A Peace Corps Birthday

            In America, Birthdays are part of our culture. Everyone knows that when a friend or even a complete stranger says “today is my birthday,” the response is a genuine “oh! Happy birthday!” And then, even if there is no party for the birthday person, at the very least, it is the job of friends, co-workers, family, etc to make the birthday girl or boy somehow feel special. Like today is their day. Simple things like giving a birthday card, a birthday hug, or even just slipping in “well, today IS your birthday” for something stupid comes naturally for us.

            In Cambodia, birthdays are not celebrated. Today did not feel more “special” for me than any other day. As a matter of fact, I kept forgetting that it was even my birthday. So I took it upon myself to be my own group of birthday-well-wishers. So here’s a run-down of my birthday, and the conversations I had with myself, basically putting the word “birthday” as an adjective in front of every verb and noun.

            I woke up to a birthday call from my mom. It was too early. She offered to call me back in 20 minutes. I accepted. Then I did my first birthday pee and changed my birthday diva cup (TMI?) Then my mother called again and I had my real birthday phone call.

            After that I decided I deserved some good birthday rice. So I put on my birthday sampot, got on my birthday bike and rode to school early. I went to the shop at school, ordered some birthday pork and rice, and ate by myself. As I was finishing, my friend and co-teacher came to eat also. I told him it was my birthday. He said nothing.

            I went to go teach my first birthday class- 12E. After an hour of that, I taught a birthday lesson to class 12D (note: I didn’t actually teach a lesson about birthdays. Actually the lesson was about a man who went to the moon named Mr. Douglas Armstrong. This is why the country needs new textbooks). Then I went home, took my birthday pants off, and sat in my birthday underwear (but not quite my birthday suit) in front of the birthday fan, while watching birthday comments on my facebook come in one by one.

            I decided that was a sad way to spend my birthday, so instead I went downstairs and read some of my birthday book- Cats Cradle by Kurt Vonnegut. My sister called me for my birthday lunch. Even though ant soup was served AGAIN, my sister also cooked birthday French fries and scramble eggs for me to go with my birthday rice. I was happy. During lunch, my sister remembered “oh! Today is your birthday!” So she left the house and came back with four cans of birthday coke, complete with four birthday straws. I drank a birthday coke.

            I laid in a birthday hammock and read more of my birthday book. Then my neighbors kid came over so I gave him a birthday English lesson, and managed to teach him the words: bike, hat, phone, book, bottle, fish, and money. Then the kid got so excited he started to birthday chase me with a chair. I escaped to my birthday lair- my room, where I watched more birthday comments roll in.

            I had a birthday Khmer lesson for one hour. We went over 2 pages in my 1^st grade khmer writing book. Students didn’t show up for my birthday class at 2PM.

            I took a birthday trip to the market to buy some birthday muffins to share with my Honor Society kids. They were out of birthday muffins. Instead I bought birthday candy, and went to Honor Society.

            I gave the students my birthday candy and told them it was for my birthday. Three students wished me a happy birthday. They wished that I would have good health, good luck, and that I would get a boyfriend soon (thanks a lot lol…). They ate almost all my birthday candy and left barely anything for me.

            I biked home again and turned my computer back on to watch more birthday comments come in while eating a birthday hostess cupcake I had been saving for at least a month. Then I was birthday skyped by my aunt and uncle. It was an awesome and not-long-enough birthday skype session leaving me wanting more. But they had to go to work. So I took my birthday bucket bath, changed my birthday diva cup again, and went downstairs for my birthday dinner.

            I had stir fried vegetables and rice, and another one of my birthday cokes for dinner. During dinner, my neighbor came over with 2 more cans of birthday soda (not coke?!?!) to thank me for teaching her son a few words in English. Then I immediately ran to the bathroom for some birthday diarrhea. Finally, I came back into my room and birthday skyped with my mother. Now here I sit, with a birthday headache, writing my birthday blog post with my internet on, hoping against hope that one of my friends will come online and want to birthday skype me. When that fails I’ll probably watch a birthday movie and call it a night.

