Everyday is what you make of it

On Valentines day the girl salt volunteers (see photo, notice how tiny the Cambodian is in the middle) threw a party for the mighty girls. We tried to explain that it is ok to have a boy friend and how you should act or treat one another. Valentine day for a typical Cambodian is when some may loose there virginity, maybe similar to a prom night in the USA. None the less it is a day when youth have sex for no reason because that's what they think. So we threw them a party to teach them other ways to celebrate it. It was a ton of fun wile at practice ( I was in charge the head coach was gone so I was the coach. Of course that made me happy because I wanted to make them work hard and change the pase of there practice. I don't think they like me so much as the coach Hahah but it was good for them) any way wile we were at practice the others decorated the house with hearts and crap. They all had there own little pink and red bags on the wall and when they got home they made notes and cards for each other. Then we played fun little games. After the games we watched shreck, this was my favorite part of the night because they all sat around watching the movie. They had no idea what shreck was. They watched as though they had never scene a movie before it was cool to see. They loved it.
One of the English teachers was gone this week so I took half of her students. On Thursday we had all the girls together for English class and we split them up into four teams and played English games. We played a game where I put up a letter they had 2 minutes to come up with as many words as they could. One point spelled right, half point if it was a word. Then we played scrabble, and hang man. I bought the winners candy.
Again this week I met a Cambodian who thanked me- he said - thank you so much for helping to develop my county it means a lot to me, thank you so much.
At my house I have Cambodians who ask me, will you help me with my English.
On my day off I toured all of my city. ( Battambang) the day flew by I rented a tuk tuk ( see photo) driver for all day with 2 friends. It cost 18 dollars in total for him to bring us anywhere we wanted from 10am- ?? I got dropped of at 8pm! We went to all of the temples, caves, killing caves, markets and a village. We went to the main fish market were the smell was enough to not want to go in. I watched a dog pee on the fish hahahhahahahahah no joke how gross is that. I watched a guy climb a palm tree to collect the something ( no not coconuts) for wine that had bees stuck in it anyway so i dont think it looked edible. ( see photo) one of the caves at dusk has one billion bats that come flying out of it. It is something to see. It looks like a black cloud moving rapidly threw out the sky. On the way home I got educated on how they get crickets and bugs to sell at the market. It was dark on the way home and out of the city center they have floresent lights everywhere. Under the lights is water so the bugs fly up to the light and then get trapped for food the next day.
To end a great day touring the city I got food poisoning. Right when I got home I spent the rest of the night on the toilet. I am now putting the peaces together to find out from what. I also : ( had to skip out on the girls game this morning. I had to throw the dorthy card ( my grandmas name) and say well there just isn't a bathroom close to the field so I better not go.



This paragraph of my blog may be very confusing. I am going to tell you some of my thoughts, that go threw my head on a given day. Now remember these are thoughts. I understand this is a different culture yada yada--- I don't say these things.
1- what the heck do these people do all day.
2 - (riding my bike) is it really necessary for you to honk at me. Really I think you should try and pass me a little closer. Develop a system ahhhh so dumb, I wonder how many accidents happen boom there goes one right in front of me a guy on a motto ( moped) and the other on a peddle bike. Ride on your side of the road. How old are you. Ahh I need a mask. Wow that was a close one. Don't come into my lane to turn so dumb. Don't stare at me. Haha dog don't attack me please please don't attack me.
3- ( apparel) I don't even care I am showing of my shoulders today. I'm sexy and I no it. Ok fine I will try and respect your culture. My shorts aren't even short. Some of the girls when it is hot they wear turtle neck hat gloves pants.( see photo) - this is not a thought. I always ask them what the heck they are doing. That it dosent make sense. They don't want there skin to become darker. They try and be as white as they can.
4- ( food) o NO I will not eat that. Ick why do you eat that. The smells = barf ha
5- I don't care if we are in Cambodia it dosent mean everything needs to be late or so lade back or not getting stuff done, or just hanging out or disorganized or............
6- they have a machine for that, so old school, I don't even understand how this is working.

Pics

English class

First quiz went well. Yay they are learning.
This week was a good English week. Thank you to Laura zard who gave me 20 web sights with free worksheets on them. How ever I also had a fun day were I didn't teach out of the book we just talked and I showed photos of my life. They had to ask questions and discuss. I also played charades one day were one student had to ask the other what is Jess doing. ( my chapter is ing ) ( eating sleeping reading extra) I would act out and the other would ask using --what are sam, Jess, and Linda doing? ( I held up really good stick figures of other people doing it with me Hahah) then other student would say -they're sleeping. ( trying to get them to pick he's she's they .... And so on) it was fun and they enjoyed it bc I must say I am quite the actress : )
Struggles for me- I forget they don't know what a lot of things are. So when I say baseball cap they say I don't no. Then I say hat they look confused like they know it but just cant remember. I then go get one and they say o yeah yes hat. Hat same as baseball cap yes ( yes). I sometimes have to think hard on what to say so they understand, and I have to speak so slow!

