A Beautiful Thing

Like I’m sure most other third world countries are, Cambodia is a pretty harsh place to live. There are areas of the city where trash fills the gutters, sickly cats and dogs roam the streets, some street vendors and restaurants could cause even the bravest traveler to raise an eyebrow in regards to sanitation, and the sticky mixture of intense heat and humidity can be almost unbearable.

Sounds fun doesn’t it? One of my FAVORITE aspects of Cambodia is that for every single less than desirable attribute it may have, there are at least five beautiful things that completely overshadow it. I mean, just in this past week there have been many things that have given me pause solely due to the simple beauty they have shown me. I’d like to share a few.

First off, Cambodians are some of the most humble people I’ve ever met in my life. Even though I’m a poor college student, I’m pretty sure I have more money right now in my bank account than many of the people I now see every day will ever have in their life at once. Even though they’re incredibly poor, they are so kind, giving, and open to complete strangers. I was riding down the street on my bike with Dan and his wife Zoya one day and they both randomly broke into a ballad of the Arthur theme song. No sooner than they had started, a random tuk tuk driver pulled up alongside of them and started singing along. He obviously had no idea what they were singing, but that didn’t stop him from chiming in his very own rendition to the theme of an American child television classic. I couldn’t help but smile.

My first day working at CYN, I made a new friend. Unfortunately I still don’t know her name because she barely speaks any English (and Khmer names are really hard to pronounce), but she has become one of the friendly faces at work that I enjoy trying to communicate with. Any time there would be moments of prolonged silence, she’d get my attention and start jabbering away in both Khmer and broken English. She’d always start off with an apology that her English wasn’t very good because “she was poor” to which I’d do my best to reassure her that it was perfectly fine since I was incredibly ignorant in the Khmer language. She was able to convey to me that she was studying history at university and then had no hesitation in whipping out her phone and showing me pictures of a school trip she had been on over a holiday week with her class to some signature Cambodian historical sites. After a time, she abruptly paused and turned me and asked “If you have one wish, what it be?” and I had no idea what to say. I was truly taken aback by her sincerity and eagerness at a seemingly childish but actually thought provoking question. So I turned the question back on her to which she immediately got a huge smile on her face and said “I want to be teacher. No take money from kids.” I then decided that my wish would be that I could’ve filmed her response so I could relive that humbling experience over and over again.

While we Americans have Crossfit and Zumba, Cambodians have jazzercise. And I’m not talking jazzercise in an indoor gym; I’m talking about jazzercise in the wide open public eye. Every morning and night, you can go to one of the open plazas in the heart of Phnom Penh and join one of the many groups of people exercising their hearts out. A few of the interns and I decided to accompany our host mom who we call Om (means grandma) to an evening of jazzercise, and let me tell you, it was pretty epic. We arrived to see a few speakers set up and already emitting a thumping workout beat. Om excitedly introduced us to one of the instructors before signaling us to space ourselves out. The next thing we knew, we were shuffling our feet, punching the air, and waving our arms at the instruction of a Cambodian version of Richard Simmons. It was pretty much a dream come true.

The guy in red is Cambodian Richard.

I’ve really never known very much about the Buddhist religion, and quite honestly I still don’t know a whole bunch, but this past Sunday I was able to see how beautiful of a religion it is. I, along with two of my fellow interns, was invited this weekend to attend a Buddhist religious ceremony with one of the host families. The whole thing was obviously in Khmer and so I didn’t understand any of it, but that didn’t keep me from marveling at the pure devotion the people in attendance had. They’d pray to Buddha, then pray to monks, then pray to Buddha again, all with pure humility and reverence on their faces. At the end of all the praying, they fed the monks with a sumptuous feast. Even though the ceremony starkly contrasted with my personal religious beliefs, I somehow knew the worshippers were genuinely doing the things that they believed would help them be the best people they could be. And that was incredibly beautiful to me.

I know most of you already saw these on Facebook, but here you go anyways.