            Thanks to all who wished me a happy birthday! (seriously. This part is not sarcastic like the rest of my post). Thanks for all your well wishes, your jokes, and your sentimental nonsense.

            Lookin’ forward to April 25^th 2013.

Oh, I feel like I should also say that on Friday I'm going to Phnom Penh, where I will watch the Childrens Choir of the Paris National Opera put on Ravel's L'enfant et les sortileges. Then the next day I'm going out to the beach area to meet some friends, eat birthday bacon, swim in a birthday pool, and eat birthday italian food. It's not that I'm not doing cool things for my birthday. It's just that I miss my family and friends.

I'd give anything to have a picnic under my giant cherry blossom tree declared in the name of Professor Gwendolyn Carol and her Keyboard Harmony class. And then go home to a home-cooked chicken parmesan feast with all my family, complete with one of my dad's famous birthday cakes and a chorus of Happy Birthday, sung in our infamous Broberg Family Key- the key of AWESOME.

Enjoy some pictures.

A mouse under my desk

He is not scared of my at all. He's about a foot away from my feet, and it is bright as day in my bedroom.

My sister and I dressed for a wedding

My sister and I at a different wedding

Wedding fish. 

My oldest sister and her adorable spoiled-to-no-end grandson

On Being a Christian PCV

            Before the Peace Corps, the only experience I’ve had with developing countries and with extended volunteer projects has been through churches. I’ve been to Ghana, Haiti, Costa Rica, and many cities in America to build, repair, teach, and to share the gospel.

            I was never ignorant of the negative views many people have of Christian missionaries and Christian volunteers. I’ve had it directed at me and I’ve seen it directed at other volunteers, or just at Christianity as a whole.

 Peace Corps makes it clear to all applicants that our job is not to convert anyone. And because I really wanted the job, I made it clear that is not what I’m setting out to do. And I was honest, that is not why I’m here. I won’t stop being a Christian and trying to be an example of love by my actions, but I’m also not putting a bible in front of anyone’s face.

            Since becoming a volunteer and working here with Peace Corps, it seems everyone has an opinion about Christian volunteers. Most of it is not good. Well, host country nationals often have good things to say, but other volunteers and expats have little nice to say about it.

            I feel like now I’ve lived in both worlds and I’ve seen both sides of the story. I believe that secular volunteers and expats have a point, but I also believe that there is a lot they don’t understand and they are not even trying to understand.

            The first important thing that I have learned from… well from life… is that only well-thought out, patient, and revisited projects are the projects that do any good. It’s very easy to actually do more harm than good, even if intention is all good. I’ve seen and heard countless stories of this being the case. Here are some examples.

            A Christian group of people come in for a week, and they build a beautiful classroom in the name of Jesus. The village is extremely grateful. The people leave. 2 months later, the roof collapses, and the village cannot fix it because they don’t have the necessary materials or money. The broken building remains there, constantly referred to as “the useless building the people gave us in the name of Jesus.”

            A secular group of volunteers finds a village in desperate need of a water pump. The group raises the money, finds a spot where they can build a nice deep well, and gets it done. All is finished and they go home to their lives. Another volunteer comes to the village and notices that no one is using the perfectly good pump. After a while, the village finally admits to the volunteer that they don’t use it because the water tastes funny. It’s too deep.

            Then of course everyone knows of a common result of too much charity, or too much charity done in the wrong way- a village that stops trying to help itself because it can just wait for free handouts.

            I realize that there are many (but CERTAINLY not all) mission trips and Christian missionaries who make some of these mistakes. However, there are also plenty of secular groups that make mistakes. The problem is not a result of the religion, but rather a problem in poor planning and evaluation. Christian volunteers do a lot of good in this world, but I know I’d be ignorant to say that all of their projects are successful. So I will say that these groups, as well as all groups looking to selflessly give of their time and money, should spend more time in the planning stage and in the wrap-up stage and less in the doing stage. They NEED to spend time getting to know the community and really learning what their needs are. What you see as their needs and what they see as needs are likely to be very different. More importantly, the groups NEED to follow up. More than once. Regardless of the project, leaders need to check that the practices taught or the infrastructures set in place are indeed working as desired.

