Overview of a normal day in Maung Russey

This is a rough estimation of what I am doing at any given point on a normal day in Maung Russey. Everything here is subject to change as there is no school on holidays or if it is raining. The holiday point may seem obvious but Cambodia is has more holidays than any other country (or so I have heard) and they are not usually clearly announced. You may show up to school just to discover a few teachers sitting around playing cards without a student in sight because it is a random holiday... Anyway here is a rough schedule:

5:30am - 7:00am Wake up, shower, eat breakfast, and ride my bike to school.

7:00am - 11:00am Teach 2 classes of 11th or 12th grade students for 2 hours each.

11:00am - 1:00 pm Lunch, possible nap, or household chores such as washing clothes

1:00pm - 3:00pm Ride my bike to the market to buy vegetables, rice, noodles, household items,etc. Meet with my Khmer language tutor on certain days.

3:00pm - 4:45pm Teach at a local NGO or just spend time there discussing issues with the young people or staff members.

5:00pm - 6:00pm Teach remedial English to a group of poor students ranging in age from 4 to 16 years old. This is often the highlight of my day as these students are a joy.

6:00pm - 7:30pm Varies, but may ride to the local pagoda to hang out with students and various people in the community. Sometimes I run errands that I didn't get to earlier.

7:30pm - 11:00pm Cook dinner, clean up, shower, read, maybe watch a movie on my laptop, and try not to be consumed by the huge mosquito population.

11:00pm-ish Climb under my mosquito net and go to bed, sometimes earlier sometimes later depending on what I need to do the following day.

No two days in Cambodia, or anywhere else for that matter, are exactly alike but over time the days start to run together and what once felt unique and foreign begins to seem normal. The first time you are woken up by blaring Khmer music at 5:00am it is a bit of a shock and rather disorienting, but the 30th time it happens it is just a common annoyance that is a normal event in Cambodian society. Having a party? Getting married? Is it a holiday? Do you want to celebrate something just for the hell of it? If so, there will be a large tent set up in a local street and music will blare from 5am until about 11pm. This is happening somewhere in my town on a daily basis or every other day. If the celebration takes place within a half kilometer of my home, I can forget about sleeping or not having a headache; if the party is going on further away I can hear the music in the distance and rejoice in the fact that it isn't going to be a constant agony to listen to it all day.

Again, this is a general idea of my day and a small taste of some of the challenges found in Cambodia. Honestly, my challenges are quite insignificant compared to my Khmer neighbors who battle far more difficult circumstances on a daily basis, but that discussion is for a future blog.