Competition Culture

A few weeks ago I had the wonderful opportunity to participate in a Spelling Bee with four of my students.  To be honest, I wasn’t super pumped about this project.  Sure, it was a spelling bee.  Whatever.  I’d probably have a few students participate and it would be just something else for my English club to focus on for a few weeks.  But life is funny in that way where the things you least expect to enjoy turn out to be one of your most memorable experiences. 

The students were given a list with about 300 words with varying degrees of difficulty.  My four students struggled during our first few practices and I wasn’t too optimistic about the results of this competition.  However, as the weeks went on my students really surprised me and studied that list like their lives depended on it.  At the provincial spelling bee, two of my students placed first in their grade division, meaning they got to travel to Phnom Penh for the national spelling bee! 

My student, Raisy, getting ready for the Provincial Spelling Bee

Choyi spelling a word P-E-R-F-E-C-T-L-Y at the National Spelling Bee

Needless to say, they were very excited.  There were tears of joy and also tears of disappointment from those who were not able to move on.  This was an entirely new experience for most of my students, since competition is not commonplace in Cambodian culture.  While men will sometimes compete while they play sports, there are few other games that are as intense as say…Monopoly Deal.  Even competing for grades is not really a common practice since the “sharing” of answers on tests is rampant throughout classrooms and seen almost as a necessity. 

This brought me to think about America and how competition-driven our culture is.  I’ve been competing in things since preschool, and probably even before then.  And while competition has taught me a lot (for example, how to take awesome photos with trophies) it hasn’t always fostered the greatest sense of community.  Constantly competing for better grades or better mock trial parts or a better job definitely drives people to do better, but does it really make us better people? 

But I hope my students’ experience in this competition will be remembered very similar to how I remember the various competitions throughout my life.  I can’t tell you every grade I’ve ever gotten or what my scores were in my 8^th grade History Day Competition.  I can’t tell you what place my broadcast news team got at the speech club competition in Des Moines and I can’t even tell you what place we got in most of our mock trial tournaments (key word being, “most”).  But I can tell you about that time I thought my professor wrote “baller!” on my mid-term essay, but what she actually wrote was “better!”  I can laugh about that time I put waaaay too much cornstarch in my hair to try and look more like Eleanor Roosevelt for my six-page monologue at the State History Day Competition.  And I will always remember those crazy road trips to various mock trial tournaments with jumbo Slurpies and ridiculous poses for team photos. 

That courtroom was a battlefield

Headed to the Night Market in Phnom Penh! 

So I hope my students remember the new friends they met, that time they went to the night market in Phnom Penh, and the awesome library the competition was held in.  And hey, if they remember that they are also both the 2^nd best spellers in their grade division in the nation, then that’s okay too. 

                                                         

Choyi and Raisy having some fancy ice cream!  

An Exciting Day in the Life of a Peace Corps Volunteer

People I talk to from back home often say to me, “I don’t have anything to talk about because my life is boring.” 

I try to explain to them that all in all, my life is not that thrilling.  Sure, the first six months were really exciting because everything was new and different, but at this point, I'm in just as much of a routine as I was in the States.  Just to prove how unexciting my life is, I kept track of all the things I did today and recorded them here.  Enjoy. 

5:25am: Wake up to the sound of my host dad throwing rocks inside of a wheelbarrow.  Over and over and over again.  But screw this because today is my day off and there is no way I’m waking up this early.  I shove my earplugs in a little farther and drift back to sleep.

7:20am: This time I actually wake up.  But like I said, it’s my day off so by golly I’m going to sit in bed and watch an episode of Friends, because I can. 

7:45am: I decide to actually get out of bed and head off to the market to get some breakfast. 

8:20am: After a nice 15 minute bike-ride, I’m at the market and ready to enjoy my favorite dish, bon-chaio with fried noodles.  It’s basically a thin crispy omelet with baby shrimps and veggies…and no cheese, with fried noodles on the top, topped with fish sauce.  It's good, I swear. 

Mhhhmmm, yummy

8:40am: After conversing for a while with my bon-chaio lady I head over to my coffee lady to drink a coffee and hang out for a while because, hey I got time. 