            Now, on the other hand, we have all the critics of Christian volunteers. Here is their basic argument; Christian volunteers come in here and they give the locals exactly what they want- if they locals are willing to become Christians themselves. They’re sneaky about it and they promise things like free English lessons or other gifts as long as they promise to come to church. Then at these lessons, they work to convert the locals, thus working against preserving all the beautiful cultures of the world.

            Alright, so these are some serious accusations. And you know what? I’m not even going to say that they are all out of line. However, they are closed-minded and even somewhat ignorant. What the non-Christians don’t understand is that community service and the teaching and the giving is not a trick to pull people in. Anyone who has ever been on a mission trip can tell you that even on a trip where the main goal is to share God’s word, they always ask “what else can we do to help them?” Not because they want to have a big audience, or even because they want the people to remember them. It is because God told us to love our neighbor, give to the poor, and take care of the widows and orphans in this world. Christian volunteerism is not done out of trickery or mind-games. It is done out of love. Non Christians are watching from the outside, comparing it to the way they do things, and calling it wrong and claiming to understand it. What they don’t know is that the Christians are just doing their best to do some good with whatever they have, even if what they have is just human labor for a week, hugs for some orphans, or some English language practice.

            Furthermore, Christians believe in something. They believe in something so strongly that they believe it is so important and worth it to share with the world. They believe that if you introduce someone to a man named Jesus, then that someone need not be afraid of death. They believe it and they are acting on it. And why is that so bad, huh? Why do we live in a world where we commend anyone who is true to their heart and acts on what they believe in, as long as that belief is not Christianity?

            Now the hardest thing to address is the accusation that Christians are destroying cultures. Culture and religion are two separate things, but I do see how they are closely connected. First, I’ll say that it is not a Christian’s intention to change cultures, and if it is for certain Christians, then they should really re-think their goals and compare them with God’s goals in the bible. Christians believe that God made this world and everything in it. And look at this world! Look at all the different features and characteristics and mysteries and things that even today we are still discovering. God also made all the people. And look at our differences! Our features, our shapes and sizes, our languages, our histories. For Christians, this is a thing to be celebrated as God’s handiwork. God says nowhere in the Bible “I love only Americans” or “I love only white people” or even “I love only people who love me.” He loves everyone, everywhere. God does not call us to change cultures, but to just introduce people to him. Anyways, look at our world now. Our world is becoming smaller and smaller by the minute. Having a TV and a facebook page is more important than having a stable roof or four walls (it’s true, I’ve seen it). People are so ready to point at Christians and blame them for inspiring changes in culture, but Christians over all these years haven’t done half of what technology has done in the last 100 years. If we’re so worried about preserving culture, then shouldn’t we control access to television, internet, telephone, etc only to the countries whose cultures have developed such things? And the same goes for medicine and other technologies. Perhaps we should keep medicine, injections, birth control, AIDS prevention, and other things away because it contradicts their culture. No, they should continue with their fortune tellers and traditional healers and try to find solutions for diseases using tools from their own culture. So again, I’m not saying that Christians DON’T inspire some changes in culture. I’m just pointing out that there is very little in our world today that DOESN’T, and many things do so in much larger ways than Christianity. But yet it is only Christianity that is looked down upon by people for this reason. Everything else is okay.

            Well, there’s my two cents. I am a Christian and I am a Peace Corps volunteer, and, contrary to some belief, that is in no way a contradiction. I am here because God told me to love my neighbor and because I want to do just that. And if you want to make assumptions and judge me for that, then go ahead. But, if you think that by any chance there might be a piece of information you’re missing, I strongly recommend you look into it. No one REALLY has this world all figured out. Anyone who thinks they do, might as well be calling themselves God. I’ve been so confused about all these opinions coming at me for the past 10 months, and even the past 6 or 7 years about Christians and volunteering. So I listened. And watched. And experienced it both ways. And looked at it from both sides. And checked things out in the bible. And talked to people. Now maybe I’m still wrong. I’m not going to cross that off as impossible. But I believe that anyone with a strong opinion owes it to the world to turn it around and look at it from the other side of things. You may be surprised at the counter-thoughts your brain creates to your own opinion.

