Cornfields and Rice Paddies

Having lived in Iowa for most of my life, I have constantly heard about the dangers of getting lost in a cornfield.  I once vividly remember scoffing at the very idea, only to have my father remind me that once you get far into a cornfield, it's hard to realize which way is the way out.  The stalks are all incredibly tall and hardly seem to be in their straight little rows once you get in there.  Because of this advice, I have never just wandered aimlessly into a cornfield...but that didn't stop me from getting lost in a rice paddy today.

This morning I was informed of a wonderfully hidden road that leads to a mountain located a few towns over.  I frequently bike there on my way to my provincial town or to visit my friend who teaches at the high school there.  The idea of getting off the beaten path was especially appetizing since the main road I usually travel on is currently rife with slow-paced construction.

Taking the instructions I thought were given to me, I started on my merry way.  As I kept biking, the road turned into more of a path, which seemed pretty impassable, at times (but of course, that didn't stop me).   I kept thinking, "Why would they tell me to go this way on my bike?".  I kept going, walking my bike through the muddy areas and consequently enveloping my feet in mud-made clogs.  When I tried to wash them off in a nearby creek, I (of course) slipped and also covered my hands in a nice layer of mud.  Through lots of practice, I've become rather good at falling and was able to spare most of my clothing, but nonetheless, I was quite a mess.

A few moments later, I heard some voices yelling at me from a rice paddy.  It was some friends of my host family and the conversation went something like this:
Rice Paddy Friends: "Kelly, what are you doing out here?"
Me:  "I'm going to that mountain!"
(laughter ensues amongst Rice Paddy Friends)
RPF: "No you're not, you're just in the rice fields.  You forgot to turn left at the Wat!"
Me: "Yes, yes I did."

So I turned around to go home.  However, at this point, I was surrounded by rice paddies and couldn't quite tell which direction I was going anymore.  I seemed to have missed some sort of fork in the road and was passing by unrecognizable rice paddies left and right.  I started to wonder what the record for being lost in a rice paddy was, and feeling that I might just surpass that record today.  However, a few more friendly Cambodians planting their rice yelled out at the poor American who was so obviously not where she wanted to be, and I managed to find my way out of the rice paddies and onto the main road.

I'm sure it's good for everyone back home to hear that I can still get lost in my own town.  My sense of direction has certainly not changed.  However, the scenery has, and I must say, wandering aimlessly for a few hours in the rice paddies was definitely worth this photo.

Accomplishing Goals

I’m a very goal-oriented person.  I love goals.  Having them, accomplishing them, scoring them…okay that last one pretty much never happens for me*, but you get the point.  I love having goals.

So it’s extremely helpful that Peace Corps has outlined these three lovely goals for volunteers to try to accomplish.  These goals are as follows:

1.    Helping the people of interested countries in meeting their need for trained men and women.

2.    Helping promote a better understanding of Americans on the part of the peoples served.

3.    Helping promote a better understanding of other peoples on the part of

Americans.

Goal one is pretty self explanatory, and goal three is kind of what I’m trying to do with this whole blogging business, but today I’m going to share a little bit about what goal two is like for most volunteers. 

American culture, like any other culture, is incredibly complex and, at times, almost impossible to describe.  It’s difficult to explain a culture that is so often inaccurately portrayed in popular television shows, movies and other pop culture (although it’s hard to deny that my life could not be summed up with a few episodes of 30 Rock and a sampling of Taylor Swift songs).    

Just to give you an idea of what some Cambodians think about America, here are a few choice quotes by some of the people in my town**.

“People in America are fat because they all have washing machines”

“In America, everyone has enough money and time to go on vacation whenever they want.”

“There are no homeless people in America.”

Market Man: “Do all people in America have light skin?”

Me: “No, we have people in America from all over the world.  Dark skin and light skin.”

Market Man:  “What state do all the people with dark skin live in?”

Me: “All of them…?” 

“America has 56 states, and I hear that they want to have at least 60 in the future”

So in summation, a lot of Cambodians belive America is made up of mostly fat, rich, and racist imperialists.   And yes, there is often some truth in stereotypes and misinformation.  It’s true that America isn’t exactly known for being the healthiest country (my own saga with McDonalds is a fine display of that fact).  And yes, our GDP and standard of living is drastically different than that of Cambodia.  We certainly have a history of racism and putting our long arms in to several pots, but that is not all there is to America.  I certainly consider part of my job here to show that America is an incredibly diverse country.  Yes, there are really rich people in America, but there are also people who live on the streets and battle with mental illness, just like in Cambodia.  There are people who are incredibly healthy (without eating immense amounts of rice, I might add).  There are people who are incredibly good and incredibly generous, living right alongside the genuinely terrible people who exist.  Just like in Cambodia.

