On pig toes, Prime Ministers, and life lessons

Happy Khmer New Year!

What a month it has been! April started with a family celebration to honour my host family’s Chinese ancestors. Then, in the middle of the month, there was an entire week of holidays to celebrate the Khmer New Year. The month closed off with a visit to our town by the Prime Minister of Cambodia. To top it all off, the staff at ODOV have been busy with a recent purchase of some rice paddies adjacent to the demonstration farm, and the arrival of two cows to complete our animal raising and integrated farming demonstration. It has now been nearly two months since I was last in Phnom Penh, but with all going on, I haven’t missed it. In fact, the provinces are the best place to celebrate the New Year, since everyone vacates the cities anyway to go back to their homeland.

Even though I feel a bit intrusive when I take photos sometimes, I plucked up the resolve to record the Chinese ancestor ceremony. The rest of my pictures are on facebook in the album Bon Phnom Pnor (celebration mountain grave). All of my extended host family gathered from far and wide to celebrate. Around 7 in the morning we started moving all of the food and stuff to the graveyard, which was just a couple of minutes from our house. A tent had been set up, and everyone worked together to decorate the two graves with colourful strips of paper and setting offerings of food, paper Lexus cars (THE car to have in Cambodia), money, etc. in front of the graves. As people arrived they burned some incense and prayed in front of the graves, asking for good luck/happiness for the new year. After a while, two monks came, and chanted prayers and sprinkled us with water. The monks ate a sample of our food while someone else led a prayer, then they left and the family ate together. And so, to add to my list of new experiences in Cambodia is this: drinking beer and eating a pig’s foot at 9 in the morning in a graveyard.

The large mound over the grave is being decorated with strips of paper, while other family members lay out the food, paper Lexus cars, and other things in front of the grave. You can't see it, but there is also an entire roast pig and a few chickens in front as well. All of the little bowls of rice even have their own chopsticks.



Three generations kneeling together, holding incense, asking the ancestors for good luck, health and happiness for the new year.

Younger cousin helping to stick the strips of colourful paper into the sandy mound.

Setting a sample of food and drink before the monks before the praying began.

A very similar ceremony took place at ODOV a couple of weeks later on the day before New Year. We didn’t get any work done that day as the entire morning was taken up with a ceremony at the office very similar to the one described above. However, obviously there were no graves inside the office, but instead the whole roast pig was placed in front of a small “spirit house”. That afternoon, we all worked together to prepare food and ate/drank together in the late afternoon. I was unfortunate enough to be sitting picking through greens in the same room as the person cutting up the roast pig. It was to the great amusement of everyone in the room that he kept handing me all of the special pieces of meat: the crispy skin, chewy ear, part of the nose, the foot, and the brain. Most of it tasted OK as long as you didn’t dwell too much on what it was you were eating, but the brain was actually just disgusting. Later that same day, someone brought in a bucket of what I quickly discerned was dog meat (though they used a variety of other names I did not understand), because everyone who came in the room kept asking me if I’d ever tried it. The director of ODOV later told me that dog meat is also called “the security guard” or “best friend”. Here, dog is a special occasion food that is eaten while drinking beer, and many women refuse to eat it at all. However, the peer pressure was too much and I finally succumbed to the inevitable and tried a piece. Those in the room had a great laugh when I picked a giant dead ant off my spoon with obvious disgust, only to discover that the dish was full of them and they were supposed to be there!

The actual New Year was no less exciting. Lots of relatives from Vietnam came to visit my host family. Some of them had not been back to Cambodia in over 30 years since they fled from Pol Pot’s regime. We went together to visit some more relatives in a town an hour and a half away. I felt some pride to discover that I knew the bumpy dusty roads better than the Vietnamese relatives and switched to be a moto driver rather than passenger because I was faster. The following day, I got sick with a fever and unhappy digestive system for the second time in Cambodia. I was not the only one, however. Most of my host family felt it to some extent. We must have all eaten something funny. Despite the fact that everyone in the family got sick, my host mother blamed our fevers on different “hot” foods we had eaten the day previous to showing symptoms. I ate sour oranges and half a glass of beer the day before, my little brother had too much cake and sugar cane juice… With a list of “hot” foods so long, it’s no wonder she’s right every time someone becomes ill. And in case you are wondering, there are “cold” foods such as cucumbers, melons, and other types of fruit, that will not make you sick. But thankfully I got over it quickly, and went with my host family to visit a couple of temples later in the week. During the New Year week, people go to the temples in the morning to pray and eat together, and in the afternoons and evenings, there is dancing, food vendors, and lots of people just hanging out. It was tons of fun! For being so concerned about my health while I was lying sick with a fever on Monday and Tuesday, my host mother had no qualms about dragging me up to dance and dance until 11 PM on Wednesday evening. It was all rather exhausting, but worth it.

It’s been a rather exciting weekend- a temple in a village nearby was recently re-built, and there was a big celebration/fair lasting all weekend. Despite the fact that there were thousands of people milling around, and it was dark out, I still managed to see at least a dozen people I knew (not counting those I came with). We went at around 7 (the sun had long set) and as the night drew on, the crowds grew on the fields behind the temple. Food vendors selling baby chicken eggs, corn on the cob, freshwater snails, and cakes; Helium balloons “gangnam style”; live theatre; incense and prayers floating over the rice fields from the temple; people of all ages from all walks of life. We stayed out until 10:30 PM on Saturday, well past our usual 9:30 bedtime. Sunday evening it rained, so we stayed home. Monday morning I awoke with the opening song from “Tangled” stuck in my head, but unlike Rapunzel’s lamentations, it was anything but a “usual morning routine” for me. My host mother knocked on my door at 5 AM, yelling for my host father, my oldest host sister, and myself to hurry and get ready. After stuffing noodle soup down our throats and making sure we all had passes pinned to the front of our shirts, she rushed us out the door. The three of us drove back to the Wat in the early morning light along with what seemed to be at least half the town, in time to get seats for the visit from the Prime Minister! He flew in by helicopter, made a rather long speech (the only part of which I understood was that he was sorry his wife could not also come, and that he was promising to pave the road all the way into Mesang), shook a few hands, cut the ribbon in front of the temple, and left.   

