Special for the Cochrane Times
Alberta, Canada
Alberta, Canada
If people are interested in getting involved with Sustainable Cambodia or would like to donate, they can go to sustainablecambodia.org.
My travel blog is postinginpursat.blogspot.com.
You sip on your double shot, non-fat café latte, listening to CBC radio and texting your friend about the great weekend you had. This is all while stuck in traffic on your way to work. Sound familiar?
I was that person only a month ago. But now I live in a place where there is no news in English, no traffic jams, and — horror! — no Starbucks.
I had tried my best to prepare for this four-month volunteer posting with Sustainable Cambodia (SC). Apart from all the online research, phone calls and countless lists of last minute shopping errands, I bought the latest gear from Mount Equipment Co-op; checked and re-checked visas, health records, first-aid kits and squeezed every travel book I could muster into my overflowing suitcase. However, I soon realized that no travel book could have prepared me for my new life in rural Cambodia.
My first month in Pursat, a rural community about three hours northwest of the capital of Phnom Penh was a far cry from my predictable and comfortable life in Cochrane. I was not prepared for the poverty I have witnessed. Children tugging at your shirt, looking up at you with their big, droopy eyes begging for a few hundred Reil. Land mine victims, sitting with their hands together in prayer, beg to the whizzing cars and bustling apathetic people that dash by.
I did not realize how hard communication would be, not knowing the local language of Khmer. Even when using my Khmer phrase book, I get gawky blank stares and awkward giggles. As a result, I end up using eccentric hand movements and cave man-like grunts. The language barrier makes it a struggle for the most basic of tasks, like ordering food from a restaurant. With no menus or English, meals are always a surprise. The only thing I can predict is the two choices it comes with — rice or noodles. Served on top of these staple carbs, are fried crickets, cow brain, and fish paste, to name just a few.
From electricity outages to bucket showers; from laptop ant infestations to cricket plagues at night; from Asian pop music echoing the streets at 7 a.m. to Karaoke Saturdays at the office — everything seems so foreign to me. Daily life is not anything I've experienced before. Yet, it has been one of the most exciting, exhilarating, and exploratory months of my life.
Currently, I am working as a marketing co-ordinator, helping to develop funding proposals and increased sponsorship.
I was that person only a month ago. But now I live in a place where there is no news in English, no traffic jams, and — horror! — no Starbucks.
I had tried my best to prepare for this four-month volunteer posting with Sustainable Cambodia (SC). Apart from all the online research, phone calls and countless lists of last minute shopping errands, I bought the latest gear from Mount Equipment Co-op; checked and re-checked visas, health records, first-aid kits and squeezed every travel book I could muster into my overflowing suitcase. However, I soon realized that no travel book could have prepared me for my new life in rural Cambodia.
My first month in Pursat, a rural community about three hours northwest of the capital of Phnom Penh was a far cry from my predictable and comfortable life in Cochrane. I was not prepared for the poverty I have witnessed. Children tugging at your shirt, looking up at you with their big, droopy eyes begging for a few hundred Reil. Land mine victims, sitting with their hands together in prayer, beg to the whizzing cars and bustling apathetic people that dash by.
I did not realize how hard communication would be, not knowing the local language of Khmer. Even when using my Khmer phrase book, I get gawky blank stares and awkward giggles. As a result, I end up using eccentric hand movements and cave man-like grunts. The language barrier makes it a struggle for the most basic of tasks, like ordering food from a restaurant. With no menus or English, meals are always a surprise. The only thing I can predict is the two choices it comes with — rice or noodles. Served on top of these staple carbs, are fried crickets, cow brain, and fish paste, to name just a few.
From electricity outages to bucket showers; from laptop ant infestations to cricket plagues at night; from Asian pop music echoing the streets at 7 a.m. to Karaoke Saturdays at the office — everything seems so foreign to me. Daily life is not anything I've experienced before. Yet, it has been one of the most exciting, exhilarating, and exploratory months of my life.
Currently, I am working as a marketing co-ordinator, helping to develop funding proposals and increased sponsorship.
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