The People Who Make Kampuchea

There are a variety of people that surround me every day when i'm not cooped up in my room for the remainder of the day. These people make the highs and the lows, they are sources of happiness and frustration, and they are shaping this experience one by one. Here's a look into some of my daily encounters.

The day starts out in the market and depending on my money situation and what I'm feeling for a tasty breakfast the crowd varies. Sometimes I get a dragon fruit and sit on my host mothers stand while peeling away its pink skin to reveal a sweat juicy center full of tiny black seeds. My mom sells nom in the morning with her sister and it is this sweet gelatinous rice snack that always satisfies my sweet spot. While sitting there eating my fruit I will converse with my mom or her sisters always about how much I pay for my breakfast or where I got it... even though the answers never change. The ladies selling around my mothers stand all sell fruit and vegetables and always smile at me as I sit there. The ones with kids will point me out and anything that gets my mom laughing will surely get them laughing also. Anything I say is thought of as funny and I just have learned to go along with it and take their warmness and humor in stride.

When I have a little more money to spend I will head over to my Yay and get a bowl of fried noodles. This lady is basically the boss of all the food venders in the market mainly due to her age and status as a Yay. A Yay is an older lady that has short hair and lives at the local Wat. They are devout Buddhists and will wear this white shirt and sampot most of the time. Anything I could want she will get for me somehow. Shes not the best talker, but always welcoming and I feel good when in her presence. The trainees before me always went to her stand to eat so she and the people around her are used to my white complexion. I tend to get less stares at her stand.. even though they are always present by one or two people who feel the need to look at me like an alien. The lady next to her stand sells these beef and bean sprout filled crepes with a sweet sugar sauce and even though she laughs at everything that comes out of my mouth from the hello to the thank you's... she is kind and I always enjoy spending my 15 minutes eating breakfast in her presence.

After breakfast its off to the health center where the crowd I am confronted with differs on a day to day basis. The staff are getting very used to my presence and always make me feel welcomed. There is a male nurse that always treats me like I'm annoying mostly cause I don't know the language yet and don't do a whole lot during my working hours, but I'm sure he will eventually warm up as I get better with Khmer... right? The pharmacist is the lady who I spend a great deal of time around. She is an older lady (old enough to be a Yay) and she doesn't speak much to me, but her reiterations of everything I say always make me laugh. We just laugh for no reason sometimes... I just go along with it. When I learn a new word and blurt it out she will always repeat it and follow it with a laugh.. but she is not laughing at me, shes laughing with me.

My counterpart is the one I spend the most time with, even though I don't station myself in her room, being that she mostly works in the anti-natal care room checking pregnant mothers. She is the head honcho nurse due to her loud and HUGE personality. Everything she says she will say loud and proud. Everyone in the health center can hear every conversation she has... quite funny. I never understand what she is saying cause she speaks very fast and the volume of her voice obscures the slight fluctuations and tonal differences I need to comprehend the language. We always find a way to get our point across to each other and there is always an exchange of a friendly yet hard slap on the arms. Many of our conversations revolve around the topic of money. It gets overwhelming at times and there are instances where I simply do not want to talk about their financial difficulties over and over again. Everything in Cambodia revolves around money and the people here never miss a chance to tell me how hard it is here and how easy it is in America.Many times she will bring up her income and how much it costs to send her children to school. Again I just go along with it and try to clear up the misconceptions about how "easy" she thinks life in America is. They know that banks give us loans in America, something they are not afforded with, but they a.) dont understand how expensive college is in America b.)that money has to be paid back over many years which sucks and c.)banks dont always give out loans. This was actually our conversation today, but it has played out many times between her, her husband, and me. Other than that she is always treating me like one of her kids. She never fails to feed me food, always invites me over to her house, and invites me to go along with her family on trips. I am probably closer to her than I am my host mom.. not to say that my host mom isn't great, but my counterpart is just so much fun to be around.

