Beauty is in the Eye of the Beholder

            It is so interesting the way different countries perceive beauty, especially when you compare Western countries and Eastern countries.

            In Cambodia, the most beloved feature a person can have is white skin, which is really kind of absurd, because Khmer people have the darkest skin of any other Asian country. Every type of soap, make-up, lotion, etc. has some sort of “advanced whitening formula”. Like our toothpastes, except for their skin. I doubt those actually work, but Khmer people (especially women) use it to no end. They also stay out of the sun as much as possible. And I mean they really go out of their way to stay out of the sun. If they DO have to go out and travel, or work in the fields, they will be wearing long pants, long sleeves, a hat with a wide brim, and even a surgeon’s mask. The surgeon mask has a dual purpose. It keeps the sun off the face, and the dust out of the lungs. Some Khmer women, even wear these crazy thong socks. My sister loves these things. The first time I ever got tipsy, at the ripe old age of 14, I invented the thong sock- a sock with a part between your big toe and the next toe. That way, you could wear socks AND flip flops. Well, somebody must have stolen my idea and ran with it, cuz now they are all the rage in Cambodia! Anything to keep your feet white..

            Everywhere I go, people comment first about my white skin, which actually isn’t very white anymore. Old ladies and children like to feel it, to make sure it’s real. Sometimes people will put their own arm next to mine and talk about how much more beautiful I am. Of course I never just let that go. I have a conversation at least once a day about how American’s actually prefer darker skin. I tell them about how people lay out in the sun, just to make their skin darker. That is just insanity to them. I tried also explaining about tanning salons, but they couldn’t even begin to fathom that.

            Sometimes it’s really sad to hear Khmer people talking about how much they desire white skin. I’ve heard people say things like “If I ride my bike at this time, my husband would stop loving me because I would be blacker” or “I don’t love her because she is black, but I married her anyway” or even “my daughter/son is not beautiful because s/he is black”. The only thing I can do is tell them how beautiful I think they are or whoever. I do my best

            The next important feature is the nose. Khmer people like straight, long, pointy noses. Of course, this is very different from their own small, wide, rounded noses. Many of them have noses that we would call “as cute as a button”, but they look at my beak of a nose and say “wow! Beautiful!” I’ve definitely never been complimented about my nose before I got here.

            Khmer people also prefer lighter hair. A few Khmer people actually dye their hair blonde, but it looks terrible, and I think most Khmer people know that. Instead, Khmer women and some men try to go for a dark red color, to lighten their long black locks. Students and teachers, however, are not allowed to dye their hair, as I found out recently. One of my students asked me why I didn’t dye my hair black. Turns out, teachers and students are forbidden to dye their hair blonde or red or any other color. After that was all cleared up, I laughed and explained to her that I don’t dye my hair. It’s natural. And I would look really silly with black hair.

            Interestingly enough, Khmer people prefer small eyes. They are not impressed by the big eyes of foreigners. The various colors of eyes (aside from their dark brown) interests them a little, but I very rarely hear about my eyes. It’s always my skin, sometimes my nose, and rarely my hair.

            I’m a little unclear about the Khmer stance on fatness. I think they like a little fat. Or as they say it, they like having some meat on the body. But in a country where, genetically, they people are mostly stick thin, “having a little meat” is the same as someone considered skinny in America. They don’t view obesity as beautiful, but it can sometimes be a status thing- basically showing that yes, I have enough money to feed my family and then some. So my family is having a great time watching me gain a little weight, but my brother and sister always tease each other for being “fat” and tell each other to stop eating.

            Oh, I almost forgot! Arm hair! Hahaha Khmer people LOVE my arm hair. Now, my arms look absolutely ridiculous. My skin is golden brown from the sun, but the sun also made my thick arm hair really really white. You can’t miss it. My friends would tease me so much if they could see it! But here, everyone loves it. Legit. They think it’s beautiful. I often catch people sneaking up to pet my arms. They must think that I wont feel it if they gently pet my arm hair haha. Sometimes when I am giving students individual help, they stop listening to what I say and instead just pet my arm. It’s so weird! But hilarious and sorta flattering. I miss the teasing about my arms though. I try to tease myself in front of my family, and see if I can get them to tease me too, but they just tell my they like it.

