10 dollars. Plan B we bought big French bread to make the pizza on top of a flame be4 we knew it we had all the Khmer staff helping make this food and feeding them it was interesting to say the least. I was joking around with Hannah telling her she was like the dude from hells kitchen the Khmer staff thought it was funny just how everything was going on when it was done we severed them first which I think took them a bit by surprise. In Cambodian culture its like they make them selves second class next to Brongs and since they’re everyday job requires them to serve people so seeing Americans go out of their way to serve them I think made them really happy huge respect thing. After I spent the night at Hannah’s friends sweetys house who is called the Indian Cambodia is really bad like that its just like why know a person name they do this to me at site to o the American she is over there. it was cool though to talk with her about her life experiences from India. The next morning I had to get up early to get back to my site bc liz was coming to spend the rest of the weekend doing some research work. Though Gadc request from some Canadian ngo they are trying to gather information on Khmer women and voting and economic status. Well lucky for this ngo they will get a wide variety of answers because people who do work tend to only ask big cities but bc I live in the middle of nowhere it was an added bonus. Interesting things I learned along the way some people think its supper easy to vote others say they are now allowed to vote and pretty much every single person barrows money from the bank and the solo person to take out the loans is the oldest girl in the family if she is of age if not it is the wife. Only about 40 percent of people could read Khmer if they did not understand are Khmer we had a write up for them to read that most children had to read anyways meet a lot of people and learned a little more about day to day Cambodian life. I also think its worth mentioning that asking people about salary etc was not rude at all you know how in America you cant ask those types of Cambodia they all think its so obvious that they are so poor there is not point to hide it for ego sake. Other good news an organization by the name of KHANA they work with orphans with hiv and at risk population has agreed to work with us in storage for the shoes!!!! Also I have been trying to get small funding 150 dollars for a first aid workshop and I have been told that world vision wants to help me other wise I was going to pay out of pocket which would have sort of sucked but that’s the things about Cambodia you cant educate for free you have to pay a Khmer person to show up its sort of annoying but I feel this is worth it bc they have motto accidents all the time and first thing they do is pick someone up not realizing it could paralyze them eek! Since coming to Cambodia I have become more and more invested in women equality and gender issues in Cambodia well there is a few organizations that I really think do good work I finally met with one of them and they agreed to do education for my health center staff and to take me on to volunteer on criminal investigation stuff for their work!!! Supper excited about that as well. Until next time peace out from the other side of the world!

END OF MANGO SEASON

LAST OF THE BATCH

my tb host mom i see her more now that i dont live with her.

home made fruit rollup made out of mangos

Embassy Party

me and taylor

It’s hard to believe but I just finished training for ideas for the k5s coming in July! I guess I will recap last week well first off I had to go into pp for peace corps stuff on how to deal with the k5s and about what projects and grants we need to write up. However as always bc im pressed for time and meetings I had to escape some of peace corps meetings for my own projects yea they don’t approve of that but its easy to spend hours talking about all your doing then actually doing it so I figured ahh whatever. First I had a meeting with Gad C which is a gender development ngo how has ana amazing library of books just on gender and Cambodia its been a real life saver but anyways they also do outside work and I wanted them to help with my dv conference which they agreed to yay!!!! I know it seems that I have good news with tom shoes then things fall to shit which is really the case but im hoping this time I can mean what I say well this organization called OVC says they have storage there is a catch they want 20,000 out of the 33,000 pairs of shoes they work with orphans with aids and rare disease or something so its not to a bad cause just seems like we would be giving them a lot and keeping track is another issues. I also had a meeting with someone from peace corps and while I cant say I am happy with all the answer I guess ill take it as a white flag and try to turn over a new leaf with them as far as this project goes what’s the saying don’t hold on to hot coals it only burns ur own hands. Then their was the peace corps 50th anniversary party what this meant was a party at the embassy most of the volunteers only went bc they thought they would get to see inside the embassy but they just had a tent in the back lmao. Needless to say people were pretty bummed and peace corps also informed us before the party started how poor they are right now and that we might need help to stick around for clean up which was just a nail in the coffin like o hey you guys were throwing a party in your honor for the projects you did for the 50th projects but clean up after the important guest okay thanks. Also at the last min they gave us these shirts and wanted us to wear them but they send us all an email months be4 telling us we had to dress nice so basically most people had to go out and buy a new dress in the end we got to choose while I was in Singapore I bought a saree which I was supper excited about wearing however no lie deff can not figure out how to put the thing on still I had to have help. The party ended pretty quickly but I don’t know how the next parts all unfolded but I guess the marine’s baric are in the same place as the embassy it was freaking huge very posh but it was a cool after party I guess u could say we left on a tuk tuk after and they took a driver and car to the bar to meet up with the rest of the pcvs. Well another project I have started to work on was first aid training for the village health volunteers I found a guy willing to do it blah blah well anyways I bring this up for a long story. I get back to site and tell my health staff about this just to give them the heads up and ask if they had money to pay the vhvs to come in of course no but somehow in Cambodian fashion they never pre plan much so maybe this is all my fault I dunno I was just trying to get the ball rolling. What happened okay well come Thursday in the ams Eileen you have meeting tomorrow me no not that I know of why what are you talking about yea you teach vhvs tom no that in july I think you teach them tomorrow instead yea I can’t I have no money etc o but its to late we sent out invitation I think if you don’t have tomorrow they will not come back well can I call them no they have no phones can I go out on motto dop and tell them not to come very far no you can not. In the end I sort of got my way they attempted to tell them but im sure I pissed off a bunch of them and lost mad face all bc the hospital staff some how thought I was planning this thing in one week! Until next time peace out from the other side fo the world!!!