9:10am: After hanging out for a while, mostly just with myself, I find out that the daughter of the coffee shop lady is not going to Phnom Penh to go to University, as previously planned.  I’m not quite sure what is going on with that, but I didn’t feel like it was my place to pry, so I hung around a bit more and then biked home. 

9:40am: I’m home early enough to do some laundry…but I just did some yesterday…and I don’t like it so I decide to write some emails and “play Facebook” (spoken like a true Cambodian), instead.

11:00am: IT’S TIME TO EAT LUNCH!  Today I had a stir-fry with pork and pineapple, some beef in a sauce thing that is super delicious, and a mango.  Oh, and rice.  Lots of rice. 

11:30am: Time to watch more Friends pretend to work on a Graduate Assistant application

1:30pm: Start reading The Things They Carried.

2:00pm: I’m horrible at reading war novels for long period of time, so I decide to watch a movie, instead.

4:00pm: Think about going outside…but it’s pretty hot and I’m pretty comfortable in front of my fan. I could go get a coffee but I don’t really want one.  I could go buy a money card for my phone, but I don’t really have any money.  I could go visit one of the teachers from my school but they are either in Phnom Penh studying or busy taking care of their children.  Sooo I decide to journal a little and then call a fellow volunteer to chat for a bit. 

6:00pm: IT’S TIME TO EAT, AGAIN!  I got some chicken and some noodles with curry.  It was delightful.  Oh, and I got a mango, too. 

6:20pm: After talking to my host mom for a few minutes I head up to my room because one of her friends is over and they are busy speaking in rapid Khmer.  Then I started writing this blog.

Things I have planned for the rest of this Saturday night:

-Do a Jillian Michaels' workout

-Take a bucket shower

-Post this blog

WOW.  I’m so bored just from writing that.  I’m sorry you had to read the whole thing.  But anyway, this just goes to show, that yeah, some days are really exciting, and most days are at least a little more exciting than this (for example, I’m attempting to help teach an art class for 2 hours tomorrow, so we’ll see how that goes!), but Peace Corps Volunteers have boring days too.  So next time you think your life is so much less exciting than mine, just remember this blog.  But you probably won't, because chances are you've probably already fallen asleep.  Don't worry, if you're as lucky as me, someone will be there to wake you up soon, preferably with the sound of hundreds of rocks hitting the inside of a wheelbarrow.  

P.S. Sorry this doesn't have more pictures, but i dropped my camera in a lake a couple weeks ago during one of the more exciting days in my Peace Corps service.  

How the Peace Corps Prepared me for Pregnancy

 I know what you’re thinking.  

“Awwww heck, Kelly done got herself pregnant in the Peace Corps.  Ha!”

Well, sorry to disappoint (or provide with a great sense of relief, Mom and Dad), but I am definitely not pregnant.  However, if I ever were to get pregnant, I totally have that whole thing on lock down. 

Nine months with no caffeine or alcohol?  Nice try, pregnancy.  I already went two years without a steady source of Mountain Dew.  If my body could handle the chemical sludge withdrawal before, I’m sure it’ll be even easier the next time around.  And as far as alcohol goes, a proper lady never drinks in her village.  And I’m high class.

Overly sensitive to odors?  I’ve walked down an alley filled with trash, feces and urine in Cambodia, and totally held it together.  I think I can handle it. 

People always commenting on how big you are and trying to rub your stomach?  People do that to me all the time…and I’m not even pregnant.

None of your clothes will fit well?  Done.  I’ve looked like a bag lady for about the last year.  Turns out, hand-washing your clothes does not help them maintain their shape.  That and the constant weight gain (Darn you, rice!)/weight loss (I bike 50k on the reg) saga that is my Peace Corps life.  I haven’t worn anything that didn’t contain an elastic waistband since leaving America (Wow…that’s actually horrifying).

Morning sickness?  Try “first six months of service” sickness.

Hormones making you feel like you’re on an emotional rollercoaster?  Yesterday I laughed for about 5 minutes at this:

I was discovered yelling “TOP HAT, WHY ARE YOU TAKING ADVANTAGE OF ME?!?!?!?” at my computer during a very heated game of computer monopoly, and I started to tear up when I was talking to someone about how hard my students were studying for the upcoming spelling bee.  I don’t even think I have a hormonal imbalance.  This is all just coming to me naturally. 

