When You're Yey, You're Yey

A yey, in her most simple form, is a grandmother.
But yey really is a different word from grandma. Yey is much more specific to qualities and personality traits.

Here are a couple of examples. One particular yey might not have all of these traits, but you can bet that she will have most of them.

1. Yeys are old. Really old. And if they're not that old, they LOOK really old.
2. Yeys have really short hair, or shaved heads
3. Yeys have leathery, wrinkly, sunken in skin
4. Yeys have no teeth
5. Yeys are constantly nyaming on some betel nuts and spitting, thus making it look like they are bleeding from the mouth.
6. Yeys are stronger than they look
7. Yeys have spent the entirety of their lives perfecting the Khmer squat, and can do it for hours every day.
8. Yeys don't need mattresses. They sleep on hard wood.
9. Yeys say whatever they want, whenever they want, and there's nothing you can do about it.
10. Yeys don't have to get any dressier than just a sarong. Also, yeys don't have to worry too much about covering their breasts.
11. Yeys have every right to smack around the grandchildren
12. Yeys don't need to follow any rules of personal space.
13. Yeys hit people that they like. If you are well-liked by a yey, expect smacks on your arms, knee, and buttocks very often.
14. Yey's will judge you for being older than 21 and both husbandless and childless.
15. Yeys are, in the most literal sense, survivors. They are all real survivors of a horrible genocide, and very often yeys are the glue that have kept families together and growing in the years after the end of the genocide.

More pictures from a typical bike ride 15k into Prey Veng town

Buses fly by every day bringing people between Ho Chi Min and Phnom Penh

The Khmer church supported by Korean Missionaries

See the water buffalo up there?

Hay stacks

The biggest brothel in town

This house collects garbage. I don't get it. But it always kills me to see the children playing around in it.

What you see when you arrive in Prey Veng town

The town

The shop with the overhang is where I eat almost every time I go to Prey Veng. Peace Corps volunteers call it the Sandwich Shop because they sell duck egg and tomato sandwiches.

Little Town, It's a Quiet Village

                Ever wonder what it's like for a Peace Corps volunteer to step outside their house into the midst of their village?

                Then I suggest you watch the opening village scene from Beauty and the Beast. It's a lot like that. Except dustier and hotter. And mostly in Khmer. 

                Now, if I had more time, and a lot more energy, I would make an awesome youtube parody of the song. Instead, I’ll just put the lyrics here, with a few changes, and you can use your imaginations and sing the tune in your head. The real song is titled Belle. Appropriately, I changed it to Diana.

If you’d like to try to follow along, listen to this video while reading the blog:

Diana

Diana: Little town it's a quiet village.
                Every day like the one before.
                Little town full of little people, waking up to say.
Man #1: Nyam bai! (eat rice)
Man #2: Nyam bai!
Woman #1: Nyam bai!
Man #3: Nyam bai!
Man #4: Nyam bai!
Diana:  There goes the seller with her tray like always.
                The same old bugs and snails to sell.
                Every morning just the same since the morning that I came,
                To this poor provincial town.
Seller: Hello Barang!
Diana: Hello Sir!
Seller: Where you go?
Diana: The school
                I just wrote the most wonderful lesson,
                About verbs and second conditional clauses...
Seller: That's nice. Wife! The baguettes! Hurry up!
Group of Market Ladies: Look there she goes that girl is strange no question.
                Dazed and distracted, can't you tell?
Woman #1: Never part of any crowd.
Man #3: Cuz her heads up on some cloud.
Villagers: No denying she's a funny girl that Diana.
Man #1: Bonjour!
Woman #1: Hello!
Man #1: Hello I love you!
Woman #1: Bonjour!
Man #4: Hello!
Woman #1: What is your name?
Woman #2: I need six eggs!
Man #2: That's too expensive.
Diana: There must be more than this provincial life.
Co-Teacher: Ah! Diana!
Diana: Good Morning! I've come to teach with you!
Co-Teacher: I’m finished already.
Diana: Class time just started. Have you taught anything new?
Co-Teacher: Not since yesterday!
Diana: That's alright. We'll teach...this class!
Co-Teacher: This one?! But you've taught it twice!
Diana: Well it's my favorite! Far off gazing, daring cheating, lazy students, with one good one in disguise
Book Shop Clerk: Well if you like it all that much, it's yours.
Diana: But sir!
Co-Teacher: I insist.
Diana: No really, that’s against Peace Corps policy…
Male Teachers: Look there she goes that girl is so peculiar. I wonder if she's feeling well.
Female Teachers: With a dreamy far off look.
Male Teachers: And her nose stuck in a book.
Villagers: What a puzzle to the rest of us, is Diana.
Diana: Oh! Isn't this amazing? It's my favorite part because you'll see.

