M.I.A.

Yes, I know. I have been completely missing in action when it comes to keeping up with my blog. I don't really know why. I guess the truth is, I just haven't felt like blogging. There has been a lot change since my last post...I'm officially living back in the States, started back at my job and have been spending lots of time catching up with friends and family. It's been great to be home, especially getting to spend time with family and friends and getting to meet all the new adorable babies that arrived while I was away!

On the flip side there are a lot of things that I really miss about Cambodia, mainly the laid back and fairly stress-free lifestyle I had while there. I also really miss the people. I keep in touch with a few of them still but definitely miss not seeing their smiling faces on a daily basis.

Anyways...I just wanted to let everyone know that a) I'm alive and back in the States and b) that I do plan to resume my blog posts after a much needed sabbatical from my sabbatical.

I also promise to post some long overdue pictures from the remainder of my trip. Adam and I had an amazing time finishing our trip to Vietnam and Laos and Jenny and I had a blast in Cambodia. I am a lucky girl to have such a great brother/boyfriend/friend - all willing to fly thousands of miles to come visit me! You three are the best and I had such a great time getting to travel with all of you! Now if only I could talk Deloitte into giving me another sabbatical....

Vietnam - Part 1

Sorry for the short post but wanted to quickly share a few pictures from my travels over the past two weeks. I haven't had time to upload my pictures yet, but here is a link to Adam's blog which shares a few highlights of our trip so far.

We started our trip in Phnom Penh with Ryan then Adam and I headed to Ho Chi Minh City, Hanoi, Sapa and now we're headed to Halong Bay. Hopefully you can tell by the pictures that we're having a great time so far!

http://www.mynameismuzungu.com/?p=502

Guess who's coming to Cambodia??

Yep, this guy. Ry Shooter Fly aka my little brother!

(Ryan is going to kill me for putting up this picture, but it's a big sister's duty to embarrass their little brothers, right?)

Ryan's due to land in Phnom Penh in less than 12 hours and I absolutely can't wait! Ryan and I have an amazing ability to get ourselves into hilarious situations when we're together and I can only imagine what's in store for us over the next two weeks in Cambodia.

Love you Ry and CAN'T WAIT TO SEE YOU!

We'll be missing you and thinking of you mom! Wishing you could be here with us. Love you bunches.

Cupcakes and Corn on the Cob

Friday was my last day at CITA and it was a day filled with presents, photo shoots and cupcakes and corn on the cob. I have had such an incredible experience at CITA and have so much I want to share - I promise to share those thoughts in detail in another post sometime. In short, I feel incredibly lucky to have had the opportunity to work with such amazing people and hope to make it back to CITA some day.

Mr. Rong Chhun presenting me with my Thankfulness Certificate



Mr. Rong Chhun, Sophea and Sotras

Goodbye presents

Goodbye Song

With my last day at CITA quickly approaching, I came into work today to find my colleagues all gathered around one computer. As soon as I walked in the door, they motioned for me to come over - they all seemed very excited to show me what they had found. They showed me the following video, explaining they had found it just for me. I didn't know whether to laugh or cry and I think I did a little of both.

CITA

As mentioned in a previous post, I work for a pretty incredible guy...Mr. Rong Chhun. Following that post, many of you have asked what it is exactly that I do for the Cambodian Independent Teachers Association (CITA). At first this appeared to be a simple answer…I was brought here to facilitate and develop CITA’s long term strategic plan (essentially a guide for them to carry out their mission and objectives). However, after being here a few months, I’ve realized my task here is much broader. Yes, I have helped CITA develop their strategic plan, but more importantly, they are continually looking to me to build the capacity of the CITA staff and leadership and provide them with tools and resources to run a more effective organization long after I am gone.

I can’t say this has been an easy job, all meetings require a translator, meetings are often cancelled or postponed, we seem to have more holidays than work days and I don’t think anyone at the organization really understands what a strategic plan is.

In spite of these challenges, I’ve really enjoyed my time at CITA. My colleagues are great, a few speak limited English, and one speaks English fairly well who acts as my translator. The actual office on the other hand…is far from great. It’s one big open room with six desks. No AC, just one central fan, and a very disgusting bathroom that pretty much only consists of a hole in the ground. Funny to think I used to complain because my office in SF didn’t have a view of the golden gate bridge...what I would give now for a toilet, yes, just a simple, functioning, standing toilet!