well i have talked about the cham village rituals and what have you a few blogs ago now i have video sorry for the bad quality of my filming not really used to it. this was all for the ghost asking for good health

That is the word in khmer natural healer im pretty sure Cambodia has more then they know what to do with everyday someone tells me some new superstition or idea of o so many things health included. However bing the person I am and know I have to really work on integration I took it upon my self to learn the ancient art of cupping for a dollar that I paid the lady who cupped me was able to be taught. Most Cambodians only know how to coin so when I came home to tell my host family the news they were taken a back my host mom though was sort of excited my host sister was like im scared I don’t like. Well now with my new form hobby or skill should I say I went and bought the cupping glasses and the stick u wrap up cloth in to burn fyi they use gasoline on the cloth to keep it real lite. It did not take me to long to find these items and it only cost me 6000r which is about 1.50 now I was set to go but who the hell would trust the barong with Cambodian medicine… that’s right my host mom haha. Well I had no real intention of getting to use my stuff so soon on a real live human being that was not my own leg but I figured mine as well see how I do and a host mom is good as any one to volunteer herself. I did not burn her a plus and it worked she admitted to me it was better then coining way more telexing it did not hurt and she did not freak out to bad I mean keep in mind I am playing with fire and for her to turst me must have been a big leap of faith but never the less she did and only got scared a few times but all and all I would say I feel I picked it up and she said she felt better. However I also made her drink a lot of water because while I know some of you think I went off the deep end I knew when she came back she did not feel well because she was dehydrated but once ur willing to go alone with their idea of medience their more willing to listen to you so I will say the combination of real sci and Cambodian way of doing things worked out. Other things that have happened to me well I went site seeing on a moto with jentee however we got a flat tire and had to push the moto all the way back to her house while on lookers laughed and the two fat people pushing a moto yea and the 2 year old was with us so he sat on the moto while we pushed. So Saturday I had no real plans to do much except laundry and read but my tb host family informed me they were going to pick up my host sister from the air port and wanted me to come. Background story first so I have a host sister who is the same age as me who was working in Malaysia in a factory however apparently there is no more over time in Malaysia so all Cambodians are coming home now or something like this but this sister has the same issue I did while living their and I guess hates it and never wanted to move back home. However my host family never let on to this so I had no idea until she came off the plane and mean while 15 people took this taxi to see her and she was lethargic to everyone I never seen someone so sad like I just took one look at her and knew something was wrong it looked like she wanted to run back on the air plane really. I thought all this is odd but we went to this carnval thing and for the record my host dad was actually not a d bag that day like he was actually try to play off that he liked to to the taxi driver though I have a conspiracy theory as to why goes something like this now with out my host sisters income going to the family im sure he is gonna try to convince me to move back in but that will not be happening its one reason I almost did not go with the family but u know have to save face. That part of everything was really cool their was this crazy bridge that u walk across and it is all unsable lol I thought of it as a ride they all thought it was funny be screaming while I thought I might plunge to my death in acid water. Well everyone seemed to be having a really good time except the sister of the hour so I tried to ask her about maysia but she was just like it is much different then Cambodia and that was sort of it. Well when we get back to the tb family house they wanted to me to stay and so I did for a while everyone came over however it was not until my host sister jenta came over that she was happy so I guess maybe they were best friends not really sure but later on me and jenta got to talking and that’s when I found out she is pretty fucked right now bc she is stuck living with them even though she has the same sorts of issues I did so I feel really sorry for her. My host family has been selling mangos and peanuts now that watermelon season is over there is more down time then be4 which is nice talk to them more I think since moving in with them my khmer has been getting better I credit my host mom because she number one likes to talk haha things have also been slow at the hospital though the hot season keeps people in hammocks drinking this palm juice with ice the electricity goes off a lot now to. Luis is coming to vist me june 18th sooooo excited he will be bring my host family stuff so if anyone has any exter makeup you never use my host sister likes to put on makeup for people for the weddings to make some money she could use it and my family cooks every day and has pretty horrible cutting knifes etc so if anyone has any knifes or kitchen stuff that is portable enough for Luis to take to Cambodia give it over to my mom it would be much appreciated until next time peace out from the other side of the world!!!!