            Now there are a list of other things that, in America, subtract from beauty, but in Cambodia, don’t make a difference.

            The most disturbing thing on the list is mole hair. Let me tell you, there are some really impressive hairy moles in Cambodia, and Khmer people, especially men, wear them with pride almost. I will never understand this. Some hairy moles have longs strands over 3 inches long! Coming off of their FACE! Why on EARTH don’t you shave that thing?? But they don’t. They let it grow.

            Khmer men also like to grow out one of their nails. I couldn’t tell you why. I tried to find out, but they basically told me “for no reason. Just because we can.” So they will have one beautifully rounded long nail, that juts out past the tip of their finger nearly a centimeter.

            Women here don’t shave their legs. And I gotta tell you, I’m jealous! Shaving is such a hassle. And once you start- there’s no going back. Your hair is thick and black after that. And I am honestly not bothered by their hairy legs. I rarely see it though. Khmer women wear long skirts and pants.

            Peace Corps really stresses how every individual volunteer in every country has a completely different experience, and as cliché as it is, it is 100% true. People react to me based on how I look all day every day. I am given some prestige, simply because I have white skin.  But I also lose some prestige, simply because I am a woman. In general, people WANT to talk to me and be around me because they believe I am beautiful. Sometimes this works to my advantage, and sometimes it is a disadvantage. It’s good to be accepted, but sometimes people wont look past my skin or my looks. Those are the men that scream “I love you” at me as I ride by. They don’t care that I’m on my way to teach at the school for no money, or that I’m here to improve their village. It’s just a good joke with their friends to talk about the hott white foreigner who now lives in their town. Sometimes even my male co-teachers will fight over who gets to teach with me, and very often I feel that it’s more because of what I look like than because of my teaching skills.

            Anyway, so this is my experience and mine alone. Maybe some people have similar, but never the same. After all, there is no one out there who looks exactly like me. (I COULD pass for a younger Uma Thurman though, so I am told).

1. The pond in my backyard.

2. 3. My kitchen, underneath my house.

4. The hallway in the back of my house. In the bottom right corner, you can see a bit of the white doorway to the bathroom. The other doors on the right are where my other brother and sister live. To the left is the main living area.

5. The bathroom. Yes, this one has a western style toilet! Don't get too excited, there's still no running water, and no toilet paper. 

6. My family's dog- Keekee. He's hanging out on the stairs in the back of the house. He's a really sweet dog, but unfortunately very dirty. He likes me though cuz I dont yell at him, and cuz I sometimes pat his head. He's got such a sweet face!

My Crib, Mi Casa, P'tayah Knyom

And a bit about cookin’ in Cambodia

            I’ll tell you a little bit about my house at permanent site.

            This house is a very traditional wooden house. It is built up on stilts, so you can walk from the front yard to the backyard (why is front yard 2 words and backyard one word?) under the house. There is a small cement room under the house that functions as a garage. At night, the motorbikes and my bicycle are locked in there. It also stores large bags of rice and a wheelchair. I understand the rice.. I couldn’t tell you why we have a wheelchair. To the right of the cement garage is the kitchen/eating area. My family eats at a small round metal folding table. In the “kitchen” there are two main surfaces. The first is a large short table that my sister sits on and does her preparation and cooking. The other surface is where clean dishes and cooking sauces are stored. Then behind both surfaces there are 3 fire pits. There is also a stone basin where my sister does dishes. The fire pits are used, but we also have a small portable gas stove that my sister uses a lot.

            Behind the kitchen area are 2 more tiny cement rooms. One is a shower area and the other is a toilet area. I don’t use these though. My brothers and sisters use it, and my neighbors use it. Now we’re at the back of the house. There are cubbies back there for parking the cars in the shade. Behind that is a small pond (with surprisingly big fish). This is everybody’s favorite place to hang out. It is the coolest part of the house, and it’s the farthest place away from the noisy roads. There are 2 hammocks hung right next to the pond. Perfection.

