Being in Cambodia is truly a blessing because it is so easy and affordable to fly over to my other home (first home) : Myanmar. On Jan 15, I was able to fly secretly over to Yangon, Myanmar to surprise my grandpa for his birthday on Jan 16. Even though it was only 5 days, it was just so nice to be home. My grandpa, aunts (and husbands), uncle, and cousins all live together as one big family so it was noisy but also really fun. I also got a chance to see my childhood friends, attend the church I grew up in with my grandpa, and eat my favorite Burmese food to my heart's content.
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Before I left the US in July 2017, I had told all my family and friends that I wasn't coming back until I have completed my service with the Peace Corps. I thought going home was a sign of weakness or a challenge that I couldn't overcome. In other words, I was afraid I might not want to come back to Cambodia if I had gone home during my service.
Little did I know that I would actually end up visiting home before my service completed. I literally made a last minute decision and bought air tickets 2 weeks before the day I wanted to arrive home. I wanted to surprise my parents and other families/friends for Christmas holidays because I was told by my mom that all relatives are gathering at my house this year. I thought long and hard about it. I really wanted to go so I decide to. To me, going home for 5 days and riding the plane for 3 days was totally worth it because I would be exactly where I want to be for Christmas, my favorite time of the year. 5 days before my departure, I started feeling the rush and excitement of going home. 1 or 2 nights prior to my departure from Cambodia, I was so ecstatic that I could barely sleep. Once my plane was descending in Washington DC, happy tears rushed over me. When I saw every family and friend (and their surprised looks), my heart was so full of happiness. It was a wonderful 5 days with my loved ones. It was so great to feel right at home and doing things I love with the people I have missed. Even my cats remembered me too! It was just so nice to snuggle up with the furry munchkins. I thought I would be hesitant to leave when the time came. I was pleasantly surprised by how fine I felt about leaving home again to go back to Cambodia. I didn't feel sad. I didn't feel reluctant. If anything, I was eager to return to continue my work because I realized I only have 8 months left to finish my service. I wanted to come back to Cambodia and complete my projects and do what I can to meet my village's needs. I also really want to spend the time that's left with my host family and village friends who's become such an important part of my life in the last 1.5 years. All in all, going home was the best decision I've made during my service. It cured the homesickness I was starting to feel. It reenergized me and gave me purpose again! If you know me well enough in the US, you will know that I'm not a very outdoorsy person. The only times I would do outdoorsy things are when I'm traveling and exploring new places. As you can imagine, I'm not really used to the wild life outside of my comfort zone. That being said, I did grow up in Myanmar for 14 years so I thought that would have given me enough background experience to survive in Cambodia. Now, am I surviving in Cambodia? Totally! Am I surviving well? Not really. How am I surviving exactly? Well, here's a brief look into how I navigate my struggles with critters. I'm giving the full disclaimer that I am a squeamish chicken, and therefore, my personal struggles are relevant only to me. You might not find them that scary, and that's fine, but don't you dare try to tell me I'm freaking out over a little harmless creature. Many people live with unreasonable fears. These creepy crawlers and jumpers just happen to be mine. In case you don't know, let me just tell you how much I hate frogs. I hate them. I hate them sooooo much that I feel my throat closes up and stomach churns when I see them. I hate how they look. I hate how they move. I hate that I can't determine what their next move is. I especially hate that the frogs I come across blends into the surroundings. I think these are just brown asian tree frogs, but like I said, I hate them so much that I can't bear to be in their general vicinity. One more critter I came to dislike immensely: geckos! Sure, the gecko from Geico commercial is super cute, but when you see the geckos in real life close up, it can be a scary experience. The Cambodian geckos are called Tokay Geckos. They're much bigger than the ones I've come acrossed in Myanmar, and also comes in different colors and shapes. I don't know if it's a scientifically proven fact or just my observation though. Now, I've been at my current village for 1 year and 3 months. I've been lucky for the first 1 year in a sense that I only saw these geckos and frogs from a far. To be specific, I saw them in my Health Center bathrooms. My Health Center only has 2 bathrooms. They're quite clean and nice for rural bathrooms. The only problem is that one big gecko (blue with red dots) live the men's bathroom and the camouflaging brown tree frog lives in the women's one. It's become a crazy habit of mine to check each bathroom every time I want to use it. Around 30% of the time, I get lucky and don't see them