Recently for those of you who may be random followers my grandfather passed away this left me with a lot to take in and to question not to mention to have a whole other culture watch how me as an American handles death. I took a while to write this blog as to word it just right o in hopes to get certain things across just right so if at any point you are thinking humm or this is not for me you can skip around I can already can tell this is going to be pretty random. When someone close to you dies its hard not to evaluate the very notion of human existences perhaps for me this is only 10 fold bc I think about why I am alive everyday is it just to fight that good fight know what love and surfing is to go some place better to be reborn who knows? That seems to be cross culture no matter who you talk to we all have are own ideas as to what happens or what life and death really means but in the end we are all just humans and we just have no idea. Before leaving America I knew their was a possibility of what I might miss while I lived in Cambodia and sadly I have to except the realization that I could not go back to America to be their with my family while as many of you can imagine is hard not that anyone faults me but never the less its something I have had to internally cope with. My host mom was very interested in what we do in America when I first got the news was my early morning I called the house to check in after I got the news I went to go find my host mom so she could give me incenses the Cambodian way of worshiping ancestors who have gone on. Except my unclearness in Khmer made me have to say it 3 times which then I just broke down and cried and told her why I need it and she was quick to be real mom like and help me for those of you who don’t know im not to much into any one religion more about free winging what I feel rights at the time but she made sure to say a bunch of things in sand scrip for me. That night when I had my Khmer lesson I ended up explaining how things go down in America when death occurs to my host mom. This left her very sad because I had to tell her that in American they do not believe in reincarnation once you die that is it she was like so that is it you will never meet them in another life again etc and I was like nope that’s it their dead gone forever she did not like this at all. Cambodians know about Jesus because so many people come and try to convert them but they do not know all the dominations which my grandfather and many other people in my family our devout Catholics so I tried to explain to her from the best of my recollection that goes on. She was really under the impression you can only wear black and was telling me that I should fast for a few days only eat rice and water and lots of food offering however when I tired to fast she ended up telling me no I would be to skinny people would think she does not feed me lmao so Cambodian. After this I gave her a free palm reading my khmer tutor translated all I know I told you I would not do that again but with spiritually in questions why not bring out the mystical now she does tell people I can see what will happen to you in your life lmao. After this convo it really did leave me thinking about every cultures life and death rituals and how different they can be its all for the same purpose to give us hope that we know what its all about or to keep us busy enough to forget that there is a begging and end. So while I will go on question my existence in life and most deff the over all purpose of human being, I have to come with some sort of agreement with my self that whatever life is it is and my grandpapa is someone who has lived an extremely full life one that only so many other people can hope to emulate on that note my sister created a video that I will attempt to upload full of pictures of my grandpapa. Till next time peace out from the other side of the world!

