Cambodian life hacks I might not need next year

Over the past six years in Cambodia, I've acquired certain skills and knowledge that have served me well here. I may never be a "real" Cambodian, but I'm a lot more Cambodian than I used to be! I've found ways around all sorts of dilemmas - sometimes adapting common Cambodian practices, sometimes problem-solving with friends or on my own.

Now, as I contemplate returning to the US this summer for grad school, I'm realizing that some of these brilliant solutions, even the most deeply engrained, might seem a bit less brilliant there. And I don't just mean the driving techniques.

1. The rug wipe.

Why it works here: 
Every local market carries stacks of 50-cent rugs made of cotton scraps. My house has about 20 of them, mostly to cut down on tracking dirt around. They're far from beautiful, but they slide nicely to the nearest spill, dry quickly, and wash well. 

Why it might not transfer: 
I got dirty looks from my mom and my best friend last summer when I suggested using a rug instead of a paper towel. That's a piece of home decor, silly, not a floor rag. (Though "rug" and "rag" are awfully similar words, aren't they? Just sayin'.)

2. The curtain rod ribbon.

Why it works here: 
My curtain rod was screwed into a flimsy plywood frame that has nearly disintegrated, leaving the rod flopping down in January. Unlike the side, where the screw was, the frame's top is still relatively intact, but there's a gap between it and the wall. Instead of borrowing a drill and trying to screw it into the concrete wall, it was easier to tie a ribbon around the rod and frame.

Why it might not transfer: 
As I recall, curtain rods are usually screwed into the drywall in US homes. Hopefully my walls won't be losing chunks, nor would a ribbon do much to help!

3. The purse storage.

When driving my moto, I keep my purse in my backpack or in a plastic bag on the hook by my feet.
Why it works here: 
The best way to guard against would-be purse-snatchers is to keep valuables secure and/or out of sight. They're not tempted to grab my sturdy backpack like they're tempted to yank my purse until the strap rips or I fall off my moto. A plastic bag looks much less valuable and hangs more securely on the hook, preventing thieves from swooping by atop a friend's moto and snatching it away.

Why it might not transfer: 
It seems a little tacky to carry your purse in a plastic bag. Also, it's hard to snatch a purse through a car window.

4. The door wire.

To secure the front door, we use a very classy green-and-yellow wire. 
Why it works here:
Our front door doesn't latch, so our options are to padlock it (if all of us are either in or out) or to leave it ajar. We're on a safe street with a gated courtyard, but if our vicious watchdogs are stretching their legs outside their cage, odds are the ajar door will lead to unwelcome puddles or piles of trash on our floor. The best solution is to tie a wire through the padlock holes so that people can open it from either side.
Why it might not transfer: 
Padlocks aren't very common in the US. Doors that latch - or landlords that fix doors that don't latch - ARE rather common.

5. The 100's ditch.

Always seize opportunities to eliminate hundred bills from your wallet.
Why it works here:
Cambodia is a very cash-based society that uses 2 currencies interchangeably: US dollars and Cambodian riel. $100 USD is a common denomination at ATM's, but not many stores and vendors can change such a large bill. 100 riel is worth 2.5 cents, and much like pennies, they quickly accumulate without adding much value. So I look for chances to use my $100 bills for rent, or to break them at the grocery store or the money-changing stall at the market. 100 riel bills? I pay exact when I can.

Why it might not transfer: 
America has these newfangled things called checkbooks. Oh, what's that, you use cards now? Hmm. I predict my wallet will be sleeker next year. (Plus I'll be broke from grad school.)

6. The water bottle finder.

Why it works here: 
Feel dehydrated while running errands? Just look for a big orange cooler on the sidewalk outside a shop. There should be one within a 1-minute drive, whether you're downtown or in a village. You can choose between the 12-cent bottle, the 25-cent "name brand" bottle, and the 60-cent 1-liter bottle.

Why it might not transfer: 
The US tends to cool things using electricity, not ice coolers, and bottled water is pricier. Also, you can find water fountains more places, and tap water is drinkable everywhere, so you can refill the water bottle you brought from home. As my friend Megan puts it, "Americans flush their TOILETS with drinking water, for crying out loud!" I know some Americans still buy bottled water on a regular basis, but I don't really understand it.

