Wanting Memories: Find Out When I'm Going Home and Look at Pretty Pictures!

Life in the Peace Corps can be as slow as an ox cart or as fast as the motorbikes zooming past me on National Highway 4. The past several months have gone by quickly with visits from my friend, Grace, and my Aunt Kathy and Cousin Shannon in addition to two new projects I’ve been working on in the new year. All of a sudden, I find myself more than halfway down the mountain racing towards the finish line of this dusty Cambodian marathon.

In November I hosted my first visitor to Cambodia, my dear friend, Grace, whom I met under interesting circumstances during my first term in the Carleton choir. It was such a blessing to see a familiar face and finally be able to share my life and experiences with someone from back home. For over a year I made students and community members shudder as I explained that I had never visited Cambodia’s national treasure, Angkor Wat. It was unimaginable to many people that a foreigner could be in their country so long without ever visiting the ancient ruins. Finally, with Grace, I visited Angkor Wat and several other touristic sites that I’d been waiting to see with visitors from home.

The temples in Siem Reap were truly astonishing. I was struck over and over by how old everything was. Grace and I also visited a stilted village on the Mekong River, a crocodile farm, several markets and pagodas, a family silk weaving business, and some historical sites related to the Khmer Rouge genocide of the 1970s. It was so pleasant to relax, see a new side of Cambodia, and share a week with my friend. The only thing that made her parting easier was knowing that my family would arrive for a visit in less than a month.

Kathy and Shannon arrived the weekend before Christmas, and they brought with them plenty of Christmas cheer and several holiday traditions from home. While visiting my site in Kampong Speu, they surprised me one night with a gingerbread village kit which Shannon and I put together in the comfort of an air conditioned hotel room while listening to the familiar Christmas CDs they had brought from home. On Christmas day, Rudolph the red-nosed Ohm and her elves delivered gifts to all my family that had gathered around to try my aunt’s holiday cooking. With the help of a few ingredients from Phnom Penh, Kathy was able to whip up her internationally famous mashed potatoes (my very favorite) and chicken milanesa for our Christmas dinner which we also shared with my best friend in the Peace Corps, Gilbert. In the evening we also made tacos and a delicious apple crisp with ice cream and homemade whipped cream. This was only the start of a magical week with my family.

After exploring Cambodia, Kathy, Shannon, and I went to Bangkok where we explored, rested, and ate in genuine Mama Caruso style. Our adventures included a ride on a canoe-style boat through a floating market, elephant riding, and a journey into a mob of approximately 250,000 New Year’s Eve revelers. For our relaxation we enjoyed the pools, spas, and magnificent views from our hotels in Bangkok. Perhaps best of all, though, were our daily opportunities to indulge in Thailand’s delicious cuisine. We ate several multi-course meals including one aboard a river cruise through the heart of the city on NYE. The best, however, was the Thai meal we cooked ourselves with the help of the staff at Silom cooking school. Much like with Grace’s trip, the experiences were fantastic, but the true blessing was the ability to be with my loved one’s during the holidays to share stories and traditions from the past while making new ones for the future.

Once I arrived home from Bangkok on January first, it was full force ahead into the new year. I started the month by helping eight students and two co-teachers apply for a study program in the US, and I also began work on a grant application for a library project in my school which will connect donors in the US with a community-initiated project here in my school. I’ll share more about both of these projects in later blog posts.

For now, I'll share a few pictures from my travels and my (nearly) official close of service date: August 1st! I should be back home by mid-August, and I'm looking forward to seeing all my loved ones so much! Thank you for checkin into my blog again, and thank you for all your love and support!