for the love of grammar...

Among what manner of people...

2009-07-01T20:35:00.000-07:00

Not quite the twenty years that Ulysses was absent from his beloved Ithaca, I find myself on the cusp of a twenty-four hour flight that will set me once again on the sweet and foggy shores of Seattle. I have been too long away from my culture of comfort—yet, this day is the last.

Yesterday, Wednesday in Southeast Asia, I began the long process of packing, repacking, and shuffling those belongs that must make the journey with me. The power was out, of course, so as a grimy sweat began to show beneath my Sasquatchian arm hair I heard a faint knock upon my door. I quickly moved across the room and answered; it was Roat (the student I tutor).

“Hey, Roat,” I said.

“Cher, I wanted to make the thanks to you for teaching me individually this whole year.”

“Oh yeah, well—it was no problem,” I replied.

At this, he slowly reached into his pocket and pulled out a small gift wrapped in bamboo. Grinning, I took the gift and opened a small silver ring-holder engraved with an image of Angkor Wat.

“Thank you Roat, this is amazing. I really appreciate it.”

“Cher, the thing is,” he began, “today is a very sad day for me. Oh, Cher,” he spread his arms wide, “please hug me.”

Obviously, as an American male, I was a bit discomfited by this offer, but what could I do—I hugged the little guy. He cried on my shoulder.

“Roat,” I said patting his back, “I will miss you friend.”

It was a difficult parting; a parting of a lifetime.

I closed the door.

I decided to postpone packing for a bit in my now melancholic mood, and instead picked up the last book I had hoped to read before departing, The Classical World. Before Andrea had left she decided to surprise me with hidden notes riddled throughout the books I had yet to read. So, as I picked up The Classical World, I opened to the chapter that held my secret note and pulled it out. Scrawled in the hand of my illiterate infant (Mommy’s hand over Regan’s) the note said: Dad, mommy misses you. Please come home soon.

There is so much I am leaving here in Cambodia; there is so much I am coming home to in America—what a beautiful and mysterious world in which we live.

I look forward to seeing you soon,

Ben

Missing the Shoolies meter: I watched an eleven second video that Andrea's sister sent me of Regan giggling forty-seven times yesterday.

The Final Push...

2009-06-27T20:50:00.000-07:00

It's Sunday in Cambodia, and that means two things: one, the writing of this blog, and two, the start of my last week in Southeast Asia. I am little amazed that my time here has gone so fast, and that a year has come and gone. On Friday night, to commemorate my time at NPIC, the Korean staff took me and Bryant out to dinner. It was a crazy bunch of people kicking back sipping on green tea. They said some really nice things, we said some really nice things, and then we broke bread (well, actually, we broke the octopus soup—an Asian staple). Speaking of nutty foods, they also happened to mention that they regularly enjoy duck embryo, dog, and deer blood. According to the Koreans, these rare delicacies of the Asian world are not only anti-cancer, but slimming as well—bon appetite!

This weekend I hung around Phnom Penh for the last time. I was able to hit up the Russian Market for cheap goods, and get a much needed haircut totaling a dollar and fifty cents. It was a productive weekend. I am about to wrap things up here and make the hour long drive back to NPIC for what is sure to be the penultimate time. I’ll teach through Wednesday, pack on Thursday, and fly out late Friday night. It should be an eventful week.

Well, I miss you all and really looking forward to seeing some of you next weekend. Take care,

Ben

She eats!

2009-06-24T20:34:00.000-07:00

Although I was not there as a direct witness, my sources tell me that Regan consumed solid food yesterday morning—oh, miracle of miracles, what a wonderful day. My sources also tell me that Regan then proceeded to urinate in the bed—oh, how sad I am to have missed the wetness.

In the sporting world: yesterday NPIC played an official soccer game against the Cambodian Department of Labor. It was an exciting game on a hot afternoon, but sadly they were obliterated by a much stronger side—maybe next year NPIC, maybe next year.

In other news: the semester is quickly winding down, and my students are readily preparing for their finals. Yesterday, after my IT class, Roat (the student I tutor) asked me if I could help him in the computer lab (which is rarely functioning) to look up American Masters Degree programs. It turns out there is a school very close to his relatives that he could attend to pursue further work in his academic area of interest, but he and I both were daunted by the overwhelming costs and red tape. It was a strange position to be in as a teacher as I wanted nothing more than to say, “If you believe, then you can achieve.” However, the reality of his situation is far more nuanced. While I was able to download and print all of the materials he needed to begin this process, it truly will be a miracle of all miracles if he ever makes it state side.

Well, that about wraps it up. I have a test to grade and some Korean red-sticky rice to eat, yum! The Liberal Arts Department head loves to cook for me and Bryant and regularly brings in Korean delicacies to please our platter. Today she brought in sticky rice.

“Enjoy,” she said, “maybe it will make for you a full lunch.”

“Yes,” I said smiling, “maybe it will.”

Alright, I miss you all and can’t wait to see you.

I’ll be headed back in nine short days. Take care,

Ben

Another Java Sunday...

2009-06-20T20:50:00.000-07:00

Well, here I am, eating my Big Breakfast Combo Number One and writing my Sunday blog. It has been an eventful week: I taught, I tutored, I went out to dinner with the Korean staff at NPIC, and I talked to Andrea three times! Yeah! Today I am planning on updating the blog and shopping for groceries—it’s all pretty exciting.

This week I told my students the news that I would be leaving in two weeks and not be coming back; they were all a bit downtrodden. Yes, we have had a good year, but it’s time to move back home.

In tutoring this week, Roat, my student, brought a new friend of his to partake in the English tutoring. His little friend was a girl. I didn’t ask, but I wondered if there might be some summer magic in the air. Interesting fact: if there is some love fever going on, the Khmer kiss by sniffing, not touching lip to lip—yet another reminder that I am very far from home.

Anyway, this is a short update. I am doing well, finishing strong, and ardently looking forward to the journey home.

Take care,

Ben

Revenge of the ants...

2009-06-16T19:33:00.000-07:00

This morning all I wanted for breakfast was my Frosted Flakes. I eagerly woke up, threw on a t-shirt, and walked over to the adjoining room (which is currently doubling as Bryant’s room, because his air-conditioning is out, and our kitchen). I opened up the ant cabinet—efficiently designed to keep the little buggers out—grabbed the blue box of deliciousness, opened it, and found an infestation of ants. Oh, the anger! Rage! This was not an acceptable way to welcome the day.

I quickly changed tactics though, fried an egg, and read a month old copy of The Atlantic—it would have to do.

Well, I have had a very busy week of teaching and grading. My students are chipper as always, and diligently studying for their chapter four test. The other day in class a very funny thing happened to me, however, due to the “G” rating of this blog I am hesitant to recount it in full. Basically, I have of late been breaking my classes up into groups and pitting them one against the other in vocabulary and grammar review games. It’s fun. The winner is dubbed the champion of the English universe and given all sorts of yummies (candy, Chuppa Chupps, Snickers, whatever). Yesterday I decided to branch out a bit and not only name the winner only the champion, but also the master of all things great and English. I won’t go into detail, but this led to a rather base question asked by one of my students referring to the second epitaph in my victor’s title. That is all I can say. It was funny; actually, awkward is probably the word for it.

In other news, we don’t have school on Thursday because it’s the Queen’s birthday. My students have no idea how old she is, but if I had to guess, I would say she’s pushing seventy. Way to go Queen! I hope you have a great day.

Anyway, I miss you all and can’t wait to see you.

Missing Andrea/Regan meter: the other day I wrote a song on my guitar called, “Missing Shoolies.”

The three Shoolies—we go together like spinal cords and car seats…

2009-06-13T19:54:00.000-07:00

Well, what can I say? The internet and power were totally shut off all day at NPIC yesterday (Saturday—which means no students on campus), so I read a lot, played the guitar a bit, and ate some food. I also did some sit-ups and push-ups, but I don’t want to brag about it too much; I’m just trying to stay in shape for the American soccer season. What else? I am now sitting at Java (surprise) and it’s a hot muggy day. I woke up early this morning, shaved, dressed, and drove the old diesel all the way into town: it only died on me three times. I then dropped my chapter four and five tests off at the copier, headed to Java where I ordered the Big Breakfast Set #1, and Skyped Andrea. Yes, it’s been a productive day.

Tomorrow I start early with my Automotive class. They are always fifteen minutes late on Mondays, because, as they say, “Our real subject before this class Cher, so we must come late.” Awesome, what does that make English then, your fake subject? Yeah, I’m trying not to be hurt by it. So, after Auto, I have my IT class (my best class), and will have a good time reviewing for their upcoming test. If you’re reading this and thinking to yourself, “Sounds like a whole lotta fun,” then you’re in good company. It’s going to be a blast.

What else? Well, not much really. I am currently reading James Joyce’s Ulysses, it’s a whirlwind. Actually, it’s like wrestling an ancient Irish bear—the preface said, “Ulysses, an extremely difficult book to read, but well worth the effort.” To which I say, “If by extremely difficult you mean: I’ll have absolutely no idea what’s going on, then yes, I whole heartedly agree.” So, if any of you out there in blogland have any pointers feel free to let me in on your secrets.

Alright, not much else is going on. I’ll try to update the blog again when I get a chance, but who knows when that will be. Until then, have a great Sunday.

I look forward to seeing you soon,

Ben

Missing Andrea and Regan meter: I did all the dishes and sprayed for ants (again, Andrea will understand).

Barney Stinson...

2009-06-11T22:02:00.000-07:00

Yesterday was Thursday, and you know what that means: tutor day! My student Roat (Row-aught) came over and studied the finer points of verb usage, followed by an intellectual stroll through his latest weekly essay. He is of an average height for a Cambodian, meaning, four-foot two-inches. He has dark curly hair, a wispy black mustache, and bronze skin. Last week it was awesome because he wanted to know how much I liked Michael Jackson. I couldn’t tell him the truth—he’s a huge fan; it would break his heart—so I said, “Oh, all Americans are huge fans. He’s like pop star number one; America’s musician extraordinaire. In fact, my Dad has a Michael Jackson autographed white glove he picked up on his trip to Neverland just last year.”

This week his essay question was: If you could change anything about your hometown what would you change and why? (I get the sample questions from a TEFOL book). Well, he understood hometown to mean Cambodia, and “what would you change” to mean systemic reconstruction—what can I say, the man has vision. He wrote: “When I am Prime Minister I will fix the Education System. I will pattern it after European systems. It will be the best Education System in Southeast Asia. When I do this there will be no more poverty and corruption, and Cambodia will never again repeat the living hell of the late seventies.” Dang! Roat isn’t messing around, so I did what any self-respecting teacher would do: I gave him my English Grammar Spark Note flash cards—study hard baby, cause you gots a whole lotta work to do. He was stoked. He stood up at the kitchen table, bowed, and shook my hand with both of his.

In other news, apparently Andrea and Regan (and Sophie too) made it home safely. I know this because they briefly turned the internet on yesterday at NPIC, and then, following a quick reading of my email, they turned the power off. One hour later when the power came back on, the internet was still off. I am writing this in Word with the hope that I can post it at some point in the near future.

I miss you all, and can’t wait to see you.

Ben

Missing wife/baby meter: today I made the bed (Andrea will understand).

So long, farewell, auf wiedersehen, goodbye...

2009-06-10T02:43:00.000-07:00

Today is the day: Andrea, Regan, and her sister Sophie all leave for America. Yes, yes, I know; how sad, you say, that Ben will be left all alone for three and a half weeks in the simmering Cambodian heat. But, I say, rejoice (!) for Andrea and Regan will once again be among friends and family. The fearsome threesome is all packed and ready to board JET 5280 bound for Denver. Needless to say, it’s an exciting time for all; and what will Ben be doing while his right arm is in Denver? I’m glad you asked. He’ll continue his busy teaching schedule, trying to get his students up to Finals speed before he leaves; he’ll consume food, sleep, and use the restroom of course, but, and he’s most excited about this, he’ll get through the rest of his books—seventy-four books down, six to go!

Well, since the above a night and a day has passed, and I am now sitting at the Java Café in the heart of Phnom Penh. It’s not terribly hot, as a quite breeze is gently blowing through the balcony, but the humidity is high and my shirt is thoroughly pitted. The waitress here just approached me and asked where my baby was—we come here all the time and the waitresses regularly hold and play with Regan—and I had to tell her that Andrea and baby left at the last minute to head back to America for good. She was heartbroken. She loved Regan.

She said, “Oh, not so good. I didn’t even get to say goodbye.”

“Yes,” I responded, “not so good.”