http://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=10100174170323153

My host sister took me on a day adventure where i got so khmer out i dont think i could top it so the pictures many of you have been waiting for me dressed up as a cambodian bride you will notice how much whiter i have become in these pictures how much they try to emphasize my nose lmao!!!! all in good fun

making of the water balloons

my host sister thought someone was going to throw water on her

jentee throwing water

the rigshaws on their way to a party at the wat

clearly this guy got soaked hehe

jenta son churey had a little to much fun with the powder

besides the throwing of the water you throw powder on people

Well its finally hear my last new years of 2011 3 out of 3 down whoo hoo its nice to re celebrate over and over keeps the year fun! Well I got back from my vacation to not really start work but to party with a however many day festival that’s the fun of Cambodia you never know when a party will start or end im told new years last about 3 weeks so the actual party is like 4 days though like I said who really knows. Well in Cambodia new years is supper big deal to say the least no one has birthdays etc so its one big birthday party and just a renewal of everything and of course on big events like this they have to included the dead appease the ancestors. Because it khmer new years no one stays in the city all big events people that are Cambodian that is leave the city and go to the small villages where they most likely have family this makes taxi rides a bit more expensive. Due to the fact im a barong I was excepting the worst doubling the price but lucky the taxi I go into had some lady who informed me she was my aunt this is a common occurrence in Cambodia people always telling you they are some how related to your family im pretty sure everyone in my village is my family seriously its that crazy! Well this aunt of mine deff hooked me up cuz I did not get ripped off yay I did not call my sister to tell her I was coming home I thought surprise would be better in hand I had some gifts from my trip and at the request before I left bought some whiskey so knew they would all be excited to see me. My host mom was so excited she was telling me how scared she was o yea I dunno if I mentioned but I was told numerous times that when I was going to bali I would die because of the title waves that she was happy that I was alive and all I could say was yes I am happy I am alive to. Well the front of my house was one big alters with massive amounts of fruit and food everywhere!!! Incense this of course was for the dead. My host mom asked me if this was what Americans did in new years and I was like no and we don’t celebrate in April they find it hard to believe we are not scared of ghost. So the next day is when the fun begins so that day around noon you start to stand on the side of the rd and throw water and people passing bye especially the big groups of kids in the rigshaws there sort of like hey rides but a bit smaller anyways water gets thrown in their version of water balloons and with just regular cups. At first I thought humm this is sort of tame bc I was thinking of Halloween in American how at first its just silly string and then it gets pretty out of control with eggs and nair etc that Cambodia’s are good they don’t throw eggs. However at a second glance it gets pretty crazy you know that game chicken that you play in the pool where there are teams of two one person goes on top of someone shoulders and u try to knock the other team off well the water fighting sort of reminded me of that because there would be two people on a motto some even standing while the other drove throwing water at other mottos or people on the side of the rd and no one seemed to be scared of the dying while standing riding a motto while people are throwing things at you. The first day I did most of the throwing of water but my host sister jentee deiced that she wanted to get me wet so she wanted to take me on a motto ride except it back fired bc people get to excited to see an American to bother to throw things at me and even when she asked them to they told her no lmao this cracked me up! That night the whiskey bottle got open and things got a wee bit crazy okay so I like to refer to jentee as the mom of the family bc she never lets things get to crazy however she went to bed after one drink leaving me and jenta the youngest girl in the family who is I think about 27 and some random neighbor girls haha so with the cat gone the mice come out to play hehe as the saying goes. Jenta set out that we kill the whole bottle, which I can say we did. Mean while this is all going on my host mom does not sleep inside ever she always sleeps random places