One week down

From June 13, 2008.

I am slowly becoming accustomed to life at the orphanage. I will admit that the first weekend was hard, especially because I was facing a great deal of culture shock and I was a bit worried about how I would last until the end of August. However, I am feeling a bit better now that I have spent a few days here. The children are amazing, and surprisingly, as interested in teaching me Khmer as I am about teaching them English! One girl in particular has challenged me to learn two words of Khmer a day. This came after I tried to greet her by saying “hello” in Khmer, but I actually said a very foul word. Fortunately, she was not offended! She found it funny, and took the opportunity to teach me her language. So far, I have eight words in my lexicon and I am excited to learn more.

Classes are continuing to go quite well. The assistant teachers are helping me a great deal. They have set aside time to share their lesson plans with me, which allowed me to continue from where they had left off. They also gave me advice about teaching; they thought that I started out a bit too fast, and encouraged me to teach fewer concepts each day. I believe I made this mistake because I can easily make conversation with many of them outside of the classroom. However, the skills needed to carry on a conversation are entirely different from those utilized when knowing the full meaning and usage of a word, so I was willing to reevaluate my technique. After hearing this criticism, I took more time to review and repeat material the next day, so there was no confusion. For example, in one of my classes, I am teaching them numbers; instead of assigning twenty numbers each day, I reduced it to ten so we have more time to repeat each.

One of the assistants, Marian, is very friendly and we spend a great deal of time before and after class talking about the cultural differences between Cambodia and the United States. She began asking me about where I lived and what forms of transportation were most popular. She was shocked when I told her that the subway cost $2 dollars, and that is mostly how I get around Manhattan. That equals to eight thousand riels! We also talked about the relation between skin color and perceived class in our countries. Cambodian society prefers lighter skin, and Marian told me that there were “bleaching salons” where women and men could lighten their skin. This cleared up an earlier mystery; one of the children showed me a professional photo of herself, taken at government school, and the picture was digitally enhanced to give her pale, white skin. Marian could not believe Americans pay money to go to tanning salons and darken their skin several shades.

However, during one of our talks, Marian asked me if it is permissible for two women to walk down the street holding hands in America. I was not quite sure what she meant at first because I know in many cultures it is acceptable for friends of the same sex to hold hands. But when she clarified, she clearly meant if they were in love with each other. I was happy to talk to her about this, because I wanted to find about the status of homosexuality in Cambodia from citizens themselves, as they could probably describe society’s view most accurately. After telling Marian a bit about what it was like in America, she told me that it is okay in Cambodia if two women are in love. However, gay men are called “ladyboys” and, from what I understand, Cambodians seem to equate it more with being transgender than being gay. But she said that overall, it was tolerated in the country. I’m not quite sure why Marian brought it up, because I doubt that she detected that I was gay. It was interesting to go from talking about train rides to discussing cultural views of homosexuality!

In all, my first week at the Palm Tree Orphanage has gone very well. I am delighted that the kids enjoy my company. I wake up early and stay up late to play with them and I try to engage them in informal conversations to help their English. One of their favorite questions to ask is, “what did you have for breakfast?” and “did you sleep well last night?” I always open my door to four or five children, waiting for me to come out. One child has even made a habit of sitting next to my door and pressing the buttons on her watch, thus making loud beeping noises signaling she wants me to come out and play! I hope that this means that I am making a difference in their lives. I eagerly anticipate the upcoming weeks; I hope to make a great deal of progress in teaching English and learning about Cambodian culture.