My Permanent Site

Well, I found out where I will be spending the next two years today. I will be placed in Svay Ring province (not 100% sure on the exact spelling, so I'm typing it out phonetically). It's right on the border with Vietnam in the south-east. It's known as the "parrot's beak" because of the way it sort of juts out into Vietnam. It's right on the main road between Phnom Penh and Ho Chi Min City, so I'll have ample opportunity to go to both of those places. My actual site is located about 15k north of the city of Svay Ring, so if you can find it on the map just look a little bit north and that's where I will be.

Right now we are at the hub site in Kampong Chhanng. Tomorrow our teaching counterparts will arrive so we will get the chance to meet them and talk about the school we will be working at. On Sunday we will travel out to visit our permanent sites and meet our new host families. We will spend three days at our site and then two days in the provincial town with the other volunteers in our province, as well as the K1 group. From there we will go to Phnom Penh for a few days to take care of various business, including a pool party at the US ambassador's house. I plan to pick her brains for advice on getting into the Foreign Service.

I forgot my camera back in Tuk Phos, so I won't be able to get any pictures of my permanent site for now. But I have a few blogs written up that I should be able to post on Sunday. After October I will probably have even less access to the internet out there, as it is a very poor, very rural province. Should be fun!