This morning I woke up to find one of Regan’s blankets left behind, and I found myself doing the strangest thing: smelling it. Yes, Andrea and Regan, Cambodia will miss you.

Well, that’s all I have for now. I will try my best to keep an updated blog, but I fear the fates are against me. NPIC was going to put High Speed internet access in each of the teacher’s rooms, but they forgot about the American teachers and have since shut off the wireless access. It would seem that I am internetless (sp?) during the week then, but I will try my best to keep you faithful blog readers up-to-date on my exploits.
I hope to see you all soon,

Ben

The Latest...

2009-05-30T02:17:00.000-07:00

Well, we will soon welcome my little sister Sophie to Cambodia. We are all very excited, especially Regan, she is dying to meet her aunt. The weather is as humid as ever and we are battling the constant power outages which have been significantly worse this month, but there is also a nice breeze in the air most days so it is okay. The rains come in torrents daily now, but there is still a strange lack of water coming through our tap most days, and still our kitchen manages to flood on occasion too. That is Cambodia, we are finally getting used to it.

Ben has a soccer tournament next weekend which Sophie, Regan and I will eagerly cheer at despite the heat. There are always Khmer ladies who want to hold Regan and little kids who gather round to ogle at her light skin and blue eyes. They are sweet and they kiss on her, an allowance which I am hoping I won't regret.

We picked up some clothes we had made in the Russian Market today. They are beautiful. I went to pick them up at 8am when they opened to avoid the heat, but it was already 34 degrees celsius, a balmy 93 degrees. What really makes it feel suffocating though is that the air doesn't circulate. The market is made up of corrugated tin and big tarps, so the sun just bakes everything. They told me at the heat of the day it gets to about 47 degrees (about 117 degrees), they just sit at their sewing machines and work away, smiling all the way. We got two pairs of pants for Ben, two for me, and two dresses for me made all for $31.00. I went to one of the more pricey places too. We also went to have some leather shoes made and each pair costs about $15.00. The work they do is absolutely amazing.

We had Ben's Internet Technology class over this week to play Pictionary. They devoured our snacks and really got into it. Each student took their turn kissing Regan and wiping her drool. The child really will have incredible immunity. All the students were so nice, it was great to be able to have them over and share a fun afternoon with them.

We few, we happy few...

2009-05-22T19:47:00.000-07:00

A year has come and gone, and seemingly overnight, we find ourselves on the brink of departure. In a few short weeks, Andrea will fly back to the States with Regan and Sister Sophie in tow, while I finish out the school year in Cambodia. The time is apt for reflection: it seems like only yesterday that we arrived in California for our entry level training, and soon thereafter landed in Hanoi for our licensing in TEFOL. The month in Hanoi flew by, but not without myriad opportunities to see the sights: Ha Long Bay, John McCain’s flight suit, Ho Chi Min’s tomb. We came, we saw, we then flew to Phnom Penh. We arrived on a hot August day greeted by Mr. Cho the foreign affairs liaison of NPIC. We piled our luggage into his Four Runner, dumped our gear at our transitional apartment, and later sweated through a Chinese lunch with him as he spoke of the many luxuries of NPIC. The moto-bikes shocked us, the humidity overwhelmed us, and the desire for a good burger was insatiable, but it was home—for better or worse.

The names and faces of the lives we have brushed up against will fade over time, but, for the moment, are vividly seared into our minds. There is Alex, our one time French roommate, who taught me the game of soccer and the value of a good baguette; Mr. Sivoun our English department chair whose quite voice, humble presence, and command of the English language handled all our university frustrations with grace and concern; Roat, a student I tutor, who just yesterday brought us a gift of minted sticks to share with Regan; and Allie, a young woman from Tennessee who is mired in the system struggling to adopt and care for an unwanted five week old Cambodian baby. There are more, but these few form a beautiful and relational mosaic of the vibrant lives that have touched us since living in Cambodia.

In January we flew to Chiang Mai to await the birth of Regan. It seemed an age that we were holed up at the Juniper Tree, but eventually she was birthed after thirty hours of labor. She suffered through an early infection frightening her new and naïve parents. She recovered however, and slept the two hour plane ride back to Phnom Penh on March first. In the wee hours of the night when she usually awakens and begins to cry, one of us will muster what little energy we have and take Regan outside on our NPIC balcony. Snuggled warmly against her daddy or mommy, one of us will walk her back and forth, back and forth, in the dampened heat underneath the starry night sky. From this vantage point, our dorm room’s third-story balcony, our eyes look out over the undeveloped countryside. There are no buildings, no roads, no sounds; only space. The rice paddies stretch out endlessly mingled with Cambodian oases bursting forth cool pools and lush palm trees. It’s a fleeting picture neither Andrea nor I will ever see again. And while the scene is exotically mysterious at night illumined by a pale moon, Regan loves the breezy warmth and quickly falls back into an infant’s fitful sleep.

The Khmer New Year came and quickly passed. April is the hottest month, and so given the time off from school, we traveled to New Zealand for a belated autumn. Three weeks passed quickly thanks to the hospitality of old friends, and soon we found ourselves once again making the trip on the potholed road from the airport to NPIC. The second semester has started, and this is where we find ourselves: teaching twelve credit hours a week, tutoring students, and developing relationships as we can. It has been a year of new experiences and growth; hardships and joy; incredible frustrations and new life. We are profoundly honored and humbled that you have chosen to share this journey with us.

We look forward to seeing you soon,

Benjamin John, Andrea Natasha, and Regan Elise

Beach Retreat

2009-05-15T22:52:00.000-07:00

We have just returned from a few days at the beach with our teammates. It was a nice getaway and we had a cute little room by the swimming pool, so we were able to sit poolside while Regan slept. Unfortunately it was not all fun and games, we woke up the first morning and poor little Regan was covered with mosquito bites. She was wearing long sleeves and pants to bed but her face was left vulnerable. She had five bites on her head and face and one right on her eyelid, which was swollen shut by the end of the day. She is better today, but the Cambodian lifestyle is taking a toll on her. I have a picture of upload to my computer and then I will share her pain with you all. We love to hear from you, keep the emails and notes coming, we are on the home stretch.

A&B&R

Happy Birthday to you, unnamed Cambodian monarch…

2009-05-12T00:28:00.000-07:00

Yes, that’s right; it’s that time of year again: when all the little Cambodian boys and girls don their best celebratory garb and prance about in the masks of dragons in homage to their wonderful king (I made that up). Simply put, it’s the King’s birthday! And what does that mean for your favorite Cambodian dwellers? Holiday!!! I know it’s hard to believe that we are heading into another holiday break, but all of our students have gone back to their “homeland,” as they so aptly put it, and we ourselves are headed down to Sihanoukville for an ELIC team retreat. It should be a nice getaway from the big city; a time for our team to reconnect; and a time for me (Ben) to win some Settlers of Catan.

On the NPIC front, we have started class—well, started class is a bit of a stretch. I should say we have been assigned classes, met with some students, and watched as a whole bunch of other students skipped their first two classes, because, after all, “next week is the King’s birthday.” We also watched as the rice farmers behind our dormitory planted this year’s coming harvest through the mounting heat and humidity. Now, Andrea told me to write something about the heat, but she also told me not to stretch the truth, so, seriously, it’s like 147 degrees outside with like 200 percent humidity; in a word, Hades. This, of course, makes sleeping through the night difficult, since we consistently have a nightly four-to-seven hour power outage that cuts off our air conditioner. All in all though, NPIC has been great. Why, just last week, Andrea, Regan, and I went out to Neo Suki with our Korean counterparts to eat some Asian fondue (boiled squid, octopus, and fish balls—yum!). We had a great conversation with Mr. Cho, NPIC’s foreign affairs liaison, about how the clothes of South Koreans are never dirty or tattered—amazing!

Oh, also, Regan and I are beginning the first steps down that long road called verbal communication. Our typical banter might go something like this: “Ohh, ahh,” Regan would say in her best high pitched voice; to which I would reply, “boo, eah,” my voice cracking in the upper register. This playful back and forth would usually go on for about three or four minutes before Regan, starting to cry, would be in dire need of a cuddle. Also, her poops are getting pretty crazy—whoa, watch out! It’s pretty neat. Regan’s really digs her First Focus book too; and who wouldn’t, it’s a book with nothing but pictures of cats, cows, and tractors—sweet!

Not that we are counting down or anything, but the day of our arrival on the beautiful and fertile soils of America is only about seven weeks away. Sophie, Andrea’s sister, will be coming to visit us the last week of our time in Cambodia, and both of us are really looking forward to seeing her in Phnom Penh.

As Garrison Keillor would put, “That’s the news from Lake Wobegon.”

I hope all is well with you,

Ben

pictures!!!

2009-05-07T22:29:00.000-07:00

I was finally able to put pictures on the blog today. I have no idea why I was not able before but I thought I should add a few since the internet was being nice. We are in the city this weekend which could be part of the solution. It was a long week. The power and water are apparently worst of all in May. I thought April was going to be the worst, but for some reason no. We have had long periods of power outages this week and no water a few times. We just do our best not to move too much when that happens. Since Regan is still so little that is okay. We strip her down and put her in a hammock that we tied over the beds. She really loves it, she is such a Khmer baby.

2009-05-07T22:22:00.000-07:00

2009-05-07T22:12:00.000-07:00

Regan Elise Peters

2009-05-07T22:03:00.000-07:00

Schooling in Cambodia...

2009-05-05T00:57:00.000-07:00

Today I stood on our balcony and watched the kids who attend school at the Wat down the road walking home for lunch. Everyday at 11am a stream of kids between the ages of 4 and maybe 14 head home for lunch. Those lucky few with a bike whiz past the poor majority who have to walk down the hot dusty road. I watched a boy, most likely 10 or 11 following a girl who zig-zagged away from him down the road. She held her notebook up to block whichever side of her face the boy raced to. He was taunting her in some way, and although I couldn’t understand what he said, she was clearly not happy about it. I wished there was something I could yell that would get him to leave her alone, but there was not. It dawned on me, after all this time here, feeling like I was in such a different world, that people face mostly the same stuff no matter where they are. Middle school is a hard age for anyone, and we are always faced with standing up for ourselves and what we believe in, or tucking our tails and running, this little girl was trying so hard to be brave and ignore the boy. Life sometimes doesn't feel that different here.

Happy BIrthday Regan!

2009-05-02T06:25:00.000-07:00

Regan was three months old yesterday. I would include a super cute picture of her if the internet would allow but it unfortunately will not. This is the second time I have tried posting today, the first one was much longer and more detailed but the internet is really getting me down so this is all I am going to attempt this round.
Missing you all...

bath time on the terrace

2009-04-27T20:55:00.000-07:00

I have posted pictures of bath time outside our room on facebook and here as well (i think), but i really wanted to catch our bath time yesterday cause it was especially cute. Ben and I were outside bathing Regan and she was a little fussy. Her crying must have called a few students to us, cause before we knew it there were Khmer hands in the bathtub with her rubbing her little hands. This particular female student who came over usually comes around and it was really cute cause she remembered Regan's name and was trying to calm her down with soothing words and small splashes. It was really sweet and it was good to know she felt comfortable enough with us to do that.

The students here love Regan. Walking to the office this morning it was like we had a child covered in gold or something. There are a bunch of new students around campus today since the new semester is starting and they loved her. They were cooing and smiling trying to get a response from her cute little face. It makes us quite popular to have a baby in this country. Even the Koreans yesterday were passing her around like she was good luck. It is pretty cute and it is a huge contrast to the Kiwi's reaction to a baby. They hardly noticed she was alive with the exception of a very few. It will be interesting to see what it is like in the States after all this.

2009-04-26T21:25:00.000-07:00

no pictures today, the internet will not allow it. i have tried four times. maybe next time, sorry.

home again home again, jiggity jig...

2009-04-26T21:15:00.000-07:00

Well, we are home. Cambodia is home. We had a long journey getting here, but it was worth the wonders we got to experience in New Zealand. 24 hours of travel with a 3 month old is not the easiest thing to do, but she was a champ. We arrived in Cambodia at 9 am on Saturday and we looking forward to taking a good long nap. However, before we walked in the door we were greeted by Korean neighbors who let us know that our place had flooded in our absence. If you have been keeping up with our blog at all you would now that this is ironic since water is usually something we lack, certainly we have never had a surplus, but Cambodia is crazy that way, always throwing you a curve ball. So we had a few hours of cleaning to do before we could even set the baby down. It was a long day.

It is hot here, about 105 degrees yesterday. No surprise there, but the rains have come early this year and today is actually not bad at all.

We have a few more months to go, but more on that later. Time is of the essence with the internet here and I want to add pictures.