I was held up at the gate with my Aunt (we were going to sit together as my sister was with other students, and my host father with government staff), and for a moment wondered if I might get my name put on a special list of people who got to shake the Prime Minister’s hand (that or refused to be let in at all) because the guard was talking for a while into his radio. But I’ll never know what was going to happen, because before they could decide what to do about me, my host father came back and rescued us and pulled us inside. It was good he did too, because we had a hard enough time finding seats as it was. And as cool as it would have been to meet the Prime Minister of Cambodia, I already have more than my share of fame and spotlight, and was glad to just be part of the crowd for once. My host sister Thea went to a wedding with me Sunday afternoon (my 5^th in Cambodia!), and got a taste for what it’s like to be me. People are used to me in town now, but that day we were traveling to another village and all along the road, people kept saying Hello! Hello! She asked me if people always do that. To be fair, we did stand out more than usual because I was wearing sparkly pink sleeveless dancing dress, not my normal attire of long pants, sweater, hat, and sunglasses. Though, you would be surprised how many people can still spot the foreigner even when I’m covered head to toe.  

I suppose I should have a take-away message from this post; something besides “life is short, party whenever you can.” It’s now been two months since I’ve last been to the city. In two and a half months I fly out of Cambodia. I must say that even though I’ve stopped formally learning Khmer, I’ve noticed a big improvement in my ability to communicate with others. It has really been wonderful to just LIVE here for the past two months, really feeling more and more that I am becoming a part of the community. I look forward to the same things my host family does, get invited to the same weddings as my co-workers, complain about the heat along with everyone else, am finally less of a “guest” than other people, and get sent to the market to buy ice with my little sister. It is sad to think that in a little over two months I’ll be leaving. But as I’ve probably mentioned before, some of the best advice I was ever given was to live like I am going to be here forever. I stumbled and nearly dropped that bit of wisdom when I found out that it was not possible for me to stay in Cambodia as I had long been hoping. But even now with Mozambique on the horizon, and the whole slew of mixed emotions that brings, I am determined more than ever to live like I won’t be leaving Cambodia, because I know that when I do leave, I will undoubtedly be the richer for it.

Until next time,

Rebecca

“Mountains never meet, but people do.”

               Tanzanian saying

On Soap boxes, soil, Q-tips, and kittens

One thing I love about living in Cambodia is that we live so much closer to the earth, and haven’t taken so many steps in an effort to fool ourselves that we can live lives completely removed from the natural ecosystems around us. The organization I am partnered with (ODOV) spends a good part of their time convincing farmers to work with natural systems and cycles in order to improve their farming practices, food availability, nutrition, and save money. The principles are so simple yet so marvelous: save your compost and pig manure to make natural fertilizer (thus saving money, improving the soil, keeping your yard clean, and helping to grow vegetables); grow vegetables, herbs, whatever you want; feed the crop residue (leftovers) to the animals; throw any extras into the fish pond to feed the fish; if you’ve been having a lot of rain, use some that has collected in the fish pond to water crops; raise chickens for the eggs, they also help keep insects down in the yard; grow fruit trees in your yard because they’re just delicious. I’ve already described the virtues of living outside in a previous post, and realize that is not possible everywhere, nor is rising and sleeping with the sun (though that would be a good excuse to sleep in until 8 in the winter). But there are many other ways Cambodians, though they do live in ecosystems engineered in part by people, do not distance themselves as much from the natural world. Rarely riding in closed vehicles means you appreciate the difference between the clean country air and smelly city air a lot more. Who needs a fridge when you buy what food you need just for the day, giving the leftovers to the cat and dog (and don’t tell me about time saving weekly shopping trips- we all know you always have to go back out the next day for something you’ve forgotten). ALL of the garbage is either burned on the side of the road or dumped in the river- gives new urgency to “reduce, reuse, recycle” when you see exactly what happens to every water bottle and Q-tip you throw away.

I’d love nothing more when I get home to have my own garden, grow some of my own vegetables, compost, and be woken up by my own rooster. I speak with the utmost humility, knowing I still have so much to learn and unlearn, and all too aware that I have so often failed in my role as a steward of God’s creation. Living in Cambodia where you can see and smell the garbage being burned, see the devastation of industrial farming and mining, but also see the wonderful orchestra of people, land, plants, and animals living out on rural farms, has brought me closer to understanding God’s heart for his children and the Earth. I’m not saying we should all drop everything and go live in self-sustaining communities pocketed around the world. But I am saying that we need to be aware of the impact of our life-choices, and make life-choices that demonstrate stewardship of this planet. We can all do things like buying in-season vegetables, bringing our own cup to Tim’s, making our own coffee from fair trade beans INSTEAD of going to Tim’s, volunteering to wash mugs after church instead of everyone using disposable cups, stop assuming that the government has policies to prevent anything bad from happening to the environment or banned all harmful substances, and educate ourselves. I think most of us (myself included), would like to think of ourselves on a scale of environmental mindedness from 1-10 (1 being drives a hummer, 10 being a reclusive permaculturist living miles from civilization) as being a comfortable 6 or 7 (extra points for you if you know what permaculture is).  Maybe it’s time we re-think this whole “points” idea and simply ask ourselves “with the resources and abilities I have, and by my daily actions, am I being a responsible steward of the planet? Do my choices promote the wellbeing and livelihoods of people around the world for this and future generations as much as possible?” Often we miss the mark and fall short. I know I do. But there is grace, and little-by-little, hope for change. And I believe we can find that hope by understanding God’s heart for the world.

Off the bunny trail and back to Cambodia… I’m also not suggesting that Cambodia is a shining example of excellent environmental stewardship, only that I’ve learned so much about what environmental stewardship really means. I’m keenly aware of the environmental problems facing nations such as Cambodia, which are emerging in terms of economic growth and consumerism without the infrastructure, environmental protection policy, or previous experience on how to deal with such an influx of people, industry, and the associated environmentally hazardous material and chemical bi-products, and trash. I am become more and more convinced that in the future, I would like to be involved in a project with the goal of helping to conserve and regenerate local ecosystems while at the same time, improving the livelihoods of people living there. If we do not keep in mind the natural ecosystems, we are forever needing to supply inputs to fill in for what we have destroyed (be it water filtration, pollination, water management, soil nutrients, medicines, food). To quote the Discovery Channel “The world is just awesome”. It’s about time we really realized that. And how can we really realize that without it changing us somehow?  

