It's Universal, You Know.

So a few months back, Chris' Uncle John sent us the ultimate of world-uniting candy:

Pop Rocks.

And then a fantastic former co-worker sent us some more.

So we had to.

This evening, we had major pop rocks explosion fun.  Check out these four videos to see it all go down.

Thank you John and Keisha- they LOVED it.

and then i tie it all together with a great big bow

I bike a lot here the 'bode. And when I bike, I think.  Ergo, I think a lot here in Cambodia.  My high school English teacher (hey Ms. Keezer!) taught me when a writer takes their thoughts and lets them loose as the written word, no holds barred, letting a topic meander like a brook tripping over stones, splashing from one topic to the next- it's called stream of consciousness writing.

So what we've got here is the written, stream-like record, of my thoughts and ideas as they melded into one another earlier this week.

Welcome to the space between my ears.

..........

A month ago, I finally was given an answer to a prayer I'd been shouting in my head for eighteen months: a female co-teacher.  A Khmer woman to teach alongside, to work with, to chat in English and Khmer with, to offer suggestions to, to learn from, and to build a symbiotic relationship with (you know, symbiotic: as in, we both gain something from relying on each other. It's just a Language Arts lesson up in here today, isn't it!) as we co-exist together in the small space of my teacher training center.

Sopheary is more than the answer to my pleas to the universe- she is, in fact, better than I ever could have thought to wish for.  She is hilarious, and clever, and hard working, and open-minded.  We jive off each other while we teach, and- this is INSANE- when she is not sure about a spelling or pronunciation, she will straight up ask me, while at the board.

This is the opposite of the vast majority of teachers I have encountered here.  The education system here is based on the belief that the teacher holds all of the knowledge and it is their job to simply speak it or show it, and the student will learn.  A teacher making an error? Even greater, a student knowing more than the teacher about a topic?  Totally possible, but completely inconceivable.

(Which is, of course, a generalization and doesn't speak to all of the nuances of personalities that teach here, but as a generalization, is generally true and widely accepted, known, and practiced.)

Getting up to teach with Sopheary is the freshest breath of air and exactly what I needed in my final months of serving as an educator at the training center.  There are so many things to say about Sopheary and her amazing work as an educator, but it can be summed it like this:

She essentially eradicates my need to be a part of the informal women's group that's been formed amongst Volunteers.

Frustrated by double standards and cultural biases and differences that led to misunderstandings, feelings of isolation, and a longing to be heard and understood, I joined the women's group to tackle not only what I'd been feeling as a woman in general, but what I've felt as a woman here in Cambodia.

Havoc, wreaked on my confidence, belief in my intelligence and value as a professional, body image and life choices.  Lightly given statements that struck deep, that, as much as he tries, can never be truly understood by a compassionate husband.

A need for connection, finding similarities, relating- a need for friendships.  That was the path to the women's group and relief it has brought.

Friendships among women- where we feel valued, heard and liked.  Where we know that the other woman sees our beauty, our passions, our faults and our hopes and guards them like their hers, as well.

Who needs them?

I need them.

GIRLS need them.  GIRLS, as in, Hannah and Marnie and Jessa and Shoshanna (oh my lord, how I love this name and her character.)  In the end, it's about friendships, isn't it?  What binds women together, what can drag them under, what can tear them, break them, shatter them.  How strongly friendships are formed when women are confronted with similar challenges, and how quickly they can weaken when women metaphorically shift their priorities and pursuits.  How we seek out women who know what we're going through- school, work, marriage, family problems, weight or exercise goals- and when we find them, how difficult it is to hold onto old friends who know longer are confronted with the same truths.

My longest lasting and most constantly evolving friendship began when I was ten.  Katie and I joined the same soccer team.  We went to different elementary schools, but we shared a name.  I was the ridiculous, outgoing one, she was the witty, reserved one.  When I went to her eleventh birthday party, it's a well known fact that her mother wasn't sure she wanted me back- I was that over-the-top energetic.  But return I did, dozens of times for sleepovers, afternoon hang outs, and even more birthday parties.

Katie and I've had varying levels of connectivity over time- from those of steel, six feet wide, made from confessions of first crushes, of experiences with very first real boyfriends, of soccer practice nearly every afternoon for years to those made of slightly more tenuous leather, still ever so wide, made from high schools on opposite sides of town, of different soccer teams, of colleges thousands of miles apart.

But the connection is so real that it's as if it has always existed, since our births two month apart, twenty seven years ago.

And it all started on a soccer field.

There was a soccer tournament in our town this week- and my heart grew three sizes, I swear, when I saw two entirely female teams.  And I was back in Kalispell, Montana, on a weekend tournament with my U-14 team and Katie, when I saw them traipsing through town at dusk, on the hunt for dinner, three adults trailing them, oblivious to the loud and contagious laughter coursing through the group.

