some pix to tide you over

Yeah yeah yeah...

I know it's been forever since I posted. Effing internet here makes posting such a chore.

Anyway... here are a few photos...maybe a video too






this is a video of my old house. you can get a bit of an idea of the place (if I uploaded the right vid). I ended up moving to where I am now because it was just too far outside of town for me. I now live very near the market and can come and go as I please. woo hoo!

While I'm waiting on the vid to upload, here's a quick quip about Cambodia:
Everywhere else in the world, if you touch your poo once a month, they say "You're a sick bastard!" In Cambodia, if you aren't touching your poo at least once a day, they say "I think you're sick, bastard!" this is because 99.9% of Cambodian's do not use toilet paper. They use their left hand for cleaning the old #2 chute! Think about that next time I'm shaking your hand! In place of TP, more modern places (like my new house) have the "butt blaster". This is a small hose with a spray attachment on the end that comes out of the wall near the toilet and allows you to pressure wash the ol bung hole. One of the first things you learn however is to test spray the hose as some have brutally strong water pressure and could detatch your colon. Those who have older houses (like my old one) have a cistern of water near the squat toilet and a water dipper. You have to splash your water on the "spot" and then, yes you guessed it, let your fingers do the washing! This sounds pretty bad but in practice it ends up being a lot cleaner than using paper (provided you wash your hands afterwards with soap). Only thing is, the average Cambodian male (at least the ones who want everyone to know they have money) lets their nails grow to be very long. (to demonstrate that they don't have to work in the fields everyday) Long nails on a person who wipes their ass with their hand isn't a good combination. I personally can't stand the whole "I've got money" thing. Many students who have money here think they can do as they please, coming and going during class etc. It's been fun for me to bring them back to Earth from time to time. Man... this vid is taking a long time to upload. What else can I talk about... let's see.

I've started working with an NGO here called the Tiger Foundation (www.tigerfoundation.com). They are working with a school near my own and I hope to work with them on various community development projects in the future. One project I'm already on board for is a fundraising motorcycle trip. The trip involves travel from Singapore to Cambodia, moving through Malaysia and Thailand. I'll be acting as logistical support during the trip but won't get to ride any bikes sadly. Damn Peace Corps rules! I sure hope you readers enjoy this damn video coz it's taking forever to upload. Hell, it's probably the wrong one anyway.

Ok... this vid is taking too long so I'm leaving it out. I'll try to post some photos and stuff later on! See ya soon!

Five days to Go!

Hello all! Five days to go and I'm getting down to the final stages of packing. The only item of unfinished business seems to be selling the car. Who would've thought that it would be this tough to sell a car in Bristol. It has all the new technology like radial tires, FM radio, even that new fangled unleaded gas. Oh well, in a couple of days, if it still hasn't been sold, I'll be driving down to Carmax to turn it into some quick cash. Beyond that, it's all about trying to keep the bag weights down and making it easy for things to be shipped to me after the fact. Haven't been doing much language study in the past several weeks. I guess I'll be hitting the flashcards pretty hard on the plane!

Next post will be from San Francisco!

Chat at ya soon!

Mitch

Quick Hit #5: Effing Cigars

If you've ever found yourself out in public, and you've thought "you know, I'm just not being enough of an A-hole." simply light up a cigar. Problem solved.

Snake Mythology; T-minus 25 Days and Counting!

Hello faithful readers!

I'm back in Bristol, VA having left behind the lush er...damn hot desert landscape of Tucson. I really liked Tucson (If you ever find yourself in Southern Arizona, make sure to drop by the Cowpony bar. It kicks ass!) I could see myself settling down in Tucson someday, that is if I ever find myself settling down.

One thing left me feeling a little ripped off regarding my time in the desert. Five weeks in the middle of the rocky sandy, blistering nothing and I didn't see ONE...DAMN...SNAKE!! I don't want to hear any more about the desert teeming with Rattlers with a snake lurking behind every sagebrush. As far as I'm concerned, that's bull crap. What a gyp. All those scenes in the westerns where the cowboy is riding along on his horse when suddenly...EEEK! A RATTLESNAKE!! Yeah, right. Maybe if he was riding along in the middle of the night...making noises like a gopher...a sick gopher...with a wooden leg. Desert snakes are a myth!!

Anyway, absent vipers aside, when I got back to VA, my Peace Corps staging kit was waiting for me! The staging kit is the PC signal that the final countdown has started. Inside were updated packing guidelines, a final checklist of things to do/bring to staging, a schedule of training as well as my international flight itinerary. So...

On July 19 I'll be hopping a plane to San Francisco!! I'll be spending two and a half days at the Hotel Kubuki, a Japanese themed 4 star hotel! Woo Hoo!! Originally, I had thought I'd be flying straight into Phnom Penh but I guess that doesn't happen. My international flight itinerary reads like a list of all of the places that I've wanted to go. We leave San Francisco on July 21 at 2pm. We fly 11 hours to Japan (woo hoo!!). From Japan, we fly 6 hours to Bangkok Thailand (WOO HOO!) and from there it's a short 1 hr flight to Phnom Penh Cambodia. I know, I know, it's not like I'll be leaving the Airport or anything, and in actuality, it's probably going to be a pain in the neck passing through all these airports, but for now, it just sounds cool. REALLY COOL!!

