Hair loss, sickness, 2 New Years and my 15 minutes of fame!
on Meg's Cambodian Adventures (Cambodia), 06/Feb/2009 12:33, 34 days ago
Hello and happy end of January! I ended 2008 by braving my first Cambodian hairdressing experience whilst visiting Claire in Kampot. At $3 for a full head of highlights it seemed like a bargain! After negotiations in khmengilsh about where the highlights would be placed- I sat back and relaxed with my hair in foils. The first sign that $3 highlights will not make you happy was that my head started to burn after about 10 minutes- I touched the foil and they were crazy hot… but what can you do? They washed them out shortly after and my hair was white blond- successful. And falling out in clumps- not successful! I tried not to cry and kept smiling and saying thank you since it wasn’t her fault my hair is different to Khmer hair. Hollie Claire and I cycled back toClaires house as quick as we could and I got them to pull all of my hair as hard as they could… luckily I still have a lots left so alls well that ends well and I have learnt my lesson :o)We then headed on to shianoukville (the beach) to see the new year in, we met lots of other volunteers who came to Cambodia on our intake and so we had a big reunion. We had a great night- beach parties all long the sea front… may have had a few too many buckets of cocktails though and I missed new year with my friends cuz I was a’wanderin- we had a great night though and all swam in the sea and lost our flip flops and had lots of fun although January 1st was officially the worst day of my year! The beaches are beautiful and a couple of days later we went on a boat trip where we went snorkling around in the clear waters around some amazing islands. This month I have spent some time staying with friends- Hollie and I went to stay in Kratie with Claire Bennet. Kratie is lovely- ive been told.. I spent the entireweekend on Claires balconey feeling as though I was dying! On the Friday night we all went out for a bite to eat andd we got back home and we all stayed in Claires bed- I got up about 10 times with the worst sickness/tummy ever- but I wont go into details but it felt like the devil was trying to get out of me! I still cant believe Claire and Hollie didn’t wake up once! So yeah- all I saw of Kratie was Claires balcony whilst I drank cake and crackers,I am still adjusting to a massive change in lifestyle- I cant describe how rural life is in mondkulkiri and in order to be happy, Ive had to adjust all the things that make me happy in a way… like enjoying nature, or learning how to play a game with some of the kids, just generally watching life go by and not feeling like I should be rushing around. Work is going so well- I am building great relationships with the teachers. I have just started working closely with a grade 1 teacher.Although the curriculum is in Khmer, she is bunong and does not understand Khmer well, so it’s a huge challenge to try and teach in Khmer- but I think she really appreciates the help. One of the main things im doing is trying to show the teachers that learning can be fun and so we try to play lotsof games- because that is really lacking in the schools. I am so grateful at the moment about the thing that are happening in my life and how normal it seems- I don’t double take when I see an elephant walk past me on the way to work… I have the most amazing drives to the schools, through jungles, past waterfalls over mountains… breathtaking. Im also learning so much about life from the people I meet here, communities and families working together and taking care of each other. People taking time to do things- just to talk, to watch to laugh and be happy with such simple things in lifethat are sometimes easy to miss… Its really making me think about whats important- about how if you’re constantly looking for improvements and bigger and better things and things that will make you happier - you forget to be happy now…. I have started volunteering at English lessons at the boarding school so that the teenagers can practice speaking and hearing English. They are great and so sweet and friendly and curious about life outside of Cambodia- they are all very poor kids who live far from town and have to board to go to high school. Really inspirational- one boy walks home everymonth to see his family - it takes him a day each way, it’s a very long way to Memong.Anyway, very excitingly, I may now be a big Khmer movie star! Well maybe that’s a slight over-exaggeration… VSO have done a documentary about the end of our ‘mainstreaming inclusive education’ project. One of the schools in the district I work in was in the film, (pu loung- great school) anyway they were filming for two days and our section is only 5 minutes (crazy!)but I might be in it… never know and then I can be famous- well within VSO!A couple of weeks ago- after I had truly recovered from new year- we had another ney year- chienese new year! My landlords family cooked a feast and they bought some up to my house which was sweet, when I took the bowl back they insisted that I stay for a beer- or 6! It was really good fun, the men were so so drunk though- but in a funny way! Khmer women don’t generally drink so we normally end up drinking with the men and then going to chat with the women- parties are fairly bizarrely segregated like that- but everyone seems happy so cest la vie! Everyone here loves parties and any excuse will do!Right now im in Phnom Penh for two weeks on extended language training- so we’re back with Dara talking about songsaas, panyahas and coach chetts and receiving life advice from the wiseness that is the essence of Dara! All enjoyable but I miss my home in the mountains and am looking forward to getting back!Wow these blogs are getting longer and longer- I must be waffling more!Muchos love till next time xxxxP.s. Here are some crazy little price facts for those of you who are bored enough to still be reading… Beer is cheaper than water, hash browns are more expensive than hash (so we’ve been told!) and cheese is more expensive than caviar- crazy! Needless to say it is the cheese that’s most upsetting…