The end of the beginning

The 36 of us were first thrown together in the chic Kabuki hotel in San Francisco for a day of paperwork, overwhelming amounts of information and a few uncomfortable ice breakers. After a whirlwind orientation to the Peace Corps, I spent my last night eating hot dogs with sauerkraut and a chocolate malt before waiting an hour and a half in line to sit front-and-center at the 9:45 showing of The Dark Knight. Well worth the wait, I might add – and a great way to spend my last night in America.

30 some hours of travel later (at least half of which I missed in a Tylenol-induced coma), we were stepping off the plane in Cambodia. As I walked through passport control I saw a row of smiling faces holding Peace Corps signs, who I later learned were other Peace Corps volunteers and some of our staff, cheering as each of us passed by. Although I didn’t know any of these people, I felt like I was coming home.

Within a matter of moments, I was cruising through the streets of Phnom Penh in a crowded Land Rover, covered in a perma-sweat and completely overwhelmed by sights and sounds. Driving through Phnom Penh is incredible. In a radius of 10 yards you can see the breathtakingly beautiful architecture left over from the Angkor period and French colonization, brilliantly colored flowers and fruits, grinning faces of curious Cambodians and such extreme poverty you can’t possibly imagine how all this vibrant life flourishes in such close proximity.

That day we had a brief seminar, ate our first of many delicious meals—which have subsequently become one of the highlights of my days—and managed to dodge jetlag during a crash-course in PC-Cambodia lifestyle. We visited the National Museum in the afternoon, where the smell of fresh jasmine seemed to literally hang in the air next to the ancient Hindi statues and artifacts. On our way to dinner we all shared our first Tiger beer at a small rooftop bar overlooking the MeKong river. (Important side note: I also saw my first elephant on the street!! See if you can spot which one doesn’t look like the other ones). That evening we took a lazy dinner cruise with the staff to get to know everyone and enjoy a night of new friends, a beautiful sunset and dancing to horribly awesome karaoke.

On our second day we finally moved to the province Kampong Chnang where our hub site was located. Because the Cambodian presidential elections were slated to take place that week, we spent an extra week there as a whole group learning how to use the squat pot, what to do when we get Dengue fever and how to introduce ourselves to our host families before heading to our smaller training villages.