The outside of CITA


The office


Sotras and Sophea - colleagues


Sotras and Petras - colleagues


The dreaded bathroom


For those of you who are interested in learning more about CITA, and why organizations like CITA are needed in Cambodia…I’ve included some interesting data points about current issues teachers face in Cambodia and the impacts to the education system (or lack thereof):

• Cambodia is one of the poorest countries in the world. Life expectancy is 56 and 80% of the population lives on less than $2 a day.
• As of 2009, Cambodia’s ranking on the Human Development Index (HDI) list was 137 out of 182 countries.
• In addition to being a relatively poor country with a low HDI ranking, Cambodia is also near the top of the list of the most corrupt countries in the world as ranked by Transparency International.
• Cambodia’s population is very young – 50% of the population are under 18 years old.
• During the Pol Pot (Khmer Rouge) era teachers were systematically killed and the education system was largely destroyed. In 1970 there were more than 200,000 teachers in Cambodia and by 1980 there were only 5,000.

The education system has slowly been rebuilt – however, many challenges still remain.
• Teachers receive a salary of between $20–40 a month which is not enough to cover basic needs,
• Curriculum is outdated, facilities are extremely limited and teachers receive very little training and continuing education.
• In a recent report issued by a partner NGO focusing on education here in Cambodia – the most widely cited causes of teacher dissatisfaction were inadequate pay, followed closely by corruption/nepotism and poor leadership.

Corruption in the education system is rampant here (students paying teachers to allow them in the classroom, paying for tests, teachers required to give headmasters a portion of their salary, and the list goes on and on).

It is exam week here in Cambodia (all 12th graders take final exams to graduate high school) so today, Mr. Rong Chhun decided to take me on a little field trip to see some of the corruption first hand. We visited a few high schools and it was absolutely shocking to see the blatant corruption. Kids, adults, police were gathered in masses along the school gates trying to sell photocopies of the exam answers to students. It was absolutely surreal to see.

Thankfulness Certificate

Yesterday Mr. Rong Chhun asked me to type up a certificate for myself as a thank you from CITA. I typed exactly what he stated, with the exception of changing Mr. Crystal Scott to Ms.

Not sure which news I should break to him first...a) that I'm not a man or b) that it's not common practice to ask someone to make their own thank you certificates. Too funny.

Thankfulness Certificate
The Cambodian Independent Teachers’ Association
Extreme Gratefulness and Respectfulness

To Ms. Crystal Scott

Who has sacrificed and contributed to serve in the Cambodian Independent Teachers’ Association. Through volunteering, without charging any amount of money, you have strengthened our association. I wish you happiness and prosperity in your life accompanying with the five blessings from Buddha: enjoyment of long living life, successfulness, sovereignty, wealth and strength.

Phnom Penh, Cambodia
August 2010
Rong Chhun, CITA President

Kratie

This past weekend, Lisa and I decided to escape the chaos of Phnom Penh and venture to Kratie, a sleepy little Mekong River town about six hours northeast of Phnom Penh. Kratie is most well known for being the home of the Irrawaddy dolphins, a rare type of dolphin that lives in the fresh water of the Mekong River. It is estimated that there are only about 80 of these dolphins left worldwide.

Lisa and I had a great weekend experiencing rural life in Cambodia. We took a boat out in the Mekong to see the dolphins, biked around an island, played volleyball with local kids and took a moto drive around the countryside.

Our yummy snack options at the bus bathroom stop: baby birds(?), tarantulas and crickets.


I have tried, more like was forced to try, crickets by my local neighbors...can't say they tasted all that bad but not something I'd casually pick up to snack on.


Poor little birds!


Tarantulas



Boat trip in the Mekong to see the dolphins


Yun, the dolphin whisperer. Yun was a little too cool for school...loved the cig hanging from his mouth the whole time.


We were lucky enough to see the dolphins quite a few times but never quick enough to capture them on camera




Me and Yun


Lisa taking over for Yun for a bit


Our friends we made at dinner later that night...local 'models' that were featured in a Men of Kratie calendar. $1 of the proceeds go to protecting the dolphins so Lisa and I did our part to save the dolphins by purchasing a calendar (or two).


Getting ready to board the "ferry" to ride around the island


The "ferry"


Biking around the island







Lisa and I decided to show off our volleyball skills with the local kids



Guys on the ferry ride back who really wanted me to take their pictures


Crusin' on my moto

Khmer Princess for a day!

Apologies for not being in much of a ‘writing mood’ lately, but who needs writing when you’ve got pictures like these that say a thousand words anyway…








Yep, that’s actually me in these photographs beneath a veil of big hair and layers of layers of make-up...welcome to the world of Cambodian Glamour Shots! Seeing these photo shops all around town and knowing how popular these kind of photos are with the locals, a few of us girls figured we’d reach back to our inner child and play dress up for the day! We all had quite the transformation or tranamation as we liked to call it :)

On a Saturday morning, five of us girls (Samira in yellow, Skye in red, Nono in blue and Lisa in light pink) piled in a tuk-tuk and headed to the photo studio. The pictures really speak for themselves but basically step one involves the slathering of your skin in cheap make up, with the goal to make you look as white as possible. The second step includes creating a ridiculous hairstyle which involves the liberal use of hairspray and excessive use of a teasing comb. The only real question was just how high they could go...check out Samira’s hair for an idea of just how high they like to go in Cambodia! Step three involves squeezing big foreigners into very small traditional Khmer party dresses and then loading us with lots of costume jewelry.

