Well its Thursday here, almost the end of our first week of work. We can already tell that we love it here and it will be tough to leave. We love our work, and we're having a great time getting to know the girls at the shelter. We've started on a few projects that will hopefully help some of the administrative things here run a bit more smoothly, and Brittany is working on developing a Life Skills curriculum. The goal is to have a fun and basic class that helps the girls learn skills required for independent living - like budgeting, hygiene, etc. She is doing an awesome job! Over the past week, we've started to get used to the pace of things in Phnom Penh - everything moves a bit slower, except the traffic. We're working on a video of our daily commute to show you just what an experience the traffic can be! We have a great tuk-tuk driver named Polo who knows where everything is... he'll be playing a leading role in our video!
We've also started to get used to the food and the language. Khmer is the common language in Cambodia - and while its grammatically very simple, pronunciation is tough to master. We've gotten down the basics, like "Hi", "How are you?", "turn here" and "STOP!". Next week we hope to start language class with a tutor to learn more. As far as the food goes, we've been amazed to find that we can get just about anything we want... some things just cost a lot more and some a lot less. For instance, a package of 8 tortillas is more than $5, while you can get a pound of mangos for fifty cents. So we eat a lot less mexican food and a lot more mangos! Most western-oriented restaurants here cost about $4/pp, and there is quite a wide variety. The grocery store is an experience too - they shop the same way they drive - fast & crowded! Speaking of eating, Brittany is still going to try the fried tarantula, we just haven't come across it yet. Apparently its a local specialty in one of the provinces (specialty?!?), and we may be headed out that way towards the end of the month. Stay tuned!
