Cambodia

After a little over a week enjoying the company of friends and family in Colorado, I arrived in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, last Tuesday. Hanna greeted me at the airport and we took a ‘tuk tuk’ to the apartment Hanna moved into recently, where we will be living the next few months. I knew it was a bit foolish but before I arrived in Cambodia, I had this idea in my head of Cambodia looking similar to Bangkok, Thailand. I knew that Cambodia is not as developed as Thailand but I was still surprised by the lack of massive skyscrapers, freeways, and the impressive infrastructure that amazed me during my time in Bangkok. I still found the sites, sounds and smell of the city to be very interesting as we made the half hour ride to the apartment.

Through emails and Hanna’s descriptions I had an idea of what our apartment was like before I arrived but I was pleasantly surprised when I first entered the apartment. It’s very nice, spacious and comfortable. It’s close to twice the size of my apartment in Olgii and a very different style. Everything is ‘open’, which is a bit hard to explain, so I’ll put up some pictures (asap). The apartment is on the third floor and has a main living area with some chairs, stools, tables, a bed which we use as a couch and a television. Ahh yes, television: that amazing marvel of technology which I have been living without for almost two years. I didn’t watch a lot of TV when I was back in the U.S. but after living without one for so long, I have to admit that it’s hard not to lose a couple hours watching one of three (THREE!) National Geographic channels, especially since I haven’t started working yet.

My impression of Cambodia and the Khmer (pronounced Kuhmai) people has been very good thus far. I find the people here to be absolutely wonderful. Everyone seems to have a happy disposition and the Khmer people, young and old are quick to greet you with a big, warm smile. This does wonders for my own disposition and I find myself frequently in a happy mood as I wander the streets of Phnom Penh, even with the ridiculous heat. ;) All of the people I’ve met through Hanna, both Khmer and foreigners, have been friendly and fun to interact with. I went to Hanna’s school a few times and spent time observing her class, helping whenever I could and her first grade students are incredible. They are cute, sweet, smart, and fun to be around. I was blown away at the fact that these children, aged six to ten, could understand pretty much everything Hanna and I said, and responded accordingly in excellent English. The kids refer to me as ‘teacher Matthew’ and always seem excited when they see me. Hanna seems to really enjoy teaching them and she has a great relationship with her students.

Although it’s been nice to relax, enjoy Cambodia and enjoy time with Hanna, I came here to work. I made contacts with a few organizations before I arrived in Phnom Penh and I’ve turned in my resume at a few places over the past few days. I am in contact with a small Canadian run NGO called ‘Action to End Exploitation’ and if things go as planned I should be doing some volunteering with them over the next few months. They work to help women and children who’ve been victim sex trafficking or who’ve come from brothels. It’s a small organization that currently has some local staff and one American volunteer, who I will hopefully be meeting with this week to see how things work. I also recently found out about an internship opening for the UN, working in human rights, starting in June or July. I submitted my resume for that position, which is something I’d really love to do, but I also need to finish filling out an application form and submit that. I’ll be finishing that up tonight. I made contact with an organization called ‘New World Institute’(NWI) which is a private English learning and TOEFL test prep organization. Hanna is friends with the director of studies and I ended up already teaching a substitute class last night, then got a job offer to teach in the evenings. Today I had an interview with a private school and ended up getting a job offer to teach young adults in the mornings and afternoons, starting part time. The hours are really convenient, the pay is pretty darn good, and it seems like a great school. I am going to take the job and I will start the day after tomorrow. I am excited about this great opportunity and I am looking forward to beginning work. I think with the hours at this job, I’ll still be able to do volunteer work and keep myself very busy and productive. The private school, named ‘Sovannaphumi School’ (I’ll refer to it in future blog posts as SPS to make things easier), also asked me to teach a extra hours in the late afternoons/early evenings so now I need to decide if I’m going to take those extra hours or take the evening classes at NWI. I have to figure things out in the next few days and I will do my best to keep the blog updated regularly as things progress. My internet access is currently limited to whenever I have time to visit the internet café and Hanna and I are looking into whether or not getting internet for the apartment is worthwhile. Stay tuned for updates and pictures. :)

Fun Times With Friends, Enjoying Freedom

Downtown Colorado Springs with Ben and Tino

Hitting the driving range with some friends

Zack :)

Jack, it's been really nice seeing my dogs :)

Getting together with old friends. Murf, Derek, Tim and Ben

American Deliciousness

'2nd Degree BURN Doritos are HOT!