Sorry for such as long rant. We all need to get up on soap boxes every now and again. On a cheerier note, let me tell you about all of the celebrations I went to this past week. On Monday I went to the engagement ceremony of my host-family’s nephew. 40 or so people from my village got all dressed up, hopped on motorbikes, and drive to the bride-to-be’s hometown. It was only 9 in the morning, but we all sat down to eat and drink. The future bride and groom walked around (she was in a wedding dress) and ceremoniously poured drinks for everyone (for which we paid 1-2 dollars) as a way to help cover the cost of the ceremony and help them to save up money I suppose. All of the women then brought baskets of fruit and cakes up to the house, and a select group of people sat in the stifling upper room for the actual engagement ceremony. It was mostly village grandmothers and immediate family of the two young people, but since I had befriended a grandmother on the drive up, I was pulled along to witness the ceremony as well. I’m afraid I didn’t understand a word of it, but it seemed the parents were more involved than the kids were, and there was a lot of speaking and praying by an elderly man. When it came time for the couple to take photos putting on the rings, they were poked and prodded from every side by these grandmothers each trying to get them to pose in the way they each thought best. Then thankfully it was over, the baskets were emptied (there must have been at least 2 dozen), refilled 1/3 of the way with a sampling of the different fruit and cakes, and then we all went home. I guess the bride’s family will be eating apples and cakes for days on end; so much food was brought!

That same evening, I went to a co-worker’s sister’s wedding. A lot of ODOV staff went out together, and we sat down at the same table to eat. Then, some of them went home, but I stayed with the rest to dance! We danced and danced. No one would let us stop! They kept saying “1 more!” and pulled us back up to dance in circles around the table holding fruit right in front of the speakers. I was finally starting to get the hang of the dancing by the end of the night and had a great time! By the end of this day, after two long ceremonies, I had terrible blisters on my feet, but it was worth it!

Tuesday, I went to a very different ceremony; a funeral for the grandmother of ODOV’s director. She was 83 years old, which in Cambodia, means she’s lived through a lot. Again, most of the staff went along as well. The whole funeral was three days long, but the part we went to was a supper celebration. There must have been hundreds of people there coming to pay their respects.  We gave some money at the door, were blessed by a monk, and sat down to eat rice porridge together. ODOV’s director and his wife stopped serving tables and came over to join us.  We didn’t stay for too long, and when we left, more people were streaming in to take our place. I love that about Cambodia. How in times of celebration or mourning, the whole community comes together. Every time a relative of an ODOV staff member is getting married, we’re all invited! Maybe it’s because it’s a small town, maybe it’s because it is Cambodia, and maybe it doesn’t matter. As long as I can still have the privacy and aloneness in my room when I need it, this warm-climate approach to community is certainly growing on me.

Well, I’ve now written nearly two pages, so I’ll save everything else I was going to say for next time, and promise that it won’t be as long as a month before I write again! Also, be ready for some extremely adorable photos next time- the cat at our house just gave birth to kittens a few weeks ago! So much happiness!! Pictures soon once they stop hiding!

All the best,

Rebecca

If you are wondering why we are all laughing, it is because this shot was so obviously and ridiculously posed.
After two days of soil and water management trainings, we all went to a village to put our learning to the test: we analysed the situation, and discussed possible improvements.

See how we are all hiding from the sun?? Well, and microorganisms in the soil don't like to be baked either.
Keep your soil covered!!!

Strangest fruit I've ever eaten. Don't even know how to begin describing it.

On the unexpected blessings of blaring music; doctors & roosters; and MOZAMBIQUE!!!

This blog post has now been WEEKS in the making, and what with one thing and another, I never got around to finishing until now.

It seems like ages ago that I went to my second wedding in Cambodia. This time, the wedding was in Mesang, and I got to experience it as one of the more close friends of the family instead of just barang (foreigner) guest of honour (though I was that a bit too). I didn’t attend the early morning bit where people bring cakes and fruit to the bride; I just went to the reception in the evening. I went early to the bride’s family’s house and got my hair and makeup done with everyone else there. It was 3:15 before I finally sat down to get my hair done (the wedding was supposed to start again at 3). But I figured since I was with the rest of the family, I couldn’t exactly be late. By the time we all walked across the street to the reception 3:45, I was one of the first guests to arrive. I started eating a meal with some of the other early-arrivals under a large tent that was set up in front of the house, complete with 12 giant speakers and a live band. After we finished eating, everyone I was sitting with got up, went behind the house to where huge vats of rice, soup, meat, and vegetables were brewing, picked up some serving dishes, and started serving new guests as they arrived. Not knowing what to do (and since everyone I knew from ODOV was already busy helping to serve) I also wandered around to the back. There I found “Ming” (aunt) from ODOV, sitting with a couple other mings putting together the place settings (bowl, spoon, cup, chopsticks, and toilet paper [what Cambodians use as a napkin]- all inside a pretty bag). So, I sat down and started helping as well. Later, after no more place settings were needed, I did manage to find someone I knew from ODOV not helping to serve, and sat down to take in the whole atmosphere. Not long after, several of us changed out of traditional Khmer clothing into “sexy dancing clothes”, and then the party really began! Strangely enough, the young people (late-teens) didn’t really seem in to the dancing and often sat out- maybe they just hadn’t had a chance to get out much, were shy to dance in front of the opposite sex, or maybe they just hadn’t had enough to drink (a good thing). I, on the other hand, didn’t have much choice. Every time I tried to sit down to take a break, someone else was pulling me up to join the circle of people dancing around the stack of fruit. I was afraid my eardrums would burst from the blaring music; but at least there was no need to worry about awkward silences since conversation was impossible anyway! Sorry, there are no pictures from this one; I just never found a good/appropriate time. But I promise there will be some photographs from the next time I go to a wedding!

