tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-62095057304425941932024-02-19T16:52:25.014-08:00Chalk DustFrom Chiang Mai to Charlestown I have spent much of the past four years teaching.
When not in the classroom, I write.Jessica Landerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16118568033865933320noreply@blogger.comBlogger70125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6209505730442594193.post-49778309346558384882015-02-17T06:30:00.004-08:002015-02-17T06:30:50.268-08:00The Many Voices Project <div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
Breathe in, breathe out once <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
Again. Know that I am safe?<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
What about our sons?<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0.5in; text-align: center; text-indent: 0.5in;">
~ Jen, Mom, <span style="text-indent: 0.5in;">N. Cambridge</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0.5in; text-align: center; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
Please don’t hurt me now<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
Because of my skin color<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
Let me live my life<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="mso-tab-count: 2;"> </span>~
Gus, Peabody School Student, <span style="text-indent: 0.5in;">Cambridge</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0.5in; text-align: center; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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In the first weeks of January we – the Past Poet Populist of
Cambridge, Jean Dany Joachim, and I set out across the city in the hopes of
sparking conversations about race, about justice, and about equality. We
challenged people to condense their thoughts, feelings, questions and ideas
into three lines of text, seventeen syllables. <o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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Brevity came from having too much to say. Back in November,
after the non-indictment in Ferguson and then the non-indictment in Staten
Island, Jean Dany had begun writing haikus.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Haiku after haiku after haiku, flowing in streams of syllables. As he
described, “I suppose it is the appropriate poetry form to help me refrain
myself from talking too fast, spitting out sadness, fear, rage, or frustration,
as well as keeping my dignity as a human being.” He encouraged friends,
colleagues, community members, to join him.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>And this is where our idea took shape.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span><o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
Tough conversations <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
But they are necessary <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
To have together.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0.5in; text-align: center; text-indent: 0.5in;">
~ Anonymous<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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We conceived of a project – <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Many Voices Project </i>- that would invite voices from all across
Cambridge: From North Cambridge to Kendall and every neighborhood in
between.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Our goal was to create a space
to listen, to create the time and the room for conversation. <o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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For me it was a way to take action.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>At school we read about the non-indictments,
discussed the protests, participated in die-ins. But I felt removed.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>So much of this year is about preparing for
the future and for future action.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But
here was a place to act now.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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Over those opening weeks of the new year we held poetry
workshops across Cambridge.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We sat down
with elders in community homes and senior centers.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We lead workshops in school classrooms and
neighborhood community centers.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>One
late, windy evening we attended an open-mic night and, in between beat-boxing
and spoken word we made our pitch. On Cambridge’s MLK Day of Service we invited
volunteers – in between making valentines for shut-in elders and toiletry kits
for homeless teens – to speak out in seventeen syllables. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
In twenty-fifteen <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
May we have less violence <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
Start with your neighbor<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="mso-tab-count: 2;"> </span>~
Will <o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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The response was overwhelming, as was the honesty.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In three weeks, more than two hundred people
had added their voice.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>A cacophony of
fears, hopes, dreams, questions, anger, confusion, worries, declarations. <o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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All of these voices, all of these haikus, we gathered into a
chapbook.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>With a grant from <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Harvard’s Graduate School of Education</i>
we printed and bound over a thousand copies and drove out into the city again –
this time to share the books with libraries, schools, community centers,
religious centers, senior centers, neighborhood house, youth programs and city
offices. <o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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It is our hope that upon reading, people all across the city
will strike up conversations, or pick up conversations that were set
aside.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The process is ongoing. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
Dear daughter of mine <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
I look into this lost world<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
And fear for your future<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center; text-indent: 0.5in;">
~JS, <span style="text-indent: 0.5in;">Thinker, </span><span style="text-indent: 0.5in;">Mid-Cambridge</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
As a white person <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
Wondering how to engage<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
Talk to me soon. Please. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center; text-indent: 0.5in;">
~ Carol, <span style="text-indent: 0.5in;">Retired teacher, </span><span style="text-indent: 0.5in;">Inman Square</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
Once more must we lift<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
Our voices in the name of <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
Freedom and justice<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center; text-indent: 0.5in;">
~ Daniel, <span style="text-indent: 0.5in;">Son and Brother, </span><span style="text-indent: 0.5in;">West Cambridge</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
My America<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
Black, White, rich, poor citizens<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
In full harmony<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center; text-indent: 0.5in;">
~Jean Dany, <span style="text-indent: 0.5in;">Dad, </span><span style="text-indent: 0.5in;">Cambridge</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<o:p><br /></o:p></div>
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You can read more Cambridge voices at our website:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span><a href="http://manyvoicescambridge.wix.com/manyvoices#!city-voices/c1sxh">manyvoicescambridge.wix.com/manyvoices#!city-voices/c1sxh</a></div>
</div>
Jessica Landerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16118568033865933320noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6209505730442594193.post-88091046222773425422014-10-11T21:41:00.001-07:002014-10-11T21:41:59.102-07:00New Voices <div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="font-family: Constantia; mso-bidi-font-family: Constantia;">Two years ago, the United Nations designated today, October 11<sup>th</sup>,
as the International Day of the Girl to promote awareness of gender inequality
around the world. Fittingly, it coincides with the award of the Nobel Peace
Prize to Malala Yousafzai, the 17-year-old Pakistani activist for girls’
education,.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Constantia; mso-bidi-font-family: Constantia;">At school yesterday, a number of students organized a discussion on
girls’ education around the globe. We met in one of the largest lecture halls
on campus, but when I arrived there were barely fifteen people gathered in a
circle. More striking, there were only women.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Constantia; mso-bidi-font-family: Constantia;">I have been in similar situations, having intense conversations
about women in the workplace inspired by Sheryl Sandburg’s <i>Lean In</i>, or
participating as an actor in Eve Ensler’s <i>Vagina Monologues</i>. Almost
always, there’s a conspicuous lack of men. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Constantia; mso-bidi-font-family: Constantia;">I’ll admit that I was initially prepared to resign myself to the
circumstances. But, as a graduate student, I have found that we are not a group
that settles. Almost immediately, one of my peers raised the issue—how
disappointed she was by the absence of men in the discussion. Another
women jumped, “Here’s a way we can start acting right now. Let’s go find
some men.” <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Constantia; mso-bidi-font-family: Constantia;">And so, off went three of us, fanning out into the library and café
in search of men. Unabashedly we went up to men sitting at tables working
on problem sets and papers, men in the midst of conversations, men sitting in
comfy purple couches reading books. “Do you have 20 minutes?” we
inquired. “Can you join this conversation?” we prodded. “You don’t need
to speak, but we believe it is important that men be part of the discussion.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Constantia; mso-bidi-font-family: Constantia;">We soon traipsed back triumphant, five men strong.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Constantia; mso-bidi-font-family: Constantia;">The discussion that unfolded was just a beginning, but I at least
felt that it was a genuine start. Women spoke of teaching in all-girls
schools, of differing expectations from families and communities, of
experiences teaching women and girls overseas. Some of the men spoke too –
of the need to celebrate men who support women and girl’s education (men like
Malala’s father Ziuaddin Yousafzai who has championed girls education for years),
of altering expectations of men that allow them to show weakness or caring or
support for women without their masculinity being called into question.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 10.0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Constantia; mso-bidi-font-family: Constantia;">The next step will be to decide what we can do. How we can
channel our activism and idealism. But I walked away inspired all
the same – and reminded that to start changing the conversation we need to
actively invite people to join in.</span><span style="font-family: Constantia;"> </span></div>
</div>
Jessica Landerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16118568033865933320noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6209505730442594193.post-49625887685122155052014-09-07T06:23:00.002-07:002014-09-07T06:24:32.840-07:00Back to School<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div class="MsoNormal">
The lines snacked past the rows of rainbow Post-it notes,
boxes of mechanical pencils, and 3-ring binders. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Staples,
</i>the office supply store, is a traffic jam of red carts and slowly expanding
backpacks.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This summer <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Staples</i> ran a crowd-sourced commercial
of people showing off their excitement for back-to-school sales by busting out
shopping cart moves (a gimmicky 1980’s dance move). <o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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For the first time in five years, I’m joining the crowds,
piling my own shopping cart high with binders, notebooks, pencils, pens, and
reams of lined paper. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Two days ago I
entered my new classroom, backpack filled, papers pristine and took a seat
facing the blackboard. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I’ve swapped
curriculum development and activity plans for problem sets analyzing
standardized testing and books on leadership styles.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
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As a master's student at Harvard’s School of Education I’m
staying up late – no longer grading stacks of essays, but poring over readings
on the economic trade-offs of countries seeking to provide greater access and
greater quality education. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Over lunch I fall
into conversations about the possibilities of creating mobile teacher corps in
Tanzania and drawing out production possibility frontier charts on the tops of takeout
boxes. <o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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I must say it is rather fun to be a student again.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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My classmates come from teaching in larger inner-city public
schools and from small charter schools. They come from large consulting firms, law
offices, college admissions, think-tanks, research centers, Pre-K classrooms,
middle school classrooms, high school classrooms. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And they come from as far away as South Korea
and Tanzania.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Having talked to just a handful
of my 650+ new classmates I have learned that our ambitions are equally diverse,
but that we share a common passion for improving what is happening in schools
around the world. <o:p></o:p></div>
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As the autumn air begins to turn crisp, I hope you will join
me on this new adventure – sharing in the conversations, experiments, and ideas
that will be filling my weeks.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And while
I might not be getting on a plane to a destination thousands of miles away, I
am confident that come May I will have covered a great distance. <o:p></o:p></div>
</div>
Jessica Landerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16118568033865933320noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6209505730442594193.post-52141810561729947302014-08-01T06:52:00.004-07:002014-08-01T06:52:41.996-07:00Exploring the Everyday<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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I have walked by the rambling façade of #500 and for years never
knew it was the childhood home of America’s first serial killer.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I have biked to the village store countless
times and not once noticed, as I sped by, the overgrown road that was once bustling
with mills and factories.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I have driven frequently
past a particular farm-stand, often stopping to buy eggs, but I amassed a tower
of egg-cartons before I learned that the tiny two acre farm was home to 12
miniature horses, 100 chickens, a peach and plum orchard and a maple syrup
shack. <o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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I have become captivated by these kinds of stories – the
stories that rarely make the front page of the newspaper.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The stories that surround us, but that are
often muffled by the commotion of our daily lives. <o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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Five years ago I began exploring the small town of Gilmanton,
New Hampshire, where I spent my childhood summers. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I followed farmers up into the fields and visited
elderly residents in their living rooms.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>I traced town border stones camouflaged in the woods and I explored
shaded cemeteries with moss-shrouded gravestones.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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The stories I found were truly remarkable.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I met <span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Trebuchet MS";">Valerie,
who tends sixty-five goats, home-schools ten children and crafts artisanal goat
cheese; Jim and Cheryl, who raise miniature horses, flocks of chickens and long
eared rabbits and cultivate orchards of peaches and plums all on two tiny
acres; </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">Duncan, a third
generation farmer, who harvests thousands of pounds of wild blueberries every
summer; Chuck who runs a six-generation dairy farm; and </span><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Trebuchet MS";">David – a fireman, carpenter, town
selectman and nearly one hundred year old storyteller.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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This summer my nonfiction book <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Driving Backwards </i>was published – a portrait of small town life. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>As I have shared <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Driving Backwards</i> with communities in New England and up and down
the Atlantic seaboard, I have been struck anew by the vitality of these
everyday lives and the sheer density of orbiting stories. <o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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And as we head now into the heat of August I would like to
make a suggestion. August heat has a way of stretching out the days like taffy.
For many, the month is linked to family: an adventure to a new place, a retreat
to a childhood home, or even a few days spent in the quiet of one’s own neighborhood.