Perhaps the most beautiful thing I’ve seen so far in Cambodia also happened this past Sunday. After the Buddhist worship ceremony, we all headed to the local LDS Church to witness history being made in Cambodia. The first two Stakes ever in this country were created by Area and General Authorities. I was incredibly grateful and humbled to be sitting amongst Saints of Zion as they raised their voices in song and then sustained their new Stake Priesthood leaders. The excitement of the members, along with the Spirit, was almost tangible through every hymn and testimony. The members here are so solid and they shine with the Spirit of God. The Global Church is real, the Gospel is so true and it truly is spreading to every willing heart. Although Cambodia has gone through and continues to experience incredible hardship, the Church is the brightest beacon of hope this country has. Heavenly Father knows and loves His children no matter their background, ethnicity, the language they speak, or their gender. The events that transpired this past weekend strengthened my testimony of this; I can’t express how thankful I am to Heavenly Father for that.

It really is a beautiful thing.

Until next time.

Plot Twist!

Note to self: Just because you go with a group somewhere in the middle of Phnom Penh at nighttime one time DOES NOT necessarily mean you can find that same place all by yourself during the daytime. In the rain.

But of course this this note to self isn't a product of any of my own decisions. I mean, I would never decide to go out by myself on my bike in a waning rainstorm to find a place I had only been to once when it was nighttime. I would never get lost because of that decision and end up biking around the streets of the city like an idiotic white boy while getting sopping wet. And I would never miraculously find my way to an area that I recognize and thereby finding myself unlost. Never.

Okay. Perhaps I did find myself on a slightly damp and unexpected scenic journey throughout Phnom Penh today. The saddest part is I forgot to take pictures to document my adventure; my bad. But I did ride past a pretty botanical garden type thing! That was fun.

So I'm sure by now that most of you have been wondering how everything is shaping up with my internship and possibly even thinking I've just been on a two week long vacation. The latter thought is partly true, but do know that things have been happening for sure. Trust me. There's definitely a story and it's ridiculous.

A week ago Monday, six other interns and I showed up to RACHA eager to find out what projects we would be working on for the summer.

PLOT TWIST! They were actually not expecting us to come in at all that day and bumbled and fumbled at trying to find things to tell us to temporarily satisfy our curiosity. They failed miserably. So we scheduled a time to come in the following Monday since the rest of the week was occupied with Cambodian holidays. We dutifully show up the next Monday (this past one), hoping once again that we could settle all confusion and start working asap.

PLOT TWIST! RACHA was a complete failure and literally had nothing for us to do for them despite the fact they had been telling our student facilitator since January that they did. The word 'frustration' barely described the feelings most of us felt after that meeting as we realized we had to NGO hunt like mad. We hit dead end after dead end.

PLOT TWIST! After a few conversations with Dan (our student facilitator, I've mentioned him a ton so just learn the name) I decided deviate from public health and visit a human rights NGO another intern was already going to work for called NGO CEDAW. They specialize in women's rights but they're also a host NGO for a collection of a host of other human rights NGO's here in Cambodia. A member of their group that focuses on youth empowerment called Cambodia Youth Network (CYN) expressed great need for an intern. I thought I'd volunteer.

PLOT TWIST! Instead of showing up to NGO CEDAW to meet the leader for CYN, I showed up to learn that the CYN leader was sick and in the hospital. I got to know some of the amazing people at NGO CEDAW and then was instructed to come back the next day at 9 am.

PLOT TWIST! He decided to show up at 3:30 instead and I learned that it would take me forty minutes or so to ride my bike everyday to work. To make a long story short (too late I fear) a logistical nightmare ensued. And so I decided to just stay at NGO CEDAW instead of working for CYN and assist them in English teaching classes that they specifically asked us interns to do for them.

PLOT TWIST! I went into work this morning and found out that NGO CEDAW realized CYN's great need and arranged for me to be taken by tuk tuk everyday to CYN and then back again to teach English classes for them. This blog post is still already incredibly long so I'll fill you in on details later, but Imma have a busy summer you guys!