in at least one of the bathrooms so I can use it freely. However, most of the time, each of them are always in their specific bathrooms that I actually have to hold it in and go home to use the bathroom. I do this quite often too. It's definitely a crazy routine, but I just really can't get myself to go into a small enclosed space with this critter. I felt like my heart was about to jump out of my chest every time. About 3 months ago during the rainy season, I've had my first encounter with a camouflaging frog. I always park my bicycle next to my host family's house and hang my helmet on my bike handles. On that very horrible day, it was raining lightly and I decided that it was a good idea for to go for a quick bike ride as an evening workout. I grabbed my helmet in the same motion as I always do, but touched something soft and weird inside of my helmet with my fingers. I saw there was a white/gray frog inside and I literally screamed at the top of my lungs, threw my helmet far away, and I fell to the ground in a heap. Thankfully, no one witness such a crazy moment. Now, every time I'm about to grab my helmet, I poke it or swing it first. It's another crazy habit I've developed here for sure. Another heart wrenching experience just happened last night. Windows here don't have netting so any animal small enough can come in through it. I've had sparrows, butterflies, house geckos, fireflies, mice, any kinda small insect you can imagine in my room before. I was cleaning my room and preparing some Christmas gifts when I hear a thud suddenly. I looked and saw a Tokay Gecko on the floor near my window. My first instinct was to ran, so I definitely left my room. And then I went back into take a picture. Mind you, I was freaking out so it wasn't the best quality. It also looks bigger in real life! I went to grab my host mom right after I finished take this picture. She came with me to help look for it. She also asked my host sister bring a long broom to help deal with the gecko. She was almost as scared as I was too, but she put on a brave face and tried to take the lead. We tried to look under my bed where I keep my suitcases and bags. We found nothing. We cleared out all the floor space, and still couldn't find it, but I just couldn't shake this feeling that it was still somewhere in my room. I brought out my flashlight and tried to look through my clothing shelf, and surely, there it was behind it! My host mom bravely grabbed one end of my clothing shelf and remove it from the wall. While all of this was happening, I was standing on my bed safely behind my mosquito net like the big chicken that I am. I was also able to capture another picture of it. My host mom used the long broom to guide the gecko towards the window. The guiding process wasn't easy either. We were sooo worried that the gecko was going to go under the bed, or worse, come our way! After kinda saw it leave the window, we double checked the rails and everything. I closed all my windows and tried to sleep feeling all creeped out and scared. I was thinking at least my windows were close. Of course, 1 hour into my sleep, I started sweating like crazy so I had to suck it up and open the windows back up. All night, it was hard to fall asleep again because I keep hearing noises that feels like creepy crawlers are every where.
I didn't think I was going to write about this part of my experience in Peace Corps. However, I had such a difficult time last night and today that I wanted to share. This afternoon, I left home already to run errands. After a while, I felt like using the toilet so I stopped by my health center. Just my luck, both critters were there in each of their bathrooms. I left to go to the high school's one and only functioning bathroom. It seemed empty so I used it. As I was exiting the bathroom though, I saw something move in the corner of my eye and saw the biggest spider ever.... but spiders are another story for another day. Until next time! <3 What with recovering in Bangkok and Phnom Penh for additional 2 weeks after surgery, and going to Vietnam for a birthday week escape... October came and went too quickly. The recovery period was so nice because I was able to spend time with friends during the holidays. My birthday week was also amazing because I had the chance to be with my closest friends in a new city doing fun things. They spoiled me rotten, and I have to say, it was the best October 24th I've had in a long while.
I feel older, slightly wiser, and a little bit more mature. In the last 16 months of Peace Corps, I've done the biggest amount of growing in the shortest time possible. It's been a crazy but wonderful journey! I wouldn't change a thing. I went home to some sad news yesterday (14.11.18). My host family's dog, who has been my closest and favorite pet in Cambodia, had been hit by a car and passed away. I'm still not used to the idea of him being gone and keep looking out for him whenever I'm at home. The beginning of November has been very eventful. I finally got a chance to see Charlie Put in concert. I also got interviewed there. Life goals, achieved! Now that I'm back in the village, I have been swamped with work for the Garden Training my counterparts and I are hosting at the health center. To be continued... This month has been a blur to me. I can't believe it's going to be October in about 25 hours.
