Sarah's life in Cambodia: My first week and a half

Hi everybody,

This is my first post, and I'm quite excited :). I arrived in Cambodian on Wednesday the 23rd of September, about a week and a half ago. As I've already told some of you, the flight has actually been the worst part of my trip up to now. I was really hungry, the food was gross, I was freezing the whole time, and the seats were just unbelievably uncomfortable. I had to change trains...um planes...in Bangkok, and that was actually a little bit of a culture shock. I'd been preparing for Cambodia, for almost a year, but hadn't even thought about the fact that I'd be in Thailand for a little bit, so I was completely unprepared when I saw all the prices in baht, and was too scared to buy much of anything, even though I did manage do order food at a restaurant and get on the Internet.

Not like Frankfurt airport

The flight from Bangkok to Phnom Penh was fine, and after a small misunderstanding while trying to get my visa (I just couldn't understand the man's English), I walked through the doors and saw Kit and Ream standing there waiting for me!

The next day we drove less than an hour to the orphanage. I was so excited, looking out and seeing the villages, palm trees, and rice fields. During my preparation seminars for this year I was told that there are certain phases during one's stay in foreign country. There is the well known culture shock, when you get depressed and start sending emails home, titled "GET ME OUTA HEEEEEEERE!!!!!". But before that there is the tourist phase, in which you just love the fact that everything is so different and exotic. Well I'm happy to say that I'm totally in the tourist phase, and I'm loving it!!! My family knows that I have always wanted to got far far away, preferably to the jungle. As a kid, my dream was to spend my life finding new endangered frog species ;). And while I sat in the car I really felt like a dream was coming true, even though that sounds horribly cheesy.

The orphanage is really nice, and really clean considering you have forty kids living in it, I've actually had to mend my messy ways, and start to put my things away, and make my bed.^^ The kids are just great. There's no proper way to express the way I feel for them, just after a couple weeks. I'm already afraid of how it's going to be to have to leave them in 10 months. The little kids are sooooo süß (German for cute), the little girls will do this mass hugging thing, when they all run to me and hug me, and ,I'm convinced, also try to literally bring me to my knees ;). One sentence they all know is "I looove you", a few of the little boys are getting really affectionate too. Some of the teenage girls are getting to be good friends, I have a lot of fun with them. Most of the older boys are still quite shy, though there some who are getting quite friendly, and who really want to practice their English, even if it is with a female ;).

The orphanage

They all really like to tease my, especially about spiders. I, for some idiotic reason, told them that I'm afraid of spiders, so they always run up to me with their hand cupped, like they're holding something, and yell "Spider!". Three days ago though, I made a really wonderful discovery: I found out that almost all of the kids are quite scared, and a lot of the girls and even a few of the older boys horribly scared....of.....wait for it.....wait for it.......little fuzzy caterpillars!!!! Hah!! Finally something they're scared of, and I'm not, so I had a great time teasing them with that. ;)

It's really touching the way they all look out for me, trying to keep me from killing myself if the first few days. It's really humbling to see a little boy, like half my side give me the lighter things to carry or the better tools to work with, because I'm used to it being the other way around. But as my brother-in-law (geez that sounds strange ;) ), told me: When you go to a foreign country it's like you're a baby, you have to learn how to talk how to walk (as in don't fall in the rice field, and don't step under the tree full of biting red ants that will drop in you), how to eat (don't eat that root, Sarah, you'll die if you do; don't eat that little green pepper, Sarah, it buuuurns).

I've started to teach two English classes, last Friday I gave them a test, and as I sat at my desk that night, correcting them, and feeling tempted do give my favorite students a better grade (I didn't), I really felt like a teacher...freaky ;).

I also have to mention S'dung, one of the staff who speaks really good English, she's my Kmai (the Cambodian language) teacher, and has just been generally helping me out: Going to the market with me, explaining cultural difference, translating, and just having somebody around my age (she's twenty one) to talk to.