48 Hours In!

Well I've now been in Cambodia for 48 hours and all is well! I work at the Marriott in Provo with a guy (Tol) from Cambodia who arranged for me to stay with his family here. His sister, brother-in-law, and 2 nieces picked me up from the airport holding a sign with my name on it. I can't remember anyone's name except for his niece, Tida(because that's the only name I was able to understand ha), who is 21 and speaks very good English and is studying at a university here. Tol's sister is very cute, with no upper teeth, and speaks absolutely NO English (a good mix with my speaking NO Khmer!). His borther-in-law speaks very little English, but they are all so friendly and just talk and talk to me in Khmer even though they know I have no idea what they are saying! There is also a 12 year old daughter, a 28 year old daught and her husband, and another son who I have yet to meet, that live in the house I'm staying at. To my surprise, they own 2 cars, and brought one to pick me up at the airport, so no problems transporting my luggage. They must be a very well off family because their house is the nicest I've seen so far, very large, with 2 bathrooms, 2 tvs, 2 cars, and 3 mopeds. Tida gave me her room to stay in, so I have my own bed and a fan. It is so hot and humid here, without the fan, I begin dripping sweat immediately.

Driving here is crazy! (as in most other developing countries, but I've never been this exposed to it before as my family drives me around on mopeds.) I am amazed how they get around--I haven't decided if they are horrible drivers because they drive however they please, even into oncoming traffic, or maybe they are great drivers because they are so alert. They weave in and out of cars, missing hitting cars and pedestrians by what seems like only a few centimeters! My first day here, Tida drove me around for an hour trying to find my office building. Finally after asking about 5 different people, we found it! It is located in a beautiful old building. The people have all been so friendly! They gave me my own desk and computer in my office (which has air conditioning, flushing toilets, toilet paper, and cold water, halleluiah!) I met with the HR guy and the deputy executive director today who gave me an introduction to the organization presentation, but I have yet to be given any projects to work on. So I've just been taking advantage of the internet and ac.

So far I've survived the food. It's been surprisingly good so far, although half the time I have no idea what I'm eating! Oh, and the little bones in the fish will take ome getting used to. They have so many wonderful kinds of fruit I've never seen before, but that are absolutely delicious! Although I did throw up last night already (and I think I've only thrown up 3 times IN MY LIFE, so that's saying something.) I felt so bad--I was eating dinner that Tol's sister cooked for me and I started to feel nauseas, but I kept eating because I didnt want to be rude and leave any food on my plate. All of a sudden I knew I had to run for it and she was yelling at me in Khmer probably wondering what I was doing! I told her I'd be right back, then threw everything I'd just eaten up in the toilet. The worst part was going back out there and trying to finish the food she'd made for me. I ate what I could then told her I couldn't eat any more. So she took that food out to the dog, Cocoa (guess they don't eat dogs after all?), then came back in with a bowl of some pea soup thing and literally shoved a spoonfull of it into my mouth, ha. So I was stuck there eating this soup as well. After that I just went to bed. I'm hoping it was just the malaria medicine that made me nauseas because I don't feel sick otherwise. Sorry if that was TMI, but I think it's an entertaining story.

Turns out today my leader is out for a meeting so it looks like I'll be leaving early and will hopefully be able to get out and see some things!Wish me luck walking home--they don't yield to pedestrians in this crazy traffic! Conveniently, my house is about 4 or 5 blocks from my office!