Spiders and Mosquitoes and Flies, Oh My!

Today, we had our second “Hub Site” day, but it wasn’t at the usual place. It was at the Provincial Office of Education. It was quite nice to see all of the ETTTs again, and catch up on how our language and technical trainings are coming.

We met our CD (Country Director) today. Her name is Penny and she was away when we originally got here. She seems pretty cool and offered some good advice on how to approach service while we were all eating lunch together on the steps. We also met some of the WID-GAD (Gender and Development) Committee, which is a committee I would definitely like to join when the applications come out. Here’s their website if you want to check out what they do: http://pckhmerwidgad.blogspot.com/

Oh, we also learned about all the different things that can give us diarrhea! So now I can be scared of mosquitos and food. Just kidding!

Don’t expect to get updates every day! I just realized throughout the course of the day that I had more to say :-)

A few things I forgot to mention last time:

1. Bucket showers. I think I have finally mastered taking a bucket shower. When I was in TZ, the water was warmed before we used it, but here it comes out of a well that is installed in the bathroom, so it’s cold. During our PST Orientation, when we were literally being re-potty-trained, the woman doing the training told us that we would learn to do it in four “buckets.” My first bucket shower took over 10 buckets, but now I’m consistently at or below 6 buckets, and with the length of my hair, I consider it a victory. Also, when I say buckets, I don’t mean like giant buckets… I’m talking about something the size of an average pot to boil water. Mom, if you’re reading this, it’s about the size of our second smallest water-boiling-pot with a handle. Yeah.

2. Khmer. I love it but it is so hard to learn a language, at least for me, by phonetics only. The Khmer written script is a whole ‘nother animal that I eventually want to learn, but for now, we just speak. I try to practice with my host family every day. And I’m proud of myself as I can feel myself getting better in my daily interactions, and have less hand motions to do.

3. BUGS. There are bugs everywhere. I’m not squeamish by any means, but the sheer number of spiders, mosquitos, and flies makes me skin crawl sometimes. In fact, a spider has taken residence in my loofah. I think I’m just going to let him keep it. I do, however, get great satisfaction out of using my bug-zapper. As a formerly “kill nothing, just release it to the outside” person, I feel slightly guilty but it’s nice to know that the bugs I am zapping will not be in my clothes, on my sheets, or on me.

4. Technical sessions. As a health volunteer, I learn, on a daily basis, about the health care system in Cambodia. This week is maternal and child health. My trainer let me speak to the other CHEs for a few minutes about being doula and how to support women through birth in a non-medical context. It felt really cool to share my knowledge. We all learned that many of the female CHEs also help with the birthing and the pre-natal check-ups, which made me extremely excited to get sworn in and start my service already!

5. Internet. I now have a “Metfone Stick” which means I can basically access the internet whenever I would like. However, I’m seriously trying to get over this addiction, although I am obviously already failing. Miserably.

6. Elections… It has been really hectic with all of the campaign “parades,” but I’m glad that’s finally coming to a close on Sunday, Election Day. I will be stuck close to home, so I will probably write more then.

7. If you want to send me mail (which I would LOVE), please send nothing big, nothing valuable, and nothing that will melt. Letters and pictures (from a camera or drawn), and maybe small books or movies (I have a DVD drive). I’ve also really been craving granola bars and Nutrigrain bars for breakfast, and have been trying to satisfy that craving with teething crackers (yes, for babies).  Please please please let me know if you send me something as the mail is not always reliable. I’m not sure how much it costs to send stuff here, but if you talk to my mom, she’s already sent one package. If you want a letter back, let me know! I’d like to get back into the habit of hand-written letters. Anyway, here’s the address [[should I put it in the side bar??]]:

Attn: Mary Walsh

Peace Corps Cambodia

P.O. Box 2453

Phnom Penh 3, Cambodia

I’m going to leave it at 7, since I’m a K7, but I would like to close with the fact that I have never loved an object more than I love my chamber pot in the middle of the night when I hear dogs howling outside, and oral rehydration salts taste gross but work so well.

I’ll write more soon!

2 Weeks Feels Like 2 Months

Hey everyone!

Sorry I didn’t write earlier. There were things I wanted to tell you, but I didn’t want to put Cambodia in words until I was committed to what I would have to say. I’m still not quite committed, but here goes my attempt anyway… (as always, I’m going to be 100% honest here)

When I landed in Cambodia almost 2 weeks ago, I was excited to begin this adventure. All of the K7s (that is, the 7^th group of volunteers to come to Cambodia, or, as they call it, Kampuchea) gathered for a quick picture and then we were off on a two hour drive to Takeo for our first day of training. Yup, after what felt like days of traveling, we didn’t get a break, just straight to training!