The view from my balcony - I could probably count 100+ today

7. The mango freeze.

Why it works here:
At the peak of mango season, you might be given 20 mangoes in a week, if you don't have your own mango tree (just one can bear hundreds of beautiful mangoes). But even if your taste buds wanted to take on the challenge, your stomach might not be up for it. Nothing is sadder than a perfectly ripened mango turning to mush because you were on the BRAT diet for a few days. (OK, a lot of things are sadder. I think of this as a classic "First World Person in the Third World" problem.) So you cut them up and freeze them. Presto! A tasty, healthy, Hot Season Survival treat.

Why it might not transfer: 
Remember the last time you had an over-abundance of perfectly ripened mangoes? That you'd paid less than 50 cents a pound for? Yeah, that's what I was afraid of. And THAT'S the reason I'm trying to eat enough mangoes this spring to last me the next two years.

8. The ant-proof bowls.

To prevent ants from descending upon anything remotely edible, simply place the feet of your tables and portable cabinets inside bowls filled with water or baking soda.
Why it works here: 
There are a LOT of ants. They are super-speedy and always hungry. The ant bowls can't deter all of them, but they're certainly the first line of defense.
Variation: have a yummy treat that won't be eaten for a few hours? Fill a tray with water, then put a bowl on the tray, and set the treat on top. They can't get to it!

Why it might not transfer: 
The US doesn't usually use portable cabinets, let alone the kind of "ant cabinets" whose doors are also meant to block out tiny intruders. Yet when did you last find critters in your crackers? My Logos friend Emily was incredulous to attend a AP grading conference in a US hotel that left dozens of bowls of unwrapped candy out overnight. Every morning, the candy was untouched. Mind blown.

9. The cereal freeze.

Have ants infested your cereal? Just toss it in the freezer and pick out their carcasses in about 30 minutes.
Why it works here:
You can use the ant bowls, the ant cabinet, the Tupperware container, AND the Ziplock bag, all together. But one day, those ants will find their way in. (I understand the Biblical proverb about 'Go to the ant, you sluggard' so much better since moving here!) Sometimes it's not worth the trouble and you just throw out the nearly-empty bag of sugar. But when you splurged and bought your favorite cereal, or when your family sent you real chocolate chips, or when you don't have time to bake another batch of those muffins, you do whatever it takes to salvage what's left. Or you just freeze it from the get-go, to remove all risks. Freezers hold a lot of funny things here.

Why it might not transfer: 
See #8.

Yes, the women's dressing room is down Aisle 5 and on your right...

10. The portable dressing room.

Why it works here: 
Trying on clothes at the market can be an awkward procedure. They might let you step inside their stall, and it's even possible they can hold up a meter of fabric to guard you from the eyes of passersby. But there's no guarantee. If you're wearing shorts/leggings and a tank top under your outfit, you'll be ready to switch outfits without scandalizing anyone.

Forgot to wear your "dressing room"? See if your vendor can lend you a sarong for a moment.

Why it might not transfer: 
Next time you're standing in line at the Kohl's dressing room and think, "Forget this! I'm wearing spandex and a camisole! I'll just change right here!", let me know how many new friends you make.

11. The mask.

Why it works here:
Thick clouds of fumes. Grains of sand kicked up by passing cars. Wood finish being sprayed over doors and chairs from a side-of-the-road workshop in the direction of traffic. Dust cyclones on dirt roads in dry season. There are many things that one can inhale while en route, and yet the only one you really WANT in your lungs is oxygen. So sometimes you do what you gotta do. 

*Too lazy? Forgot your mask? Or it's still not cutting it? The simplest answer: Just stop breathing! Warning: Use sparingly, for short periods of time... like when that delivery truck in front of you is accelerating.*
Why it might not transfer: 

Two answers...
1. Emissions laws
2. Enclosed vehicles

12. The TV spatula.

Why it works here: 
Outlets tend to be about chest-high here, located with the light switches. (To keep them safe from flooding? Or to save on wires?) They're also loose enough to fit many types of plugs, since unlike nearly every other country, Cambodia doesn't have a standard plug shape. These two factors converge to make it easy for cords to slip out and come unplugged. So sometimes, they need a bit of encouragement.
Why it might not transfer: 
I don't know. Maybe I SHOULD have a spatula devoted to keeping my electronics safely plugged in, just in case.

This whole "moving" thing is going to be not only a learning curve, but also an "un-learning" curve. (If you see me using a life hack that I should've left in Cambodia, feel free to gently suggest an alternative.) But life hacks are fun to learn, and there are plenty of new ones that I might need to try next year.