It’s not my goal to disillusion Cambodians about life in America.  I will never deny that in comparison to many Cambodians (and Americans, for that matter), I have lived an extremely comfortable life due to the hard work and love of my parents.  But it is my goal to show them that life isn’t perfect.  It’s not perfect in America and it’s not perfect in Cambodia.  But it’s our responsibility to take those imperfections and try to make something better, one step at a time. 

*Fun fact: when I played soccer in elementary school, I can guarantee that I possessed more pairs of broken glasses than actual scored goals. 

**Fair warning that most of these quotes are probably mistranslated…but I’m still writing them down.  

Seven...well actually six more pictures! (Mom don't look at the first picture)

Okay so, I didn't quite take a photo every day, but I almost did, so here they are:

This is just one of my many roommates.  It may seem cute, but I'm still waiting for the day when they help me sew a dress or clean my room.  I'm not holding my breath.  

At least one day a week I wake up to some random act of vandalism unleashed by my mice friends.  This week it was my purse.  The things that happen when you forget half a granola bar in your bag...

In pretty much every Cambodian household, you'll find this wall of photos of pretty much everyone in the family.  Mine also includes a large photo of Angkor Wat.  I'm not on the wall yet...but I plan on hiding several photos around the house before I leave.  

I forgot to take a picture this day, so here's a lame picture of me reading my own blog at night.  For those of you who wonder what it looks like when I'm chatting with you on facebook, this is it.  And yes, Sealy is obviously an important part of my life in Cambodia.  

You can't really see it in this photo, but I promise it's actually raining.  When it rains in Cambodia, life pretty much stops.  And during the rainy season, life pretty much stops every day for at least an hour.  It's pretty nice, but it's going to  make readjusting to life in the US a bit more interesting.  "I'm sorry I can't leave the house right now.  It's raining."  

One day I'll have to write a blog post exclusively about my awesome Khmer tutor, but for now you all will just get a photo.  I just discovered this woman a month ago and she has been a lifesaver.  Her name is Arun and she lived in the US for 20 years after she married her husband (who was volunteering in a refugee camp she went to during the Khmer Rouge).  She has led an incredible life and is also fluent in English and Khmer, which makes learning from her a piece of cake.  She's teaching me how to read and write and I'm actually enjoying it!  I have no idea if I'll actually get the hang of it all before I leave, but I'm certainly making progress.
(And yes, fellow PCVs, she does have an oven AND a refrigerator)

A New Blog Project

As many of you know by now, I'm kind of terrible at keeping regular blogs.  That is all about to change for year numero dos (yay! I can still speak a little bit of Spanish!).  That's right, I'm in my second year.  Crazy.  

So the plan is to take a picture every day and post seven pictures at the end of each week.  I didn't do super great at it this week, so most of these photos are a little old, but here they are!  

Me in front of my school with a few of my students from my English club.  These ladies are such hard workers and I have been so blessed to be able to work with them.  The young lady in the top right is my most dedicated student, and is moving to Phnom Penh with her family so she can attend a private school.  I'm so happy for her, and I think it'll be great for her education, but I'm also selfishly going to miss teaching her.

This is a terrible photo I took from my window of the road construction happening on the highway outside of my house.  It was pretty awesome to watch it all take place.  There are no such things as closed roads or orange cones in Cambodia, so it's interesting to just watch motos drive through the road construction.  Also, you can see my neighbors watching the construction.  I found it kind of funny how entertained they were by it all, but then found myself staring at the construction right along with them.  

The election just happened a while ago and this is Cambodian campaigning at its finest.  It basically consists of trucks and motos driving up and down the highway blaring music and campaign speeches.  

This scene is something I bike past every time I go to my Khmer tutoring sessions.  It seriously takes my breath away every time, and is even more beautiful in person. 

I woke up to this gem a few days ago.  This is my littlest host brother who is about 4 years old.   A little background on this is that no one wears helmets in my village except for me.  So it was pretty heartening to see my little host brother using the world's best helmet while riding his bike around the front yard. 

This photo is in honor of my fellow Iowan who has returned to the homeland after his two years of service.  However, before leaving,  he left me his Iowan flag so I can carry on the Iowa pride.  

This is a random photo, but this is what happens when you go to the dentist (which also happens to be the most modern looking dentist building I have ever been in) in Cambodia.  They call these Crocs "hospital shoes" and you have to don a pair of these babies before you get your teeth cleaned.  I'm pretty sure these are never cleaned, so that's a little gross, but after a year in Cambodia, putting on used Crocs is the least of my hygiene problems (no toilet paper...think about it).  