outside so she could deff hear all the craziness going on but she is not an uptight person so she let it all happen. Every time jenta got up they would fill her glass with more whiskey o yea I should note that its customary to never let someone’s glass not be full like they just keep going around and fill it and fill it again if you don’t want it you have to be pretty forceful. So knowing this I was like I have to go pee but if I leave my glass I know ill have like 9 more shots in my drinks so I think humm ill just carry it and put it down on a table where they cant see well this did not fly so jenta ends up bursting in the bathroom aka my squatting toilet being like where is the whiskey I am like dude its outside (I am still making fun of her for that). Well the night does end with the bottle being killed this was a big bottle to but with jenta throwing up everywhere and the two girls running home and me cleaning up with water while I can barely stand its not like in college were I could drink I never drink any more so I cant handle anywhere near the amount I used to be able to put away anyways she wanted to sleep out side on this table with me so I agreed feeling if she throws up again better be there so she doest choke in her sleep. The next morning my host mom was laughing at both me and her for like the 2 hours but she was saying like she is surprised the American can drink so much whiskey side note to Americans most countries think were weak or something bc there always scared that something bad will happen to us or like we have never worked manual labor a day in our life its sort of weird. My host mom gets really excited that I do stuff with the whole family so it could be something crazy but she would think it’s a great idea. Another traditional thing to do is to buy the family fruit and give them money so I did this and my host mom was soooo excited bc I think they knew I might forget or not really know which I didt really but I talked with my coworker who explained it to me better so I got it right on the first try! After you give the mone and fruit whish she was so surprised to find the money they have to wish you good luck for the rest of the year. Side not I joked around told them if I don’t have good luck this year I am holding their family personally responsible jkjkj Well once again the water throwing began but this time this man in the village who knows me and has a crush on my sister jentee even though she is married drives his own rigshaw he actual only has one leg land mine I think but he is a really nice random villager and me and him started to become friends bc I walk so far out into the middle of nowhere he will see me however the first few times when ever someone offers me a ride I say no I have no money but then he was like no you no give me money I am friends with your family etc. anyways he stops on the side of the rd to offer to take me around which ended up being to the wat where there was a big party and dancing lots of fun and on this ride I got soaked people got so excited to be able to get a barong wet they went crazy. It was more funny to see the people inside the wat like what is this American doing hear omg it also got him a lot of attention gave him good face as the saying goes in Khmer so we both made out on the deal this whole festival thing has made people think of me more as one of them which has been the best part. Now that I told you all the good things about khmer new years let me tell you about the things I am not getting okay so there has been this orphan boy who is mental challenged running around the village and spents lots of time at my house he actually told my host sister he knows me from when I had a peace corps meeting in Battabong. Well I have been trying to figure out why there are kids with no parents running around with out any one watching them at first I thought maybe bc he is slow he has family they just cant take care of him so I ask my host mom she is like no he has no family he is an orphan. Then I ask my host mom okay I get that he doest live in the village and has no family but how did he get to the village where is he staying etc. my host mom o he came on a watermelon truck and he has no home in the village me where does he sleep host mom don’t know. Now im starting to think this kid ran away or the orphanage kicked him out or something crazy bc he is 9 years old mentally challenged boy with no money my host sister has been giving him 500 real to go play and people have been giving him food. If he was the only one I would think run away but there has been like 5 of them running around so im not sure for Khmer new years do they let them lose with no money I just cant seem to figure it out. Until next time peace out from the other side of the world!!!

