a short update

I've been here for a month. Crazy, right!? Turns out living in another country is hard. But also, awesome. So, there's that.

I still haven't finished posting about the last day in Siem Reap, but I haven't finished editing the pictures, so all you get today is a boring update post.

Last week I worked in the office Monday through Wednesday. The project that I'm working on is a survey for participants of a training course. The last scheduled course was last Thursday and Friday. I found out on Tuesday that RACHA has applied for some additional funding to do about 10 more courses before the end of September. If we get the funding then I will be able to do my survey at a few more trainings. If we don't get the funding then I will finish the report on the results I have, and then I have nothing else to do for RACHA. I was pretty bummed when I found that out. Actually, I was really frustrated, and expressed all of those frustrations to Kira on our walk home last Tuesday. The next day was spent brainstorming ideas of what I could do if we don't get the funding. I still don't know what I'm going to do.

Thursday morning I went to the office at 6:00am to get in a taxi with Savy and Chris to go to another province, Kampong Chnang, for the training. We had the training all day and then went to our hotel in another city about 45 minutes away. The NGO that set up the training invited us to a staff party that night so we went to that for a little while. I met some really interesting people. The NGO is called People in Need and it's a Czech organization. I met a girl from the Czech Republic who studied in Iowa for a year! And not just anywhere in Iowa, but in a college in Cedar Rapids! She is the third person I've met in Cambodia who studied in Iowa.

I also talked to another girl who is starting this week as the new director of the Maternal and Child Health area of People in Need. I talked to her about the situation at RACHA and she seemed very interested in having me do some work with her organization. She is based in Phnom Penh so it would work out for me to stay here (the NGO is based in Kampong Chnang) and maybe travel a day or two every week. I'm not sure what I would do and I'm not sure I would even work with the organization, but it's good to have options. It's frustrating that I can't really move forward with any plans because we are just waiting to hear about the funding.

After the party we went back to the hotel to sleep and then we left early the next morning for the last day of training. After a long day we drove back to PP and I was so excited to get back to my apartment and see Kira. I just needed to hang out with a friend. We updated each other on the two days I was gone and then went to bed.

The rest of the weekend was a huge adventure and I will tell you all the details very soon! Until then, keep praying for me!