Dec. 30

More man, or Mormon?

I have a limited professional wardrobe, but I think I can get into the look. I was dead tired today. I woke up at 6, 6:15, 6:30, AND 6:40! It seemed like an eternity between each waking, AND I woke up still tired each time - soo disappointing. The only good thing about it was that the rest of the day got better! I'm trying to improve my teaching everyday: including more activities, assigning relevant and interesting homework, and tomorrow I design my first few quizzes! I hope they don't turn out to be too hard or easy.

I thought hey, maybe I'll make up a mock horoscope again, but this one's better than any I could have made!

for dec 30.
With a critical eye
Valid during several weeks: This is a good time to look around with a critical eye and see what needs to be changed or corrected in your environment. You are very conscious of the flaws in everything you look at, but you are not so overwhelmed that you cannot see the good as well. Your mind is on serious concerns, and although you are not likely to feel depressed or to have other negative feelings, you are not lighthearted or attracted to frivolity either. In this mood you can be either a teacher or one who is taught, perhaps in a formal classroom situation or just in an informal discussion among friends. You respect people who have more experience than you do, and you are likely to turn to them for advice. Or someone else may cast you in this role and come to you for help.

Dec. 29

Another day, another dollar.
pretty soon, I'ma be a balla!

Today I worked from 7:50-8:50, came home after the coffee-break to do some laundry, eat some lunch, get some photos taken, and generally hang out with the p-units.

at one point, this afternoon found me playing Civ2, listening to Bob Marley, chilling out in my room (courtesy of a fan), and enjoying a small moment of blissful nothing. Then I went back to school, worked 1:50-2:50; 3:10-4:30; 5:30-6:30; and 6:50-8:10. I thought it was alright, if I a little intense, but some of the teachers teach the two morning classes as well. Dayyam!

The kids were fun today, I'm really getting into finding salient examples to use when introducing/explaining new vocabulary. Also, I'm finding myself challenged to explain basic words and concepts because I have no concise definitions in my head. I told the kids that I garnered the meaning of the words I used by reading them in several different contexts, and deciphering their meaning that way (of course, I didn't use all these propa words, it was more like "I read lots of books to learn about words").

I also got to teach a bunch of kids about global warming, prostitution, cause and effect relations, hercules, santa clause, moral principles, and really whatever else struck my fancy while explicating the meaning of one word or another. I'm having a great time, I can only hope the kids learn something as well.

Right, 6AM wake-ups slay me. so I'll say good night, and see you tomorrow...

...wait, there was one last thing! Kind of random, but while riding home on the moto-dop (motorcycle-taxi), it began to rain. I closed my eyes to protect them, and then all of a sudden, just really started to enjoy the moment. Trying to see what the ride would be like if I was blind, I kept my eyes closed as long as I dared, and started to really get in the zone of listening to the sounds of the city and the feeling of rain on my face. random, but it was another nice little moment today.

k, peace for reals.

hip hop lovers

random aside:

while eating my lunch at the F.C.C., I mulled over why the letter seemed so familiar - and then I had it!

"you down with O.P.P?"
"yeah, you know me!"

so for the rest of the day I've had

"you down with F.C.C.?"
"yeah you know me!"

running through my mind. I need to start writing/performing again.

Dec.28

Ah sunday.

Today I walked down to Cafe Fresco to buy some multi-grain bread for egg-in-a-hole sundays. It was pretty tasty. We later had a little family consultation to kind of re-orient ourselves after a hectic month. Later, we went to the Foreign Correspondent's Club (F.C.C.) down by the riverside, and enjoyed some very expensive, but decently delicious lunching.

We saw an Elephant.
Yeah, I know. Pretty random, and very sweet. All of us tourists up in the F.C.C. got super-excited and ran over to snap some photos. The 50+ year old guy beside me giggled like a schoolgirl when I looked over at him and then back at the elephant. I had to join him...it is nice, even though we shared no common language, at least we could share our excitement over an elephant walking the streets.

After this delightful little outing, we headed back home and immediately made our way to the pool.


sweetness.

A fairly relaxed day before what promises to be a busy, busy week.

Dec. 27

If I was going to write my horoscope today, it would be something like this:

Today you are surrounded by friends and new acquaintances. You may feel more social, because pluto is no longer in uranus. There is a chance that new friends may lead to possible short-, or long-term friendships...and if you are looking for work, this could be a good thing! Since the moon intersects with venus, you may observe a female influence in your daily activity, but not for long. Also, jupiter is in the twelfth house, and this means that you will see big things happening.

Of course, all of this came true.

Today I went to Jarnah and Beattie's for breakfast (friends!...and perhaps female influence??) and I met new friends (Lucas and Beck...and there is a chance that these could be short-, or long-term friendships!). I brought over some walnut bread, and a regular baguette, and the ladies provided the rest of a delicious breakfast, from delectable fruits, to Italian chocolate-chip-and-raisin cake to eat with our coffee. I was also introduced to the very Australian"Vegemite": basically the yeast by-product of beer brewing, which these interesting people decided to eat on their sandwiches. It's pretty much one of the best spreads to put on a sandwich, even if it is very salty.

Then I did some marking and wrote some feedback for my lvl 12 class. And later, we had some guests over. Our guests were two Cambodian Baha'i families, both of the guys (Sopheap and Sovvanarith) work in development. More acquaintances who can become short-, or long-term friends! I ended up chatting with Sovvanarith, and it turns out he has an NGO that was recently registered with the government. I'm likely going to volunteer with his organization during the day, and teach English at night. The First thing we talked about was making a website, which I have little experience in, but which everyone tells me is easy. So if you know how to make a website, drop some knowledge on me/ let me know if you'd like to volunteer some of your spare time for a Cambodian NGO! This could be the "big things happening" talked about in my horoscope. Either way, I'm pretty excited.

Writing a fake horoscope ha given me an idea for the blog. Seeing as how I have started to attend to the daily occurrences of my life, maybe I'll post up my horoscope as well, to see how closely they actually link up.

Dec.24-27

Happy holidays!

I would say merry Christmas, but it isn't really a thing out here. Actually, I think even the "happy holidays" is excessive, because I only got one day off (25th),and even that was only because people protested last year! Either way, this little section of time was sweet!

I taught classes as usual on the 24th (thursday?) until 8:10, then made my way down to Jarnah and Beattie's place for a pot-luck dinner, which I failed to bring anything for (ah how little changes from country to country). They had been feasting for a while, so when I arrived they had polished off most of the dishes. Thankfully, they were all polite eaters, and left me a little bit of each dish, which was more than enough to fill me up! everything from roasted veggies, to sushi (made by an authentic japanese person!), to grape juice (brought by an authentic italian!). It was good times, and then got better when we played mafia.

