100 days!

Long time, no blog! Since my last post I have spent a few weeks at site, took a trip to Malaysia, celebrated Khmer New Year with my family at site, eaten my weight in mangoes, and attempted to keep my brain from melting during a sweltering hot season.

Malaysia was amazing. It was so different from any other country I have visited during my time here. There were so many influences from so many places and a little bit startling going from a Buddhist country to a Muslim country. We went from seeing pagodas to mosques and pork and rice stands to halal signs. I went with two other PCV’s and we spent a week on the Perhentian Islands, relaxing, sitting on the beach, snorkeling in a rainstorm, and stuffing ourselves silly with roti.

I came back in time to celebrate Khmer New Year with my family. On Friday, April 13^th at 7:11pm we bid adieu to year of the rabbit and welcomed the year of the dragon. We set up a table full of fruit, cakes, soda, clothing, perfume, candles, and incense as offerings to the spirits. To ring in the New Year we lit incense and my family prayed for me to have a safe journey to America and to find good luck and success. It was very sweet of them and made me really glad I decided to come home to celebrate with them. The next day we went on a picnic in a neighboring province. We ate lunch near a river and then went swimming and participated in a massive traditional water fight. There were easily a couple hundred people in the river all filling and throwing water balloons every which way. I had a great time swimming and splashing around with my family. The rest of Khmer New Year we did a lot of party hopping in the village and playing intense games of tug of war.

Today marks 100 days until my Close of Service! I am officially in the home stretch. 101 days from today I will be an RPCV and Scott will be here to start our journey home! I am so excited. I’ve had an incredible experience and will be making the most of my last few months in country but I am definitely ready to get back home.

mission: accomplished

When I first came to Cambodia I had a very loose goal that before my time in the region was up I would travel to all of the countries that border Cambodia. I made it to Thailand last year in April and had a relaxing 10 days on the beach. I was back again later in the Summer and once more in November to pick Mom up, that was a big easy check! I knew I wanted to go Vietnam and knew lots of people who also wanted to go, it was just a matter of when and whom that would work best with. Laos was a little bit trickier; most of my PC friends had gone last Khmer New Year and since then the overland border between Laos and Cambodia had gone under construction and visas were more expensive.I made plans to meet up with a friend from GW in Hanoi and spend about 2 weeks in Vietnam. Much to my delight when we met up it was decided that we would also make a little side trip into Laos! Mission accomplished.

We ended up spending time in Hanoi, Ha Long Bay, Hoi An and Saigon, Vietnam and our trip to Laos took us to Luang Prabang. It was a great trip and I loved seeing Vietnam and Laos. It was interesting for me to try and make comparisons and find similarities between the cultures and what I see everyday in Cambodia.

Here are a few pictures of the trip, next month I’m off to Malaysia to escape the heat and take advantage of time off for Khmer New Year!

Oh, I also booked my ticket home to America, which is mind boggling but so exciting!

Ha Long Bay, Vietnam

Luang Prabang, Laos

Hoi An, Vietnam

more pictures

My best friend here left for America early and before he went we decided we needed to get traditional Khmer wedding picture taken. Typically couples will get these done before the wedding and have them on display at the actual wedding. The bride and groom get all dressed up like we are for the pictures for the ceremony and will go through 6-10 outfit changes over the course of 2 days.

Sorry I haven’t been posting as much. I’ve realized that the longer I’m here the more normal everything seems and the harder it is to write about things. From here on out it will most likely be mostly pictures that I post unless anyone wants to hear about anything specific.

Enjoy the pictures!

xoxo

B

para para paradise

heading to the island

almost there!

little island

quiet beach

click the picture!

hammock

birthday in pp

birthday and the beach

Hello hello!

First of all thank you all for the birthday wishes! I’m very excited to spend my birthday in America next year but the celebrations this year were nothing to complain about. I went into Phnom Penh for a meeting and to meet up with other PCV’s to celebrate. I treated myself to a day at the spa, saw Beauty and the Beast in 3D (!!) and had a fun night down on the riverside.

Chinese New Year was last week which meant an abbreviated work week and I took full advantage by heading to an island about 2 and half hours off the coast of Kompong Som with a few friends for some relaxation under the sun. The island was amazing, there is only one resort with 16 bungalows and the beach was totally empty while we were there. It really was like having your own private island paradise. I’m already planning another trip back in May but if anyone wants to come visit in the next 6 months I’m looking for any excuse to go back!

I was waiting to blog until I was back at site and could post some pictures of the trip but of course I plugged my camera into my computer only to get a message saying my computer is full and cannot upload. That’s my next technological nightmare to try to figure out!

Have a great week!

 

off to the farm!

Last week I went with my family to visit their Longan farm. We left early in the morning, went to pick up a cousin and headed out to the farm.

the farm

fruit on trees

ready to eat!

Dany and me

Pea and Pa

bagging the fruit

Afterwards we went to lunch at a cousin’s house and then back home!

 

happy new year!

Happy 2012! It’s pretty exciting to think that later this year I will be home. With the exception of a few quick trips to Thailand I spent all of 2011 in Cambodia, kind of hard to wrap my head around. To be honest, trying to reflect while in the midst of this experience is kind of overwhelming, sometimes I wonder when or if it will hit me. It was a year full of new experiences and even more reading. 2012 promises to be a good one, I have 24 vacation days to use up before May, the rest of wedding season, mango season, COS (close of service), a trip with Scott, my return to America and a very special wedding to look forward to.

Since I last wrote I’ve spent a bit of time in Phnom Penh, taking care of a lengthy to do list and then meeting up with other volunteers to ring in the New Year. In the time I was at site I ended up going to three weddings in three days, my new wedding shoes are surprisingly comfortable and it’s safe to say wedding season is in full swing.

One of the weddings I went to was in the provincial town, Battambang. The daughter of one of the higher up health directors was getting married and it was by far the largest and fanciest wedding I have been to here. The other was in a very rural area on a dirt road with rice paddies as far as the eye can see. I was surprised by how many people I knew from the health center and just being in the village for so long and have to say I had more fun than at the big wedding.

For New Years I was in Phnom Penh to meet up with other volunteers. New Year’s isn’t a big deal here because they celebrate in April so I knew I didn’t want to stay in the village. There was a large group in Phnom Penh and we ended up going on a river cruise in the early evening. The rest of the night was spend making our way down the riverfront eventually ending up at a casino on the other end that has a big screen with a countdown and fireworks. It was festive and fun to be around lots of people to bring in 2012.

health volunteers from my training village

I made my way back to site and had today off of work so I spent the day doing laundry and cleaning up my room to start the New Year off on a clean foot.

Here’s hoping 2012 is a happy and healthy year for us all!

Xoxo,

B