News sure travels fast in our world. I called home last week to have my mom and dad say “we heard you were really sick! Are you OK?” It is true that last Friday I took a taxi back to Phnom Penh and went to go see the doctor. I had had a high fever all day, and MCC and I decided that as a precaution, it might be good to come into town in case things got worse over-night. Turns out it was just a mild case of good-old E. coli food poisoning, my fever went away that evening, and I felt all better by Sunday. Since there was no urgency and nothing really wrong with me, I never bothered to call home to let them know that nothing was wrong. Oops. If anyone else also heard this rumour and was concerned, please rest assured that MCC is taking good care of me. So is my host family for that matter. In fact, that is one of the reasons I decided to go into town- my host mother was so concerned, made me rice porridge, and was cooling me down with wet cloths, but eventually insistent on sending me to the doctor in Mesang. That’s where I drew the line.

I did have a good few days in Phnom Penh though. It was nice to get out to the Mennonite church, hang out with some friends, and go to the MCC office. Did I mention that the MCC office in Phnom Penh now has a rooster?? Apparently one of the guards thought the place was incomplete without having a few chickens running around. I’m not sure what breed they are, but they are the cutest little chickens I have ever seen; Cambodia’s version of our ridiculous and completely useless long-haired cats (I miss you Nugget!!)

I am now glad to be back in Mesang, relaxing on this long weekend (Happy International Women’s Day!). It is so great just to sit swinging in the hammock, writing to you all from under the shade of the house, listening to the birds, listening to the absence of noise, letting the slowness seep into my bones until time no longer matters. One of the things I’m really going to miss about Cambodia is virtually living outside all of the time. The only time we try to shut ourselves in here is from sunset to when we turn off the lights so the bugs don’t find us. The rest of the time, we are basically outside. We eat outside under the house, nap after lunch in the hammocks, hang around and prepare food on the bamboo bed/platform under the house, wash the dishes and clothes by the pump under the tree, and at night when I am safely inside my mosquito net, I open the shutters and let the cool breeze flow in.    

So, I have some rather big news to share with you all; I have recently accepted a three year position with MCC working in Mozambique (south-east part of Africa) teaching agriculture skills to high school students! The rural district of Machanga frequently experiences floods and droughts, and has poor soil quality and a low diversity of crops. MCC is partnering with a church that has recently helped build a school to give students a chance to finish high school, as well as teach them some useful life skills and job skills. My job will be to work with the director of the school to develop a program for teaching agriculture to students, start teaching students next January, and help start up a small vegetable farm for demonstration and practice with the students. I am of course sad to be leaving Cambodia, but I am very much looking forward to this chance to go to Mozambique! It will be a great learning opportunity for me, a chance for me to gain experience, apply what I have learned at ODOV, and an exciting new challenge!

I will return home to New Brunswick on the first of August, and will probably be home for just a month before flying to Mozambique in early September for three years. I will also have a one-month home-leave during those three years. I’ve had a couple of weeks to think about it and let it sink in, so the shock has mostly worn off. But still, wow, I am going to Mozambique for three years! All of this has made me stop and think about just how much can change in a year. One year ago, Cambodia was not even on my radar. One year ago, I was looking into grad schools in Atlantic Canada. One year ago I was meeting with my spiritual mentor and she told me she had a picture of me living in another country working with an NGO and asked me if I’d ever considered using my interest and experience in biology to help with agriculture projects in developing countries. One year ago, I was too shy and timid to believe that God would actually use someone like me to do this kind of work. One year, and a lot has changed.

Not being the world’s greatest fan of change (I start to go antsy if people switch from their usual seats at the table, and when I was 22, my parent’s had to ask me if it was OK to not go to Grandma’s on Christmas eve like we always do), I find myself realizing more and more that I can depend on God because he NEVER changes. My piano used to be my escape, but I can no longer play whenever I need to. I used to go for walks alone to my favourite places, but there’s no wilderness here. In University, I would come home to visit once a month; now I’m ever so thankful for skype.

A lot can change in a year, and that can be a bit terrifying sometimes. But I trust in what will NEVER change.  

“He is the ROCK, his works are perfect, and all his ways are just. A faithful God who does not wrong, upright and just is he.” Deut. 32:4

I had drawn a series of pictures of some of my favourite every-day Cambodia birds for my family for Christimas. The Pied Fantail is one of my favourite birds to watch as I sit in the hammock under the house. They love to flit around the banana trees and flash the white tips of their tails.

Yup, kids play peek-a-boo in Cambodia as well.

My huge, furry, useless, and absolutely adorable cat Nugget at home who I am sure is missing me just as much as I miss him.

On dar-laynging, a Cambodian Chinese New Year, and the garden of life.

I have noticed that the Khmer approach to language is a bit different from english, in that they tend to use broader terms to describe what they want to say. For example, anything liquid or having to do with liquid is called “teuk ___”; teuk literally meaning water. For example, there is ‘fish water’ (fish sauce), ‘room water’ (bathroom), ‘water cow breast’ (milk), etc. Anything to do with spirituality has the word “Preah” in front, which is literally translated as god. Anything to do with people has the word “neak” in front; every sweet, dessert, snack, or chips that is not fruit is called “noom”, and so on. This has been helpful when learning because if you are not sure of a word, you can just say the general category and then the specific use, and people will understand what you are trying to say. It has also given me a greater appreciate for people who must learn English as a second language long with our very extensive and specific vocabulary. One of my favourite general Khmer words is ‘dar-layng’, and it is one for which I can think of no equivalent in English. Literally it means to walk-play, but it can be used for children playing hopscotch, going for a bike-ride, teenagers hanging out, visiting a friend in another city, or me taking my host siblings for a moto-ride. I enjoy dar-laynging with my little brother and sister a lot. We have had much fun together going to the spill-way (which isn’t really much of a spill way now as the water has receded) to catch frogs in the mud, buying chips from a little roadside shop,  visiting relatives in a nearby village, and eat caraem (another quick word lesson, caraem is the Cambodian work for ice-cream, but the stuff they hand you in a little paper cup is NOT icecream. It is a mix of milk, fruit juice, and sugar cane sugar, frozen together to RESEMBLE ice-cream. Sometimes I suspect they just use sweetened condensed milk and fruit juice). Once, we went to a nearby wat (temple) that apparently has the best elephant/wood apple tree in the village. One of the monks hitched up his robes and scaled the tall tree to pick some for us, and as such my appreciation of monks has grown considerably! The ease with which he accomplished this task that would have been difficult for someone 10 years younger suggested that either a) he until recently been something other than a monk or b) he had performed the feat many times before to the delight of many local kids. My guess is the latter.

