Permanent Site Visit

9-12-08

I just got back to Phnom Penh after visiting my future site out in Svay Rieng. Over the next few months I'll probably write a lot about my house, my family, and what life is like in one of the poorest provinces in Cambodia. But for now, I'll just record my initial observations.

I really like my site. I have no complaints and I think I will really be happy and busy there for the next two years. My host family is an older family; the father is probably in his 60's, with the oldest brother being 30 years old. My host father, Mr. Sam Sarin, is the deputy district governor of Rom Duel district, which gives me ready access to more resources than I might otherwise have. Sadly, his wife died a year ago, so I have no host mother. He has three children. The oldest is 30, like I said, and is a teacher at the primary school. The daughter is 27 years old and works around the house, cooking and cleaning and generally being the new mother of the family. The youngest son is 26 and is also a teacher. He teaches chemistry at the lower secondary school.

So basically I live with a family of educators, and it shows. The family's land has an actual classroom on it, right outside the house. Not only do the members of the family teach private lessons out there, but many other teachers from the school come out to use this facility for their private lessons. Amazingly, my host brothers do not charge for their private lessons. In addition, my co-teacher told me that the family provides food to students that don't get enough food at home. This family is really committed to education, and I imagine I will really come to appreciate this fact over the next few days.

The town of Rom Duel itself is about 15 kilometers north of Svay Rieng town, easily within biking distance. I get a good feel from the town; it's mostly stretched out along the road leading north out of Svay Rieng. It's pretty small, population-wise. Most families are farmers, or at least farm to subsist their other occupation. I'm fairly certain that there are more water buffaloes than people. But the people are friendly; they all wanted to know why I was there and when I would be coming back to stay. The other teachers I met were also eager to work with me; many of them were also eager to give me Khmer language lessons in exchange for English lessons.

The family has five dogs, which is fairly excessive even by Khmer standards. The dogs are all really well-fed and spoiled by the family. They also have really ridiculous names; two of them are named Arigatou and Hashinomoto. One is named Chai-Li, and I don't remember the other dog's name, but the fourth has the best name of them all. My host brother named the dog Nicholas Sarkozy. The family eats outside, underneath the house, like most Khmer families. The dogs will all gather around and stare at you while you eat. You will look over and there will be five pairs of eyes all staring at you...it's actually a bit disturbing. And the dogs bark a lot at night, so I'm not sure how much of a problem that will be.

My bedroom is my only real complaint about the site; it's a tiny concrete-floored cell underneath the house. Chances are I will sleep in there and that's it. I will need to find somewhere else to be “my space.” Which is fine, I guess. But my bedroom situation is completely outweighed by the bathroom I have. My bathroom not only has a western-style sit down toilet, with a sprayer, but also a shower with water pressure and everything. It is an incredible luxury that I was not expecting. People are jealous.

The provincial town of Svay Rieng doesn't have a lot going for it. There is almost nothing of interest to see and do there besides visit the market and try and find things that you couldn't find back at the market at site. Other than that Svay Rieng doesn't really have anything going for it besides a few NGO's and a nice missionary family from New Zealand that we were introduced to. Oh, and a shop that sells cookies. But other than that there is almost nothing to do down in the provincial town.

And that's about it for my initial observations. I'm really looking forward to moving out there in a month. But for now, we've got two days in Phnom Penh. Time to go eat burgers.