A Sunday in NZed

2009-04-19T02:32:00.000-07:00

Today we went to church with Amy and Blair. It was so nice to be in a group of fellow believers and to enjoy worship and community. We were able to put Regan in the nursery for a while too which was a nice break. We are still very much enjoying our time in New Zealand. Today we had to wear multiple layers and Regan is wearing long underwear for the first time in her little life. We are enjoying walking in the crisp weather and seeing autumn. We are also praying about our return to Cambodia and all that will entail. If you could do the same we would appreciate it.

Regan's trip to Zland

2009-04-16T22:35:00.001-07:00

A note on news in Cambodia

2009-04-14T17:14:00.000-07:00

I am not sure how much we shared in the past about the atrocities that have taken place in Cambodia in recent years, but if you know nothing about it, it is worth taking some time to Wikipedia the whole thing. You could look up Pol Pot or the Khmer Rouge. It was basically a huge annihilation of Cambodian people by their own. It took place between 1975 and 1979.

This was significant in why we chose this place to come and teach, but it is also significant to my post today. Many of the people we have met here are lawyers with the tribunal that is just now taking place. We were supposed to go to the trials starting last Monday for one man named Duch. He ran a genocide prison called S-21 which you can visit in Phnom Pehn.

His address to the courtroom and the jury was in the newspaper recently and I decided to include snipets here...
"Making good on a pledge to account for his past, the former director of Pol Pot's uppermost secret prison addressed his judges and the nation Tuesday both to acecpt responsibility for the killings of the Khmer Rouge regime and express remorse to his victims. 'I believe in general that at this time peopel regard me as a coward and an inhuman person. I would like to accept this with honesty and respect,' Duch told the court. 'In my position as head of S-21, I dared not think about any possibility beyond following orders from superiors, although I knew that enforcing the orders would lead to the end of thousands of people's lives. I attest under the law to all the murders in S-21, espeically to the torture and carnage.' "

Although he admits to the crimes he is accused of, his lawyers are trying to get him off the hook since he is the only one who is being tried currently and he was not the head of operations throughout the country. His defense lawyer says he was only one of 200 prison directors and he was not the deadliest, as at least one other man was responsible for as many as 150,000 deaths at another prison camp.

This approach is one reason the Cambodian people do not take the trials too seriously. The people we have talked to consider them to be mainly for show, and mostly ineffective. The coverage of the trials can be found on CNN in the States, but it is also constantly in the papers here. The Prime Minister, Hun Sen, declared Tuesday that he was opposed to further prosecutions of former Khmer Rouge leaders becuase he feared they would prompt a return to civil war. He also said that he hopes the UN backed court would run out of money so that the Cambodian judicial system can take over and speed up the exsisting cases. Hun Sen has connections with the Khmer Rouge party in his past, perhaps this is why he wants the UN to back off. This is from another article in the same newspaper, hopefully the irony is not lost on any of you reading this.

and the truth shall set you free...

2009-04-13T00:52:00.000-07:00

So, i am not able to enjoy our latest adventure becuase I have not posted in so long. This time it is purely my fault, we have internet access and we have time, we are just lazy. We have had a really hard time deciding how to approach this actually, we are in new zealand. That is the long and short of it. We had some help paying for the tickets, we are staying with a friend of mine from when I went to school here, Amy Steven and her husband Blair, and we are able to use their car. We felt guilty for some reason, or like people would not understand us traveling like this. We are blessed beyond belief, that is all there is to it. This journey and escape from the heat is healing to my heart and soul and so I have to share it with you all. I will post pictures when we get back to amy's house. We are touring around the south island right now. Blair and Amy are incredible tour guides and gracious hosts. It is so nice not to have to worry about Regan being too hot, or the ants eating her up. We have two more weeks here and we are loving it. Thank you for those of you that read this and have been missing our posts. We will do better.

We are just loving being a family and seeing the beautiful scenery before us. Ben is struggling to understand Amy and Blair's accent, but we are working on that and he is learning a lot of new vocabulary. Look forward to another post, and pictures in two days. We would love to touch base on Skype as well since we have a reliable connection.

love and miss you all,
andrea

One more thing...

2009-03-31T23:48:00.000-07:00

Ben is sitting next to me holding Regan and three of the wait staff at this cafe we frequent are surrounding him. They are telling him all sorts of different Cambodian beliefs about children. The first is that if a little girl looks like her dad then it is believed she will be rich and have a high position in life. A little boy should look like his mother for the same to be true. This would explain why everyone we meet here says she looks like her dad, I am not sure you can really tell, but it is nice of them.

The other thing they mentioned has to do with her hand sucking. She likes to stick the whole thing in her mouth. According to the Khmer this means she loves everyone. If she were to suck only her thumb then it would mean she loves only her daddy. The wait staff then proceeded to pass her all around so we could be on the internet. The other customers were holding her, and all the waiters and waitresses. They most likely think I am neglecting her to be on the internet and not doting upon her like everyone else.

bath time in cambodia...

2009-03-31T23:15:00.000-07:00

a long time gone...

2009-03-31T22:43:00.000-07:00

Hello there, it has been a long time, I know this and I am sorry. I have tried numerous times to post and the internet has not been cooperative. I think my computer is about to die on me too, which does not help. We never forget that there are people who wonder what we are doing and who are waiting for pictures of Regan. I promise we have been trying. The heat in April reaches a new high, and therefore the power outages seem to be more frequent, the water shuts off more often, and the internet is rarely functioning.

Our friends, Kiara and Andrew just left. It was great having them. It was much needed fellowship for our starved souls. This week ben proctored his final exams and once graded they will be returned and we will be on break for most of the month. At this time students go home to their families and celebrate for weeks on end. Cambodians know how to do holidays, there are 30 holidays on the calendar for which they take off work, and that doesn’t even count this incredibly long celebration month. We have mentioned before that we have tried to learn about the traditions of this celebration, and we are not finding it very easy. Ben has asked students, I have asked friends of ours in the city, and no one seems to be able to explain to us what kinds of games the people play. We will just have to catch some in action in the next few weeks.

Regan’s adventures in Cambodia continue. She is quite the conversation starter. We were at a birthday party last week and a Khmer girl who was about 25 came up to me and wanted to talk all about the fact that she was pregnant. Her boyfriend, who apparently was English, was not present, but she said he was very excited. She wanted to talk about morning sickness, and her feelings about being pregnant, which were mixed. Regan seems to like the heat still and sleeping under the mosquito net. She is quite a good baby.

We will continue to try to keep you updated. Hope all is well on your side of the ocean.

2009-03-15T00:35:00.000-07:00

We wanted to publish an update while we have a good internet connection. Ben reserved a nice hotel for my birthday this weekend so we have enjoyed ant-free living for a few days, which includes a bathtub (a highlight for me and Regan), tv, a swimming pool, a lovely breakfast, and nice air conditioning, as well as a sweet internet connection. A bonus perk: constant power and reliable water supply. It was a great birthday weekend and it was quite relaxing. Husbands: take note.

Ben also played in a soccer game this weekend. This is newsworthy because his team played a really good team and they tied. It was epic really, a tie of 1-1 for his team is an accomplishment against this particular opponent. He will most likely be sore all week since he has been off the field for a few months now due to our travels in Thailand, but I think it was worth it to him. He came home beaming.

We will welcome our dear friends Kiara and Andrew this week. Their visit is bringing us great joy and anticipation. We were talking this weekend, and I think the thing we miss most about the states is our amazing fellowship. We miss the friends and family that we know we are beyond blessed to have. I am trying not to count down, but lets say it is somewhere near 121 days until we get to see the good ole Rocky Mountains again and all your beautiful faces.

Shooley Love

2009-03-13T07:42:00.000-07:00

Cuteness of the shoolipotamus

2009-03-13T07:40:00.000-07:00

Regan's first train ride

2009-03-13T07:38:00.000-07:00

Regan's first plane flight

2009-03-13T07:37:00.000-07:00

Fellow babies that were born in Thailand during our stay...

2009-03-13T07:35:00.001-07:00

She loves her daddy

2009-03-13T07:33:00.000-07:00

NPIC all over again...

2009-03-10T22:49:00.000-07:00

Well, we made it! We are finally back at NPIC and settled into our dorm life once again. Our students were really excited to see us and to meet Regan for the first time. Although Regan is average sized for an American baby, our Cambodian students think she is a monster. To compare: one of our Khmer friends had a baby two months before we did, and he is just now getting to the weight that Regan was born at! So, yes, Regan is rather large for a Southeast Asian. And, speaking of our child, she has a bit of cold, so I have been amusing myself with that little infant snot sucker as of late—who knew something like that could be so much fun?
In other news, it’s hot. I mean, really, really hot. Our students tell us that it only gets worse, but we really can’t wrap our brains around a weather that’s hotter than what we are currently experiencing. As if to mock us, what was once viewed from our third story dorm room as a lush and fertile rice paddy during the rainy season is now nothing more than a destitute and dusty dirt bowl. It has been an interesting process to watch as the paddy behind our campus turned from a vibrant green, to a harvested landscape, to a cow pasture, and, finally, to a meager and barren backdrop; needless to say, we are looking forward to July’s rain.
The Khmer New Year (or Chaul Chnam Thmey in Khmer) is right around the corner however, and will provide us with a nice two week break from the heat. It is much like our Christmas break back in the States, so teachers and students alike will be given a short vacation to escape from the heat. We still don’t know where we will be traveling, but our hope is that it is much cooler than NPIC.
I asked my students about the New Year and how they celebrated it, to which they responded, “Cher [a term of affection (I hope) that is short for teacher], we play games.”
“Awesome,” I said, “what kind of games.”
“New Year games.”
“And those would be what?”
“Yes, New Year games.”
“Hmm,” I pondered how best to phrase it, “but what are the games…how do you play them?”
They all looked around the classroom, as if one of them would have the right answer to my difficult questions, “No understand cher. The games you ask about are New Year games.”
“Yes, but…never mind; have a good weekend.”
So, I did some research (Wikipedia) on my own: The Khmer New Year is broken up into three days. Moha Songkran is the name of the first day of the New Year celebration. People dress up, light candles, and burn incense sticks at shrines, and for good luck people wash their faces with holy water in the morning, their chests at noon, and their feet in the evening before they go to bed.
Wanabat is the name of the second day where people are supposed to focus on giving charity to the less fortunate, and attend a ceremony to their ancestors at the local Wat (Temple).
Tanai Lieang Saka is the name of the third day. The Khmer will travel, once again, to their local Wat where they will cleanse the Buddha statues and Elders with perfumed water—this brings longevity, good luck, happiness and prosperity in life.
This is not all however, to my surprise; there are seven different Khmer New Year games that Cambodians play throughout the New Year holiday. I won’t bore you with the details now, but next week in my IT class the students will be teaching me one of their favorite games. I will tell you all about it in my next blog; I am sure it will be a splendid experience.
Until next time, we miss and love you all,
Benjamin and Andrea

Passports, Grandparents, and the Beach...

2009-02-26T19:42:00.000-08:00

Well, it’s been quite awhile since we last updated our blog, and for that we apologize. We are excited to inform you however, that Regan’s passport has come through! It was our last day in Chiang Mai; we were headed to the airport to meet Andrea’s father in Bangkok when we called the American Consulate and found out that the passport was ready—you can imagine our enthusiasm when finally holding the long awaited birth certificate and passport. Shortly thereafter, we found ourselves at the airport awaiting our flight to Bangkok when Regan began to poop, pee, and scream thus filling the terminal with rather odious sounds and smells. Ah yes, baby’s first flight. Overall, however, she performed splendidly well minus her terminal exploits. She slept the whole way to Bangkok (an hour long flight), and then met her grandpa (Andrea’s dad) for the first time (Andrea’s mother was already with us in Chiang Mai). We are now spending five days south of Bangkok in Hua-Hin at a nice little beach resort where, consequently, Regan experienced her first swim in a real life big girl’s pool. She’s a regular Michael Phelps (well, without the marijuana). Needless to say, we are having a great time with Andrea’s parents at the beach, but are also looking forward to our Sunday flight back to Phnom Penh and the start of classes again on Monday morning. As always, we thank you all for your support and thoughts…we could never do this without you—our community.

Ben and Andrea

good news, bad news...

2009-02-18T18:14:00.000-08:00

Good news: Regan’s bellybutton fell off! Hurrah!

Bad news: No passport yet. Boo!

So, you guessed it, we are still at the Juniper Tree.

There’s really not a whole lot else to update.

Regan is astonishingly cute.

Notice her pacifier.

Once again the Juniper Tree...

