Ba'rang

First Day of School!

It was a good day. First hour was physics, and I am excited for the year. I started off tough, and I think it will pay off. I already have figured out the trouble makers of that class and had to split them up already, although when I split them up, the ones that talked constantly were the ones that answered my questions and participated, so it is all about channeling the energy. :D Then I worked in the library helping Faye, and discovered that I have to talk when I work. Then I helped in ESL class for and hour quizing kids on shapes to see where they are at. Only two kids knew them all... lots of work to be done. Then lunch. Then free time. Normally I would have ESL buy Phanna worked with them on Khmer and I can't help much there lol. Then it was Health. I ran out of things to do so then I just started pulling things to do from thin air. Sad to say they were a little bored. Then music class with the same kids. Only one person has heard of Mozart and the only song they recognised of Bethoven was one that was played on the show with Jerry the mouse. I can't remember the name... I have ben and Jerry's in my mind and that is not it. Also non of them have had music class so I have lots of work to go. I thought they had a background in music, cause they are suppose to take music every year, so I had to backtracko on my lesson some.

I rode my bike to school, in a skirt cause I see girls do it all the time and it was the most uncomfortable thing to do in the world. I then found out they wear shorts underneath which makes lots of sense. SO instead of wearing a skirt and riding my bike back and flashing all my students I hitched a ride with Java (pronounced Jawa).

They BJ, Samairah, Nehah, Avak, and I went to Soriya Mall to go to Lucky grocery store to get food for tomorrows supper when Kristie comes. and then ate frozen yugurt. :D yum. We rode in a tuk tuk on the way there and it was the first time for Samairah and she has been here for over a year. Before we leave we always ask the price, so we don't get riped off when we arrive because we are foreigners. He agreed to bai (three) dollars which is the normal price. When he got there I handed him three dollars and the police next to us said something to the driver. The driver turned to me and said five dollars. I said no, you agreed to three. The police said something more and the driver nodded towards the police and pleaded five. The police said more. FInally I gave him 5 dollars and took back the three. The police said more and the driver told us it was 5 beyond the three. The police where using the driver to get money from us. :/ I was so upset. I did not want to give him the money, but I was scared to run from the police. I dalied some and then finally gave it to him, cause the driver looked upset. As we walked away the police took the 5 dollars we gave the driver. All because I am a ba'rang (foreigner) I think I should dye my hair black. BJ blends in cause he is Asian and so does everyone else, but I stick out like a sore thumb. Oh well... that is my first expierence with the corrupt system of Cambodia.

While we were eating our frozen yugurt it down poured and the streets became mini streems. Akram called worried and so they came and picked us up. I'm glad because a tuk tuk would not have made it through all the water. A lot is flooded right now. I'm worried about the school cause it is so low.

When we got back Alia and Akram fed us dinner. We had some core and then black garbanzos and rice. The corn is amazing! It was corn with beans, and shallots, vinager, hot sauce, and muchroom sauce. Yum! I love it! And then following dinner of caurse we had Chai. ;D

I <3 the people here.

Lots to fill in.

On Friday after work all the teachers were invited to Agusta ( CAS treasurer) and Lim's (head pastor of pastors) house for diner. Had lots of good food :D Then Suphea and Any and I went to the Russian market to look a cloths. That is the tourist Market. I didn't realize how many people vacation here. There is a lot of neat things to buy there, but it all is "made in Thailand" haha... Cambodia does not actually make a lot of things, so if you want real Cambodia items, it is best to go to a Cambodian grocery store. That's just some advice for you if you ever come here. lol. It was HOT in there by the end I just wanted to plop over. When we walked outside to fresh air it felt like we were entering aircondiditioning. it was beautiful. I had anouther first time expierence. WHile there we got fresh squeezed orange juice in a bag. :D That's how they drink juice to go. The juice it put in a back with a straw and then tied off and then put in another bag to carry. Fun!