These are all photos from when I visited my sister's hometown in a small very rural village in northern Prey Veng.

the road

my sister and her daughter

my sister wanted to take a picture of me with the village kids. I was undoubtedly their first foreigner.

left to right: my sister's mom, my sister and her daughter, me, and my sister's youngest sister

I was told this is like lotus, but it's not lotus. I dunno.

my sister and her daughter with her neighbors

my family (brother, sister, sister's daughter, me)

i missed the "try to look good" memo.

ma nung gkone sryee

Hey America, not everyone is familiar with your culture lol

I created a Pen Pal program for my Honor Society kids, so that they can receive and write letters to the Honor Society in Levittown. I got the first batch of letters. One thing’s for sure- these kids have a lot to learn from each other. The New York kids wrote about so many things for which my students will have absolutely no frame of reference. I hope my kids are smart enough to do the same back to them haha. Here are some ridiculous things from the letters we received:

1.        What I think makes my home a little special is how it’s between the famous New York City and some of the loveliest beaches on the Pacific Coast. (New York is on the Atlantic coast…)
2.     .    Something else that’s sort of special or weird or both is how we have these sumps located in multiple parts of my town. It’s basically these giant holes that are supposed to prevent flooding, but we like to use its hills to sled on. (Sumps? Okay, that’s sorta explained. Sledding??)
3.     .    I have a really old ipod that I do not depart with ever. (What’s an ipod?)
4.        Usually I’m listening to musicians like Radiohead, the Smiths, Deer Tick, or The Cranberries.
5.     .    Some of my favorite writers are Kurt Vonnegut, Ernest Hemingway, and Oscar Wilde.
6.          Some of my favorite films are directed by Woody Allen. If you haven’t seen any of his films yet then I totally suggest you do sometime in the near future, especially Annie Hall and Manhattan. (The only movies my kids have seen are crappy Thai or Chinese movies that sometimes play on TV, IF the students even have a TV.)
7.           I always find it awkward when I have to introduce myself; although, ironically, it should be the easiest thing in the world to accomplish. Yet, I still find myself at a loss for words, but I will of course attempt my best. However, I am deeply interested to read the contents of your reply… (Are you writing a novel or a letter to a TEFL student who is just learning English?)
8.       .    My favorite movie is “My Man Godfrey” from 1936 with William Powell.
9.            My favorite type of music is Jazz, more specifically Duke Ellington otherwise known as the King of Swing.
10.             My favorite books are Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen and Candide by Voltaire.
11. .      My favorite website is StumbleUpon (I have one students with a computer. Whether or not he has internet on said computer, I don’t know).
12.     .  I’m currently reading Invasion of the Body Snatchers.
13.        I have a dog named Shea, after the New York Mets baseball stadium. He is a Golden Doodle, which is half of a Golden Retriever and half of a Poodle. (baseball? Mets? There are different types of dogs?)
14.       When two people like each other, you don’t say that they have good physics, or good biology, or good art, you say they have good CHEMISTRY! That’s how you know it’s the most important class.
15.    .  I don’t watch television much except for the News and the occasional episode of Big Bang Theory or Jeopardy. I also listen to music. I like classis rock like the Doors, and grunge rock, like Alice in Chains.
16.         I hope you are able to be friends with the elephants there; the animal is such a cute and adorable one. (Actually, compared to some other stuff, this is one of the most accurate statements haha)
17.       How is life in Taiwan? (??? This is Cambodia…)
18.        I play percussion instruments such as drums, the timpani, xylophone, and cymbals.
19.       Right now, I live in Long Island. Before this, I used to live in Queens. (Because everyone in the world knows Long Island and Queens).
20.       If I stay in New York, I’d like to NYU or Columbia.
21.       I do all different types of dance, such as tap, ballet, jazz, hip hop, and contemporary. (Khmer people are familiar with 2 names of American dance styles: hip hop and disco. However, according to them, hip hop and disco are one in the same, and neither are an accurate term for what they do).
22.        Right now I’m involved in the musical that our school is putting on. We’re doing Beauty and the Beast. In the musical I’m Babette- the French feather duster.
23.        My favorite series of books is the Harry Potter Series. They are the best! The movies are also amazing. If you haven’t read the books or watched the movies I strongly recommend trying one or the other.
24.       I recently finished the Hunger Games series, which was very good. The books are addicting because each chapter leaves you wanting to read the next chapter. I can’t wait until the movie comes out on March 23^rd! I’m always willing to read new books, so tell me some of your favorites! (the only books my students read are textbooks)
25.       This week is Spirit Week, when all of the students dress up every day to show school spirit. Students stay after for hours to decorate the hallways, which were terrific this year. Our senior class made a huge clown head and circus decorations, while the juniors made a scene from the Lion King. On Friday night the classes will compete in all different events like races and basketball and dances to win the Spirit Trophy for the year. (Forget all the mentions of clowns and Disney movies… what the heck is “spirit”?)
26.        My favorite shows are CSI, baseball games, Monday night football, basketball games, Monday night Raw, and Friday night smack down. Do you watch television, and what shows?
27.        My favorite club I am involved in is Science Olympiads. We are actually going to states on March 29^th!
28.        Soccer is my favorite sport and my team is very good. We have been in Division I for the past 6 seasons.
29.        I don’t know what school is like in Cambodia, however, here grades kindergarten to 5^th is elementary school and grades 6^th to 8^th is middle school, which judging by your age, you’d be in. (This student’s age is 16…)