As you may well know, I had some intense mafia sessions in malaysia just a short while ago, so my mafia skills were sharpened to the max. I ended up being a mafia, along with a cool guy from beattie's office in the UN. The game was golden. I actually can't describe how ridiculous it was. Granted, we were playing with many people who were inexperienced, but that's only because we (the mafia) were smart enough to kill off the experienced players first...In the end, there were three of us: Neissan was the angel/doctor I was mafia, and Neissan's japanese friend (whose name I cannot recall) was a citizen. Realizing that he had me, Neissan told her that he was the angel, and that I was the mafia, and that he had saved her last round. Realizing the same thing, I also told her that I was the angel, neissan was the mafia, and that I had saved her last round. It basically came down to who she trusted more, and, since I was also giving her reasons why neissan had to be the mafia, she eventually sided with me. "Damn it feels good to be a gangsta"


many people had to ditch after the game, but the few of us who stayed on were rewarded with a night full of sherades, pictionary, and interpretive dance! This most excellent of christmas-time parties lasted till 3am, and was well worth it.

he next day (25th) I eventually woke up and made my way to the school to see their christmas party. It was crazyness plus two! They blocked off some roads, hired some entertainment, organized games, and offered prizes! They also got some of the security guards to dress up in santa costumes, which was hilarious (mostly because these tiny cambodian guys were stuffing their suits try and get a belly, and were getting right into the ho, ho, ho's and all that business!)

Later that evening...I met up with Neissan, and we went to check out the "Khmerry Christmas boat party". We bought some roadside food and some drinks, hopped on the boat, and met tons of people who we didn't know before. I got to connect with some other strange-mix, third-world-raised children, such as a japanese/pakistani girl, and another pakistani girl who grew up in the Philippines! Everyone I met was pretty friendly, and we all had a good time munching on snacks and enjoying each other's company while taking in the sunset on the mekong river.

We got back, and ended up meeting some of our newfound friends at a place called "Chow" by the riverside, which has a great rooftop lounge...which we proceeded to lounge in until about 11. The conversation was semi-enlightened, and the food was delicious. The only random thing was the music. Since it was Christmas, the staff wanted to play Christmas music. Unfortunately, they also wanted to blast it. We kept asking them to turn it down, but they'd turn it off, and then several minutes later, they'd start up again with another jingle on full-blast. I finally put in the effort to explain that none of the people on the roof were into the Christmas music. The girl looked at us confused and crushed, saying "but it's Christmas!". Until that point, I figured the music was for us, but then I realized they were also all dressed up in Santa-hats, etc., and perhaps they wanted the music on. Not like any of them were Christians, but I still felt bad crushing their perhaps misplaced holiday spirit.

Next day (26th) was back to work, and I had a full-on 7:50AM-8:10PM day, coming home to some guests whom we had over dinner. I was exhausted. I did some marking, which has given me some interesting stories to tell. Actually, teaching has a few as well. I'll post up some incidents/comic homework as soon as I can post again. But for now we'll end on the 26th (because we have guests coming, and I need to clean-up!)

Dec.23

Today was a day of details.

Last night I got a call to substitute two more classes for the next two weeks (7:50-8:50, and 1:50-2:50)..I accepted. Today, I was faced with all the fine print of teaching work: assigning homework, making a schedule for the semester, going to meetings, taking attendance, dealing with a few rowdies, etc. Also, I was(/am) sick with the flu. This sucked for most of the day, but we were learning about common words used in health-care in one of the classes, so I was able to use myself as a case study for many of the words, which made the explanations easier.

I met a few more teachers, and I've come to the consensus that 90% of teachers are genuine and friendly, and 10% want more money. That's probably an optimistic guess, but I'm an optimistic guy, so no stress. I'm actually really enjoying the teaching work so far - kids tend to listen to what I say, and I feel like they're understanding what we're doing in class. Of course, I haven't yet checked homework, nor given a quiz...so I guess I'll soon get some data to back-up/refute my views.

The teachers were called over for a meeting with the president of the institute, cool guy - he's definitely an empire-builder, and he's invested like a mad-man in the phnom penh real-estate market. I also found out that my school is ranked #1 in Cambodia, and the students are mostly royal/ministerial/big-business offspring. Either way, I felt bad because the president was obviously enjoying the meeting, but I promised the p-units that I'd meet them for lunch at "Comme a la Maison"...so I was itching to go (and I'm pretty sure he noticed; I felt like a student waiting for the teacher to finish talking so they can leave the class). Comme a la Maison was delectable, a great celebration of Shaku's birthday.

I'm trying to balance being harsh and on-task and being cool and just chatting, so far I think I'm doing pretty badly, with mostly chillness interrupted by moments of harshness to pull the big class back in line. 23 kids is more than enough for me to handle with my limited (read: nonexistent) knowledge of class management skills and techniques. My money is quickly being eaten up by ever-so-happy moto-dop drivers. I think I should buy a scooter/motorbike. Maybe a vespa...or maybe an electric bike. Thoughts?

December 22, First day of work.

Yay! Today I finally started doing some paid work.

Unfortunately, since I was in malaysia, and they couldn't reach me on my cell, they gave my job to someone else. On the plus side, they were still able to give me some work in the evenings: 5:30-6:30, and 6:50-8:10. Realizing that I had some time, I decided to return home, catch up on sleep, review my lesson plans, and eat. I returned to the school for a brief meeting, and a chance to sit in on some classes. The first class was cool, the teacher took me under his wing and treated me to a delicious 1000 rial Vietnamese coffee. The second teacher also took me under his wing, and let me experiment teaching his class a bit. Everything went smoothly. The kids here actually listen to the teachers, the only problem is getting the kids to produce an answer - they all seemed quite shy...hopefully they get used to me and the active learning really starts to happen!

I met a contingent of Nigerian teachers, one of whom complimented me on the blazer. Then he said, and I quote "you know you look good when even the guys are attracted to you"...haha...awkward. To make up for the awkwardness (or add to it?) when I asked the students what they wanted to know about me, the first question was from one of my 18 year-old students "are you single...*awkward pause*...sir?". Houy, in some ways this could be a long, long semester.

Part trois and the extras

After writing the title for this post, I've decided that I now have at least one candidate for a wicked band name.

Right, so after the training in the Malaysian heartland,we slowly made our way back to KL. After dropping our luggages in the Ludher residence, and drinking a juice named after the magic-potion in Asteriks and Obelix books, we engaged our minds and bodies in a desperate hunt for delicious Malaysian food. Elyssa really wanted to take us to a chinese-malaysian place, but we were kind of dead-set on Lau's lau-dable (oh yes I did) description of Madam Kwon's. Madam Kwans is in KLCC - in the Twin Towers. The pics are up on facebook - very impressive, super-wicked-cool-awesome, with a pleasant park extending out the back.