Sorry for the long drawn out story. It's seriously been a crazy ride and I have a feeling it's only gonna get more exciting. Thanks for sticking with me. I have my first day (at least I think I am) at CYN tomorrow and I'll really get to see just what I've gotten myself into. But here's your update. C'est la vie in Cambodia.

Until next time.

Never Again

Few things make me angry. I admit I'm quick to frustration but it takes something truly special... or should I say extreme to get me to the boiling point of anger. Perhaps one of the biggest, if not THE biggest, thing that really gets my dander up is when people enact and get away with acts of injustice. To put it simply, stupid people tick me off. For example, my friend and I watched Schindler's List over Christmas break and instead of being sad for the Jews who had their lives completely torn apart by the Nazis, I found myself angry at the followers of Hitler who could enact such horrors on innocent people. I felt those same feelings when I went to the Holocaust Museum in DC as a high school sophomore.

I had a very similar experience just this past Friday.

While I was fairly familiar with the atrocities that happened at the killing fields at Choeung Ek and the S-21 facility, I didn't realize just how much pain still lingered there. The Holocaust Museum was sad and all, but you're sort of removed since it's in DC and not Europe. When you go to Choeung Ek and S-21, you're standing in the very spot where unspeakable horrors occurred. And that's hard to deal with. So while this post will be difficult to read, I feel that this will be one of the most important blog posts I ever write while I'm here in Cambodia. People need to know what happened.

So Friday morning came, and after a long, bumpy, and very dusty tuk-tuk ride just outside of the city, we arrived here.

 

We paid for tickets, and then donned headphones plugged into a recording device that would serve as a personal tour guide throughout the grounds. The man in recording explained to me, that in 1975, a Communist man named Pol Pot, leader of the Khmer Rouge, gained power in Cambodia. He wanted to establish his vision of a perfect Cambodia, and the best way he thought of doing this was purging the country of every "Western" influence. So, in essence, anyone who was educated was now an "enemy of the state" and needed to be put to death. Doctors, teachers, lawyers, anyone with an education and their families now found themselves in Pol Pot's cross-hairs.

So, during the four years of Pol Pot's reign, he would find those he wanted dead and would ship them to many places like Choeung Ek around Cambodia to be systematically put to death. Here's what I saw.

 

There were about three of these. 

 Visitors leave wristbands as symbols of hope, love, and mourning.

 Yup. Those are real.

 In case you can't read that, it says, "Mass Grave of 166 victims without heads". One of the most awful things about this place was finding out that the people weren't killed with guns, they were killed with simple gardening tools like hoes, bamboo shoots, knives, things like that. Just awful.

When truckloads of people were brought to be killed, they would blast pro-Khmer Rouge songs over a loudspeaker to cover the screams of dying people.

 That says "Please don't walk on the mass grave!"

I just... I just can't. This was by far the hardest part of the whole place. Pol Pot wanted entire families dead because he didn't want any family member seeking revenge later down the line. Women, children, and babies were not spared and were killed in extremely brutal ways. I won't go into detail. Because reasons.

The tour ends with looking in a giant spire filled with skulls and bones dug up from the mass graves found on location. The different colored dots indicate the gender, age, and the evidence of which weapon was used to kill the individual. 

After this less than uplifting tour, we traveled to the inner city to a place called Tuol Sleng, or S-21. This was a torture facility, that used to be a high school, in which Pol Pot would bring educated people to and torture them until they confessed false crimes such as working with the CIA or aiding other western powers. The people that were brought here didn't even know why they were being arrested, and if they didn't die here, they were shipped off to the killing fields.

 This is one of the torture rooms. They'd be chained to the "bed" and them tortured in various ways until they confessed to crimes they didn't commit.

 They had four rooms filled with these pictures. The Khmer Rouge were freaks about documentation so all they faces you see were Cambodians who were arrested and taken to S-21, beaten, tortured, and then shipped off to Cheoung Ek. I tried to look at as many as I could. I wanted them to be remembered.