After about 2 hours of make-up and hair and finding the perfect dress, it was up to the ‘studio’ where they carefully positioned us in all kinds of ‘natural’ poses (apparently the head angles, serious expressions and hand positions are quite important)...Let’s just say the serious poses were almost impossible with the five of us unable to stop laughing pretty much all day. One of the highlights of the experience actually happened about a week after our photo session wrapped - when we received the 'finished' product with us photo-shopped into all kinds of ridiculous backdrops...absolutely hilarious!

Immediately afterwards you get the joy of trying to 'undo' all this hard work which was no easy feat. I think we all washed our faces about five times before starting to resemble our true selves again.

Although we felt a bit silly playing dress up all day, it was actually quite fun and will be a great souvenir to remember Cambodia by!

A Burang, a few chickens and one big bowl of spicy pork soup

It’s Sunday afternoon and I just got back from enjoying a great brunch with a few of my girlfriends. As I sit here full and happy after eating a big plate of pancakes, I can’t help but laugh when I think about how I spent last Sunday and how I would have given anything to see a pancake on a menu...

A week ago today:

It’s 5am and after already hitting snooze a few times, I decide it’s time to finally drag myself out of bed as I have a big day ahead. Mr. Rong Chhun has decided it’s time for the two of us to take a field trip out to a rural province, Kampong Spieu, to conduct a meeting to educate local teacher’s on the benefits of joining CITA.

I meet Mr. Rong Chhun at CITA at 6am and we hop in his car and begin our journey. After about 45 minutes of driving, listening to Khmer screeching, I mean singing, on the radio, Mr. Rong Chhun puts on his car blinker and starts to veer off the road to what looks like a gas station. I get excited at the prospect of having a few minutes of quiet from the radio, but all excitement quickly fades when we drive right past the gas station and pull up to a little shack with a few plastic tables and chairs and Mr. Rong Chhun turns to me and says “breakfast time.”

“Breakfast time”, two words that I have begun to dread hearing most here in Cambodia. To begin with, I’m not much of a breakfast fan, secondly, when I do eat breakfast, I always opt for something sweet. Unfortunately pancakes, waffles and French toast don’t often appear on the menu of local Khmer restaurants. So we get out of the car and head to an empty table and I can already feel a dozen or so sets of eyes boring into my back. Once you leave Phnom Penh, Burangs (what Cambodians call foreigners) are few and far between and still quite an unusual sight. We sit down, and someone comes over right away to take our order, without menus in hand. Another setback. No menus, means no pictures. “Omelet?” I ask, always my first go to breakfast order at a place like this. “No omelet” they reply. “Fried rice?" I ask, usually always a safe second bet. “No fried rice. You have spicy pork soup” they state. I guess this means I’m eating spicy soup for breakfast.

A few minutes later as I sit wondering how I’m going to slurp down a bowl of spicy pork soup at 6:45am, two baskets of dim sum arrive at our table. Mr. Rong Chhun explains that the dim sum is for me, and pushes both baskets in front of me. I’m thankful; I must have misunderstood about the spicy soup and a few dim sum dumplings don’t seem nearly as daunting as a big bowl of soup. Just a few minutes later though, I realize that this was not going to be my lucky day as a bowl of steaming, spicy pork soup is set before me. Then, what must have been the entire staff of this restaurant, gather around our table and watch with anticipation, wanting to make sure I thoroughly enjoy every single bite. I’ll spare you all the details but I was beyond ready to get back on the road after an exhausting display of forced smiles and nods after every bite of spicy soup and mystery meat dumplings.

After being back on the road for about another hour, we finally turn off the paved highway and onto a dirt road that leads us our meeting spot. It’s a big, empty concrete building, with a bunch of plastic chairs and not a single fan (who needs fans when it’s only 99 degrees and 90% humidity). Outside the building there are chickens running wild and several women cutting vegetables and cooking various meats in what I would best describe as a bbq pit. There are about 20 teachers from around the Kampong Spieu province that have gathered here to attend the meeting. They seem genuinely happy that we have come from “the city” to meet with them. A few even get on their knees and bow to Mr. Rong Chhun to show their appreciation. My role at this meeting was to just observe and provide feedback on how we might structure future meetings differently to encourage more active participation, or so I thought…

About an hour into the meeting, we take a break and open the floor to questions. The district leader (best equated to a chief of a local tribe), decides that he would like to hear from the Burang. He wants me to tell them what the education system is like in America, including how teachers unions work and the US government’s take on education. I can’t say that I’m extremely well versed in any of the above topics, but thanks to my consulting days, I’m quite accustomed to just winging it, so I reluctantly stood up and gave my best “Education in America” speech.