So now I'm busy shopping up things like light blue short sleeve dress shirts (ugh!) voltage converters, flat blade razors, "dark" colored slacks all the while trying to learn enough Khmer so I don't sound like a complete jackass. I'm looking forward to finally stepping out the door and getting this next chapter underway. It's close now and I think I'm ready.

Quick Hit #5: "New Fix, Old Jones."

I checked out the new Indiana Jones movie a few days ago. The last Indiana Jones movie came out 19 years ago. Holy crap.

Don't get me wrong. I love the character and Harrison Ford is one of my favorites but the bit is so old at this point that the next movie, he'll be digging around in an old tomb or something and find... himself!

"Coming soon... Indiana Jones and the movie that should have been made ten years ago!"
or
"Coming soon... Indiana Jones and the Prostate of Fire"
or
"Coming soon... Indiana Jones and the Dark Incontinent"
or
"Coming soon... Indiana Jones: Raider of the Lost AARP"
or
"Coming soon.... Indiana Jones: I've fallen and I can't get up!"

Sometimes the new old is just old.

-M

Ants, Evolution and True Power

Today while I was running, I came upon an elaborate network of small ant hills. Trying not to break my stride, I had to do a pretty ungainly tap dance to avoid demolishing the carefully crafted mounds. It occurred to me briefly that, not knowing I was trying to avoid playing Godzilla to a tiny ant-sized Tokyo, other people on the trail may have thought I'd lost my mind, my balance or both. I imagined myself one of the passers by asking themselves "why did he do that?". Why indeed?

I can remember back when I was a "young'un" (as my Granny would say) many an anthill became the object of my scrutiny. With nearly scientific deliberateness, I would observe the comings and goings of the ants. Then, with no malice or rancor, I would plop my foot down on one mound at a time and then observe the resulting chaos in ant land. (Author's note: I realize acts of violence, committed against a society at large, without malice or rancor are consistent with psychopathic behavior. To the best of my knowledge, I was not, in fact a psychopath, although by this definition, most of the kids I knew sure were. Not me, I'm damn well adjusted! ...quid pro quo Clarice..)

Now as an adult, (my Pajamas no longer have feet in them) I look back and understand this behavior as a demonstration of mankind's fascination with power. In a primitive sense, power is truly defined, only truly realized when it is exerted by one party over another. These demonstrations are everywhere, some natural, some necessary, some needless: The cat making a morsel of the mouse; The bully in the schoolyard; the tire-smoking, redneck peel out from a stop light; nations at war; and yes, the foot of a juvenile Godzilla crushing an anthill.

True power is something more subtle, more sublime. By introducing civility into the primitive equation we can observe true power. True power is overcoming the primitive need to apply your power at any opportunity. True power is being comfortable with one's ability without the demonstration.

So I no longer go about crushing anthills. I encourage this evolution in others where I can.

Chat at ya soon!

-Meeyatch

Holy Crap... I'm Blogging!

Well, It was bound to happen sooner or later. This blog is the latest in a long series of valiant attempts to capture wit, worry, whimsy and God knows what else. Keep your fingers crossed and one eye covered. Like J. Phoenix said in 8mm... "some things you can't unsee."

Here is what I know: I'm 38 years old. I've spent the first part of my life (post formal education that is) evolving from primordial ooze ( read "retail management") to a semi-sentient larvae (Corporate tadpole). I don't know what I want to be when I grow up. Ever since my corporate intervention (layoff) forced me to kick my material habit I've come to learn only one thing clearly... that what I've been doing up to now isn't doing it for me. I want more.

Since around July 2005, I've been in what I'm calling my Pupa stage. A period of fundamental transformation. The caterpiller turns into the butterfly (awww... such imagery... ). Over the past two years, I've been camped out inside my chrysalis, refusing to emerge until I feel like I'm ready. After all, a butterfly without wings is just a roach...or roach-like bug... you know what I mean. I've volunteered at an exotic cat sanctuary in Tampa, sold my house, moved to Arizona, took a whitewater guide course in Utah, received a Wilderness Medicine certification, worked for an outdoor school gear shop in Wyoming for a summer and finally, joined the Peace Corps. In all of these things, one mantra has guided me, helped me justify certain sacrifices and kept me from getting too happy with my comfy cocoon: I wish to live an unlikely life.

So with that in mind, here I am. Currently I'm waiting for my Peace Corps invitation which will let me know, finally, which country i'll be off to. I've been through several application stages, multiple interviews, legal background checks, psychological evaluations, been poked and prodded in every conceivable way by all the doctors there are (you using the whole fist doc? Moooooon River....). If you can contract it, I've been tested for it. And inoculated against it. It's been a long seven months since I started the process. Unless something is changed at the last minute, I should be teaching English somewhere in Asia (Philippines, Thailand, Mongolia, China or Cambodia). I'm ready to go.

This blog will help me keep track of some of my rants, ponderings, insane ramblings and other silly crap as I progress through my transformation. Literally and figuratively, I have no idea where I'm going to end up. I'll be heading where the adventure takes me. That will do until I get my wings.