            All around the grounds of the house, there are fresh vegetation, fruit trees, and flowers. We have an orange tree, a coconut tree, another fruit tree with icky fruit I forget how to say, and probably more I don’t know about. When my sister makes food, she always makes her way around the house, picking fresh greens to add to her soup.  

            Alright, let’s head upstairs now. There are cement stairs at the front of the house leading up to the porch. The porch is quite nice. There are wooden benches and chairs (unfortunately without any cushions. This whole country is seriously lacking cushioning). I do a lot of my lesson planning here, because it is cooler than inside.

           

            The room to the left of the porch is mine. I’m happy that my room can be accessed from the porch, because I have my own lock and key and I do not have to go through my family’s part of the house to get to it.

            My rooms pretty basic, but I love it and I made it my own- particularly with some photos I was lucky enough to have with me, medical-taped to the wall. To the left of the door is my hamper and my trunk. There are nails all over my bedroom on the walls, which are very helpful. Hanging above my hamper are my bags- a purse, a small backpack, and a messenger bag. I also hung a handkerchief there for me to dry my hands when I come back from the bathroom. Hanging above my trunk is a stack of hangers, a knitted bag where I keep my sunglasses, and also my instruments- a ukulele, a violin, and a music stand. Next to that is my bed, complete with a pillow, a sheet, and a mosquito net. Continuing around the room, we are now at my desk, which my family so generously put in my room. It’s a nice sturdy wooden desk. On my desk I keep a large stack of books, my computer, my water filter, pens and pencils, my photo albums, my binder, etc. Three is a small cabinet on the left side of my desk, where I fit as much clothes as I can. The rest are in my trunk. I have a small highly uncomfortable wicker chair to sit at my desk with. Next to my desk, I hang my towel and my sarong. I also have a small mirror I put there, so I can see just how red and sweaty my face is whenever I want to. Then on the floor I have the giant pot that Peace Corps gave to us so we can bleach our water. In that I store my toothbrush, toothpaste, antibacterial, sunblock, mascara, floss, etc.

           

            I do have a door connecting to the main part of the house, so at night when the front door is already locked I can still go join my family watching TV. The walls in the living room are covered in GIANT slightly scary pictures of family members dressed up nicely and not smiling. There are 2 extra beds for if company stay over. There is a mattress on the floor where my brother and sister lay when they are watching TV. I sit a few feet away either on the floor, or on one of the extra beds. Unless of course my brother is away. Then it is perfectly acceptable to cuddle with my sister and watch bad TV, debating over what we think makes a male actor handsome. My brother’s and sister’s room is connected off the main living area as well.

            There are large doors that lead to the rest of the house at the back of the room. As you go through the doors, you are perpendicular to a hallway, facing 4 more small rooms. All the way to the right is the bathroom. This one I use. The other 3 rooms are the living space of the rest of my family- an older couple I also call my brother and sister. They have a small indoor kitchen, a bedroom, and an office space. There are stairs at the back of the house leading up to the hallway as well.

            And that’s it. What a boring blog. Sorry.

            Would you believe me if I told you my family thinks I know how to cook? Haha, everyone in America knows better. Before I came to Cambodia I was invited to a dinner party. I was bringing white rice- a joke, poking fun at my upcoming diet for the next 2 years. I ended up burning the rice. Bad. How do you screw up white rice? Who knows.

            Well, I’ve cooked a couple times for my family. The most successful dish I made was pasta! I bought bowtie pasta at a supermarket in Phnom Penh before I moved to site. I made garlic pasta with baby shrimp and broccoli. It was good. Success. Before that I made oatmeal. I made enough oatmeal to feed about 20 people, just for 3 people. Woops. It didn’t look like much in the bag. Anyway, I put banana, peanut butter, and sugar in it. It was okay. My sister loved it, but she doesn’t understand how delicious oatmeal is actually supposed to be.

            Today I was telling my sister that we have soup in America- but it very rarely has whole fish in it. It usually has chicken, beef, or pork, noodles, vegetables, and sometimes rice. She asked me to make it for her one day. Sorry sister. You have too much faith in my cooking skills. It’s okay, she wouldn’t like it anyway. Soup here is not “delicious” unless it is sour or sweet. Never salty. I like salty soup..