This woman was the wife of a Khmer Rouge official. Once Pol Pot started turning on his own men, her child was killed in front of her to force to her confess to uncommitted crimes, then she herself was killed.

These were the holding cells for prisoners while they weren't being questioned or tortured. They weren't allowed to speak to one another and sit in the intense heat of Cambodia.

I know it's not a great picture, but see how narrow they are?

Pol Pot and his regime killed about two million people. TWO MILLION. And it's not like it happened a long time ago; it was only in the seventies. Almost every Cambodian I've met had family members or friends that died under Pol Pot. And like I said earlier, the pain and sorrow at both those places was almost tangible. At Cheoung Ek, there was a journal that visitors could share their thoughts and feelings. As I thumbed through it, I saw a simple phrase, "Never Again." I completely agree. It makes me angry that innocent men, women, and children were killed so brutally. It makes me angry that Pol Pot was only ever given house arrest for his crimes before he died. But, it gives me more of a resolve to be more like Jesus Christ and to do all I can to make sure something like this NEVER happens again. Let's be a little kinder, more patient, and more understanding of those around us. Will you join me?

I hope this post didn't depress you. I'd love to talk to any of you about this when I get home and show you more pictures. Or even feel free to email me. Youtube it. Google it. This is something everyone needs to know about. I feel I didn't adequately convey the recognition these places deserve. 

But if you are depressed by this post, go eat some ice cream. That's what we interns did.

All of us got ice cream sundaes to cure our genocide induced depression. This was only $1.90, people! 

Man I love Cambodia.

Until next time.

Small, Small

Alright. I really need to be better about this whole posting thing. Since it's so blazing hot here, I'm just exhausted at the end of everyday and all I want to do is take a cold shower and go to bed. But I'm just making excuses. I shall improve.

Anyhow! I have yet to say pretty much ANYTHING about the food here in Cambodia so I thought that I would give you a run down of a cooking class that all of us did a few days ago. I feel that will give you a satisfactory look into some of the food here but I'll admit, this post will appeal most to all of my food connoisseur readers. I hope it'll be interesting despite the fact! So go grab a snack and eat while you read; because this is bound to make you hungry.

So the day started early around nine at a nice little restaurant where we met our teacher named Son (pronounced 'Sone'). Son explained to us in heavily accented (but adorable) English the events of the day before ushering us towards some tuk-tuks and leaving for the market.

I kinda have a hard time explaining the market.... so I'll let the pictures do most of the talking. A picture is worth a thousand words right?

It's Son! The pink fruit to her left is dragonfruit and it tastes a bit like kiwi. I quite enjoy it.

Various array of cooked meats.

I have NO idea what that is...

Would you rather.... have a bra or some dried shrimp? Only in Cambodia.

Cambodia's version of Bubba-Gump Shrimp Co.

Yup. The chicken head is still on there.

Those fish were still alive and floppin' around. They were so excited to see us. How cute.

Then this.

Okay. Maaaaaybe that part wouldn't make you very hungry. But I promise the rest will! Promise. After departing the market, we took a short tuk-tuk ride to Son's house where we first learned how to make Cambodian egg rolls filled with taro, carrots, and peanuts. We even make our own sweet and sour sauce. I was dumb and didn't take a picture of the finish product, but here's a glance of our cooking stations and the cooking egg rolls.

They were pretty darn good, and since the wrappers were potato based the skin tasted like a potato chip. The main base for the sauce (and most other Cambodian sauces) was a fish sauce so it was definitely the fishiest sweet and sour sauce I've ever had. But it was good.

Onto the next course! This dish is called Amok and since we were each making our own, we dispersed to our individual cooking stations. We threw lots of inredients into a mortar and pestel such as lemongrass, galangal (looks like ginger), garlic, and chili peppers, and then pounded the daylights out of it. See picture below.

Please excuse the grossness that is me. I was super hot and sweaty and my hair was on the fritz. It drove me so crazy that I got it cut right after the class was over.

