Thursday, October 3, 2013

Provincial Town, Pchum Ben, and Giardia



Hey everyone!

I’ve been up to a lot since I last wrote. I’ve been out of my site twice, once to go with the 2 other K7s in my province to our provincial town, and once to go visit one of those people at their site.

The trip into Koh Kong town was a lot of fun, and a nice break from attempting to speak Khmer all the time. Rachel, Devin, and I feasted on as much American-type food we could find while we were there. We stayed for one night and ended up meeting another American, 19 years old, who was taking a gap year and traveling the world. She had some great stories about volunteering around Asia. We had originally gone to KK to get some money out of the bank, but apparently, it’s closed on weekends. Oops. That was two weekends ago.

Last Friday, I visited Devin in her site because she has a bank, and I needed to get money out since our KK adventure hadn’t really worked out. Her site is huge, and we passed this gorgeous Wat on our way into town, where we stopped to look at the views and take pictures. On our way out of the Wat, I slipped and fell as a huge crowd of people were walking behind us. I couldn’t get up for a minute or two because my foot and ankle hurt so bad. After I stood up and managed to laugh at myself, I took a look at the damage. My write was bleeding and my shin and foot were covered in scrapes, but other than my foot hurting, everything else seemed fine. This really nice older gentleman came over with some antiseptic that he happened to be carrying, so I cleaned myself up as best as I could, and then Devin and I headed out into her town. I only stayed for a few hours, but it was a fun trip.

Aside from trips, it’s been an exciting couple of weeks since Pchum Ben has started. The (loud) music starts early and goes late, and since I live 3 houses down from the Wat, I hear it all day. Sometimes it’s chanting, sometimes it’s EDM, and sometimes it’s Gangham Style. I’ve learned to kind of ignore it. My Wat is like a carnival every night. I’ve been twice and the first time I felt really out of place, but the second time was fun because I found someone who spoke fluent English. I tried out one of the carnival games and completely sucked at it. Darts will never be my thing.

So that’s the exciting stuff! The not-so-exciting stuff is that I’ve been sick for over a week. At first, I thought it was just residual stomach issues from eating so much cheese in KK town. My mom “coined” me the day after I came back because I left work early due to an upset stomach and a bad headache. Coining hurts! I’ll post pictures when I have better internet, but basically, coining is when someone puts lotion or tiger balm on you, and then continually rubs a patch of skin until it becomes deeply bruised. They do this over and over again down your back, and sometimes, as my mom did, down my arms and across my chest. The result looks something like tiger stripes. While sick, I also had borbor (runny rice porridge) for the first time, and honestly, it did make me feel a bit better.

I eventually got sick of being sick for so long and called the Medical Office. They thought it was gastro-something until I called two days later with a new symptom, at which point they diagnosed me with giardia. I took the medicine yesterday, and I’m starting to feel a bit better, so I’m hoping that is all that is was.

And that’s it for now!

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