Had some dins with Keeliang, Arvin, Elyssa, Haifa, and Taraz. We had to wait a bit to get in, but it was fun times. The food was not excellent, but was still very good, and I enjoyed the culinary experience. I also had some ABC, which was a strange ice-fruit-stuff mixture that everyone was keen on, but that Keeliang told me was not the best. I guess I'll have to wait till next time sample the true beauty of ABC.

We said goodbye to Taraz and Arvin, and escorted Keeliang to the LRT so that he could catch his ridiculous-late (11PM) bus home. After dropping him off, we called arvin and asked them to wait because we had, in the course of our consultations, realized that our best option for the night was to continue spending time with friends instead of random shopping malls in the city.

I met one of the famed and esteemed Baha'i families in Malaysia - the Ramaswamies? God, I just realized that I didn't even get the family name, just the family...w/e. Cool family though. Met tons of people, most of the names have escaped me, but we ended up going out for food and coffee, and having a sweet time.


Then, next day: roadside meal for brunch; quick shopping for presents; hustle to the bus(tle); and a smooth flight from the low cost carrier at KL to Phnom Penh. Smooth, that is, except for the ridiculous $20 charge for checking my baggage...so lame.Either way, I met a nice guy named paul on the plane - he told me his life story, paid for the tuk-tuk back to the center of the city, and wished me good luck in life. Cool beans.

I met Neissan for breakfast on december 20th and told him exactly what I'd invest in with my development funds...ME! that's right, I have some ideas of what kind of Social and Economic Development I'd like to see and do...more on that as (and if) it develops. I ate a mango-crepe and drank khmer-bean espresso, and drank watermelon-flavored-water. We ate at a relaxing place called le Jardin.

We went and got some haircuts...being the gentleman that I am, I let Neissan go first, and after sacrificing almost all of his hair to the khmer razor gods. Appeased with his sacrifice, they let me get a sweet haircut for the low-low price of 3000 rials...roughly $0.75 cents. Later that day: Beattie and I went on a minor expedition to the central market(photos on facebook), which was fun lil' trip.

Sunday the 21st.

Lazy to the ulti-max. Got up and had some egg-in-a-hole, becuase sinday is egg-in-a-hole day in our house. Then I browsed the net, wrote a bit, grabbed the decline and fall of the roman empire, and went and read all about Emperor Julian's reign, rule, and apostasy while sun-bathing (pics on the fb). We also had a nice devotional/commemoration for Shaku's father who passed away 8 years ago.

part deuce

Ok, last episode our intrepid heroes made their way into the jungle-city of Kuala Lumpur, only barely making their flight! This time we follow them into the oily innards of Malaysia, where the training was hosted. There is too much information for me to lay everything out here without writing a small book, so I've decided to post up some of the highlights, and a few short descriptions. We'll cover the important stuff first: Food.

We all know that Malaysian food is delicious and that Malaysians, as a result, are among the world's most avid food lovers. We had all of our meals at the institute catered by two very nice south-indian-malaysian ladies. This basically means that we ate rice at breakfast lunch and dinner, and everything...everything was swimming in oil. It was super-tasty and well-spicy, but the oil was a shock to my system. To put it in perspective: the week before I left (if you remember), my dad and Shaku were in Battambang, and left the house all to me. I ended up eating a diet of fresh veggies and fruits! from that to all oil was like a battle all on its own. All that being said, the food was still wicked.

Next, Accommodations:
The girls quickly claimed the upstairs bedrooms (and maybe not so coincidentally, the hot-water showers). This left the guys (who were a majority) with one bathroom, and a cold-water shower. Elyssa planned her arrangements well...
Anyway, I snaked a bed early on, and forced the esteemed Lau to take a mattress on the floor, so I can't really criticize the girls too much. :)

General Schedule:
the first and last days were half-days with a bunch of cleaning thrown in...which was actually lots of fun...especially when you're like me, and adopt managerial roles in the janitorial department. The rest of the days we supposedly started at 8, had a tea break somewhere between then and 1:00, broke for lunch till 2:00, had another tea break between then and 5:30, then played organized games until 6:30-7, then dined until 8, then more discussion/educational-video-watching until 10-10:30...then informal discussion until 1/2AM. Everyone's schedule was like that except for the last part which was followed religiously by a few of us who were willing to entertain Lau's stories, or engage in some kind of philosophical exploration of the subject matter. I also had an unproclaimed contest with Lau to see who could sleep-in the latest, and still make it up in time for morning devotions.

Subject matter:
The actual object of our study was very interesting (especially for me). It was a combination of FUNDAEC's "Basic Concepts", and some supplementary readings on the "Science, Religion, and Development" discourse that some countries have been engaged in since the late-nineties. The course covered a lot of interesting topics, from the definition of the community, and development, to the role that humanities inherent appreciation of beauty, and thirst for knowledge play, or can play, in our lives. I wont go into any depth, for fear of getting distracted in the details, but the material is solid, deep, and interesting to the maximum.

Random Happenings:
On the third day, I injected the game "Mafia" into the unsuspecting hearts of 15 of my fellow participants, under the guise of highlighting the usefulness of consultation. What I failed to mention (in true mafia fashion) was the game's reliance on deceit, trickery,emotive rhetoric, and outright lying as the only real means to victory. Needless to say, we had a great time,and much of our organized game time fell prey to artful devices of "Mafia". As a side note, one comes to discover TONS about one's peers as the narrator. Some people are very, VERY, good at acting. *cough* Rani *cough*.

We had a nice little devotional on the night of the nineteen-day feast...with one of our resident interior decorators (Avuth) transforming the little meeting room into a calming spiritual environment with a few candles and glasses of water. Pics are on my facebook.

We went on a field trip to visit a possible candidate for the Malaysian Baha'i house of worship; to visit more than 70(!) rural Asli youth engaged at various levels of the ruhi institute process, and later to a 100% Baha'i Asli village. The trip was great, but we got rained on as we neared the village, so we got less contact with the people than we'd wished...and ended up being more like a random group of tourists than interested agents of social transformation.

Reuben brought a guitar with him upon returning from a brief trip to his university to receive an academic excellence award...and though his skills were minimal, the guitar was used to great ends by many. I, myself discovered the great fun and exciting allure of plucking and strumming strings in a semi-organized way. I'm patiently awaiting the shipment of my dad's guitar to phnom penh so I can resume my musical training!

