This week was really hectic and fun. On Monday night I went to a yoga class with Sarah, the other volunteer at DAC. Tuesday and Wednesday nights were spent buying some essentials and setting up my new place. On Thursday, my office moved locations from the huge house we were in to a very small office a few blocks away. Moving meant that we couldn’t get any work done and still don’t have our computers or internet set up today (Monday, I am hand-writing this entry). Thursday night I went to an hour of meditation with Sarah and Erika at Wat Lang Ka, a beautiful Buddhist pagoda.
All Friday morning, I had a committee meeting where I met an AVI (Australia) volunteer who is both blonde and Bahaii, random! She could tell I was Persian and wants to come visit the temple in Chicago. It's funny how easy it is to find SOMETHING in common with almost everyone, no matter how different they may seem.
The office was still a mess that afternoon, so I spent most of the time running errands. I had lunch at a noodle stand at Phsar Toul Tum Poung (Russian market) for $1! I started talking to a couple of very friendly women there who have been living here for 13 years or so. They told me all about the ups and downs of long-term expat life. One of them was from Chicago and offered to take a package for me when she goes back for a wedding next week. I thought that was so unbelievable and sweet of her since she had just met me! Anyway, my purpose for going to the market was to buy sheets and a towel, but I ended up running into a stall that had all the kitchenware I needed for half the price at the Supermarket, so I bought all that, ran out of money, and had to go home and come back for the other stuff. In between trips to the market in the southern part of town, I went up north to pick up my water filter from the VSO office.
On Friday night, we went to a circus at the French Cultural Center. The crowd was, not surprisingly, mostly kids and the traveling performers from Europe were pretty silly. There were a few Asian acts, however, that were breathtaking. There was a contortionist accompanied by a male gymnast who was doing handstands over her contorted body and then pushing her into new positions by pretending to fight with her, giving some meaning to her contortions. I don’t know if it was the love story or the beautiful music, but this was my favorite act.
On Saturday I spent a lot of time shopping. First Meghan and Erika and I met up with Leonie and Kate (two vols from the UK) at a very posh designer boutique with unique party dresses running around the same price as they would in the States. Next we all met up with NoNo at a Japanese second-hand clothing store with items from all over the world. Nono calls herself an “international brat” because she has lived all over the world, including the US, but she is originally Danish and anything but a brat (she's so sweet)!
After this, Meghan and Erika and I went back to the Programme Office, where we randomly ran into Hollie. Hollie works in Stung Treng, a beautiful province to the north, but luckily, none of the provinces are too far from Phnom Penh, so we get to see vols like her pretty often on the weekends. Hollie was only supposed to be here for a year, but after a month or two, she got a mosquito born illness called Dengue fever. She was out recovering at the Programme Office and friend's houses for 10 weeks over Christmas-time! She is such a good sport, she never went back home, and on top of that, decided to extend her placement for another 6 months to make up for the lost time at work! She’s so nice and mature that I was surprised to learn that she is only 22 and came here with a competitive youth volunteering program within VSO called Youth for Development (YfD).
On Sunday I spent some quality time at the pool catching up online and chillin with more vols. I got to know Perry, Sarah's husband as well as a fellow VSO vol, who told me some scary stories about all the accidents he's seen and even been in... and he's only been here less than a year! Luckily, he has never been severely hurt, but it made me realize that I should be more careful on the roads.
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