2009-02-11T19:08:00.000-08:00

Out of the hospital we are, and living at the Juniper Tree until passport we can acquire.

Regan so dear, our child newborn, is her emancipation enjoying.

A simple picture of happiness shared: three shoolies in our abode so quietly snuggling.

For your support and supplications greatly we give thanks; to your charity, likewise, may we aspire.

Yeah!!!!!

2009-02-06T04:29:00.000-08:00

Good news tonight...Regan's test is clear and all is well in the Peters' family. We still have to finish the treatment we started but then we can go home! It is amazing how fast things can turn around emotionally and physically. Thank you so much for your thoughts and prayers. Our next need is a speedy passport process! We are wanting to get out of here!

If you want to check out some great photos of our little one go to this website, they can even be downloaded and used if you so desire, which you might, cause she is the cutest baby ever!

(http://www.flickr.com/photos/vandenn/page2/)

2009-02-05T21:42:00.001-08:00

so sorry to

keep you waiting. i know it is agonizing. the time flies by here between visitors and emotional bouts of tears and frustration it seems the time is in fact moving more rapidly than i thought, which is such a good thing. today is a good day. regan was able to stay in our room again after having to be in the nursery for the previous 48 hours. she has regained all her birth weight and is thriving.

for those of you picturing a sickly baby, please know that is not the case, she looks great and besides the little paddle on her hand holding her iv in place you would not know anything was wrong. the doctor is very cheerful and seems to think she is well. she has not had a fever since the initial spike of a few degrees on her third morning of life. really things seem anticlimactic, and now that she is able to stay with us i am feeling much more emotionally stable.

thank you a million billion times over for your prayers. we are not out of the woods yet, and i am hoping my optimism is not crushed when we hear back today about the results from the culture of the fluid taken from her spine a few days ago. that will let us know the severity of the infection and the hope is that she is only going to have to finish the initial 7 day treatment.

your thoughts and prayers have been felt, i assure you.

Update...

2009-02-03T19:57:00.000-08:00

Well, we received our first test back—the one that screens for meningitis—and it came back negative, so obviously, that’s great news. We’re still waiting on a seventy-two hour test result that will tell us if she has sepsis or not, which they can treat, but it will prolong her treatment for an additional seven days. In other words, depending on the sepsis screening we could be here for fourteen days rather than the originally planned seven.

We have already started the IV sessions—twice a day for one hour each—and Regan seems to be handling those well. She is vibrant, feeding, and very much alive with all the energy of a newborn.

We will do our best to keep you informed and update on any information as we receive it, and, as the blog seems the best way to disseminate, we will regularly be posting.

Love,
Ben and Andrea

Oh the sickness...

2009-02-03T06:02:00.000-08:00

Our little shoolipotamus has a wee infection: group b strep. We thought that we would be going home today, but unfortunately we’ll have to stick around the RAM (that’s the hospital’s abbreviation) for another week. During this time Regan will be on an intravenous diet of delicious antibodies.

Please, let me stress it: PLEASE, do not be alarmed. This is a common experience, and the doctors at the RAM are the best in Southeast Asia; they caught it early, and they will treat it effectively. As Bobby McFerrin so eloquently put it in the 80's, “Don’t worry, be happy.”

Please keep us in your thoughts and prayers; we will do our best to keep you posted and up-to-date on any developments.

Ben and Andrea

I just want to snuggle...

2009-02-02T15:27:00.000-08:00

An hour and a half old...

2009-02-02T15:21:00.000-08:00

All three shoolies at minute five...

2009-02-02T15:19:00.000-08:00

Regan: two minutes old...

2009-02-02T15:17:00.000-08:00

Andrea, Ben, and Nurse Connie going into hour twelve...

2009-02-02T15:14:00.000-08:00

Mount Veshoolius!!!

2009-02-01T21:49:00.000-08:00

Regan Elise Peters is here among us. She is a wonderful eight pounds and twenty-one inches. The labor was roughly twenty-nine hours, but Andrea was a champion throughout the entire process. We apologize for the spotty blog reports, but, per the usual, the internet at the hospital is not all that it was promised to be; however, the doctors and nurses are great, so don’t fret.

I will do my best [Ben] to upload pictures as soon as I can, so be on the look out. We miss you all, love you all, and thank you so much for your thoughts and prayers.

Ben and Andrea

Baby time...we think

2009-01-30T19:05:00.000-08:00

Okay, so, Andrea’s water broke this morning, and we are anxiously waiting for things to progress before we head to the hospital. We will do the best we can to keep you up-to-date. Take care,

Ben and Andrea

Two Shoolies and a ‘Potamus (or, no luck yet)…

2009-01-22T22:18:00.000-08:00

An excursus (for those who are in need of a definitive—though not exhaustive—lexical word grouping on “shooley”):

Singular: Shooley

Plural: Shoolies

Pregnancy: Shooley-making

Labor Pains: Shooley-ripples

Labor: Mount Veshoolius (for the morphological paradigms of the word “shooley,” see appendix a)

Baby: Shoolipotamus (pl. shoolipotami)

Any good thing: Shoolirrific

(Feel free to come up with your own.)

Well, I [Ben] am here in Thailand, and patiently awaiting the arrival of Regan Elise (that is, our shoolipotamus). We are staying at the Juniper Tree, which is a phenomenal resort, until we move into the Dwangtawn Hotel for our ELI conference next week. In the mean time: we are walking each day and swimming about in the pool hoping for shooley-ripples, but no luck as of yet. Good news though, the hospital has internet access, so as soon as we go in for Mount Veshoolius we will turn on Skype and make ourselves available (well, as available as one can be in that situation). We are also working on getting a webcam, so that we can pipe our little-wiggly shoolipotamus onto the world-wide-web (no, you cannot watch the Mount Veshoolius). If you have any questions or comments please refer them to one or both of our email addresses.

Have a great day,

Benjamin John and Andrea Vukovich Peters

2009-01-14T20:18:00.000-08:00

Sorry, this is the best I could do taking a picture of myself. I know what you are thinking, that shirt is working awfully hard. I have two weeks to go yet.

Juniper Tree Haven

2009-01-14T19:43:00.001-08:00

This is where I have been spending the last two weeks. My room is really a house of it's own, a traditional Thai style house, where it rests on stilts about 6 feet off the ground. It has been perfect to be able to rest here, as the last few weeks of pregnancy have taken more of my energy than I expected.

This place is set up to support families serving overseas. It is meant to be affordable but also to provide a relaxing vacation for those who could not otherwise afford much. The name itself comes from 1 Kings 19:4-8, the hope being that people leave here rejuvenated and ready to go back to their countries. Many of the families here right now are from Mongolia and India, so they are thawing out a little, while I am all bundled up. I never thought I would see the day when 70 degrees made me shiver.

This place holds about 80 people, and is totally booked up most of the time, so I am so lucky to be able to stay here, especially while I am here alone. There is a nice community and tons of people offering to help me all the time. I met a woman this morning who is a labor and lactation consultant, and she was so happy that we will both be here through when the baby is here. She is excited to help, which is just one more comfort I am grateful for. The managers are keeping a good eye on me too, I think they are a little nervous that I will go into labor before Ben gets here.

They serve the meals family style, and so you sit with different people all the time. There is so much to learn about the different countries where people are living. It is very impressive to see how people have changed their lives to serve in other countries and help develop education and infrastructure.

This is the outside of my house. It is a beautiful place to sleep and relax in the last moments before the baby arrives. Hopefully these pictures help give comfort to all of you who are concerned about me being here alone. I am more lucky than most girls. I can't imagine having to work up until the end of pregnancy. Thank you to everyone who is constantly checking on me through email and skype. I appreciate the concern and the thoughts you hold for me. I will keep you posted.

2009-01-14T01:43:00.000-08:00

Well, ben is still back in Cambodia teaching, as I have shown to the left. I miss him terribly. He will join me in three days, so I am trying to be strong. I know it was good for him to stay there and teach longer, he is very much appreciated by his students. He may have mentioned this already, but he is tutoring a few students, all who have had trouble passing the TEFL test. It is $100 a shot and that is just money they don't have. When he agreed to tutor them they thought they had really won the jackpot. Teachers in Cambodia might charge for this, and English isn't even their first language. To have Ben offer up his time was unbelievable to them. He is a great teacher and all the guys in his many classes need and appreciate him. I need him too though, and so I am quite antsy for him to get here, especially cause I have a bit of a cold currently, which is surprisingly difficult in a tropical climate when you are 9 months pregnant. I think Regan Elise is just waiting for her daddy to get here, and then she will join us in this crazy world. Your thoughts are much appreciated.

The sweet sorrow of parting (one week removed)...

2009-01-09T19:59:00.000-08:00

To all the crazies out there still reading this blog,

I hope all is well in your life, family, home, or what have you. Things here are moving right along. I had a wonderfully full week of teaching at NPIC, and have even taken to tutoring three students on the side helping them out with their English language acquisition. They’re great guys, and I would tell you their names, but they’re rather difficult to pronounce and even more difficult to spell. So, let’s just call them Juan, Dominique, and Zissou…they’re awesome! So, that’s been a bundle of joy, and speaking of bundles of joy, Andrea’s sister Stephanie and husband Steve had their first child last night. Hooray!!! And, doubly speaking of bundles of joy, Andrea is doing splendidly in Thailand. I leave in exactly one week to join her, and am fairly certain that both of us are chomping at the bits to once again be together. We are hoping that Regan stays in her mommy’s womb until I can join them, but if she doesn’t, then I’ll just ground her. That’s what parents do, right?

Uh…what else, well actually, I have one quick, and rather funny, anecdote (for Dr. Funk). As an English department we gave our first test two weeks ago, so last week we were fervently grading and reviewing them with out students. One of the questions on the test was: “I play tennis, and I (fill in the blank) tai-chi.” The answer, of course, is “do,” I do tai-chi. What provided me with great joy and even laughter, were the answers I got: eat, drink, throw, drive, etc. It was straight up Mad Libs! Hmm, I just realized that this might only be funny to someone who has been living in Southeast Asia for six months. If you didn’t find this story humorous, then I profusely apologize. I got a kick out of it though.

Well, that about does it. I won my soccer game last week, yeah! And I have another one this Sunday. I have taken to playing left side defense (for those who care). Last week during warm-ups a little Khmer kid ran over to me and really wanted to help by working me out. So, we spent a good twenty minutes just kicking the ball back and forth. He was probably twelve or thirteen, but at about minute two, I fully realized he was way better than I was. Go figure!

As I said, I hope all is well. I miss you all, and can’t wait to either Skype are exchange emails with you. Be thinking of us as we both transition to Thailand, and subsequently parenthood.

Ben

PS-I refuse to mention that Florida won the national championship. I despise them and everything they stand for.

2009-01-09T06:56:00.000-08:00

This is my last day of teaching before leaving to deliver. I really enjoyed teaching this small class,(a few are missing) they were such nice people. I hope I have an angel of a child and I am able to go back to teaching them. Some of them shared their beliefs and lives with me in their writing, and those who share in my beliefs are up against a lot here. Keep them in your thoughts if you can. They all have a lot to fight in order to be successful in life, and they want so badly to be able to find a good job in the tourism industry.

2009-01-04T02:21:00.000-08:00

here is the jeep ben loves, it is a bit of tank, but that is what we need on those dirt roads, hopefully it stays in one piece.

I created a photo album on facebook for those of you with access, it shows more of our time in cambodia, and where we live. this cute photo makes me miss my shooley, don't you all miss him too? he is so great!!! his posts are a little more eloquent that mine, as my little sister pointed out to me... thanks soph.

Split screen sadness...

2009-01-02T18:29:00.000-08:00

I am alone in Cambodia. Yes, Andrea left for Thailand yesterday, which signals the beginning of the beginning of parenthood. To put all the worried parents to rest, I received an email from Andrea late last night detailing her arrival in full, so for now she is safe and sound. In the meantime I am living the bachelor’s life for two weeks: eating out, skimping on showers, and staying up late. Right now we are on holiday for the New Year, so we have had the last week off from teaching. Most of our time was spent preparing for Andrea’s departure, the arrival of our little one, and grading tests. Today is Saturday, so I will be getting a hair trim (my hair is getting crazy long), playing in a soccer game, and going out to eat with Bryant later tonight. Monday classes begin again in earnest, and I am greatly looking forward to putting these idle hands to work.

For New Years we stayed in and watched “Mummy 3: Curse of the Evil Chinese Emperor Who Is Also a Big Dragon,” and it was as bad as it sounds. Sad to say though, we did not get to watch the Rose Bowl, and New Years day was just not the same. What can do you though? We are in Southeast Asia and there idea of good sport is badminton! Not exactly USC versus Penn State, but I digress. I miss Andrea fiercely, I will be busy teaching until I leave, and I guess that ends my update—sorry for the rambling. Take care, and enjoy your New Year.