The orientation to PST (Pre-service Training) was through the weekend (we landed on a Friday), and that Sunday, we split into CHE (Community Health Education) altogether and ETTT (English Teaching and Teacher Training) groups A & B, since there are more of them, and met our host families at the local Pagoda (Buddhist equivalent of Christian Church, Jewish Temple, Muslim Mosque… you get the idea). I was hoping for the host family that had brought the small child, and guess what, I got it! My host nephew is 3 and adorable. I think he’s also slightly afraid of me, but he’s warming up.

After that, we were dropped off with our bags to our host families, and that is where each of us has been sleeping since then. My host family doesn’t speak any English, so we do a lot of hand gesturing. However, I discovered this weekend that my host dad speaks French, so now we communicate pretty well in Frengmer. Haha.

Other than that, not much has stood out, except for the fact that I was terribly homesick this past weekend. If you know me, you know I usually don’t get homesick; traveling is in my very soul. However, I think the reality of not seeing my family for 2 years has really set in, so Skyping with my parents on Saturday morning was almost a bad idea since I was in a foul mood for the rest of the weekend… I watched 5 movies because I just wanted to be alone, and 4 of them were dramas, so I could cry. I’m glad I got it out of my system so early though, because now I feel fine.

Today  was awesome! After training, I played soccer with some of my fellow Trainees and a bunch of Khmer children. I played goalie and it felt so good to be “on the field” again, in a sense. It really got my adrenaline going, and I even made a pretty good save.

Oh, I forgot to mention, I’m going back to being a vegetarian, at least for now. Eating meat was going well until I almost threw up eating a piece of pork that just did not feel right, so I spoke to my LCF (Language & Cultural Facilitator, ie a Cambodian to help us learn the language and the culture), and she called my family. Now it’s back to tofu and veggies and I couldn’t be happier!

For those who are wondering, my average schedule is training Monday through Saturday from 8:00-12:00 and 1:30-5:00, with Sundays free. Every training day (except Thursday) is with the other CHEs, although about half of the day is language and we were divided into 4 smaller groups for that, so I spend a lot of time with Sam, Kayla, Heather, and Wes. Thursday is our Hub Site Day, meaning that we gather with the rest of the K7s and learn stuff that all of us need to know. Last week, we learned about mosquito-borne illnesses and, let me tell you, it is scary to think about some of the stuff mosquitoes can give me! But, it’s good to know this stuff. I like Hub Site days because we get to hang out with the ETTTs, and they are all really awesome.

Feel free to write to me, and comment to let me know you are reading.

Miss you all!

EWR -> LAX -> Tokyo -> Bangkok

I'm currently sitting in a First Class lounge in the Bangkok airport with the 48 other people I will be serving in the Peace Corps with. I can tell you this, after these last few flights, I never want to see another airplane again. Alas, we have to fly out in less than 7 hours to go to Phnom Penh, Cambodia though. After that, though, it's staying put in country for at least 6 months.

So far, everything has been pretty cool, if not a little rushed with so many things squished into such a short amount of time. Our "Staging" (which is the Peace Corps term for the orientation before getting on the flight to our destination) was 5 hours long but it felt like a full day. By the middle of it, many of us had hit our so-called "wall" since we had traveled that morning to LA.

Everyone seems really awesome. The Peace Corps definitely attracts a certain kind of person, so everyone has been really nice and pretty cool so far.

Just updating you all! I won't have regular access to internet after training starts tomorrow, so expect some spotty updating.

Three Weeks

First of all, I'm sorry about not posting my second Spring Fix post yet. It's been a couple months in the making, but I can't find the right words to really nail down the experience like I want to.

Second of all, I leave for Cambodia in THREE WEEKS. I can't even believe it. I had a mini-melt down last week on my birthday because it is actually happening. I have been waiting so long for this, and sometimes I think it's all a dream. It doesn't feel real in the slightest. I have more stuff I want to say on the topic, but for now, here's to letting you all know that I am alive and well, and slightly overwhelmed.

Spring Fix - Part 1

I've been thinking about what I want to write in this post for over a week, and I'm still at a loss for all the words I need to express how much my Spring Break week meant to me.