We then added ingredients like coconut milk, egg yolk, fish sauce, lime, chili paste, and fish to the mortar and pestel, mixed it all up, and put it in a rockin' banana leaf boat Son showed us how to make. When Son came around to put in the chili paste, she would ask us how much we wanted by asking either "Small, small?" or "Big, big?" It was hilarious and she's pretty much my favorite. The host mom that feeds me, Om, also says "Small, small" a lot so we interns have taken a liking to the phrase. Anyways, afterwards the banana boats quickly went into a pot for steaming.

How red the sauce is determines how much chili and chili paste we put in our mixture, and therefore determining how spicy it will be. Mine is the one at the very top with only one toothpick in it. 

Definitely small, small chili paste.

Here is the finished product! It was super rich, creamy, and delicious.

\

This picture isn't as hideous as the other... I can accept it.

The next course was just a simple salad with shredded chicken, banana flower, chilis, basil, mint, and sweet and sour sauce. Take a look see.

And finally for dessert, we had fresh mango (which btw, Cambodia has THE BEST mangos I've ever had in my life. I'm terrified I'll hate all other mangos when I get home) with sticky rice, coconut coated with palm sugar and coconut milk sauce, and then we drizzled the whole dessert with the same sauce. It was so delicious it was flat out inappropriate. That's all I can say.

We got to design our plating, but I was tired and just wanting to eat it. Hence the hodge-podge look. 

But hey, it all ends up in the same place right?

So there you have it! I hope you enjoyed my introduction to Cambodian cuisine. But on a more serious note, our group could use some prayers of support as of now. We went to RACHA on Monday, the NGO we're supposed to work with, and discovered that they weren't nearly as prepared for us as they hoped they'd be. They kinda lied to Dan our student facilitator about a lot of things when it came to interning with them. So our actual internship work is comepletely up in the air as of now. Dan is spending a lot of time right now looking at other NGO's to open options for other work places. Cambodia has the more NGO's than any other country in the world so we really should be okay. But prayers are nonetheless appreciated.

And so the adventure continues. Until next time. 

The Great Battle for Norodom

I feel like I'm a pretty brave person. Now, it's not like I jump out of planes or swim with sharks all the days of my life (or ever for matter, but it's definitely on my to-do list) but still, I'd like to think I have some courage in me. Let's get real here. Pottermore told me that I'm a Gryffindor. I rest my case.

I say this because Cambodia has already forced me to not only be brave, but be a borderline adrenaline junkie. Ya know, the type where if their mother saw exactly what they were doing they would grey faster than well... something that greys quickly (my metaphor generator is currently experiencing maintenance, sorry for the inconvenience).

Anyways, I say all this because I believe many of you have seen this picture on Facebook.

I feel like this deserves an explanation.

FIRST OF ALL, I'm a firm believer in wearing a helmet. Safety first remember? Just keep that in mind for a sec, okay? Anywho, one of the first items of business my first full day here was to get a bike. Other than a BYU owned tuk-tuk that we can use when we can, bikes are our main source of transportation. So I picked out my bike (I named him Barry since he has a sticker on the side that says "Extreme Berry") and then discovered that the helmet shop was closed for the day and wouldn't be open until Monday. So I got to learn the crash course of riding a bike in Phnom Penh helmetless against my will. Rest assured I'll always wear one once one is my possession

Traffic here is insane. I was warned of this before I came and was told that everytime you reach a destination on a bike you feel a huge sense of accomplishment. That couldn't be more true. Here's why. See that picture? Cars, motos, and bikes fill the streets ALL THE TIME. The only way to describe Cambodian traffic is organized chaos. People don't stay in their lanes and every lesson about defensive driving in driver's ed is out the window here. Agression is the key and you just have to be assertive go for what you want. On a bike, you literally have to dodge and weave inbetween cars, motos, and crowded intersections to get where you need to go. Everyone here is so used to it that they're miracuoulsy really good at not hitting you despite the face they're seemingly millimeters away from you. Doesn't make it any less terrifying though.

