Meet the Boys, Volume 1: Nathan

As most of you know, I live in the English school I teach at along with one of the teachers, and three of the students. They've been my family out here and have been the single reason I'm still alive. So yea, they're special to me.

I wanted to kill a couple of birds, so I gave the boys some homework that gave them a chance to practice speaking English, while giving me a great opportunity to learn more about their lives.

First up: Nathan. If I can summarize Nathan, I'll say that he's hardworking, shy, and above all else earnest. There isn't a bone in his body that is insincere or trying to be anyone else. He isn't the most vocal (which is a skill in and of itself), but he's so thoughtful, which is something I really love about him. Without further ado...

Name: Nathan (Bora)

Age: 20

Home province: Kompongcham

What are you currently doing? 

Going to high school grade 12, and also taking English classes at Shelter of Peace.

What were you doing before coming to Shelter of Peace? 

I was a monk for four years. Two years at the temple in my hometown, and two years at the temple down the street from Shelter of Peace.

Why did you leave the monkhood? 

I moved to the temple nearby because the temple in my hometown no longer taught classes, and I wanted to continue my education. Then the temple nearby stopped teaching classes as well, so I had to go somewhere else to continue my education. Instead of going to another temple, I decided to leave the monkhood because I also wanted more freedom to try other things. Being in the monkhood didn’t allow me a lot of freedom to pursue other interests.

Why is learning English important to you? 

It helps me communicate with people from all over the world, and I think it will also help Cambodia if we can learn English and be connected to more people.

What are your goals for your future? 

I want to be a manager for a company, and I also want to teach English to poor children, so they can have better opportunities.

Why are these your goals? 

I want to be a manager because people need a good leader to help them work well together. Just like families need good leaders, I would like to help provide that for a company.

What will you need to do to achieve these goals? 

I need to study hard this year so that I can pass the 12^th grade test and be in a better position to get into university. This will be a challenge because at the Buddhist temple, I was only taught up to an 8^th grade level, so I will have a lot to catch up on this year.

What are your family’s goals for you? 

My mother only got a 2^nd grade education, so her focus for me was always to get my education. She didn’t care as much about what career I chose, but she just wanted me to get my education.

What does a perfect day look like? 

I would like to have a whole day to explore Angkor Wat. I’ve been there only once and I only had two hours to see all of the temples. There are many more things I want to see there.

If you could learn one thing, what would that be and why? 

I would like to learn how to be a good manager.

What is one thing Pert has learned since coming to Cambodia? 

He has a better understanding of how people in Cambodia live day-to-day.

BONUS: Questions from Nathan for me - I told you he was thoughtful (his answers in parentheses, no answers from me:)): 

Do you ever think about getting married? (Yes, 28 years old) What are you looking for in your wife? (Smart, kind, and will let me do what I want) Are your old girlfriends married now? Are you happy with your life?

So This Happened...

Champa always braids her hair in really cool designs, so one day I asked if she would braid mine. She gladly accepted, but also upped the ante. "How about makeup, too?"

"Sure."

let's start with my ugly mug.

Getting there...

And now the hair, along with Champa's lovely laugh :).

A work of art!

Voila!

And here's the great reveal!

My awesome evening class.

Covert Ops - Mission: Blind Date

Back home, I have a weekly standing meeting with my good friend Tiff called "covert ops." It's really just a weekly sync, and we rarely get into any real espionage. But last week I had a real life encounter with some covert ops in the form of a blind date.

For those salivating over the prospect of reading about me going on a blind date, let me clarify a bit: it wasn't actually my blind date.

There are two wonderful students I have in my evening class named Champa and Monytep. They're sweet, funny, and radiant, and I just smile when I see them - I would be ecstatic to have daughters like them one day. One day after class, Michael and Champa passed on a cryptic message to me: "Friday night, we have something planned." I asked for more details, but they both just gave me mischievous smiles and told me just to be ready to go...somewhere.

Friday rolled around, and I still had no idea where we were headed and for what reason. I just got on the moto and took a ride with Michael. We met up with Champ, Monytep, and their sister Chiva. And then one of Michael's long-time friends met the five of us before we drove to a little noodle shop by the side of the street. Once we sat down, it all clicked: this was a blind date between the girls' sister Chiva and Michael's friend! We were just along for the ride to act as wingmen/wingwomen.

