My New Friend Larry

This is Larry the lizard. He's my new pet. He really likes to stay in the sink and surprise me, he gets a kick out of that. We have most recently been bonding over TV, he likes to hang out on the wall above me. His friend Franky is a little guy who likes to chill in the kitchen, but is still very shy so its hard to snap a pic of him. But don't worry, I'll keep trying.

Huh... now I know!

I'm going to make this section about the little things I learn.
1) In Cambodia is polite to leave some food on your plate. Maybe it is because it is almost impossible to clean a plate when using chopsticks.

First few days........

SO! My year long internship in Phnom Pehn has begun! I arrived in the capital city and went straight to work! The other intern Jessica is from VT and is living in Boston going to Harvard law so we obvi hit it off. I went to bed at 3pm on Friday and woke up at 8am with a pretty bad cold. So i took it easy Saturday and Sunday. Finding the internet cafe wasn't as easy as i thought it was going to be. I asked my landlady (who speaks some English) where i could find one and she gave me directions. I quickly learned that taking directions is going to be an acquired skill. After walking for about 10 mins on the craziest road i have ever been on I quickly realized it was going to be impossible to find. I disappointedly returned home and she asked if i was successful, i said no but it was ok, she then had her grandson walk me there. His friends were laughing at us the whole way. It was only at the end of the street (which i now know is 200 meters) but to my defense i never would have found it, there wasn't a sign and it was kinda a scary looking building. After realizing they didn't have skype, and being more confident about how long 200 meters was, I asked for directions to a skype cafe and followed the guys directions. I was successful and was rewarded by being able to talk to Christian (only took me 2.5 hrs)!

Sunday I was even more sick and really foggy. I took a tuk tuk to find an ATM but it only dispensed $20 bills (the atms only dispense USD). Remembering from Ecuador that this was bad, i quickly got discouraged and really hungry. I finally was able to find a store that would break it down, since i bought a lot of food. Writing this down I’m realizing I’m not capturing the pure frustration of having money, but not being able to spend it. The cold wasn’t helping. I went home and ate some ramen and watched a few hours of Australia’s next top model. I longingly waited for 7pm so I could finally go to sleep.(I knew if I went to bed earlier the jetlag would never be cured)

Monday I had my first moto ride. now I know I’m not going to be able to articulate how crazy the traffic is here, so I’m going to figure out a way to record it. I screamed in my head the whole way- it was terrifying! On some parts hey don’t drive on one side of the street or the other, it’s a pure free for all! The cars also have steering wheels on either side of the car- I’ve seen both! I also met Steve the founder of SISHA, wow, he is willing to let me do whatever I want. They are in desperate need for Monitoring and Evaluation, proposal writing, and fundraising. (yess I help with that) They are trying to open an office in Bangkok and has a founder that is willing to fund an office in India. There is a lot to be done, and he is doing it all! Somehow thankfully (unlike so many founders) he is willing to pass off any work we feel we, as interns, can do! In my hazy state of this cold, its hard for me to grasp that this is actually happening. This is exactly what we have been learning about at SIT and it's surreal that i'm here, in this type of NGO. SISHA is doing things that have never been done in Cambodia, and it is going shockingly well. Hopefully i can shake this cold soon and get to work!