The Starlight Night: a poem

Every now and then, I like doing a project alongside my students. In AP Literature, I decided to join them for a paired poem project. Each of us chose an author with a pair of thematically related poems. We had to recite one poem from memory, creatively portray the other poem, and write an essay interpreting and evaluating them both. The essay outline is due next week so I haven't started that part yet, but I've really had fun with the first two steps.

I chose Gerard Manley Hopkins, whose work I first discovered while teaching British Literature. He's a 19th-century Victorian poet known for his creative and even obscure language, vivid descriptions of nature, unusual rhythms, and passion for his Catholic faith. I love his exuberance - I feel like he grabs my hand, dashing along with me to show me something that he finds marvelous.

The poem I recited is called "Hurrahing in Harvest," which I liked enough to post on my blog back in 2010, but never fully understood. Memorizing it really helped! One of my students told me, "My poem didn't make sense the first five times I read it." I agree. I think good poetry is like that - it demands multiple sittings (and possibly a good dictionary), engaging our emotions and intellects before it spills its secrets. 

When I went back and read more of his poems for this project, I was also drawn to a new one:

"The Starlight Night"

Look at the stars! look, look up at the skies!
    O look at all the fire-folk sitting in the air!
    The bright boroughs, the circle-citadels there!
Down in deep woods the diamond delves! the elves'-eyes!
The grey lawns cold where gold, where quickgold lies!
    Wind-beat *whitebeam! airy *abeles set on a flare!
    Flake-doves sent floating forth at a barnyard scare!
Ah well! it is all a purchase, all is a prize.

Buy then! bid then! - What? - Prayer, patience, alms, vows.
Look, look: a May-mess, like on orchard boughs!
    Look! March-bloom, like on mealed-with-yellow *sallows!
These are indeed the barn; withindoors house
The *shocks. This piece-bright *paling shuts the spouse
    Christ home, Christ and his mother and all his hallows.

*whitebeam, abele, and sallow = types of trees; shocks = sheaves of grain; paling = fence

We had other creative options that I would usually find more comfortable, like performing the poem as a song or writing a short story based on the poem. But the visual imagery in "Starlight Night" seemed to dare me to draw it, even though some lines baffled me. Now I'm glad I took on the challenge. Here's how I ended up portraying it:

Transition resolutions

I’m moving back to the US in June, after nearly 6 years in Cambodia. I’m hoping I can return to Cambodia in a few years after getting a master’s degree, but the truth is that life is uncertain. So I’m trying to wrap my head around the end of life as I’ve known it since mid-2009 (more or less since graduating college).

I’ve heard a lot of tips on transitioning back “home” to your passport country. You can’t enter well unless you leave well, advises one book. My roommate says no matter how well you prepare and how solidly you build your RAFT (Reconciliation, Affirmation, Farewells, and Thinking destination), transitions are just inherently painful and messy. Another friend says it’s OK not to leave well… you do what you can, but nobody’s keeping score or evaluating you on it.

Last weekend, when I sat down to journal about my transition, I wasn’t sure what would spill out. It ended up looking like this:

When I look back on this time, a year from now… or 5 or 10… what do I want to remember? What will it take to have no regrets about my last few months here?

I want to say NO to people-pleasing and YES to people.

I want to say NO to perfectionism and YES to excellent teaching.

I want to say NO to rigid over-planning and YES to intentionality.

I want to say NO to fearing life there and YES to savoring life here.

I want to say NO to exhausting myself and YES to seizing opportunities.

I want to say NO to working “for” God and YES to participating in God’s work.

I want to say NO to legalism and YES to intimacy with God.

I want to say NO to expecting only beauty and joy, and YES to gratitude for beauty and joy.

I want to say NO to apathy and YES to peace.

I want to say NO to showing off false spirituality and YES to surrender and obedience to God.

Lord, you are the vine; I’m just a branch. I need to live connected to You, or I can’t even survive, let alone bear fruit. Please help me abide in You during my last few months here, and into whatever’s next. Please be my joy, my peace, my strength, my wisdom, my vision. Help me to trust You and to live each day here as an act of worship, a token of my gratitude to You. Thank You that though I have no idea what’s ahead – I have no guarantee even of my next heartbeat – You wrote out all my days before time began.

John 15:5,9 “I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing… As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Now remain in my love.”