Female sports teams are so rare here.  Sports are for men.  Men play volleyball at the makeshift courts all over town.  Men play soccer on the field at the teacher training center.  Men coach the all boys basketball team at the local high school.

The Women in Development/Gender and Development committee I've just joined will face this reality, among dozens of other truths that are preventing true equity amongst sexes from existing in the world.

Which brings us full circle to today.  International Women's Day.  A day designed to celebrate, uplift, and highlight women- our achievements, our challenges.

So Happy International Women's Day, friends- men and women alike.  May you recognize the obstacles women face every day, but also, maybe more importantly, reach out to a woman you know and acknowledge your love for her- for her friendship, for her choices, for her goals, for her skills on the sports field and in her job. For her.

 For it all.

...........

And if you feel like spending your IW Day showing the love, fiscally, for women here in Cambodia, consider giving something - even the smallest contribution can help and is tax deductible - to these projects.

My province's second annual Camp GLOW

A friend's domestic violence prevention training

A friend's abuse in school prevention workshop

the longest lasting gift, ever.

One more thank you.

.................

Dear Paige and Michael,

I mean, first off, thanks for flying nine thousand miles to traipse around with us in the 'bode this past summer.

It was pretty rockin'.

Also, though, thank you for the dozens of cards you purchased, wrote in, bought sweet little gifts for, packaged up and sent us for our two years living as PCVs.

These little cards have been, quite simply, amazing.

We opened one right as we left.

We've opened ones on our birthdays, on our wedding anniversary, on Thanksgiving and Valentine's Day and on the one year anniversary of us leaving the U.S.

It's become quite the tradition for us.  Chris reminds me we have a significant date coming up and I get the card out of it's trusty bag and set it on on our desk, awaiting it's opening a few days later.

From new underwear to moleskin notebooks to iTunes gift cards, it's always a surprise what's inside. And best of all, your words, written months in advance, are always hilarious and touching.


And we love that you each signed each and every one, just for us.

We've managed to save the ones for when we're sick or sad, though we probably could have used them a large number of times already.  But we always say- it could be worse! Better save it just in case!
 
So thank you, dear friends.  These cards are an amazing reminder of you, your friendship, and will also be amazing mementos from our time here.

Thank you.

a big thanks, to everyone

They say that a Peace Corps Volunteer cannot accomplish anything alone.  Usually, this refers to the support a PCV seeks to earn from the community in which they live in their new home.

And yet, it's even more clear to me, seventeen (exactly!) months into my service, that I could not do my job and accomplish my and my community's goals without my family and friends who support me and my work back at home in America.

So, here's that thank you letter I've been writing in my head every single day for the past 520 days, give or take:

Dear Parents, Parents-in-law, Siblings and Siblings-in-law, Uncles and Uncles-in-law, Cousins and Cousins-in-law, Neighbors, Friends from College, Friends from High School, Friends from my Teaching Days in Baltimore, Friends from TFA in Baltimore, and Friends of friends of any of these groups who have sent a smile my way these past months, 

Thank you.  From the deepest trench of the bottom of my heart, thank you so very much.  Your intentional physical, emotional, financial and mental support has made the difference between a frustrating, lonely, sad year-and-a-half of service and a successful, less-frustrating, supportive, joyful year-and-a-half of service.

Many of you have spent the time and money to send me (and really, us) gifts, small and large, through the insanity that is the postal service in the U.S. and Cambodia.  Even if that package or letter took three months to arrive, I thank you.

Many of you have contributed financially to both our work projects and our play.  They have, quite literally, meant that I have been able to do things like my Camp GLOW and visit Vietnam.  I thank you.

All of you have, in some way or another, helped me because of something you said via facebook or email that made me laugh. Helped me because of something you said before I left that I remember on one of my many long bus rides around this country.  Or  helped me because of something you did while eating dinner one night that reminds me why I, and we, chose to leave our home, our puppy, our family and our friends for uncertainty and unknown possibilities. 

  I thank you.