he poops the best coffee

monkey has hair clip

crazy stick lady

Okay well there are some longer stories I could not fit in the last few blogs that I thought would make for a good random blog all together. Naturally every day life for me is never normal but sometimes it just goes to the extreme of “did that really happen” “I feel like this happens only in the movies”. Well first ill tell you about my passport I thought I had it in a really safe place under my bed in a suit case zipped away to prevent it from getting wet or stolen. Well I had to get my passport out for my trip to discover my safe place was not so safe from the rats that’s right a rat ate part of my passport humm im like wtf what will I do well the code number is still on so hopefully they except it and since you have read my blogs you know they did but ill fill you in on all the conversations I had to have bc of the rat. First Cambodia what happened o randal com eng a rat ate it Cambodian people give me a look like yea that happened to me to I understand okay stamp stamp. Singapore your passport has something wrong yes I know a rat ate it Singapore people look at me in their clean country humm what are these animal you call rats we eradicated them a century ago. Sigh me okay so I live in Cambodia and some how the rats got into my suitcase okay fine but get a new one when you get back stamp stamp. Bali people look what is this me yet again a rat ate it o humm you should put it somewhere safe yes I thought I did but rats are slippery fuckers okay well we don’t know what to say to you so stamp stamp. So when we went to the cliff temple there are these really crazy aggressive monkeys they rip out any thing in ur hair or jewelry when we first arrived to pay our money this random lady gave me my purple sarong to go into most temples in bali you have to wear one anyways she quickly runs after me and taylor as we walk away to tell us she is our guide and we are like no thank you we are okay well then she quickly tells us its her job to beat away the monkeys as she has her stick in hand. We are like your job is to beat away the monkeys yes she tells us THEY pay her 50,000 rupe o they pay you because we have no money yea they pay me humm I know your like why be so untrusting but if Cambodia has taught me nothing it’s they love to play dumb with tourist. Well as we are walking we see all these people with out a monkey beater we ask her o why do they not need a monkey beater her reply should have told us right then to tell her to beat it “o they come here many times the monkey’s know them well” o really bc they have oxford tee shirt pretty sure the monkeys don’t know them. Well we were warned about these crazy monkeys however I did’t think it was quite so serous until the girl right in front of me had her clipped right from her hair that’s when I took off anything I had as you walk you just see a grave collection of all the crap the monkeys steal flip flops so much. When I was watching these monkeys all I could think was that movie monkey trouble when the monkey steals and brings it to the boss guy I could see these monkeys working for the crazy stick lady! Well we go all over the place and the crazy stick lady did beat away the monkeys but of course once we get to the end she is like okay you pay me 50,000 you ask any one I give you cheap for two people. I had no money on me which I will go into my next story but Taylor paid even though I think we should have told her to shove it but I guess it was a nicer thing to do even though she deff was a liar. Well for half my trip I had no money because my dear old bank loves to block my card when ever they can so there was a few panic moments lucky I made friends with this awesome German girl at the chill house viola who lent me money and once I was able to call my bank and bitch them out to get the situation fixed fyi they blocked my card when I bought tickets to fly to bali and Singapore you would think after I had them unblock it that time when I arrive in said country they would not re block it but that would be a no go. I really wish we could just store money in a glass jar and call it a day. If you want to know how many hoops I had to jump though with the bank it is crazy their response are like o it is us law we don’t want you laundering money o really bc im not sure 100 dollars can be considered the big times! Then I should act so grateful that they are willing to unblock MY MONEY sigh well I guess the moral is take out money be4 hand and if ever possible just don’t keep money in a bank lmao. This next story really is out of some dumb movie staring me but we were running for the train and the doors were about to cloths and I just did what any New Yorker would do which is throw my foot into the door forgetting how much shit I had in my backpack I fall backwards while these really well mannered Singaporean people just look like wtf is with this girl well taylor is in shock looking at me while im like jump in the train do it like its life or death then I could not lift my self up with the backpack on the ground so someone had to help me while im still trying to throw my whole body on this train I was like mission accomplished taking one for the team! (I am still not sure how I did not get canned in Singapore bc feel like my every action was an offenses). Finally our trip home I sit in front of the loudest person snoring this guy was horrible everyone was laughing bc they felt so embarrassed for him did I say anything to this armian dude no but of course later on I wish I had and this is why… so we did not go direct to Phonm Penh instead we had to fly into semi reap to pick up more people and they made us get off the plain then back on anyways this whole process made me and Taylor be like yep were back in Cambodia bc everything was so disorganized and even the way the plain was going in cicrles reminded us of the taxis that take like 3 hours to leave trying to fill up so we are just joking around and this annoying guy is like you guys need to cool it Im like really for 4 hours I had to listen to u sleep deal with me for 10 mins! That sums up my life peace out until next time!

