Hello!
The day after I wrote last time was the day I had food
poisoning all day. It was excruciating and I hated it, and even on Saturday and
Sunday, after I was technically better, I could barely look at food or eat.
Being sick made me completely lose my appetite.
Aside from that, I’ve been up to a bit, but mostly this
week as opposed to last.
During Pchum Ben, I met a guy who spoke English very well
while walking around the Wat, and he invited me to stop by his NGO, which hosts
foreigners from time to time. I was supposed to go the following Monday, but
ended up unable to go from the residual feelings of ickyness from the food
poisoning. Last Saturday, I finally decided to bike up to the NGO, and
lo-and-behold, two French women had just arrived and were going to be staying
for a month. He, the two women, and I all talked for about an hour, until my
French friends went to go fishing, but not before he had decided to do some
sight-seeing the next day.
On Sunday, I woke up bright and early, ready to see a waterfall
before lunchtime. When my Cambodian friend had described our adventure as a “hike,”
I had no idea what was actually in store for us. We ended up boating about half
an hour up the river from my town, turning left into another river, and sailing
for another 20 minutes, until we reached the bottom of a river. We climbed to
the waterfall through the river, which ended up taking us up a mini mountain. I
have to say, I still have bruises and a few not-so-nice cuts from the hike up,
including a beautiful cut on my chin from when I slipped on a giant rock and
was convinced I was going to fall to my death. I hung there for a good 10
minutes before I was finally goaded into moving, with the help of my friends.
That wasn’t even the scariest part of the climb… that award goes to the
vertical climb we had to do up the actual waterfall in order to
get to the trail to lead us down the mountain and back to the boat. Did I
mention the trail had a multitude of leeches? At one point, I probably had at
least 7 on me at once, but in total, I got around 20. Luckily, my friend/guide
pulled them right off. All in all, it was gorgeous, but I am never doing it
again. My friend says next time we go, we will climb to the first (mini)
waterfall, and then come back the way we came. I think I’d be okay with that.
We left at 8:30am and were back in town by 2pm. It was
quite intense, but that wasn’t supposed to be the end of our adventure. We had
planned, and paid for, the boat man to take us out to sea at 3pm to see the
coast, but just after 2:45, a huge storm hit, leaving us without a way to go to
the ocean. However, I was okay with this because I was exhausted, and ended up
falling asleep until dinner time. I was still sore for the next two days, but
it was so worth it.
On Monday, I finally started with my Khmer language
tutor. He is teaching me to read and write, and helps me with words that I hear
but don’t know. I’m excited to have finally started. We are using a first grade
Khmer writing workbook as our guide, which was my idea, after seeing his son’s
workbook. It is completely in Khmer, so obviously, it challenges me to get
better at the language as fast as possible. My homestay mom helps me in the
evenings when I go through the days lessons.
Tuesday was a holiday, so I didn’t have work. I was
supposed to learn how to cook, but ended up sleeping in late, so my mom and
sisters just made lunch without me. Oops! After I woke up, I told my mom that I
wanted to go to the Wat with her later that day, since I missed when she went
to the Wat for Pchum Ben because of my food poisoning. While there, we saw my
language teacher, who asked me why I was worshipping the Cambodian king, since
the holiday was a day of Remembrance for the King who passed away last year. I
just shrugged. The service was longer than the masses I was used to as a child,
and since we kneeled the entire time, my legs were not happy by the time I had
to get up. I don’t really care though, as it was quite the experience.
Later that day, my mom had a friend (or sister or some
other relation… I have a lot of trouble keeping everyone straight) over, and
they were watching music videos. I was in my room reading, with the door open,
and I guess I was moving my hand along with the music because my mom came in
and told me to come dance in the living room with her. Who can say no to that?
So we danced for a few songs, but then I told her I was tired. By this time, my
sisters had come back from their English lessons. My mom asked me if I drink
beer, I said yes, and then next thing I know, my sister comes back with 5 Blank
Panthers (it’s a dark beer, and my favorite in this country), and me, my mom,
and my mom’s friend start drinking after dinner. Soon enough, we are dancing. We
danced the Macarena at least 4 times, Gangham style twice, the Cha Cha twice,
and the Twist at least once. It was so much fun!
My mom was then telling her friend how she’s going to
take me to all of the weddings that she is going to in December because she
likes the way that I dance. They asked me if I had anything to wear to a
wedding, so I showed them some of my dresses, and then we started talking about
make-up. I brought out my make-up case, and the next thing you know, my mom’s
friend has some of my bright pink (I mean, I call it Nicki Minaj pink, but
Malibu Barbie pink could also work) lipstick on and we are all laughing. I put
on my dark red, my mom put on my bright pink, and then I was showing them how I
do my eyes, and all of a sudden we were taking all sorts of pictures. I’ll have
to post them when I get a chance. It was an amazingly fun night, and it really
made me feel closer to my family.
Yesterday, I started teaching at the NGO where the French
girls are volunteering and my Cambodian friend works. Now, I have a class that
I co-teach every day right after I finish work for the day. I’m excited to
refine my teaching skills. It also helps with my Khmer, since my co-teacher
does half-English/half-Khmer for his class, and he has them translate the English
sentences into Khmer.
That’s it for now!
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