<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I would like to urge you to take
advantage of the sedated pace to listen more closely to the lives and the
stories that surround you in your everyday.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span><o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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Often the particulars of our neighborhoods fade to little
more than backdrop. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But, if you slow
down just enough to listen and to ask, I think you will find that the everyday
lives of the people around you are often remarkable. <o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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I would urge you to drive a little slower down that dirt
road you’ve motored down countless times before; perhaps pause when buying a
tomato from a farmers market and ask the farmer about the history of the farm;
perhaps drop by the local fire department on a quiet afternoon and learn a
little about what it takes to be a fireman; or perhaps cross the street, join your
90-year-old neighbor on her porch and let her regale you with stories. <o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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Most likely they will be stories you’ve never heard. They
will be raucous and lively and vivid and poignant.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Hopefully they will make you pause.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And perhaps, like me, you will marvel at the
quiet vibrancy that surrounds us. <o:p></o:p></div>
</div>
Jessica Landerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16118568033865933320noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6209505730442594193.post-47433352499015512072014-05-15T08:14:00.002-07:002014-05-15T08:21:44.655-07:00Driving Backwards<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
It is extremely exciting for me to share with everyone that my first book Driving Backwards is being published and is shipping from the press next week! Driving Backwards has been a five-year exploration, a project I initially embarked upon as a sophomore at Princeton University.<br />
<br />
I hope you will check out my new <a href="http://www.jessicalander.com/">website</a> and that you will consider <a href="http://www.tidepoolpress.com/book.php?bk=11">buying</a> Driving Backwards. I will be spending much of the next few months marketing the book. On that note if you have ideas for where I can reach out to, libraries you could ask to purchase a copy, book groups that might consider reading it, or even if you would be willing to host a book reading I would love to know and would be very grateful!<br />
<br />
As a sneak preview below is the opening page of Driving Backwards…..<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj6UrBEROh9i0ZcaI2Qv7n3ThiqXCUNyIX-BB0iC8ysTwWqoUGEQ3J_Ebs7LbfBprez0RaPc76mfQ8PzV_UG24bXQnlCW3vKrU99QYKSCHD2eNYIyDGkVd_mZOVQ-4Sc1uuX9uqmkh3aCXj/s1600/Driving+Backwards+Cover.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj6UrBEROh9i0ZcaI2Qv7n3ThiqXCUNyIX-BB0iC8ysTwWqoUGEQ3J_Ebs7LbfBprez0RaPc76mfQ8PzV_UG24bXQnlCW3vKrU99QYKSCHD2eNYIyDGkVd_mZOVQ-4Sc1uuX9uqmkh3aCXj/s1600/Driving+Backwards+Cover.jpg" height="200" width="136" /></a></div>
<br />
<br />
In two months, David Bickford will turn 100. <br />
<br />
One hundred is an age when memories have often faded with time, details become jumbled and lost, conversation turns repetitive. But, David has forgotten nothing. His memories are vivid pictures of the past. When he tells of neighborhood dances half a century ago, he remembers the day of the week and who was feeling under the weather. When a story includes a rainstorm, likely as not he knows the number of inches that fell. David re- counts stories as if they happened the previous day. Nearly one hundred years of yesterdays.<br />
<br />
Now, David lives alone. He buys his own groceries, mows his own lawn and grows his own robust tomato plants in plastic pots next to the house. David used to feast on tomatoes as a teen, eating them as you would an apple, but he has since developed allergies. Nevertheless, each year finds him checking fastidiously for hornworms and laying fertilizer.<br />
<br />
Four years ago in 2009, David’s roof developed a leak. He climbed slowly, methodically, up to patch it himself. He gathered sheets of asphalt roofing and caulking for the journey. He took with him too a four-pronged cane that usually rests by the door. The cane is a precaution only, an occasional means of steadying against the slant. In public, he never employs the cane. “It would,” he confides, “make me look like an old geezer!”<br />
<br />
Wrinkles collect like a maple bark along David’s neck, but hardly any place else. His voice is low and soft around the edges. He laughs often. When he smiles, wrinkles do appear: his whole face crinkles upward. His hands are burled; his fingers angle out. His handwriting is tight and precise. He favors red ballpoint pens. David dresses simply, in white button-downs tucked into slacks— blue or olive-green. He bends to tie his own shoes and, when he rises again, he mimics pines in verticality. David credits his elongated countenance to Native American ancestry, four generations back. He wears thin-rimmed oval bifocals over light blue eyes and each day he reads two local newspapers in their entirety. He wears his white hair short. His next haircut will be free—a hundredth- year birthday present promised by his barber.<br />
<br />
In nearly a century of living, David has been, among other things, a farmer, a carpenter, a mechanic, a fireman and a town selectman. I know him best as a storyteller….<br />
<br />
<br /></div>
Jessica Landerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16118568033865933320noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6209505730442594193.post-45352792823792064052014-02-18T04:19:00.003-08:002014-02-18T04:19:47.078-08:00General Assembly <div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div class="MsoNormal">
In the last month I have acquired a United Nations of adult
learners.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I have students from Haiti,
the Dominican Republic and Brazil, as well as students from Vietnam, Japan and
India. I have two Chinese students and, in the last week, I have gained a Tibetan
couple. From Africa, I have students representing Somalia, Ethiopia, Algeria
and Morocco.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And from Europe, there is a
single delegate from Turkey, a young teacher who came to America only five
months ago.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
More than a quarter of Cambridge residents were born
overseas, hailing from more than eighty countries.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In kitchens, studies, and living rooms across
the city, families converse in sixty tongues.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>But, while at home a family might chat in Creole, Cantonese or Khmer, on
the streets of Cambridge they must get by in English. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
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Since January I have been piloting an online English class
for students, sponsored by the city and a local non-profit. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Whereas the majority of immigrants seeking to
improve their English can choose from a buffet of in-person classes, family-care
obligations or jobs with long hours prevent many from enrolling. They have had
to make do on their own – often sweeping up only a dusting of phrases.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
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We are designing our online program for such students – a mother
with a third son still in a stroller and a young man who works long shifts as a
dishwasher in a home for the elderly. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They are determined women and men who scrape
together hours from around the edges of long workdays, meal preparation and
diaper changes to sit in front of a computer and study the future tense.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
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America has long run on the determination of such
immigrants.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Already I have acquired over
twenty such students.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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I meet my students only once.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>After they enroll, classes exist only in a
virtual universe. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I watch their progress
from afar, edit their writing as they submit it online and send along emails of
encouragement.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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My students are of all ages and their stories are as
diverse.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>A woman younger than me, newly
married in her home country, arrived only last month; an older woman has lived
in Boston for over a decade, working in cancer research and sending her
daughter to Boston University. <o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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I have many mothers in my class.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The youngest bring their children to our
initial meeting – a young boy with a Thomas the Tank Engine hat, an infant with
big black eyes swaddled in puffy down. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Some speak of jobs they had back in their home
countries – they were kindergarten teachers and religion teachers and computer
engineers.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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I am vividly reminded of when I first landed in Thailand
over three years ago.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I knew only the number
of words and phrases that could be crammed into an hour crash-course.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Life in that first month was distilled to the
basics: how to successfully order soup with pork balls, how to tell a bus
driver an address, how to haggle for a mango in the market.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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Foreigners do not often make an effort to learn Thai, which
became an unanticipated boon for my own stumbling progress in the language.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Everywhere drivers and vendors encouraged my
limited Thai with smiles, listening as I mangled their tones and distorted
their words.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They were patient and coaxing
and on more than one occasion put down a spatula to provide an impromptu Thai
lesson right there on the side of the road.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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I would suspect that my students have not had a similar
experience on the streets of America. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We
are perhaps, as a nation, not always so patient with new immigrants, not as
forgiving, not as disposed to set aside time to listen to and encourage a stranger’s
halting English. Rather than be excited that an immigrant can speak some English,
many people take those skills for granted.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>A woman arrived at
our meeting last week pushing a stroller. A round-faced boy with ruddy checks
and a firm grip peered out at us.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I
begin these meetings with simple questions: “Where do you live?” “When did you
come to the US?” “What country did you come from?”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>A student’s English level is quickly apparent
and I correspondingly steer the conversation into different streams of nuance
or simplicity. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Even the most basic questions were beyond this
woman’s ability.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>After five false
starts, she handed me a cell phone and I dialed her husband, whose English was impeccable.
And yet, despite lacking even rudimentary English, she had found her way to the
center: she had navigated the streets and the buses. She wanted to learn.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>A week later I was following her slow but
steady progress online as she practiced each successive lesson.<o:p></o:p></div>
</div>
Jessica Landerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16118568033865933320noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6209505730442594193.post-60749790073596142572014-01-10T08:46:00.003-08:002014-01-10T08:47:37.729-08:00The Thane and I<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
Recently Published on the Folger Shakespeare Library Blog <i><a href="http://folgereducation.wordpress.com/2014/01/09/adapting-macbeth-in-thailand-the-thane-and-i/" target="_blank">Making A Scene</a></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="color: white;">The large dented cauldrons of spicy
green curry, red curry and duck soup were cloaked in hovering fog and steamy
air of the monsoon season.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It was
evening at the Gate Market in the heart of the old city of Chiang Mai, in
Northern Thailand. As I slurped a bowl of noodles so spicy it induced tears,
all I could think about was Macbeth. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="color: white;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="color: white;">Three days fresh from college
graduation, I had boarded a plane bound for a one-year teaching fellowship at
the prestigious Chiang Mai University.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Growing up, my favorite musical was Rodger’s
and Hammerstein’s <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The</i> <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">King and I</i>, the story of Anna, hired by
the King of Thailand to tutor the royal children. I was forever singing the
lyrics to <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Getting to Know You</i>,
beginning with Anna’s declaration that “When you become a teacher, by your
students you’ll be taught.” Now, heading to classes as a young teacher, I could
not help but think of Anna. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="color: white;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="color: white;">By day I guided a hundred and fifty university students in my
elementary-level English classes through the intricacies of usage between “say”
and “tell”.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But, I wanted something
more: I wanted to teach theater. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>So, I approached my colleagues in the English Department
with an ambitious plan. The students in the university’s English Club staged an
annual play in English – Cinderella last year.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Hesitantly, I proposed to direct Macbeth – my favorite Shakespeare ever
since I played the First Witch and Macduff’s doomed son in a 7<sup>th</sup>
grade production.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The department was
dubious – the language would be too difficult.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>I persisted.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Auditions were set. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="color: white;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="color: white;">But our
real challenge was not the play’s language, but its content. In one of the last
countries with a revered king, I was preparing to stage a regicide.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="color: white;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="color: white;">While monarchies worldwide have
become nearly obsolete, the Kingdom of Thailand’s ruling line remains
robust.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>King Bhumibol Adulyadej, or Rama
IX, has sat on the throne longer than any other current ruler.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He is the great-great-great
grandson of the famed monarch who had hired Anna.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="color: white;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="color: white;">Arriving in Chiang Mai, I
discovered that <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The King and I</i> was
banned. The king is endowed with near-divine status, and is protected from
slander by strict <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">lese majeste</i> laws:
Anna’s irreverence to the king crossed the line.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Adapting Macbeth would not be as simple as
robing Shakespeare’s characters in traditional Lanna-style sarongs. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="color: white;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="color: white;">I found that Thai students were
reluctant to engage in open political discourse.
In college classes in the U.S., I had been inspired by the boundary-defying
nature of theater. I wanted to draw my students into political discussion, to
have them think critically about the parallels and differences between East and
West.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Yet it was crucial we remain
respectful of the monarchy and of Thai cultural traditions.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="color: white;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="color: white;">We began adapting Shakespeare.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Macbeth, the Thane of Cawdor, and the other
thanes would be Thai politicians. The ghostly apparitions would be conjured
through Thai shadow puppetry.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The
witches became street children, who sell jasmine garlands at night across
Chiang Mai.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="color: white; mso-spacerun: yes;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="color: white;">We erred on the side of
caution.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We nixed the colors red and
yellow, being too closely associated to the two rival political parties, and
opted for a neutral orange. We modified the traditional Thai sword on our
poster, because it resembled the weapons favored by the monarchy.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>When I suggested that the play end with
Macduff placing a foot on the severed head of the Scottish tyrant, the actor,
an otherwise modern and outspoken junior, refused.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In Thailand the head is the most sacred part
of the body.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The feet are the lowliest.