                Here's where she does her homework. But she won't discover
                she learned something til I leave.
Woman #3: Now It's no wonder that the barong is a beauty, her nose has got no parallel.
Man #1: But behind that fair facade, I'm afraid she's rather odd. 
                Very different from the rest of us.
Villagers: She's nothing like the rest of us. Yes different from the rest of us is Diana.

I had kittens at my house for 2 whole weeks! It was the best! This one I named Sally

They moved next door after 2 weeks. It was da wurst.

Charlie!

Brownie (aka Mama Brown)

The rice fields during dry season

I took my camera with me one day for the bike ride into the provincial town...

... and these are some of the sights from that bike ride

It's about 15k (9miles) to the provincial town

I go there twice a week

waterlily

Random Photo Blog

With about a month left here in Cambodia, I'm realizing just how far behind I am on posting photos. I often try to think of something good to blog about, just for an excuse to post a few photos. I got nothing. Well, nothing that I want to get into right now. I think you can look forward to a blog about our recent Camp G.L.O.W. very soon though.

For now, enjoy these random 21 pictures that I took between the months of October and December. Hooray I'm almost caught up to 2013!

A Pagoda for Pchum Ben festival, the second biggest Cambodian holiday.

It's a Buddhist holiday for offering sacrifices to one's ancestors. They are offering rice by the spoonful here.

Good luck finding your shoes when you want to leave.

Getting blessed by the monk

These are all food sacrifices from local families. The monks accept it and eat it. They believe that then the food is passed on to the ancestors.

Did you really expect the monks to be able to finish all that? After the monks have their fill, it's our turn to eat.

Solita, a couple weeks old, in her "crib"

"I'm not sure how I feel about this American dress, Aunt Diana"

Emily had a friend over. I did not approve.

This was the first time I spotted the Bengal Monitor in my backyard

He was eating a bullfrog and making quite a ruckus. 

This was at a party at the church near my village that I go to on weekends. This is a homemade meat griller lol.

Seoungyoon, a Korean volunteer who lived near me. He became a very good friend. This was his goodbye party, so I came to say goodbye.

However, the story didn't end there. Stay tuned.

Emily, looking good.

Can you find Emily?

My sister and her daughter on a typical afternoon. I was just impressed by how much they look alike. Keke the dog is lookin' good too.

The second time I spotted the monitor lizard

The girls in my host family are terrified of it.

I think it's cool. 

In case you can't wait for my blog about Camp GLOW, you can check out my friend's awesome blog. He blogged as the camp was happening. This is the first blog. Keep clicking the right arrows until you get to the end of the event.

http://60x27.com/2013/06/01/camp-glow-prey-veng/

2 Months, 2 Things

I'll be homeward bound in 2 months.

2 Things I can't wait for:

1. Places of interest being open past 6PM
2. Proudly telling people I am a RPCV- Returned Peace Corps Volunteer. Not former. Not ex-PCV. Returned.

2 Things I don't want to leave:

1. Being surrounded by nature- looking out of my window and seeing rice fields instead of a parking lot, cooking, eating, and generally hanging out outside, etc.
2. Helping take care of my baby niece Solita, and watching her grow and learn

Here are some more pictures from the Peace Corps/KOICA day trip to Kampong Cham

Rubber trees ad jumping!

Climbing Phnom Sryee

Wat Nakor

These are pictures of Solita when she was just 5 days old! Now she's almost 8 months old!