Snake, snake....Snaaaaaaake! We had a tremendously long, beautiful black cobra join us for supper one night. Luckily Arvin spotted some movement, and got everyone out of the way before it bit anyone...otherwise we would have definitely lost a member or two of the training (the closest hospital was...not close at all). So we scream at it and laugh at it and giggle like "tourists" to borrow Lau's term, while Lau and Keeliang try and contain the snake's movements. It tried, at one point, to climb up the wall to the window, but couldn't manage (much to our mutual disappointment). We tried to get it into a basket, but it was now curled up int eh corner. So, having reached an impasse, we watched it and wondered. Now, having witnessed some snake exorcisms, and participating in a few myself, I decided to offer the group my suggestions of picking it up with along stick, and either putting it in the basket, or progressively tossing it out through the kitchen. Finding no one to really nay-say an available option with a volunteer behind it, they let me proceed with my ill-fated plan. We didn't know at this point if it was a cobra or not, but by putting a stick close to it, I was politely informed by it's nervous hiss, and sudden flexing of it's king-cobra-crown. It was at this important juncture in my life that I decided that the cobra could have his corner of the dining room, and I could have my couch in the other room. Respect. The conclusion is, unfortunately, less humane than any of us would have liked, but the gardener insisted, by way of a bamboo stick, that the cobra be sacrificed for the sustained good health of all the residents in the region. oddly enough, this was a rarer cobra, and the Indian people normally see the visit of a cobra as a sign of good luck, or a blessing - and wouldn't harm one. Thus, our systems were shocked slightly more than they might have been, for the loss of our guest. At the very least, I can now check off another one of my long-term life-adventuring goals: face-to-face with dangerous, venom-spitting cobra - check.

There was lots more, but it's late, and I'm tired, and I start work tomorrow. So wish me luck, and let me know if there was something about the Malaysia trip that you want to know more about (even an explanation of one of the random facebook pics!).

Peace!

ISGP training in Malaysia: Part 1.

Hokay, First things first: ISGP is the Institute for Studies in Global Prosperity. I'll get to explaining what the training was all about when we get there.

The date is December 8th, and Avuth has arrived at around 2:00 in a tuk-tuk for us to go check-in early for our 4:30 flight to Kuala Lumpur. The drive to the airport is pretty uneventful, with the only exciting bit being the cheap price. We wait in line, but hop from line ot line until we find the best/fastest moving one. All the excitement happens when we get to the counter to check in: my check in goes smoothly, but when Avuth steps up to the counter he gets rejected HARD. For some reason Cambodians can't leave the country without a return ticket! After haggling with the not-very-happy and not-very-helpful lady at the counter, we decided to call Avuth's mom to see if she could help - eventually, together with Counselor Ludher, they decided to buy a return ticket online, and text us the confirmation code. So we watch everyone check-in for the flight and pass us by (oh how the proud have fallen!). We try and see if I can fit my over-sized shaving-cream into Avuth's bag so that it doesn't get tossed at airport security...it was either that or I pay some extra cash to check my little red duffle-bag. After a tense half-hour or so, Avuth finally gets the text we've been waiting for and we get ready to check him in. Unhelpful lady stays true to her title, and refuses to help us, direct us to another one of the equally unbusy, but definitely more helpful Air Asia ladies.

After forcing Avuth to run outside and half-way around the airport to print off the proof of his ticket, we were finally allowed to pay more money so that we could go through to security. I completely forgot to fill out my departure card while we were waiting, so when we got to immigration I had to run back to a table and fill it out. The whole period is kinda frenzied because we're under the impression that we'll be late for the plane. so after quickly filling it out and getting through security, I pick up my shoulder-bag and happily scoot off with Avuth to go find our gate.

we arrive at the gate only to find that our flight still hasn't been called up...and then it gets delayed by 20 minutes, and then another 50. So we burn time with conversation and a drink from the random dairy-queen. People have been standing in line all this time, and we were left confused...until we realized there is no pre-assigned seating on our flight! so we find an unfortunate seat on the plane, and I come to another startling revelation: I don't have my little red duffle-bag! Oh noes! so I get off the plane and ask them to wait while I go look for it. I couldn't find it around the seats so I ask one of the officials walking around, and he tells me they've been announcing the bag over the intercom for the last hour...in khmer. We go back to security and they tell em they were moments away from sending the bag to some far-off storage unit. LUCKY! I check and see that they decided my clothes were too big to steal, and run back to the plane. Apparently, everyone was waiting for me, but no one gave me a hard time about it :)

The flight was alright. We met a businessman who jumped back and forth between malaysia and he was pretty depressed about businessmen in Cambodia after being cheated pretty badly by a few guys. I was mulling over his misfortune when I almost ran into some of my own: I wanted a bottle of water, and asked the waitress how much it cost. She said "4 ringit" I had some ringit in my wallet, tucked away in my bag, but already had a few USD in my pocket, so I asked, "how much US?" She pulls out a magic calculator, punches in a couple of numbers, and then shows the result to me - 2. (the conversion rate is $1 USD: $3.6 RM!) so Avuth spotted me the Ringits till we got out of the plane.

KL has a cool taxi system: you tell this guy at a kiosk where you want to go and then pay him the amount, he gives you a voucher, and then you give the voucher to the taxi driver, who takes you to the location - no hustle, no hassle. We made it to the Ludher residence at pearl point with no troubles, met Lau, Haifa, and eventually Tahirih, and then crashed for the night.

part 2 will cover the ENTIRETY of the intense 10 days of training...in whatever order I remember them.

Dec. 7

So much happened today!

Unfortunately, I'm stealing avuth's computer to writer this, so I'm going to save the story of my trip to malaysia for a large special to be presented upon my return...

in the mean time, I may still sneak a few random posts in, we'll see what the internet connection looks like.

Peace!

Ash.

Dec 6.

Today was sweet for connecting to my people.

I had breakfast with Neissan and Jarnha at a place called the Boddhi Tree. The restaurant was really nice, but the location was strange...right across from the Toul Seng Prison Museum! The museum devastates your soul, and I'm in a decent mood, so I'll save that topic for another post. I ordered, as I have a habit to do, the best meal on the table. My "big western" omlette, trumped Jarnah's poached eggs and bruschetta, and Neissan's "Boddhi sunrise" pancake. I'll admit I only beat Jarnah's by a small margin, and that I had to order a toasted baguette on the side, but still - the food was enjoyable. The discussion was varied, but centered on the ups, downs, and arounds of our respective travels and Baha'i service experiences. Later, Jarnah and Neissan organized their class, and I entertained myself playing with colors in photographs.

I later went for a (nonexistent) orientation for my new job...the guy forgot about our meeting...and I forgot his name! So after some minutes of confusion at the front desk, and my superb solution of calling the boss, everything was solved. Besides this event, these guys seemed pretty organized - they even gave me whiteboard markers for my class! So that looks like it's ready to go...I still have to call my $5/hr friends and let them know that I am unavailable to teach at their school, hopefully that gets done tomorrow.