I dropped the idea quickly.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="color: white;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="color: white;">In the jungle gardens of the
university, we discussed modern politics – twenty college students debating
thanes and politicians.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>One girl brought
up corruption, relating how she had been offered bribes for her vote in a local
election.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Another girl drew an analogy
between the recently ousted Thai prime minister and Macbeth. After one
rehearsal, a student caught me on the way out: “I
hardly ever have these discussions with anyone but a few close friends.” <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: white;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="color: white;">The night of the first performance
arrived. The lights dimmed on Thai rock music, and three street children ran
giggling onto the stage, asking: “When shall we three meet again?”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: white;">The following Monday, I met with my
freshman English class who I had assigned to see the show.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I asked them to identify the Thai elements in
the production – expecting such responses as: the attire, the puppetry, the
traditional Thai greetings.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: white; mso-spacerun: yes;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="color: white;">One girl raised her hand:
“Macbeth’s final speech.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>She was
referring to Macbeth’s final soliloquy: “Tomorrow and
Tomorrow and Tomorrow, creeps in this petty pace from day to day… Life's
but a walking shadow, a poor player…It is a tale told by an idiot, full of
sound and fury, signifying nothing.” <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: white;">Confused,
I pressed her to explain. “He’s describing the teachings of the Buddha.” Macbeth
had finally realized the insignificance of his vaulting ambition – a first step
toward enlightenment in Buddhism. I was dumbfounded.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I had read Macbeth, studied Macbeth and acted
in Macbeth – never once had I drawn the parallel. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: white;">Miss Anna
had gotten it right. I had set out to teach my students Shakespeare. But, in the end, by my students I was
taught. </span><o:p></o:p></div>
</div>
Jessica Landerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16118568033865933320noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6209505730442594193.post-7493420033514298462013-05-07T11:49:00.000-07:002013-05-07T11:49:05.624-07:00In Memoriam<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
Reposted from <a href="http://www.bostonglobe.com/opinion/2013/05/07/podium-teacher/YSfnJIHMXw8MRjoCUnCTwN/story.html" target="_blank">The Boston Globe Opinion's</a> page: </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Two weeks ago my 2<sup>nd</sup> grade teacher quietly passed
away. From what I’ve since learned he
had taken a personal health leave from my elementary school where he has
inspired and nurtured first and second graders for the last thirty years. <o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
He had long battled depression, and last week chose to end
that battle. But as a student of his
long ago, I would never have guessed he was unhappy. He always smiled in the classroom.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
As students, specifically seven-year-olds, our teachers
exist for us within the confines of the classroom. They spring into being with cheery smiles and
a bounce in their step as we stow lunch boxes and head to morning meeting. They retreat again at 3 o’clock with the
lines of carpooling parents and yellow school buses. <o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
For me, my teacher Jim was always summed up simply – a
sketch by a seven-year-old mind. He was
tall but not imposing and grew a bushy beard.
He always smiled. He favored flannel and wore Birkenstocks no
matter the weather. <o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I have recently discovered these contradictions of the
classroom as I have returned to school, this time as a teacher myself. While students might fail to conceive of
teachers outside the classroom, I now know for us teachers – our students are
never far from our thoughts. My students
do not cease to exist with the school bell, rather they continue to run wild in
my thoughts late into the night as I agonize over the girl who struggles with a
math concept or the boy who can’t sit still for five minutes straight.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
In the classroom we as teachers are the sounding boards and
documentarians for our students’ lives – we hear about the birthday party
plans, the antics of a younger sibling and last night’s fried chicken. We hang up our lives, our worries and our
concerns and cloak ourselves with those of our students. <o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
At seven, I was just the same. On a recent foray to the basement I unearthed
a cardboard box filled with relics of 2<sup>nd</sup> grade. Jim had us write every day. I have uncovered fifteen manila journals
filled with elaborate and atrociously spelled stories detailing trips to
relatives, to friends’ houses, describing home cooked meals and depicting
colorful baseball caps we once bought on vacation. <o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
We all were eager to share our everydays – just as my
students are now. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
And Jim always listened – listened with such intensity that
each of us came away feeling that our stories and our lives were remarkable.
When my youngest brother was born in November, I brought him in at three weeks
old for show and tell. When Passover
came in April, Jim was invited to our Seder.
<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Teaching made me appreciate the duality of a teacher’s
life. My own teacher’s death last week
made me realize how I saw my own teachers the same way. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Looking back I am ashamed to realize that I knew very little
about Jim. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The only thing I do know definitively was that Jim loved
nearby Punkatasset Pond. Year after
year, every first and second grade class spent an afternoon at the pond, poking
at the water’s edge and exploring the surrounding trails. I remember building
tree forts out of sticks and catching tadpoles in mesh nets. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Even years later when I returned to the school to visit my
favorite teachers, my conversations with Jim continued to center around me –
what classes I was taking, what art or what writing I was engaged in. For me Jim, as well as all of my teachers,
continued to exist within the confines of school. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
My second grade teacher was not a famous person; his
obituary when it runs will be modest.
But I think it is worth pausing to consider the devotion of great
teachers. Almost everyone has had at
least one – men and women who listened to you, supported you and made you feel
special. Like great parents, great teachers have a
herculean ability to maintain two completely separate lives – successfully
hiding personal struggles in order to show only warmth and support for the
students they teach. Theirs is a selfless
commitment to the lives of others.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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Jim was one such teacher – always there to listen, with
complete and absolute focus, to the adventures of a seven-year old, always
there with a smile, and always wearing Birkenstocks – no matter the weather.</div>
<!--EndFragment--></div>
Jessica Landerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16118568033865933320noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6209505730442594193.post-58898813419845107362013-03-03T14:52:00.003-08:002013-03-05T07:35:02.940-08:007 O'Clock News<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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I woke up early on the day I left Cambodia. It was the monthly cleaning in the dorm and I
had offered to help. I found myself
scrubbing the kitchen tiles at 6am – back and forth, back and forth. My students were wide awake, and playing music
while they worked. And while I scrubbed
I could not help thinking back over what I had observed while living in Cambodia
and pondering what lay in store for these young women who hoped to become doctors
and lawyers and businesswomen.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
***********************<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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The weekend before I left Cambodia I traveled south to visit
the home of one of my students. She
lives in Kampot, one of the southern provinces near the Vietnam border. It is a province that was once famous across
Europe for its pepper, but whose plantations were decimated during the Khmer
Rouge. My student is studying to become a midwife,
but toying with switching to international relations. Her parents are bakers; they bake a thousand baguettes
a day. <o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
We spent Chinese New Year with her family: kneeling and
lighting incense and sending up prayers in the perfumed smoke and sharing a feast
of stews and noodle dishes -- eat more, eat more -- prepared by her mother. <o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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<div style="text-align: left;">
<i>The New York Times
reported that in the northern forests of Rattanakiri and Mondolkiri Chinese
Companies are illegally logging teakwood and rosewood from protected
forests. Last April a leading Khmer
environmental activist was shot dead following an encounter with local police. America’s National Public Radio recently reported
how early this September a local journalist who had exposed a connection
between local military officials and the foreign companies was found chopped to
pieces in the trunk of his car. <o:p></o:p></i></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
In my final week I make a round of my favorite markets and sought
out the older women who had conversed with me as I practiced my rudimentary
Khmer. <o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
There was the grandmother with the broad smile who sat on
used styrofoam boxes and sold me mangoes and pomelos. There was the mother who sold dried fish, who
had promised to find me a Khmer husband and had given me a curl of brilliant
red dried snake and who, on learning I was leaving, packed up some of her best
sausages from Siem Reap and refused to accept a single 1,000 riel note. There was the grandmother who sold jewelry and
who always sat me down to converse and who made me practice the Khmer words for
earring and necklace and bracelet. For her
I printed out a picture I had taken of both of us months back. I have been told by a friend that the picture
now hangs on the wall of her shop. <o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i>The BBC reported that
Khmer journalist and radio host Mam Sonando has now been imprisoned for the
third time. A longtime critic of the
ruling party Sonando’s radio program is widely considered as one of the few
strong voices for democracy. In this
most recent arrest, Sonando was charged with inciting a separatist plot in a
provincial community that protested last spring against a rubber plant company
accused of illegal land grabs. The protest led to soldiers firing into a crowd
and the death of a teenage girl. Late
this fall Sonando was tried and sentenced to 20 years in prison. <o:p></o:p></i></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
One night during my last week I went out for soup and BBQ
with one of my students. For the past
month-and-a-half I have been working with her on the art of public
speaking. In the middle of January she
competed in the final round of a British sponsored public speaking competition
in front of an audience of two hundred.
In the upstairs kitchen of the dorm we had practiced possible questions:
How could you address the issue of prostitution? How could you increase tourism in
Cambodia? Should women become leaders? Between
questions, we fell into discussions about the future. She is a law student with aspirations to work
in the public sector. Next year she
will study in America, having won a scholarship. Afterwards, she plans to
return home. There is much she wants to
change. <o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i>With national
elections on the horizon in July, a series of laws are being brought before
parliament. The Cambodia Daily – one of two English language newspapers – has been
covering the developments: One law would prevent parties from “insulting” each
other – effectively curbing criticism of the ruling party. Another law would prevent lawyers from
talking to the press without the approval of the Bar Association. <o:p></o:p></i></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
On the Wednesday before I left, the women at the dorm threw
me a farewell party. There was a
boom-box and a table heavy with sodas and curry and platters of peppered meat
and sliced green tomatoes. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
These girls -- who are usually so studious; who wake up at
5:30 to clean and to buy groceries and to cook; who then study, attend class
and come back and continue studying -- tore up the courtyard with their dance
moves. We danced and we danced and we
danced: Gangnam style, Bollywood, Call Me Maybe, Traditional Khmer, Korean Pop.
<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i>Over the Chinese New
Year, early this February, The Cambodia Daily reported, two hundred military
and police personnel from Phnom Penh flocked to the mansion of a prominent
Senator’s wife, who lavished the armed forces with traditional red envelopes
filled with cash “gifts.” </i><i>“We are military forces and we are also
assistants to her,” said one waiting officer. “We always help with whatever she
needs help with.”<o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
In our weekly news discussions my students talked about the
case of the red envelopes. It was 9pm
and the mosquitoes were out in full force.
The girls were in pajamas, but there was no yawning. Everyone had their books open, their pens out
and were busily scratching notes. Two of
the girls presented a researched history of the senator’s wife. They highlighted her connection to a major
company in charge of land seizures taking place across the country. As the clock hands closed on 10pm, they
debated. No solutions were devised before
the girls dispersed to last-minute exam studying that stretched late into the
night. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i>According to the
Cambodia Daily, late one Sunday night in January a truck driver was
transporting chilies on the north side of Phnom Penh. He was stopped by two veteran policemen at an
unofficial roadblock who demanded a 2,000 Riel bribe (the equivalent of 50
cents). The truck driver refused. When he attempted to drive away, the police
threw rocks at his mirror. When the
truck driver got out to inspect the damage, the policemen shot him in the chest
before fleeing the scene. The
truck-driver’s wife and sister rushed him to a local hospital, where he
survived to tell the story to reporters. <o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
On Valentine’s Day the girls and I drove to a park in the
center of the city where a crowd was gathering.
For weeks now we had been practicing the moves to the <i>One Billion Rising</i> flash mob dance – a
dance performed all across the world on the 14<sup>th</sup> to raise awareness
about violence against women. The song had been on constant repeat in the
dorm as the women danced. We were
wearing identical black shirts with our logo in red and white, on the back: a
heart composed of handprints around the Khmer word “Stop Violence.”<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i>The Cambodia Daily
reported that last spring a 60-year-old woman was set alight by her husband
in Kampot province. Fifty percent of the
woman’s body suffered burns that day. Months
later some of the wounds are still oozing and infected. Her husband, a long time soldier was never
charged. The police said that no
complaint had been filed against the man and noted that he was ill: his hands
had been burned in the process of burning his wife.<o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i>The Phnom Penh Post published a story about the most recent attack on a tourist, which happened
over Chinese New Year: the naked body of a twenty-five-year-old French woman washed
up on the shores of the main river in Kampot.
Lacerations were found on her head and body; rape has not yet been ruled
out. The police have no suspects or
leads. I was staying barely two miles
away, in the sleepy center of town, when the murder must have taken place, but
I did not learn of it until I read the newspaper the following morning, safe in
Phnom Penh. <o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The night before I left, my students and I went on a boat
cruise down the muddy Tonle Sap River. We bought spiced lotus seeds and sweetened
iced teas. The sun was setting, tinting
the water orange and yellow and red and gilding the swooped roof of the Royal
Palace. We spread out along the rail,
chatting, laughing, taking silly pictures.
My students are so busy studying that rarely do they relax enough to have
an adventure: only half of them had ever been on the river before. As the sky darkened there were more pictures
and a little dancing on the top deck. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i>For the 40<sup>th</sup>
year in a row, the US-based <u>Freedom House</u>, which assesses the state of
political rights and civil liberties in countries around the world, ranked
Cambodia as “not free.” 2012 has not
been an encouraging year for the country.