Those all made me chuckle. And stressed me out a bit, because I’m going to have a lot of explaining to do to my students. But that’s the point of this, right? They’re going to be really confused, but hopefully they’ll learn something about American culture through it. Now I really hope my students are able to explain appropriately that they are very unfamiliar with the American way of life. And I hope that they can also give plenty of examples of HOW it is so different here. (Ex. I go to school before 6AM, but not of my teachers come. So I must pay for private classes so I can actually learn something. After school I go home to help my parents harvest rice. In my free time I sweep the house and scrub my clothes, or I lead our water buffalos out to the river to cool off. etc.)

Hopefully after the New Yorkers hear back from my students, they’ll be able to adjust their letters and their questions to things that translate better. Literally.

Cleaning up the old "library". Looks like a ton of books, right? Well its basically hundreds of copies of the same 6 textbooks, that are 10-20 years out of date, therefore unusable.

Lots of grade 10 students helpers.

The students were almost good at organizing... no actually not at all. 

Thats my co-teacher and counterpart for the project.

This is a student's answer to the dictation part of his monthly test. Unfortunately, I could not give him credit, but I did at least give him a drawing back.

Some wrapping paper I found in the old library. Read it. You won't regret it.

Some awesome students! Grade 10. The top left 2 are in my Honor Society.

My Typical Not So Typical Day

I was invited to a party at a teacher’s house today. As it was really far away, and I planned to spend the day in the Provincial Town, I told him I would come at 4PM on my way home. While I was riding to the party, the skies opened and dropped a monsoon on me. I was wearing a white (now see-through) shirt. I called the friend and told him the truth- I was too embarrassed to come to his party because it I am so wet from the rain. Then as I was passing his house on the way home, I realized that the ground was completely dry. There was not a drop of rain by his house. Great, he’s going to think I’m a liar. I went about another kilo before my guilt got the best of me, and I decided to go back at least to show my face and prove that it DID rain a lot where I was at the time. As I pulled into his house, I realized that the party was 10 really drunk stumbling men dancing around a table in front of at least 8 giant speakers.

Bad decision Diana.

I danced three songs to be polite, dodging advances from the men. (In my co-workers defense, he was also helping to intercept the advances). I tried to hold my shirt away from my body so they couldn’t see through to my bra. I also had one hand constantly ready to pull my pants up in case they would fall because of the weight of the rain water. One man sompaya’ed me (bowed with his hands in prayer position) about 30 times. Another one of the men gave me about 15 mangoes. I left, laughing.

I know the next slang word I teach my other friend and co-teacher will be “shit-show.” He has the perfect frame of reference to understand this term.

