November Highlights

Writing regularly in my blog has been more challenging than I’d expected it’d be. To inspire myself to write more frequently, I’ve decided to try a few different tactics..

I’m drawn to the more narrative, descriptions of daily events and moments. We remember the big things with little trouble:special trips, surprises, things that happen only once a year. But the emotions tied to routine and daily normalcy are what I miss most when I leave a place. Those fleeting moments happen all the time with such small degrees of variation that they eventually blend into the single lump that defines “normal”. While major events are easy to talk about, it’s really the challenge of noticing those easily forgotten moments and elevating the mundane into something interesting that draws me. I suppose that also explains my love of macro-photography.

It takes a long time to write these types of posts, though. I spend a lot of time thinking and rethinking, wondering if the story is even worth telling so long after it’s happened. I like my posts to occur in chronological order but there’s so much I haven’t written about that’s long over now. If I were to stick with this method, I ‘d never get around to talking about this week’s events until the end of the year. Of course, one way of getting around this problem is to decide not to go back to events that happened months ago. But then pieces of my narrative here would be missing, and that bothers me.

Of course, another solution is to stop worrying about posting events in order and focus on just writing, making my stories less time sensitive or mentioning when it happened. Of course, that still doesn’t solve the issue of motivation to write.

To take pressure off myself a little, I’ve decided to try adding short updates on a weekly or bi-weekly basis, highlighting a few important or interesting things that happened. This will fill my desire for some chronology while allowing me to take my time to write the expanded version of some of those events. Of course, once I start writing I may find myself churning out longer pieces anyway. The important part is that I will be writing something.

Another thing I’d like to do is lift up some of the wonderful things my colleagues have written in their blogs or newsletters. Each of us have different writing styles, with different ways of relating our experiences here. Much as I’d like to at times, I can’t write like anyone but myself. But if you only read my words, you’ll be missing out on so much. both in terms of content and perspective.

I’ll be summarizing or lifting excerpts directly from things they’ve written and putting them in my blog posts giving credit where it’s due. My hope is that, at the very least, you will benefit from hearing about thoughts from a different perspective than my own. And if the bits you read inspire you to click a link to the original source to read the posts in full, that would be even better!

As for the events of these past weeks. Notable moments include:

• Johanna, the girl from Germany who was working in Kruos with me, decided to complete her year at the youth hostel and church in Phnom Penh where Ashley Rosa is working.

• The election: Reactions to the US elections affected us even halfway around the world, though when I say “us” I really mean my fellow YAGMs and me. I’ve been somewhat removed from American politics the last few years so the news didn’t hit me as hard as it did some of the others. Still, I thought the results were a joke when I first saw them on Pastor Mose’s computer. I didn’t realize it was serious until Caroline sent me a message on Facebook.  The one person in my community who seemed to be following the election speaks no English and my Khmer is still rudimentary at best. There was little either of us could convey about the complexity of thoughts and feelings (at least mine were) beyond the names of the candidates and the word crazy.

Even though I haven’t personally felt too affected by Trump’s election – in terms of how people here perceive me as an American – I know I won’t be that lucky all the time. Matt wrote a bit about how Trump’s Presidency can affect Americans living and traveling in other countries. I strongly encourage you to read it here.

• A site visit with country coordinators, Matt and Jen: They came to Kruos for 1 night and day to see what life looks like for me here. During some free time, we took walks in the village and went swimming in a creek near the edge of the village.

• I visited Srey Yeap’s house and learned about ambok and even helped make some. Ambok is uncooked rice that’s been toasted and pounded flat into flakes. It tastes a little like popcorn and is only made once a year around harvest time. I’ve been told you can only make it with freshly harvested rice, perhaps because the grains aren’t fully ripe or aren’t as dry as they’re made to be when processing for long-term storage.

• We had a festival called the Water Festival. Big cities like Phnom Penh celebrate with boat races and water themed events. We didn’t attend any so we celebrated the holiday in our own way. That Sunday we had a joint service with the adults and youth. There was a table decorated with harvest foods like bananas, ambok, coconut, and sweet potato. Some of the youth sang songs and danced. After church, people worked together to crack open the coconuts and mix the water and meat with ambok and sugar. Portions were doled out and people ate the sweet snack. Someone turned on the music and we ended the evening with a dance party as people slowly trickled out.

• We continued our celebration of the holiday by eating a picnic next to a river in the mountains and swimming and playing in the water. This river seemed to have a history with crocodiles but when I asked Mose if they were still a threat there he said no. The water level and speed does fluctuate however and there is a PA warning system set up to tell people to stay out of the water if it’s too deep or fast. I spent my time swimming back and forth against the water, playing with Suzan, and admiring the many colors of the butterflies floating around. I had a devil of a time getting any pictures of them and only managed to get one of the green ones. But the purple ones evaded me.

• The week after, I traveled to Siem Reap for our YAGM fall retreat with the rest of the group. Johanna and Phil Baker, the regional representative for Southeast Asia, joined us. We had to shift our schedule around a little when a few of us became ill the second full day there….food poisoning we believe. Almost everyone had fallen ill by the end of the week though in varying degrees of debilitation. Still, we managed to get all the important bits done. We talked about Cambodian history in the Angkorean era and visited various sites in the Angkor Archaeological park including the famous Wat itself. We discussed and practiced site mapping and Theory of Change which were new skills for me. The Bodhi Tree retreat and meditation center graciously hosted much of our logistical group time. A few others and myself led Holden Evening Prayer and, with Phil’s presence, we were also able to have communion.

• In the middle of the night after I’d returned home Laiheak and Mose drove to the hospital because their baby decided that 2 am was a great time to be born. [I mentioned she was heavily pregnant at one point,  didn’t I? Also, why do I feel like I hear more stories about babies being born in the middle of the night rather than in the middle of the day?] Suzan and Susanna now have a little brother. A couple of names have been tossed out but nothing’s been decided on yet. Mother and son came home a day or two later but I haven’t seen much of them because they spend most of their time resting and recovering in their room.

• In a week, I’ll be in Phnom Penh for a worship weekend with the YAGM Cambodia crew during which time we’ll celebrate Christmas together. A few of us have events happening on site during Christmas so we’re celebrating early so we can be at our participate in activities at our placements. I’m not sure what we’ll do here at Kruos exactly, but based on what I’ve heard about last year, it sounds like there’ll be some dancing and maybe a play.

I’ve otherwise spent my time teaching, walking or biking to the creek at the edge of the village, cooking and eating meals, cross-stitching (a new hobby I’ve picked up for the year), and reading.

That’s all for now!