The other nurses are also great to be around. They are younger and can handle the stresses of the health center. They always try to start conversations with me which I appreciate greatly. Since my job is still kind of unknown in the health center, they could have either treated me as a nuisance and tossed me aside or helped me through this difficult period. I'm not sure whether or not they understand how hard it is for me to be doing this "job" but they treat me with kindness and respect. We always have conversations that contain many bits of laughter and humor and I already feel like one of the staff. My health center director, when I see him, is also a wonderful person. Sometimes he brings me into his office just to sit there and watch him work. I'm not sure why he does that, but hes always fun to be around. He's a younger man that is truly kind hearted. I never have any problems with him or the rest of the staff (besides the male nurse) and am looking forward to the next two years with them.

The rest of the day is spent mostly at home. Meal times are my family hours and they are pretty much the only hanging out time I end up having with my mom and dad. I can usually communicate anything I want with them and we always can get our points across eventually. My mom is always jolly and laughs during any conversation we have. The simplest of things she thinks are hilarious, which I don't always get but again I just go with the flow. My mom is another person who brings up money. ANYTHING I buy or she suspects I buy she will quiz me on the price and where I got it. Even if its always the same answer, she has to know prices. I'm pretty sure she has asked me how much everything I own cost in the states. I always say I don't know cause giving her the prices will make me sound rich and make me look like I have money.. which I don't. I used to get very annoyed by all the money questions, but now I think it is just something to talk about. She likes to point out how much money Cambodia doesnt have and again I try to right the misconceptions. My dad and I don't really have that many conversations, but my frustrations with him are the greatest at times. He never fails to ask where I am going, when I will be back, who I am going with, and what I will be doing. When my mom gets a chance she will also ask that barrage of questions, but my dad and I will mostly talk just about that except when he brings out the electric bill and points out how much electricity I am using. I was very annoyed with my parents for a good month but we have hit a turning point and I am starting to really enjoy and understand them.

My language tutor is the only source of English I get in my village and that is 3 times a week. He is a very nice man that is helping me out a ton with this rather difficult learning process. Since he speaks very good English he is the main source of misconceptions I run into. Almost every lesson I end up pointing out many rumors or false accusations passed down in Cambodian rumor. Today I corrected him on how dating, relationship building, and marriage is conducted throughout the rest of the world. Premarital sex is taboo here and there is not really such a thing as dating; something completely opposite to that of America. The parents are the sole decider on who marries their son or daughter, something he found no problem in. I tried to explain how marriage in the states is something of love and loyalty between the couple in the relationship, not something the parents control. He also thought that the rocks in mount everest make planes crash because it acts like a magnet and any fruit coming from other countries is automatically bad cause they use "chemicals" to grow and enlarge them. I enjoy telling him my view on things with the hope that he will spread these words to his students. He is probably the most respected English teacher in my village so his words go far and wide through his classroom and students. I always enjoy chatting with him and think of him more as a friend than teacher. My status as a white person from America automatically puts me on equal terms with everyone so the friendship status is much easier to attain than that of teacher / student.

At night around 5pm I head over to my counterparts house where I help her husband teach English to a group of kids out of his garage. These kids act as my home base and provide me with a sense of normality and balance throughout my stressful and crazy days. They know a good bit of English and are always so much fun to be around. They are very warm and welcoming and put on a much more mature front than teenagers of their age in America tend to put on. I don't do a whole lot there but being in the company of them always puts me in a good mood. My counterparts family will always bring out food for me to eat and she knows how to cook damn well. The husband knows a good bit of English also and I always find it a pleasurable experience to talk with him. He is a gentle person in character and just one look at him automatically shows kindheartedness and a loving personality.

So those are the people who provide the main points of excitement throughout most of my days. There are others I see occasionally and of course I am meeting new people every single day. The patients I meet in the health center provide all the new encounters I can handle at moment. There is no lack of stares and points during my morning working hours, but they are always kind and nice to strike up conversations with. I don't really talk to a whole lot of them because the atmosphere is so chaotic, but there are some kids I have found an absolute pleasure to play which leads into conversations with their parents.

Without forgetting, I couldn't make it through this without the other peace corps volunteers which are either a phone call or bike ride away. Me and a friend have really taken up the sport of bike riding and have biked a couple hundred kilometers in the past couple weeks. Im planning trips with many of them and they are always a source of venting and reality in this very unreal and strange world.