I suppose now would be a good time to tell you a bit about my Chinese New Year in Cambodia. There is a saying here that it is the Chinese New Year, but Cambodians get drunk. No, I did not get drunk, but I was invited to eat at several different houses over the course of the weekend, and had a good time celebrating the new year with my host family. Though it is not an official public holiday in Cambodia, it is a pretty big deal for a lot of families, especially families such as mine who are part-Chinese. My family marked the new year by cleaning out the house before-hand- sweeping the spiders out of the rafters, brushing the leaves out from under the house, putting new sand in all of the incense holding pots around the house, etc. They also put food offerings in all of the little spirit houses around the house, and even made a plate of food on a banana leaf and left it by the front gate. They burned a lot of incense and prayed for good luck before taking the food and eating it. I visited the house of an ODOV staff member who did much the same thing. I was given more traditional ‘cake’ than I could possibly eat. On Chinese new year day I got a little red envelope with some money in it, and a pair of earrings from my host mother- a traditional way of giving gifts to celebrate the new year. I then accompanied my host mother and another relative to the local temple for lunch. We brought food with us (rice and several different dishes of soup, meat, vegetables, and sweets) and gave it to the monks. The monks sat on the side and ate the food while everyone else prayed- someone was at the front chanting and everyone else followed along. When they were done, we took the food dishes back and ate; everyone shared their food around. It was a nice small crowd there, not more than 30-40 people from the village, mostly women and a few children, a dozen or so nuns, and around 10 monks. Since it was a smaller crowd, I was able to talk to some of the nuns and community memberes after we ate. Later, one of the monks who knows my host mother well came over and asked if I would like to start teaching the monks English in my spare time on Friday afternoons. I agreed to do so and start this week! I don’t have much experience teaching English, but I just couldn’t pass up the opportunity! Someday when I have grandkids and we are sitting around a campfire, I’ll say “did I ever tell you about the time I taught English to a group of monks while I was living in a little village in Cambodia?”   

Speaking of the future, I want you all to know that I am continuing to look into options for next year. My current experience in Cambodia has convinced me that if possible, I would really like to continue doing some sort of international development work related to the environment or agriculture. I very recently had an interview for a MCC position teaching agriculture skills to high school students in Mozambique. If this all seems very sudden and unexpected… well, it is. The interview process went well, and I am waiting to hear back, praying and trusting that God will guide my steps in the right direction as I also look into other options.

Work at ODOV is going well. As soon as one grant application is submitted, another is due just around the corner. The tomatoes are starting to fruit (there are now many “kone” tomatoes, literally meaning kid!). Today I was helping “meeng” (meaning aunt; how everyone addresses the cook/cleaner at ODOV) package seeds for distribution to farmers- there were literally hundreds of bags prepared! Yesterday I went with a staff member to conduct training on nutritious food preparation in a nearby village. We made baby food in a HUGE pot, consisting of rice (obviously), ground pork, boiled eggs, bananas, squash, potatoes, and leafy greens and pounded and mixed together. It actually didn’t taste that bad! Later, while the staff member started talking about health and nutrition, I got rather bored as I could not understand most of it, and started doodling in the dirt with my toe. This distracted the group of kids sitting around me, who started playing a game guessing what I was drawing. It was fun, and I’m not so sure they were so interested in learning about the benefits of breast-feeding babies or how to get enough vitamin A in their diet.

I just want to close this blog post with a verse I read in Jeremiah this past week. Jesus always spoke in parables that people could easily identify with, and the following image in Jeremiah really spoke to my experience as a gardener and keen observer of the natural world. I spend a fair amount of time every week weeding in the garden. As a biologist, I obviously look at, and compare, the different life strategies of the plants. Some are thorny and some are tasty. Some stretch their roots so shallow and wide that it is impossible to pull them all up; while others prefer one long straight root going deep into the soil. Some flower quickly while others reproduce through their roots. Some are fast growing and short lived; others take a while to come up. Some are long and low, others straight and tall.

“But blessed are those who trust in the Lord

and have made the Lord their hope and confidence.

They are like trees planted along a riverbank,

with roots that reach deep into the water.

Such trees are not bothered by heat

or worried by long months of drought.

Their leaves stay green,

and they never stop producing fruit.”

Jeremiah 17: 7-8

Yours,

Rebecca

10 points if you know what flower this is.

In case you are having trouble with the question above, here is a hint.
Looks like we are going to have a great crop this year!

Dar-laynging with my little brother (who stood on the cross-bar while I held on to him with one hand and drove with the other), and my sister (she is takign the photo and was riding on the back of my bike.) I really felt Cambodian that day! It is much easier to take the two of them for a ride on my moto.

On life, the universe, and everything else from terrible television to torte a la tortue.

Those of you who follow my blog regularly may have noticed that I always try to include a funny story, something educational (normally about culture), something about my daily life, and something about my journey with God. The past month or so I’ve sometimes been finding it hard to find something to talk about for all of these categories, and I have finally figured out the reason why. They are all blending together into one category called life. I am finally able to laugh WITH people and even AT other people instead of just laughing at myself (though that still happens an aweful lot; for example, I went with my host mother to visit a neighbour’s house last Saturday, and it turns out it was the house of the gardener at ODOV who had told me before that his house was near mine and I should come and visit. As we were leaving, he asked “Did you know how to get to my house?” As I previously had no idea which was his, I replied “no”. Then they all started laughing at me. Turns out he actually asked “DO you now know how to get to my house” Seeing as how it is literally three doors down from my own, I would have to be pretty dumb to get lost when you can practically see his house from mine.) Though I still have much to learn about Khmer culture, many things I used to have to remember are second nature now, such as how to greet people, table manners, hearing tinny music at 4:30 AM, when it is appropriate to honk your horn (pretty much all the time, in case you were wondering), etc. As for daily life, why wouldn’t everyone want to eat rice three times a day? And who needs showers when a bucket works just fine? My spiritual journey continues as always, but even that has changed recently into more normal quiet times instead of “everything is so different, I can’t believe I’m here, help me God!” I can believe I’m here, and at this moment there is no place I’d rather be. 