After the meeting I met Jarnah again at the Russian Market on my way back home...and we ended up having some tasty "coffee with sweet-milk" (known as Vietnamese coffee to us Canadians) for 50 cents, and some nice conversation for free. Then I met up with the papa - we went for overpriced Lebanese food to reassert our 'arabness', and had a nice walk through the public parks on the way there and back. cool aside: in the park there were giant screens with photographers' series' projected as a slide-show with selected tunes to accompany. It was very random, but also very nice.

Mystery

I have recently been asked to reveal weather my chest hair is red like the hair on my head.

I'm afraid there are a priviliged few who know, and an (un?)fortunate multitude who will be baffled in thier contemplation of this mystery.

December 5th...(friday!)

Sometimes, when you don't have too much filling up your days, they blur together. Today was good example of that. I knew that on Friday I had plans to go watch a Khmer rock-opera called "Where Elephants Weep". What I didn't realize until late this afternoon, was that today was friday(!)

"Where Elephants Weep" was AMAZING! I loved it. The show had the English and Khmer text of each line as it was sung. This is the only reason that I remember the following (sung in Khmer originally):

...here our land is green and fertile.../ halfway across the world a man named "King" has a dream,/ and a band called "the Beatles" make girls scream/

If you can imagine reading this while hearing Khmer being sung (with "king" and "Beatles") then you can also imagine my joy and excitement for the upcoming comic journey. The story was about a young Cambodian guy who worked as a music producer for Sony in the states, whom made a return to Cambodia (with his friend) to become a monk, and be at peace. He meets a girl who he falls in love with, but she's engaged to her brother's friend (and business partner). The show used this premise to hit a few different points about Cambodian identity: the monks, cultural dance and song, the Khmer rouge and pol pot, the "new money" Cambodians (and their debaucherous lifestyle),  the street kids, lack of/need for parental love, and the experience of being child soldier.

This was all couched in a switch between, and sometimes combination of, traditional Khmer and 80's rock. There was also some hip-hopish stuff thrown in (this was soo funny!): the brother had three hired guards/goons who were all dressed in suits and acted supa gangsta - busting out with some svet hip-hop moves and comic rhymes. I loved this show, quirks and all. This picture is of me imitating an elephant using our free poster. After the show Beattie and Jarnah and I went for some Thai food - spicy morning glory and rice is a good meal.

Since Jarnah and Beatti both have bikes, but I do not, we've had to double-up a few times. This usually involves Jarnah sitting on the little...flat...I want to say book-holder? at the back of her bike, while I put in the leg work. The length of time between my last bike ride, and this double-ride has exacerbated my issues with balance, and instilled humor and fear into the hearts of Jarnah and Beattie both. 

Today was a great day of fresh fruits - I ate two mangoes for breakfast, two oranges for lunch, and papaya for a snack. (Yes, a whole papaya, but it was a small one...and I put lemon on it - soo tasty, I highly recommend it.)

Dec. 4

a day full of contemplation, rumination, and a dosa.

I may take a break from writing for a while while I'm in malaysia...just depends on the kind of internet access that I can get a hold of. That being said, I haven't got much to say for today anyway...I did a little bit of wallowing in despair, and some t.v. watching (which was likely a thinly veiled form of much of the same). I met Neissan and Jarnah for lunch at the dosa corner (quickly becoming my favorite eatery)...which was a great lift of the spirits.

hope everyone's doing well!

Ash.

Dec.3

Today was an intersting day, full of upsa and downs. And when I say 'ups', I mean one 'up', and' downs' is actually just one 'down': I got a (better) job teaching english! yaya! and broke up with my girlfriend...The first I'll tell you about, but the second is far too personal for a blog.

My orientation meeting was today at 10, so I put on fancy clothes, hopped on a moto, and rode into the sunrise. I waited for 30 mins before I saw the guy, and all he wanted to do was meet and ask me if I was alright with the wage that they offered me ($12/h). This is becuase, during the interview, I told them that my last interview offered me $5/h, which was too low, and my last job was close to $30/h, which I assumed was unrealistic. So they settled on 12, which I think is decent for out here, but far from the best wage for paying off student loans. Either way, I'll be happy to start work on the 20th.

The next hour saw me go pick up brand new custom-made(!) black dress-shoes, and drop off some mail. I also hazarded some communication with our khmer cleaning lady who speaks no english, and managed to convince her to get some fruit from the market with a list of prices so that they next time I go, I wont get ripped off. I also watched 300 in the afternoon (what a spectacle!) and a lot of national geographic and the discovery channel. Also, a couple minutes of whole line is it anyway...which is likely the most consistently funnny t.v. show I've seen (or, ever made?)

Excitement builds for the flight to Malaysia!

join me next time,

same bat-time

same bat-channel!

RE: twilight

Interesting fact, which few(joel) would suspect: I have read all the books.

I know...yeah, no, really - all of 'em.

How's the movie?

Dec. 1/2

These were two 'tired' days. I was pretty low, and, as a result, didn't do too much. I did go to a job interview at 5pm on dec 1. at the American Intercon Institute. They were interviewing a lot of potential teachers - and I was sure I wouldn't get the job. I was pretty clear with them in the interview that I wanted somewhere between $15-20/hr, and I wasn't sure if that was going to hurt my chances or not (seeing as how my last interview was for a job that paid $5/hr!). They told me last night that I would get a call before 7pm if I had made the cut...and I didn't get the call. And yet, today I recieve a call from them saying I've been hired, and they'd liek to talk about the terms of work - so I guess I gots a job!

Also, last night the p-units gave me a call to make sure I hadn't burned down thier apartment building, and they suggested I take a trip to Malayasia! So I'm going to go for a little training workshop put on by the Institute for Global Prosperity. Hopefully, I will learn how to make globals prosper, and then get on that business. I also found a link to a free settlers of catan (a rip off version though) online! If you're into the game, it's here.

This evening I had Beattie, Neissan, and Avuth over for dinner - we (Beattie) made some stir-fry, and Neiss cut us up a salata. Avuth brough some tasty fruit, and it was an all around nice dins. Beattie had to go, but the three of us played monopoly. Monopoly is a good time, but you should really be aware when getting into a game of monopoly that it holds little in the way of skill. Our best dice-roller was neissan, who's double-house developments on the yellows were the begginning of the end for Avuth and I. (this is also the first game where I've actually played until somebody went bankrupt!...we usually get tired and elect a victor so that we can get on with life)

More exciting developments tomorrow: a meeting to work out exactly what I'll teach when, where, and for how much!