Soccer was low key this week. There was a holiday so Monday- wed there was no soccer. I had 5 girls on me at once this week they thought I was a jungle Jim or something. Then I told them they were monkeys they didn't no the word monkey. ( 12 and under team that looks like they need more love) so I acted like a monkey for 8 minutes and then they understood what a monkey was. I made them repeat several times monkey : )
Saturday I had the day off. So I took a Cambodian cooking class. They start off taking you to the market explain how it all works. The market is the women's job. Farmers bring there crops to the market around 430 am and it's hopping once the sun comes up intelligence about 5. We made three dishes. 1 Fish or chicken amok 2 spring rolls 3 beef lak lak
The chicken amok was disgusting. It also took the most work. Had to make a paste ( similar to curry) for 15 of grinding it. Arm got sore. I told them they have machines for that kinda crap. Ha after making the paste you make your banana leaf bowl and stick the meet in and the paste and coconut milk. Then steam it and of course surf with rice. Spingarn roll yum, not so yum for you. The beef lak lak I would recommend to anyone. Was very good

My neighbor and I chit chat every night. Her story-
She is a survivor of the Khmer rouge her dad and her were outside her village when the Khmer rouge came and killed everyone in her village, including her sisters, brother and mother. She then was separated from her dad. They met again and escaped to Thailand. On her journey to Thailand they had to follow the path and make sure to stay on it because of all the land mines. She had one pair of clothing, and was happy when she had food. She said she was lucky to eat once a day. Also her cloths were always wet and she had a continuos rash from it rubbing. She then came to the USA. When she arrived in Washington dc airport she thought it was the most amazing thing she had ever scene. they had a shelter for the Cambodians. She had to re begin her life. Learn English and find a way to live. She grew up in America and came back to cambodia 8 years ago for the first time. She now is 50 something has 2 kids 19 and 22 they live in the USA. The night she told me about this she kept saying how amazing America is and how lucky she was to go there. She then told me about when she came back the first time 8 years ago how scared she was. She wouldn't leave her husbands side not even to go to the bath room. She didn't trust anyone. She now has been back 3 times and the reason she was my neighbor is because she is buying farm land and hopes to retire here, and open a small farm and help other Cambodians by giving them jobs. She still of course has flash backs of her experience.
She was never o sad me or wanted anything she actually was a lot of fun and very American. She this last week found her land and left today to go back home ( USA) but to return back home home soon (cambodia) before she left she wanted to say good bye to me. When saying good bye- she thanked me for volunteering my time and helping her country. She said it meant a lot to her and thanked me again.

Week 2

This last week I went to 3 orphanages, and one public school, on top of my normal schedule. I went to co coach soccer and see what the kids and other organizations are all about. All ready I can see that every orphanage is different. The first one I went to was extremely nice and clearly had some money. The second one I went to wasn't as big and by looking at the kids you could tell they still looked like they needed extra love or more to eat. They also acted differently. Some were not so nice and needed attention. They got mad if I didn't pay attention to them or if they didn't have a ball. I don't no the stories of the kids there yet but my guess is it is a newer orphanage and the kids I would think haven't been there that long. The public school was crazy. There was 170 kids that showed up to play games and learn about life skills. It took 30 minutes to organize 4 lines. When I arrived at this school they all surrounded me. I was the monkey in the middle. They all spoke to me at once. Hello what is your name where are you from and then that was the end to there English. In-between each game there is an other volunteer who speaks to them about a life lesson. Such as how you should treat your family, what do you do if you get hurt walking home bla bla Or little things like look both ways when crossing street, don't talk to strangers things like that.
English class went well this week. One of the girls didn't do her home work errrrr. I will give them my first practice quiz on Monday. ( I hope it goes well- not just for them but for me also - I need to know they are learning something from me )
I definitely fee like a celebrity here. People starring and asking for photos. I had one guy probably take about 50 photos of me no joke. I said yes to one and then I kept on with my life and next thing I no he had friends and they wanted photos and then they did the pretend to take photos of something or each other but really were just taking photos of me.
I managed to get a flat tire 2x this week. I bought a new tire today it was a very nice walk. Ha I did this walk at 1:30 and I was only walking and my shirt was all wet needless to say it was 100 degrees but I was on a mission.
I heart rice haha rice rice rice rice rice rice rice rice rice rice rice rice rice rice
This last week was really fun because the mighty girls have fully opened up to me. I no exactly who the jokesters are, the smart ones, and the ones that are serious and so on. One all ready said Jess ( you remember mighty girls forever. I said of course. She goes I remember Jess forever.)
The house mother for the mighty girls doesn't speak any English. She is always smirking at me and saying something in Khmer. She smirks because I don't like over half of her meals and she always try's to get me to eat them. I no how to say no spice no fish. So when i arrive for lunch from the office she goes aut Hal telling me right away no spice she is very sweet house mother.
This week I plan to re go to the orphanage that needed extra love and also go see some other organization/ soccer teams). After this week i then think I will choose one to co coach at with a mighty girl. This way I can kinda say I have my own team with a mighty girl and I can help coach the coach how to coach and coach the girls. Also by doing this the mighty girl (co coach) with have to discuss the team with me and practice ideas in English. Learning English for them will take them far in life so the more time I have doing something fun and secretively sneaking in English for them the better.

Data sheet --- slow process - don't want to talk about it

Again I want to say this you have so much opportunity in life you are privileged to have support ( family friends coaches teachers .......) to be the best you can be. Make the most of it we are very fortunate.