Sunday - Orientation
Around 3:00pm on March 17th, I walked into the Robert Treat Hotel in Newark, just 45 minutes from my house, to sign in for my Alternative Spring Break: "Spring Fix," sponsored by MTV & United Way. After speaking with the team leaders for a little while, I followed somebody into the ballroom where there was already a group of about 20 people sitting, talking, and getting to know each other. I was confused, so I started to walk out, when somebody from the table called me over and asked if I had gotten my bag yet. I retrieved the bag with my name on it, and the label "wolf," and sat down to talk and play people bingo as we waited for everybody else to arrive.

After most people had gotten there, we played some icebreakers, ate dinner, and then got into our groups. There were 5 groups of 10 students each, with 2 team leaders: Wolf/Rockaway Beach, NY, Whale/Union Beach, NJ, Monkey/Staten Island, NY, Cow/Lavallette, NJ, and Raven/Long Beach, NY. My team was "Wolf," and little did I know how awesome of a label that would become over the week. The team members were Alex, David, David aka Utah, Lyssa aka Cali, Monica, Tom, Kia, Socrates, and Eric, and our team leaders were Jiles and Dara. After we did more icebreakers within our teams, we were free to do what we wanted for the rest of the night. A bunch of us hung out in Alex's room for awhile getting to know each other, and then we went our separate ways to recharge for our first day on the job.

Monday - Day One of Work

I woke up on time, for once in my life, and headed down to breakfast at 7:15am, which is the time the Wolfpack, as we had already started calling ourselves, had decided on the night before. I ended up eating with a mix of groups, and really started getting to know everybody. Around 8:00am, we piled into a 15-passenger van with our driver, Alex, and a cameraman, Patrick, and headed to Rockaway Beach.

Patrick interviewed the people in the front of the van as the rest of us joked around and really got to know each other on the way. By the time our hour-long commute was over, we were all basically great friends. On our way to the site, as we drove through Rockaway Beach, we saw how much damage was left from the storm. It was extremely jarring to know that almost 5 months had passed since Sandy hit, but there was still debris and proof of the storm everywhere. We drove past a boarded-up McDonald's, with phrases such as "Don't Bother, we don't have anything" spray-painted on the side of the building.

We arrived at the church we would be working in for the week, and it looked relatively okay from the outside, aside from a waterline. After a few camera takes outside of the church, we were ready to walk in and see the devastation. It was nothing like we had expected, to say the least. The water line inside of the basement of this church was 7 feet high and the basement was completely empty, save for two fish mobiles hanging from the ceiling in the large room.

After being told about what had exactly happened in the area, being told how Friends of Rockaway was formed, and meeting some of the AmeriCorps people we would be working with throughout the week, we were given a tour of the basement and shown where we would be working. First, we saw the kitchen, which still had pots and pan filled with water leftover from Sandy. The smell was absolutely disgusting, and the kitchen itself was in ruins. Then we were shown the two bathrooms, which would eventually become one as we tore down the wall between them. After that we were given tools and split into three groups: Kitchen, Bathroom 1, and Bathroom 2.

Dara, Lyssa, Socrates, and I made up the Bathroom 1 crew. We were tasked with taking down the walls, the toilets, the mirror, and the sinks, and breaking up the tile on the floor. We did this all day, making a serious dent in what we needed to accomplish over the week. In the middle of this back-breaking work, we were given a break for lunch, which our awesome driver Alex brought. I honestly can't remember what we ate, but the memories from lunch that do stick out are those of us getting to know each other and our AmeriCorps members better, and speaking with the Deacon.

Around 4pm, our dusty, dirty, grimy Wolfpack said goodbye to the site for the night and piled into our van to head back to Newark. We tried a shortcut to get back, but ended up sitting in traffic for 2 hours, so we arrived for dinner late and gross, but so happy for everything we accomplished during the day.

After dinner, each of the groups did a presentation, and that was when we learned that those of us in the Rockaways really had it hardest in the work we were doing, with the lack of power and heat. This is also when we presented the idea for a fundraiser that one of our team leaders had proposed, but I will talk more about that in the next entry. After the presentations, we played some games, and then we were left to our own devices for the evening.

Overall, day one of work was beyond amazing, and it only got better from there.

Paperwork Galore!

I haven't even gotten all of my Medical Paperwork yet, and I still feel overwhelmed by all of it. Between the Cambodian Visa, the Peace Corps Passport, and all of the materials that I have to read about Cambodia, I feel swamped. I've written my Aspiration Statement, and I hate it, so I'm hoping to edit and maybe re-edit it some more until I find it adequate. I haven't even done the resume portion yet.