Nine months seem like a long time to carry a child?  That’s less than half of a Peace Corps service. BAM. 

You have to poop and pee in front of people when you’re in labor?  I’d rather not get into it, but let’s just say that it happens to everyone in the Peace Corps at least once. 

After it’s all done, you have a whole new person for whom you are responsible for the rest of your life? 

Oh right…I have no idea what that’s like.  

But other than that, you can see how the two situations are quite similar.  I really think the recruiting office should start working this angle more. 

*Disclaimer: this blog is meant, in no way, to belittle the efforts of the pregnant people of this world.  I may be in the Peace Corps, but being pregnant is way too intense for me.  Please don’t kill me in a hormonal rage. 

I Have Friends!

This is Shelley:

She’s awesome and she came to visit me in Cambodia last week.  Shelley’s been teaching English in China since last fall, and for her Lunar New Year vacation, she decided to swing by the Kingdom of Wonder and pay me a visit. 

This was wonderful for a number of reasons. 

1)   We got to hit up some tourist sites that I kept saying, “I’ll get to that one of these days…”

Exploring the ruins at Phnom Chiso.  We're only awkwardly spaced to try and get some background in there...

Inside one of the ruins at Phnom Chiso

2)   We got to reminisce about the good ol’ days and talk about things other than Peace Corps

Chilling out in Phnom Penh with some ice cream

3)   We got to speak English to each other for almost a whole week!

4)   I had someone else to back me up on how AMAZING Iowa is

Shelley and I on a tourie, getting ready to head to my site!
Please note the Iowa shirt.

5)   Shelley reminded me that Cambodia is a pretty awesome place

Riding on a cart full of durian to go and get our hair and make-up done for a wedding!

Make-up!

As far as Peace Corps countries go, Cambodia is pretty great.  There’s a lot to be done, and although it’s not always an easy path, it keeps me busy and keeps me on my toes.  Cambodia is also gorgeous, and I constantly forget that I should probably be taking in the rice paddies, mountains, and temples while I can (although I gotta say rice paddies still got nothin’ on corn fields).  Basically, it was great to remember how amazing all of this is, and how it’s slipping away faster than I can even imagine. 

Shelley perfected Khmer dancing

Speaking of which, it’s February.  WHAT?  I’m still not sure what my official leave date is but it’s between July 3^rd and August 7th^th.  Either way, that is so soon (or at least seems soon in Peace Corps time).  People have been asking me how I feel about coming home in five or six months, and to be honest, I’m not completely sure.  I’m so thrilled to be closer to my friends and family, sad that I won’t be able to teach my favorite students next year or be a bike ride away from some of my PCV friends, and scared of starting what everyone likes to call “real life”.  I also tend to think that readjusting to American life will be a cinch, but in the words of my recent visitor after spending a few days at my house, “Kelly, readjustment might be a little difficult for you…this place is pretty different.”

It is mind-blowing to realize that in a few months my life will be drastically different (yet again).  But hey, if that difference means I could be doing my laundry in a machine right now instead of just staring at my overflowing laundry basket, dreading the hour and a half of scrubbing and wringing out my over-worn wardrobe, then bring it on. 

Kittens and Spiders

Today something awesome happened.  I walked into my room and found a kitten!!!!  Oh my goodness it was so cute I could hardly contain myself.  This kitten was also very afraid of humans so I tried to take a picture from as far away as possible. 

SO CUTE

Today something terrifying also happened.  I walked into my room and found a giant spider.  I was actually just telling a fellow volunteer how I really don’t have those giant spiders at my house.  Well, it turns out that I do, but they almost perfectly match the wood my ENTIRE house is made out of, so they are all perfectly disguised.  So naturally, I'm now convinced they are crawling all over everything, unnoticed.  

SO SCARY

I was going to spend this next paragraph to get all deep and talk about how life is just like my room and it’s always surprising and sometimes you get spiders and sometimes you get kittens, but I feel like you all get the point. 

What I will talk about is the fact that I only have six or seven months left to walk into my bedroom every day, not knowing what to expect.  Chances are, when I move back to America, I will always know whether or not there is a kitten in my room (I hope there is one!).  While this is kind of an exciting prospect, it’s also not exciting (I can't think of a better way to say that).   