Yesterday after Church I quickly made a pasta dish for a last min. informal pot luck at Anne's house. I have to say I am good at making up last min. recipies. :D lol... anyways after that Mark and Anne took Whitaker and I to a small church in Phnom Penh and we were in charge of the service. We based it off the story of Joseph and the theme was forgiveness. We had a good time. THe church had around 10 people there. It was located in a house in a "village" in Phnom Phen. It is amazing how different it is in these villages than the city. Quite a gap in incomes. Its' a difference betwen huts made with scapes they can find and mansions made with the best imports possible. Amazing.

Then today in the morning I went to the market today to get stuff I actually need for school and for my apartment. It was very productive. I went with Suphea, Any, Hannah, and Grace. We had a good time together. I learned new phrases and my first sentence. Ne is this, na is that. Ting ne is here ting na is there. Then to say today is hot it is tingay ne g'dow. :D I'm learning! haha... I still had to look it up to put in here. :/

Then in the afternoon I went to the school and worked on getting the room ready for school tomorrow. We made a bulliton board with a calander on it and had to do it twice because I messed up the dates. It tried my patience.

Well off to bed. A busy day tomorrow. Kristie will be coming in two days too. Pray for her travels!

phone

Signs I know that I am fitting in...
1. I'm clumsy again. (already told you that)
2. People take my option to heart. (Yesterday I was joking with Orng (which actually sounds like Aung) about how his HiFive photo looks doesn't look like him and he looks older now and so when he thought I wasn't looking he changed the photo.. lol when I started laughing he looked so sheepish and then when I was saying to Sopha how I can't tell from his signature that it is his name, he quickly added a S. I need to watch what I say. :)
3. I cross the street when it is still packed with motos and don't think twice. Have you ever played the game frogger? It's kinda like that. lol
4. I have lunch buddies, that expect me to eat with them everyday... by the way I am learning to pack extra for lunch, it is expected that everyone shares and tries each others food. Everyone brings rice and a topping and all the toppings are shared.
5. I'm going to the market with some TA's tomorrow :D
6. I have a phone! :D Now I truly belong. lol After Whitaker got left behind and there was mass chaos I decided that was not going to happen to me. Plus I got tired waiting for people to go to the market with me. So now I can go out and if I need help, I can call. Last night I went out to buy one, and we ran into Moses who was shopping for a new phone, and he wanted to sell his. So I got his for $10. Normally to buy used it costs at least $20. Yeah! I haven't figured out my phone number yet. But I do have minutes. You can buy $1, $2, $3, $5, or $10 cards. I started out with 2 dollars and it is 5 cents per min. to anyone.
7. The banana ladies at the market know me.
8. So does this random guy at Psa Ma Ang who can speak some English and whenever I'm there he helps me buy stuff cause I still always get confused with the numbers.
9. I know the cost of moto to go most places in town and feel more comfortable riding sidesaddle now then the boy way.
10. I like unripe mango's.

Haha... by the way I am discovering that I like Indian drama. Who knew?!

One thing though that I miss from home is English. Don't take forgranted that you can talk to anyone and they will understand. It gets old when all your friends are laughing at a joke and I just stare trying to figure out what they are saying. Mostly they are good at translating though.

Have a good night!

Banannas

It's been awhile, and I know the last one was a little on the lame side, so I will fill you in on somethings that have happened since Saturday.

On Sunday Whitaker and I needed to go to the market to get some stuff. I needed kitchen supplies and food and he needed cloths. Kitchen supplies can be bought anywhere, but clothes are a little harder to find, but we heard that the Russian Market would be a good place to go. Somewhere in communication, Russian Market turned into Psa Oressey, so we ended up going to that one instead. It worked out though, cause there was this little old lady who took care of us and found the perfect pants for Whitaker and even let him try them on! Such a novelty. :D On the way back we had to get sugar cane juice. I said it would be my weakness. The lady laughed when we ordered two right off the bat for each. It was a very hot day. lol

Then yesterday again more working on lesson plans and stuff. I feel like I have tons to do, and yet I don't know what. I'm missing something. Afterwords we took motos to the International Bookstore (IBC) to see what school supplies they have. BJ and I took a moto and Whitaker rode his bike. We arrived 2 minutes before Whitaker. That should give you an understanding of how slow traffic is. On the way back Whitaker kept up to us, until his bike went flat. We left him at a bike shop and went back to the mission to play cricket with Samariah. After awhile when Whitaker was not coming, BJ and I got a little nervous. BJ left to see if he went to the school and then ended up going searching for Whitaker with Faye in her car. It turned out that it took an hour to get Whitaker's bike fixed and it just wasn't one hole in the tire. There were three. Everyone ended up safe and sound. Just a little wet, since it started to pour.

