September 14, 2011……..
I woke up this morning to the extreme heat of Cambodian
winter. It was around 7:45am. We all lazily walked around in a half sleep
trying to find our shoes and dirtiest clothes. We all chose to sleep late and
starve rather than get up and walk to the market to buy breakfast. But one of
my teammates Katherine broke out hoarded chocolate bars and we ate them for a
healthy breakfast J.
Some of us brushed our teeth… most of us didn’t… and off we went.
We drove maybe 2 miles deeper into the jungle to one of our students
(Sophia’s) house. She lives on a rice farm and they also own a store, in the
middle of NOWHERE. So we all jumped in the huge mud puddle and began to plant
rice! I know most of you have no idea what or how to do it, so I will explain.
You grab a handful of stuff that looks like grass and jab it into the mud. Row
after row. The end.
After we finished planting the rice, we washed off in the
bigger mud puddle and watched a man climb a palm tree and cut down coconuts
from it. We all received a coconut (for our works wages). We trekked back to
the store/house where Sophia lives and there we sat around the table and tried
to force down the coconuts which honestly taste more like salty ocean water
rather than the delicious sweet stuff we eat in the States.
Mid way through the forceful drinking and acting happy
Sophia offers us Iced Instant Coffee. Thank goodness….. Yes please!
We finish our drinks and head back home. And that’s when it
happened. I broke down. I had to shower/wash my hair. I couldn’t take it
anymore. I was too itchy and way too sweaty from the previous week of constant
heat and exercising. I drenched myself in the murky water and began to scrub. I
shouted out of the WC that my HAIR STINKS, and everyone outside agreed and
giggled …..
I put on some dirty clothes, and headed off to teach some
English. Today KC and I were teaching….. ALWAYS. USUALLY. SOMETIMES.and NEVER.
Seriously hard words to teach especially when your translator doesn’t even
understand them. We ended up just sticking to the one word Always which I am
sure they never grasped but its whatever, right?
By the time class was over, it was lunch (noodles, rice, and
veggies).
For the rest of the day, English classes and lots of water
drinking.
That is what I have done on September 14, 2011………..
Anything but ordinary………………..