This will be my life for three months. I'll get to cruise the main drag called Norodom (pronounced Noro-dome with a slightly rolled 'r' and a popped 'd') on a daily basis and feel like I'm participating in the great battle for Middle Earth everytime I enter traffic. I'm genuine when I say I'm going to enjoy this, but I doubt I'll ever say so many fervent prayers in such a short amount of time. Additional prayers from all of you wouldn't hurt as well.

Here's another shot of a random side street in Phnom Penh. Cool, no?

Oh I guess I should say that my flight was good, I watched lots of good movies, Korean Air is incredibly posh, and it's extremely hot an humid here. Life is good people. Never forget it. 

I did indeed change the name of my blog. The other one wasn't suiting my fancy very much.

And here's a shout out to one of the bravest people I know. My mom! I love you and I hope you have a fantastic Mother's Day!

Until next time, and remember to comment and ask questions for my talk-back posts!

Hobey-Ho, Let's Go!

When I was a younger teenager, a good majority of my friends and I became obsessed with the Pendragon series penned by D.J. MacHale. I can't even begin to tell you how many hours I spent with Bobby Pendragon in his ten book long quest in saving the world and beyond from the nefarious St. Dane. And quite honestly. I loved every moment of it. In the second installment, you meet a character named Spader who uses a phrase that I decided to pay homage to in this post. With the beginning of any journey or quest, Spader would say (usually with a grin on his face) "Hobey-Ho, let's go!"

Ignoring the fact that I am neither Bobby nor Spader, and I'm not duking it out with a diabolical villain bent on mass destruction and chaos, I feel I'm entitled to use this phrase simply due to the fact that indeed LIKE the two aforementioned fictional characters, I'm about to embark on an adventure of my own.

Most likely due to my semester long Facebook squeeing, I'm sure most of you who are still reading this already know that I'm going to Cambodia for three months starting this Thursday.

Before I continue, we're going to have a geography lesson. While I'm confident that 99% of you already know this, I cannot stand the thought of any of my readers going for any length of time thinking (and believe me, I've heard it) that Cambodia is some obscure country in Africa or Eastern Europe.

As we can see, Cambodia is nestled in-between Vietnam, Thailand, and Laos in Southeast Asia. Definitely not Africa.

There. Confusion averted.

Anyways, as the blog title and description already hinted at, I'm interning with a public health organization called the Reproductive and Child Health Alliance (RACHA) in Cambodia this summer and I guess it goes without saying how stoked and admittedly apprehensive I am to go. I'm writing this blog to chronicle my experiences, thoughts, fears, and even frustrations, as well as keep all of you whom I love at home updated on what I'm up to.  But before I leave, I feel some explanation is required.

I've decided to channel my favorite vlogger (video-blogger) from YouTube named Grace Helbig and have a theme for each of the three days I week I hope to be able to post. Since Cambodia is thirteen hours ahead of Utah time, many unexpected events are bound to occur, and much confusion and stress will occur if I try to do it on an assigned day of the week, the schedule will just go as follows:

Day 1 (whatever day that is or becomes): Culture and Food- This is when I'll share pictures and stories of the exotic quirkiness that Cambodia has to offer through it's food and day to day life.

Day 2: Internship Update- I feel this is self explanatory. Many crazy things can happen to an intern.

Day 3: Q&A- I require all of your help on this one! I'd love this to be an interactive blog so PLEASE feel free to comment and ask questions! This is the day I'll set aside for all of you. In return, I promise to be candid and fun with my answers. So go wild! These posts will be as fun as you make them :).

Disclaimer: These post themes are subject to change as the author sees fit. Life can be unpredictable like that.

Okay. I apologize for this novel of a post and I promise they all won't be like this. Pinky promise. I really, really hope if you're still reading this that you follow me and my journey in Camboland. I'm sure it'll be a crazy one.

Hobey-Ho, let's go!