PS-While Andrea is in Thailand her Skype will be a_b_peters (the same as it has been), however mine will change to benjamin.john.peters for the next few weeks.

this is a post about shooleys

2008-12-27T21:12:00.000-08:00

Ben is in a bit of a silly mood today. For those of you who don't know what a shooley is let me explain: "shooley" is the neutered term of endearment used by both Ben and myself to express our undying affection for one another. Today ben is making up songs having to do with the word shooley and all it implies. Usually when we ride in a tuk-tuk one or the other of us sing a little ditty, sometimes original, sometimes a classic.

Today the weather in PP is reading at a balmy 81 degrees. There is a nice breeze in the air and all things considered it is a fairly nice day in Cambodia. Our Sunday will consist of Comme a la Maison, our favorite French breakfast nook, followed by church, a short stop at the Russian Market and Ben's soccer game. Then a long ride out to our countryside school. This week will be a bit off the norm, which we have just barely settled into. Being New Years we have Thursday off, and neither of us teach on Wednesdays, so we will be back in the city and having internet access more than usual. I leave on Friday morning for Thailand, where my next two weeks will be spent seeing doctors and waiting for the blessed child to arrive. Ben is going to get a few more weeks of teaching in before joining me on the 17th of January. This new year for us will mark some of the biggest changes yet in our lives. Besides being in yet another new country, we will have our first baby, which is a step both of us are trying to prepare for daily. It is daunting to say the least. Thank you for keeping up with our postings and caring about the mundane events of our lives. Seeing your comments and receiving your emails makes a big difference in our lives.

Hopefully you all have a very Happy New Year and a find it also new and different for you.

These kids follow their mother about our dormitory while she cleans. I like to give them stuff and try to talk to them.

2008-12-26T20:47:00.000-08:00

On the drive to our school this is typically what you will see...

2008-12-26T20:32:00.000-08:00

One of the sweetest restaurants ever...

2008-12-26T20:29:00.000-08:00

Christmas week in Cambodia...

2008-12-21T18:32:00.001-08:00

Ben and I sit this lovely Saturday morning in Java coffee shop eating our yogurt, sipping coffee and waiting for signs of life on Skype. It has proven to be more difficult lacking internet during the week than I thought it would be. We are two of three Americans out at our campus, no one else speaks much English. We live amongst Khmer students and Korean teachers, all very gracious and kind, but conversation is lacking to say the least. Having barely a connection with the outside world is difficult, I think it is especially difficult being almost 8 months pregnant and knowing my little sister is going to deliver soon too. Emotions run high.

The weather is beautiful today. Only 80 degrees and there is a nice breeze. Besides waiting for family to pop on Skype we are going to take care of our car today, and move yet again. Let me explain... We bought an old school Jeep Cherokee with the hope that it will stay together on our bumpy road to and from school. We needed something with a little more clearance than the Toyota we were borrowing. The jeep does fine, but it is a rough ride. It is definitely beat up, but for this time and place, that is good. We will include a picture next weekend hopefully. Ben is pretty excited about it. He likes old beaters like that. We need to get the oil changed and the tires taken care of today though, simple tasks that tend to take hours more than you would think necessary.

As far as moving AGAIN, our team leader had to leave the country for personal reasons so his house, which was our landing ground on the weekends, is no longer available. For the next few weeks we will house-sit for our pastor and his family while they are in the states for Christmas. Then we will be staying with a family from our church when we get back from Thailand with a baby. They have kids already, and they are really great people, so it should be a good fit, it just means being uprooted again.

I wanted to include a few random pictures, but the thing isn't working right now. My sister mentioned, as well as another friend, that they thought we were roughing it much more than we are. Cambodia is definitely still developing, and they lack the infrastructure that makes life consistent, but we have electricity and solid walls. The disparity of wealth and poverty is the most shocking thing about being here. You can drive past a Range Rover and into the countryside to our campus where we have no water for hours and days on end.

Anyway, Merry Christmas to all, and hopefully you are enjoying your North American weather! We are missing it.

what a stud!

2008-12-14T18:46:00.000-08:00

The Superstars of NPIC...

2008-12-12T19:44:00.000-08:00

Well, we are still without the Internet at NPIC, and so communication has been a bit difficult. When we come into the city on the weekends we are trying our best to post on our blog and send emails to all of you. That being said, here is a quick recap of our week:

We made it back to the countryside Sunday evening, and relaxed a bit before starting classes again on Monday. We are in our third week of teaching, and are finally hitting our stride. Our students are wonderful, and we are regularly surprised with their command of the English language. However, there are those few students who still stare at us with blank faces, which make it a little more difficult.

Two events this week stand out as memorable, and consequently, both happened on Friday. First, we had a small group of students over for lunch on Friday afternoon. We made them Mexican food, which they had never had before! It was a great experience. Andrea and I handmade the tortillas, whipped up some seasoning for the beef, and splurged on some cheese. All in all, I think they liked the flavor, but a few of the students found it just a little too foreign. We had some great conversation however, and are thoroughly enjoying building relationships with our students. They wanted to know everything about us, from what our friends and families are like, to how one eats a burrito, to why we celebrate Christmas. Needless to say, we had a splendid time, and are really looking forward to our next gathering.

Second, after our “Mexican feed,” we moseyed on over to the NPIC soccer field and watched the opening game of the NPIC soccer season. It was the IT department versus the NPIC Superstars. Why were the IT students playing against the Allstars, you ask? Well, because the IT department has won the NPIC championship three years in a row now, so the University President decided to create an exhibition match so the IT students might experience the agony of defeat. Hilariously, we were the guests of honor, so they sat us at the fifty underneath the shaded portion of the bleachers (imagine a medieval joust). It was a great game, the students were thrilled that we were their, and the Vice-President of the university asked me and our team leader, Bryant, to play on NPIC’s teacher team, so…we’ll have to keep you posted on the NPIC teaches’ soccer season. That being said, NPIC is beginning to feel more and more like a community, and we are slowly (oh so slowly) starting to view it as our home.

In other news, Andrea’s pregnancy is moving right along. We are buying tickets today for her flight to Thailand on the second of January (I will be shortly following behind her on the fifteenth), and each day we are able to make out the movements of our daughter a little more.

Well, the rice patties behind our dormitories are being harvested, and that can only mean one thing: CHRISTMAS!!! So, we put up a small Christmas tree in our kitchen room, however, no matter how many trees you see, or how much Christmas music you listen to, it’s a little hard to get into the mood when it’s eighty degrees outside. But, the season is here, and all of you are increasingly on our minds. As a matter of fact, tonight we will be going to a Christmas concert that a local high school is putting on in Phnom Penh. It should be a good show, but it is still difficult being away from friends and family during the holidays. We miss you all and love you, and we hope you’re having a wonderful holiday season. Until next weekend…

Ben and Andrea

2008-12-06T04:33:00.000-08:00

We are finally teachers

2008-12-06T04:05:00.000-08:00

Teaching is here and it is awesome. (Ben is convinced he needs to teach his students the word awesome.) We have been teaching all week and enjoying the educational profession, Khmer students and our newfound pace of life (which is still very chill). A typical day in the Cambodian countryside might look like this: we get up around 6 am, make breakfast in the room we have converted to a kitchen, stop by the office to pick up teaching materials, and head to our respective classes. We both teach third year English classes but in different concentrations, I teach in tourism, Ben in electrical engineering. The students all over campus know who we are and where we live. We are the only white people around for literally miles and it is funny how they stop and stare. As we walk around campus students step off the sidewalk to get out of our way and always bow and say good morning or hello. In class they all stand when we come into the room and stay standing until asked to be seated. Upon leaving class they will do the same thing. All classes in Cambodia have a class monitor who is in charge of bringing the eraser, erasing the board, taking attendance and opening the windows if that is what the teacher desires. If something were to change in the schedule or all the students in class needed to be reached the class monitor is responsible for this, one of the only sensible things you will find in the Cambodian educational system.

After teaching we usually have an afternoon to ourselves. We spend this either making lesson plans, grading, or reading in our little dorm room. I am trying to befriend the children of the woman who cleans our dorm. They just follow her around all day while she sweeps. They are usually naked and quite dirty. The three of the (mother, daughter and son) come up to our third floor landing to take a nap every afternoon and when they wake up I usually offer them a snack or try to talk to them in my limited Khmer and sign language. I bought a small toy for both of the kids last week and I would love to develop a relationship with this family so the kids could play with me while the mom cleans, but that is a ways off I think.

We then make dinner in our awkward kitchen and sit around talking after dinner for a good long while as a team. Life in the countryside is slow and it makes you focus on relationships. We have time to focus on our marriage, our team relationship and getting to know students and staff. They are a very warm people and easy to get to know. Everyone you meet in Cambodia is dying to learn or improve their English. It is fun to be a part of something that is simple, but can make such a drastic difference in people's lives. Thank you all so much for your support in sending us on this journey. It is hard, but it is good, very good.

Unbelievable!!!

2008-12-02T19:15:00.001-08:00

This morning I felt a real need to write about our experience because it was so ridiculous I had to share it. Try to visualize as you read because I am sure my words can only give you a partial picture of how this played out. In our room on campus we have a speaker on the wall. I never noticed it before, nothing has ever come out of it before, but this morning it spoke.
If you have seen the movie "Grease" then you might remember the little jingle they play on the zylophone when they make announcements in the morning. The same jingle woke me up at 5:30 and it was followed by a Khmer voice rattling something unidentifiable. Then another jingle. Then another announcement, then another jingle, then another announcement.
Fully awake I texted our teammate who speaks Khmer to ask if there was a fire or something. Surely they wouldn't make such a long announcement so early if it was not of the utmost importance. He said they announced to please turn the water off when you are done showering. Hmmmm. No fire.
The announcement would have been bad enough, it woke me up well before my alarm clock and it persisted far longer than it needed to, but to top it off the person on the other end of the speaker decided to play Khmer radio for the next 40 minutes. Forty minutes of Khmer music at 5:30 in the morning, with no possible way to shut it off. I got increasingly more angry and I finally got up to take a cold shower. It is mornings like this that make you feel like you are living some kind of candid camera.
It also makes me a little sad. The Cambodian people may have hated it, but no one would try to do something about it. They don't have a concept of their privacy being violated. They have had such a culture of doing what they are told and being unable to change anything that they accept whatever may happen, bad or good. In some ways it is more healthy that they can let things roll off their back, but it has also proven to be detrimental to them. For example, in our talks with college students, we have not found one who even cares what happens in the tribunal to convict the leaders of the Pol Pot Regime. They are completely ambivalent to it. I find that to be quite tragic.

2008-11-27T02:52:00.000-08:00

Just a quick note to say we are safe, sound, and celebrating Thanksgiving the best way we can: by driving into Phnom Penh from the countryside, and celebrating at Freebirds—deep fried turkey buffet, anyone? We love and miss you all, and thank you for the masses of birthday emails and packages. Have a wonderful day, and please eat some pie for us.

PS-We have finally started teaching! Our students are wonderful, and they wish you all a happy Thanksgiving as well!

Right now we do not have access to the Internet where we live, so our posts will be infrequent until we can find a better solution. Take care; we will write more soon.

getting started...

2008-11-18T05:47:00.000-08:00

Things are slowly starting to take shape here. We returned from Siem Reap to find NPIC just as we left it only with a little more gecko poop on the floor. We were told to report to teach on Monday morning, but given no time or location. We tried to be there early and to find our way, but there was no need to stress. We arranged desks and were sent away, told to return to teach Wednesday morning, Tuesday for schedules. Then a text comes on Monday night telling us to be in the office by 8am Tuesday morning cause we will have classes Tuesday(still we have seen no schedule). How students know when to show up to this fiasco is beyond me. We get there early since we haven't seen any classrooms or made any copies yet, but they say, no maybe tomorrow. I sit here on Tuesday night and all my American sensibilities are violated. I never would have been able to sleep the night before teaching my first class in Colorado. It still was hard for me to sleep every Sunday night, even if I had the up coming week well planned, copies sitting in my classroom. I have come so far. Or something like that. I am learning a hard lesson in patience and flexibility.

In other news, we borrowed a car from a couple who is in Japan delivering their baby and Ben has been driving to and from NPIC the past few days. Braving the roads here is stressful to say the least. Motobikes and cars pop out everywhere and you have to have your head constantly on a swivel. He is doing very well though, I have no intention of driving the duration of the time we are here.