Tum and Teav: Cambodia's Romeo and Juliet

Yesterday, my tutor Neakru Roth was away visiting her hometown for the 15^th anniversary of her grandpa’s death. In Cambodia death anniversaries are important; there are ceremonies for day 7, day 100, and certain years after the death. Another tutor, Neakru Reaksmy, subbed for her. She told me we’d be studying Khmer culture: attitudes toward romance and marriage. We started by discussing various hypothetical situations, mostly related to parents’ roles in choosing a spouse. She says she’s old-fashioned – though arranged marriages are uncommon, she’d be fine with her parents choosing her future husband, and she’d break up with any guy they didn’t like.

What if your parents weren’t Christian, I asked? What if they chose a guy based on money or family reputation, even though he wasn’t trustworthy? What if you saw a friend following her parents’ advice to marry a bad man? It wasn’t very hypothetical. I know a lot of Cambodian girls whose parents have essentially told them, “You’re being too picky and getting old. Why not marry this guy?” Family reputation, salary, and respect for elders are often emphasized over traits like fidelity, respect for the wife, and willingness to share in household chores. One friend’s parents actually recommended her first cousin, though she turned him down. Reaksmy seemed OK with much more parental influence than I would be, saying that parents are usually wise and loving, and that people’s short-lived emotions often lead them to choose a spouse they regret. She made some great points, but I still think I’d be terrified to let a typical Cambodian couple choose my husband, or even my friend’s husband.

Next, she told me a famous story called “Tum and Teav”. This classic story of tragic love is a crucial part of the high school exam, according to Reaksmy and another tutor, and it reminded me a lot of Romeo and Juliet. She told me roughly the version below, which I’ve condensed from Wikipedia:

While traveling to sell bamboo rice containers for his pagoda, Tum, a talented Buddhist monk, falls in love with Teav, a beautiful young lady who is drawn to his beautiful singing voice. Tum is consumed with longing for Teav and soon returns to her village. Though the head monk asks him to wait a few weeks, he immediately defrocks himself to pursue Teav. He initially spends some time in Teav's home despite her being 'in the shade' (a period of a few weeks when the daughter is supposedly secluded from males and taught how to behave virtuously). After professing their love for one another, Tum and Teav sleep together. Soon afterward, he is recruited by King Rama to sing at the royal palace, and he leaves Teav once again. 

Teav's mother is unaware of her daughter's love for the young monk, and agrees to marry her daughter off to the son of their powerful governor, Archoun. Her plans are interrupted, however, when emissaries of King Rama—equally impressed by Teav's beauty—insist that she marry the Cambodian king instead. Archoun agrees to cancel his son's wedding arrangement, and Teav is brought to the palace. Tum boldly sings a song that professes his love for her. Rama overcomes his initial anger and agrees to let the young couple marry.

When Teav's mother learns of her daughter's marriage, she feigns illness to lure Teav back to her village, then coerces her into marrying Archoun's son. Teav writes to Tum, who arrives with an edict from the king to stop the ceremony. Tum gets drunk, announces he is Teav's husband and kisses her in public. Enraged, Archoun commands his guards to kill Tum, and they beat him to death. Grief-stricken, Teav slits her own throat and collapses on Tum's body. When King Rama hears of the murder, he descends upon Archoun's palace, ignores the governor's pleas for mercy, and orders Archoun's entire family—including seven generations worth of relatives—be taken to a field and buried to their necks. An iron plow and harrow are then used to decapitate them all.

After the story, my hour lesson was over, but Reaksmy asked if I wanted to stay and watch the movie. It turns out she was on her way with a bunch of other tutors to Roth's grandpa's ceremony, so she had a couple hours to hang out there. She eagerly looked it up on YouTube for me, and since we didn't have speakers (and I didn't have two spare hours), she clicked through and showed me all the characters and the story highlights. Especially the graphic deaths at the end, where characters were covered in orangish-red blood. The other tutors were excited to recognize the movie and chimed in about what a great story it was. I was encouraged to watch it at home, and I hope to... but probably in small chunks.

I know Romeo and Juliet pretty well, having taught it in English 9 the past 5 years. So it was easy to compare and contrast them a bit.

Difference: standards of physical affection. 

In Romeo and Juliet, the couple kisses literally at first sight, before learning each other's names, and their choice isn't exactly condemned, though they're in a public ball where they could be seen. More kisses follow. In Tum and Teav, the couple is faulted for kissing in public after they're married. That's definitely a Cambodian value that continues today. PDA? Not OK.

Let's kiss a few more times before I introduce myself.

Similarity: convoluted storyline. 

I'd love to chalk this up to Khmer culture's love for cheesy melodrama, but Romeo and Juliet is just as bad. 

Difference: sense of justice.

