My New Home

It is the day after the first night and I am still kicking, haha.  My first experience with my host family was a lot of fun.  After the half hour tuk tuk ride my host father and mother showed me to my room and let me set up.  I have a pretty big room and my own bathroom which really surprised me.  I had dinner with the whole family (father, mother and 2 brothers) then hung out with the neighbours for awhile before going to bed.  Also our neighbours next door organize an exercise class so there was music pumping for an hour or two during supper.  I might have to join in sometime!

Like I said it is quite far from the MCC offices so my commute to the MCC offices is a little long, but it is close to RUPP where I will be working.  My host father, So Pan, said that I could borrow a bicycle and ride it to work if I wanted.  I'm hoping to get my Cambodian license soon, so that I can start driving a motto, and not have to pay for a motto dope each way.  5000 Riel ($1.25) each doesn't seem like much, but MCC would like us to stick to a travel budget of $30 a month.

I took a motto to MCC this morning, and am hoping that I can contact the same motto driver for my ride home.  It could be a little interesting because he did not speak a lot of English, so I am hoping everything goes well.  Other than that we said goodbye to the YAMENer going to Laos by going out to the River Front on Monday night.  We had some ice cream which is a treat anywhere you go in the world and walked along the streets for a few hours.  Khmer lessons continue and I am remembering words, but it is difficult to string them into sentences or pick up meaning when Cambodians speak Khmer to me.


Tomorrow us YALTers are headed to Prey Veng for 5 days.  It will be nice to get out to the country side and get some fresh air.  We are going to meet Caleb's host family, meet up with some of MCC's partners, and practice driving mottos.

One other thing that I forgot to mention is that I experienced my first Cambodian delicacy last night.  I had a baby duck egg.  Essentially it is a partially formed duck fetus.  Looks like a hard boiled egg with some extra things.  Not as bad as I thought it would be.  Don't know if I will be eating it a lot, but I think I will probably try it again.

Sometime