Not to say that I don’t miss home, my family, friends, church, the cool fresh air of the east coast, and ice cream. Of course I miss those things and look forward to having them all again come July. But I have also been able to find a way of life here in Cambodia, and though it is vastly different from my life at home in Canada, I feel happy and at home here as well. One day I was reading my bible, and it was talking about giving up everything to follow Jesus. It is one of those verses where I think a lot of people tend to say “of course I would be willing to do that… if Jesus asked me”, but he already has. Of course that will look different depending on the situation. For me, it looks like this: suddenly being away from my family for a year doesn’t seem like such a long time from the perspective of eternity, eating rice three times every day is not such a big deal, using a bucket bath is a small price to pay, I can trust God to fully provide for my needs even when I am not able to be a regular member of a strong Christian community during my stay here.

Now, I may have shared this before, but I’ll say it again. Someone once shared a piece of wisdom with a group of university students at the Meeting Place Church that I have never forgotten. It was something along the lines of “wherever you are, live like you will be there forever.” This was a really important piece of wisdom for me to here, as I am one of those people who tends to guard her heart very closely until I am sure that something I invest my emotional energy into is something that is going to last long term. Even though I know that my stay in Cambodia is only for a year (at least for now), this piece of advice has really helped me to open up, get involved in the community here, be dedicated to learning the language, and enjoy life here in Cambodia as Cambodians live it, with the inevitable result of being in that vulnerable place where you become deeply attached. The more I learn about Cambodia, the more I am amazed at how far this country has come since the horror of the 70’s. My host mother even opened up the other week and started telling me about how her family split up and ran in different directions, many of them living in Vietnam during that time. She was only 2 months old when it all started. On the other hand, the more I learn of corruption, injustice, and environmental management disasters in the news, or hear about land-rights disputes in the emails sent around by MCC, my heart breaks for Cambodia, and I am reminded how much this country needs people sharing the love of God, the support of the nations, and for her own people to stand up and make a difference. I’ll talk more about that next time. Suffice it to say, that the longer I am here, the more I see of Cambodia’s joys and the sorrows, the more I am able to feel these joys and sorrows,  and the better I am able to understand God’s heart for the people of Cambodia.

Now this is all fine, but doesn’t solve the problem of what to blog about. But since we are on the topic of my life in Cambodia, and since I already have your undivided attention, I might as well go on a rant about television. After all, I spent a good hour and a half watching television with my family every day, which is a significant chunk of time. Cambodia airs daily television dramas from around Asia, all dubbed in Khmer. (I am not so sure I approve of the messages some of these shows give to young Cambodians, but unfortunately that’s not a battle I have the time to fight.) Sometimes we are watching up to three shows at once, flipping back in forth between commercials, at whim of whoever is holding the remote at the time. It is not uncommon in the course of one evening for us to watch snippets of Filipino, Indonesian, Cambodia, Korean, Chinese, and Indian dramas. Now, some of these shows are better than others. Some of the Khmer shows are very interesting, well done, and have given me further insight into khmer culture. However, there is this one show that drives me up the wall. First, let me explain one thing. Cambodians all think it is funny that I am scared of spiders. My host mother, whilst chasing a giant spider out of my room one morning, told me “it is OK, these ones do not bite. You can squash them with your hand.” Ummm, no thanks. BUT, nearly all Cambodians are scared of ghosts, and will do things like drive in the dark with the headlights off so ghosts don’t follow them home. Whenever dogs start barking in the night, I am told quite seriously that it is because of ghosts (not because of passing motorist we can’t see because they don’t have lights on). There was a new show that recently started about all of these people who turn into ghosts and start ripping people’s hearts out. Rather disturbing if it wasn’t so cheesily done. When it first started, someone told me it was a new Khmer show. My VERY first reaction was “THAT BIRD CALL DOES NOT BELONG IN CAMBODIA!!!!” I don’t even know what bird call they were playing on the soundtrack, but it didn’t belong. Nothing like messing up bird calls to drive a bird-nerd nuts. Then I thought I must have been mistaken and the show was from a different country, because it was clearly dubbed. But after careful observation, I decided that it was in fact a Cambodian show, they just recorded the soundtrack separately and did a terrible job lining it all up. Don’t even get me started about the concerts they show on the weekends when the dramas aren’t playing. They are little better than karaoke with backup dancers. Don’t get me wrong, sometimes they are great and I rather enjoy watching them, but sometimes the instruments aren’t even TUNED!! Aargh! Between the music and the birds, I guess I am hard to please.  

But enough about my television woes. I’ll survive. It has been very nice to spend the past couple of weekends just hanging out with my hot family. I really enjoy going to the market with my mother. This past weekend was very exciting at the market as a whole truckload of household supplies came in from Vietnam. The wares were spread out on large straw mats and everyone was crowding around haggling over the prices. There was also someone selling strange animals out of the back of a van. If that wasn’t sketchy enough to begin with, my mother told me they were good for medicine. And if THAT’s not bad enough, I didn’t even recognize what type of animals they were, with the exception of the snakes. Yikes! Thankfully my family did not buy any of them. However, we did eat a turtle they caught in the river last week. I’d meant to look up endangered turtles in Cambodia and if necessary rescue the poor creature from where it was being kept in the water cistern, but by the time I came home for lunch it was too late. At least I didn’t have time to name the turtle… that would really have been sad. More about naming animals next week.