I also realized today, that I spend a lot of time thinking about what my life will be like once I get back to America.  Like, A LOT of time.  One time, I even went online shopping for an entire wardrobe I was going to buy once I got home.  I’ve gone online apartment shopping in cities I’m not even sure I’m going to live in.  I’ve even looked into breeds of cats I want to buy in 5 years...or as soon as I get back.

While I realize that most of this is just getting ready for the next stage in my life, much how I constantly researched Cambodia before coming here, I am coming to grips with the fact that yes, I only have a few months left.  I should probably be spending that time focusing on actually living here.  It’s hard to do that with grad school applications and an ever-growing list of food I need to eat as soon as I get home, but it’s possible and I’m going to work on living in the present.  Because my present is pretty great.

So here’s a few things going on RIGHT NOW:

-I’m hosting a spelling bee at my school on Sunday and the four best spellers will be able to accompany me to a regional spelling bee in our provincial town, next week!

-Our annual Camp GLOW is happening just a few months away, our grant was approved and the money should be coming in very soon!

-I scared away half of my English Club because I said last week that every student was going to have to say at least one sentence in English every class period.  I’m not sure my “tough love” approach is working.

-I have a physics project for my students in the works with one of my amazing co-teachers (and yes, anyone who knows my relationship with physics in high school will find this very amusing)

-There are kittens at my house!

Basically, I’m coming into 2014 feeling pretty great about the next seven months.  And hey, it’s pretty awesome to be able to say, “I’ll see you later this year!”  

Baby, it's Cold Outside

It rarely feels like December here in Cambodia, but today was a day full of nostalgia for snow days, sweaters and christmas cookies.

I woke up around 4am to what I thought was the pitter-patter of little mice feet, but was pleasantly surprised to find that it was the pitter-patter of fresh, glorious rain.  We're entering the dry season, so it hasn't rained in almost a month, and yesterday was quite the scorcher.  I went back to sleep looking forward to a cool morning.

When my alarm went off at 6:20, it was still raining.  And anyone in Cambodia can tell you what rain during the day means:  a rain day!  It's a lot like a snow day, but with rain.  I called my co-teacher to double check, but I was pretty sure the rain meant no class this morning.

I had grand plans of sleeping in, but like any excited kid on a rain day, I was so excited about not having class that I stayed up and finished reading a book I'd been working on for a few days.  I taught one class mid-morning when it stopped raining for a bit, but then the rain returned and there was no school for the rest of the day.

Some of you might be thinking, "What, they can't just handle a little rain?", which was definitely my thought during my first "rain day".  But think about it.  Riding your bike in the rain when you don't have a rain coat, or a rainproof backpack, on a muddy road for half an hour just to get to school seems like enough reason not to go.  That and the fact that the school roof is made of tin, so even if you did make it to school, chances are you aren't going to be able to understand the teacher over the "ping!  ping! ping!" of the rain drops.  Not to mention the holes in the roof, leaking water all over the classroom.

Now the original purpose of this blog was just to tell everyone how cold it is!  Since the sun has yet to grace the day with its presence, it has been a cold one*.  I'm currently sitting here wearing socks, a thick skirt, an undershirt, dress shirt and sweatshirt.  And I'm not sweating!  It's truly a Christmas miracle!

Mirror selfie!  

So please excuse me while I make myself another cup of hot chocolate and look at things on pinterest while I listen to Michael Bublé's Christmas album.  Winter has come to Cambodia!

*Truth be told, I think it's only about 70 degrees, but it feels like at least 65!

A Field Trip Turned Philosophical

There are some things I never really pictured myself being able to do while I was in Peace Corps.  Taking my students to a nature reserve to learn about endangered bears, where they would be included in footage for an upcoming documentary, was definitely one of those things.  How random, right?

A few weeks ago I contacted a nature reserve fairly close to my site (it's about a 25 minute tuk-tuk ride away) because I heard they run an education program that is free for students.  As soon as any Peace Corps volunteer hears the word "free", we're all over it, so I was looking forward to hearing more from them.

Well, everything worked out and yesterday I took 25 students from my high school to Phnom Tamao Wildlife Rescue Center.  The program taught the students about sun bears and moon bears in Cambodia, and how these animals are endangered due to numerous factors, including deforestation and poaching.  My students got to make a few snacks for the bears and throw them into the enclosure, which both the students and bears enjoyed immensely.  They also were able to go around and see a few other treasures from the nature reserve.  