            Work is going well. I'm getting really fond of some of my students. Especially my grade 10 class. I wish I could just teach them every day. They make me laugh so much. I love em to death!
           My English class for beginner adults is up and running and is quite successful. I have about 7 or 8 students. They really want to learn and are appreciative. I try to make it as fun and relative to their lives as possible. There are 2 random guys who come who already can speak English fairly well. But I'm not going to change the level of the class for them. I labeled this a beginners class. If they want to sit in, great, if not, sorry. So far they're fairly patient. One even bought me some markers.
            Yesterday I came downstairs to an exciting change in furniture. They made a little classroom for me! I love it. They put my whiteboard on the wall. Then there are 2 large wooden desks lined up facing the board. I don't understand where the desks came from and how they got her. My second brother said he got them from the backyard (???). Whatever, I think its so cool!

Pictures.

1.2. and 3. These are pictures of the lake/river in Prey Vang town, about 15k from my house. I love the little boy sittin on the edge. By the way, this was before the flooding. When the flooding was at its worst, the water was lapping over the edge of the concrete.

4. The market in Prey Vang town, fairly empty, surprisingly. And almost as muddy as the market near my house.

5. My house.

6. The pond in my backyard. This was taken before the hammock was put up. Now the hammock hangs from that post right there.

Oh, you know how to do laundry!

So, you wanna join the Peace Corps, eh? You wanna take bucket baths, poop in a hole, and wash your laundry by hand? Sounds like an adventure!

It’s amazing how quickly those adventurous sounding things become just your typical every day life. Normal. Ordinary chores. At least for me, it’s not good, it’s not bad… it just is. It’s whatcha gotta do.

For your general knowledge, this is the process of washing your clothes in Cambodia. Or as it is called here: Bowk cow ow (except no one says it in full- its more like bowka-ow).

Step one: Get at least 2 big buckets. Put powdered detergent in one of the buckets. Then put enough water in both buckets to cover your clothes.

Step two: Put your clothes in the bucket with soap.

Step three: Take your first article of clothing. Turn it inside out. With a scrub brush, scrub the collar and armpits. If you are washing pants or jeans, scrub down the length of the pants.

Step 4: Take a fistful of material in both hands, and scrub together, slowly moving your way from one end of the material to the other.

Step 5: Ring the article of clothing out as best as you can, and then place it in the bucket with water.

(*Note* Most people use fabric softener at this point. They soak their clothes in fabric softener, and then continue one with step 6. Personally, I do not. I don’t want to spend money of fabric softener, and I am too lazy to add another step)

Step 6: Repeat until all the articles of clothing are in the second bucket

Step 7: Try not to be too shocked at how dirty the water is after washing your clothes.

Step 8: In the clean water bucket, once again take an article of clothing, and scrub fistfuls of material together just like before.

Step 8: Once again, ring it out as best as you can. This time place it back into your hamper.

Step 9: Repeat with the rest of your laundry until all your clothes are in your hamper.

Step 10: Dump the dirty water in your family’s designated water-dumping-area.

Step 11: Hang your laundry out to dry. You may choose to hang it with hangers or without, it doesn’t matter. Also, you can hang them on a line in the sun, or a line under a roof. Clothes in the sun will dry faster, but you also run the risk of sudden downpours catching you off guard.

Step 12: 12-24 hours later (12 if it is in the sun all day, 24 if it is not) you can take down your clothes, fold them, and put them away.

            Doing your laundry by hand really kind of destroys your hands. My fingers are always peeling for a day or 2 after I’m done laundry. I usually do laundry every 5 days. My sister has incredibly dry skin because of the amount of laundry and dishwashing she does. I feel bad because she’s really embarrassed by it. She says she has hands like an old woman, and she actually doesn’t like leaving the house because of it. After a couple of tries, she did finally get some medicine that would actually help her hands, and they are improving.

