It’s strange how sometimes I struggle to sit down and write a blog update despite this being a hectic past two weeks. I also tried to rehash the details with my brother on the phone, but he said it was hard to follow along because he doesn’t know the characters in my life in Cambodia. So once again I present you with little anecdotes that have happened over the past two weeks.
-Well, my phone broke: I swear I didn’t drop it in water, didn’t drop it, etc. but my iPhone decided to start randomly overheating from the time of 10am to 10pm making it difficult to use my phone. When it would get too hot (and remember I live in Cambodia so the existing temperature would naturally heat my phone up) the touch screen would not work to get in my phone. There is not an Apple Store in Cambodia, let alone an Apple Store in my province. So I spent a couple of days pondering my options on what to do about fixing this problem. My coteacher took me to a phone shop two weeks ago and they said to come back on the weekend to see the problem and I asked her if she could please take me to the phone shop again because I did not want to go alone. She said yes, we would go on Sunday. On Saturday, I went to my Khmer lesson and described my problems to my tutor. He said to try to wipe the phone and maybe it would make it better. I went home still having phone problems, and decided to wipe my phone. In the meantime, two students asked to borrow my bike to go to the market (this is important for later). After I wiped my phone, I went to go reset it up. Not only did wiping the phone not help because the phone was extremely hot and the touch screen didn’t work, the phone needed wifi to set up…. And my house does not have wifi. With no bike to bike to the school because I lent it to the students, I sat outside and thought about life. let’s just pause and take a moment to realize how addicted we are to our phones because I did not have it for two hours and was lost, I couldn’t even read a book because it is on my phone. The students came back and I biked to the school and reset up my phone. Let’s just saw long story short, I have ended up getting a cheap phone to temporarily fix the problem. It is not great but I am just grateful the phone works. From this very long story I would like to describe a moment of growth for me. When I wiped my phone and it still wouldn’t work, I wanted to cry, but I didn’t. I was freaking out but I knew things would work out. And I am also very grateful for my coteacher for helping me.
-I have had a habit of when I go to Phnom Penh to buy dried pasta for me and my family to eat. I occasionally make it as a snack, an my host brother seems to love it (he for sure would be a Mac and cheese and chicken nuggets kid in the US). Anyways, my host sister always says “I will make spaghetti” but continued to postpone it. Until this past week, where she made spaghetti not for lunch, not for dinner, but for breakfast. For Cambodia, there is not differentiation between what is deemed a breakfast/lunch/dinner food, it is just all food. That is why I usually have rice for breakfast (lunch and dinner too). The first day we had spaghetti for breakfast, I thought about the movie Elf with the spaghetti and syrup Will Ferrel makes. And so I ate it and it was good. On the second day, before I had to go to the local university for an event (will write about that later), I was in a hurry to get out the door but she said “Wait eat breakfast first!” I came into the kitchen and she made spaghetti again but added scramble eggs and meatballs. Also good, but it felt even more like the scene from Elf! Anyways besides spaghetti for breakfast, my host sister also has started to make pancakes for me in the morning because I taught her how to make those! I am grateful that she makes me feel like home.
-On last Thursday, it was meeting day at the school. That means I am at the school in the morning for our monthly meeting, however, in the afternoon I am free, usually with not much to do! So I decided to go to the coffee stand by my house. I have become such a regular that now I usually speak with the coffee lady about my day. While I was there, I saw the other volunteer biking on the road and so he stopped to chat. Then two students drove by on a motorcycle and said “hello teacher!” and then after that my neighbor’s girlfriend pulled up to the coffee stand to get gas. That is to say I saw so many people at one time! It made me feel like such a part of the community and talking with so many people is great
-on Friday, I woke up at 3am with my fan off. I thought the power had just gone out for 10 minutes like usual, but then when I woke up at 6, the fan still did not work. I went outside and my host sister told me that some people came to our house and cut our power line. I didn’t realize it until the electrician came, but the people stole 120m worth of electrical wire for our power. We got the problem fixed, and my host sister bought more cable, but while she went to buy more, apparently happened to other people too. I couldn’t believe it happened!
-Last big story, I got invited to go back to the local university on Saturday morning to watch the level 3 students defend their research proposals. I did not know the event would last 4 hours, but it was a nice opportunity to listen to the hard work on the English majors! I listened to all of them give their research proposals and got to give them comments and feedback. A friend who I made at the university said I looked very serious while I was judging the presentations, but I told him I had to write everything down to make sure I formed some good questions.
-I have had a little more time to read books (and also take some time to myself to rest and relax) I have fallen back into my nice habit of reading which is something I missed while at university (I was studying so much I never wanted to read)
-lastly, my grant application is moving forward and so I am excited to hopefully get the next steps approved so I can start to raise money!
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