Nov. 30

Was a full-on day: In the morning Avuth, Yvette(Yvette is Avuth's mom), and I, went to visit a baha’i lady in “tul kouk”; then went to Avuth and Yvette's house for lunch; back to the apartment to wait for Ramini and le team of super-kids to go visit Popov's children's class out in Phum Russie (bambo village); then dropped off at the orphanage to teach my class; then over to Neissan's for some guava juice and jokes; then to the riverside to try out typical khmer food with Avuth; then finally back home!

The visit in the morning was a little random, but pretty sweet. We had to walk through a row of little one-room apartments on either side, and then walk through a series of giant water-filled clay pots, then up a rickety wooden staircase onto a rickety wooden floor, and then navigate our way to the lady's place. It turns out that the lady we visited has been a Baha'i for a while, but she's been off the radar because she's busy just taking care of business. Aparently she's the slum-lord who owns all the one-bedroom places that we walked past on our way to her home. I mostly just sat back and ate some stickyrice-and-bean mixutre while getting occasional translations from Avuth. The lady had two daughters (one of whom played some songs on little keyboard for us), and both of them wore matching pajamas.

Lets take a paragraph to really explore this pajama thing. Women and girls here act like they don't realize they're wearing pajamas all the time. Seriously it's like pajamas are the panacea to thier fashion problems: out shopping? Wear some pajamas! Going on a bike ride? Wear some PJ's! Taking a walk with your friends? lets all wear pajamas! with well-dressed friends? Just wear pajamas! Going out for lunch? Pajama time! Facing an economic crunch? Wear some pajamas! I'd almost go so far as to say that a welll-coordinated set of pajamas could be a contender for the national costume.

They also had a small shop that faced a railroad track...and when I say faced I mean came face-to-face with the actual tracks. I thought it was strange until I took a good look around, and realized that as far as I could see on both sides, there were shops and houses that treated the tracks like a road. Anyway, cool place, and we had fun! and I distributed banana-cake to our hosts, and bought some guavas...and they decided to start up a children's class and a junior youth class for the little ones that live in the neighborhood.

Lunch at Avuth's was also suposed to be an afternoon monopoly experience, but I had to get back to my place to catch a ride to "bamboo village" with Ramini. We were basically going to go and just shake up thier class a bit by teaching them new songs, and sharing some stories. The class was a little awkward, because our super-kids that we brought along had some stage fright, and took a while to get thier voices warmed up. After that was conquered the class went fairly well. Also, even though I know you don't know him - Popov's the man.

Right so by this point in the day I'm pretty much exhausted, but now I gotta get to the one class that I was actually prepared for! It was sweet. The kids didn't memorize the quotes that they were supposed to (except for my star student), but they also didn't mind spending time memorizing them in class. We didn't get a chance to play an active game, but we did get to play games learning the quotes and we sang a lot. Today's quote was "O Friend! In the garden of thy heart plant naught but the rose of love..." This time, however, I came prepared: I printed off the quote in khmer and got them to write it in english. It seemed to help the childrens really get a grasp on the content of the class, so I felt like it was a worthwile experience for me and the kids. Also, thier singing (and mine?) is improving quite a bit.

After ALL of that, I went with Avuth to the riverside to try some khmer street food. First, let me relay that I tried street food the day before, just outside my apartment (fried rice cutlets with green onion iside) and it took only about an hour to run through my system. So I was slightly more cautious, but still up for whatevs. So we go to this temporary restaurant that's been set up on a street corner. With plastic chairs, folding tables, and a portable grill. They serve us some 

fresh veggies in ice to start, and I let Avuth order a sample of whatever he thought I shoudl try. We got duck-eggs, deep-fried frog, and oysters. I couldn't bring myself to eat the duck-egg, because my heart has been softened somewhat by my vegan girlfriend (and the eggs have already been fertilized). It was actually pretty gross. The oyster ( or other random unidentifiable shell-fish) was pretty good, and we ate it with a frsh-garlic spicy sauce. Then we tried deep-fried frog...which I never thought I would ever try, but it was alright. Avuth was really excited about chicken wings, and our restaurant of choice had run out, so we went to two or three places just looking for those wings. Finally we found them, and it turns out that Avuth's aunt runs one of these shops. So I tasted some bbq wings, and they were aight. The best part of the whole thing was that spicy sauce. Avuth's aunt turns out to be the queen of that sauce, and she gave me a whole container for free! The sauce is basically sliced fresh garlic sitting in random spicyness. Avuth reccomends just eating it with steaming hot rice. I will let you know how ithat one goes.

The long day does not end there, but I have an interview at 5!

 Peace!

super tired

It has been a long, long day. And now it is time for sleeping! I'll update you on my crazy day tomorrow. good night/day!

Nov.29

                Last night, post-posting, I went out to karaoke with some of the AYAD crew at a place called Carole King. Great times, some people could actually sing, while I belted out tone-def notes on such tunes as “turn around”- Janet Jackson “killing me softly”-Fugees, and even “Africa”-Toto*. I managed to slip in some beatboxing here and there, and their mic was on a subtle echo, so the beatboxing was extra fun – made me want to get back into performing on le stage.

                This morning was fun times: Jarnah came over, and we went out hunting and gathering food for breakfast. We ended up buying some coconuts and walnut bread, and having egg-in-a-hole as prepared by my faja. We also had croissants – it was definitely a brunch, and very enjoyable, enjoyable that is, besides my clumsiness. I dropped a jar of jam, spilling the contents all over the floor, AND dropped a plate while washing it. While the first was definitely bad because I then had to clean up the glass and jam (and have less jam to eat), the second was alright because the plate didn’t break, and I was relieved of dishwashing duties!

                Let talk about this dishwashing business for a second: the small Cambodian foot is, believe it or not, attached to a similarly small Cambodian body. This means that the architecture and construction will be tailored to a certain height, and ultimately, that our sink sits below my waist. So, you can imagine, doing dishes actually becomes difficult – like, I can bend down and do them, but after a while my back aches, so I stand up straight to ease it up…and when you’re holding a soap-slicked plate up so high above the sink, you tend to tempt fate and gravity to team up and take their revenge on so odious an ignorance of their laws. So far I haven’t broken anything, but I need to change my dish-doing pattern so as to pay my respects to both gravity and fate, and soap.

                The Children’s class is developing. Avuth helped me find a khmer version of Ruhi book 3, so that I can present the kids with the quotes and ideas (and even instructions for games) in khmer. Thanks broseph. Tomorrow we’re doing another lesson on the heart, and, seeing as how I was once known as Ashraf the Blackhearted, it should prove to be an interesting class.

 

*this one was for you Hormz.

Posting

The mighty weight of internet restriction has been lifted by the finger of the author - you may now post your comments without an account should you so desire.

