Now that I’m feeling much less homesick, I thought I’d
share some nice/cool/awesome things that have happened since I last wrote, but
first, two non-highlights, both from today.
- About an hour before we were supposed to leave for
lunch, a woman came into the health center in labor. The labor went longer than
the first birth here that I experienced, but the staff just let it progress
until she was ready. This is where the scary part happened. She was pushing and
pushing and all of a sudden the baby came out with the cord wrapped around
his neck. The midwife quickly told the mom to stop pushing, spun him, and
had the cord cut and unwrapped from around his neck before I could even process
what was going on. With one final push, the baby boy came out, but he was limp
and not making a sound. At this point, it was an internal struggle not to show
anxiety on my face, but I managed to continue to hold the mother’s hand and
smile at her. The midwife knew what to do, of course, since she’s trained in
this. She quickly suctioned the baby and he still wasn’t moving or responding,
so she vigorously started cleaning him off and that’s when he started to move,
and, eventually, cry. Never in my life have I been so grateful to hear a baby
cry.
- Less than an hour before I posted this, I slipped
outside on my way to the bathroom, and completely fell. I ended up with guck
and grime all over my right side, what feels like it will eventually be a nasty
bruise on my hip, and a cut on my hand. Luckily, I was wearing a sweatshirt
since it’s been so cold, so I didn’t hurt my elbow or any of my arm. Now,
though, I have to do more laundry before my clothes start to take on the
outside smell, because where I fell is where the chickens and ducks and dogs
hang out.
And now for the highlights:
- I’ve started teaching myself guitar. Nobody told me how
much this would hurt my fingers, but I’m trying to play every day in order to
build the callouses on my fingers faster. I’ve had the guitar since the end of
August, but finally took it out of the case on Sunday, and played a very slow
(and very bad) version of “Hand in My Pocket” by Alanis, to an audience of 3:
my youngest sister and two of my cousins who are always over. They were a great
audience, even though they laughed every time I got really into the song. They
also watched me practice for awhile. I can now play an A chord and an E chord
without looking in my “Guitar for Dummies” book. I know it’s not much, but it’s
a start.
- I am apparently afraid of geese. I was in the market
this weekend, walking back to my house, when my way was blocked by a small
gaggle. I started walking towards them when the biggest one squawked and
flapped its wings at me, and I quickly retreated. A bunch of children under the
age of 7 were watching this entire thing go down, so one of the girls quickly
ran past me and scattered the geese everywhere. I said a quick thank you and
continued on my way, kind of embarrassed, but happy for the help. And then this
same scenario played out yesterday, except it was a boy of about 4 who chased
the geese away.
- My Program Manager called each of our families on
Tuesday to see how we were doing and find out if they had any concerns. I had
asked him to clarify something with my mom, since we had had two conversations
about it, and I was still unsure what the end result was. I got a call back
yesterday, and after he clarified the point I was looking into, he told me that
my homestay mom loves me and has absolutely no complaints about me and thinks I
fit in well with the family and the community. I felt like I was on cloud 9
when he told me this, because I’ve been so unsure of myself since my Khmer
skills are not the greatest.
- I’ve been hanging out with my sisters a lot more, and
that just overall makes me happy. I think they are becoming more accepting of
me as a sister rather than as a foreigner who happens to live in their house. I
can’t wait until my Khmer is good enough to have some deep conversations with
them. Oh, and I taught them how to play Connect 4. I absolutely love this game,
and now they do too! They play against each other, against me, and against
their cousins all the time. I’m so glad that 1) Barnes & Noble had the
travel version, 2) that I thought to buy it, and 3) that I brought it!
- I’ve been teaching one of the midwives at my health
center English when it is slow, and she is doing so well. We’ve done the
alphabet and a few simple phrases, and she’s starting to get the hang of it. I
don’t know why I feel so proud, but I do. We also laugh a lot, which just makes
my day better.
- My Deputy Health Center Director taught me how to read
a TB test slide. I learned how to read slides last year in Biology, but this
real world application really brought it back to the forefront of my mind. I
know TB itself isn’t cool, but it’s cool to know what to look for in a slide
that would show signs of TB.
- I did laundry on Saturday and it was finally dry on
Wednesday after hanging in a covered area outside. That is how much it rains
here… it takes forever for things to dry. I really can’t leave laundry until
the last minute, unlike in Takeo, where the sun and heat assured that laundry
could be dry by lunch, but would be dry by the next day.
And the best for last…
- Monday, I finally sent a text to the Secondary School’s
Upper-Grade-Levels English teacher to see if he would be able to tutor me. He
then apparently went to my house when I was still at the health center and
talked to my mom. My mom is incredibly over-protective of me, and decided that
while this teacher was good, she wanted to find me someone who would tutor me
for free. Long story short, I now have a Khmer writing tutor, who I have for 30
minutes a day every weekday and who doesn’t want to be paid because I’m helping
him with his English pronunciation, and starting after the next Cambodian
holiday, I’ll have a Khmer speaking tutor, who I will have every weekday for an
hour day and who I will pay. On that note, I’ve only been study Khmer script for
3 days, but I’m really starting to get the hang of how it works, and I can even
name some consonants and vowels now, due to a combination of the tutoring and
this awesome book that the Peace Corps provided.
Well that’s all for now folks. Remember, I love getting
emails, postcards, letters, and Facebook messages. Even if it’s just a quick
hi, it means the absolute world to me.
I’ll write soon!
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