The prince of Verona vows to execute anyone who continues the family feud between Capulet and Montague, but has mercy on Romeo for killing Tybalt since Tybalt was equally at fault, and decides only to banish Romeo. At the end, upon discovering their bodies and Paris, the prince declares, "All are punished!" for their feud, and does not further condemn the families for their contribution to the violence. By contrast, King Rama violently executes seven generations of relatives (including infants) of the governor who ignores his edict to stop Teav's remarriage. That, even though the governor doesn't see the king's letter until after Tum and Teav die. One Western scholar calls the king's disproportionate revenge "a head for an eye" and sees it as a cultural model for the Khmer Rouge atrocities.

The bloodthirsty king is shown on the right. 

Similarity: impulsive acts of passion.

Like Romeo and Juliet, Tum and Teav are young and act on infatuation and lust. Both couples shroud their marriage in secrecy, knowing it would never be accepted, and go to great lengths to be together. In both, the girl commits suicide upon discovering her dead husband.

Difference: moral of the story. One year when I taught Romeo and Juliet, we did a court case to determine who was at fault. Fate? The young lovers? Their families? Friar Lawrence? The play isn't quite clear, and evidence exists for all four causes. All the characters rush and make faulty assumptions, yet Shakespeare also suggests they were "star-crossed" from the first. In Tum and Teav, at first I thought it was at least partly the greedy mother lying and forcing her daughter to deny true love and marry for status. Perhaps also the king, ruthlessly slaughtering innocent people. How American of me! (To be fair, my tutor left out some of Tum's transgressions, like rushing out of monkhood and sleeping with Teav.) 

It turns out that Tum and Teav are considered most to blame in the story. Their defiance of various authorities - the head monk for Tum and the mother in Teav's case - in order to pursue their own selfish desires brings about their deaths. In fact, most schools teach this as a simple lesson in karma: do bad things, bad things will happen. (Some Buddhist interpretations do blame the mother's greed and manipulation. Not sure about the king and the governor, but usually kingship = a pass to do whatever you want.) Reaksmy and another tutor, Kinal, told me that as far as Cambodian values, Tum and Teav are a case study in "what not to do." They're basically the bad guys who deserve what they get.

Afterward, I was thinking about how Romeo and Juliet translates into modern-day Western culture. The answer is not very well. We're so individualistic and equality-based, not deferring to hierarchy and community like Cambodians (or even like medieval Italians). I think there's a reason my tutors love Tum Teav while my Logos students find Romeo and Juliet cheesy and unrealistic. In Cambodia, it's easy to imagine this story happening today. 

The Ballad of Amy Uecker

A collaborative song written by housemates Meagan Stolk, Annalisa Benner, and Chelsea Cooper. Meagan also wrote a great post on the symbolic importance of our household repairs.

Amy and her Khmer friend Mr. Ra spent four hours last Saturday translating, problem-solving, buying parts, and repairing things all over our house. Mr. Ra and an assistant returned the next day for another four hours. Can you say "dedication"? 

We thought it was impossible

To solve our household woes.

Our landlords couldn’t find the time,

So we just let it go.

The toilets were all broken,

The sinks, they were a mess.

The lights, they just refused to shine,

Increasing all our stress.

But suddenly hope sprung again.

A rumor grew and grew

That fixing our house could be done -

Someone knew what to do.

‘Twas the fearless Amy Uecker,

With her trusty *jieng named Ra.

She climbed upon the ladder

And shouted out, “Ta-da!

"I’ve made the lights all work again!

They shine as bright as day.

And don’t you worry, my dear friends,

The sinks now drain away.”

Dear Mr. Ra worked tirelessly

On each and every task.

A simple flush now did the job

Better than we had asked.

And so we three were filled with joy

From our head down to our toes,

For Amy and her fix-it friend

Had solved our household woes.

*jieng = "handyman" in Khmer

Cambodian education, part 2: 1980 through 1998

In part 1 of this post, I described what I've been learning about education before the Khmer Rouge regime knocked Cambodia back to Year Zero. From monks teaching the village kids a few prayers and a bit of math, to French officials trying to duplicate French elementary schools, to Prince Sihanouk exponentially increasing school buildings without funding them or establishing standards for them or training more teachers, Cambodian education was already pretty messy before the genocide and Mao-style cultural revolution. But how have things progressed in the 35 years since the horrors of the Khmer Rouge? The title of David Ayres' book, Anatomy of a Crisis, warns us there haven't been any miracles.