A Renewed Sense of Patriotism (a quick stateside blurb)

Let me tell you, as a PCV, there is nothing better than being in America for the 4th of July.  I mean, as far as holidays go, I'd rather have Christmas at home...or Thanksgiving...or Easter, but the 4th of July ain't half bad.  So you can trust that today will be filled with plenty of....eating (and maybe a sparkler or two).

The 4th of July was never something I celebrated with much gusto.  Honestly, I used to think "Why celebrate a country with so many issues?"  How could I celebrate a country involved in things like the military industrial complex, filled with corrupt politicians, and who still can't seem to grasp the concept of equality for all?  But today I realized why I should celebrate this incredible country.

I KNOW about all (well, at least most of) these things with which I happen to disagree.  I can talk about it and post facebook statuses about it and say whatever I want.  These are not rights and freedoms granted to every country in the world.  So believe me, us Americans have a lot to be grateful for.

So no matter where you stand in American politics, please just take this day to remember the great things about our country.  It's remembering our strengths that will help us repair our weaknesses.

AND EAT SOME BARBECUE!!!!!!!!!!

Don't worry, I'm still constantly embarrassing myself

I feel like I haven't really lived up to the public's expectations for this blog.

Anyone can tell you that a day in the life of Kelly Grogg is really just a string of embarrassing stories.  Seriously, I have a series of school dance and public bathroom stories that are so awkward, most people think I'm making them up.  But I'm not.    

As you can imagine, plopping me down in the middle of Cambodia did nothing to alleviate my life's attraction to a few embarrassing moments.  So I'm going to make more of an effort to publicly post my most embarrassing stories for your amusement.  Here my most recent story.

A couple of weeks ago, I was teaching one of my 11th grade classes, and having quite a bit of trouble getting any sort of participation from my students.  Eventually, I asked them to read the dialogue in pairs so they could practice before I called on them to read aloud.  A few of my shyer female students immediately started to point to their chests, gesturing that they had something to say.  I got WAY too excited and exclaimed to the class, "GREAT!  We already have a pair who would like to volunteer to read!"  These girls immediately started shaking their heads from side to side, looking like a couple of deer in the headlights. While I thought to myself, "What's the deal?  If you want to read just read already."  They motioned me to come in closer and whispered to me in khmer, "Teacher, um...your shirt....".

Sure enough, my shirt was almost entirely unbuttoned and the whole class got a scandalous glance at my underclothes.  I'm sure I was the talk of the town, but that did explain while it didn't feel quite as unbearably hot.  Who knows, maybe my shirt will find itself mysteriously unbuttoned from time to time in order to catch a breeze.  "Oh no!  Is my shirt unbuttoned?  I had no idea..."

My Start as an Old Cat Lady

Sometimes, life at site can get a little lonely.  So it helps to have someone else around who also doesn’t speak Khmer fluently.  Or any language fluently.  

He never really looks super happy, but he doesn't run away from me anymore!  

Meet Cat.  Well, I actually call him cha-mah, the Khmer word for cat.  But, for all intents and purposes, his English name is Cat.  Cat likes to hang around my porch a lot and has been known to sneak into my room from time to time if I leave the door open (especially if I have forgotten about a mouse trap that has gained an unfortunate resident).  Cat was a pretty skinny, little guy when we first met, but after sneaking food to him for a few weeks, he has become a regular part of the family.  My host family doesn’t always appreciate his meowing, but they bring him into the house every night and, as evidenced by his weight gain, they have started feeding him as well. 

As you can see, Cat only has three functional legs, so he’s had a pretty rough life as a Cambodian cat.  He’s got a lot of spunk and we’re not really at a point in our relationship where either one of us is willing to risk touching the other one (most animals here have fleas, rabies, or both, and I am a giant alien as far as this cat is concerned), but who knows?   We may get there one day. 

Pets aren’t really seen as companions here, but more like guard animals or they are kept around to trap mice.  Pets are so different in Cambodia that it’s a little hard to express sometimes.  I tried to explain the concept of dog food to a student the other day, and felt like a complete idiot. 

Me: “Yeah, we have these small balls of food that aren’t really food, but like a bunch of different foods put into a dried ball.  People don’t eat it, we just buy it for our dogs.”

Student: “Why don’t they just eat rice?” 

Aaaaaand of course it came full-circle back to rice. 

But seriously, it is kind of weird to think that we buy special processed food for our animals, when most people here just feed their pets whatever they have left over.  Which yes, is mostly rice. 

So hug your flea-less pets extra tight (unless you have a cobra or a fish, or something like that) and know that if you feed them rice every once in a while, they will survive.