I'm very busy

"I'm very busy."

I find this statement humorous after living in Cambodia for a little over 4 months now. Khmer people are very busy all the time. "Busy" is a subjective word and it varies depending on where you are in the world. Well...I'm only guessing this is true. I'm not trying to come off as well-traveled and knowledgable of all cultures because I'm not. I mostly only know my own culture and lifestyle that I lived in the United States.

That being said, I can compare my own idea of "busy" to what I've gathered to be the most common perception of "busy" here in Cambodia. To start things off, here's the definition I thought was most applicable for my analysis:

bus·y [biz-ee] adjective, bus·i·er, bus·i·est, verb, bus·ied, bus·y·ing.
1. Not at leisure; otherwise engaged: He couldn't see any visitors because he was busy.
2. Full of or characterized by activity: a busy life.

As many of you know, I landed in my permanent site (permanent site meaning I'm staying with my host family in this village for my two year PC service unless something awful happens which it won't) on September 9th, 2012. From then on, I was expected to wander over to the Health Center at some point, introduce myself to the staff, and explain in broken Khmer that I'd be working with them for the next two years. SUPER!

Initially, I received a sort of "deer in the headlights" response from the first nurse I approached. Slowly it began to sink in to the staff that they were told about 7 months earlier that a Peace Corps Volunteer would be popping in to help with health education.

Since then, I've only slightly made my presence in the Health Center useful. (The word "useful" is also subjective and losing or flexing in meaning for me the longer I live here.) For 60 days following the official swearing-in ceremony to become a real life Peace Corps Volunteer, I was on my own in the village. I was given very little guidance, "tic-tic" khmer language skills, and had nothing to do but "observe" and "integrate" into my community.

I started out fairly strong with my mission to "observe" and "integrate." I went to the Health Center everyday from 7:30AM to 11:30AM and then again at 1:00PM to about 4:00PM only to find out the first week that going to the HC after lunch was not...really...necessary. I either sat by myself for a good hour or with patients waiting for the real nurses to arrive and until then, was stared at with wonder and amusement. Therefore, I made the decision to only go to the HC in the mornings (7:30AM-11:00AM) and save the afternoons for INTENSE integration into my small community.

Intense is also a subjective word. And believe it or not, I'm shy (GASP! WAH? HUH?!NO! Impossible!!) I'm particularly shy when I don't speak the native tongue very well and I'm funny looking to the native people. Integrating became a challenge for me. It was almost an everyday battle, actually. My bedroom became a protective shell for me that included a fan and unlimited internet access. The best way to get myself to crawl out of my shell was to think of something to buy at the market.

I needed a laundry basket one day and a garbage can another day. And then I needed a broom!
Let me tell you, going to the market is an amazing way to integrate. It takes very little effort on my part. I just walk across the street and automatically have 20 people asking me what I want to buy. "Laura, ting ai?" This is where the charades often come in.

"How is it not obvious that I'm sweeping with an imaginary broom?"

...is what I thought to myself as I stood in front of the 10 vendors trying to play along with my game. One woman handed me a can of Raid (which coincidentally became an imperative purchase the next week.) I was then chauffeured through the market with my new yay friend on a search to find a broom. I finally found one for about 75 cents and proudly showed it off to the ladies at the market afterwards.

It's the little things.

These folks chat with me in the morning before I "nyam cafe takah. I have yet to buy a piglet but it's offered to me everyday.



When my comfort level increased a bit, I started to go to the market with no predetermined purchases to make. This didn't usually get me far. I'd be asked to "on-gooee-layng" or hang out at my coffee place to chat. Doing this would often get me free green Fanta drinks or even slightly alcoholic desserts (that one was weird...)

It also didn't take me long to realize that this chunk of time I dedicated to "integration" was also UNGODLY HOT. It's really. really. really hot in Cambodia. And I'm frightened for my future because it's not even the hot season yet! Hot season begins in April! Holy geez, are you KIDDING ME?!

In turn, it's not unusual for me to cut my "integration" time short and retreat back to my protective shell to nap in front of my fan.

I'm very busy.

My Host dog, Sokee, demonstrating how to appropriately take a "som rak"


It's hard to find things to do at times when structure is nonexistent, as I explained in my previous post. I found this to be ubiquitous amongst my fellow K6 CHE volunteers. We were all fighting constant boredom and feelings of uselessness.

The excessive amount of free time allowed me to read books, write my incredible blog posts, and observe Khmer culture in all it's oddities. And this is where I realized that Khmer people have a very different idea of what "busy" looks like.
Americans are generally overworked and always multitasking. In America, if you're sitting around at home watching Maury in the middle of the day, you are generally considered a lazy slob and need to get off your ass and find a real job. Time is money and if you're not back from your lunch break within the hour (or half hour) you may be penalized!
In Cambodia, everyone basically has a built in 2 hour lunch break/nap time. And that time frame is flexible and definitely not monitored by anyone at all. If you don't show up in the afternoon...it's not really a big deal.

Busy is having more than zero people in the HC at a time. Busy is having perhaps one transaction within a given hour. Busy is taking a little nap in the hammock after eating some sort of root vegetable as a snack. Or as Forrest Gump said it "Busy is as busy does."

The HC getting an overflow of patients.


My 60 days alone at site have passed me by and I am once again reunited with all my fellow K6 volunteers in my provincial town, Takeo. We're currently in the middle of our 14 straight days of in-service-training. In said training, our days are completely scheduled out from morning to evening with language lessons and technical training. It's difficult to find time to even wash our clothes with so much structure! Our brains cannot compute the amount of busy-ness that is now being thrown at us.

"What? No afternoon sweat-nap in front of the fan? But I need my nappy!"

It appears that integration into our communities may have been too successful and may have negatively effected our ability to absorb obscene amounts information in a small amount of time. That's at least how I'm feeling at this moment. It's great to be reunited and all, but why under such dire conditions!?!

Why work gotta be so much work?!

A cow, hard at work.


On the plus side, the K6 volunteers are no longer on "lockdown" and we are now free to travel the country! As long as we TEXT THE DUTY OFFICER. Hooray! I'm a human again! I really wasn't intending on writing so much in this post but word vomit took over. So here's a sunset:

Oh, that's a pretty sunset!


HAPPY THANKSGIVING EVERYONE!

Peace, Love, Dove.