The New York-based <u>Human Rights Watch</u> and the international <u>Reporters
Without Borders</u> both highlighted a decline in both political freedom and
human rights.<o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I left Cambodia on a Sunday.
Normally I would have said my goodbyes at the dorm and caught a tuktuk
alone, riding out through the bustle and the dust to the airport. But my students would have none of that. A dozen women insisted on accompanying me to
the airport, my own personal escort.
None have ridden an airplane and only a few had even been to the airport
before – to greet a returning aunt or uncle. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
At the airport they arranged themselves on the benches. There was an hour before the check-in counter
opened and despite my assurance that they need not wait, they stayed with me. We talked and laughed and reminisced about the
Shakespeare we had performed and the puppet show we had attended. We took
pictures: group shots and funny poses.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Then it was time for me to pass through security. There was a last round of hugs, final goodbyes. I waved as they walked back towards their
motos -- to drive back into the city, back to the dorm, to studying, to classes
and to constructing their futures. I
waved until I could not see them anymore, then I hoisted my backpack onto my
shoulders and turned toward my flight. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Sources: </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: xx-small;"><a href="http://rendezvous.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/05/06/a-killing-reverberates-from-a-cambodian-forest/">http://rendezvous.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/05/06/a-killing-reverberates-from-a-cambodian-forest/</a><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: xx-small;"><a href="http://www.npr.org/2013/01/30/170691575/chinas-insatiable-demand-for-timber-destroys-cambodias-forests">http://www.npr.org/2013/01/30/170691575/chinas-insatiable-demand-for-timber-destroys-cambodias-forests</a><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: xx-small;"><a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-19783123"><i>http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-19783123</i></a><i><o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: xx-small;"><a href="http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/hun-sen-says-opponents-are-training-youths-to-insult-him-8829/">http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/hun-sen-says-opponents-are-training-youths-to-insult-him-8829/</a><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraph">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: xx-small;"><a href="http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/gag-order-on-lawyers-sparked-by-comments-in-mfone-case-10015/">http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/gag-order-on-lawyers-sparked-by-comments-in-mfone-case-10015/</a><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: xx-small;"><a href="http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/senators-wife-showers-police-military-with-new-year-cash-9831/">http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/senators-wife-showers-police-military-with-new-year-cash-9831/</a><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: xx-small;"><a href="http://www.freedomhouse.org/country/cambodia">http://www.freedomhouse.org/country/cambodia</a><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: xx-small;"><a href="http://en.rsf.org/press-freedom-index-2011-2012,1043.html">http://en.rsf.org/press-freedom-index-2011-2012,1043.html</a><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: xx-small;"><a href="http://www.hrw.org/world-report-2012/world-report-2012-cambodia">http://www.hrw.org/world-report-2012/world-report-2012-cambodia</a></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: xx-small;"><a href="http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/police-officer-shoots-man-for-refusing-to-pay-traffic-bribe-8646/">http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/police-officer-shoots-man-for-refusing-to-pay-traffic-bribe-8646/</a><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: xx-small;"><a href="http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/in-cambodia-the-silent-scourge-of-domestic-abuse-8064/"><i>http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/in-cambodia-the-silent-scourge-of-domestic-abuse-8064/</i></a><i><o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
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<a href="http://www.phnompenhpost.com/2013021161266/National/young-french-woman-found-dead-in-kampot.html"><i><span style="font-size: xx-small;">http://www.phnompenhpost.com/2013021161266/National/young-french-woman-found-dead-in-kampot.html</span></i></a><i><o:p></o:p></i></div>
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Jessica Landerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16118568033865933320noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6209505730442594193.post-84854805724892794162013-02-17T07:11:00.000-08:002013-02-17T07:37:55.072-08:00Angka’s Judge<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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Hanging above the violet-robed men and women is an image of
an ancient judge. He is dressed in the
traditional formal attire of an Angkor official, seated cross-legged on a dais,
sword in hand. <o:p></o:p></div>
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The emblem hangs in the courtroom alongside the UN’s blue
and white and Cambodia’s blue and red. The judges, lawyers and court staff work
behind glass, stage-like, in a large, darkened auditorium. <o:p></o:p></div>
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This is the ECCC, the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts
of Cambodia – a quasi-national and international tribunal established in 2003
to bring to justice the puppet masters of Pol Pot’s genocide. <o:p></o:p></div>
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The Khmer Rouge Tribunal is located thirty minutes outside
the center of the capital, far from the construction, the tall buildings and the
bustle. You drive past the airport and
continue out a ways, until you reach a nondescript guard post. There you turn and drive down a dirt road
lined with trees till you reach the stand alone buildings of the court.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Anyone can attend the hearings. I went on a Tuesday, relinquishing my phone
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small contraband of purses and pockets – candies, containers of tiger balm and
packets of betel nut. <o:p></o:p></div>
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Everyday men and women from the countryside are bused in to
watch the halting steps of justice. Mainly older women fill the seats of the auditorium –
women with shaved heads, sarongs, white cotton shirts and checkered karma; women
who do not see many foreigners and who smile and nod at me and squeeze my arms;
grandmothers and mothers who would have been young women during Pol Pot’s
regime. <o:p></o:p></div>
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In the thirty-four years since the fall of the Khmer Rouge
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prison. That man was <i>not</i> Pol Pot. Pol Pot died in his house fourteen years ago
– possibly from a heart attack, possibly from suicide – the same night he
learned that he would be tried by an international tribunal.<o:p></o:p></div>
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As of now, the only person serving time for the murder of
two million Cambodians is the man nick-named “Duch” (Kaing Guek Eav) who headed
Tuol Sleng Prision (S-21) in the heart of Phnom Penh. <o:p></o:p></div>
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At Tuol Sleng, Duch orchestrated the cleansing of traitors
and spies from Khmer society – extracting confessions under torture from
ten-year-old children and eighty year old grandmothers, ultimately condemning over
twelve thousand people to death. <o:p></o:p></div>
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After hiding for 21 years, Duch was discovered by a
photo-journalist 13 years ago. He was
the first to be tried by the ECCC in 2007 and three years later was found
guilty of crimes against humanity. <o:p></o:p></div>
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We are now deep into trial 002. Thirty-four years later. Three men stand accused: Nuon Chea, Ieng Sary
and Khieu Samphan. Originally there was
also one woman – Ieng Sary’s wife Ieng Thirith, originally charged with planning
and directing mass purges and killings.
But she was released a year ago due to severe Alzheimer’s. She is one of the few who has been able to
forget. <b><o:p></o:p></b></div>
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The morning I visit the trial, the prosecution was in the
midst of presenting documentary evidence against the three men. <o:p></o:p></div>
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TV screens project close ups of the lawyers and speakers
project the proceedings into the auditorium in Khmer. As one of four foreigners, I am given a
headset that translates into English and French. <o:p></o:p></div>
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The process is slow, slightly stiff. The lawyers read from a six-inch-thick
binder, referencing previously presented evidence and citing numbered
documents.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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The prosecution plays a video interview with Nuon Chea, also
known as Brother Number Two, who was Pol Pot’s right hand man. In the video the interviewer asks <o:p></o:p></div>
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Nuon Chea why children, as young as ten, were conscripted
into the Khmer Rouge army. “They were fighting for social equality that they
haven’t had since the 2<sup>nd</sup> Angkor Period.” “But why children?” “I ignore the reasons…Without
Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge Cambodia would have been in the hands of the Vietnamese.”<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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Nuon Chea is absent from the courtroom. He has been in and out of the hospital for
months now, most recently with acute bronchitis. Khieu Samphan, former head of state is also
frequently in the hospital. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The orchestrators of Democratic Kampuchea, the men and women
who worked for the almighty, faceless <i>Angka</i>,
are slowly dying. But almost all remain
uncharged.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The trials churn painstakingly onwards.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
In the courtroom the morning session is adjourned. In the auditorium we rise. The judges file out of the room. <o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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Off to the side Khieu Samphan and Ieng Sary are helped to
their feet. They have been sitting
silently the whole time, off to the side, behind their lawyers. They are small men now. They are wrinkled and sunken-eyed –
disturbingly easy to overlook in the grandeur of the courtroom. <o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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A guard helps them each to their feet and, as they are led haltingly
away, a white curtain slides across the glass of the courtroom – hiding it all
from view.<o:p></o:p></div>
<!--EndFragment--></div>
Jessica Landerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16118568033865933320noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6209505730442594193.post-49631947694934067542013-02-15T16:51:00.001-08:002013-02-15T19:46:08.337-08:00All the World’s a Stage<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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How does one translate “All the World’s A Stage” into the
ancient language of Khmer?<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;">
Once again I have found myself teaching Shakespeare in an
unusual environment. Last year in
Boston, I explored the elements of the story with 6<sup>th</sup> graders and probed
the emotional transformation of the bard’s characters with teenagers. The year before, at a Thai university, our
focus was the adaptation to a South East Asian setting. <o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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Here, in the Kingdom of Cambodia, reading, listening,
writing and speaking Shakespeare with Khmer college freshman and sophomores, our focal
point has been the language. <o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;">
In past years, I relied upon my childhood favorite –
Macbeth. But here, I am surrounded by
empowered young Khmer women working to break the stereotypes of the role of women in
Cambodian society. When it comes to choosing an appropriate Shakespeare play, there
is an obvious choice. <o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;">
What better play than “As You Like It”?<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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The play is a stark contrast to the romantic Khmer soaps my
students are always watching, where woman are always seen weeping or imploring
their men to return.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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Rosalind does not weep and she certainly does not beg. Instead she stands up to her uncle, dresses
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the forest of Arden, and does not wait for any man to rescue her. <o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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And so we began. <o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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“All the world’s a stage,” proclaims the melancholy courtier
Jaques. And in the dusty city of Phnom
Penh, the streets and roads, but most particularly our dorm, became our stage. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;">
The transformation took less than a week <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;">
These young women took Jaques’ words to heart. They practiced in their rooms and in the
hallways and in the kitchen. They
repeated their lines on their Motos en route to school. <o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;">
Within a week they were quoting their lines to each other –
saying good bye with a joking “I do desire we be better strangers” or “Goodbye Signior
Love.”<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;">
Our Khmer Orlando embraced her role so fully that she
altered her Facebook name to reflect her Shakespearean name. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;">
To understand the full story we watched a movie adaptation.
Whenever a student’s character walked on screen the particular student would
correspondingly blush, or nod in agreement, or tease the others. <o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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To introduce iambic pentameter I hung sonnets throughout the
dorm. I found students studying the
sonnets in the bathrooms and the kitchens, trying to read them out loud and
decipher their meaning.<o:p></o:p></div>
<!--EndFragment--><br />
<div style="text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<br />
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<br />
Mostly we practiced. We
deciphered meanings of words and phrases: what does it mean when Rosalind
charges her cousin to “take the cork out of thy mouth that I may drink thy
tidings?” We practiced pronunciations :“she”
particularly challenging to Khmer speakers: Shepard Shepard Shepard.<br />
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“O Rosalind!” the girl playing Orlando exclaimed from the
dorm balcony, causing at least one neighbor to turn from their laundry to look
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After a month of exploration it was time to perform. <o:p></o:p></div>
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We selected costumes and reviewed blocking. And then, one Sunday afternoon, we drove to
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graduates and 20 visiting Americans. <o:p></o:p></div>
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The girls changed into their costumes – pants, “manly”
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And then they were walking out on stage, my roommate
inspecting audience members before pronouncing in a loud clear voice: “All the
world’s a stage and all the men and women are merely players.”</div>
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Be it in inner-city Charlestown MA, the mountain city of
Chiang Mai or the dusty capital of Phnom Penh, Shakespeare has captured the
fascination of my students. Yes,
Shakespeare is extremely difficult. Yes,
the language sounds weird and the meanings are complex.<o:p></o:p></div>
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I love teaching Shakespeare because I believe that it is
challenging but also empowering. These
nine women rose to the challenge and I believe that these young Khmer women,
who I have had the honor of living with and teaching, are all modern Rosalinds.
<o:p></o:p></div>
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I look forward to watching their individual performances in
the years ahead. <o:p></o:p></div>
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Jessica Landerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16118568033865933320noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6209505730442594193.post-45980643123083488832013-02-10T18:14:00.003-08:002013-02-11T08:29:16.738-08:00Farewell, in Black and White<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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“All radios and TV stations as well as entertainment places
must suspend broadcasting joyful spectacles,” read the decree signed by
Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen.</div>
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<br /></div>
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For three months now, truckloads of mourners have been
driving the dusty roads into the capital.