All my love, 
Kate

a sweet day

today was one of those sundays i love. lots of angkoi laing-ing (sit play-ing ---hanging out----), and delicious things to eat.

i woke up early to make brownies with my fantastic program manager, who is in town for the two week training of the new group of volunteers.

we split the batch and both of us could barely contain our excitement to have a brownie, even though it was only nine in the morning.

i then took advantage of the cooler morning and biked to visit a friend- a twelfth grader who attended my camp glow last june, and her mother.  they run the teacher guest house in town, and last weekend when i stopped by, they gifted me a couple of new nail polishes. i returned the favor with three of my own, sent from america.

in the afternoon, after two hilarious guys from the new group of volunteers swung by, chris and i biked to the "i love you mart" to enjoy a cool beverage and free fans.  while there, we were graced with the presence of three additional new volunteers, who basically had me laughing until my stomach hurt for a good hour.

finally, we rounded out the day with a surprise and welcome visit from our friend and former khmer tutor.  she brought us pineapple from northern province battambang- "much sweeter than the sour pineapple" found in our province, says she- and saw that chris had bought a pumpkin.  while he had planned on making a dessert concoction of some sort, she proceeded to help us use the left over rinds to make a khmer dessert- bongaim sngaam la po- literally, "dessert boil(ed) pumpkin."

shredding the coconut meat.

squeezing the coconut meat to make a thick coconut milk. pumpkin rinds in the pan to the right.

boiling the coconut water and pumpkin until the pumpkin is soft...

tasting after a hefty number of tablespoons of sugar have been added. "pa-aim?" "pa-aim kroo-up kroan!" (sweet? sweet enough!")

the last step: adding the best and thickest coconut milk from the first squeezing.

delicious boiled pumpkin in a coconut milk and sugar bath.

and that, in a very wordy nutshell, was my sunday.

playing tourist

rabbit rabbit!

***

in every place, there is the opportunity to be a tourist.

growing up in idaho, school trips included visits to the craters of the moon and remnants of the oregon trail.

it wasn't until i moved far away from the rocky mountain west that i realized how rare and significant my home was.

living in DC, i frequently played tourist in my first two years of college, soaking up americana at my favorite smithsonian, or losing myself in a myriad of flowers, and even paddle boating in front of the jefferson memorial.  

those touristy trips lessened though in the last two years, as i promised myself i could always do it next summer, or in the years to come, as i planned on living in DC as long as possible.

and then when i lived in baltimore? ha. teaching left no time for enjoyment of the harbor, neighboring wineries, or the like.

and so.

it was marvelous to spend a summer playing tourist in our new home country: navigating the waters of customs, using my legs to walk, walk and walk some more, pausing only to take in the CAMBODIAN!NATIONAL!LIBRARY!,

and doing fantastically dorky things like take pictures of myself on empty streets outside the royal palace (see first photo), and feed the terrifying, disease-carrying pigeons by the riverside.

i'm grateful i got the chance to see cambodia through fresh eyes again, and do all those things that you can often feel silly doing after living somewhere for a year.

have you played tourist in your town?

ten days of joy

it has been a frenetic and exciting ten days.

let's discuss.

it all began with some of this:

after a bunch of this:

oh dairy queen, how you enliven my soul and sustain me through the darkest of hours. 

like, nightime in cambodia.

i love thee, sweet swirly vanilla ice cream!

**

and then, i was lucky enough to be drawn in a pcv raffle to see madame secretary of state clinton on her asian world tour as she stopped by cambodia for a few days.

i hung out with these fantastic people:

and snapped a shot with this kid:

while waiting for this awe-inspiring woman to show up:

which she did. and it was ten minutes of pure awesomeness. 

this was the second time i was lucky enough to hear ms. clinton speak and be within five feet of her.  the last time, as an intern at emily's list, she was senator clinton.

and of course, she rocked it.

**

and lastly, we welcomed the newest batch of peace corps trainees to our little corner of the globe, which meant an excuse to see some of my absolute favorite girls in the 'bode.

and as tradition dictates, we screamed and terrified the new group as they arrived off the plane and did our best to show our enthusiasm for their arrival and the beginning of their own 27 month journey.

i stole this picture from facebook. specifically, tony. thanks tony!

topher and i, along with several other volunteers in our province, spent the last week helping out with their initial training (which is happening in our province again! what up.)

and today, those fantastic fifty eight trainees made their way to their villages to begin the next seven weeks of language and technical training, which really, we can just call:

learn how to live in the excruciating heat without the amenities you're used to while cramming your brain with as many new phrases and words as you can and using them whenever you can to build your language abilities, as well as diving into figuring out how to do the job you've been assigned, alongside making bunches of new friends and finding lifemates that will endure alongside you for the next two years.
while living with a host family.


yep.

fantastic.

so i say unto you americans, get thee to a dairy queen! enjoy that delicious swirly goodness! like a cone! or a dilly bar! or even a blizzard! 

how was your week?

welcoming america to our little corner of cambodia.

i'm effervescently excited about this summer. for a large number of reasons: number A having just occurred, letter 2 to occur in two short weeks and number C happening in mid august.

number A: my parents just visited topher and me in our little part of the south east asian world.  we met them in thailand and dazzled them with our noodle and curry eating abilities.