I sat at the "kiddie" end of the table with Champa and Monytep and it was so fun and funny interacting with them. Champa kept stealing glances over to the other end of the table, would give me a little smirk, and then we'd sneak a little high-five before recomposing ourselves as to not blow the cover. I felt like the most immature 32 year-old man of all time, but what better reason to act a little goofy than sitting beside a busy Cambodian street eating a hot bowl of noodles with fellow hopeful onlookers at the prospect of love? Stay tuned for updates :).

Champa and Monytep, my co-conspirators in the game of love.

G & P v.V

This post is a little Sh0uT 0uTzZzZzZz to my very dear friend Gitanjali. I was able to meet her and her family in Phuket for a long weekend, which is now the 5^th country we’ve met up together in! (That “V” in the title is supposed to be a roman numeral 5. I thought it would be cool to have the whole title rhyme...Yup... OK...) I’ll get to this milestone in a bit, but first let’s take a step into the way back machine.

I’ve known G for almost 8 years now, back to when we both Accenture consultants working at the Gates Foundation, and when I was in my very, very formative years of being employed full-time. I was pretty fragile when she joined the project for various reasons – the main one being that I literally had no idea how to do any part of my job. No big deal, but it kept me up at night. See here’s the thing: I was a (middling) marketing major from UW, the economy was good, and Accenture was possibly conducting a social experiment by hiring someone totally unqualified for the job, so they gave me an offer to join as a consultant…in IT!? My answer to any computer problem up that point was CTRL + ALT + DEL. When my friends heard I got hired on as an IT consultant…well that’s the thing, they didn’t actually hear it. They assumed they heard my announcement incorrectly because why would anyone hire me to help with IT? Astute observation.

When G jointed the project as my manager, about a year into my IT consulting job, I was still totally confused and would literally just click and scroll around my screen to make it look like I was doing something of value. The team G and I was on was pretty small, so we clicked quickly and allowed me to confide in someone about the terrible secret that I was in essence stealing money from the largest non-profit in the world, one click/scroll at a time. This admission also had me questioning whether or not IT consulting was for me. G, being the mature person that she is, talked me off the ledge. She fully admitted that it might not be for me, but also to know that everyone at Accenture had a learning curve, so I should give it a little more time before bowing out. She also made up some stuff about me being OK at my job to make me feel better J. I still vividly remember the lunch where we discussed this over a hot bowl of pho and tears (kidding…?).

Anyways, things turned out OK in the end. I finally figured out this whole IT thing (one-to-many entity relationships!) and our project launched relatively successfully, depending on who you ask J. (For you Gates/ACN folks, I still have the giant Unison binder that I will always look at with two parts pride at the hard work we put into it, and one part shame at how insanely dense that thing was. I’ve since learned from those mistakes J). It was a pretty intense half-year G and I worked together on this project, and working close to 18 hours/day, 6-7 days/week for an extended period of time will result in one of two outcomes: hatred or adoration. Luckily for us, we landed in the latter category.

Since that project, G and I have stayed in touch as our careers took us to different places. She helped steer me in the right directions when I was thinking of job changes over the years, and was one of my biggest fans when I joined Gates full-time. She kept climbing the ladder at Accenture, and also got to travel a butt-load, which made me both envious as well as inspired to do the same. Her job took her to Singapore and South Africa, and I’m so appreciative that we always made time to email/call each other, even half a world apart, to make sure we were doing OK.

The travel aspect has been the coolest part of our friendship, which is what we’re here to celebrate today. In 2010, G was in Singapore, and after another project at Gates ended, I decided to meet her and eat our way through the various hawker markets. What I didn’t know as much at the time, but what I now appreciate and look forward to each time we meet, is how thoughtful and curious G is about my life. She’s always probing to understand my life better and why I do what I do, or why I believe what I believe. I’ve had so many discussions with G about relationships, Christianity, career choices, family dynamics, Indian/Chinese culture, and of course food. I like to hope that we’ve learned a few things from each other over the years (G to P: “You have enough friends.” P to G: “Be a busy restaurant.”).