When the Vietnamese defeated the Khmer Rouge regime in 1979, they also assumed temporary control of Cambodia. They saw education as a key method of legitimizing their socialist regime in Cambodians' eyes, and so they hurried to expand school enrollment, even while many children in war-ravaged communities still lacked basics like clothing, food and shelter. One school even had children attending naked. The Vietnamese administration had lofty goals of promoting socialism, Khmer-language instruction, ruralization, and adult literacy. But the curriculum continued to be largely classical, based on the original French schools. The Cambodian education officials, most of whom had served pre-Khmer Rouge under Lon Nol, didn't know how to implement most of the new goals, and simply ignored them. Likewise, schools were overwhelmed by enrollment numbers and a lack of resources. In 1981, the nation's former top high school didn't even have textbooks or instructional materials, let alone a well-trained teaching staff. Adult literacy classes were largely unfruitful for similar reasons; one report describes an evening class crammed into a musty building by candlelight.

The Vietnamese were somewhat successful in one regard: promoting socialism. Students learned to cram their essays with praises of Marx and Lenin and allusions to solidarity between Vietnam and Cambodia. However, many who reached secondary school couldn't care less about socialism. They increasingly viewed education as irrelevant and filled with propaganda. Despite the new emphasis on studying Vietnamese, Russian, and German, they still sought opportunities to study "capitalist" languages like English and French. In 1989, Cambodia officially abandoned socialism, changing its regime name, flag, and economic policies. Yet schools continued to advocate for Marxism and Leninism, reflecting the inertia in educational policy and the government's negligence of curriculum.

From 1991 to 1993, the United Nations assumed control of Cambodia in an unprecedented effort to restore peace and rebuild the nation. (Pockets of Khmer Rouge resistance troops maintained control over some areas of Cambodia, and power struggles between other leaders likewise placed Cambodia in jeopardy.) The UN helped create a fragile coalition between two major parties, implement a constitution mandating the separation of powers, and educate Cambodians about elections and the democratic process. However, it had little influence on the Ministry of Education, and the same issues continued regarding the lack of funding, resources, and quality. Impatient for an educational overhaul, many NGO's worked with local schools and districts to create curriculum and improve quality in the early and mid-1990s. However, in Ayres' view, their short-term progress in various directions actually complicated long-term development of a unified national education policy.

Meanwhile, after the UN bowed out in 1993, it became apparent that their reforms had been rather superficial. While influencing the constitution's mandates and the citizens' expectations of their leaders, the UN had not changed the culture among national leaders. Hun Sen and Prince Ranariddh were joint prime ministers under the coalition, but their unity was in name only. In practice, their power struggle led to parallel, competing party states in every realm of government as they tried to establish client networks and exert power in each ministry. Their view of power dates back to legends of Cambodian greatness in the era of Angkor Wat; every Khmer leader in the past 100+ years has alluded to that grandeur and aspired to it. Hun Sen's coup in 1997 forced Prince Ranariddh to flee the country and destroyed any illusions of cooperation and compromise - values that are absent from Cambodian culture.

Without acknowledging the rule of law, Cambodia's government could not implement the UN's goals for national development. Separation of powers existed in name only.  Regardless of the beautiful plans designed by education ministers, the World Bank, and international donors, schools remained at the mercy of the capricious Big Cheese. "There is ample evidence demonstrating that the goals, objectives, and policies of the Ministry of Education were often abandoned in the name of the immediate political priorities of those with higher authority than the policy-makers. The result was an obvious failure to improve the quality and relevance of education. A final theme was the government's lack of commitment to its agreements with the international donor community." (152) It's not as if these authorities pretended to know anything about education. Hun Sen, prime minister since 1985, never even completed elementary school. The point was, the top leaders had the final say, and they exercised his authority however he pleased.

Ayres' book is filled with cringe-worthy examples of leaders' thoughtless promises.  In one common example, a leader would visit a village just before an election.  "We're going to build you a school!" he'd enthusiastically proclaim.  The leader would order a businessman to finance a new school building in exchange for special privileges like lucrative farmland near the village or permission to illegally log Cambodian forests.  No money would be provided for educational resources or teacher salaries; perhaps someone from the village would be crazy enough to accept the tiny salary, whether or not that someone had completed much schooling themselves.  Or perhaps the building would soon fall into a state of disrepair, since no money was provided for maintenance.  Either way, the village children had a small chance of receiving slightly more education than before.

