Today Was Really Good

I'm currently sitting on my bed after a really long, but really good day, and I'm semi-reminded of another quote Judith wrote in my journal: “Be thankful when you’re tired and weary because it probably means you’ve made a difference in someone’s life today.” I say “semi-reminded” because I don’t know how much of a difference I actually made. What I do know, however, is that a lot of cool stuff happened and now I’m exhausted.

The day started like my normal days thus far with me teaching an English class at 720am. For those who know me, that hour is ungodly early for me, but one of the pluses of the heat and humidity is that it doesn’t let you sleep in too late.

English class was energetic and fun, and then I took a couple mile walk to one of my two go to cafes (this one is the one with AC), so I could use their faster internet to Skype with Sapna, who is my main point of contact who hasn’t joined me yet in Cambodia. We had a good time talking about my first two weeks, and then also planned out how I should start getting involved more with working at the KTVs and beer gardens. Even though I enjoy teaching English, I was happy to get this ball rolling because I’d love to meet and help some of the women at the KTVs and beer gardens as well.

After chatting with Sapna, I walked the two miles back to our place, had lunch (fabulously made by Chef Nathan), then had a study session at lunch for kids who wanted some extra help with grammar. I then sat in on Michael’s afternoon class because I might be helping with that one as well. On a side note, a lot of these kids know so much more about English than I do. Kids are asking if words are in perfect present, simple past tense, or if they’re infinitive, and all I can do is pretend not to hear them and move on quickly. As a second aside, the more I teach English, the more I think how stupidly difficult it is! I’m constantly apologizing for random exceptions. Trying to explain certain exceptions reminded me of this rule of thumb: “i before e…except when you run a feisty heist on a weird beige foreign neighbor…and after c.”

After class, I ran a couple of miles then met up with Michael at the coffee stand in the Buddhist temple (my other daily coffee shop, this one with less amenities…like walls) to grab a quick coffee and then begin my second moto learning session.

This is where the day goes from productive to eventful.

I had one moto lesson a week ago and felt relatively comfortable riding it in a closed off neighborhood. This was enough to give Michael confidence to let me ride on a busier street. I was less convinced, but Michael likes to say “go with the flow” so I went. Oh also the helmet strap broke so we were like, eh, no one really wears a helmet here anyway. Famous last words. (not really last words, mom. I’m totally (kind of) OK. And I promise I’ll wear a helmet in the future J).

I went down a busy street and back a couple of times, but there was one busy intersection and the rules of the road are still a little enigmatic to me. Michael has told me, “no cop, no stop.” Matt (one of the other English teachers) told me, “all you’re responsible for is what’s in front of you, nothing else.” So with intersections, you just kind of go and slow down or speed up as you need to...without a helmet of course.

A car was making a left turn, but I was in the intersection first so I honked and slowed down so they would give me the right of way. But they went anyway and their left was wider than they planned and side swiped me forcing me to avoid them, veer off to the left, hit some loose gravel and wipe out.

I got a few cuts and scrapes up and down my right side, but it wasn’t too bad. It could’ve been worse. I was lucky there were a few folks there that helped me gather the stuff that was thrown from the bike (as well as myself). And to help ease my ego, the guy who helped me spoke English and told me the driver was a “crazy Cambodian driver” and that I should call the cops (another Cambodian guy actually yelled at the car as it sped away and I have literally seen nobody yell about traffic here even though it’s chaos at all times). I honestly would’ve equally believed him if he told me it was completely my fault – again, these traffic rules, who knows.

Lesson 1: Helmet? Yup! Scrapes? Nope!

Lesson 2: Helmet? Nope! Scrapes? Yup!

Here’s a third aside that is just funny to me in a “hmmm” kind of way. I’ve been wearing thin athletic shorts every day because it’s so hot, but going to the Buddhist temple today, I decided to wear pants. Was it because I was forward thinking, knowing that pants would be smarter in case I fell off the moto during my riding lesson? Nope, zero smarts and forward thinking here. It was because the outdoor coffee shop has a lot of flies and they always land on my legs and bother me, so I decided to do something about it today by wearing pants so the flies couldn’t bother me. And because of these annoying flies, my leg is now in much better shape than it would’ve been if I wore my normal garb. Funny how things work.

My daily routine of getting a Cambodian iced coffee (similar to cafe sua da!) at the local wat, sans flies.

Anyways, I got back to our place and immediately was reminded how I’m not very prepared or forward thinking in other areas of my life as well. I forgot (i.e., didn’t plan to bring) bandages or any sort of antibiotic. Jason saw me scouring our place for medical stuff, and it was equally funny and warm how he responded to my cuts. He looked like a concerned father – a 19 year-old concerned father of an irresponsible 31 year-old son. He immediately took me to the pharmacy down the street, I got the stuff I needed, and he stood over me and helped me tape up my wounds, all the while constantly asking to make sure I was OK. I didn’t know what the split should’ve been between me feeling grateful and embarrassed over Jason’s concern, but I do know I really appreciated the ice cream he got for me afterward to cheer me up. (The way this story turned out, the ice cream cheer up could have easily been true).

Jason (right) - my responsible caretaker and ice cream provider.

Ok back to productive from eventful.

Bandaged up and ready to go, I got a chance to talk to Matt after his evening English class about the best way to support these kids, many who are balancing school with multiple jobs and families they need to send money to. I’ll delve into that discussion in a later post, but it was really encouraging and I’m very hopeful that there are really tangible ways to help these kids get into University, which will open up so many more doors for their future career goals.

The best part of my day was saved for last. After the advanced English class ended, I had my first mentorship session with one of the kids (Sina) who asked if I would meet with her a couple of times a week. I was happy to meet with her because I really, really enjoy smaller group discussions. She gave me a homework assignment the night before to answer a question for her during our first session, but I made her answer a question first before we started. I asked her why she wanted me to mentor her. Sina is so mature and thoughtful. She gave me these three reasons:

1. To practice her English more
2. To hear about my experiences living in a different country
3. To engage more deeply with people she interacts with so she can learn their stories 

I just loved that with so many things going on in her life, she still saw the importance in engaging deeply with people around her. Her question for me was “what is a dream you’ve had for your life that never went away?” Like I said, she’s very thoughtful and inquisitive. I gave her my spiel, and she’ll be repaying me with her answer when we meet on Monday.

Sina's meeting time proposal for me. Signed "Miss Sina" of course :).

I finished out the night playing guitar with the boys. Tiger even asked me to play a Derek Webb song because a little guitar riff got stuck in his head :).

Before today, I don’t know if would've considered a day that included a moto accident a good day, but today was really full of meaningful engagements and even with the moto accident, I was happy I kept trying to learn even though I’m such a wuss when it comes to doing things like learning moto in the midst of chaotic traffic.

Again, my schedule and responsibilities still aren’t full set in stone, and I don’t know exactly when that will happen, but even though I’m very type-A and generally like to have things planned and organized, I’m slowly learning how full and fulfilling a day can be if I embrace having some breathing room and ambiguity in my plans. Or as Michael would say, “go with the flow.”