On not eating dog, visiting the market, and tea and kittens

Dear Friends and Family,
As promised, I would like to share with you all a bit about what things are like living in Mesang. For context, Veang village is located in Mesang Disctrict, Prey Veng province, in the south-east corner of Cambodia; and for those of you still not sure, that is in Southeast Asia.  I’m not quite sure how many people live in the town, but it is pretty small. It has one main dirt road with a market, bank, a few places to eat, bike repair shops, school, etc. The roads to get here are terrible, and the roads in town are almost as bad. I live on a small street across from the high school with my host family. I found out yesterday that this is technically a different village, but I forget the name. The father has a government job and is therefore away a lot working in Prey Veng. The mother stays at home with her 1 ½ year old son, who is the cutest kid in the world. We have fun playing together in the evenings. And if you ever thought that a child in North America refusing to eat broccoli was troublesome, well, this kid refuses to eat rice. The younger daughter is slowly getting used to having me around. I enjoy watching TV with her; one of the most popular shows is a Korean drama dubbed in Khmer, but there is enough action that I get the main idea. The older daughter is at school many hours a day studying, but we have had some time to teach each other in the evenings. I still feel like I am a guest here sometimes! I hope that will change soon! I eat all of my meals with my host family which is really nice. But as such, I have eaten rice with every meal for 10 days in a row and counting. Before I had noodles or bread every couple of days to break it up. Despite having so much rice, I enjoy the food for the most part. Ironically enough, the time when I founded it hardest to eat the food was on the holiday celebration last Saturday. The food was all “delicacies” such as pigs liver, stuffed cow intestines, chicken innards fried with ginger… at least they didn’t make me try the dog!

We have had so much rain here this past week that it has been hard to find a good time to get out exploring the town. I’m not sure if my feet are tan or permanently covered in mud.  I’d love to bike around and take pictures one day soon. Speaking of which, my bike was the worse for wear after a 2 hour ride to Mesang on the back of a pickup truck and was making terrible scrapping noises. I was rather proud of myself when I took it apart, found the problem, and fixed it myself!

I went with my host mother to market on Saturday morning. I’m sure glad I didn’t go there the first time by myself. I felt like a little kid hiding behind my mothers’ skirts from the stares of the strangers. She explained who I was to any curious people. Haha. I guess there aren’t too many foreigners who show up to market 7:30 on a Saturday! It was cool to see the market and watch my host mother pick out food for the day. I only know of one other foreigner in the town; a peace corps volunteer teaching English at the high school. Hopefully we’ll be able to meet; it will be nice to have a conversation with someone fluent in English.  

Work has been good but a bit slow this week. Because many of the projects are implemented in villages all over the district, a lot of the staff is gone most of the time. But I have been keeping busy learning more about what ODOV does, reading on sustainable farming, learning Khmer, working on a plan for climate change related research on the demonstration farm. The cook/cleaner has learned I like tea and has placed a fresh pot on my desk every morning. I have fallen in love with the office kitten who regularly comes to sleep on my lap. This week I have also been invited by some of the staff to join in their visits to farmers in other villages. One of ODOV’s big projects is establishing village banks. These village banks allow members to take small loans at a very low interest rate, and profit from the village bank is used for community development and benefits for members. It is a neat process, much like micro financing, but the community members have more ownership and help to keep each other accountable.

This week I also start learning Khmer and teaching English with a couple of students. They are helping me to learn to read. I am helping them with conversation in English. Yesterday we were discussing our respective countries. They were very amused by my attempts at drawing a beaver; and when I described the game of curling, the closest they could understand was “is it like bowling?” I guess that’s close enough.

Ever since coming to Mesang, I have been missing out on my usual morning quiet time that I started when I was in Prey Veng. There doesn’t seem to be time between when I get up, eat, and leave to have a good chunk of time to myself. I have decided to start getting up just before 6. Before coming to Cambodia, that idea would have sounded crazy to me! But what with roosters crowing at 5 AM and work starting around 7:30 AM, I am starting to get used to turning my lights out before 10 PM. Such a change from my usual habits at home! But here is just makes sense to be up when it is light out, not to mention that the morning is nice and cool and the bugs are the worst at night.

Even though my journaling and quiet times have been sporadic this past week, God has shown me some amazing things through my brief glimpses at his word.

Before coming to Cambodia, my small group in Fredericton spent an evening discussing spiritual gifts. One of the women in the group said I had the gift of joy, an ability to find joy in the Lord alone, even when I am not around other believers. I think I’ll really be needing that gift this year! Joy can be lost in loneliness, quenched by sadness of the corruption and poverty that is all around, hard to find when you feel so far from home. But I was encouraged by this verse from 1 Peter 1:8 “Though you do not see him, you trust him; and even now you are happy with a glorious, inexpressible joy.” This verse put such a smile on my face and laughter in heart this morning. I think I’ve mentioned before how happy I feel here. Happy in a way I can’t explain, knowing how far out of my comfort zone I thought this experience would be. New experiences and change are good. They make you stop and think about life, the universe, and everything; a process which is eye-opening, humbling, sometimes a bit uncomfortable, but always rewarding and a chance for growth. Please pray that God would continue to help me discover new and greater joy in this year of newness and change!

Blessings,

Rebecca

My new house in Mesang

Don't worry dad, I always wear my helmet when I ride.