The amazing (and often pretty ridiculous) variety of delicious food awesomeness in America, especially after living in Mongolia for so long, is almost mind blowing. O_O

Sad Goodbyes and an American Detour

Spending time with my friend Bek and his family


Gifts, recognition, thanks and goodbyes with my coworkers

At the Olgii airport with Nurbol, Doman (my director), and Sabit

Enjoying the good life in UB with my friend Ridge

It's been a while since I've posted so I thought I'd try to get an update done before I leave for Cambodia. The week before I left Olgii was surprisingly emotional and tough. After I notified Peace Corps of my decision, I told my work and some friends and word spread pretty quickly. I found myself meeting teachers, students, all who I'd had good relationships with, having lunch and tea with friends, being invited to meetings and meals at friends' homes. It was very overwhelming and the reaction that I received from those who I'd come to know, was a lot of sadness and confusion. I was asked multiple times why I was leaving early, why I wasn't staying until July as everyone originally knew. It was difficult explaining my decision but after speaking with them, most seemed to understand and respect my decision. I guess until this week, I didn't realize how much of an impact I'd had on so many people in the community. Many of my students bought me gifts, some took me out to lunch and dinner, all asked for my email address and messenger ID, made comments about how much I'd helped them and thanked me countless times. The week leading up to my departure from Olgii was the most emotional week of my entire 22 months of Peace Corps service in Mongolia. I was also asked countless times when I'd be returning to Olgii.

I left from Olgii and headed into Ulaanbaatar to get all of my outprocessing done with Peace Corps and to figure out how I was going to make it to Cambodia. All of my Peace Corps related stuff went well, with minimal problems but a lot of paperwork and meetings. During these few days I attempted to get my Mongolian exit visa for my personal passport but ran into some problems. To make a long story short, it just worked out better that I took the Peace Corps flight home to Colorado and now I will end up going to Cambodia a bit later than planned. I flew to the U.S. and and after a long day, 23 hours or so of travel, arrived in the Denver airport, greeted by my dad and stepmom. It was really nice to see them and to be in Colorado, to be in the U.S., to be home. Over the past week I've been back and forth between Castle Rock and Colorado Springs, spending time with my family and most of my close friends. It's been really nice to see people I've missed for a while. Because the visit was so last minute, I haven't been able to see everyone I'd like to, but I'll be around longer the next time I come in and I should be able to spend more time with more people. :) I also have a few good friends going to school and working in other states or countries so I look forward to doing some traveling later this year and visiting them.

Anyways, I'll need to cut this short soon so just to let everyone know, I'm leaving Colorado for Cambodia this weekend. Sunday, April 18th I will fly from Denver to San Fransisco, San Fran to Taipei, Taipei to Phnom Penh and on Tuesday morning Hanna will (I hope :-P ) be meeting me at the airport for my first excursion into Cambodia. As I wrote before, Cambodia is a place that I have wanted to go for a long time and I'm really excited about this opportunity and of course to be reunited with Hanna.

I know that I had a lot of ups and downs, plenty of frustration and disappointment but I don't regret my decision to join Peace Corps and go to Mongolia. I don't regret it one bit. I learned so much during my time here, about Mongolia, about Mongolian and Kazakh culture, about the people, about teaching, about development work, about life in the developing world, and I learned so much about myself. I feel like I have grown in ways, over the past two years, that I never could have grown in had I stayed in the U.S. and worked some 'regular' job. I'm better for my decision to join Peace Corps and I feel with the knowledge, experience and humility that I learned in Mongolia, I can bring a lot more to Cambodia as a teacher and a development worker and to any other countries I head to in the future.

As soon as I get settled in Cambodia and start working, getting life there figured out, and have some time, I will start writing new posts about my experiences in another new country. In the meanwhile I'll see about posting up some pics from Colorado. Hope everyone is doing well. :)