They have come from all across Cambodia, from the cities and from the
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They have driven up the central boulevards and along the
quay. Bringing pink-tipped lotus buds
and bundles of incense, they come to sit in front of the Grand Palace to pay homage
to the late King Father Norodom Sihanouk, former King of Cambodia.<o:p></o:p></div>
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I arrived in Cambodia not long after the King Father had
passed away, from a heart attack, in Beijing at the age of 89. The country was in mourning. Large images of Sihanouk draped in black and
white ribbons were everywhere across Phnom Penh. In the public park across from the royal
palace construction proceeded at a rapid rate, as a red and gold stupa fit for
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We have now come to the final days of mourning, the official
seven days spanning the opening week of February. No music or TV shows may broadcast episodes
that might make one laugh. Silky blue and red flags fly half mast, circling
ferries on the Tonle Sap have switched off their engines, and the city’s main
arteries are blockaded against the usual swell of traffic. The boulevards to the palace feel only the
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Early on the first of February, I donned a white blouse and
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headed out to the center of the city to attend the King’s funeral procession.<o:p></o:p></div>
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We drove as far as roadblocks would permit. Police congregated at the gates allowing in
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sweatshirt over her formal clothing. A
police officer stopped her in the road with a reprimand. He pointed at me, “See even the foreigners
pay their respects.” Chagrinned, she
stuffed the jacket into her bag and only then were we allowed to pass the
barricades and walk on foot up Norodom Boulevard to the towering mauve
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It was a morning of waiting.
We sat on the grass as the day grew hotter and the crowd larger. But the atmosphere, despite the numbers, was
subdued: thousands of men and women and children, all in black and white, on
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Across the city thousands of people were doing the same –
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the King Father’s body. <o:p></o:p></div>
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Monks in brilliant orange congregated in groups and crouched
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blessings as the king’s coffin passed. <o:p></o:p></div>
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black and white ribbons. On a grass
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Somewhere farther north, many blocks up, the king’s body was
making its final tour of Phnom Penh. The
cremation ceremony, which according to the government costs 1.2 million dollars (but
others speculate ran to 5 million), began at 8:10 with the Royal Cambodian
Armed Forces piercing the muggy air with a 101-gun artillery salute. Preceded by flocks of startled pigeons, the
funeral procession began a march up the packed but quiet streets of Phnom Penh towards
the towering stupa of Wat Phnom. <o:p></o:p></div>
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The four-day funeral ceremony follows, as precisely as
possible, documents detailing the funerals of past Cambodian kings –stretching
from the 20<sup>th</sup> century all the way back to the processions held to
honor the Angkor kings 800 years ago and inscribed in carvings in Siem
Reap. Only small nods to modernity have
been allowed – a metal funeral pyre has replaced wood ones and there is no
longer a parade of elephants through the streets of Phnom Penh. <o:p></o:p></div>
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Down at Independence Monument we listened to updates over
the loudspeakers. We sat with a woman who shared with us cobs of boiled
corn. Helicopters circled overhead – one
so low to the ground that the crowd was buffeted by wind and grit. <o:p></o:p></div>
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Despite the hundreds of thousands of people spread along the
main roads there was no crush, no shouting, no pushing. Over the loud speakers the approach of the
procession was trumpeted and, with a communal sigh, the crowd kneeled. We kneeled, knees to the gritty pavement. And we waited. A young man looking back as I shifted weight
passed me one of his flip-flops to kneel on. <o:p></o:p></div>
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With the sound of drums the procession rounded the
monument. Subdued and stately, men and
women in colorful uniforms marched praying crowd: members of the army, members
of the navy, members of the Red Cross youth, members of the Royal Palace
staff. Glittering floats headed with
tens of mythical nagas carrying the king’s crown, floats shaped as the mythical
– Hamsas – bird bearing members of the royal family, members of parliament. A delegation of Cambodian Muslims dressed in
white playing long stringed instruments, a delegation of Cambodian Chinese clashing
cymbals, a delegation of the ethnic minority from the forested Ratanakiri
Province. The young man on whose shoe I
was kneeling leaned back, “All Cambodians, from all communities come to honor
the King.”</div>
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For an American with a firm belief in democracy, such
displays of grief for a monarch might be unnerving. Having lived for some time in the neighboring
monarchy of Thailand, I have garnered an appreciation for the power of a King
in the eyes of his subjects. <o:p></o:p></div>
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Who was Norodom Sihanouk?<o:p></o:p></div>
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Norodom Sihanouk was crowned King of Cambodia in 1941 in the
midst of World War II at the age of 19. It was a time for young kings – neighboring
Thailand would put the teenage Bhumibol Adulyadej on the throne four years
later. <o:p></o:p></div>
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For Cambodians the king father is larger than life, but even
for those who are dubious about the power of monarchy his accomplishments are
impressive. <o:p></o:p></div>
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Most notably, it was under King Sihanouk that Cambodia won independence from France. But his
reign was not velvet lined. In the 1950’s
he chose to abdicate the throne to become Cambodia’s first prime minister,
leading Cambodia into twenty years of peace and development.<br />
<br />
Cambodia's growth and peace were shattered by the geo-political strife of the Cold War, and particularly the Vietnam War. Aligning himself with communist China, the King found himself ousted by a United States backed coup d'etat against him. Shortly after being reinstated through an alliance with the Khmer Rouge, Pol Pot turned against him, holding him hostage for the remainder of the regime. He would lose five of his fourteen children to the war and genocide. After the Vietnamese invasion, he lived in exile in North Korea and in China, finally to be reinstated as King and then finally to abdicate a second time in 2004 in favor of his son, the present King
Norodom Sihamoni.<br />
<o:p></o:p></div>
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It has been six turbulent decades for the Kingdom of
Cambodia. <o:p></o:p></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhbN4151IeHuo-5BwlUgPTZXGI9x0EEaTmQTvh87XLpP2KAbzCut9XnAmT1K7H9lVb3zjAv-56xVrLbjBiSp-8TPDr9-twsGPd5ERsf8M4Q402MiJ346VKlVHqQp_2clrUMtWiCX4qnO1lv/s1600/IMG_2251.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhbN4151IeHuo-5BwlUgPTZXGI9x0EEaTmQTvh87XLpP2KAbzCut9XnAmT1K7H9lVb3zjAv-56xVrLbjBiSp-8TPDr9-twsGPd5ERsf8M4Q402MiJ346VKlVHqQp_2clrUMtWiCX4qnO1lv/s320/IMG_2251.JPG" width="320" /></a></div>
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And then, as we kneeled on the ground of the road, the
king’s coffin, bedecked in jasmine flowers floated past. Past the chanting monks, past the military
dignitaries, past the thousands of mourners from the city and from the countryside,
past the towering monument to the Independence King Sihanouk won from France over
fifty years ago. </div>
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On Saturday I walked all the way to the Palace along the
quay. The day was hot, the sun strong,
but still mourners covered the grass, congregating in pockets of shade, taking
pictures next to the parked floats of gilded nagas. Some have been here for days, sleeping out in
cardboard boxes to be close to their king.
Several old Buddhist nuns have not left the palace since the
day in October when the King’s body was returned to Cambodia from Beijing. <o:p></o:p></div>
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At the entrance to the cremation site a line was forming,
and – because no one stopped me – I joined the queue. As we
reached the front there was a slight commotion with guards deciding whether
foreigners would be allowed entrance.
“I’m sorry you are journalists, you have big cameras you can’t enter.”
Then “only foreigners with papers can enter”.
Then “we are checking.” Then “I’m sorry no foreigners can enter.” About to leave, a high-ranking police officer
strode over to the small collection of foreigners: “What are they doing? Of
course they must be allowed to enter.
Let them through.”<o:p></o:p></div>
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The site of the cremation shines in new paint. From an aerial view on television, it takes
on the appearance of poor CGI effects.
The ground is a flat-toned yellow, the roofs a matte red with painted
lines to suggest tiles. Large displays
of white plastic roses are everywhere. <o:p></o:p></div>
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Quietly we were ushered around the central crematorium,
kneeling with the crowd in respect, the jasmine covered coffin high above us. <o:p></o:p></div>
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I returned to the palace Monday evening – the night of the
cremation. Thousands of mourners filled
the park leading up to the Palace. Food
sellers laid mats on the sidewalks and busied themselves cooking skewers of
meat and boiled baby ducks still in the shell (a local favorite.) There were corn sellers and cotton candy
sellers and men and women peddling laminated images of the king. <o:p></o:p></div>
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On this last day the cremation site was reserved for the
dignitaries: The French Prime Minister, the Japanese Prince, senior officials
from China and from other Southeast Asian countries. <o:p></o:p></div>
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Present too were 405 former prisoners – former drug sellers
and thieves, some accused of rape and some accused of murder, but all pardoned
and released in honor of the cremation.
