Nam-myoho-renge-kyo

I realize I have not done a good job keeping up with my posts, and for this I apologize. I think it does mean, however, that I am slipping into what could be considered a normal lifestyle. I go about my days and nights fully immersed into a culture and a lifestyle that has now become familiar, and thus, with nothing to report.

I can come up with a few stories that might make you smile or at least keep you entertained. There are a handful of students from my 15 different classes that I teach who are hilarious and make me smile every day. In my highschool/adult class, there is one boy who is more advanced than the rest of the class and I attribute it to his parents speaking 3 languages in the home (English, Khmer, Chinese) and his love of American culture. He is particularly enamored with Taylor Swift, and one day he gave me what I’m taking for a compliment, by telling me, “Teacher, you dress like Taylor Swift.” Last week, he asked me for her email address. I guess his thinking was, since we’re both American, we would surely be email correspondents. After I informed him that, no, I do not know Taylor Swift’s email address, but that she probably has a fan website where you can post things, he seemed to have bounced back from his initial disappointment. The next class I taught some poetry, using a poem titled, “Swift Things are Beautiful” to emphasize grammar, vocabulary, and reading comprehension. I had the students discuss some swift things that were beautiful and some slow things that they thought were beautiful. As Taylor Swift’s #1 Fan was sharing his ideas with the class, he said a beautiful slow thing was “woo.” Now, a lot of times I have trouble understanding my students because of poor pronunciation, and I have gotten used to deciphering words spoken without an audible ending (ri, instead of rice, etc.) so I thought this was another case of mispronunciation.

“Can you spell it?” I asked.

Yep, he said, “Double u, double o.”

He meant ‘woo’, alright.

“Can you explain what you mean? What does ‘woo’ mean.”

“When the boy gets the girl to be his girlfriend.”

Dang. The kid just said that the courting process was a beautiful slow thing. Compared to my other student’s answers of ‘turtle, snail’ this was not only hilarious, but extremely insightful.

“Okay,” I said continuing the lesson, “How is wooing a beautiful slow thing?”

“Well, it takes a long time, but in the end the boy succeeds and he gets the girl to be his girlfriend.”

Other points of interest happened on Saturday. Susan and I went out to the edge of Phnom Penh to volunteer at a place called the Harpswell Foundation. (www.harpswellfoundation.org) It’s an organization for Cambodian women from the provinces who are extremely bright and hardworking to come to Phnom Penh and go to university. The girls live in a new dormitory and cook, clean, and study together. Most are getting degrees in Law, Medicine, or Accounting, but a few are also in IT programs. From here on out I will be spending my Saturday mornings teaching English to first-year girls. They seem very motivated to learn, but like almost every student that I have encountered here in Cambodia, they were very shy at first. A few icebreakers and games to broaden and practice their vocabulary opened them up a bit, and I hope to form some good relationships over the next few weeks. After my 3-hour teaching stint, I accompanied a 3^rd year Harpswell scholar to visit her friend who was presenting in a Science exhibition at the Technology Institute close by. I was completely and utterly impressed with the student’s experiments who have all of their classes in FRENCH. These students have to first take intensive French classes so that they can learn science. The science fair posters were first in French, then in English, and there was no Khmer text at all. The students explained different natural phenomena in any and all of the three languages, depending on who stopped by their table. Wow.

Later that night, I attended a party hosted by a bar a few streets away celebrating the life and work of Russian artist Alexander Vertinsky (1889-1957). There is a fairly large Russian community and it seemed like they all showed up for this event. Russian food (caviar, salmon, brown bread) was served and there was homemade strawberry caramel vodka. Traditional songs were played and there was a projector showing Vertinsky’s movies. It was a nice occasion to dress up for and forget where you were for a few hours.

Sunday morning I was able to attend what I can best describe as a Buddhist church service. I accepted the invitation by a Harpswell volunteer to show up and be a part of the ½ hour chanting “Nam-myoto-renge-kyo”. After the chanting was finished, a gong was hit and then two girls came out and did a traditional dance and threw lotus flowers. The rest was mostly talking and people sharing in Khmer, but I got a few whispers down the row of seats explaining what was being said. One of the girls who speaks English gave me her card and perhaps one day this week we will meet for coffee so she can explain more about this particular Buddhist sect.

It is just a couple weeks away from final exam for my students and then the term ends right before Khmer New Year. I look forward to this because my mom is coming to visit! I am making plans for us to travel to Vietnam and I’m also planning fun things to do in Cambodia so that she will have lots of experiences and a fun time. As the closing of March nears, I realize that I should embrace every moment because I will only be here for just over 6 more weeks, then travel for another 5 and then my SE Asian adventure will be over. All good things must come to an end, and I plan on enjoying wherever I am whenever I am.