Model School Practicum and the End of PST

My fellow PST co-teacher, Brady, and I!

For the last two weeks, my fellow PST Brady and I taught English to a class full of 8th graders as part of our practicum experience, colloquially known as “model school.” Since we will be ETTT (English Teacher/Teacher Training) volunteers, this was an opportunity to practice our teaching skills in the Cambodian context. The first week Brady and I taught alone, but in the second week, we were joined by a Khmer teacher counterpart. I really enjoyed the opportunity to practice co-teaching with a Khmer teacher. It will also be helpful since we will be required to teach with a local counterpart once we get to our permanent sites. 

We have received a lot of training about the differences between the Cambodian and American education systems including the perception of teachers and common practices in schools. In order to provide more context to this and future posts, I wanted to highlight several features and practices of the educational system and schools in Cambodia: 

Our classroom

• Since the Khmer people place great importance on education, teachers are traditionally respected within a community and especially within the classroom. To reflect that, students stand when answering a question or talking to a teacher during class. 
• While teaching methodology is definitely changing throughout Cambodia, many schools and teachers ascribe to a top-down approach to education where the teacher has all information and knowledge and shares it with students. Often this results in teacher-centered lessons and activities with little to no interaction between students. One of our jobs as volunteers is to work with teachers in our schools to implement more student-centered activities where students are encouraged to talk to each other, use each other as resources, and experiment with the language. 
• Classes in Cambodia are often quite large, usually around 40-50 students. This is another reason teachers often use a teacher-centered approach. It is much easier to keep control of the class using these types of activities and lessons. 
• Students wear uniforms which usually consist of white shirts with blue or black pants or skirts. Cambodians take off their shoes when entering houses, temples, and some buildings; students in most schools take off their shoes when entering the classroom. 
• The English curriculum for the entire country is set by the Ministry of Education, and each grade has a book to reflect that curriculum. While recent reform has improved the curriculum making it more relevant and communicative, students often struggle to use English in real life situations. While students may be able to fill in a blank, pick the correct verb tense, or memorize a dialogue, they lack the opportunity to hear and use these things in spoken speech. As an education volunteer, one of my jobs is to give students the opportunity to practice speaking with a native English speaker. 

Our students!!

I hope this gives you some context and insight into the Cambodian education system; I will of course continue to elaborate on this subject throughout my service, but I wanted to get some of these down on paper. 

Finally, I have about two more weeks of PST before we move to our permanent sites. On Wednesday, we will receive our province placements and get a better idea of who will be near located near us. Because it is a small country, the vast majority of us will have someone within biking distance of our house. Some of us will also have situates (or other volunteers in our village). I am simultaneously nervous, scared, and excited about learning our placements!! 

Until next time, 

Carissa 

The Khmer Rouge and Cambodia's Dark Past

Fence and makeshift memorial surrounding mass grave

In the last two weeks, we visited the Cambodian Genocide Museum, the Killing Field and its memorial to those who died, and listened to numerous stories from staff and family about the Khmer Rouge period in Cambodia.  

 

And I’ve spent the last two weeks thinking about this blog post, thinking about what I should say and how I should say it. How should I discuss the horrors of the Khmer Rouge and the genocide Cambodia endured in the 1970s? As a graduate student studying peace and conflict resolution, I could speak about the recovery process and the slippery concept of justice as this country continues to recover from the horrors of the Khmer Rouge. While many young Cambodians did not live through the Khmer Rouge period themselves, everyone in this country has been directly and intimately affected by the genocide of (estimates vary) up to one third of the population, the destruction of family and social life, and the massive dismantling of the education system. Justice, as is often the case, has hardly been cut and dry, which continues to affect the country and its people.  

Former school transformed into an infamous prison during KR regime

As a graduate of an international relations program, I could speak about the global causes as well as consequences of the Khmer Rouge regime and how it continues to impact Cambodia’s position on the world stage. Cambodia and its leaders, while certainly not blameless, were caught up in a struggle much bigger than this small South East Asian country; other major players also contributed to the circumstances that led to the rise of Pol Pot and his Communist Party. After the country emerged from this horrific period, it faced the difficult task of rebuilding from the ground up. The Khmer Rouge targeted all intellectuals as enemies of the Communist agrarian utopia they strove to create; the country lost a generation of teachers, doctors, engineers, and scholars. These consequences have continued to impact Cambodia as it tries to improve its people’s standard of living. 