              I woke up today to find that I was the only one in the house – my sneaky p-units had already jumped out for a romantic breakfast! So in true fashionable protest to this grave injustice, I went out for breakfast on my lonesome. I went to a place called garden (center?) café and got pancakes and eggs. I was pleasantly surprised by a long-distance call from my Nona! (If you’re reading this, thanks for calling.) And unpleasantly surprised by the price of breakfast ($6.75!!) although, I did order a mango shake, so I guess it was alright. Even still, when you get used to eating for $1.50 and $1.75, $4.75 pancakes and eggs seems pretty pricy.

    We went out again as soon as Shaku got back from breakfast. This time off to the ‘Russian Market’ to get some shirts and maybe some shoes. I found a bunch of shirts (some samples are up on facebook) for $4 each, which, if they are what they say they are, is good – but if they are knock-offs, is pretty bad. Supposedly these are Ralph Lauren shirts, Shaku is convinced they are factory surplus, but I don’t know – some of the colors look like they’d never make it into stores in Canada. Besides this, I went back to the lady who messed up and told me the real price of t-shirts, and hooked myself up with a sweet “Tintin au Cambodge” shirt. The t-shirts feel so nice, you guys have to come get some – or maybe I can send them across the seas? I dunno, but I feel like I want you to try out zese awesome t-shirtdawgs.

                Then we looked for shoes – and I was schooled in the ways of the Southeast-Asian foot: it is small. My feet aren’t too giant, just 10 and a half-11, or like 44-45. But that was just over the upper end of the spectrum on shoes they had in stock. So after scouring the Russian Market, and the Soria Shopping Centre, I found two pairs of shoes that fit: a pair of boots, and a pair of ‘prada’ shoes that made me feel like and Italian pimp. I really just wanted some nice black shoes, and should have paid a visit to an Aldo or something before coming to Cambodge. Either way, we heard about a guy who makes shoes, so I’m going to go investigate that process tomorrow – I wonder how it’ll all turn out.  

I saw a sweet collection of BBQ tarantula and cockroach, which I have documented for your eyes to feast on. Onto a completely unrelated topic in only the second sentence of a new paragraph, I was thinking it’d be fun to make a comic! That’s right, I’ve always wanted to be Tintin…and now I feel that dream is as close as ever! On the topic of dreams, I’ve let go of the tuk-tuk driver/company for now, because of lack of investor interest, but rest assured, I will start it up again when we’re out of the credit crunch, *sigh*. One more topic for this over-crowded paragraph: I’m not sure about who’s actually reading this blog, but how do you find it? I feel like it’s pretty mundane, just a run-through of what I’m up to…I may break into the treacherous waters of sharing actual thoughts and opinions, or I may not, just a thought :P

Afshelephant

Afshelephant
Originally uploaded by AshrafRushdy

Afshin the Elephant!

Nov. 27

Hello Friends!

Today there was some sad news about Mumbai,  it was rolling on BBC all day, but if you haven't checked it out yet, find it here. That aside, my day was pretty nice: nice breakfast with the parentals*, learning how to do some nice stuff on excel, eating nice and tasty south-Indian food at the 'Dosa Corner', spending some nice bonding time with ze faja, and going to a nice Baha'i function (in Khmer!). I missed out on the CLASSIC experience of rollerblading in Phnom Penh, but I imagine there will be a chance to get back to it sometime in the future.

I'm sure most of you know that I love Indian food. This is not becuase I lived in india - I swear - it's just becuase Indian food is that good. Today's veg. thali reinforced my love. I highly reccomend eating indian food the the next time you eat out. So far Khmer food is still a little bit too much for me...and I eat almost anything. They have a lot of 'soups': seriously somehting like 75% of the dishes are some form of liquid with random bits of other things thrown in. The most off-putting of the "other things" is congealed chicken's blood. They all say it tastes good, but vegetarianism starts to look more and more appealing! I had an amazing fish dish cooked in a coconut (Fish amok)...either it was cooked in the coconut, or served in it, but either way, it was tres bons. I'll try to delve deeper into the perilous depths of Khmer delicacies, but don't expect too much besides photos, because some of this stuff is actually crazydawgs to the donkeymax!

I've been testing out different ways of uploading photos to this blog, and was hoping that going via flickr would be the easiest, unfortunately, it didn't work out immediately, so my excitement has dwindled, and perserverence faltered in the face of failure. So bear with me while I work out he kinks in the technical side of blogging, and until that time, enjoy the shot of Afshin, one of the many elephants from the Cmabodian wild. 

*short for parental units. I want to change it from parentals to 'rentals, but that just sounds lame...so my only other option was..."p-units". It may be strange at first, but I think you'll find that 'p-unit' grows on you. I imagine several familial references will appear in the future, so don't be fooled by the p-units. 

Nov 26

 Yesterday we went to the Land Transport Department of Phnom Penh to get our Canadian driver’s licenses changed into Cambodian licenses. Pretty mundane stuff, but the ride in and out of the compound was very entertaining. Check out the video (“nov25.016”, or “Land Transport”). The road was so bad that our tuk-tuk got a flat tire! Luckily, there are mini garage/gas-stations everywhere in this city. We pulled across the street only to find that the mechanic was busyL…but our intrepid tuk-tuk driver “took-took” the mechanic’s tools and started repairing the tire on his own! The mechanic was down with it, and only came over to put the actual patch on the tire. Our ride went almost to the airport and back again, different routes both ways, so Shaku and I got a fairly good glance at the city

 (check out the map!)

 

Today I went for my first interview in Phnom Penh! I dressed up all fancy and made my way over a few minutes early. It went fairly well, and I could start as an English teacher on the 20^th of December (taking over when the other teachers take a Christmas vacation I guess). This is still a long ways off, but I guess it eases up the pressure (real or imaginary) to get a job for now. To celebrate this glorious event, I went and bought some roadside crepes! Mmmm, tasty – I need to get jobs more often!

Also, my buddy Ryan Duly let me know that my “mug” made it into the Phnom Penh Post – so I’m looking for a way to link to it to show you guys, or maybe I’ll just scan it up. So far the A-Team seems to be doing a good PR job for me in Cambodia! 

Nov 25

Hello friends,

Today was filled with more CV distribution (and 1 reply - finally!) I decided to video-tape my journey on the back of a moto-dop (motorbike-taxi).  The file is laarge, and I now have an editing program, but it's late - and I have an appointment at 9 tomorrow morning - so I can't put it up for you guys tonight*. It is, however, very telling of the traffic situation in Phom Penh...so I am sure many of you will enjoy it. In the mean time, I also filmed a video of our departure from the office of the ministry of land transport - which should be up soon.

I like Keegan's idea of the tour of the area where I live, so I may get an assistant and film a short introduction to the neighborhood. What else would you like to see? You can post really specific ideas, or even general themes... just let me know and I'll see if I can't make that happen.

I dropped of 4 CV's today at different english-teaching locations, and one of them called back a few hours later - so wish me luck, and hopefully my next post has something to do with worthwhile gainful employment.