Their first free steps were to pay respect to the King Father. <o:p></o:p></div>
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Barricades were erected on the street running the length of
the palace. As the sky darkened we knelt again on the road amidst thousands and
waited. <o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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I know, but I did not see, that the King of Cambodia,
Norodom Sihamoni, and the Queen Mother gave the final prayer through tears and
carried candles to light the pyre. I did
not see the body of the King Father turn to ash. Neither did the people of Cambodia, for in
the final moments flowing white curtains enclosed the gold coffin shielding the
conflagration from view. <o:p></o:p></div>
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A 101-gun artillery salute broke the mournful quiet,
followed by the bursting of fireworks along the Tonle Sap. The crowd clambered to its feet pointing
upwards as the first billows of smoke rose up into the night sky, over the
palace and outwards over Phnom Penh. <o:p></o:p></div>
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Jessica Landerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16118568033865933320noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6209505730442594193.post-45182286056171283872013-02-02T01:31:00.002-08:002013-02-02T01:36:42.300-08:00Stupas and Scaffolding <div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">The temples of
Phnom Penh are lonely places. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">They lack the
glittering tiles and gilded facades of neighboring Thailand. They are painted in flat creams and beiges
and are lost among the hasty construction of a developing city.'<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEitWrwFd3N9VFf3re0Hi3YqbMqffkLh5uABtlIN4Tm8bBFkYjVra86oGSCbwq51lFA7cZgNiXs9KexwNPTzPL4C0m3tjb0uWLTUd8SGbG41AbnHjcQw885vhquQuV4GoG5Ug8k9B6IjHbeM/s1600/IMG_1782.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEitWrwFd3N9VFf3re0Hi3YqbMqffkLh5uABtlIN4Tm8bBFkYjVra86oGSCbwq51lFA7cZgNiXs9KexwNPTzPL4C0m3tjb0uWLTUd8SGbG41AbnHjcQw885vhquQuV4GoG5Ug8k9B6IjHbeM/s400/IMG_1782.jpg" width="300" /></span></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Although
ninety-five percent of Cambodians practice Buddhism, the majority of temples I
have wandered into across the city are almost entirely devoid of worshipers.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">When I lived in
Thailand one could not walk a block in the city without stumbling upon a temple
and, while the temples were packed only on major religious holidays, the temple
doors were always open, and the insides always elaborately covered in red
carpeting, murals and displays of towering gilded and wood carved Buddhas. On any day there could always be found a few
families or old woman bearing offerings. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">But here in
Phnom Penh the doors to many temples remain shut. Gates have been erected around them, some
locked. The courtyards go un-swept and
often double as extra storage space for dusty bags of cement and bamboo scaffolding
for construction projects. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjEevXfg56LtDTOx6KBPgFx1CjuIcoBgKRCCL_3GiznG0VmqkIR9PgDGRC6HNWEuZ3srS2w6-kBOhJlNtNtrEiZsz_IWt1rcUKV1WzliJx5xsf0byACP54iMy85011gz5mpcC7t1bCqJm9o/s1600/IMG_1775.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjEevXfg56LtDTOx6KBPgFx1CjuIcoBgKRCCL_3GiznG0VmqkIR9PgDGRC6HNWEuZ3srS2w6-kBOhJlNtNtrEiZsz_IWt1rcUKV1WzliJx5xsf0byACP54iMy85011gz5mpcC7t1bCqJm9o/s400/IMG_1775.JPG" width="400" /></span></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">I have stayed
for a time on the edge of one such courtyard, sitting on the worn wooden steps
leading up to a young man’s shack. The
young man, who turned out to be a mechanic and repairman of sorts, had invited
me to rest and we spoke briefly in my broken Khmer, while looking out through
palm fronds on the cracked tiles, piles of debris and gilded lion statues. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">This past
December the New York Times ran an article analyzing the declining relevance of
Buddhism in Thailand. “The temples were
once the heart of village life, serving as meeting places, guesthouses and
community centers. But many have become little more than ornaments of the past,
marginalized by a shortage of monks and an increasingly secular society.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhanHQMBJDkPQBPeBGvXb7UbYJzXCWpiHimEuc6ub0hKgTfRgaQ26lFjZ6AaY2zpPcrb4Jeshg5tURDsQaGCKGQ8swcNxBn9XDEs_0xagAoHAUz0sCTAhQ3G8CFV3piXv6bKoFEP8tW3jDq/s1600/IMG_1774.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhanHQMBJDkPQBPeBGvXb7UbYJzXCWpiHimEuc6ub0hKgTfRgaQ26lFjZ6AaY2zpPcrb4Jeshg5tURDsQaGCKGQ8swcNxBn9XDEs_0xagAoHAUz0sCTAhQ3G8CFV3piXv6bKoFEP8tW3jDq/s400/IMG_1774.jpg" width="300" /></span></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">In Cambodia, the
decline is far starker. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">During their
four years of genocide, the Khmer Rouge targeted – among other groups – monks,
effectively exterminating almost the entire religious order. They did away with <i>wats</i> as well, destroying most of them and converting the remaining few
into arsenals, prisons and execution yards. At the temples of Angkor, bullet holes have
added a layer of violent carving atop the12th Century dancing Apsara reliefs. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjwLw4_GOEqLkiTiuiVbpUDkeZ50CvvSiGaQG4YGDPHGhUzvtp-DWHHl4v4smhkUBrWfjLVzG6J6j5PQN-LdUAtl_XZjzUP3rrsA4A3ns2gSAj_fhvmSwqDKoOYknNsW-xYfgrXdefVLMp5/s1600/IMG_1755.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjwLw4_GOEqLkiTiuiVbpUDkeZ50CvvSiGaQG4YGDPHGhUzvtp-DWHHl4v4smhkUBrWfjLVzG6J6j5PQN-LdUAtl_XZjzUP3rrsA4A3ns2gSAj_fhvmSwqDKoOYknNsW-xYfgrXdefVLMp5/s400/IMG_1755.JPG" width="400" /></span></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Like many
aspects of Cambodian society, temples are still in the midst of a slow
recovery. Thailand’s robust religious tradition
never suffered direct attack and yet still religious relevance is waning with
the influences of modernity. It is hard
to predict the fate of the temples of Phnom Penh. It is hard to guess whether the bags of
cement and poles of scaffolding filling the courtyards of pagodas will be used
to repair the past or continue upwards, constructing more skyscrapers,
storefronts and apartment buildings. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiJXvxd9NodHRCtQHCr6jvbQt-LhwL05mbe16qTz72uDOYiqtVwiCActZM7waZc-LYO8MqYujNbBlPGts4B0NtPsCy09qQJCE4VsOQIYeZIoxBWn0U3KJ03ATuTfNeoMmLNRVbOI4V-7vMu/s1600/IMG_2052.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiJXvxd9NodHRCtQHCr6jvbQt-LhwL05mbe16qTz72uDOYiqtVwiCActZM7waZc-LYO8MqYujNbBlPGts4B0NtPsCy09qQJCE4VsOQIYeZIoxBWn0U3KJ03ATuTfNeoMmLNRVbOI4V-7vMu/s400/IMG_2052.jpg" width="300" /></span></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<o:p><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: x-small;"><br /></span></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<o:p><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: xx-small;">Source: </span></o:p></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: xx-small;">http://www.nytimes.com/2012/12/19/world/asia/thai-buddhist-monks-struggle-to-stay-relevant.html?smid=fb-share&_r=0</span><o:p></o:p></div>
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Jessica Landerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16118568033865933320noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6209505730442594193.post-77766631334174408892013-01-29T18:56:00.002-08:002013-01-30T19:18:39.826-08:00Sorority Sisters<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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This is not your average college setting. There are no raucous parties and no missed 10
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For the past two months I have lived amongst thirty-four
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These women come from all across the Kingdom of Cambodia,
from Battambang province on the Northern Thai border and from Svey Rieng
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These women were at the top of their high school classes. They came to Phnom Penh to study in the hopes
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My two Khmer roommates wake up at 5:30. They help clean the
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At 7:30, having been up for hours already, they are off to class. <o:p></o:p></div>
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Their fathers and mothers are the children of the Khmer
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fishermen, bakers, market fruit sellers.
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ubiquitous. <o:p></o:p></div>
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After university classes, they return to our dorm for
supplemental classes and informal conversations in the afternoons and evenings.
<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Late at night I hold classes on figurative language,
creative writing, and, for the past month and a half – Shakespeare (more to
come soon). <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Four times a week two of the women select an article from
the Cambodia Daily (one of two English language newspapers in the country) and
create a presentation for their peers.
They do background research, boil down the main issues and try to solve issues
raised by the articles. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
They present this– often late at night – to couches filled with their sisters. And then they discuss. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Near midnight last Wednesday my dorm room was filled with
women preparing and discussing and organizing their presentations. One of my Khmer roommates discussed the Khmer
Rouge employees continuing demands to be paid their salaries with two others on the floor. Simultaneously, three of us huddled around my
bed analyzing the challenges that Japanese land investments in Burma pose to
local farmers. .</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Between classes, we laugh a lot. I share American idioms with my dorm-mates and
they teach me Khmer tongue twisters. I now know what to say if I ever see a
pregnant spider spit poison in the forest.
(<i>Ping peang pong penh pous pruah
per penh prey</i>.) <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
We sit on mats on the floor eating bowls of rice with a
fried fish, or cabbage salad, or sauted chicken liver and chicken feet. On occasion I have lent a hand in the kitchen
– setting the gaggle of girls who came to watch (not believing I could cook for
thirty-four) to chopping mangoes and red peppers and cubing hunks of pork. Apparently the dish – despite all the dubious
predictions – was a success. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I stay up late discussing the Vietnam War with my roommate,
and I wake up early on Sunday mornings to join in traditional Apsara dancing
with a small collection of women. Together we bend our fingers back and contort
our limbs into stylized poses. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The Harpswell Foundation created the Boeng Trabek dormitory,
the first of two for Cambodian women, back in 2006. Besides providing a living space and a small
food stipend, the foundations hopes to cultivate critical thinkers and
empowered women. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
There are now eighty women in all spread over two dorms. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
In all my time living, traveling and teaching in South East
Asia I have never met a more intellectually curious and sharp-minded group of
young women. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
These women are smart, curious, thoughtful, confident and
most of all unendingly hardworking. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
But occasionally even they need to relax. And so I attempt to infuse a little of the spontaneity
of American college experience into the rigor of our Phnom Penh dorm. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I have whisked the girls off to join in one of the outdoor
exercise classes held on the public boulevards, we have walked the streets
munching steamed corn, and once we adventured out into the night to attend a
traditional outdoor Khmer puppet show performance. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
One night, a few weeks ago, I called a conference of all the
sisters late at night for an “Emergency Meeting.” Confused and curious they abandoned their
studies and gathered, filling the couches and spilling out to sit on the floor.
<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
It was exam time and all the women had tests and exams and
final papers. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
“At my college,” I explained, “when we got to exam time, we
often did something absurd and funny to take a break from studying and let our
minds relax.” <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I pulled out envelopes filled with clues for a scavenger
hunt and for the next hour the dorm was brimming with shrieks and laughs and
the pounding of many feet as women ran up and down the dorm in search of the
answers to riddles. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
There may be no bleary-eyed students or booze, but in the
end they are still young women: even future leaders of a struggling nation need
time to do something silly. <o:p></o:p></div>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEimBeioVPwtYDSJWm-7U8YohI8m0rlMyrDSBRh42akFhakOfjK505UM-xVKhd-LDsAXtzdLIRbUa_DQzavylccXNfmlFWGQuUrS0XEZiPwJazfygxw6BNzHsNWk_4vtKUKPy4iHSIHpYdAo/s1600/IMG_1829.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEimBeioVPwtYDSJWm-7U8YohI8m0rlMyrDSBRh42akFhakOfjK505UM-xVKhd-LDsAXtzdLIRbUa_DQzavylccXNfmlFWGQuUrS0XEZiPwJazfygxw6BNzHsNWk_4vtKUKPy4iHSIHpYdAo/s400/IMG_1829.JPG" width="400" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<!--EndFragment--></div>
Jessica Landerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16118568033865933320noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6209505730442594193.post-52394313047728708902013-01-25T19:39:00.003-08:002013-01-25T19:39:43.565-08:00To Market, to Market<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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There is a mosaic of crushed river clams on the sidewalks
and streets of Phnom Penh. Hatted
peddlers traverse the city pushing blue carts spread with clams tossed in
chili, garlic, salt, sugar and sometimes lemongrass. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
There is a congregation of clam sellers that park their cart
on a side street in the slum where I live.
In the morning the sellers can be found sprinkling spices on a line of
trays. In the evenings the trays are
parked again on the street. A collection
of half-dressed children chew and suck on leftover bivalves. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjachgEOAr1RQh2pb90STfXYywolXnRjS25pMGpf8ABTJQOQNHbIzP5a-0ELcHODGpH_3WuWn5ZqjjQAV1TTMIDHewUDm7aZxaUb32g2aef6X8u4CNYfRXIogPck1gqNjvjcHtXhxF_zm6F/s1600/IMG_1074.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjachgEOAr1RQh2pb90STfXYywolXnRjS25pMGpf8ABTJQOQNHbIzP5a-0ELcHODGpH_3WuWn5ZqjjQAV1TTMIDHewUDm7aZxaUb32g2aef6X8u4CNYfRXIogPck1gqNjvjcHtXhxF_zm6F/s320/IMG_1074.jpg" width="240" /></a></div>
<br />
During the day the clam sellers push their carts along the
streets. The sidewalks are too uneven,
with upended tiles. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Instead sidewalks are used for impromptu food stands with
stubby tables and foot-high plastic stools.
Sidewalks are for hammocks slung between trees. And sidewalks are for barbershops – long
lines of barbershops: a chair, a mirror propped against a wall, a table holding
scissors and razors, an awning against the sun.
Halos of black hair clippings accumulate on the sidewalk tiles. <o:p></o:p><br />
<br />
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</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
But the real business of the city happens in the markets. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The markets of Phnom Penh are crowded, low-slung affairs
with dim lighting and narrow alleys between the sellers. There is Russian Market, named for a time
when Russians dominated the foreign demographic. The market now hosts few Russians, but many
tourists and trinkets to entice them.
There is the French-colonial Central Market, painted egg-yolk yellow
with a grand central hall filled with jewelry sellers and extending branches of
clothes shops, pillow stands, cooking equipment, cleaning supplies and curled
and pinned wigs of fake, styled hair. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Hole-in-the wall hair stands are everywhere in the markets
of Phnom Penh. Lines and lines of women
being shampooed, only an aisle or two away from mattress shops, soup stands, or
meat stalls with intestines strung up like tinsel. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I have woken early to accompany my roommate on the dorm’s
daily shopping expedition at our local market.
Bong Trabiek market used to be a lake, now it is a maze of half-erected
food stalls with narrow aisles of broken tiles and mud. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Slabs of meat and collections of hanging pig hooves. Troughs of flopping silver fish. The most exuberant ones successfully fling
themselves out into the muddy walkway where they writhe until the seller
notices and throws them back in the trough.
The process repeats. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
We amass onions, eggs, peppers, chilies, two chickens. I lean back to avoid a man carrying an entire
pig carcass, its body cleaved in two with one bloody half draped over each of
the man’s shoulders. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Where in other countries I might venture into the markets
for the delicious aromas and enticing platters of food, I have found that the
food here is not what draws me to the markets.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Guidebooks proclaim that Cambodian cuisine is subtly elegant
– and it is if you can pay for the subtlety.