National memorial to genocide victims

However, I finally decided to forgo any academic or political discussion and focus on the people who have shown such resilience in the face of unspeakable horror. As I mentioned, the Khmer people are still recovering from this tragedy; it can be seen in every tear shed for a lost family member and in every memory and experience shared from that time. Despite the outwardly cheerful demeanor of many Cambodians, It is still very present in this country; it is still very real. I honestly cannot wrap my head around the terrible conditions my Khmer neighbors, friends, and family endured. 

 

So, in the end, I find I do not have much to say. I am in awe of the resilient, warm, and welcoming people I have met thus far; I honestly do not have the words to do them justice. While it was difficult to hear such emotional and heartbreaking stories, I am glad I was able to listen, learn, and stand witness to their experiences.  

 

 

 

 

"For the dead and the living, we must bear witness.” -Elie Wiesel 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

If you want more information on Pol Pot, the Khmer Rouge, and the Cambodian genocide, please visit the following websites.  

 

The Killing Fields Museum: http://www.killingfieldsmuseum.com/

Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum: http://www.tuolslenggenocidemuseum.com/

The Documentation Center of Cambodia: http://www.dccam.org/

A Look at My Cambodian Family

So, we have officially been at our PST homestay for a month. Time these days is quite peculiar for me; the days of technical and language training seem to last forever, but the entire week flies by in an instant. Either way, the calendar does not lie, and a month has passed. I honestly feel like a member of my host family more and more every day, which is something I was not expecting to happen so quickly. At dinner these days, I joke with my host dad and sister, ask my host mom about the ingredients in a dish, and teach them all a few English words. It is quite different from the quiet dinners of my first week, full of head nods and shy smiles. I think a lot of it has to do with the constant culture and language training we receive from Peace Corps and the fantastic LCFs we have; we can always rehearse bits of language or ask a cultural question before returning home. Another large factor is the astounding generosity of our host families; we were (practically and culturally) babies when we were dropped off at our sites. These families welcomed us into their home and their lives.

 

My host family mainly consists of four people: my host mom, dad, younger sister, and older brother. In actuality, I have two more older brothers, but both live in other places. However, I have met both of them, and the one that lives in Phnom Penh comes home quite frequently. In general, I spend the most time with my host mom, dad, and sister. Most days I only see my older brother in passing, but he is always very helpful when something needs to be clarified or translated; out of my four family members at home, he speaks the best English.

Here is a quick look at the rest of my PST host family:

Every morning, I have coffee with my host dad in front of the house before heading out for the day. We don’t usually talk a lot, not much more than “good morning," “have some coffee,” and “thank you,” but I really do enjoy this quiet time with him. We sit and watch cars, motos, and bikes go by on the busy road in front of the house. Sometimes, he cleans the car or waters the plants. It reminds me every day to take the time to be present, to appreciate the new day. 

My host sister is a classic teenager; she watches TV, talks to friends on her cellphone, and occasionally gets upset when her parents tell her to do something. Most evenings we study Khmer and English before or after dinner. She is teaching me to write in Khmer (which is very difficult!), and I help her with pronunciation and sentence structure. In the beginning, I was a little worried we wouldn’t be able to build a relationship, but little by little, we have. I think she might even be happy to have another girl in the family sometimes. 

Out of everyone in the family, I am closest to my host mom. She is truly superwomen. She works in Phnom Penh a few days a week, raises chickens for the family to eat and to sell in our backyard, cooks most meals for us, and cleans the house. She is also a talented seamstress, who recently made me a new shirt and two sampots (traditional Khmer skirts). Despite all the work she does, she always answers my questions, helps me when I ask (and even when I don’t), and walks around with a smile. And as a typical Cambodian mom, she is continually worried about my rice intake. At dinner once, she actually played the guilt card and said “I worry when you don’t eat enough.” Trust me, I eat more than enough! So, even though I sometimes tire of hearing “eat more, eat more” I know it comes from a good place; she truly sees me as her child, to be worried about and fussed over.