Finally, to update you all, I am 29 weeks pregnant which means I leave for Thailand BY MYSELF in five weeks, maybe six if I am lucky. It will be an adventure, and to be honest, I am not in the mood for an adventure right now. They always make good stories later but they really suck at the time.

Siem Reap

2008-11-12T23:35:00.000-08:00

We are currently discovering the wonders of Siem Reap. It has been so fun to get out of Phnom Penh and see this site that is truly amazing. Siem Reap is a very different town than PP. It is much smaller, and it is full of tourists, people just coming through to move on in a few days. I somehow don’t feel like we fit that category because we aren’t leaving Cambodia any time soon. I think the most significant difference is that we know a little bit of Khmer. When someone asks me about being pregnant or we ask their name in Khmer they smile from ear to ear. Not many tourists do that here.

Angkor is unbelievable. Our pictures aren’t all that great cause the weather was very gray, but it was well worth choosing an overcast day to walk around for 8 hours, especially being nearly 7 months pregnant. We went into the day thinking we would be in and out much faster than that, but the hours kept ticking by and we were still curious about what we might find in the next temple. I wish there was a better way to describe these temples. I am still in awe at the architecture. Some of them were built over 1200 years ago.

The builders had to make little rivers and rafts to float the massive stones to the building sites, as there are no mountains near by; or they would use elephants to carry the stones. It must have been such a massive undertaking. The detail on each stone is mind-boggling too.

The three main temples we visited were very different. We saw other smaller ones, but these are the most famous and hopefully I will be able to get the pictures to match what I write. The first was Angkor Wat and it was the most impressive simply because of its magnitude.

This is the temple that usually shows up when you google Cambodia. It is also the background of our blog page. It was originally built as a Hindu temple but later converted to a Buddhist temple.

The second temple is called Bayon and it is famous for the massive and serene faces on each of the towers. There used to stand 54 towers, but only 39 remain (I think), and most of them are only partially standing. Each tower has four faces, pieced together with huge stones. It is also famous for its bas-reliefs that show scenes of mundane everyday life but also mythological and historical scenes.

The final temple is Ta Prohm, which is familiar to anyone who has seen Lara Croft, Tomb Raider, as a few scenes are shot on these grounds. This was probably my favorite temple, although it is hard to choose. It is unique because when the temples were starting to be restored at the beginning of the 20^th century this one was left in its natural state, which is quickly becoming part of the jungle. Huge trees are growing out of the walls surrounding the temple and over the top of it. It is truly beautiful.

We miss you all, and look forward to hearing from you. We will put more pictures up soon, and write again when we can.

The lost images of Sihanouk Ville

2008-11-09T01:35:00.000-08:00

Our First Visitor...

2008-11-09T01:15:00.000-08:00

We had a friend come this last week to visit. It was so great to see a familiar face and to be able to show someone around our new home. Tom was a fantastic guest, the lowest of maintenance required. I think he only brought a few changes of clothes, but had no desire to do laundry. He didn’t complain about the makeshift bed he had to use on the floor, and he asked all sorts of questions about life and politics and history of Cambodia. Tom Haines went to high school and college with me, but our real bond began when we studied in New Zealand together. Tom is a world traveler and was in Nepal so he took a detour and visited us. He is a dedicated friend- the journey took him way too long. He had to skip between bus, moto, and taxi to get into the country, and do the same leaving; very long journeys both directions.

Our gratitude goes out to Tom for going to the effort to see us, as well as all those who are supporting him in his work, which allowed for his visit as well. We needed the encouragement.

Frustration...

2008-11-06T21:06:00.000-08:00

i have no idea what is going on with our blog. i have tried too many times to fix it. i am sorry some of the pictures aren't working and the text is getting all screwed up. i really wanted to share some of those pics. maybe they will work next time. i am getting to frustrated to mess with it any more today. thanks for reading, on to the next adventure...Angkor Wat.

Sihanouk Ville

2008-11-04T18:12:00.000-08:00

We had the great experience of teaching in Sihanouk Ville last week. It was a nice break to work. (Yes, that is what I said.) We drove into the city after four hours on the Mekong Express, the nicest of Cambodia’s bus systems. It was air conditioned, they provided snacks, and only a few seats had leaks over them. The Koreans who run Life University met us at the bus stop and took us to lunch at a very nice, very vacant hotel. We had a lovely meal, and truly enjoyed the company. The Koreans spoke beautiful English and made us feel welcome from the beginning.

They took us then to a hotel where we were to stay for the week. We were intending to stay on their campus but it filled up more than they expected so they paid for our hotel, which was directly on the beach. I have included some pictures of our hotel, because although it was more than I expected, I don’t think we can communicate the weirdness of it unless you see pictures. I could never tell if it was being put together or taken down, but there was almost no furniture in the whole place, and although we were their only four guests we were on the third floor, away from the ocean. The beach was virtually unusable, as there were no chairs or tables outside, and it was covered with trash and had a concrete beam was running through it. If you walked down a ways it was usable, but the beachfront property was wasted on our hotel.

We spent one day on the popular Serendipity Beach. Tourism is the main draw for this city, but they are seriously lacking on major fronts. Don’t get me wrong, I would love to live and teach here next year, but things are just not what I know you may be picturing. The tuk-tuk dropped us off at Serendipity at the top of a long steep hill that he could not drive down with his moto and tuk-tuk because it was so rutted out. We gladly walked down the hill, but I was shocked that their main beach was so inaccessible. There were some little shops on the side of the road, and many guesthouses to choose from. The entrance to the beach was unclear. You had to go around this little stand selling all sorts of random wares, to the right or the left, climbing down a concrete wall or over dilapidated stairs. Both directions on the beach were lined with restaurants and bars, some belonging to guesthouses, some standing alone. They all had chairs set up to enjoy the ocean view, but the cushions on the chairs were wet and I am pretty sure never moved out of the elements.

Sitting on this beach is tiring. We came down mid-morning and until we left at 4 we were constantly surrounded my women offering manicures and pedicures on the beach, or massages, or a strange form of hair removal I didn’t want to know anything about. Some were friendly, some pushy, but it was constant. There were others selling fruit, or seafood along with tons of kids selling all sorts of things, crafts they had made, bookmarks, bracelets, etc… Their goal seemed to be to get you to say, “Maybe later,” and then they make you pinkie promise that you will buy from them later, and no one else. They will remember you too, so don’t think you are getting out of it for one second. It only took me one pinkie promise to learn this lesson.

Before heading to Sihanouk Ville I read about how to treat the kids who sell stuff on the beach. It is understood that they don’t get to keep their money and they are sort of pimped out. They all say they are paying for school but that is hard to believe since they are there everyday. I tried talking to one little girl about the truth of this. She didn’t try to sell me anything, she just kept touching my tummy and asking questions about my family and telling me about hers’ when I asked in return. She said she gets to keep most of her money, but sometimes bullies take it. She also told me about some other kids who sell on the beach who are her enemies because they are not nice. I don’t know the truth but it is hard to ignore all of them, and that somehow doesn’t seem helpful either.

All in all, our time in Sihanouk Ville was too short. I would have loved to stay another week and teach another course. Our students were excellent. They loved having us too. When they finished their test we told them they could leave, but they all stayed until we absolutely forced them to go, which was 45 minutes longer than class was supposed to run. They even gave us a gift when we left and they all put notes in it. I am excited about the prospect of teaching there in the future, even if it is in small spurts like this last week was.

Hot Showers!!!

2008-10-31T22:33:00.001-07:00

I took a hot shower every day this week! Sometimes two a day.

Teaching at Life University

2008-10-30T01:05:00.000-07:00

This week Ben and I have had the privilege of teaching at Life University in Sihanoukville, Cambodia. We had to take a four hour bus ride to get here, but it was well worth it. The fresh air of this ocean town rests in stark contrast to the pollution of Phnom Pehn. Although the beaches here are still trash-laden the water is beautiful and the smallness of this place gives it a much different feel than what we have been used to. This place is laid out a bit awkwardly as it stretches a long way down the coast. The school is further in town, but it is on the side of a hill and therefore you get a clear ocean view from the balcony. The breeze coming off the water cools things down considerably too, which is a welcome change.

Ben and I taught a Public Speaking course condensed into one week. The students did a fantastic job. We spent 7 hours in class on Monday alone, which would have killed me if I didn't have his partnership. Ben is a great teacher. He does a fantastic job teaching. He speaks slowly and clearly and can come up with a dozen examples off the top of his head, which I can never do.

We wanted to get something up so that you knew what we were doing. We will post pictures once we get home and much more of our impression of this town. There is much more to write as it has a flavor all its own.

Bacon served crispy…

2008-10-22T01:01:00.000-07:00

Our last week and a half has revolved around meals. We broke bread with a Korean delegation from NPIC, a couple who have given birth in Southeast Asia, our French roommate, various ELI staffers, and one very enthusiastic Star Wars fan.

Our first big meal for the week was a welcome dinner for all the new teachers at our university. It was a pleasant enough evening. We ate Korean barbeque (surprise—it’s a Korean university) of which pork is, apparently, the main entrée. However, imagine pork sushi. They really didn’t cook the pork thoroughly (by that I mean at all), which provided a strange sensation on the palate, but the Korean sauces were amazing. Food aside, it was a wonderfully good evening. We had some fun conversation with our Korean liaison Mr. Cho, and were also able to meet some new teachers that had just arrived in Cambodia from Korea.

Our next meal was a twofer. One of the ELI staffers we are working with is a huge Star Wars fan, and really wanted to throw down a Star Wars episode one through six marathon. Obviously, this wasn’t going to happen, and so we compromised. Basically, we decided to go over to his house once a week to eat home cooked food while simultaneously partaking in the splendid universe of George Lucas. I really don’t think Andrea is a big fan of Luke Skywalker and company, but a genuinely home cooked meal is rare thing in Cambodia so she’s willing to put up with it.

Next, we met a really nice couple from a local church we are attending. They invited us over for dinner and conversation. They made us a real American chicken pot-pie. It was awesome! We also got to pick their brains on giving birth in Thailand, and raising kids in Cambodia as they have two of their own.

On Saturday, we grabbed a quick dinner with our French roommate, and then headed to the Gasolina. Now, for those who don’t know, the Gasolina is a local restaurant that serves great food, but also sponsors the soccer team I play on. Anyway, this particular night we headed to the Gasolina because our French roommate was in a Khmer fashion show! Yes, you read that correctly, a Cambodian fashion show. It was…an interesting experience, and still proves to be fodder aplenty for our relationship with Alex.

We have had many other meals these last few weeks that have been memorable, but in the interest of space I will wind it down. On Monday we headed out to NPIC for a monthly English department meeting. It went well, and we are really looking forward to starting classes in November. In other news, we leave next week for Sihanouk Ville where we will be teaching a one week class at Life University on public speaking. This should break up our schedule nicely. Classroom time in Asia (at least in our experience) is greatly coveted. Also, Andrea has been under-the-weather a bit lately, and is just now beginning to recover from a minor cold. Despite a runny nose and a cough, she is as graceful as ever, and busy reading all of the baby books she can get her hands on.

We love you all, and will keep you posted. Hopefully our next blog will have something to say about the Cambodian classroom.

Ben and Andrea

Good Morning Cambodia...

2008-10-10T20:13:00.000-07:00

As per the usual, we are currently sitting at the Java café in the heart of Phnom Penh writing this little update. Outside the weather is a wonderful autumn eighty-five degrees (with a hundred percent humidity, making it feel like ninety-five), and so we are trying our best to soak up the free air conditioning (electricity in Cambodia is equivalent to buying an H2 in the states). This very moment—Saturday morning—Andrea is looking up the definitions to baby names in preparation for our coming child, and I am sipping on a café au-lait in preparation for my afternoon football (that’s soccer) game. What a wonderful morning indeed!

Lately, we have really been hitting our language studies hard, or should I say “ch-ran” (make sure to roll the “r” [this of course means, “a whole lot,” in Khmer])! Our language teacher is named Damson, a twenty something Khmer with a law degree, who is a friend of our English teaching team.

In other news, the baby began to kick a bit. Unfortunately, it’s still an “it,” and so we are both having a difficult time grasping what it will mean to be parents. Soon enough though “she” will come, and our experience here in Cambodia will drastically change.

In about two weeks we will be teaching at a University here in Cambodia about four hours outside of the capital named Life University. We will be giving a week long course on public speaking, and so we are now in the process of developing our syllabus and lesson plans. It’s not exactly fun, but it is definitely helping pass the time until our full time gig at NPIC begins. We are also in the market for a car but the search so far has turned up nil. However, I did test drive a car the other day with a steering wheel on the right side of the car. It provided a strangely queer sensation: imagine compensating for extra space on your left side rather than your right, weird huh?

