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.