September 6: Left site and went to Phnom Penh to get a dermatological surgical procedure to remove my big mole on my upper back. There was a concern for malignant melanoma because the mole's been there since birth and slowly growing along with me. September 7 - 14: I continued to stay in Phnom Penh for a meeting and Peace Corps' Mid Service Training (MST). We, Peace Corps Volunteers, had training every day from morning to evening. Some days were more stressful than others, and we were always lacking in sleep and rest. I also had the opportunity to do follow up CT Scan and Ultrasounds about my kidney stone (refer to August's blog post for more info) and previously noted ovarian cyst. September 15 - 16: I returned to my site (village) with my friend Melino. We had a great time hanging out with my family, my students, and adventuring around Kampong Cham city. September 17: I had to go to Phnom Penh again to remove my stitches from the mole surgical procedure. September 18: I went back to work at my village's Health Center and had a normal day at work for 30 minutes before I got a call from the Peace Corps Medical Officer (PCMO). I was told that I need to go to Bangkok to meet with a specialist to talk about my ovarian cysts. September 19 - 21: I had been away from the village for so long, and now that I was back, it seemed I'm leaving again so soon. I also recently started my grant project so I had to prepare a to-do list for my counterparts too. I put a lot of effort in to spend time with my health center staff and host family in what little time I have left with them for that week. I had to hand wash all the laundry every day too, which is also dependent on the sun in this monsoon season. I could only wash a little bit each day. I had barely unpacked from the previous weekend, and I had to pack all over again. September 22: I left the village at 7am with my usual Torry (minivan). 15 minutes into the ride, I realized I had left all my money at home so I had to tell the Torry driver to drive me home and help me pick it up. This is totally a "Classic Christine" move, but I'm just glad we caught it in time. I arrived to Phnom Penh had to run errands, such as going to the bank, buying some toiletries, catching up with a counterpart, and helping a sick friend. Not a bad day! September 23: After meeting with the Peace Corps Medical officer in the morning, I left for Bangkok. It was a rather uneventful day. I went from Phnom Penh Airport to Bangkok Airport to my Peace Corps provided hotel. The highlight of my day was being able to go to my favorite 7/11 in Bangkok and buy my favorite onigiri Japanese snack for dinner. September 24 - 27: These four days consists of doctor's appointments and numerous tests to confirm and prepare for my cystectomy. Thankfully, my aunt arrived from Myanmar on Monday (Sep 24) evening to keep me company throughout this whole process. Every day, we were another waiting game. We finally decided on Thursday (Sep 28) that I would get my surgery on Friday (Sep 29). The surgery was done as preventative measure, rather than curative. If my cysts give me any trouble while I live in a rural village (with no or little emergency care), I am at risk of losing my ovaries. We all thought that this was the best course of action to take. (Fun note: When I'm not doing medical tests, I was able to explore Bangkok and eat some of my favorite food. Definitely a nice break from all the serious business. I also ran into my Thai-American celebrity crush, who's currently living in South Korea and temporarily in Bangkok to shoot a commercial. Never in my wildest dreams I had expected to have an encounter like that!) September 28: I was told to check in at 12:01am (yes, 1 minute after midnight) and got admitted to my hospital room at Bumrungrad Hospital. They started prepping me for my surgery since 4am. My surgery took about 2 hours, and it took me another 2 hours to become fully conscious. Everything went well. The surgeon took out a 7cm cyst from my right ovary and a 4cm one from my left. I was not allowed to eat or leave the bed, and I wasn't very happy about that. Fortunately, my aunt is also staying in the hospital room with me so I had a lot of help. Two of my uncles, an aunt-in-law, and a little adorable cousin came to visit me for a little while too. The day passed by quickly for me because of the pain killers. I was in and out of sleep for most of the day and night. September 29 (Present): Today was a great day. I woke up all refreshed and energized. The surgeon came to see me first thing in the morning and told me I could be off of my IV fluids, nonstop pain killers, and catheter. I was also allowed to walk (with help), go to the toilet by myself, and shower (carefully) too. The only downside is I can feel the pain more than yesterday and that they still put me on fluid-only diet for breakfast and lunch. Dinner was super delicious though (which is expected of a world class hospital). Since I'm already missing rice and don't really get to eat Salmon in Cambodia, I decided to order Japanese food: rice, baked salmon, miso soup, and stir fry potatoes and carrots. I felt especially extra happy and content after that. They also gave me more pain meds, so I'm definitely feeling comfortable too. Right now, I'm writing this blog as I'm chilling in my hospital bed while my aunt is sitting next to me. We are having a Mission Impossible marathon ... and all is well! I am recovering at a good pace. I'll most likely be discharged in a day or two. My follow up appointment will be in about 4-5 days. After that, I should be cleared to fly back to Cambodia and resume my service as a Peace Corps Volunteer. SHOUT OUT TO PEACE CORPS AND ITS WONDERFUL MEDICAL CARE AND STAFF! |
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Christine can be reached at [email protected].
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