Other than that, we’ve also been hanging around with our French roommate Alex, a really nice and funny guy who provides the majority of our entertainment. It’s been a pleasure getting to know him, and has given both of us a new found respect for the French.

Well, that’s all we have for now. We miss and love you all.

Ben and Andrea.

Just some pictures to share...

2008-10-07T00:48:00.000-07:00

The Pchum Ben Holiday

2008-09-30T05:56:00.000-07:00

I thought the easiest way to explain the last few weeks would be with bits of an article I found online explaining the holiday. The whole face of the city is changed with this holiday well underway. Should you choose to read the parts of the article I have placed on this blog I think it makes quite clear the things we face in this country. Buddhism, which is such a deep part of life here, touches every part of a Cambodians life. Converting or changing beliefs that have been ingrained is much more difficult than one might think.

"The fifteenth day, of the tenth month, of the Khmer calendar marks the Pchum Ben festival. This is a time when the spirits of the dead ancestors walk the Earth. And the living can ease their suffering by offering them food to eat. At four in the morning, nearly all of the residents of Phnom Penh gather at the temple with offerings of rice, which they toss on the ground, feeding the dead ancestors.

According to Buddhist beliefs, the lives that we live, after death, are predicated by the actions that we took when we were living. Minor infractions would be punished with small punishments, such as being an unattractive ghost or having a small mouth. With a small mouth, it is hard to eat. Other, more severe, punishments could include being crippled or having no mouth at all.

At 8:00 AM, people return to the temple, with offerings for the monks. "They don't just give food," explains Mey Sameth, who was a monk for seven years. "They bring money and other things as well. As a monk we looked forward to this period all year long, because we could get new clothing and good food."

At 10:00 the people return with more food, which will be shared between monks and poor people. Os many of the Buddhist traditions seem to relate to feeding the poor. Disabled people also crowd around the temple begging alms. To give help to the less-fortunate, particularly during Pchum Ben, is to acquire merit. Many people explained that the offerings they made during the festival were to cancel out past sins.

Between 5:00-7:00 PM there will be more prayers for the dead. Most modern Khmers will say that the festival lasts fifteen days, ending on the fifteenth of the month. In actuality, the ancient, traditional festival lasted three months, ending on the fifteenth day, of the tenth month of the year.

The last four days of the festival were public holidays in Cambodia. Most Khmers visited the province where they were born, where they had family reunions. In observing friends and colleagues, it was amazing to see that even people who considered themselves only marginally religious still took the Pchum Ben festival seriously. They felt a real obligation to feed their ancestors, lest their suffering should continue. Even friends who claimed to have converted to Christianity, and who attended church regularly, took time out of their schedule to make the early morning pilgrimage to the temple, and feed the ancestors.

The Buddhist religion is such an integral part of the Khmer culture that neither political upheaval, economic crisis, the spread of foreign religions, or the intervention of modern society will shake the fundamentals of Khmer beliefs. It is refreshing to see that, although many aspects of the Khmer culture were lost during the Regime, the Khmers have managed to maintain their religious devotion and their family-centered way of life."

Update...

2008-09-21T19:09:00.000-07:00

Much has happened since last we blogged. For starters, Andrea flew back home at the last minute to attend her brother’s wedding. We are very thankful to her family members for making this possible, as it was important to both her and her brother. While the wedding was beautiful, it was a turn-around trip for Andrea who is now doing her best to recover from jetlag.

Upon her return to Phnom Penh team Cambodia arrived in full, and headed out to the beach town of Kep for a five day “get-to-know-you/goal planning” retreat. We were able to meet the other members of our team, experience the wonderful Cambodian countryside, and relax a bit in our own private bungalow. Even though we were without air-conditioning, and the bugs/reptiles/furry creatures were rather nasty, we had a splendid time.

On Sunday afternoon, sadly, we piled each team member into taxis and headed back to Phnom Penh. However, our countryside journey did not end there! Cruising on the narrow highways leading to the city, our taxi driver recklessly weaved between tuk-tuks, cars, motos, and bikers while keeping a steady sixty-mile-an-hour pace. Needless to say, we were rather unnerved. To make matters worse, halfway through our journey the taxi driver vaporized a mangy dog standing in the middle of the road—he dragged it a good quarter of a mile—smashing both his radiator and our hearts. We waited by the side of the road for about an hour-and-a-half, got into another taxi, and were on edge for the rest of our long journey home.

So, what’s up next for us you ask? Well, this week we will be making a more permanent transition to NPIC (our university in the countryside). By this I mean, that Monday we are going to spend our day shopping for furniture that we will be trucking out to our campus housing on Wednesday. Our future goal is to stay at NPIC Monday through Friday, and Phnom Penh Friday afternoon through Sunday evening. So, our trial run of this schedule will start Wednesday of this week.

We will spend the majority of our time studying Khmer (always), and preparing for a weeklong class we will teach in October at another school (Life University—our NPIC gig does not start until November fifteenth).

I know all of this is confusing, but we’ll keep everyone posted as to our comings and goings, and hopefully in time all will be made clear. If there is one thing we have learned so far, it is that one must be patient in Asian culture, as our typical western obsession with time has no place in Cambodia!

We love and miss you all,

Ben and Andrea

Weekly update...

2008-09-13T19:46:00.000-07:00

I woke up this morning and realized that we had not posted in quite sometime, and so I made “posting” my big goal for the day.

It is Sunday morning here, and I am currently sitting at coffee shop called Java, (we typically end up here at least once a day, or every other day, as they have good coffee and cheap internet) which is across from one of the few parks in Phnom Penh. Well, the term “park” is generous. Actually, it’s just a strip of grass in the middle of the city, but on a cool evening it has the tendency to feel “park-y.” It’s about one kilometer a round, and in the morning, if you’re in the mood for a jog, this is the place to go. Typically you’ll find walkers, runners, and a group of women doing some sort of yoga thing with a sword—I haven’t figured out exactly what they’re doing yet. Anyway, I am across from this park, sitting at Java, writing a post.

The last week has been hectic and relaxing; hectic because, Monday through Wednesday we were commuting back and forth from the city to our university about twenty kilometers outside the city. NPIC (The National Polytechnic Institute of Cambodia) is surrounded by rice patties and cows, no seriously, rice patties and cows as far as the eye can see. As our Korean representative said (it is a South Korean school), “It is the good country life!”

Anyway, on Monday NPIC sent a large moving truck to meet us in the city, so we spent the majority of our day arranging our new accommodations. Andrea and I were given two rooms on campus, one of which we converted into our kitchen/dinning room, and the other into our bedroom. We have a ways yet to go, but our new home is slowly coming together.

After our moving day, we trudged the twenty kilometers (I say trudged because without transportation it’s rather difficult getting there) back to NPIC to meet His Excellency, the Cambodian University President. However, plans were botched, and even though we ended up at NPIC we didn’t get to meet the His Excellency. So, we did some more arranging, a little cleaning, and headed back to the city for the night. Yet, late Tuesday night we received a phone call from the Korean University President (yes, I know, it’s extremely confusing) that we needed to head back out at the school at seven a.m. to try and squeeze in another meeting with His Excellency. We really weren’t happy, and let me tell you why: it had been raining all night and day. By this I mean we were in the middle of a Southeast Asian monsoon! So, we knew it would be a difficult journey. Yet, come the morn we put on our smiley faces, braced for the rain, and headed out. We grabbed a tuk-tuk to the NPIC shuttle pick up (about a fifteen minute ride) only to find out that the Korean President, though he demanded our presence, forget to tell the shuttle to pick us up. So there we were soaking wet, with no way to get to NPIC.

Now, in Phnom Penh you can’t just hail a cab, because cabs are only at the airport, so we had to hop back in the tuk-tuk, head to the airport, and grab a taxi out to NPIC. All in all, the trip was about two hours, and cost us about twenty bucks, but we made it. We met His Excellency, well “met” is a bit strong—we shook his hand. However, we had fulfilled our NPIC duty, and so we headed back into Phnom Penh. We will be staying in the city until the twenty-second of September, doing a little more training with our team, before we permanently move out to the country.

Needless to say, the first part of our week was a little hectic, but after that it settled down rather nicely. The last few days we have been studying our language, exploring the city, and training with our team. I (Ben) have a soccer match this afternoon, and am greatly looking forward to that. I feel like today is the day, the day I score my first goal…and don’t worry, I’ll keep you posted on that front.

I am also exuberant just finding out that Notre Dame beat Michigan! What a great day! I’m a little sad we couldn’t watch it, but for those of you who care, I got a feeling deep inside my bones that’s screaming out, “NATIONAL CHAMPIONS!” Well, okay, maybe not, but at least they beat Michigan (T.R., no offence).

Alright everyone, I am rambling now. I don’t even know that I said much, but I am glad to fill you in on a small piece of our lives. Take care, and know that we love and miss you.

little girls struggling to carry sticks on our street...

2008-09-03T19:08:00.000-07:00

A little picture of the Russian market...

2008-09-03T19:01:00.000-07:00

Tuk-Tuk rides rule

2008-09-03T18:36:00.000-07:00

Things we want to remember to be thankful for (or at least something to ponder at Thanksgiving):

2008-08-31T05:08:00.000-07:00

1) Lights that come on when you hit the switch rather than waiting, flashing, sputtering, and then coming on.

2) Air conditioned houses, every room.

3) Showering with a need for hot water, rather than showering only to feel the cold water.

4) Regular Internet access, it doesn’t even have to be high speed.

5) Enjoying a nice cold beer, emphasis on cold—well, and on beer.

6) The service industry: waiters, waitresses, hostesses, and clerks. Tell someone thank you today just for caring about your opinion.

7) Traffic laws—who would have expected to miss such a thing?

8) Fall in Colorado, needing a jacket in the evening, seeing the leaves change, and enjoying the fall flavors of coffee and pastries, i.e. Pumpkin Spice Lattes, and Pumpkin Pie.

9) Coffee you can count on being good, or at least drinkable.

10) Not having lizards fall on you while eating dinner.

One night in Phnom Penh...

2008-08-27T21:25:00.000-07:00

We are slowly figuring out our way around the city. We know how to get home (usually) and we know major landmarks, but there are new sites everyday. If I get lazy and don’t bring my camera, I undoubtedly wish I had. Some things however, cannot be captured in a picture. Words are limiting too, with my novice skill, but an attempt must be made in order to share our lives with you. Last night we enjoyed dinner and were having a lovely tuk-tuk ride home when we decided to stop at the grocery store. I believe Ben already wrote about tuk-tuks, and I will include a picture soon, but to summarize, they are open on all sides and pulled by a motorbike. Ben and I were actually enjoying our tuk-tuk ride so much that we were making up a song; a little pastime you may not have known about us.

Suddenly we found ourselves surrounded by street kids. We had ventured onto a busy street to go to the store, and although it was late at night the kids were out begging. Three small children, none older than 7, jumped on board and started speaking rapid Khmer asking for food or money. This may not be such a big deal, but they were not just riding with us. The moto driver was going at least 15 miles an hour, and the kids were jumping on and off our tuk-tuk. The smallest boy in particular was running along the cement divider between the lanes of traffic and was scaring me silly. I was sure we were going to see his head hit the cement before we made it to the corner. How badly I wished our Khmer lessons had started a week sooner. Ben and I just sat there dumb-founded. All I could think to ask was “where is your mother?” but that was obviously lost on them.

As we reached the corner we found another few kids who, I can only assume, were part of the group. A small girl was sitting on the cement divider holding a very small baby. She didn’t ask for money or even move much; she just sat holding the child.

How does one respond to this?

Phnom Penh...

2008-08-24T20:28:00.000-07:00

On Saturday afternoon, after a brief layover in Laos, we arrived in Phnom Penh. Our joy and excitement at finally reaching our terminal destination is ineffable. Right now we are living at friend’s house in central Phnom Penh until we can move into our campus housing on September 16^th. The university we are teaching at is about 18 kilometers from downtown, and according to our sources, “is good Cambodian country life.” All that being said, we have a few wonderful antidotes to share with you since our arrival: the airport, French soccer, and tuk-tuks.