and then we actually impressed them (maybe?) with our khmer-speaking ways in cambodia.  while here, we visited angkor wat (for the first time!), hung out at a fantastic hotel in phnom penh, introduced our sleepy town to the watts' and spent a night at what might be chris' and mine favorite hotel this side of the national date line.

i'm waiting on my mom's pics before i do a full recap, but it was truly fantastic having them here.

this week, topher and i and jill and other PCVs in our little province are helping out peace corps with the training of trainers- providing advice for dealing with americans fresh off the boat, being guinea pigs during role plays, and generally helping to prepare twelve awesome khmer men and women for that which is pre-service training.

in just over two short weeks, we'll be welcome nearly sixty new trainees to cambodia which just SHOCKS the hell out of me.  can i really have been here for a year? is this job, experience, life really half over already?

i am ready to kick pre-service training into high gear though as well. i and three other TEFL volunteers have been working with PC staff for months now preparing sessions and tweaking objectives and drafting information sheets in excitement for eight weeks of technical training so that our mainly-generalist new cambodian trainees can become rock-n-roll teachers!

and those that know me KNOW that there is very little i love more than providing any assistance and wisdom i have for those brave enough to trek down the path that is educating young people, whether it be in urban baltimore or rural cambodia. bring it k6s! woot!

and finally, can we just pause and get real, real, REAL excited for august? when one of my most FAVORITE of people on this EARTH joins chris and i with her glorious husband for a week in cambodia? paige somehow decided that the best way to celebrate completing her bar exam was to fly thirty hours to visit this girl in the hottest place on earth.  and she's even foregoing what i've heard are beautiful beaches in thailand for more time with us in the 'bode.

this girl! 

amazing.

and that, my friends, is how you write a blog post mainly about things that did happen without providing details and things that are about to happen without any pictures as proof.

alternately, how you write a blog post that reads like a diary entry of a fourteen year old girl.

happy friday!

a green scarf and shoes.

i heart saint patrick's day.  i love reasons to wear fun colors. i love that no presents are required. i loved it even in high school, before i even knew to love irish car bombs.

and of course, those are part of what i love too.

this was topher and mine's eighth saint patrick's day.  we have some great traditions, which all include general merriment, but this year included celebrating some fellow PCVs birthday!

i won't lie.  there was a teensy bit of worry that some of our traditions would not be possible in cambodia.  but we were able to make it work, and what fun it was!

sadly there wasn't any corned beef and cabbage (well, i'm not sad about the cabbage part- but corned beef! tear!) but there WAS delicious tex-mex, including delicious and cheap tacos and even some fantastic onion rings!

and there is green on that outfit there- i tied a scarf around my dress!

(and my underwear was green, but, well, i guess we didn't need to know that?)

a belated thanksgiving

happy tuesday, all! though it's a bit belated, rest assured that we did in fact have a very scrumptilicious thanksgiving here in the bode.  

though it was in no way the same as home- what can make up for those people and those traditions?- it was really awesome to be among friends and our new cambodian family, enjoying turkey, potatoes, carrots, green beans, stuffing and even the best pumpkin chocolate chip bread i've ever had. (that might be the cambodia talking, though, but it sure was good!)

i am incredibly thankful to have an amazing husband here, and amazing families back home that we were able to skype with to say happy thanksgiving.  and i'm ever grateful for our new family and friends here and for such a delicious meal that K4s, staff, and the U.S. embassy provided for us!

happy holiday season, everyone! go make a snow angel for those of us that are still sweatin' to the holiday tunes, yeah?

*thanks to jill and stewart for great pictures :)

Team Takeo!

ever since topher and i found out about our permanent site (which was back in september), we were wondering which other pcvs we'd end up living near.  because we live in the same province in which we did our training, the announcement was somewhat anti-climactic (though we're really happy to be where we are).  thus, the people we'd be spending so much time with became so important.

so we were freakin' excited when it was announced that we'd be living next to these four lovely ladies.  above, you'll see the two women who live in our old training village (town, really), another woman who actually lives in the exact same house and village that she did her training (a huge surprise! we'd heard you couldn't stay in the same place), and the fantastic woman who lives closest to us, Jill, who is just 7k away.  you can also see our awesome k4 intern (the group ahead of us) that was there all through training and darling husband.  sorry topher, about the shot.

so far, we've been lucky enough to have a movie night with these ladies, a few evenings just with Jill, and even have set up a time on weekends to study Khmer with the two still in our training village.  

despite there being a lack of men (for toph, ya know), we're so lucky with our Team Takeo teammates (the name ofour province.) they are all funny, smart and pretty awesome in general. we also have some great k4's that live in our province as well.

i feel lucky that we've been surrounded by truly great people thus far in cambodia.  it makes the hard days easier when you have faces like those above to look forward seeing every weekend or so.

have you ever discovered great friends in new places?