Well, enough rambling for today. A quick update for those with some interest in what I am going to do after SALT: I have applied for an internship position with an organization called ECHO. They do pretty much the same thing I am doing at ODOV (testing different vegetables and techniques under different growing conditions) but on a larger scale in Florida. From there, they distribute information and seeds to farmers around the world. They also have offices in several countries the world and do trainings on agriculture and help local farmers grow a variety of vegetables. The interviews (if I make it that far), are in March. I am also looking to see if MCC has other agriculture related service positions; just because I can’t stay with MCC in Cambodia, doesn’t mean I can’t stay with MCC. For that matter, just because I can’t stay with MCC in Cambodia doesn’t mean I can’t stay in Cambodia. I’ll have made good progress on the language by the time this year’s up, and am looking into other organizations that do conservation work in Cambodia. Finally, I can always find a program in Canada and start my Masters this September. Please pray that God will guide me in the right direction as I explore options around the world.

Yours truly.

Dina and Visaa (host siblings), cutest kids in the world.

I went shopping for pants with my host mother, and she and the shopkeeper insisted so much that I finally caved and bought these pants. They are just os not me. But that is why they are so great! The first day I wore them to work, everyone commented on how beautiful they were and how I look just like Khmer.

 

On sequins and how to set proper expectations for the Cambodian cinema.

Dear Friends and Family, 
Cambodian Weddings… been there, done that, got the tee-shirt. Well, it is not so much a tee-shirt as it is an excessively embroidered, gaudy, superfluously sequined shirt. Think I am exaggerating? Take a look at the pictures below. I am wearing a traditional Cambodian dress. The shirt and the skirt are separate. You wear a brightly coloured shirt for weddings, and a white shirt for funerals. Nowadays most young woman prefer to wear more trendy or “sexy” dresses to wedding receptions, however, Jenna and I thought it would be fun to dress up in traditional clothes. I was even convinced to buy a pair of shiny gold shoes to go along with the dress. By that point, it was go big or go home.

Galuh (another MCC volunteer and I)  went and did our hair and makeup with the girls at the Mennonite Student Dorm (some of you may remember that we stayed at the dorm for a couple of weeks during orientation in september). It was one of the members of the Mennonite Church getting married, so the girls were all going, and that is how I was invited. It was so much fun to hang out with the girls for the afternoon! I haven’t seen most of them in so long. They did a great job with my hair, though I’m not sure they’ve had much experience doing makeup for foreigners; I don’t know what they put on my skin, but it made me so pale that I looked like I’d just spent two years in a library in the Canadian arctic. This wedding reception was thankfully indoors, not in one of those tents they set up in the middle of the street. The music was pretty good compared to many wedding I have heard from a distance. After the food and the briefest wedding speeches I have ever heard, the bouquet was tossed and the music began in earnest! It was not long before I was dragged up to join in the dancing. It was quite fun actually, and since the same 8-16 beat pattern is repeated for the whole 10 minute song, it is quite easy to catch on to the moves though I was hardly graceful.  

Now, living here in Cambodia, I have come accepted that there are certain things I have to give up, sacrifice, or live without, and I am OK with that. However, every once in a while it is nice to enjoy something from home (a good slice of pizza for example). When I found out that Les Miserables was going to be playing in theatres in Phnom Penh the same weekend as we wedding, I was unbelievably excited. I have been waiting for the movie to come out for years! My sister and I read the entire 1200 pp book out loud together, and soon became fans of the musical, listening to the soundtrack on youtube. I know all the songs by heart and was so excited to see it in theatres that nothing could ruin it for me! At least, that is what I thought. Before I begin this narrative, know that I had one night, and one night only where it was possible for me to get out and see the movie with Jenna and Galuh. First of all, we forgot to double check the showtimes and had to rush out the door, running breathless into the theatre 5 minutes into the movie. But we were there. The first half hour was fabulous. And then, right as Anne Hathaway began her heartrending song “I dreamed a dream” the picture cut out for 20 seconds. We were left with the music and Khmer subtitles on a black screen. And then it happened again… and again. And the music started cutting out too and only the Khmer subtitles kept flashing across the screen. They kept apologizing and even gave us all free coke, but an hour into the movie they gave up trying to fix the problem, and gave us all a full refund, which is all great, unless this is your one and only chance to see the movie before heading back to the province. I remembered seeing that Les Miserables was showing at another theatre across town a bit later in the evening. As we purchased our tickets the man at the counter informed us that it started half an hour previously. He was noticeably confused when we said “that’s fine!”. It turns out we had better seats, there were no subtitles, and the sound was better at this theatre (so long as you ignored the explosions from the movie next door). However, it was hard to really relax and enjoy it, not to mention that I was getting hungry, thirsty, and tired at this point. When I get home to Canada, it is the first movie I’m going to watch on my parent’s TV (complete with surround sound and fresh made popcorn).

Finally, you may be wondering by now what I’m going to be doing next year since my time in Cambodia is nearly half over. Some of you know that I had been hoping to stay in Cambodia for another year working for MCC and helping out at ODOV. Things have been going so well here, and I feeling like I could most effectively continue to help people by staying in this town. However, I have recently found out that, for many reasons, it is not possible for me to stay with MCC. I am sure that since God has closed this door that he will open another one. I am sad that I won’t be able to stay here- people have already been saying they are going to miss me, and I know for sure that I will miss them. But I am trusting that God will show me where he wants me to go and what he wants me to do next year. I was feeling rather confused and unsure about it all, when I got an email from my grandmother this morning. Knowing nothing yet of these recent developments, the verse she shared with me was remarkably fitting and just what I needed to hear.

Romans 15:13 “May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as  
you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of  
the Holy Spirit."

Yours, 

Rebecca

The four MCC volunteers: Humberto, Warren, me, and Galuh... and on the left our photo-bombing friend Rota! 

To give you an idea what the party was like... this is a group of girls from the Mennonite student dorm. We all sat at round tables, and the food was placed on a swiveling centre. You take the food you want with chopsticks and put it in your bowl, and as one dish is finished, a new one is added. 

Dancing! Apparently I didn't know a photo was being taken. Often we danced with a partner (in this song  they were standing opposite to us), but it was mostly girls with girls and guys with guys. We had some very patient teachers! 

