A Typical Day in PST

Hello everyone! 

It’s been about a week since the Peace Corps van dropped me off at my host family’s house and PST (or Pre-Service Training) truly began. So, I wanted to take the time to tell you about what a typical day looks like for me! Here we go...

5:30am: The sun starts to come up around this time, and the main road in front of my house starts to get a little more noisy as motos, cars, and trucks head into Phnom Penh for the day. There are also many roosters who start crowing, some in my backyard and some in the yards of my neighbors.

6am: I usually get out of bed around this time, and my house starts to wake up. Usually my host mom is up first, followed by my host dad, to start the morning chores like feeding the chickens, sweeping the house and the patio, and starting the fire in the kitchen. 

7am: By now, I have washed, changed clothes, and prepped my backpack for school on most days. I eat breakfast outside the house at the market or a nearby restaurant on school days. On a typical day, I bike to the market area and buy these yummy pastries or head to a cafe for coffee. Cambodians normally eat noodles or rice and pork for breakfast, which is a bit different than the eggs, cereal, or toast most Americans are used to eating. We eat rice, vegetables, and chicken or pork for the other two meals though, so I try to switch up my breakfast foods to add a little variety. 

8am-Noon: During PST, all PC Cambodia Trainees have class separated into two sessions (language and technical training), one in the morning and one in the afternoon. Right now, Health and Education volunteers are split into two different areas, and my group, Education, is split into two training villages. So, half the day Education is split into those two groups at two different schools for language lessons. The other half of the day we meet together as Education volunteers at a school about 20 minutes away by bike. When we meet together, we have technical training lessons about how to be a teacher/teacher trainer in the Cambodian context. We learn about everything from how to plan a lesson to how the Cambodian school system functions. 

Noon-1:30pm: Every afternoon we all return home for lunch. Usually my lunch is chicken or pork with rice, sometimes with a mixed vegetable soup; it normally doesn’t take long to eat, so I usually have some time to spare. It is nice to have a break from class and a chance to rest. Most Cambodians shower 2-3 times a day, so I usually do a quick rinse while I am home to wash off the dirt and sweat from riding out on the road. I’m also pretty hot by then, so a cool shower feels great!

1:30-5pm: This is the second of the two class sessions. So, I go to language or to technical training depending on the day. Sometimes, we even have language for 3/4 of the day, and technical training for only a few hours. So, language training can be really long! Luckily, I really enjoy my language learning group and my LCF (Language and Culture Facilitator). My LCF is a wonderful teacher and makes learning fun and interesting; she also puts up with our incessant questions about different words or things we see on the street. 

6pm: Once class is over, we all bike back to our homes. I usually have dinner around 6pm with my host mom and dad. I do have a host sister and three host brothers, but only my sister and one of the brothers live at home. Again, we usually have rice and chicken, fish, or pork with some kind of soup. My host mom also realized I like raw cucumber and carrot, so she normally gives me a plate of those to eat with my meat and rice. 

7pm: I normally shower around 7pm, so the rest of my host family can have time to use the bathroom after. Sometimes, I will stay up and watch TV with my host mom and sister, and other times I go to my room to study, read, or just relax. Either way, I am usually under my mosquito net and in bed by 8:30pm. In the States, I used to go to bed around midnight; here, I can barely make it to 9pm!

So, in a nutshell, that is what a typical day of PST in Cambodia looks like!  I have been adjusting well to the new food and new surroundings thus far, and I am really excited to continue to learn more language and technical skills. I got a taste of teaching in this context today when my two partners and I did our Community Teach. It is basically a free, open English class for the communities we live in that the Education volunteers take turns teaching. Each of us has to teach a lesson in a group or pairs to whomever shows up. In our case, about 130 children packed into our classroom this evening! We were the first group to go, and since our village is a new training site, no one was quite sure who would show up. I couldn’t believe how many children there were! My partners and I did our best to teach them some English greetings, colors, and clothing items, and all in all, it went well. 

