fun facts: asia

-You’ve developed a random cough, you’re toiletry bag includes lice
shampoo and worm medication and you feel more concerned when you DON’T
have rumbly tummy then when you do.

-You casually mention to your team that you are going to Africa in less than two weeks and the conversation goes something like this:
“Hey, I just realized that in less that two weeks we will be in AFRICA!”
“Huh, that’s nice. What’s for dinner?”

-The phrases “choose in” and “say amen” get you through your day.

-Things like toilet paper, towels, pillows and washing machines have become luxury items. Air conditioning is like being transported straight to heaven.

-You buy your teammate a birthday gift that you know she won’t like
because you just really want to see her wear parachute pants.

-$2 for anything is expensive.

-Your hygiene habits have become a paradox: sometimes you don’t shower for three to four days but you wear more skirts and jewelry than you ever did at home.

-You go to the theatre to watch a movie and it feels so much like Canada that when the movie is over and you turn around and see that everyone else in the theatre has black hair, it freaks you out for a minute because you forgot you were in Asia.

-You’re new favorite thing to do during border crossing is to sing children’s songs and do the actions.

-You spend an afternoon sitting on a wooden platform with women in the village, smiling at them (they don’t speak English, you don’t speak Khmer) and playing with kids and you find yourself wishing you could stay forever.

-There’s not really any such thing as “waiting” to cross the street, you just go because otherwise you’d be waiting until the next day. You don’t really look both was either, it’s safer to just walk straight across staring straight ahead.

-In Asia, you’ve taught English to bar girls, to adults above a bank, to kids in numerous schools, to kids in a church, to university students in a student centre and above a coffee shop and to monks in a Buddhist temple.