I find myself in my new host sister’s loft room. I have gone to visit the house and town I will spend the next to years of my life. Currently, I can hear my dad, mom and sister preparing dinner and with the smells of the kitchen wafting into her room. My sister is 17 and will be starting 11th grade at the same high school I will teach at in October. I also have two brothers, who are 19 and 21. My father is a coconut farmer —I think, and my mother stays at home from what I gather. The front part of the home is for their “computer school” … I watched 24 children play Grand Theft Auto on 4 computers for about a half hour today with full volume from each computer(but they played from dawn til dusk and I’m not exaggerating) and each with a sheet of cheats. I’m not sure entirely what skill they are acquiring. Behind the school is a room, which will be my new home, however it hasn’t been prepared for me yet. Next is an area with the television and a bed. Then is the backyard, sort of, it is a covered area with the kitchen and my host parent’s bed further back in the toilet room. Above the television room is the loft where my sister sleeps. And this is the view from her bed…
^^^^ that was written yesterday… and below are the thoughts from today.
I have had 2 major realizations to date, as you could call it… the first is that I am not traveling but living in this country, may seem obvious but something I have to come to terms with soon. And two that without the existence of globalization this experience would be completely different.
The first I realize came more so my first night in my permanent site town. Even though I was only there for 2 days I could feel the affects of life dramatically slowing down here. And with that I am quite worried that my busy-body attitude on life will suffer-however perhaps there is a lesson for me somewhere in that. In that realization I have been reaffirmed that I am actually living in this country, not galavanting around Southeast Asia. However, knowing that the closest volunteer to me is 25km away on a bike is also reassuring in that we can wreck havoc together as Americans but disconcerting all at the same time, because that doesn’t actually mean she is in my neighborhood.
The second came more so today as I was driving into Battambang from my town of Sdau, in my ‘uncle’s’ taxi with his wife and baby. As we were passing the downtown shops of Bb I had flashbacks for Chinatown in SF, it’s not exactly the same country, but more or less the same feeling. I knew I was just passing through headed to a western part of town where I could see my friends in the Peace Corps and eat an some-what American meal (yes, the pesto penne past was delicious!) And that feeling of it not being real and all a dream hit me again. I realized, however, it’s because of globalization that this all seems like a dream. I have read about this corner of the world, seen it on the computer & tv, heard first hand stories of what life is like across the globe… Not to mention I have been able to access my own corner of the world back home practically every week. I couldn’t imagine what life would be like in Cambodia without those connections. Be it the ones I made from research before I came, or just living in the states without a complete buffer to this section of the world. And also being on the flip side with constant reminders of life home back home, from western jeans to Justin Beiber music videos blasting from t.v’s to western products and coca-cola being every where.
Those are the updates from my new section of the world.
Hope y’all have enjoyed the reads. Send me life updates, and I now have offline gmail so I will be able to actually respond to appropriately.
xoxo
