Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas! I know this post is long overdue, my apologies for that. I’ll mention why in a moment, but first… I never told you about the girl’s camp! I have only recently realized that I didn’t actually give you a full account of the doings. My bad! So it was day and a half event. We met on Saturday afternoon. My friends Ratha and Lauren helped me facilitate (and when I say helped I mean they may have ended up doing more than me, there were fantastic) They broke into groups and talked about things like what leadership means to them and things they can do to be leaders in their own lives. Each group presented their ideas to the others. Then they made collages. They were told to select pictures from magazines that they thought represented something about themselves, and they were asked to write their names, using English adjectives that they thought described themselves. The idea being something like this
Bright
Resourceful
Independent
=BRI
There were just enough supplies for each girl to do a paper, but competition for their usage was fierce. Also, the part about using adjectives didn’t really get through, so they just used random English words. So it would be something like this:
Bread
Road
Inside
=BRI
Some of my favorites: Ranou = Run, Animal, Night, Only, Update and Nita = Need, Ice Cream, Temple, A doctor;
This was the end of day one. Things were going well. And then Sunday happened. First let me say that this one of the most fantastic things I’ve ever done in my life, but with my less than stellar organizational skills combined with Cambodia’s total lack of organization, chaos ensued. My guest speaker showed up an hour early, except that my one guest speaker turned out to be four guest speakers. He had invited his friends. And they were slightly annoyed because they went to the high school when I had told them to come to the elementary school. Lesson learned: always double check in Khmer when making arrangements. Thankfully it was all cool. My friend Lauren who is PCV in another province came to help out, and was a lifesaver. I couldn’t have done it without her. She entertained our friends until it was their turn to talk (and she did a thousand other amazingly helpful things). They were all experienced development workers, so they had really good things to say. We played another game and then had a lunch break. After lunch, a female development came and spoke about finding jobs. She is one of my good friends, and she was sooooo nervous. But it really seemed to give her a dose of confidence to be asked to speak. And the girls were really interested in what she had to say; they asked tons of questions. Then…. the straw game! Each group was given a bag of drinking straws and a roll of tape. The group that built the tallest tower won. It was an intense competition. There are no words to describe the noise of 30+ teenage girls screaming at the top of their lungs. Wow. It was hard battle. Losses were sustained on all sides. Towers crumbled. But in the end everyone ended up with some candy so it was all good. The game was followed with an intense photo shoot as each girl needed a photo with the foreigners. They don’t really form lines in this country, everyone just sort of jostles for position. So we introduced to them to this new and painful concept. And then we danced. All girl dance parties are possibly the best self esteem building activities ever. The girls absolutely let loose. I’ve never seen them dance on tables at normal parties before. Yes, there was synchronized table dancing. We know how party. Their only complaint was that the whole thing was just too short; they had a really great time. But the best part came at school on Monday. One of the camp participants who is really shy volunteered to present her groups work in front of the whole class. I almost cried. So thanks again to everyone who helped make it possible!

There isn’t really a lot to report since then. The reason I have been so long in writing is that no matter where you are in the world, how old you are, or what language you speak, sometimes life will just kind of suck. Yes, friends, even in a country where you are kind of required to nap and drink coconuts, life can take a dump on you. But I’m sure you have figured that out already, so I am going to keep this positive.

It’s Christmas! At least that is what my calendar says. The fact that the palm trees outside are withering from the heat and I’m still sweating while lying underneath a fan begs to differ. No, it doesn’t feel like Christmas. I’m carrying around a mini Christmas tree and a Santa hat to remind myself that it actually is Christmas. The thing is that the people here are pretty used to me doing ridiculous things. I’m foreign. Of course I do weird stuff. During the camp, when I would go to a vendor and say “I need 10 bags of drinking straws and 6 six rolls of packing tape” they’re like “Of course you do”. No one finds it strange because I’m already strange. So of course I’m running around with a Santa hat. I’m foreign. Why wouldn’t I be running around with a Santa hat? They wouldn’t let me wear it to school this morning, which kinda made me sad. It’s a special hat. It actually has a glittery Santa on the hat! I got it a, get this, at a Christmas party! The Lutheran World Federation has an office here, and while most of the staff is Cambodian Buddhist, the head of the organization in Cambodia is an American who came for an annual meeting. So we had a Christmas party. We even built a Christmas tree. Did any of you have a Christmas tree made from affixing mango tree branches to a bamboo frame? I think not. And instead of putting presents on the tree, they hung small presents from the branches like ornaments. I think they just put whatever happened to be lying around inside of these presents, as I received condoms. Merry Christmas to me. Today I taught my students Jingle Bells and We Wish You a Merry Christmas. After school I was kind of feeling sad, so my co-teacher sang the Christmas songs to me. It was really sweet. But I don’t think it’s the weather or the food (I think I can safely say I’ve never eat rice on Christmas day before) that makes it seem that way. I think it’s being the only person who really cares that it is Christmas. In America, everyone knows and everyone is making preparations. People ask each other where they’re going for Christmas, have they finished shopping, etc. There are decorations in store windows, products are specially packaged in red and green, and it seems like there are just more people everywhere. It’s not something I was conscious of in the states, but when everyone is participating in something it makes a person feel like they are a part of a greater whole. And while it is annoying to have to wait in lines for hours at wal-mart, it’s something that marks Christmas. It’s those little things that make it hard for me to realize it’s Christmas. The small, subliminal cues that tell us Christmas is coming don’t exist here.

But I wouldn’t have you think that the lack of Christmas spirit means lack of party spirit. Nothing could be further from the truth. In the past week I have attended a wedding and a Christmas party, today I will attend a three-year death anniversary (the exciting thing about dying in Cambodia is that you get way more parties thrown in your honor than you ever did when you were alive, there is a funeral the day someone dies, one 7 days later, one 100 days later, and one 3 years later, some even do a 10 year one), and on Sunday one of students is having a birthday. Woot. And at least two more weddings are happening next month. So there will be no shortage of good times. Thanks to everyone for your prayers and support. I’ve received cards from people I haven’t seen in forever, some from people I barely know, and some from people I don’t know at all. Your support has meant so much to recently. I can’t even tell you how much I appreciate it. I hope you all have a great holiday season!