Hello all,
This past week I finally started working at my partner, Peace Bridges. PB is a local NGO that works in the area of peacebuilding (obviously). Basically, they run a pretty intensive training program for influential Cambodians that covers topics peacebuilding, nonviolent communication, family violence, etc. They then help their trained peacebuilders in spreading this information in their circles of influence. The program is pretty amazing- the exact kind of organization I spent years praising from a classroom at Whitworth. Up until this year, PB has operated with a Cambodian staff and an expat director. Now however, there is a new Cambodian director. The old director has stayed on in an advisory role and is my direct supervisor. The staff has all been really nice. Most of them speak enough English that we can communicate via their English and my little bit of Khmer. I've gotten the chance to really shape what I'll be doing here to fit my interests. I appreciate that PB really recognizes that this is a learning experience for me as well as an opportunity for them to benefit from my skills. I will mostly be working in their newly created research, monitoring, and evaluation department. In the past, they have done some evaluation of their programming, but it hasn't been very consistent. They are in the process of hiring a Cambodian director for this new unit. I will most likely be designing and executing a year long evaluation that I can see to completion. Its definitely a project I was trained for at Whitworth and I'm excited to put those skills to use in a real world setting. Its amazing how much more interesting research articles when you actually vitally need the information! Thanks to my sociology profs for training me for this! This past week I spent most of my time at work reading about evaluation, development in Cambodia, and PB itself. I'm slowly figuring everything out. Right now, work is looking like a great learning opportunity and a fun challenge.
In other news, us 4 SALTers spent this past weekend in Pre Veng. Pre Veng Town is the provincial capital of a nearby province, Pre Veng. MCC currently has one couple who lives their full time and another couple is coming in November. It was great to get out of the city! To be honest, the best part might have been having a day where I didn't have to do anything- it's been a long time since I've had real, relaxing down time. We went on some bike rides, took a moto tour through some villages, ate lots of new Cambodian food we hadn't tried yet, and generally relaxed. Pre Veng is beautiful- very green, so many rice paddies. In fact, we've officially created a new color - rice paddy green. There's nothing like it. So vibrant. (Pictures coming soon) The trip was a great opportunity to see the rural side of Khmer culture- which is especially important considering something like 80% of the population is rural. One of the best parts of the weekend was realizing that I was looking forward to coming back to Phnom Penh. I have settled in here. I loved Pre Veng, but I wouldn't choose to live there because I'm already comfortable in Phnom Penh. I like my job, my family, my routine. It was really the first sign I am starting to be 'at home' here.
This is getting long, so that's all for now : ) I will fill up another post with all my thoughts about development work here. As most of you know, I'm quite capable of rambling on that subject.
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