            Doing my laundry in Takeo with my training family was very different from doing my laundry here in Prey Vang. In Takeo, there was always people watching me. My little sister would always come help me, which was sweet but often kind of unwanted. Then of course my little brother Leeny would get jealous that Titi was spending time with me, so he would try to help too. I would tell him no thank you. So he would fill up another bucket with water right next to me, take his clothes off, and then run and jump into his bucket, splashing water all over. Sometimes my older sister would watch me for a while silently. I would tell her “yes I KNOW I’m not all that good at this!” and we would laugh. But she wouldn’t stop watching. During all this, I would be trying to do my underwear whenever I could get a sure 20 seconds of no one looking. This was pretty difficult. Then my mother would come along, watch me for a split second, and then get frustrated with how long it was taking me. Or maybe how bad I was at it. Who knows. So she’d squat down next to me and start speeding through my clothes. I would try to grab my underwear and do my underwear myself. She would look at me funny and then snatch it back, basically saying “get over yourself, I do laundry for 7 people in this house, including my 5 children. Don’t you think I’ve seen dirty underwear before?” Then I would hang my clothes on the outdoor line either with my lil sister or my mother. Then I would be busy during the day going to my training classes. Sometime around 3 or 4 it would start pouring and my mother would run out to salvage my clothes. She’d pull them down from the line quickly, and then hang them back up on a line that was under a canopy. If they were already dry, she would fold them neater than I ever could (and probably faster. I never saw her do it) and place them on my trunk in my room. When I came home I would give her an insufficient thank you in a language I wish I knew better.

            At my new house it couldn’t be more different. I didn’t know what to expect the first time. I told my sister I had to do laundry. She said ok. So I said… uh… where? And with what bucket? So she showed me the laundry spot, and showed me some buckets and started to walk away. I was like WAIT! Which buckets are for laundry and which are for dishes? She replied with “whatever” and left me to my washing. I had all the privacy in the world to scrub my underwear! After a week or two of me being there, I was washing my clothes and my sister passed me as I was scrubbing the collar of a collared shirt. She said “Oh! You know how to do laundry!” Interesting.. if you weren’t sure I knew how, why did you leave me to my own?? Haha. Anyways, so that first time she also gave me a bunch of hangers. We hang our clothes on our upstairs porch where rain can’t get to them (unless it’s a monsoon!). Sometimes I forget the next day that my clothes are there. So there my clothes will stay for 2 or 3 days til I realize I don’t have any clean pants left. This doesn’t make my new sister any less helpful. She just respects my stuff, which is nice. Besides, when I forget my clothes, they’re usually kept company by a bunch of clothes that my sister forgot were still hanging too haha. She’s actually worse than me!

Well, enough about laundry. Who woulda thought I could write a full 2 pages, single space in Word about laundry.

            I started my first secondary project today! I’m teaching a beginning English class for adults. Right now, it’s just 5 people: my brother, sister, my other sister, my sister next door, and my brother next door. Sorry if that’s confusing- everybody is your brother and sister in Cambodia. More are supposed to come though I think. People have asked if they can pay me. Of course they can’t. But my brother told them that I will accept payment in cans of Coke. That’s the most brilliant thing I have heard in Cambodia yet. I’m gonna have so many cokes. I need them!

            So today was our first lesson. My brother bought a decent sized white board for me to use, so we set it up on a table under the house. The whole thing was a ton of fun. My students were all my best friends and family here. They were so cute with their little notebooks and pens! We started out with writing the capital letters. I joked that this was a test and made them all write it down in their notebooks. By the end of the lesson, we had accomplished Hello, how are you, fine, good, thank you, and you?, what is your name? my name is…. Not too bad for only an hour!

            Now I’m sitting here in my room, and I can occasionally hear my family practicing with each other in the other rooms. It’s adorable. I’m so proud! I’m gonna teach them twice a week for an hour for as long as they remain interested. I’m looking forward to Thursday’s lesson.

These are the last batch of pictures from training. Another way to say that is: these are the last batch of pictures with my old camera- before my mother dropped it in the fish soup at dinner.