It rained again on my way home, just to make sure I had no dry article of clothing. My father watched me nearly get hit by a van on my way into the house. As the drivers were screaming Khmer curses at me through their window, I politely said good afternoon to my father.

I rode my bike through the parched-dry-not-rained-on dirt in my yard, parked my bike, and gave all the mangoes to my sister.

Here are some long overdue, completely unrelated pictures from Thanksgiving and the best meal I ever had in this country.

.00000000000000001 of Disney World

Trampolines?!? NOW we're talking.

Oh No, Not a Vacation!

            The schools have shut down for about a month here in Cambodia for Khmer New Year. Due to insufficient funds and other such reasons, I was unable to get myself a spot on the trendy trip to Vietnam with the other PCVs.

            So, for the most part, I’m chillin’ out here at site. I will go to Takeo for 4 nights to visit my training host family. But other than that, I’ve got a good 3 or 4 weeks of a completely empty schedule. I know what you’re thinking: LUCKY! That sounds AMAZING! And indeed, when I was in America, I would have LOVED to have that. But here, a month long vacation has a different meaning.

            Here are things you can do, if you ever join the Peace Corps and are in the same boat as I am:

Laundry

Read a book

Re-arrange your bedroom furniture

Take a bike ride and visit a place in your village you haven’t yet. (Just make sure you do so before 8AM because it’s the hottest month of the year).

Do more laundry. This time include your bedsheets.

Read 2 more books.

Watch a movie. Something long, like the entire Lord of the Rings series.

Try to take a nap in a hammock.

Make really epic lesson plans for when school does start again.

Study Khmer

Think

Re-arrange your bedroom furniture again because you’re still not satisfied

Check online every hour to see if anyone is online and wants to skype

Listen to every Christian song on your ipod, and call that your way of observing Easter

Write a letter or an email

Update your blog

Stalk your own facebook

Start laying down tracks for your next youtube video

Sweep your ceiling and walls

Practice writing Khmer

Take a bath. At least twice a day.

Buy coffee in a bag. Drink it.

Buy Sugarcane juice in a bag. Drink it.

Read another book.

Wash your mosquito net

Ride your bike 15k for a cup of ice cream. Then ride back.

Watch more movies

Go get a manicure pedicure

Dance alone in your bedroom, preferably after a freshening bath

Think

Poop

Laundry

Take a bucket bath. Don’t towel off. Then sit naked next to a fan.

Study Khmer

Make more lesson plans

Learn Julia Nunes songs on Ukulele

Draw a picture of that special someone, in the most creepy way possible

Watch all of the Miranda Sings videos on youtube

Teach your host family to play Uno

Write another blog post with a list of random thoughts

Get really good at Minesweeper

Respecting the flag. Every morning the students stand in lines on the basketball court. A male and female volunteer lift the flag while the students sing the national anthem. Then there are announcements (which sometimes take more than a half hour) from the administration, and the students disperse to their classes

A giant picture from my host brother's and sister's wedding

The living room

There are 3 extra beds in the living room.

Sparrows eggs. Actually pretty tasty.

A boat on the Mekon in Kampong Cham. Note the rainbow.

The Mekong Hotel in Kampong Cham

When Does Vacation REALLY Start?

            Actually, I am supposed to be teaching until tomorrow. I asked students, teachers, and administration alike, “When does Khmer New Year Break start?” They all responded April 6^th. I even asked again “No, but when does it REALLY start?” and still, I got April 6^th.

Monday March 19^th to Wednesday the 21^st, grade 12 students had national exams. So the other grades had a 3 day break while the 12^th graders tested.

            Thursday the 22^nd, I went to school to teach as normal, to find that the grade 12 students decided to take the rest of the week off, as well as about a quarter of the rest of the school.

            Monday the 26^th I again went to school. Most of the students were there, so I taught like normal. My co-teachers also taught. But they did not skip a beat in informing me that we were the only ones teaching. Sure enough, I look outside and see all of the other teachers hanging out at the School Director’s office. Students started leaving because the teachers were not going to their classrooms to teach. So, I went to talk to the teachers. I asked them why they aren’t going to teach. All of their responses were “because there are no students.” That’s ridiculous. I’d say about 75% of the students came to school that day. Every single teacher was just turning a blind eye.

