Saturday, November 28, 2009

The Holidays

November has flown by and as December rushes toward me with abandon.

The last three years, as I finished my college schooling, November has been punctuated by ice storms and sometimes negative temperatures. This year I traded the cold and ice for 40 degree Celsius temperatures and clear blue skies. The change did make it a little harder to get in any sort of mood to celebrate Thanksgiving, but a celebration was had nonetheless.

This past week Peace Corps broke us up in to regional groups and had us meet together for an In Service Training to brush up on language skills. We've been on "lockdown" since September and unable to leave our provinces, so for some of us (those who were fortunate to have their IST location in another province) we got to see a bit more of Cambodia. My group was sent to Batammbang province, to the provincial capital, which is the biggest town I've been in since September. There are a few PCV's in my group that are stationed in this town, so they weren't able to travel, but even for them this event was exciting because we got to reconnect with friends that haven't been seen for a long time.

I arrived in Batammbang on Thursday morning. The bus ride from my village (Salah Lek Brahm) cost $5.00 (plus an extra $2.00 "service fee" ((read: "hey, you're a Barang and have money...give me more money or I won't let you get on the bus"))) and took four and half hours to travel a little over 200K. I left at 7am and arrived just before noon. The hotel we stayed in is new and nice, as far as Cambodian hotels go. For some reason PC opted not to provided us with hot water or air conditioning (since it's winter here) and we all felt the effects as temperatures soared to above 90. The room I shared with my friend Darlene had an eastern exposure and got a great deal of direct sunlight, leaving our room absolutely unbearable. The first two nights we suffered along with the heat, making use of one small oscillating fan, but the third day I broke down and paid for the aircon myself. I just didn't see the point of being unable to sleep and end up grumpy all day if I had the means and ability to change the situation. That was a great decision.

The language training was alright. I learned some good words and phrases. I think the most helpful back home will be "Mom, the ducks have escaped from their pen again!" My family keeps a brace of ducks and, for as stupid as they are, they've managed to figure out how to escape. They do so five or six times a day, and I get to help my mom herd them back into the pen. Until now I have just stammered out "Mom, the ducks are visiting!" in Khmer. The point got across, but to be able to speak with some semblance of intelligence will be nice.

I also learned more of the why's of a the most popular greeting here--"Have you eaten rice yet?" Every day I am greeted with this phrase twenty, thirty, sometimes forty times. Everyone wants to know if I've eaten rice. This, apparently, became a common greeting during the Khmer Rouge years when eating any kind of food, let alone rice, was a rare and fortunate event. If some could answer that they HAD eaten rice, it generally meant that things were going well that day.

While it is still annoying to be asked if I've eaten rice a million times a day, it makes it more understandable.

Friday night our group, 12 volunteers from K3 and several K2's, made our way to a bar called "The Bus Stop", an establishment owned by a very shady Australian man. There we had a true Thanksgiving feast complete with smoked turkey, mashed potatoes and gravy, corn on the cob, green beans, apple pie, pumpkin pie, ice cream, and the best sweet potato casserole I have ever had IN MY LIFE. It was so good I've had dreams about it since.

Turkey meat is not common in Cambodia. The guy that owns The Bus Stop is pretty seedy, though, and has enough black market connections to get us one. It cost $100, but we got it, and it was DELICIOUS. The food was wonderful and a good time was had by all. It didn't feel like Thanksgiving beforehand, but after, when we all started to give in to the food coma, it certainly felt exactly like Thanksgiving.

It is pretty hard to be away from home during the holidays, but when you live in a climate zone so foreign to your own, it does help you forget that the holidays approach. Like I said before, I knew the holidays were nigh when the ice storms in Missouri made it impossible to open my car doors and I had to listen to 9 hours a day of Christmas music at Home Depot starting November 1. Here, no ice. And CERTAINLY no Christmas music. I think that might be worth the 10,000 mile trip in and of itself!