Weekend vacation- well, sort of!

Hey everyone, its officially been one month since I arrived in Cambodia. What to say!!! There's really nothing that I would be able to say that would sum up everything about me and my life heere with words.

I have found some yogis to hang with and that's comforting. I also have found that I have a rather large aversion to rice which is just great because that is their staple food here. It's rice for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Though the other foods that they cook for me are pretty tasty... I get pumpkin, greens, fish, corn, eggs, lotus flower stems... which are delicious by the way and other veggies. Right now I'm trying to get my host family, which included my "my (mom)",my Pok, day, and three younger sisters; they are 21, 17, and 15. I just recently learned their names but don't ask me to attempt to spell them, because surely I'll mess them up. I just resort usually to calling them bow-un ser-rai... which translates to little sister.

Right now we have all met up, meaning all the volunteers from the three training villages for the day and are spending our day off together. It's nice finally to get to see everyone where we can just relax. Usually, when we all get together we are working and attending sessions for one thing or another. They have us pretty busy... next week though, is site announcement!!!!

I'll be finding out where I'll be place for the next two years!!! It's kinda scary and exciting at the same time. We're hoping that we'll all be placed near people we like spending time together and away from any kind of bad site qualities lol... ie. no other volunteers within an 8 hour bus ride. lol

I'm trying to think if there's anything else to blog about... hmmmm, right now its around noon. I'm not really hungry yet though because I'm still full on last night's bai (rice)!

I do have some good news though, there was volunteer who was thinking about going home and today they just told me that they are going to try and stick it out for a little bit longer, which makes me happy. It's funny, you find yourself so much more close to the other volunteers when one is thinking about leaving, you get sad... but anywho more to come later... love you all and talk to you soon or post something!!!

oxoxo,
biz!!!
Mads

Arrival in Cambodia

Yesterday we arrived with the group in Cambodia and we greeted by some K3s and other PC staff AND the Heat. Now all 50 or so of us know that no one was exaggerating about the heat when it comes to Cambodia. It's hot, you sweat a lot, and use a hankerchief almost constantly to mop it up :) That's how it goes in Cambodia.

Once we arrived and took a bus to our hotel, dropped our bags, and then headed over to the Peace Corps Headquarters. Its a nice compound with air conditioning where volunteers can recharge so to speak, there's internet, a library of books, and clean bottled water.

Then it was time for shots... half of us got our first series of shots yesterday: typhoid, Hep. A, Japanese Encephalitis, and Rabies... Awesome. After those- we got juice boxes. It was the highlight of the afternoon.

The food is awesome... spicy but cool... I'll write more when I get a chance but I want to let someone else use this computer because we don't know when we'll get internet again.

Lots of love,
Mads

Waiting

I guess I'm kinda in a waiting period now than the biggest surprise of where I'll be heading for my two years of PC service has been revealed. I have about 38-39 days left until I leave for San Fran and then onto Cambodia and before that I have now only about 2 more weeks until I go on vacation... sweet!

I am excited, nervous, happy, intimidated, anxious all at the same time now. I've been trying to figure out what to pack, learn Khmer, read up about Cambodia, say goodbye to everyone here in Yardley, and wrap up everything at work- so busy!

If any RPCV can comment on how to pack... it would be greatly appreciated. I don't even know where to start in term of luggage etc. Sigh... I have 37 more days left to figure it out I guess :)

More to come soon...

The Beginning

So, I have about six weeks left until I leave the Land of the Brave and go to the Land of the unknown (ie. Cambodia). I was invited to serve as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Cambodia from September 30, 2010 until September 30, 2012. We start staging towards the end of July, which is Peace Corp's version of getting to know their policies/procedures plus meeting all the other volunteers (hello to you guys out there!)

To all of you who aren't PC applicants (and don't understand how slow and painful the application process is) I thought that I'd give you a little timeline of my application process.

• August 26, 2009- Online Application Started
• August 31, 2009- Received email from recruiter acknowledging application and confirming that she sent out a packet of additional documents to complete
• Later that week- totally disappointed with the lack of interesting documents I need to complete (need to get finger printed, complete a background check, and have a letter notarized for my student loans)
• October 20, 2009- Receive e-mail from recruiter asking if I'm having trouble completing the documents (apparently I took longer than usual)
• October 21, 2009- My account was put on inactive status, I promptly emailed my recruiter and was told that when I get my documents in, she'll reactivate my application... whoops!
• November 17, 2009- Recruiter confirmed that she received documents, my application was reactivated :)
• December 1, 2009- Received e-mail from recruiter asking for an interview date
• Later that day- Couldn't stop smiling or stop thinking about the interview!
• December 9, 2009- Interview in NYC, had an awesome day, interview went great!
• December 11, 2009- Officially nominated for Teaching English as a Second Language, in Africa, departing in October 2010.
• Same day- Receive e-mail requesting me to fill out a vegetarian questionnaire
• Later that day- Seriously think about what being a vegetarian means to me and decide that I will wait until I get in country to experience their food before making any changes to my diet
• December 18, 2009- Receive interesting documents from Peace Corps regarding medical clearances! Very overwhelming and then I proceeded to email the medical officer assigned to my application about 5 or 6 times in regards to random questions about the forms
• February 2, 2010- Peace Corps acknowledged that they have received my medical forms and now I am "officially" undergoing my medical clearance!!!
• March 9, 2010- Sent an email to recruiter letting her know that I started volunteering to gain more ESL experience and make my application more competitive.
• March 10, 2010- Also received an e-mail from the Education Office asking if I was able to leave sooner than October 2010. I said yes, and was immediately transferred to a program leaving in September for Eastern Europe.
• April 17, 2010- Received dental clearance.
• May 18, 2010- Received medical clearance and although I thought I'd be happier at this point to hear more, I was starting to get used to "waiting" for more information from the Peace Corps.
• Same Day- Received e-mail from a Placement Officer asking if I would agree to change my placement to Asia leaving in July or August. I consider leaving earlier rather than later but then determine I'll just be happier once I know something more final... so I agree.
• May 21, 2010- Sent e-mail to Education Office updating my resume.
• May 24, 2010- Received e-mail from Placement Office asking if I was comfortable riding a bike 1-3 miles per day. I laughed when I got the e-mail and responded quickly with a "YES!"
• May 25, 2010- Received Official Invite to Cambodia!

And that my friends, is how my application process went! I've read other volunteer and their timelines have been slower, some have been faster. I guess it all depends on the individuals application and what types of issues, whether it'd be medical, dental, financial etc. they have.

Now that unknown County of Assignment is known, I only have more things to do, for instance packing. This woman who I work with asked me if I starting packing yet. I could only laugh and then explained I was more of the "pack the night before" type. I mean I do have 6 weeks to pack, right? She didn't think it was that funny and then I started wondering too... should I start at least thinking about it? Maybe tomorrow :)

With love,

Mads