After that initial meet up in Singapore, things just aligned for us to meet up a few more times in various locales. In 2011, I went backpacking for a few months and decided to pay G another visit in Singapore before heading to Europe. That trip is when G learned about Accenture’s sabbatical program that I was using for my backpacking trip, so a few weeks later, G used the same sabbatical program to move to Germany to learn German! So awesome. The other result of her time off was that we decided to meet up in Rome, after she finished her intensive language program. I had one of my favorite dining experiences ever in Rome with G when we ate in an alleyway outside of a dude’s kitchen (of his house!) with unlimited grappa and limoncello (h/t to JHong!).

The next time we met up was in the exotic city of San Jose in 2013. G moved there for a short project with Accenture, and while she was there, decided to move over to EY, which would bring her to Switzerland. Before she headed off to Europe, we thought it would be a nice change of pace to meet up in America. A fun weekend living in a half-empty apartment on an air mattress J.

Then a few months later in January 2014, right after I joined Gates full-time, we were able to meet up in London! It was good luck that we were both there at the same time for work, and at this point, we were thinking it would be a cool tradition to keep meeting up in different places. So we got together for dinner and drinks a couple of times, both of us sporting our shiny new jobs.

Let's take a visual walk down memory lane...

2008 - Our project team dressed up for halloween. That's G on the right as "crazy" Britney Spears.

2010 - Our friend Hailey and me visiting G in Singapore.

2011 - Another round in Singapore.

2011 - Gallivanting in Rome together during our ACN sabbatical overlap.

2013 - Hanging out in San Jose before G headed off to Switzerland to join EY.

<2014 - Sadly, no picture of us in London, but instead you can enjoy this gif that I love.>

Which brings us to the 5^th installment. Rewinding a bit back to San Jose, G mentioned that it would be great for me to meet her parents, which was a little weird to me since I had no idea they even knew who I was. But G told me I had come up with her parents a few times and they wanted to meet me. Her dad was in the Indian army, and has a killer mustache, so naturally I was intimated. On top of that, I didn’t really see a realistic way for us to meet so I didn’t really give that offer much thought. That is until this summer.

When I told G I was taking six months to move to Cambodia, she immediately told me of her plans for a family vacation in Phuket. Because I wanted to keep this cool tradition alive, I was able to find a long weekend to visit G, her family, and her boyfriend Gregor for a few days. And just like that, the crazy idea to meet her parents was now reality, and they were just the best. When I first arrived, G’s mom had some Indian snacks ready for me and also gave me a present! She heard that I was a big reader, so she got me a book by one of India’s most famous Presidents – A.P.J. Abdul Kalam. Her dad was also a really sweet, and soft-spoken guy, very much the opposite of what I had envisioned.

The weekend was really laid back, and it was just nice talking to G per usual, but it was also nice getting to know her parents. G found a way to leave me alone with one of her parents a few times during the trip, so I had a lot of 1:1 time to get to know each one better. Her mom was both really thoughtful and curious, so I really appreciated how much she asked about what I was doing in Cambodia, why I did it, etc. She’s an amazing woman and I got to hear a bit more about her experiences as a teacher, which we could connect on, and I got a little more insight into her work with translating books into braille for the blind. Her dad was sneaky funny, and shared a lot of war stories about his time as a grenadier in the Indian army. The weekend also included a lot of tasty food and desserts as is always the case with G and me (a lot of desserts because it was G’s mom’s birthday!).

One of the fancy pools we got to relax at.

The beautiful sunset we got to see each night.

Learning to make animal towels! See if you can guess what we made.

This is what was playing in my head.

The egg tart roadshow continues!

Some tasty snacks at the Phuket night market.

Mustaches unite!

A great time with G and the fam.

I look at my friendship with G as some kind of weird anomaly. She was my manager for only 9 months or so, we never lived in the same city full-time, and we rarely had convenient ways to see each other. But I’m very grateful that for some odd reason, we both made an effort to stay invested in each other’s lives, including both important decisions (career choices) and less important announcements (a tasty burger we had). G, here’s to many more adventures wherever we find each other.

2015 - The latest installment :)