Cambodia adventures

Apparently I use the phrase "sounds good" too much. I'll have to remember not to use it or use a similar phrase. My girls enlightened me to this fact in our class tonight. I love the classes I teach every Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Sunday to 7 girls ranging from 17-22.
Bormey is 17 and started university at 16; I call her Mey. She loves to smile and is studying economics.
Siv Ghech is 20, from Sihanoukville and my nickname for her is Jade because that's approximately what her name means in English. She is an a very eager learner and is studying law.
Lady Rina is my 22 year old little fireball with lots of energy and spice, she is studying law; Candy Chandy is 20 and has an excellent command of intonation and pronunciation, she is also studying law;  Savory Savry is 21 and is organized an
d also very sweet; she is studying accounting. They are all from Kandal Province.
Kunthea, nicknamed Thea, is 20 and sort of the "mother" of the group because she takes care of everyone. She is from Kampong Cham province and is studying law.
Makara is the newest one of the group, but she's absent this week so I'm not sure where she is from or what she is studying. She is quiet but very smart.


There are about 30 girls living in the Boeung Trabeck dorm with me. It's definitely taken a (huge) adjustment to get used to living, not just with one person, but with three other people. I forgot how much harder it is to live with people in such close proximity. I'm having trouble sleeping, I think partially because of all the activity in and around the dorm at night. The girls sleep very little-sometimes as few as 4 or 5 hours per night, and if I can't even make one day on that amount of sleep. It must just be years of practice but I can't do it.

On Sunday I led a leadership seminar entitled "it's all about love", subtitled "respect and love".  We did several activities and discussed what respect means, their experiences with discrimination, derogatory comments and demeaning comments made about their looks or bodies, and imagining what other people from minority groups feel like when they are discriminated against. We discussed how all of us have been hurt by comments in the past and hopefully it made the girls think and grow closer to their "sisters".

I was speaking today to one of the older girls about Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge. She said she had a hard time hearing the stories over and over again because they made her sad. Her grandmother had 9 children before the genocide and was left with just two after. She also lost her husband at the same time. I have a feeling I'll be hearing more stories as my time here progresses. This country is still in the recovery stages from the genocide and I'm sure it will take many more years and a lot more healing.