The International Airport of Phnom Penh is actually rather small, comprised of only two terminals. Being so small, one would think it easy to find the arriving party you are looking for. However, after we had already paid for our visas, and made our way to the baggage claim, our university’s representative ran up to us waiving a sign reading, “PETERS.” The bad news was that he wanted to pay for an official visa—we had already paid for a tourist visa—and insisted on going back through customs with us. Thus, what ensued was an hour long debate with Cambodian officials on visas: the ones we paid for, the ones our attaché wanted for us, and the ones the Cambodians felt we should have. It was insane and awkward. The university official with us was Korean, the Cambodian official was Khmer, and of course we are American; talk about culture clash. Eventually we worked it out, and Mr. Cho—our Korean university official—took us out to Chinese, because he felt bad. It was a great “hello” to Cambodia.

After Chinese, we moved into our new place. Another teacher with ELI lives there, and while he is gone for the summer, we will be taking over his space. There is only one catch; he has a French roommate named Alex. Now, Alex is a great guy, but since our French is non-existent we can only communicate with him through broken English. During our first conversation with him we drifted to the topic of soccer. He really enjoys soccer, and plays in a few leagues here in Phnom Penh. He said, in his broken English, that we—Ben and Bryant (a guy teaching with Andrea and me)—should play in his French league the next morning. He said, “don’t worry, we will provide the shorts, and jerseys.” Needless to say, it was a rather official game, but we figured…yeah! Why not?

So, Sunday morning we woke early and headed down to the Phnom Penh soccer stadium; yes, we actually played this game in a real-deal soccer stadium. Bryant and I donned our jerseys, warmed up on the pitch, and quickly were relegated to the bench. Yet, thirty minutes into the game, the French players were getting tired, and so the coach called our number. Out we ran onto the field, the crowds roared (not really), and we took our positions as mid-fielders. I played right-mid, and Bryant played center-mid. Now, I have never in my life played soccer, but that did not stop me. Within a few minutes of play a ball plopped down in front me with nothing lying between me and the goalie. So, I dribbled the ball down field (as I fended off a Khmer defender with my right elbow), took aim, and let loose. It was a beautiful kick. Quickly it shot out from my foot, curved left, the goalie dived, he fell short, and I realized, he missed! Holy crap, I am about to score my first soccer goal ever. I am in Cambodia, under the blistering humid sun, in an official soccer stadium, playing on a French team against a Khmer team, and I am about to score a goal. Then…CLANG!!! It hit the post, rolled in front of the goal, and out of bounds. Seriously, five centimeters to the left, and my fate as a soccer hero would have been sealed. As it was, I was pretty stoked I even hit the post, and due to my small success, am planning on playing in the weekly French games.

Lastly, tuk-tuks! Tuk-tuks are carts strapped on the back of motor scooters. For about a dollar a ride you can travel all over the city. It is really an easy and convenient way to travel. However, last night on our way to the grocery store street kids began to crawl and climb all over our tuk-tuk looking for money or food (what they called, “yum-yums”). It was heartbreaking; no more than six years of age, in tattered cloths and shoes—some with babies—we saw, face-to-face, the poverty hidden amongst the economic growth of Cambodia.

In our short time in Phnom Penh, these are just a few of our experiences. It is wholly different from Vietnam, and, like any traveling, will take time for us to adjust. We miss you all so much, and look forward to sharing more of our journeys soon.

journal article for class (one frustrating moment in southeast asia)...

2008-08-20T17:37:00.000-07:00

On Friday afternoon the ELI team went to the Vietnamese Museum of Ethnology. All-around, it was a wonderful cultural and learning experience. However, there was one situation in which I became rather frustrated. Let me fully explain: the museum is made up in two parts. The first part is an indoor exhibit focusing on the various ethnic groups comprising Southeast Asia. The second is an outdoor walkabout showing interested tourists and locals how these various ethnic minorities live. The museum is home to rebuilt huts, developed dwellings (i.e. community centers), and villages. The incident in question happened at one of the aforementioned community center buildings.

The community center was about four stories high after accounting for the fact that it was about two stories off the ground. In other words, in order to get into this particular dwelling one had to climb about ten feet via wooden logs that had been notched out with foot holds. Once up the logs, there was a common area, or what we might call a deck, where people milled about waiting to take off their shoes before entering the structure. On the far end of the deck, opposite the “stairs,” was a small door.

After climbing the stairs myself, I made my way across the “deck” to the entrance of the community hut. I slipped off my sandals, and began to enter the lodging as an Asian woman was slowly making her way out. I kid you not, she stopped in the doorway, sat down—blocking the way completely—and began to, turtle like, put on her socks: first sock, a break, second sock, and then—apparently strained from the socks—it was time for a breather. She looked about. She soaked up some sun. She allowed the humidity to wash over her like a warm shower. Then, ready for the shoes, she began to put on one shoe followed by the other. But wait! Not to be rushed, she languidly went back to the first shoe and, taking her time, began to lace and tie her sneakers; this, painfully, followed by the second. Then, as if it could not be anymore torturous, she put elbows to knees and took in the scene. Like she was on her own back porch! Mind you, I was literally two feet away from her this whole time waiting to get inside this ancient structure of minor ethnic groups in Southeast Asia. We were ten feet in the air waiting on a porch, and I was getting really, really hot. MOVE already!!!

Finally, she moved. I entered. And I had a good story to tell.

If you had not already noticed, while this woman was sitting down enjoying the day, I just stood there. Like the big goofy American I am. Who knows? Maybe she was just messing with me, but I have a hankering to believe that what I should have done is, politely, yet uncomfortably, walked past her. I assume in her mind my walking past her would not have been an invasion of privacy, for either of us, but to me it would have seemed awkwardly close. Next time I’ll just move on past.

my brief moment of panic...

2008-08-13T03:30:00.000-07:00

There are a few things about the hotel we are living in you must first understand in order to fully visualize my moment of panic. Let me state first and foremost that we are staying at a nice place. Throw out the image in your mind of hotels you have been to, it is not the same, but it is enough. Culture affects everything, especially the trade of hospitality. Our room is decent, the beds are comfortable and we have all our needs met, namely AC.

Things you must understand:

1) When housekeeping finishes with the room they turn off the power to the room in a little box OUTSIDE the door. Power is valuable, why waste it if we are not even there? It does not matter if there is food in the fridge or if the room gets quite warm in your absence. Along with that, there are commonly power outages, and if we are lucky the generator will run to keep lights in the ballroom where our class meets. No power in the rest of the hotel for hours at a time.

2) The second thing is that we have one metal key to access our room. There are not multiple copies should you both need one. Additionally, the door does not stay shut unless it is locked, so you must lock it when you come and go. The funny thing is that you lock the door either from the outside or the inside, both are secure, therefore you can get locked in. I think you see where I am going.

3) The bathrooms are nice, but privacy is something to be desired. Each bathroom shares a wall with the hallway. Not that strange you might think, except that there are two rather large windows from the bathroom into the hallway that open about 6 inches each. There is someone down the hall for example, who has rather loud morning habits that wake me up. I am not sure of the purpose these windows serve, but they let in sound and air. They also let our air conditioned air out into the muggy hallway.

Which brings to mind the fact that the whole hotel is not air-conditioned, only the bedrooms and the restaurant, and the ballroom. When the power goes off it gets warm quickly.

To my story: I woke up yesterday not feeling 100% and Ben let me sleep in. He left while I was still asleep so he locked the door behind him so it would not fly open. I was sleeping soundly when I heard the air click off. I lay there for a while longer but I started to get hot. I rolled over to turn on the light…nothing. Interesting. I walked to the door…locked. I stepped up on the bathtub to look out the window… no one. I walked back into the bedroom to try to figure out what to do. I knew Ben would come, at very least, around noon when class broke for lunch, but it was only 9:30 and I had no lights, no phone, no air and I was trapped. I went back to the bathroom to try to see if I could reach my arm out to the power switch on the wall in the hallway, but I could not get close. I sat back down on the bed trying to decide how to best entertain myself for what could be hours in a hot, dark room. I was just starting to get desperate, deciding if I needed to just start wailing on the door to get a housekeeper to come, when I heard the lock on the door click and in walked my knight in shining armor. Ben came to check on me during mid-morning break!!! My hero!!! It turned out the whole hotel was out of power and needless to say it got really hot really quickly. I was still happy to be let free. Just one of the little joys we face in Hanoi.

museum of ethnology...

2008-08-12T17:32:00.001-07:00

this is andrea outside the fertility temple at the vietnamese museum of ethnology.

ha long bay...

2008-08-12T03:05:00.000-07:00

ha long bay...

2008-08-12T03:01:00.000-07:00

ha long bay...

2008-08-12T02:23:00.000-07:00

ha long bay...

2008-08-12T02:11:00.000-07:00

andrew and kiara

2008-08-07T17:29:00.000-07:00

so...we somehow traveled all the way to southeast asia, and don't have your contact information. crazy, right? that being said, we really want to talk. our skype is a_b_peters, or email us at bpeters@elic.org, or apeters@elic.org. we look forward to talking soon.

mid-week post...

2008-08-07T03:05:00.000-07:00

we have finished our first graduate certificate class, asian culture and communication, and are halfway through our second, teaching methodology. each class is exciting, but the days can be long. by five o'clock our brains are typically fried.
interestingly, each afternoon in our classroom the rain is so loud that we can barely hear our teacher. a typhoon was forecasted today in the greater hanoi area; the sky was hazy and pink from our sixth story classroom window. a hanoi resident mentioned to us that the buildings here look much older than they actually are due to the amount of rain vietnam receives each year. this makes sense as the hotel ballroom, which we take our classes in, neighbors a messy storage-room where the roof leaks large amounts of water.
periodically the electricity shuts off during the day. during one of these power outages, andrea stepped onto the balcony to see large rats running on the ground below in a pile of rubble. she was a little freaked to say the least.
andrea is just past her first trimester, and is feeling better. however, her nights are much longer as she cannot seem to sleep now. so, if any of you might have good advice for her, please pass it along.
we miss you all, and look forward to skyping or exchanging emails soon.

a journal entry for class: street observations...

2008-08-02T21:11:00.000-07:00

The bustling streets of Hanoi are a quagmire. The constant ebb and flow of motor-scooters maneuvering between vehicles, turning at leisure, and honking in the place of indicators is nausea to my western sensibilities. Yet, in observing an average Hanoi rush hour I quickly learned a few important aspects of Vietnamese culture.
Hanoi is hot. Hanoi is humid. Hanoi knows nothing of the weather patterns I daily face in Denver, Colorado. While the sun unceasingly beats down on my poor American head creating a humidity that feels like being naked in the heat with a plastic jump suit on, I longingly recall the dry cool heat in the elevated mile-high city. Why, I then ask myself, would the women of Vietnam, when outside, wear jackets or arm sleeves adding to the heat? Apparently this is a common and accepted practice, however much it vexes the western mind.
Another thing I noticed, shocking would be an understatement, is Vietnamese people who, rather than taking stock of their surroundings, charge ahead mid-traffic expecting the vehicles to dodge oncoming pedestrians. Uh, what? This is strange, especially to me who, from a very early age, was indoctrinated with the mantra, “look both ways before crossing the street.” I give the Vietnamese props though; it takes guts to cross the street in the face of four-hundred scooters bearing down at thirty miles per hour.
Taxis are fodder aplenty for watchful tourists. Rather than using blinkers, they weave in and out of scooters honking wildly (which is apparently an elaborate non-verbal communication technique used and known by most Southeast Asians). I assume this is their way of announcing the presence of an alpha vehicle to those brave, but lesser, scooter operators surrounding them, imagine chum to whales. Or maybe, it is just a turn signal. Either way, for a westerner, it’s disconcerting. Actually, what really boggles the mind is the willingness of Vietnamese mothers to take their little ones into this hotbed of traffic violations.
While more could be “teased-out” in regards to the culture shock—read "culture stress"—that a typical Hanoi rush hour provides, it is not too much to say that it also betrays a Vietnamese vibrant zest for life. The fluidity of the Capital’s streets speaks to a collective trust inherent in the Vietnamese social conscience. One can blindly pull out into the asphalt jungle in full confidence knowing that the “other” will slow down, and allow one’s entrance into the constant flow of scooters. One sees this not only in the street, but also in the “sidewalk culture” of Hanoi. Look up or down a given street and you will see people spilling out of shops, sitting in chairs, laying in the shade of advertisements, or mulling about in conversation. If you are lucky, you will see the youth of Hanoi, having spread a net from street corner to street pole, playing a game of badminton. Where in America, at least in my experience, the street is functional—a medium of transportation or a bed for the homeless—it becomes a destination in Vietnam, a place for social interactions.
As I am, and will continue to be, in awe over the dynamic relationship between Vietnamese motorist, pedestrian, and the road, I also look forward to comparing my roadside experience in Vietnam with rush hour in Phnom Penh.

Vietnamese Street

2008-08-01T19:01:00.000-07:00