            On Tuesday the 27^th, about 50% of the students came. But again, “no students came to study” according to the teachers.

            On Wednesday the 28^th, maybe 25% came, and they were all gone by 10AM.

            Thursday, I gave up. Khmer New Year Vacation started on Thursday March 29^th.

            Now I have been told that school will start again on April 20^th. That’s a Friday. I asked a friend and co-teacher “Now REALLY teachers and students will come to school on April 20^th?” His response was “yes, they will come. But maybe not.” How does that make sense?? Then he said “maybe many students will come on Monday, April 23^rd.” However, I have reason to believe that maybe even some of my own students will not be showing up til May.

            I guess we’ll just have to wait and see. After all, there’s nothing better than the foreigner getting up and dressed in her tight, heavy burrito-skirt and biking a mile to school to find that no one is there. 

The ancient ruins in Kampong Cham at "Golden Hour"

The Mekong River. That's the bridge to Kampong Cham. Oh and I have no idea why that dude is digging.

purty river with a boat.

This is the river in Prey Veng. That is NOT how you are supposed to eat dragonfruit. However, I do not carry around a knife, so this is how it's done. 

The sign I posted earlier in the year with the names of the first draft of Honor Society Inductees.

This is what rice looks like after it is harvested and before it is put through the rice mills.

In November and December, tarps are out front of every house to dry the harvested rice. Then the rice is bagged and stored to last the year. I was amazed by the amount of rice they put in our garage just for the 6 of us. They informed me that I, myself, in just one year will eat multiple bags this year alone. WOW I guess a plate or 2 of rice every day, 3 times a day really adds up.

23 Random Thoughts on Friendship

And an excuse to put up some pictures.

1.  Friends who are willing to write you off without even telling you why maybe are not worth fighting to get back.
2. Friends who lie to you and to themselves are harmful to both parties.
3. Friends who have forgiven you are worth forgiving.
4. Friends who don’t want to forgive you maybe aren’t worth your time.
5. Friends who can’t find a minute for you in their busy schedules maybe aren’t worth waiting hours for.
6. For the friends who reach out to you, you should reach out to them twice as much.
7. Your best friend will always be your mom.
8. Closely followed by your dog.
9. You can go away from home and make tons of really awesome friends, but the friends who know exactly where you came from are the ones your heart will pine after.
10. If I had half as many American friends as my village thinks I must have, I would be practically famous.
11. A friend’s job is to make your life seem easier. And vice versa. If that is far from the truth, you should rethink your friends.
12. Acquaintances will surprise you with their kindness. That’s when they become good friends.
13.  Don’t mourn too much over being pushed out of a group. Chances are there are others who have been pushed out too. And now you already have that in common.
14. If you’ve got one or two people who are excited to see you when you come into town, you’re doin’ alright.
15. If you’re scared people won’t like you if they find out about ‘this’ or ‘that,’ then your friendship is already off to a bad start.
16. You can’t go away for 2 years and expect your friends to be the same people when you get back.
17. It’s not okay for a good friend to forget about you or ignore you for weeks or months at a time. Don’t make excuses for them.
18.  Don’t let your friends make you a promise, unless you yourself are positive they can keep it.
19. Friendships will fail. You can either move on or fix it. Brooding over failure isn’t an option.
20. When a friend does something meaningful, tell them how much it means to you, even if it seems obvious and awkward, or even desperate. No bad can come from that.
21. In middle school, some of your peers did nothing but torment you day in and day out. People have grown up since then, but that doesn’t mean they’re more mature. It just means the language is more intricate and more expertly disguised.
22. Don’t test your friends’ ability to tell when something is wrong. Just tell them and save the time and energy.
23. Don’t make mental lists of the people who have let you down. Make mental lists of the awesome people in your life. It’s a much lighter list to carry around, and I bet it has more people.

My host brother with some 11th century ruins in Kampong Cham

I believe this place is called Wat Nokor

Cool intricacy.

If you give a monkey a wood apple...

...he'll ask for a mango instead.

My host brother and sister. 

Sisters. like twins.