1. I love this picture of my brother Jimmy. He's so silly. We all laughed so hard when we saw this picture.

2. My siblings hate this picture because it is red. I love this picture because it is red.

3 and 4. I. Love. This. Dog.

5. The whole beautiful family (minus my older brother who lives in Phnom Penh).

6. My camera's final moments.

Site Visit- CONQUERED

Once a year, Peace Corps staff comes to pay you a site visit. The idea is that they see how you’re integrating, how you’re working, and how happy you are. Then they ask the same questions to your counterparts and your supervisors.

I have only been at site one month, but my province was to first to be visited. Lucky me.

I was actually looking forward to this a bit. Maybe that is sad. But I’ve been cooped up at site for a month without any visitors, and not being allowed to really go anywhere. Peace Corps told us to get ourselves a room in a guest house in Prey Vang City for Tuesday Night, because we would have a meeting Wednesday morning.

On Tuesdays, I finish teaching at 9AM, which is wonderful. So I went home, changed, grabbed my bag, and hopped on my bike to travel the 15K to Prey Vang. I made it there in record time- only 45 minutes. My friend Leah was already there, shopping around the market, so I went to the hotel, checked in, and met her there. Boy, was I happy to see her! I was starting to go a little crazy at site for lack of familiar faces. We ran some errands, and met the other two volunteers in our province for lunch.

Leah and I are officially khmer. We have mastered the art of fitting two people on a bicycle. She is an excellent driver, and I’m just the darn best balancer on the rack on the back of the bikes.

We all went to the Tela to hang out in A/C and get some kinda crappy ice cream. It was magical. Then Leah and I went to go get our nails did. Also magical. Except the lady spend like an hour on Leah and like 10 minutes on me. Weird.

Then we all had lunch together, including Peace Corps staff. It was a pretty good meal. I enjoyed catching up and speaking almost my normal English speaking speed.

After dinner, us volunteers treated ourselves to a debrief and some storytelling time by the river. Then Leah and Brandon went home and Leah and I walked to our hotel- quite briskly. We weren’t sure if we should be more afraid of the dogs at every house, poised for attack, or the silhouette of a man hanging out a little ways away under a tree.

Peace Corps left me a gift at the reception desk of the hotel- my package!!! Excitement! So Leah and I ran upstairs and sliced it open and….

Fluff. Marshmallow fluff. Everywhere. I pulled out the few granola bars and oatmeal packets that were lucky enough to avoid the sticky goo, and then just stared at the damage for a little while, trying to come up with a gameplan. I ended up just taking the whole box into the bathroom, and scraping off the fluff from every individual item, armed only with a sink and 3 baby wipes. I washed fluff off of oreos, post-its, 3 recorders, chocolate syrup, a book, Music by the Masters, and more. Thank god I was able to open  this in a guest house room with running water! Otherwise, not only would all this stuff have been unsalvageable, but my room would have been infested with ants in seconds flat.

Sure enough, the next morning I felt really guilty noticing the small infestation of ants in our bathroom, taking advantage of whatever bits of fluff stuck to the walls, sink, and floor.

Despite being in an air conditioned room, right after my first shower in over a month, I still had a lot of trouble sleeping. Just so much stress about everything. Lots going on right now, with site visit, teaching, and secondary projects.

The next morning I stayed in while Leah went running. She came back with 2 coffees. I love her. Then we went to do our meetings. First we met with the Provincial Office of Education. We met the director and deputy director who are in charge of education throughout the entire province. He was very supportive and appreciative of us being here (which actually is very often not the case). We discussed the things we planned on achieving at site, and the possibility of bringing in more volunteers to Prey Vang next year.

Then things got a little torturous as we visited two different police stations. (Long meetings are especially boring when you can only understand 25% or less of whats going on). We convinced PC to take us to the Post Office before they took us back to our homes (yes I sent a letter- but I’m not saying to who!) PC so kindly threw my bike on top of the car, and drove me back home. Then they continued to Leah’s house to do her site visit.