Until next time, 

Carissa 

Peace Corps 101

So, I am doing this thing called the Peace Corps as you know. I thought I would focus this post on the history of the Peace Corps and some fun facts about the organization. We learned a lot during orientation, which I am excited to share, but you can also visit  https://www.peacecorps.gov/ for more information. 

Peace Corps began in 1961 by President John F. Kennedy in order to promote world peace and friendship through enabling Americans to serve abroad. Since then, more than 210,000 Americans have served in about 140 countries. Currently, volunteers are serving in 61 countries. Peace Corps does its best to reflect the diversity of the United States in its volunteers; my cohort has people from all over the country, of all backgrounds. Fun fact: the average age of a Peace Corps volunteer is about 29. In my cohort, K10, there are about 73 people, and we are comprised of both health education trainees and English education trainee. 

So, the Peace Corps has three goals:

1.     to help interested countries meet their needs for trained men and women, particularly in areas that improve the lives of their citizens.
2.     to promote a better understanding of the American people on the part of the peoples served.
3.     to promote a better understanding of other peoples and cultures on the part of Americans.

Peace Corps Cambodia was established in 2006-2007, and has a proud and respectful relationship with the peoples of Cambodia. Some of us, myself included, will work with secondary school English teachers, and others will visit health clinics and do health education outreach. Both groups will also work on secondary projects, such as after-school clubs, community seminars, and infrastructure projects.

We will both also work towards the goals of the Let Girls Learn program, which is a partnership initiative started in 2015 between the First Lady, Mrs. Obama, and Peace Corps. There are only a handful of countries initially in this initiative, and Peace Corps Cambodia is one of them! We will receive extra training and support to improve opportunities for girls to obtain quality education, increase girls' leadership and overall perceived sense of agency, and increase community engagement in support of positive gender norms that facilitate girls’ education and full participation in economic and community life. We will work with community members, schools, and young men and women in a variety of activities, projects, and initiatives to promote the above mentioned goals. The First Lady actually visited the Peace Corps volunteers in Cambodia last year to kick off the Let Girls Learn program; I wish we could have met her!!

So, that's it for now! There is a lot of other information out there or feel free to message me. I will leave you with a quote from the first Peace Corps director, Sargent Shriver, which sums up the mission of the Peace Corps and reflects one of my motivations for joining: 

 

“Peace requires the simple but powerful recognition that what we have in common as human beings is more important and crucial than what divides us."

Until next time, 

Carissa

To Staging and Beyond!

 
Whelp...

Today has been a bit emotional, a bit sad, but mostly exciting. Leaving my family was rough, and there were some tears, but I am excited for what's to come. Speaking of what's to come...

As of 7:30pm this evening, I am officially a PCT, or Peace Corps Trainee. This is our designation until our swearing-in ceremony in September when we will become full-fledged PCV, or Peace Corps Volunteers. (If you couldn't tell from that sentence, acronyms are abundant in Peace Corps.) Right now, I am at staging in San Francisco, which is basically where all of the PCTs get together in one place for a bit of training and get-to-know-each-other bonding before heading to their country of service. Peace Corps Cambodia has both health and teaching volunteers, and we are both heading over in the same group.

To get to Cambodia, we have a 16-hour flight to Singapore and a quick jump to Phnom Penh, the capitol city of the Kingdom of Cambodia. When we arrive in-country, we will spend a few days on medical exams and safety training. After that, it is on to our training villages where we will live with a host family while attending language, culture, technical, and safety training with a small group of other volunteers for nine weeks. During this time, access to the Internet might be sporadic, but I will do my best to keep this blog updated. Following the successful completion of training, we will have our swearing-in ceremony and move to our permanent placement where we will live and work for the next two years.


Meeting all the other PCTs today was great; it was nice to commiserate about all the weird questions we have been asked by family and friends, our hopes and worries about living in a new country, and how much we will miss cheese (or other foods). A lot of us have similar personalities, which is not very surprising, but it lends itself to a very loud and chatty registration area. All in all, my first day in the Peace Corps has been a good one.

Look out Cambodia, K10 is coming!
(Our group is called K10, because we are the tenth group to go through Peace Corps Cambodia)