In another example, Cambodia had traditionally guaranteed civil service posts to university graduates. This policy reflected two truths in pre-Khmer Rouge Cambodia:
1. French colonists created Cambodia's first secondary schools in the mid-20th century specifically to meet their need for civil service assistants.
2. Not many Cambodians made it through elementary school, let alone university.

However, by the early 1990s, enrollment increases had made this policy an enormous drain on the budget. To decrease the bloated payroll, the government ordered in 1994 that graduates would no longer be guaranteed government posts. The need for new teachers could be easily met for a few years by transferring the civil servants who were qualified teachers but were currently working in superfluous administrative roles. Makes sense, right? Well, students didn't agree. At graduation the following spring, the student speaker pleaded that the government renew its policy of job guarantees. The two prime ministers instantly agreed in order to look like the nice guys, promising to send all the graduates to the School of Pedagogy for a year to train them as secondary teachers. Despite the Minister of Education's failed attempts to compromise (Cambodians don't do that, remember?), all 1460 graduates were sent off to this school that lacked the space, faculty, or resources to train them for jobs that did not exist. The job guarantee was renewed again the next year.

Essentially, Cambodian education has reflected leaders' complete apathy toward the needs of their people. The government used to spend only 8% of its budget on education, and committed in 1994 to increase it to 15% (a very necessary and reasonable amount) by 2000. But it never exceeded 12%, and by 1997 it had fallen back to 8%. Moreover, much of that sum never reached schools; it fattened the pockets of the few most powerful people in the ministry. Teacher salaries were often late and reduced. As a result, corruption was endemic. Teachers wasted students' time during the school day and charged fees for "extracurricular" classes where they taught the content that would appear on the exams. Students could bribe exam administrators and proctors to turn a blind eye to cheating, or even to sell them the answer sheets. Most teachers held another job because they couldn't possibly support a family on their meager wages; many sometimes missed school for their other job. Guess who suffered most? The students, who learned little except how to cheat to get ahead.

To be continued in Part 3...

Prayers I never used to pray

There's this myth that missionaries are super-Christians, the cream of the spiritual crop.  They pray all the time.  Their faith never falters, their patience never runs out, their joy never dims.  They love and give and serve like there's no tomorrow.   They haven't sinned since that time they pinched their little brother, back in first grade.

Ordinary people never become missionaries, right?  Wrong.  Super-Christians don't even exist.  Instead, it's a simple equation:

ordinary person + extraordinary situation = "fight or flight" 

When you hit trouble, either you fight to grow closer to God, or you book the next flight home.

As a Christian of the decidedly non-super variety, I was quickly bowled over by the diverse challenges of life here, some of which didn't sound like a big deal but threatened to drive me insane.  A stapler with no staples that fit.  Cheap pens that didn't write well.  Ants.  

I had to work on "praying without ceasing" (1 Thessalonians 5:16), even about this little stuff, to make it through the day.  (Eventually I got practical help with some things - I now have a functioning stapler and know which brands of pens to look for - but some sources of frustration are ever-present.)  On the other hand, I've also learned to value things that I'd previously underestimated. 

Here are other prayers that I don't remember praying before Cambodia, but that I repeat quite frequently nowadays:

1. Guide my key.  The padlock to our front gate is rusty (this happens every rainy season) to the extent that my key got bent trying to wrestle the padlock open.  My housemate taught me this prayer, à la Princess Bride, when Inigo Montoya prays to his father to "guide my sword."  

2. Thank You for bananas.  I don't think it's an accident that bananas are plentiful and cheap in the same tropical climates where bacteria and stomach critters flourish.  They and the rest of the BRAT diet - rice and toast (maybe not the applesauce) are so readily available here.  Often on days with stomach trouble, I've arrived in the cafeteria for school lunch, wondering what it is and whether I can eat it just now, and found to my relief that bananas and rice were featured prominently.

3. Heal my laptop.   I promise I never used to pray so much for inanimate objects.  However, the inconsistent power supply does a number on batteries - I'm on my fifth new one in 5.5 years.  Besides, my laptop is extra-creative in breaking with flair - it's constantly finding new ways to confound my school's awesome IT staff.  And sure, there are computer repair shops here, but who has time for that when you use your computer daily in lessons?  Especially when the last (well-respected) shop broke your DVD drive in a fruitless attempt to fix your keyboard, and the one before that (also highly recommended) left porn on your desktop.  So when the blue screen appears, or when programs crash, or when the webcam only stays fixed for 5 minutes, or when the "x" key keeps inserting itself into everything I'm typing, I've taken to praying that God will put His healing hands on my laptop.  And when issues resolve themselves, as they sometimes do, I definitely give Him the credit!