I made Chappatties yesterday all by myself. I'm proud of that accomplishment. I think I am going to have some tonight as well. So far a lot of what I have been eating when I cook for myself is rice, stir fry, beans, chappatties, and bananas. Yesterday I ate 5 bananas and today so far I have at least eaten that. They are so easy to munch on. There are worse things to snack on.... The staple food for the Khmer is fish. Every lunch the girls I eat with have dried fish and rice. I'm all for fish, but dried...I don't know.... :/

Right now my air conditioner is getting fixed. Last night I kept on waking up to annoying pounding noises and thought it was just the air conditioner causing the blinds to move. Turns out it was dripping water, so I had a wet couch and a puddle on the floor in the morning. It is amazing how quickly things can get done.

I've got one kid excited for class. One boy I met when I first got here was not too excited about drama class and yesterday when I talked to him he told me "Teacher Amy, I decided I am going to like drama" haha... enthusiasim really catches on. Little does he know that I have no clue what I am doing. :D

Let me know if you have any questions. I know that I may take somethings that I know for granted and you may want to know more about it. :D

Happy Birthday Katie!

So lots have happened, but yet not a lot and I am wiped out today.

Yesterday was church then potluck. After potluck I went home and napped but then Samariah came up saying that she is bored and so her family and I packed stuff for a picnic and drove off in search of a dry spot. We did not find any :D so we stoped the van and had worship in the van and had popcorn. All was not lost as when we got back we still had chai tea and some fitter type things. Yum.

Game night occured as usual at Tim and Fayes, however when I walked back I realized I left my keys in my apartment and all doors up to my apartment were locked, so I ended up sleeping at Tim and Fayes House. I love them. They are the sweetest couple in the universe.

Then today, I spent the first half of the day cleaning, and then Whitaker and I went to the market. It was the first time we hired a moto and there were three of us on the moto, I was sitting sidesattle. Yes it is doable. :D We wanted to go to the Russian Market which is the English name, but ended up being taken to Psa Oressey, which turned out to be better cause we found what we needed. It is really hard to find clothes for a tall guy, when most people in the country are short.\

We came back and I made dinner for BJ and Whitaker and then we played phase 10. Because I was ahead the first few rounds, I got ganged up on with the skips. I dislike skips :D lol, it worked for them though cause I ended up losing.

Well its off to bed. There is more I could write, but i'm falling asleep.

Smell the Trash

Today I ran around like my head was cut off, trying to figure out books. I think I finally have all the teacher editions that I need. Yeah!!! One small improvement that will make life easier. I also finished my lesson plans for the first week. :D Now I just have to get everything ready.

I have met a few of the students and I can already tell that I am going to love my students. Well, if there are all like the ones I have met, although the ones that I have met are the responsible ones that are hired in the summer to work at the school and at the mission. Oh well, they will be the ones to give me some sanity. There is one boy at the school, and forgive me I cannot remember his name (Sopin, something like that) but he is always running around and doing errands for everyone and is really respectful. I hear so many horror stories about the students. Apparently Cambodians are not like the studious asians that you think of that go to school in America. Many Khmer (Cambodian) students are lazy. I will just have to motivate them.