The food lacks the spicy kick of Thailand or the platters of fresh
spring rolls and greens common in Vietnamese cooking. There is slow steamed fish in coconut –
Amok, and sautéed beef – Lok Lak. But
food prices have continued to increase at a rate faster then the rate of
income. Khmer meals, for those without
wealth, center around heaping bowls of rice and a small piece of protein –
perhaps a fingerling of dried fish or a couple cubes of meat. Perhaps this is yet another residue of years
of civil war and genocide, perhaps it is a sign of an imbalanced economy. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEipVDHC2-ZwvwyJsJ2Dve0ukoSQPV1kfqSKFHLlS2kBh3Yr13pdbJ454U6jvo648aOcGxRfUgP8TXt7tW1bEjxoYPi9wozVr0l8Wu0HSB0kBYpmOwng1qsoESsaX3Kd_olG3gJH3cIOmr4d/s1600/IMG_1194.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEipVDHC2-ZwvwyJsJ2Dve0ukoSQPV1kfqSKFHLlS2kBh3Yr13pdbJ454U6jvo648aOcGxRfUgP8TXt7tW1bEjxoYPi9wozVr0l8Wu0HSB0kBYpmOwng1qsoESsaX3Kd_olG3gJH3cIOmr4d/s320/IMG_1194.JPG" width="320" /></a></div>
<br />
I head to markets for different reasons. My favorite market is a hot twenty-minute
walk up Monivong road. BKK market – a
microcosm of a market on a manageable scale.
<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
But if one wants to take on the market of all markets, one
must head to Orssay.<br />
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg_jhGRww6Iz1OgJrT46aehiUGlteaU8twuBLLA4bndVbwhdp7kKxIq-d6o2t6LJ37hSAA1zEIrL9ZNHVsPwcyKSc2aLsuNyllH57PMUKf9Nm9sEyObtt4A7QsQy_JD9fmrOHx2rx5w9Anv/s1600/IMG_1209.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg_jhGRww6Iz1OgJrT46aehiUGlteaU8twuBLLA4bndVbwhdp7kKxIq-d6o2t6LJ37hSAA1zEIrL9ZNHVsPwcyKSc2aLsuNyllH57PMUKf9Nm9sEyObtt4A7QsQy_JD9fmrOHx2rx5w9Anv/s320/IMG_1209.jpg" width="240" /></a></div>
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Orssay is three floors tall, possible four – it is hard to
tell with all the stairways and warrens of stalls. One walks through vast blocks of sections at
Orssay. You are surrounded by only moto
parts, then only by raw meat, then plastic bags of rice, then glittering red
and gold Chinese New Year decorations, then drapes of silk, then hanging garlands of dried fish, silvery fish, chalky
white salted fish. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Stands are small and square and sellers string hammocks up
and sleep suspended among their goods.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi60IC3CUTOQXlqKiKBLSNCsXSAYyVT11JNo0pPXQwGsDMXB1pD8pV0GRC8WS-FTehaBV7_oWAHNMPz5yi0BRt4A2pRaaEesi5cYunMsI0R7JefjSic9DEft0VW43s1154mM4Jr5YgH1idY/s1600/IMG_1179.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><br /><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi60IC3CUTOQXlqKiKBLSNCsXSAYyVT11JNo0pPXQwGsDMXB1pD8pV0GRC8WS-FTehaBV7_oWAHNMPz5yi0BRt4A2pRaaEesi5cYunMsI0R7JefjSic9DEft0VW43s1154mM4Jr5YgH1idY/s400/IMG_1179.JPG" width="400" /></a></div>
<br />
Orssay is a market for getting lost in. It is for pointing at and trying multi-colored
jellies bathed in watered down coconut milk.
It is for navigating between muddy puddles between buckets of squirming
fish and bubbling lobsters. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
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It is a market for
conversing (through my roommate who acted as translator) with an old women
selling dried meats who insisted that I was in need of a Khmer husband and gave
me, in parting, a small brilliant-red curl of dried snake. I am still unclear if there was a direct
connection. </div>
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<br />
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Jessica Landerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16118568033865933320noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6209505730442594193.post-70988652170056593952013-01-20T17:06:00.003-08:002013-01-20T17:06:57.356-08:00Fried Squid and Mistletoe<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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Penh, including the girls in our dormitory, from donning felt Santa Hats. <o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The country may be 95% Buddhist, but come the middle of
December the markets fill with miniature plastic Christmas trees, garlands of
tinsel and mini stands of flashing, multi-colored lights. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
“Happy Merry Christmas” signs abound. Christmas songs play in all the chic cafes
near independence monument.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<o:p><br /></o:p></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgH1QJdTl5SNUzNP7eEg9Tx0qoFydPM8BMfPB98xQmY1bvHS9jwQhWDe-myXeZT4okQgHM38qbnYEfPJboTntYRso7ZlQdArIr3aaoIz2Tf1kWLCDb5qObmEH3x4k51m-H7COSy-Jx8FZgo/s1600/IMG_0554.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgH1QJdTl5SNUzNP7eEg9Tx0qoFydPM8BMfPB98xQmY1bvHS9jwQhWDe-myXeZT4okQgHM38qbnYEfPJboTntYRso7ZlQdArIr3aaoIz2Tf1kWLCDb5qObmEH3x4k51m-H7COSy-Jx8FZgo/s400/IMG_0554.jpg" width="300" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Embracing the holiday spirit we bought a mini plastic fir
tree, strung up lights and tinsel and set about making paper snowflakes – notwithstanding
the fact that the girls at the dorm have never seen snow. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
And then, a day before Christmas Eve, the thirty-four girls
threw a Christmas party. Preparation
started early with a morning trip to the market. There followed a flurry of meat chopping and
lime squeezing. In the lazy heat of the afternoon a table was laid in the
courtyard and speakers were set up. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The spread was not classic Yuletide fare: fried squids with
pepper lime sauce and chili sauce, cold nests of rice noodles –thin and
latticed, hairy rambutans and fingerling bananas. But it was certainly festive. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
There was an exchange of gifts overzealously adorned with ribbons
,and lots of photographs. And then, the
dancing. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
With speaker blasting and music videos streaming the girls
danced late into the night – skipping and twirling and stamping. Gangnam Style followed by Rhinana, followed
by traditional Khmer Apsara dancing, followed by Bollywood, followed by Thai
Pop, followed by . . . more Gangnam Style.
The usually studious and demure students danced late into the night. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgirVKDsltiWKxJY_LgLaYmFAftQ6Bqa6ZwTLhe4v9PSk5fWfjcfCUNUSPqvWEnp3ebJtzE5F-ai4fho6TckGc2fZmj100R3v8yoIZXTw2UegxM6IaiTmmMd6vpED6rekrJXZRDfRWRPv6i/s1600/IMG_0504.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgirVKDsltiWKxJY_LgLaYmFAftQ6Bqa6ZwTLhe4v9PSk5fWfjcfCUNUSPqvWEnp3ebJtzE5F-ai4fho6TckGc2fZmj100R3v8yoIZXTw2UegxM6IaiTmmMd6vpED6rekrJXZRDfRWRPv6i/s320/IMG_0504.jpg" width="240" /></a></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
New Years was spent in a slightly colder climate – amid the
curving hills and towering skyscrapers of Hong Kong. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Two years ago I visited Hong Kong on the heels of
contracting dengue fever. I stayed with
my Princeton roommate (who was pregnant at the time) in the heat of the summer,
amidst storm warnings. We cooked
curries, indulged in cheese and pastries (Thailand lacks both) and ate dim sum
and hand pulled noodles.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Now, at the end of December, Hong Kong balances on the edge
of brisk and the men and women of the city don jackets and scarves. I again stayed with my roommate Shobi and was
introduced to the newest member of her family: nearly two year old Rania. I have become “Aunt Jess.”<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
In a compact two days we ate our way through many dim sums
and, in a throwback to our dorm lives, sipped even greater quantities of tea. We hiked along the Dragon’s Back trail in the
mountain over the city and then through the dense forest of apartment
skyscrapers many with protruding poles of laundry that flapped precariously in
the wind, thirty stories high or more. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgA2eXPvNlHmfO_SlbDbF9eniTSBFtp1qKylgSSKAoseQjXzUSvDmaZCCoaeZpZBUZvQxq2qJDbMf1B5TILRdxYYV43b6q9caYqGMQUgBpaAGlc90aKXHqxrM8XXehKIc2HKyvtWQoZOrxc/s1600/IMG_0653.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgA2eXPvNlHmfO_SlbDbF9eniTSBFtp1qKylgSSKAoseQjXzUSvDmaZCCoaeZpZBUZvQxq2qJDbMf1B5TILRdxYYV43b6q9caYqGMQUgBpaAGlc90aKXHqxrM8XXehKIc2HKyvtWQoZOrxc/s320/IMG_0653.JPG" width="320" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
For our New Year’s meal we taxied to the heart of the city
to an elegant eight-table restaurant serving up the spiciest Sichuan food I
have ever consumed. We ate our way
through an intimidating twelve courses, which quite literally brought tears to
my eyes. The most interesting was a
fried chicken with a Sichuan pepper: rather than having the expected burn, it
numbs your lips and then makes them feel as if they were actually bubbling and
frothing. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Driving back to Shobi’s apartment New Year’s Eve, I reveled
in the holiday spectacle – a light show of skyscrapers decked like Hallmark
Holiday cards with building-sized flashing Santas, reindeer, wrapped presents
and tree bobbles. </div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
We welcomed 2013 on the roof of a Hong Kong Apartment –
shivering in the cold, watching fireworks burst over the metropolis.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiJudXjYZskLC-7yqflVW0HjL5o24Am-iH-uZS-UMn8KbNbaEWr00ARu_SKldBUmRltW7FKl44XFN2cl-Tln-hcj8r_kthTs01Y8Dkkfx5o0D_suxcX-HBDCcJxa3INox6pgHe5TxaDzLUX/s1600/IMG_0671.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiJudXjYZskLC-7yqflVW0HjL5o24Am-iH-uZS-UMn8KbNbaEWr00ARu_SKldBUmRltW7FKl44XFN2cl-Tln-hcj8r_kthTs01Y8Dkkfx5o0D_suxcX-HBDCcJxa3INox6pgHe5TxaDzLUX/s400/IMG_0671.JPG" width="400" /></a></div>
<!--EndFragment--></div>
Jessica Landerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16118568033865933320noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6209505730442594193.post-22035526438456691702013-01-11T02:26:00.001-08:002013-01-11T22:33:02.326-08:00Going with the Flow<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<!--StartFragment-->
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
There are two small boys, heads shaven, draped in robes of
orange, taking pictures of each other.
They stand on the cement slope leading down to the muddy Tonle Sap River
patchy with clumps of detached riverweeds. <o:p></o:p></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgEQphk900_r1Dy13ZKGAhOVhKo9_j8fHCGURunWzuSJBhQdOSqlBCC-hUDRpKPBIxGwJNKgqwjcRQKDAx6Y6gydzE0pLV9AYjLsZafnmr5bqi4RahmP9BHC55NKby72dN_UfY2jLXFiUS7/s1600/IMG_0586.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgEQphk900_r1Dy13ZKGAhOVhKo9_j8fHCGURunWzuSJBhQdOSqlBCC-hUDRpKPBIxGwJNKgqwjcRQKDAx6Y6gydzE0pLV9AYjLsZafnmr5bqi4RahmP9BHC55NKby72dN_UfY2jLXFiUS7/s400/IMG_0586.JPG" width="400" /></a></div>
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For half the year the riverweeds float south, past the
capital. But, the Tonle Sap is fickle
and twice a year changes direction, flowing south during the dry seasons and north
– all the way to Tonle Sap Lake just south of Siem Reap and the jungle temples
of Angkor Wat and Angkor Thom – in the midst of the monsoons. The riverweeds go along for the ride, floating
back and forth in indecision. <o:p></o:p></div>
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It is early January and the river is flowing south. After traveling just under a hundred miles,
the Tonle Sap arrives here, at the promenade of downtown Phnom Penh and
caresses the edge of the city before merging with the Mekong. <o:p></o:p></div>
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The pedestrian boulevard along the riverfront is wide, tiled
and made for ambling in the Parisian style.