My site visit was Thursday- yesterday. They ended up coming an hour early, which is really out of character. So I told them they had to wait. I was busy lesson planning with my co-teacher. Then I caught up with them and we went to my house. I met with the program manager and explained in further detail how I thought things were going. I told her what I was in the process of accomplishing and what I hoped to accomplish in the future. Then she had a quick conversation with my sister. I was so happy that I could understand a lot of it. My sister told a bit about her past- some things I didn’t know yet. She talked a lot about me. She said she loves me like her very own sister, and so does her husband. She talked about how happy she is with me here, and how much better this whole family seems to be functioning. She talked about how she thinks I am so smart because I can speak Khmer. Then I understood my Program Manager say that indeed, my language skills are quite advanced compared to many others. All good things.

Then we went back to the school so she could observe me teach and have a meeting with my co-teachers. She observed my 7^th grade class. I felt really good about it. The kids were kinda rowdy and excited, but they were clearly showing success, and having a good time. The last thing we did was an activity where I gave each table a blank piece of paper, and gave directions. I said five statements like “There are two blackboards” and “There are six students”. The students had to draw what they heard. Sounds like a typical activity, but it is totally out of the ordinary for Cambodia. You should have seen the jaws drop and the looks of confusion when I had my co-teacher explain the directions. But that’s one of the fun things about being a Peace Corps volunteer. It went well. I was feeling confident. Unfortunately, I didn’t get the best comments about it though. She said that I should be teaching harder things. I totally disagree- they’ve barely been learning English for a month, but whatever.

Oh, and one of the funniest moments of site visit was when my program manager and I were waiting outside of the classroom. As usual, the swarm of 7^th and 8^th graders formed a tight circle around me and just stared. My program manager was clearly uncomfortable. There were at least 50 students surrounding us, watching us (well, me), and snickering with excitement. I just looked at her and said, this is what it feels like to be a Peace Corps volunteer. Crazy, huh? Even though I am kind of uncomfortable experiencing this every day, I thoroughly enjoyed watching her squirm.

The final thing was a meeting with my co-teachers and my supervisor. My school director was away for the day, so instead the deputy school director filled in. He’s the one who lives at my house, and he is very supportive of me. I think he just really gets a kick out of me being here.

I understood some of the meeting. My 3 co-teachers explain how we share teaching responsibilities. They said that they liked my fresh ideas for activities. They said that the students really like me. They said that the students who are not lucky enough to have me teach their classes are always whining about it. Then, the deputy school director told my Program Manager how happy he was to have me, and how he wishes he had more of me. He asked if we could have one or two more volunteers, so that the other 7 English teachers could work with a volunteer. That’s not gonna happen, as there are tons of other schools in Cambodia that don’t have anyvolunteers, but it was nice of him to ask.

I know I promised to enlighten you all on the process of laundry, but I got a special request to discuss squat toilets instead.

I’m not going to claim to be an expert at this. As a matter of fact, I’m still not entirely sure I do it right. After all, it’s not like I can follow by example- I’ve been fortunate enough to never see another person using the squat toilets before.

Also, my experiences with squat toilets are purely female- obviously. Although I do believe the male experience would be considerably easier.

Now, something I wish I knew about squat toilets before I made the mistake a few times- females, you have to face the wall when you’re peeing. Yeah, otherwise the trajectory is all off.

Squatting is not too difficult. Once you’re down there it’s actually quite comfortable. I guess if you’re old it might be a little difficult getting up… but manageable? I don’t know I’ve never been old.

Ehhh.. but if you’re going numba 2, you’re gonna wanna turn around and face the other way. Or you’re gonna have a mess to clean up.

There probably wont be any toilet paper, so you’re either gonna splash water on yourself from a nearby bucket, or use your hand. Or both. Either way, wash your hands when you’re done.

Your pants are gonna get wet in awkward places. So just accept it and move on.

Well, there you have it kids. Your introductory lesson to squat toilets. Hope you enjoyed.

1. Leeny. If you've read any of my previous blogs, you'll know all about him

2. Me and my lil sis Titi

3. Me and my beautiful sister, Marady

4. Me and Marady again... and Leeny hahaha

5. Gross, Leeny

6. Me helping my sis set up her newly purchased computer