*note: some actually interesting stories today as well, but they'll have to wait till I'm done with the interview tomorrow!

Phnom Penh Post

A coupla days ago I was interviewed while walking down the street! The journalist (an Asian girl from Minnesota) took my picture and asked me a few questions about the real estate situation/ how I liked living in BKK1(the name of the little neighborhood). Hopefully they print my picture, then I can reference all of my potential employers to my fancy media-picture!

Nov 24.

I saw a tuk-tuk for sale today: bike and carraige for around 1000. The guy told me if I called his boss there's a chance I could buy it for less. So my alternative occupation of being a tuk-tuk driver/business owner seem nearer than those of doing development work. You see, I had this vision: a whole fleet of brand new tuk-tuks, painted in radically new colors, all having "look-look at my tuk-tuk" written on the side, and some random advertisment on the back. If you are interested in supporting this dream, then feel free to post your monetary commintement as a comment here, and if they all add up to at least 1000, then I will drive a tuk-tuk as my first occupation in Cambodia (and I will post the stories up here!).

CV's distributed today: 1, to Build Bright University. (I got rained on, and that just kind of put me off of going out anymore)

Nov 23.

Hokay,

I have a video blog in the process (I'm trying to convert these gigantic files into smaller, uploadable files). I am, however, a man of letters - thus the creation of this blog. Right, those minor announcements aside, lets jump into the real deal.

There's a few things I've got to write about to keep you all abreast of what I'm upto, and how life works out in the Kingdom of Cambodia: job, exercise, Baha'i activities, diet, friends, 'the place', and random comments on life, etc. So lets begin with the job situation. I came here under the impression that a plethora(sweet word!) of NGO's means that one seeking to get involved in development work could just come out here and lend a hand wherever. While this is true, there is little chance of making money unless you are a Cambodian national, or an expert in your field. I know what you're all thinking "but Ash, you're an expert in being awesome! AND in general geniosity!" I know, it's true. Unfortunately, these are not what one might call 'hire-able' traits.

 

I mean, once I am in the system I believe everything will work out - but the system really doesn't recognize that I'm alive yet. in light of this deplorable state-of-affairs, I have decided to embark on a quest of infinite glory - that's right - I've condescended to engage the education sector with my native English-speaking skills.Not that I've given up on development work - far from it! I continue to diligently apply my mind and my feet in the never ending process of updating, adjusting, and tweaking my CV- then spreading it around to all the jobs that are not for Cambodian nationals (and probably a few that are). Pray for my success...or better yet, call in your development contacts and hook this business up!

Right, that's the latest on jobs, now onto our 'Health and Wellness" section:

Shaku (my step-mom) and My dad, and myself are involved in an intensive exercise program. Actually, it's chill-but it's a great family bonding activity. We go to the little gym (at the bottom of our apartment complex) and I run for 30-45 mins, and then lift a few weights and do a couple of stretches, etc. My dad and Shaku take a shifting-strategy and do many different things at many different times...kind of like a 'tapas'-style workout. Besides this, there's a pool that's almost finished beside the gym...this will factor largely into our overall 'health and wellness' plans. This is very cool and all, but I went for a visit to "THE PLACE" which is a 9-storey multi-function, multi-awesome, omni-cool, gym-food-salon-bar. I've never seen something so awfully rich. The first three floors are restaurants, the next is a spa/salon, the next is another restaurant -then three floors of gym, then you go out onto the roof, where there's a bar and jacuzzi, and an amazing view of Phnom Penh. Wicked place, but they play loud music every night (which I can hear from the apartment building), and it's not always good, or more importantly, mood-appropriate. 

Diet falls into the general 'Health and Wellness' category, so we might as well cover it now. I pretty much eat a guava or an apple in the morning (except for sundays which are egg-in-a-hole days). then another fruit like a banana or something closer to lunch. Lunch tends to be salads or some random dish from a restaurant (dosa, pho, etc.) Dinner's pretty big, but it changes so much there's no real consistent trend that I can report...except that it's usually bigger than lunch. I have humbly accepted the exalted position of assistant to the Head Chef. So some days of the week I'm going to attempt minor cookery - unless we find another maid who's willing to cook.

Friends

So far I've made a few, mostly through the Baha'i community. I've met a guy named Neissan(allessandro??) who does some UNV stuff, and a girl named Jarnah - who works for an NGO called Friends international whom I applied to work for. I also got to meet a few cool cats up in Battambang in the north (Prema, Ellysa, Sheng-sei(sp?), and many others). So Jarnah's in this sweet program through the Australian government, where they hook up young people like me with positions like hers (and they give her money, but she's officially a volunteer). So right now the Ashraf Rushdy Team (A-Team for short) are in the process of contacting CIDA and the Canadian government to ask why our Australian brethren have surpassed us in the way of enlightened development of development workers*.

Neissan started a Junior-youth class and asked if I could help by starting a children's class to allow them to work with the older kids. So Jarnah's friend Beattie (another lucky Aussie) and I took it on, but Beattie has to run a half-marathon through Angkor Wat, so I'm teaching the class on my own till she's finished racing through ancient temples. I just got back from a class today, where another friend, Avuth, came and helped out with some khmer translations and explanations. This was a great success, because this time, the kids actually got to deal with the material in a real way. The class was centered on a quote from the Baha'i writings "O son of Spirit! My first counsel is this: possess a pure, kindly and radiant heart..." and we tackled great ethical issues like: why is it good to have a pure, kindly and radiant heart? would you want to be friends with someone who doesn't or someone who does? How would Aristotle's "golden mean" come in here? How would Bentham reply? Is the Deontological view relevant here? (why?) The class did fairly well for their age (9-12) and education in ethics (n/a), managing to answer that people who weren't kind did bad things, and that was not good for anybody. Sweet class - I asked them all what 5 actions they would take to try and have a 'pure, kindly and radiant heart' and many of them wrote that they would undertake actions to help other children living in a dump nearby the orphanage. Seriously impressed me that little kiddies were already cognizant of the needs of their young peers.

Life, random comments on

It's pretty sweet out here. I miss my girlfriend...and you, my many other friends. Also, I'm watching Heroes season three avec my famille - and we've seen up till episode 8 and it's pretty svetdoggs to the maximusprime. I'm still determined to video blog, but I'll try to integrate it with this from now on. Also - should I post poems/verses; videos of poems/verses? Let me know if you guys are up for subjecting yourselves to weakly/bi-weekly literary assaults.

PEACE! (and justice, and free chocolate for everyone)

Ashraf.

*My nemesis Samuel Benoit has outdone me once again, this time by finding canada's intership program...and by starting his blog waaay before me! check it out by clicking the asterisk.