After dinner, my host mom and I are usually left sitting at the table. I always try to get her to let me help clean up, but since she always refuses, I sit and keep her company as she tidies the kitchen and feeds the chickens. As night falls around us, we usually chat about the market, food, or village gossip. In the beginning, it was awkward, and I only stayed for a few minutes as I gulped down the rest of my water. However, it has become one of my favorite times of the day, and I linger until she shoos me inside to take a shower or get way from the mosquitos. 

All in all, I love my Cambodian family. It will be difficult to leave them in a few short weeks. After that, I will head to my permanent site and a whole new family. We find out our placements in the second week of September. I am excited and can’t wait to know, but I’m also nervous! This next week starts our two week practicum in which we put our teaching skills to the test by teaching English to actual students; I will be teaching 8th grade with another volunteer co-teacher. Wish me luck!

Until next time, 

Carissa 

Lessons Learned... So Far

Here we are at the end of the third week of PST! As I reflected on my time in Cambodia so far, I couldn’t help but think about all the things I have learned… things that once felt impossible, weird, annoying, things that are now far easier. They told us at staging to think of ourselves as babies again; we would need to re-learn to do the most basic things. They were right. So, I decided to dedicate this post to those new skills and some of the lessons I have learned in the process. 

1) Eating Food

 

The first meal we had in Cambodia!

Eating… a basic human need. It is something that should be relatively easy, but adjusting to a new way of doing things has not always been easy. Almost everything has been different from utensils to types of food for each meal. Most Cambodians eat with a spoon, fork, and a bowl of rice; chopsticks are only used when you eat noodles, which is normally a breakfast food. For lunch and dinner, my family normally makes two or three main dishes (soup, stir fried vegetables and meat) that each person takes a bit of to eat with rice. 

On my first morning, my host dad bought bread from the market for me, which was delicious! He has continued to make me coffee every morning, something I really appreciate. While food and food culture can be very different in each country, the desire to offer comfort through food is pretty universal. My host mom always asks if I like what she makes or if there is something else I would like to eat. 

 2) Everything Bathroom-related

   
Showering, going to the restroom, all of that is significantly different now. Most of the homes volunteers are staying in do not have running water, Western toliets, or shower heads. So, everything is done using a cistern and a little bucket. In the beginning, the cold water felt nice after a hot day, but it is a little colder at night now which makes showering a bit less pleasant. However, it is honestly not nearly as bad as I thought it would be. I was a bit worried the first night that I would not be able to get used to the bathroom-related changes, but now it doesn’t feel weird!

   

3) Laundry by Hand

   

One of the toughest new items on my weekly chore list is doing laundry by hand. I will never take a washing machine for granted again! To wash clothes, I need two large bowels filled with water, a board to scrub on, a stiff brush, soap, and fabric softener. I scrub each piece individually, wring it out, and then transfer it to fresh water. After that, I wring it out again and put it in a bowel with fabric softener and water. Finally, I wring it out again and hang it up on the lines next to my house. It is quite a process! Some Cambodians pay to have their laundry washed (either by hand or with a washing machine), but since my host family washes by hand, I decided to stick with it. While I don’t always look forward to getting up early on my day off to wash clothes, it has given me the opportunity for reflection each week. I can listen to some music, think about my week, and get lost in the repetitive motion. 

     

 4) Speaking Khmer 

   
The most important skill I have gained in the past three weeks is speaking Khmer. Peace Corps has an great language learning program, and the LCFs (Language and Culture Facilitators) here in Cambodia are AMAZING. They have been extremely patient and motivating, which makes 4-6 hours a day of language bearable. If you would have told me three weeks ago that I would know as much Khmer as I know now, I would not have believed you. I don’t know a lot, but I can understand my host family when they need to tell me something, which is a big milestone. I also successfully found and bought a few items I needed at the market this week!! I have found that putting yourself out there and having a sense of humor when you mess up are key to the learning language process, especially when you are immersed in the language all the time like we are. 

My first language group and some of the kids that help us practice

 

Pictures of the primary school where we have language lessons!

A view of the school yard

5) … Eating a Banana

My host mom was very confused by how I peeled my bananas. I learned you do not peel from the stem, because you can hold on to the stem when you eat it.

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)