Once the meeting finally wrapped, unfortunately it was time to eat again and they served us quite a few interesting dishes, including several dishes that consisted of the chickens that had been running wild earlier. I’m pretty sure I saw a few pieces of meat on my plate still moving. Despite being sick Sunday night and all day Monday, it was definitely a trip that I’ll never forget and was quite the quintessential Cambodian experience.

Mr. Rong Chhun speaking to the teachers


The translator trying to explain to me what Mr. Rong Chhun is saying


Giving my best "Education in America" speech

No Rich No Handsome No Love

Last week, CITA hired a new staff member. He is a 27 year old, single guy born and raised in Phnom Penh and thankfully for me, he speaks decent English. We have a mutual appreciation for each other as he enjoys practicing his English and I enjoy having someone whom I can somewhat communicate with while at work. We’ve covered quite a few topics over the past week, but on Friday, we somehow stumbled onto the topics of dating and marriage. It was an interesting conversation and I thought it was worthwhile to share a few of the tidbits I learned about finding love Cambodia style:

** Girls like guys who drink beer; if a guy can afford a beer that means he is rich.
** Independent girls are trouble and no good for marriage.
** The way to a woman’s heart is through love songs; specifically “Love Songs”, Disks 1 – 4.(I guess we now know who actually purchases these infomercial cds).
** The most important qualities when looking for a wife, in order of importance, are: beauty, big house, and cooking skills.

When asked whether he thought qualities such as honesty, kindness, sense of humor, etc. were important, he did agree that they were important, but not nearly as important as a big house. (The big house is important because typically the guy moves in with his wife and her family once married. After learning this piece of information, I can empathize why a big house makes the top 3).

To get another perspective, I asked my female colleague about finding love Cambodia. She is 26 and says she’s still single because she has yet to find a rich, handsome man. She said finding a husband is straight forward and summed it up best in just a few short words... “ no rich, no handsome, no love”.

Incredible! India!

Before heading to India, almost every time I turned on my tv I would see a commercial for Incredible!India! And I have to say...although the commercial itself was pretty cheesy...it was on to something - India was definitely incredible! As I mentioned in my previous post, I met up in India with a fellow VSO volunteer, Adam, who is currently living and volunteering in Uganda. Adam and I met through one our VSO training sessions and realized we both had a love for travel and adventure so it made sense that when we both found out we had some time off work....that we planned a trip together! We all know that traveling with someone, especially for 10+ days, through a developing country can be difficult, but I have to say Adam was one of the best travel partners I've ever had. We had a great time together and I'm happy to report he quickly learned the the #1 rule for success when traveling with me....keep me caffeinated and well fed, which he did!

We started our trip by heading down to the southwest state of Kerala. Kerala is best known for it's beaches and backwater canals. Our first stop in Kerala was the beach town of Varkala. Varkala is a cute little town perched atop amazing cliffs overlooking the Arabian Sea.

**Pictures from Varkala and Alleppey courtesy of Adam (sadly I can't take credit for the great pictures)

The cliffs/beach at Varkala





After a few days in Varkala, we decided to head up to Alleppey to check out the famous backwater canals. We rented a houseboat and set sail on the canals which was definitely a highlight of the trip.

One of the many houseboats on the Alleppey canals



At one point, we got off the houseboat on onto a little canoe to navigate a few of the smaller canals.


A few pictures of our canoe trip through the small canals...almost every house was painted in a ridiculously bright color





After Alleppey we headed to Mumbai for a few days where we took advantage of all the amazing restaurants and comforts of a large city!

Adam and I out to dinner at Indigo...highly recommended if you ever find yourself in Mumbai - amazing food!


Adam at Chowpatty Beach...a famous local hangout in the evenings



Smelling spices at Crawford Market. Although I don't really cook...I couldn't resist the smells and even bought a few spices.


Inside the Chhatrapati Shivaji Train Station - A Unesco World Heritage Site and the busiest train station in Asia


Outside view of the train station


We made a visit to the Ghandi museum...the room where Ghandi lived and worked while staying in Mumbai



A group of cute kids on the streets of Mumbai who really wanted their picture taken!


In front of the Gateway of India


The Taj Palace Hotel (site of the terrorist attack in 2008). An absolutely gorgeous hotel



Dhobi Ghat - Over 136 years old, thousands of kilograms of clothes are washed here everyday in 1,026 open-air troughs.



Getting ready to enjoy our last night out in Mumbai


Another highlight of our trip was our visit and tour through the Dharavi slums, the largest slum in Asia. As you can imagine, it was an eye opening experience. They don't allow you to take pictures out of respect for the residents privacy; therefore unfortunately I don't have any pictures to share, but I can recommend that you visit Dharavi if ever in Mumbai!