Learning about the endangered bears 

Spreading some jam inside the bear enclosure (the bears were being kept somewhere else while they cleaned their habitat) for the bears to eat

This bear is eating the jam I left for him!  

One of my students, excited to see the bears so close-up!  

Making another snack for the bears.  These balls were stuffed with bananas, vegetables and some honey

Watching this happen was so freaking adorable.  My heart almost exploded.

Elephants!  

Yes, Dad, that is an enormous python.  There were three of them in that cage. I was fine watching from a distance....

The other exciting part is that my students are going to be on TV!!!  A film crew happened to be at the nature reserve that day, and they were working on a documentary about endangered animals along the Mekong River.  My students will definitely be in a few shots, and it comes out in March, so I'm hoping to get my hands on a copy so they can all watch it!

My students being surprisingly calm and collected in front of the camera

I was extremely grateful to have this opportunity to share a completely new experience with my students.  The majority of them had never seen a bear before, or any of the other animals displayed at the nature reserve, for that matter.  However, they were just as amazed (if not more so) by the other foreigners at the nature reserve, and ran up to take pictures with a few surprised tourists (I'm apparently old news).

At the risk of making this a rather long blog post, I have to add an aside to this story.  This nature reserve is an extremely nice place.  The education center has a nice, flat-screen television, the walls are freshly painted, there are fans mounted on the wall, and there are soft benches to sit on.  The bears are fed several times a day, and given a variety of fresh-fruit snacks, kept fresh by a refrigerator which is powered by a solar panel.  As we were wandering around one of the bear habitats (a very nicely decorated area, created to make it seem as if you are in a bear-cave), one of my students came up to me and said, "Teacher Kelly, this place is fantastic!  That's a word I can use, right?  'Fantastic'?"  After assuring this student that was a great use of the word, he replied saying, "Yes, I wish I could live here forever."

Truth be told, I didn't think much of his statement, at first.  I just assumed the statement was uttered, as any excited kid would, at the close of a fantastic day in a new place.  But I have been to where this student actually lives.  He is one of my brightest students, and an extremely hard worker.  He also lives in a one-room house, made of wood, with tarps and straw lining the roof in an attempt to keep out the rain.  He cares for his blind mother, and teaches her English in his spare time (he must be a pretty good teacher since his mother was able to have a short conversation with me in English before we switched to Khmer).

It was one of those moments that completely broke my heart, as I realized this student probably really meant what he said, and the realization that these bears have a better quality of life than a good portion of my students.  

This is not a criticism on the nature reserve, or those who donate to care for animals.  Phnom Tamao Nature Reserve has many donors whose passion is in protecting and preserving the environment.  Phnom Tamao not only helps to preserve the environment, but educates young people on the importance of the ecosystem, provides them with a completely new experience, free of cost, and provides employment for many people in my area.  I truly believe this is a great organization.

But this is the issue with development.  It's easy to provide assistance and vastly improve the lives of a bunch of bears in a short amount of time.  You can just plop a bear in an nice enclosure and it will be completely content for the rest of it's little, bear life.  It's much harder dealing with people.  There are so many different barriers: religious barriers, cultural barriers, language barriers, socioeconomic barriers and simply, human barriers.  Even if you finally get through all these barriers, there are still so many things that can go wrong.  There are so many examples of development projects gone awry, and I can personally attest to numerous failures at projects I thought would be really great ideas.

So while improvement may not happen as quickly with humans as it does with bears, it's still completely worth a few more attempts, and a few more after that.

But for now, I'll simply reflect back on a great learning experience for my students.  Not only did they learn more about the ecosystem, but they got to see a lot of different careers in action.  Perhaps this will inspire one of them to work at a nature reserve, or on a camera-crew, or as a journalist.  I truly believe my students are capable of anything, and I'll do whatever I can to make them believe that, too.

One last note: The student I talked about earlier is in grade 12 and will be graduating near the top of his class at the end of this year.  I was able to put him in contact with an organization in town which will be able to help sponsor his studies at a university of his choice.  This student has truly been an inspiration to me, and I am confident he will reach his goal of becoming an English tour guide and helping to provide more for his family.