I got their at night so I did not get to see much on the drive to the hotel but from first impression it was more built up then Cambodia. I stayed at a place called the chill house, which is a surfer’s retreat have to be honest never been in a place with anything with the word retreat in it. Okay well anyways went with my friend Taylor and it never crossed my mind that taylor is a very unisex name so when we showed up for our surf and love package people deff assumed couple which would not be bad except the house we stayed in has different rooms you share the house with people and they deff set us up with this other couple so you could tell they were deff taken aback when we showed up. The way this place is run is very group mentality you eat together you surf together can go on trips as a group etc which was cool bc I did get to meet a lot of people kept things interesting but you can also go off on ur own. The funny thing about the “type” of people in this place was that it was all Europeans mostly from Austria all I can say when u get 5 weeks off every year it gives you lots of time to travel so all these Europeans have been everywhere! I would classify them, as the yoga retreat type people were they pay for top accommodation but live what they think is a simple life I called it rich peoples camping. For me this was funny bc this place has hot water a toilet all these things which I do not have in Cambodia so to me it was a 5 star resort I don’t think they even understood the difference between there simple way of living is supper high end for me haha. With my surf and love package I had some cool stuff added one of the best being surf lessons so for those of you who don’t know after graduation of college I bought my self a board determined to teach my self this has been an up hill process bc all I had was you tube videos to learn from I actually have been able to get my self to stand etc but with these lesson it was way more constant after! Also I found out I am goofy foot im wondering if that’s why I suck at snowboarding to who knows hah im such a weird kid im right handed but left footed at soccer rt for snowboarding and I guess left for surfing my brain must be confused a lot. Well the surfing coaches were deff the best aspect of the trip so being in Cambodia I want to be around the locals I know they know all the good places to go where I don’t have to see the rest of tourist so we became quick friends with them because for one we actually understood their life and they were really interested in life in Cambodia and due to the fact no Cambodians can ever afford to travel we were the first Cambodians they ever met. It was also a huge cultural difference in bali from Cambodia it was like okay for them to goof around with us with out it being taken like we our broken girls etc they were pretty funny and obvious like o we are cold I think I need a hug or I am looking for the sexy girl to be my wife. Things that a Cambodian man would never say in front of us it kept things fun and less o I have to think about my every action or every person will talk about me. Well Saturday we ended up going shopping with them to the materials district where there was no tourist which meant I could afford sarong fabric for my host family I have to openly admit until living in Cambodia I had 0 interest in clothing material bc its not like I would ever so my own clothes whatever was at the store in my mind was it but since Cambodia and being able to pick what ever you want has made me a bit ocd about finding unique fabric. However because I can I have no idea how much material you should buy to make stuff im sure I over bought 2 meters etc but I figured be on the safe side I also got my self some and a whole Balinese outfit to have made. After shopping going to a random market that’s the other thing that is different they actually have malls in bali so there is not so many markets made me feel things were much more high class not having to pick out shirts with the fish right next to me just didt seem normal anymore haha as sad as that sounds really! They do sell more flowers and things at their market but its more expensive in bali Cambodia the dollar goes so far makes me happy to live in Cambodia vs bali! We also went to some little stand and got some local food which was really good the place we stayed at provided food so we did not get to many chances to eat out on a street corner which made things easier in the long run but you know when you go some where new its good to try to explore and try out different things so it was cool to do that. The other part of the bali trip is deff the temple trips there were so many and crazy things to see the first day we got their it was offering day so their was music and so much to culturally experience it was great the other really amazing thing about bali is that for 50 bucks you can rent a car for the whole day and go to all the places you want to go which bali being the small island that it is makes it so your not running around like most vacations trying to see all the things you want to see so it really did make the trip a relaxing one. On the car trip I really loved the cliff temple I wish it was not raining though to see the pretty sunset and the spice stop was cool with the coffee except they sold all of it for double the price but it was free to taste everything except the kloopia coffee which is coffee that comes from this animals poop the most expensive coffee in the world so naturally my Cambodia ass could not afford it. We attempted to go to the top of the volcano, which was one big white foggy mess bc of the rain so we did not get to see much which was a bummer. The rain is much different in Bali then Cambodia bc it will lightly rain for hours but in Cambodia it just monsoon rains for like an hour which I much rather so you can get on with your day with out it being interrupted with drizzle. My trip would not be complete with out a scuba diving trip of some of the best diving in the world I ended up going to this place called blue lagoon and saw an octopus and all sorts of other crazy fish there were sharks but I sadly did not see them would have been cool im told seeing sharks diving is some of the best diving. After diving my guide took me out to eat it was included in the price where I ate at a traditional place and had some really yummy fish and sat Cambodian style on top of a table. My dive guide married an Indonesia so it was cool to hear some cultural stories from him I guess you must get your teeth filed down when you want to get married in Bali. When it came time to leave bali it was hard bc it was such an easy culture to fit into but I was ready to go back to Cambodia just not to excited to spend another expensive night in Singapore however I did get a really pretty sari to wear to this embassy party im going to so its was not a total loss. Peace out from the other side of the world!!!