On gangnam style, new food experiences, and perspective matters

Dear friends and family,

That’s right folks, Gangnam Style has reached even rural villages in Cambodia. Every night the restaurant down the street plays music really loud, and every night I watch my 2 year old brother dance along to gangnam style. If you have not heard of Gangnam style, get out from under your rock and take a look on youtube. This song from the Korean singer Psy is the biggest song to hit the world since… I don’t know… since Justin Bieber’s Baby Baby, or probably even bigger. On the other hand, if you haven’t heard this song, you should probably get bonus points for not conforming to the ways of the world! Trust me, you are not missing much.  It is kind of sad really how much influence there is through television here, starting with kids so young. Some of you may have seen my comment on facebook how less than 1% of homes in my district that electricity, but 72% have televisions. These televisions and any lights are powered by batteries, which are recharged by someone who has made a business of buying a generator and charging batteries. You don’t really expect to walk around a rural Cambodian village where nearly 100% of people still farm a small plot of rice with a cow or water buffalo, and see kids running around singing “sexy lady” (not having a clue what it means), and dancing gangnam style. But unfortunately it seems that is the way things go here. Every day the world is getting smaller, and you’ve got to run just to stand still. For Cambodia, that partially entails a push to learn English in schools and the idolization of all things Korean, including their music.

On a more positive note, I often forget to mention it, but hardly a week goes by when I don’t try at least one new fruit or vegetable or food. This week I tried a sauce for dipping sour fruit, which, if I understood correctly, is made from tiny frogs. It didn’t taste very good, even before I knew it was made from tiny frogs. I also tried palm fruit juice fresh from a palm fruit that my mother was cutting up to put in soup. This WAS good. She said you can’t buy them at the market here and have to get them from friends with sugar palm trees. And as you might have guessed, this fruit is also used for making sugar. My mother brought me to see a small family operation where they were boiling a huge shallow dish of the stuff outside. My host mother also tried to teach me how to separate good rice from un-husked rice. Most families in the country buy huge bags of rice that have been poorly sorted with some of the un-husked rice still remaining. My mother showed me how to put a scoop of rice into a shallow woven basket with little rice sized holes. The smaller husked rice falls through, and the inedible bits collect in the centre. These are then fed to the chickens. The circular sifting motion is actually much harder than it looks! I had a delicious dessert the other day. It was balls of rice steeped in a red wine. It was actually delicious. I also wrapped noom (cake) for the first time (the kind of cake that is actually sticky rice normally with some combination of banana, coconut, pig fat/soybean inside). Mine looked rather sloppy I am afraid, but it was fun to try! Next week I am attending my first Cambodia wedding. I am pretty much guaranteed to have new food to try there, though I am not so sure if I am looking forward to delicacies that they will offer!

I thought I should give a bit of an update on my language “lessons” for those of you curious about how I am getting along. For a long time I felt like I wasn’t really making any progress, but now looking back, I am able to understand so much more and communicate so much more with people. Even though I haven’t memorized lists of vocabulary as I had imagined I would (and like we did during language training in orientation), my familiarity with sentence structure has grown considerably, making it easier for me to follow what people say, even though I still have a long ways to go to learn vocabulary. Mostly my language partner has been helping me with reading, which is a great way to learn new words (in the context of a story). As you can see below, normally I copy the short stories or discussion from the grade 3 Khmer language book I have, try to find all the words I know, and get help with the rest from my language partner. The stories are a bit silly sometimes… all about exceptionally studious students, extra helpful kids, and shinning happy people, but it is a good way to learn! For the English part of the lesson, we generally practice conversation.

I think I have learned just as much about Khmer culture during these discussions as she has learned English. We have discussed everything from vehicles to music, gangsters to Cambodian folk tales. I have come to learn that thanks to the cultures we come from, our perspectives on several matters are vastly different. For example, she asked me how many friends I had on Facebook, I replied that I had nearly 500, sounding embarrassed that I had so many and hadn’t cleaned it out in a while. Her look of shock however, was not that I had so many, but so few. She has over 5000 “friends” on facebook. One day, we started talking about beauty. I have already mentioned that people like my nose, but of course they also like my light skin. Nearly every skin care product you buy here has skin whitening properties. I had fun telling her about tanning machines at home. It blew her mind that people would pay money to make their skin darker. I quickly informed her that I was not one of those people, but I certainly don’t mind the tan I have naturally (and inevitably) have acquired here. She also told me that in Mesang high school, there are a lot of gangsters. Gotta watch out for those gangsters! Now, I don’t know about you, but when I think of gangsters, a certain image comes to mind. That image does not fit at all with the bicycle riding, school-uniform wearing, slender, bicycle riding Cambodians that I see heading to school every day in my rural village. I tried to ask her what she meant by gangster. The most I could understand was that they drink a lot (of alcohol) and wear a certain brand of clothing (Monster). At home that would make them troublemakers at best. Now, maybe there is a lot more going on behind the scenes that I don’t see. I would be wrong to judge by appearance alone.  Speaking of appearances, as you know, I get a lot of “hellos” whenever I bike around. However, recently, two people in one day greeted me in Khmer. I was so touched and so happy! Either thought about it enough to realize that after 4 months in Mesang I should know enough to say hello in Cambodian, they are getting used to seeing me around and less shy of me, or best yet, they didn’t think about it and it just came out in Khmer. The last one is my hope! For this year!

I hope you all had a wonderful New Years, and that those of you living in colder places have had time to enjoy the snow!

All the best,

Ma separating rice. She makes it look easy!

I realized that I never put a photo of my all-purpose kroma scarf, so here it is! 

The grade 3 Khmer school book is full of short stories and  dialogues such as this. These stories teach little Cambodian kids how to be nice and share their toys, but teach me vocabulary, pronunciation, and grammar! 

Many Cambodians comment on how neat my handwriting is... maybe they never noticed how odiously slow I am at writing. Your writing would be neat too if you had to concentrate on every single line and squiggle. I then translate the story underneath (often literally word for word, so yes, I know the english grammar is not correct), and also write how to pronounce the trickier words.