We have been living at our permanent site for over two months now. It has been enough time for me to reflect (positively) on some events which occurred during our pre-service training.
So, for those of you who might not know, Peace Corps is a 27 month commitment. The first two and a half- three months are dedicated to INTENSIVE cultural language and cultural training. During this time, trainees live with host families. We eat their food, drink their fermented snake alcohol, watch endless family wedding videos, and perfect the art of “nod and smile”. At the same time, the brave families have to coddle us like infants, since we practically are. We have a slight inability to care for ourselves in such unfamiliar surroundings. If you can hang, you are sworn-in as an official Peace Corps volunteer. Peace Corps selects your permanent site for you, which you are informed of about three weeks prior to swear-in. I will admit that training was very difficult for me and I must publically thank my wonderful husband, and best friend for his support and commitment to our marriage vows for the duration of this period.
Anyway, Jake and I were placed in a small commune in Kampong Cham province with about 15 other volunteers-to-be. We lived with a couple in there mid 60s who asked that we call them Ma and Pa, a young woman we called our little sister who was 21, and her son we called our nephew who was 5. We also had a dog and a poor little cat. The also family acquired a puppy shortly before we moved. The family decided to give each of the animals names after finding out we had a dog named Reese. I thought that was interesting and amusing since before meeting us, the family thought it strange to name an animal. For the majority of our stay we thought the young woman was the daughter of Ma and Pa but we later found out that she was not. We are still unclear about the relation, or if there is one.
The concept of animal cruelty does not exist in Cambodia. In the states we believe that if our children show signs of animal cruelty, they might grow-up to become crazy axe murders. Well if that was the case here, all the children are soon-to-be crazy psychopaths. Our host nephew was my least favorite person in training for this reason alone. Many children in Cambodia find great entertainment in torturing animals. Our nephew was the ring leader of this sort of thing. For example, Jake and I would return from training to find tiny wheel barrel-like tracks in the gravel in our front lawn. We both noticed these tracks because they decorate the gravel often, but we never really put much thought into what caused them. It wasn’t until we watched our nephew take our cat’s hind legs into his fists, while straddling the cat backwards (and naked), so that the cat was facing the opposite direction and its body was in between his legs. The cat’s front paws dragged on the gravel and his head poked out from underneath our nephew’s naked ass. He proceeded to pull the cats hind legs up to his chest and run in circles and loops while the cat’s front paws dragged along the gravel. The cat’s front paws formed the geometric shapes which we were seeing. The amazing thing was that the cat was so use to this type of treatment that it never hurt the kid. It was pretty disturbing to watch, but looking back on it-the tracks in the gravel, the look on the cat’s face the fact that the boy appeared to enjoy doing this most when he was naked, makes it a little hilarious now.
Another memory which stands out for me was one that I actually didn’t even witness but Jake did. It is more hilarious to me since I didn’t actually see it happen. So, Jake was sitting outside with the family one day, as he often did. I was busy doing something but I can’t recall. Anyway, while Jake was watching the women of the family slice bananas into slivers, he noticed our host dad pick something up from the trash pile. Jake watched as our host dad looked puzzled. Our host dad walked over to the rest of the family while holding a purple plastic tampon applicator. He looked very puzzled and tried to push and pull the applicator parts every which way. Jake observed in horror knowing well what the object in our host father’s hands had been previously used for. He proceeded to show everyone and they too fondled the applicator in complete bafflement. I assume Jake just watched the event unfold without looking too disgusted or embarrassed. Jake later told me “Jenn, you missed Pa walking around the front yard holding your used tampon applicator. He passed it around to all the neighbors making the banana things.” The most disgusting part of the whole situation is hand washing did not exist in this household. What ever was on that applicator, was now on those delicious banana things (similar to a fruit roll up), and most likely on our dinner. No wonder we were sick during training so much.