This is going to be interesting...

INVITATION!!

Last night, I received my invitation. I'm going to...

That's right! I'll be going to Cambodia.

...

What will I be doing there?

Community Health Education! My job title specifically is "Health Education Extension Agent."

...

Have I accepted my invitation?

Of course!

...

It's actually happening! I can't believe it! It's actually happening!

I'm going to be a member of the Peace Corps! I've dreamed of this moment for over a decade.

...


I promise that a more detailed post will come later, but for the next few days I want to bask in the glory of this invitation. When the paperwork comes, well, I will probably write a post to procrastinate! Haha

I am Terrified. Absolutely terrified, and tired. So tired.

So what is this post about? My current feelings regarding leaving for the Peace Corps, since it is actually going to happen! It's only a matter of time...

I want to preface this by saying I like to be 100% honest in my blog posts. I won't sugarcoat my feelings, but rather, I will lay them out raw and unprocessed, for you to digest in your own way. With that being said...

I am downright, absolutely, beyond all measure terrified. And that is exhilarating to an extent, but it is also making me nervous. I know that it is okay to be afraid, and that this is a completely normal response to the unknown, since, at the moment, I have no idea where I am going or when I am leaving.

I am scared of leaving the comfort of my home. I am scared of leaving the people I care for dearly. I'm scared of the possibility that I may never see some of them again, through acts of fate or through old age or just through plain bad circumstances. I'm scared of changing for the worse; hell, I'm scared of changing for the better. I like who I am at this moment in time. I am finally 99% comfortable with who I am and what I believe, and I'm about the shake that up. I know that the experience will irreversibly change me. I'm open to it, and afraid.

I'm scared of so many of the normal things that come with moving on to new things: Will the other volunteers like me? Will I like my host family? Will I like where I live? What if I do something embarrassing? I've "started over," in a sense, so many times before that I know that these feelings are completely normal and come with the territory. But, knowing that I am starting over in a culture probably completely different from my own is amplifying these questions in my mind.

It's no wonder I'm tired when I spend a good portion of my day thinking about these things! But these are not the only reason I am tired...

I'm tired of people questioning my sanity, my intentions, and my future. One of the families that I tutor for has been rather mean about the whole thing: "What about your schooling? What about the MCAT? Don't you think you should stay until you are done completely? I think you should stay and wait to do this later; it really is in your best interest." No, just no. I have been working for you for 8 months, but I have to known I have wanted to do this for the past decade of my life, and I'm the one who has to live with myself in the end. I can always replicate schooling. I cannot replicate everything that the Peace Corps has to offer.

I'm tired of certain people looking at this as a joke, as another phase. It isn't. I have never been so set on something in my entire life. Why would I waste 2 years trying to get in if it wasn't what I truly wanted?

I'm just tired of having to explain myself, honestly. I want to do this. I know that I've wanted to do this for a very long time. There is just so much that can come from this experience.

I'm tired of answering why, but I will continue to, because my answer is "Why not?"

I will follow my dreams. I will not let fear guide me.

So Many Updates!

I'm sorry I haven't been writing. Between 30 hours of tutoring a week, and a full course load (Bio, Chem, Physics, & Calc), I haven't had much of a spare moment, but...

I did hear from Peace Corps.

So basically, I had to re-start from the beginning, sort of. I had to fill out the application, which took me about 4 hours one night (yay for saving the first time around). So I did that, but then there was some confusion, so I was going through the beginning of the application process and Medical Pre-Clearance at the same time. I got Medically Cleared (FINALLY!), and then I had my interview and was told I would be nominated. My recruiter was really nice, and was totally on my side.

 I interviewed on Friday, February 8th, (exactly 2 years and 1 week from my original interview), and was nominated on Valentine's Day after checking in with my recruiter. No leave date, no placement, no region, just that I was nominated.

I called the Placement Officer I had spoken to in December last Wednesday, after emailing the previous Friday but hearing nothing, and he called me back within 2 hours to explain that I was basically at Placement, they just had to wait until my Applicant Portal was updated. He said I would know within a few weeks, and that I would most likely be leaving in June or July. I checked on Tuesday, and that has been updated to Legal Clearance, so now I'm just waiting. I emailed my Placement Officer today, so I'm hoping to hear tomorrow, especially since last Friday there was an influx of Invitations, according to the Facebook Group.

So now we wait.

But FINALLY! Yay!