Let me take you back to the Cambodian airport first where I walk in and see some rat looking dog licking its balls when I ask the security guard what’s the deal he is like o he is supposed to be sniffing for drugs me o really I think he might be taking the day off the guard yes he does this often. When you go from life in Cambodia situation like this happen all the time to traveling to what I soon found out was the second most expensive city in the world I had a huge culture change to go though. Where to start I did not know what Singapore would be like however I had no idea everything is so well groomed I have heard it’s a clean city but you have no idea. When I first got their I was waiting for some police caning to happen asap however I was shocked to not see a single cop but people behaving as if they were covering the place wall to wall which I soon discovered was because the big brother in the sky did the job of all the police forces combined I mean not a single public place is not covered. I don’t know how to describe the vibe of the people to you because its not simple okay its like well mannered like no one doest help you but no one goes out of their way to talk to you either and I went from the extreme where I cant walk down the street with out being stopped by every person at the market to talk to me to walking around a city with millions of people who did’t so much as say hi very odd. Also Cambodia is such old traditions and culture where I accepted some form of that to be in Singapore and there was not so I think it leaves people looking as development as a suppior way of being. Cool aspect I forgot about the world of Google phones and the maps app in Cambodia we don’t even have postal service let alone actual real maps yet so the fact some random kid on the street could get me to wear I needed to go via Google almost made me cry amazing! Singapore is so developed that it makes the us looks 2nd world seriously they have crazy buildings and ways to be green that we as Americans are no where close to. Example the subways or trains every time they stop they are what powers the flats which people live in I think like 3000 of them or something also they have rainforest in the middle of everything else so randomly I was walking and start to go upon a spice walk where you can see everything from things we use to cook to things that help with medicine interesting stuff. However most of what you see in Singapore is one big shopping mall where in New York underground tunnels lead to more subways in Singapore they lead to more malls I don’t think I even tapped into the amount of shopping what in supposed to do in Singapore this is for the fact I have no money. As expensive or capitalistic as I though the us was Singapore wins incase your wondering how expensive im talking about they don’t have any of their own food brands it all comes from the us, Japan (maybe no with the radiation now) and Korea so a pint of ben and jerries yea that’s right Vermont gets represented in Singapore go figure if you can afford it is 20 dollars yea no joke! A place to sleep 90-500 dollar a night clothes vary in price but for the most part anything you can think of is 5 times the us price. Next on my bitch list is that Singapore gov deff does not want people coming in rocking the boat with their crazy ideas of over taking gov or god knows what there is not a single sign for anything even locals have no idea when your like o that big rain forest that’s called blah blah blah what stop off this bus and u get blank stairs there is nothing on their local maps to tell you hey we have cool shit this way. I saw no Americans the whole time except mabey one or two older couples and even going around people never once assumed I was American they were like humm where are you living bc that’s how uncommon it is for someone living in America to come their way so when I say Cambodia their like yea makes senses when in any other place it would be why do you live their. I would say the best part of the trip was that we stayed in little India which is the most culture in all of Singapore I have decided that when we go back at the end of this trip to transfer plans that im going to buy a sari for this big embassy party I am going to. Their was amazing good and so many colors and people were way more out going compared to the Chinese Singapore people also their I guess is a huge cricket world cup so at night the streets would fill up with people to watch the game their was a lot to see their but still very closed off from the way people are in Cambodia. All in all I would say glad I went to see for my self kick the bucket list sort of a deal with lots of natural little treasures hidden between shopping centers the size of towns in America but as for wanting to revisiting it or my advice for anyone who thinks they might want to go is the follow make sure your rich and that you like to shop because I would honestly call Singapore the mall of the world if you think the mall of America is big times that by like 50 and picture a whole country just covered in shopping cents that Singapore is the place for you. Till next time when I will be surfing my way and back into a culture I understand peace out from the other side of the world.

No no no I am just pulling your leg or especially luis leg but due to my up coming trip peace corps invited me to come in two days early expensive paid sweet deal to have my mid service medical exams. What this entailed was a trip to the dentist which is the nervous part of this exam process well first I am not the biggest fan of the dentist I swear its always painful and I manage to always have something wrong. First impression humm well Cambodians cant really afford tooth paste let alone dentist so I was like what am I in store for turns out not so bad except the detail hygienist wear these mini white skirts like a red cross outfit from the 1940s but as if a porno will break out. Odd thing about the dentist you only see him for 5 mins and the hygienist lady takes a water pick to clean you teeth there is no real prodding and no x-rays which I could not believe but that’s very Cambodian why would you take sever action unless there is something wrong. Good news about all of this even though im not sure they really did all they could to prove my teeth were in deed healthy but they say no cavities so ill take that even though since the age of 7 I feel like I have always had something wrong and Cambodians put sugar on everything so how I escaped this I will never know but im so excited!!! The rest of my exam was healthy except turns out I have scoliosis slightly though no one has ever told me this and considering I been going to the pediatrtion until i was 21 and they are supposed to specialize in spotting child hood disease I would say they failed me. I have to wait to be retested for tb my host family the new one thinks I had to go into get tested for hiv because I was going to travel and for my host sister to try to get her visa to the usa you know they make people do mad test so to them they thought I had to do the same thing this cracked me up and I don’t think I was able to explain me traveling is different then you trying to get a visa. I am gearing up getting ready for my trips to Singapore and bali I have no idea what will be in store but im so excited to see a new part of the world so until next time peace out!