Here we go

Meanwhile!

moniponi — Sun, 15 Feb 2009 20:17:00 GMT

Since I don't write so often you can visit this fantastic blog written by the swedish participant to find out more about what we are doing in Battambang. Enjoy.

http://jonnabertfelt.wordpress.com/

STICK KING

moniponi — Sun, 8 Feb 2009 20:22:00 GMT

Battambang is the second largest city in Cambodia and my new home for the rest two months. I’ve been here for two weeks already but it feels like eternality. BB is located in the northwest part of the country and is mostly known as the rice bowl due to the many rice fields and the huge production of rice in the area. Speaking about rice, I eat it for breakfast, lunch, dinner and even for snack. In khmer the words for different meal times is not used, instead they say eat rice for every meal. My favorite rice snack is sticky rice on bamboo stick and warm banana with sticky rice covered with banana leaf. I love rice, when I was younger my brother Huguito used to sing a song about me that goes Arros arros a Monica and then you start over from the beginning. A hit song of course. Arros is the Spanish word for rice, that is how much I liked rice, I even had a song about it. So far I have no problem eating so much rice as I do now, I even have tried different variations of rice, for example is new rice (newly harvested rice) so much tastier than “old” rice. I do wonder if I will get tired of it? Anyways, that was a lot of talk about rice, such an interesting subject though. However I wanted to write about Battambang. The name means the Stick King and refers to an old king that lost his stick. BB is great, it has a nice park where a lot of people hang out in the afternoons and evenings. It has become some sort of hanging out place for us to, and we usually by mango, sugar cane juice and look at the people that do exercise. It’s the funniest thing ever. I and Rat joined the first time but I couldn’t stop laughing. Imagine Friskis och Svettis! Also I love the river that runs through the city. The waters that my house use for cooking and showering comes from that river. I’m a little uncertain about the cleanness level of the water, but everybody uses it and so far no problem.

The second day in Battambang me, Rat my allied, Jonna the Swedish participant and her counterpartner Rothanak bought bicycles to easily move around. We named the bikes Red dragon, Buffalo soldier, Loverboy and Unicorn. The Red Dragon, which is my bike, got a flat tire after five minutes. The first weekend we biked over 50 km visiting a nearby temple and the rice fields. The traffic here is not as intense as Phnom Phen but it still seemed crazy at a first glance and I thought it would be difficult to ride a bike. It turns out that it’s not hard at all. It’s like an organized chaos and once you learn a few basic things, for example that it’s better to go very slow while turning instead of stopping, all you have to do is go with the flow.

Sleimball meat packs

moniponi — Sun, 8 Feb 2009 20:18:00 GMT

I always considered myself as a patient person, it may not always be the case, however I believe that patient is a necessary and important quality. Nevertheless my patient is really being tested here in Cambodia. For example while speaking English I often have to formulate my questions in at least four different ways using body language, sign language and sounds and other creative methods. Imagine trying to communicate without a common language. It’s really interesting trying to communicate without words or with a limited vocabulary. I always been fond of words and I put a lot of emphasis on what people say and which words they are using but here I really enjoy observing people’s faces and body while they speak Khmer. I’m paying attention to face expression and voice tone which has become vital for my understanding and feeling about a person. Before it has only been a sidekick but know is almost determinant. You can tell so much just by looking at their eyes and how they shine when the person is laughing.

For the record my knowledge in Khmer is oh so very very basic, I’m trying but it’s more difficult than I expected it to be. I didn’t intend to speak it fluently but the language has so many sounds which I never have heard or used before, making it almost impossible to learn. But only almost. So far I know how to say my name and simple things like that. I figured that one good survival strategy is to know words related to food so I’ve also learn have to say, I’m hungry, I’m full and delicious. I use them frequently of course.

So my dear meat packs (we, or more exactly Richard, one of the Swedish participants, discovered that the Khmer word for friend sounds like meat pack) my the point I’m trying to make with this entrance is for you to have patient with me writing on the blog about my new life here in Cambodia.

Sleimball, rice and Cambodia! (According to Richard the Khmer word for love sounds like sleimball and it was last weekend’s theme song!)

Gallery: Phnom Pehn

moniponi — Mon, 26 Jan 2009 21:32:00 GMT

what it all comes down to

moniponi — Mon, 12 Jan 2009 00:06:00 GMT

Here we go, I got myself a blog! First of all I want to thank Sao Mai (henceforward Paulo Poo or just shortly PP) for peer pressuring me into getting one. Without her none of this would have been possible! The reason for this blog is that in less than one week I'll be heading to Cambodia where I'm taking part in an exchange program called Youth Partners in Development (YPD), organized by the Swedish Centre for International Youth Exchange (CIU). Me and 7 other Swedish participants are going to Cambodia and at the same time 8 others are going to Zambia. Together with a counter partner from our host country we will be working party wise with local organizations and plan and carry out a facultative development project involving hiv/aids. The exchange will take place during three months in Cambodia and three months in Sweden.

So with that said my intention is to share my experiences, challenges, and who knows what more with my family and friends through this blog.