First, let’s talk about chickens. Cambodian chickens all over are having a severe identity crisis here. I do not believe that their job description is as clear here as it is in America. For example, roosters are nature’s alarm clock, right? Well, in this facet, roosters are going above and beyond the call of duty. Yes they will wake you up at dawn, but they will continue to try to “wake you up” throughout the day. Also, roosters are confused as to when dawn actually is. Last night, the first wake up call happened around 1:30AM.
I am currently visiting my new permanent site, which I will talk a little more about later. I was given a sheet with some information about my site before I got here. Under a section labeled History of Crime in the Neighborhood, it said “chicken stealing chicken”. Of all the information on my sheet, this concerned me the most! Gangsters are somewhat of a problem in Cambodia and it appears that the gangsters in my village are actually the chickens! There is some serious chicken on chicken crime happening here!
So then I got here and I met these chickens. These chickens are so weird. I think sometimes they think they are dogs. The come up and sniff me and hang out under my feet when I am eating. We have 2 huge roosters here and I know they’re trying to communicate to me with each sharp crane of the neck! I know it!
My bedroom and the bathroom are on the second floor. I was confused to see that somebody put a ladder from the chicken coop up to the roof that is right outside my window. So the chickens hang out on the roof? I wouldn’t be surprised if these chickens built the ladder themselves.
Yesterday, I was taking a bath up on the second floor and I could hear the chickens loud and clear, like they were right next to me. So I go look out the window and… the chickens are climbing the tree???? What?? There were 3 chickens climbing around in the tree, I kid you not.
So, I’ve been doing a lot of thinking. The Peace Corps is an organization where trained and experienced Americans go to foreign countries to share their expertise at a given job or field of work. I think that the US government should create a Peace Corps for chickens. I think the chickens here could really benefit from the expertise that American chickens take for granted. But that’s just my own personal opinion.
Now for a brief, slightly more serious update on my life. Two days ago was site announcement day. I have been assigned to Prey-Vang Province. This province is very poor and the entire province has only ever had one PC volunteer before, 4 years ago. This year, Peace Corps placed four of us in the Province. My site is brand new. They have never had a volunteer in this town before. This is exciting, but it definitely makes it a whole lot more challenging.
We first went to the Provincial city. One wonderful thing about it is that the city is right up against a large lake. It is really beautiful and there is a nice breeze that comes off the lake. The streets are muddy and dirty, but I think this place is about as authentically Khmer as you can get. There is nothing for tourists here in Prey Vang, so they very rarely get foreigners.
Yesterday morning I met my new host family. During my site placement interview I asked for one thing- a big family. Well, its just me and a couple. The woman is 30 and the man is 39. They are super nice, but it is awkward. They house is quiet, nothing exciting is happening, and I feel like I have to be careful to only take 1/3 of the food at mealtimes. I can’t even express right now how much I am going to miss my training host family, all 7 of them lol.
The house is a very traditional Cambodian house. It is made of wood and it is up on stilts. There is a really nice porch with wooden benches and a table. I can see myself hanging out there quite a bit. The main living area of the room is big and beautiful. They have a TV that even has some English channels on it! My host brother made me watch the discovery channel last night! The awkward thing is that there is no place to sit and watch the tv, except for a mattress on the floor. That sounds divine for a married couple but… throw me into the mix and that’s a little odd lol.
Then toward the back of my house is the bathroom and my bedroom. The bathroom is… ok. Not much to say about that. Then my bedroom is mmm kinda small. Actually its not THAT small, but there is no room because Cambodians like large beds. So the bed takes up the whole room. There is a small cabinet in my room, but its filled with their stuff. I fit in the room now, but that is only because I only have 4 days’ worth of stuff. There is definitely not enough room for my Peace Corps trunk and other stuff. I want to ask my new family about that but I don’t have the language skills to do that. So I guess my game plan is just to show up in 3 weeks with all my stuff, and they will be shocked and then we will have to figure it out. Also my room is kinda covered in cobwebs and is made of really flimsy material- like cardboard walls and wrapping paper floor. There are tons of rodent and lizard holes too. Welcome to the Peace Corps Diana. Lol
BTW as I write this, a chicken just fell out of a tree hahahahaha.
Ok moving on. Then this morning I went to the school to meet the school director. That went pretty well. I bumped into someone who turned out to be the lead English Teacher there. He introduced me to the School Director and helped me explain what my purpose is here. Then he showed me around a little bit, and that was that.
So from what I can tell, my living experience here is going to be very very different from what I have in Takeo right now. This is a much more grown up, independent living arrangement. I think I will be spending a lot of time doing work related things and not much time socializing. I am not thrilled, but I think I can make it work.
Pitchas:
1- The best picture I could get of a chicken in a tree.
2- One of my favorite meals my training host mom makes. Its fish covered in diced up pineapples, tomatoes, peppers, and other vegetables.
3- Another divine dish- tiny mussels and squid.
4- my little bro in front of my beautiful training house that I will miss so much!
5- the main living area of my current home. My room is the first one on the left.
6- dining/living/bedroom. We eat sitting on the table in the bottom right corner. The TV is on the left across from the chair. Then my parents' bed is behind the TV.
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