4. Thank You for rooftops.  In America, I thought of a rooftop as something that collected leaves in the fall and snow in the winter, and as Santa's landing pad.  Here, where many homes have a flat rooftop that people can walk on, I think of it as a place for stargazing, praying, and reflecting.  It has the best breezes, the best views of the sunset, the best people-watching opportunities, and the best peace and quiet. 

5. Shut the dogs’ mouths.  This prayer has two contexts.  The first relates to my landlords' dogs, which like to bark incessantly between about 9 PM and the wee hours.  Thankfully my room is mostly out of earshot, so I can sleep through it, but that's not the case for several of my housemates.  I've often prayed for the dogs to be silenced so people can get a good night's sleep.  The other context is when I'm out jogging in my neighborhood, where people's dogs roam free and sometimes chase people.  I've never needed a rabies shot, and I'd like to keep it that way.  

Don't you give me that innocent face, Khla.  You know you and Liep were howling at 3 AM as if your cage were on fire.

6. Help me slay this beast.  I get unduly excited about my improving ability to squash mosquitoes when they least expect it.  When they elude my grasp, though, I need this prayer... just as I do to take on the cockroaches lurking at the back of my sink, and the shrews that occasionally infiltrate our kitchen and living room.  I prayed it quite often as my friend and I battled against a rat in my bedroom late one evening, chasing it around and whacking at it with a broom.  Eventually, with help from my housemate's incredible Rodent Zapper machine, God granted us victory.  

At that moment, we couldn't have imagined a more beautiful sight.

7. Thank You for cold showers.  I used to think people were silly if they showered more than once a day.  Now I realize the beautiful power of showers, not only to wash the dust and mud from the roads, nor just to eliminate odors and wash away that Permasweat sheen, but also to restore sanity and a comfortable body temperature.  And the bonus of not having a water heater is that you don't waste time waiting for the water to heat up... which would, after all, defeat the purpose of cooling you down.

8. Strengthen my wifi. This one often coincides with a Skype call to my sister or a YouTube video I'm trying to show in a lesson.  (If I were more organized I'd download them in advance, but I'm usually not.)  But hey, at least I *have* wifi! At school it's gotten much faster over the years, and at home, where my laptop despises our wireless router (see prayer #3), an Ethernet cable has done wonders for my sanity.

9. Protect my engine.  This prayer occurs when I'm driving through floodwaters.  Several streets in my neighborhood flood regularly during rainy season, and the dark stormwaters make it impossible to spot potholes.  (My housemate prays "Guide my moto" on this one, echoing #1.)  The trick I found out the hard way: you're probably OK as long as you can keep accelerating, but the minute you stop applying gas, water will flood your engine unless you turn it off and start walking your moto.  The other trick: Bikes never need special caution in floodwaters, except to miss potholes.  If I know I need to drive on a flooded street, I often prefer to ride a bike.

Learning the hard way... we walked our moto about a mile that day.  But I still drive that moto today!

10. Thank You for mangoes.  I pray this multiple times a day in April, when "mango season" is a euphemism for "hot season."  I think if these seasons didn't coincide, Cambodia would have lost about half its foreigners by now.  The thing I never knew about mangoes, before coming here, is how diverse they are.  You can eat sour green ones with dried chilis and salt.  You can pickle them and eat them with a main dish.  You can make mango crisp.  You can eat them frozen like popsicles, out of a bag on road trips, dried like a Fruit Roll-Up, or with sticky rice.  You can get "fragrant" ones, tiny ones, ginormous ones, and yellow-orange ones practically falling apart with sweet ripeness.  And for months, most of them cost less than 50 cents a pound... plus half your friends are giving them away from their own mango trees.  It's fantastic.

Even lizards appreciate a good sticky rice and mango combo.

My landlords' niece/helper Srey Pos loves giving me mangoes, fresh picked from trees in our yard (and our neighbors' yards)

It's always the little things, right?  It's the little things that get to you, but it's also the little things that make it all worth it.  Giving the little things to God - both the irritations and the pleasures - helps me invite Him into my day so we can tackle the bigger things as a team.  I'm no super-Christian, but praying more about even the small details has brought me a steady lifeline of supernatural aid, whether in the form of tropical fruit, a Rodent Zapper, or a peaceful heart that can withstand more than I'd ever imagined.