Faye needed to go to the airport to change some tickets she bought and so she brought us along to get Dairy Queen. Hahaha my family took me to Dairy Queen before I left, cause I needed to have Dairy Queen one last time before being away for a year, and here they have one. lol ;D

Faye then took BJ and I on her errands around town and we were able to go to a new market where a lot of material is sold and it is less of a touristy market. Since so few tourists go there, the vendors really don't know English, so its a little difficult trying to understand the prices they have. There number system is easy, but yet hard. I'll go through the numbers.
1: muy
2: pi
3: bay
4: bu-on
5: bprom
6: bprom muy
7: bprom pi
8: brpom bay
9: brpom bru-on
10: dop
11: dop muy
12: dop bay
...
19: dop brprom bu-on
...
1354: bpoa-un bay roy haa seup bu-on

so you can see when there are 4000 reil in a dollar, when they give prices it is difficult to figure out what they are saying. haha... i'm getting better though :D

Then for dinner we went to Mark and Ann's house. They are the president and vice president of ADRA-Cambodia, a big international development organization here. We ate a great meal of burritos and then had Durion for dessert with carrot cake. Now Durion is a interesting fruit. It is known instantly when someone has durion in their house. Imagine going to your trashing. Opening the lid, and taking a big whif of the smell. That is the smell of durion. It's hard to get the idea that one is suppose to eat it. lol. When I did eat it, it has the texture of custard and it is very mild tasting. Kinda like an avocado with a mild hint of banana. That makes no sense, but that's what it reminds me off.

Please continue praying for the work here. there is so much to be done and so little resources. There are many small churches around Phnom Penh and there are many churches throughout the country that need prayers. Many are falling apart due to lack of funds. The average tithe for a Cambodian church member is $6.00 per year. That is what the church is running on. Please pray that God's work can continue.

It may seem like the people have access to many things when I write, such as all the food, Internet, etc. but really it is only a very small percentage of people can afford it, and it is also because I am in the city. The government does not care about the people here and it is very corrupt. Bribes are the norm and a majority of the people grow up thinking cheating and bribing is okay because it is apart of their culture. One problem occurring right now is the government is selling many of the small lakes in Phnom Penh. Phnom Penh is already a city located in a poor spot because it is really low, so everything floods. The only reason the city was built up here, was because a lady by the name Penh found a Buddha stature on a hill (phnom) and so it was considered good luck to build here. Any ways, the government is selling these lakes and the private companies that are buying these lakes are forcing all the people living along them to move, displacing hundred of people to the country. Now that is a problem, because there are forcing city people to become country people and it is difficult for them to make a living when they are use to selling in the city. Another problem is that the private owners are filling up the lakes with sand. Therefore there will be less drainage during the rainy season, therefore more flooding. And the government does not care. The school is located near one of these lakes/ponds. They do not have to move, but it is likely that they will have flooding problems unless a miracle happens, so please pray for all the families being displaced, the school, and for the government, so that some one's heart will be softened for the people.


Oh, I just thought of something to tell you about Cambodia. The richer you are the bigger your SUV and it is black. SUV's are everywhere. It is a status symbol. The government people drive them and the rich people drive them. There there are these little motos on the streets. It looks really funny, but it describes the city. You got the rich, and you got the poor. There is not much between.

Henna

I got all my Physics and Algebra II lesson plans done for the first week of school, so I got the hard stuff done! :D I like all the teachers at the school. There are two new girl teachers and we have become good friends. Today at lunch they ate dried fish with rice. Now, I will try about anything, but that did not look appitizing. One of the fish was pregnant so there were dried eggs in it. I tried a bite of that and I have no desire to try that again. yuk.

After school I started cleaning my place since it is looking neglected, then Avak came up and I helped him with his homework. Samariah came up then and talked about Henna, which I think in Pakistani is Menka... something like that. So she brought it up and did my hands. So cool! Apparently I didn't keep it on long enough so it is more orangish than brown. Oh well... I then went down stairs to watch a Pakistani soap opera... hahahahaha no better than the American ones. I showed Avak some games on the internet such as Frogger, Pacman, and mario Bro. He loved them. I kinda felt like I was passing down history long forgoten... lol jk. But it did feel weird that he didn't know about some of them.

Tomorrow I plan on grocery shopping and making Cinnamon Swirl bread. I also need to make a potluck dish. Any ideas?!?!?!?! I can get about any vegetable besides zucchini, fruit galore, and cheese or fancy dairy is limited, beans are limited as well. So is chocolate. Dessert here is fruit :D

good night!