And that is how I ended up biking home with about 10 kilos of oranges on the back of my bike...
After staying a night in Battambang, because the drive to Banteay Meanchey was so long, I was ready to finally meet my host family. The other people on this long journey went swimming at the pool and walked around the city with my LCF. The next day, when we took the van, the ride turned out to be quicker than I thought.
I met my new host mom (but she likes to be called sister), my host dad (brother), grandma (mom), and two younger siblings who are 10 and 11 and then a niece who is 14. Besides having a larger family, I also have a lot of extended brothers and sisters because my sister built our house and the house next door to house students who live too far away, in order to give them an opportunity to go to school. I have quickly realized that she is an absolute wonder woman. She has the heart of pure gold supporting the students (which she has done for many years). She has taken care of me so much in the short amount of time that I have been here and I really don't know when she sleeps. She wakes up so early to cook for everyone, teaches English all day at the high school, and then I think she also teaches extra lessons to the students who live next door. She said in her free time she likes to sew, but I was like "when do you have free time??"
After I arrived and unpacked at home, I showered and ate lunch and then my sister took me to the school where I will be teaching at. I put on my sampot and white shirt, but biking in the hot sun down the road was brutal. When I got to the school I was so sweaty and I was hoping to dry off really fast. I met the school director and some of the teachers that I already met in Phnom Penh. Everyone at the school is so nice, and the school itself is so nice as well! I get my own desk in the teacher building and there are always people around if I have any questions. After I got to the school, the school director took me around to every class and made me introduce myself to all of the students (and there were also parent-teacher conferences going on that day as well and I had to introduce myself to some of the parents.) I was not expecting to stay at the school until 5pm, but I did. (They were also sorting out my schedule to teach and currently they want me to teach at 7:00-8:30am and then 1:00-2:30pm everyday, so I have some early mornings ahead of me!)
I made the sweaty bike ride back home, and then I kept unpacking. We ate traditional Khmer food which was super good and cooked in banana leaves, and then my sister asked if I wanted to go to a concert. It was right across the road from our houses so my whole family walked to the concert and it was like a concert and a carnival!
On Sunday, I slept until 7 (which was sleeping in...). I helped mix a red powder with some fish, but that then turned my hands a bright orange color. I washed them about 3x but the color would not come out and so I was walking around town for about half the day with orange hands. My host mom showed me the market where I can buy soap and other things like that and also where to buy hangars (I also need to go back today and buy a water bottle to fit into my water bottle carrier my sister made for me!) We also bought a lot of fruit including: bananas, dragonfruit, oranges, and strawberries (which are small and expensive here but my siblings love it). We also bought oranges (but the outside is green) off of a truck from a lady that was selling them and they were the best oranges I have ever had. And that is how I ended up biking home with about 10 kilos of oranges on the back of my bike. The bag of oranges did fall off of my bike once but I did not lose any. Trying to follow my sister and my two younger siblings home is so hard because they are on the moto and I am on the bike and my brother always says "Come on Alex let's go".
At home, I had a great heart to heart talk with my sister. She is such an incredible person and I am lucky to live with my whole family for the next two years! I waited so long to do laundry, and so by the time it was 3:00 I needed to do it fast. My mom helped me do it because it was going to take way too long for me to do it alone otherwise. After all of that, my siblings tried to teach me Khmer and we colored and watched YouTube outside. My younger brother (who is 11) loves watching Masha the Bear and Mr. Bean. Also at 4:30 my mom gave us food and I thought that was dinner and so I ate a lot... turns out it was just a snack and we ate dinner again at 7:00. I was so tired at the end of the day, I fell asleep at 8:30! But I did have to wake up at 5:30am this morning to get ready to go to school at 6:20. My little brother has discovered that he likes to ride on the back of my bike and so now I have to pull his weight as well when I ride to school. I observed the two English classes that I will probably teach on Monday, and then the rest of the time are office hours for the students (although they are all in class when I am here). Because I told the school director that I wanted to learn to write Khmer, he handed me a large stack of books that the kids learn from. So now I have been tasked with remembering new letters everyday (also when I go home I also learn the letters then because my family has a poster to remember it). Anyways, life has been slightly chaotic but the move has gone well!
Key Takeaways:
-my host family is incredible and so kind hearted
-the food is good
-the school director is excited I want to learn Khmer and also keeps giving me Khmer snacks to try so I can learn
-the oranges are ឆ្ងាញ់ (delicious)
-my host siblings keep saying "Alex so cool"
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