Found My Way

I finally have started to do what I came here for and I am fulfilling that image of what I thought being a volunteer was going to be like. I have been loving life for the past 5 or so months and rarely go to bed at night without a smile on my face. I love my host family and the community I was put in... everything is simply too good to be true. I have prospects of traveling to far away lands in the future I never thought possible and the next year and a half is looking to be the best yet. One thing has been missing from that though... my work at the health center and my position as a health volunteer in the community.

I haven't been talking with people about health for a variety of reasons. They seem very stand-offish and apprehensive to talk to me when they come into the health center. They are either intimidated by my skin and status as a foreigner or I believed they thought that what I had to say was completely pointless and meaningless. Cambodian people are some of the most friendly Asians you can ever meet, but when they come into that health center I get a very different impression of them and it is not one that is inviting and eager to talk. I could never bring myself to start conversing with people about issues such as sanitation, nutrition, and disease prevention out of fear that they would think it ridiculous that I lecture on such trivial issues. I also didn't know nearly enough vocabulary until recently so I also had this fear that they would start talking and I would not know what they are saying. These factors kept me at bay until one day 2 weeks ago where I just went at it and started talking.

Sine then I literally talk to every single person that walks into my health center. I give speeches on proper nutrition, vitamins, sanitation, and disease prevention. I created a number station for my health center so everyone who enters has to pick a number for one of the three areas of service and wait according to when he or she arrived. This allows the doctor to not be bombarded with patients who are vying for a spot up front as close as they can to the doctor, but creates a more private environment that allows the patient to disclose more of what is wrong with them which in turn allows for a better assessment from the doctor's point of view. This also allows me to talk with people because they are now no longer worried about their spot in line and are much more relaxed while waiting for their number to be called, which gives me the opportunity to dive in and start talking about health. While sitting at my number station right in front of the entrance, I now talk with everybody about issues I feel they may be suffering from and ways to improve their health. I casually talk with mothers about what proper nutrition is for their kids and what they should do to encourage healthy eating habits. I talk with kids about what foods they eat and what healthy foods do for them. I talk about sanitation and the proper way to wash hands. The topics go on and on and I have a bunch in my head that are just waiting for me to put it on paper and practice.

I also started going out into the community on my bike to places where I previously was afraid of dogs. The canines of Cambodia are some of the most fierce in any 3rd world country and for a while I was afraid of getting bit so I didn't venture out into my surrounding villages. Recently I have gotten over that fear and now the dogs don't scare me one bit. If they start to chase me I simply get off my bike and act like a maniac by screaming and throwing things at them until they leave me alone. Its worked so far so here's to a year and a half more without a dog bite! Now that I have gotten out into the rural parts of my community I am meeting a whole different set of people. There are kids everywhere out there, playing with sticks and stones and peeing left and right. I have been finding them and start casually talking with them. I figure if I go around and talk to them enough they will start to be comfortable enough with me to allow me to start discussing health with them. They are always interested in the white guy showing up on my bike and chatting up about this and that. The villages around my community no longer intimidate me and I am finding it rather easy to talk to these people. They generally seem very interested in what I have to say and suprisingly they are much more in the dark about many issues I just assumed they knew about. Going around on my bike and talking to random Cambodians about health is something that makes me smile every time and I cant wait to do more in this area by maybe starting health clubs or parenting clubs in these remote villages.

One other thing I have started is teaching at the local high school. After months of waiting for the director to make up his mind, I met with him again and he finally agreed to let me teach. He told me I was to start teaching the next week and he left the meeting without telling me the day, the age group of the kids, and whether or not they spoke any English. So I prepared a lesson on nutrition and the 3 food groups, whats in them, and why they are important, and planned on speaking the entire lesson in Khmer. I was semi-nervous about this for the fact that they could easily not understand a word I say and it be a complete failure. I went to the school on a day I thought best and was led to a classroom where the teacher was told to stop and I was told to start teaching haha. I went through the lesson with such energy and charisma that these kids were blown away I feel. They normally don't get that kind of energy from their teachers here and we really hit it off from the beginning. They were all laughing and volunteering and listening to everything I said which I couldn't have been happier about. The lesson went off without a hitch and the best part about it was they understood everything I was trying to say. I didn't need help at all and I feel as though many of them took away something from the lesson. I now have a date at that school to teach a class every Thursday and I am now looking into the primary schools to give health lessons to. Eventually I would like to be teaching 3 days a week and maybe a Saturday here and there.

My 5pm classes are still going strong. I go to one of several private schools every night at 5pm and help out with pronunciation and vocabulary... aka... teach them. I have been seeing these several groups of kids every night for the past 5 months and many of us have been growing into really good friends. I always enjoy going and chatting with these kids before class starts and then helping them through the lesson with their difficulties in pronouncing words. They never fail to make me laugh and no matter what happens throughout the day, I always leave these lessons in a good mood. I see many of them on the streets throughout the day and it is at the point where I will start talking with them whenever I see them. The kids are great and its nice to have such a large group of people I am friendly with. I don't feel like an outsider anymore and that is largely due to this wonderful group of friend I have formed over the past 6 months at site. Anywhere I go the people say "Hi Chris!" or "Hi Teacher!". There is this overwhelming sense of belonging to the community I now feel and it is something I feel any Peace Corps volunteer strives to obtain.

All of this, plus my work in the health center, plus my awesome family and community are making this an experience that is life changing in a very enjoyable and positive way. I feel like I am finally being useful and I couldn't be happier with the way things are going. There are still those wtf moments where something goes wrong, I see a spider or insect the size of my face, get canceled on by someone at the last moment, cant understand a word somebody is saying, or other general frustrations of working in this country. The roads are dangerous and the heat is every bit overwhelming as it was when I stepped off that plain, but the things I am doing here and the experiences that make up every day are just too awesome to make me do anything other than smile and think to myself how lucky I am to be here. I finally feel like I have found my way, and after a couple hard months at working to get here, it was definitely worth it.