It is perhaps the single grandest architectural relic of colonization
left in the developing city. A line of
palms runs up the center providing little meaningful shade. When it is cool, in the early morning and
evening, the walkway fills: with street vendors – hawking grilled corn and
roasted tarantulas, with families out strolling, and with competing aerobic
classes dancing out a radio station’s worth of beats. <o:p></o:p></div>
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But now, in the heat of the day, the shadeless quay is empty
save for a few wandering tourists and a handful of street children selling bracelets
and pirated copies of books detailing the horrors of the Khmer Rouge.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjYZBKQBiMtlEQ-gKvoBkz3rW3AJfCrczCkI9j8_3sLU3WzEG2BpofNcHIEe4-RQpZgMxSy8LKT1Pxx_fS-J7evzJDF4HT1rbbsvv81N2ex4MpG5mSZHU_a1k1XKC5btw0Jy5-gj7Vx6dF_/s1600/IMG_0564.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjYZBKQBiMtlEQ-gKvoBkz3rW3AJfCrczCkI9j8_3sLU3WzEG2BpofNcHIEe4-RQpZgMxSy8LKT1Pxx_fS-J7evzJDF4HT1rbbsvv81N2ex4MpG5mSZHU_a1k1XKC5btw0Jy5-gj7Vx6dF_/s400/IMG_0564.JPG" width="400" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
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<div class="MsoNormal">
The road along the quay is lined with hotels – high class
and sleazy intermingled. Across the
doorway to one is hung a large banner: “Welcome Mr. Obama.” There are bars and pubs and an abundance of
pizza joints offering “Happy Herb Pizza Specials” in bold lettering. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Across the river sits Diamond Island. A spit of land filled with constructions sites
and half-erected buildings that might one day become a complex of luxury hotels. The girls at the dorm like to cruise the
island on their motos on days off. Two
years ago, while living in Thailand, I first read about the island when, during
the November Water Festival celebrating the Tonle Sap’s reversal, a stampede
erupted and 350 Khmer were crushed to death under the feet of thousands.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
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Up river, closer to the ill-fated bridge, a sewer valve
opens and putrid canal water, thick and opaque, gushes out into the river. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjdACeBTJUj9SJrP2sRbKAegBgjKx84Yx1vMOuJ_By9lUwAX7t1kkGCR8ZakVRQcMXlopZevo6YGkl6Z8zME_06WSdT8jFq9_lJofjteXXSD9_PT1iSKienvYBWXM8Qx_faM9X42ILS3KNx/s1600/IMG_0561.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjdACeBTJUj9SJrP2sRbKAegBgjKx84Yx1vMOuJ_By9lUwAX7t1kkGCR8ZakVRQcMXlopZevo6YGkl6Z8zME_06WSdT8jFq9_lJofjteXXSD9_PT1iSKienvYBWXM8Qx_faM9X42ILS3KNx/s400/IMG_0561.JPG" width="400" /></a></div>
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Boats cruise up and down the river. Large metal barges puffing smoke and shallow
fishing canoes with colorfully painted tips.
There are few boats of sizes in between.
The fishermen pull up along and moor along the riverweeds that are
profuse at the edge of the Tonle Sap.
There are fishermen too – both men and women – who walk down to the
water’s edge with extended fishing poles. <o:p></o:p></div>
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Near me, along the quay, where a row of international flags flap overhead, the two young monks are still taking pictures. They have stopped posing for each other. Instead they crouch down, sitting back on their heels, orange robes billowing around them. They hold the camera out, training the lens on the boats and the fisherman and Diamond Island and the Tonle Sap and all the floating riverweeds. Snap – they capture the scene.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjEIPISFvpfiCMsMXTQ25w62U873upmmNRYTmig-tI95_RNUZ7f7jqsDNRggfJh4N3I89dEtck506Dtb92n1nfsGcnFEmECvM5mFt9yNTYNQTJzb56uk93hBJ2q-QZitvipRFjst5r60GJO/s1600/IMG_0596.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjEIPISFvpfiCMsMXTQ25w62U873upmmNRYTmig-tI95_RNUZ7f7jqsDNRggfJh4N3I89dEtck506Dtb92n1nfsGcnFEmECvM5mFt9yNTYNQTJzb56uk93hBJ2q-QZitvipRFjst5r60GJO/s400/IMG_0596.JPG" width="400" /></a></div>
<!--EndFragment--></div>
Jessica Landerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16118568033865933320noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6209505730442594193.post-79532002175175724872013-01-07T09:17:00.002-08:002013-01-07T18:58:01.283-08:00Poisonous Trees <div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
There is still blood on the floor.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Thirty-four years later there remain splatters and smears that have seeped into the floor tiles of the classrooms.<o:p></o:p></div>
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The former secondary school occupies most of a block in a residential neighborhood, in the center of Phnom Penh. These days the blocks surrounding the school are lined with cafes, hole-in-the-wall convenient stores, a cupcake shop, a pink bubble-tea shop and a Korean travel agency.<o:p></o:p></div>
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When the Khmer Rouge took over Cambodia in 1975 they converted the school into their most notorious prison. They renamed it Security Prison 21 (S-21) and, over the course of four years, they imprisoned, tortured and killed nearly twenty thousand people during the years of genocide.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<o:p>Today Tuol Sleng prison is a museum and testament to the past. In Khmer, Tuol Sleng means “Hill of Poisonous Trees.”</o:p></div>
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<o:p><br /></o:p></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh9SPyRODbQmvdjznGXgP1lfyQCXnoYDJWPzl-BWKFQpKl0IwL2GZAhgMYFgViYhIHf42dH0LKDabeCbW4YODV0PDZtZJRD7Mu6DJHOGwzNHRquQDiPR1uTh6ElAiGIh2UH_SXJRrtFD61G/s1600/IMG_0739.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh9SPyRODbQmvdjznGXgP1lfyQCXnoYDJWPzl-BWKFQpKl0IwL2GZAhgMYFgViYhIHf42dH0LKDabeCbW4YODV0PDZtZJRD7Mu6DJHOGwzNHRquQDiPR1uTh6ElAiGIh2UH_SXJRrtFD61G/s320/IMG_0739.jpg" width="240" /></a></div>
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Today, January 7<sup>th</sup>, is Liberation Day, the day that the Khmer Rouge fell to Vietnamese forces. Today also marks the start of the Vietnamese occupation of Cambodia. Anniversaries depend on your perspective. In past years I have heard that there have been celebrations, even parades, at the towering mauve Independence Monument. Celebrations are subdued this year as the former king, Norodom Sihanouk has recently died and currently lies in state for a February funeral.<o:p></o:p></div>
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The Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum lacks the typical accouterments of a museum. There are no display cases, no descriptions. For the most part, the rooms are left as they were when the Vietnamese discovered the prison, drawn by the stench of rotting corpses, on January 8<sup>th</sup> 1979.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg6ImKlmWP2-7PWEjlSJALdC5ZJ1javhcLw3f1Q7hATeOiuODWXQf-PH0G1nbwk6B5A67ZQ2CcXF-vyF6zKjg8J2bg6fwRfhzm2UBuaBiMkrJP1wA2aOKuJRsmTnkYtdXLlD1yD4KHj7gS-/s1600/IMG_0729.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg6ImKlmWP2-7PWEjlSJALdC5ZJ1javhcLw3f1Q7hATeOiuODWXQf-PH0G1nbwk6B5A67ZQ2CcXF-vyF6zKjg8J2bg6fwRfhzm2UBuaBiMkrJP1wA2aOKuJRsmTnkYtdXLlD1yD4KHj7gS-/s320/IMG_0729.jpg" width="240" /></a></div>
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The first floor of Block A contains warped metal cots. The second floor: empty classrooms. The top floor is the same as the second, though school blackboards remain on the walls. Room after empty room, tiled in ochre and cream with hazy orange walls. <o:p></o:p></div>
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The repetition and the crowded emptiness is oppressive. The mind becomes unmoored into a sea of imaginings.<o:p></o:p></div>
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And then in the last room on the third floor: a bloody eddy of stumbling footprints.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgzcOUxEPUmIFtxvjDOAVse7_I0Ca0SWkJ3fFLg59OjGfHq1gMKZzDrTg-E84KzYlD7-Yfza4zmNMUKoNMcDH68mbhy9b9DFHypKyLXevm1KpFE4K-MRY42tHE6cLySpiPgebthNI-XT4b0/s1600/IMG_0737.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgzcOUxEPUmIFtxvjDOAVse7_I0Ca0SWkJ3fFLg59OjGfHq1gMKZzDrTg-E84KzYlD7-Yfza4zmNMUKoNMcDH68mbhy9b9DFHypKyLXevm1KpFE4K-MRY42tHE6cLySpiPgebthNI-XT4b0/s320/IMG_0737.JPG" width="320" /></a></div>
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Block B holds rows and rows of photographs.<br />
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The Khmer Rouge was methodical. Prisoners were given a number and forced to sit for photographs.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Men. Women. Grandparents. Babies. Most stare solemnly. Some appear confused. There are a few faces turned away, their eyes looking stubbornly to the side, in a final act of resistance. Only a few have the daring or the energy left to give the camera a defiant glare.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Room after room of faces. Unending.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh0ijvBSgIoXeCBwVJRovkzhWaZ3uoqpq9iciysE3wViEz0eAS7EeLd4vFklyjhRk2_CxxnReQc8khuPYRBWoffUvLCy9bccuwnQnJc1MGDn1lAwSEQy-UfHBrhTor3VbhHBMtuLnhsvM7u/s1600/IMG_0746.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh0ijvBSgIoXeCBwVJRovkzhWaZ3uoqpq9iciysE3wViEz0eAS7EeLd4vFklyjhRk2_CxxnReQc8khuPYRBWoffUvLCy9bccuwnQnJc1MGDn1lAwSEQy-UfHBrhTor3VbhHBMtuLnhsvM7u/s400/IMG_0746.jpg" width="300" /></a></div>
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Block C was for the common prisoners, the farmers and laborers. The classrooms here were divided – shoddy cells constructed of brick or wood. Crude doors were knocked between the classroom walls.<o:p></o:p></div>
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There are four classroom blocks, each three floors tall. They are set around a large yard that now contains palms and jackfruit trees and the white-washed, raised graves of fourteen final murders. A now-grassy area that was once a playground and once a yard for conducting torture. <o:p></o:p></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh1b11pQ2ROkAG4I5fJBrZ5I8UiABeZavVZOqCXEjCg6mIJnDiL-7E7JwEhJ5uLPZ_GtPT5x72W4-PzBa4Dalw3RhitOv4I1EybCmy192hj9qGwsJXPxqfJS-bRYLah4TjYpTvF-h8qJjbO/s1600/IMG_0789.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh1b11pQ2ROkAG4I5fJBrZ5I8UiABeZavVZOqCXEjCg6mIJnDiL-7E7JwEhJ5uLPZ_GtPT5x72W4-PzBa4Dalw3RhitOv4I1EybCmy192hj9qGwsJXPxqfJS-bRYLah4TjYpTvF-h8qJjbO/s320/IMG_0789.jpg" width="240" /></a></div>
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When the Khmer Rouge tired of torture, they smuggled the prisoners of S-21 out at night and trucked them out to an orchard outside the city called Choeung Ek. Here they lined the prisoners up and clubbed them to death. They did not shoot them: Bullets were too expensive.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Two years ago my dad and I traveled out to these Killing Fields. Past the gate stands a towering stupa of skulls. 5,000 skulls in total. There were more bodies, perhaps as many as 10,000 but many skulls have been crushed and many more remain buried. Past the stupa you can walk in the crater-filled orchards. The depressions are not the result of war bombs. They are the excavation of mass graves. When it rains bones emerge from the earth. Femurs, molars, the jigsaws of a cranium. Clothes blossom too. Ragged edges of the traditional checkered black and red <i>krama</i> scarves, the former sleeves of shirts, a two year old’s flounced jumper.<o:p></o:p></div>
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At some point, thirty years from now maybe as many as fifty years from now, when the monsoons come, bones and clothes will cease to sprout from the ground. Then there will only be the stories and recorded memories. The horrors of history will then no longer be so abrasively palpable.<o:p></o:p></div>
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It has been thirty-four years to the day since the fall of Pol Pot’s Democratic Kampuchea. The abandoned streets of Phnom Penh are filled once again. The roads are clogged with traffic, restaurants line the riverfront; construction projects are omnipresent. There are bustling universities and tour buses full of tourists.<o:p></o:p></div>
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There are also beggars – blind, missing arms, missing legs. Cambodia has one of the highest rates of amputees in the world, a result of an entire countryside seeded with landmines. There are countless victims of PTSD across the country, most who remain untreated. How could there not be after thirty years of war and four years of genocide?<o:p></o:p></div>
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My students are the next generation. They wake up early and study and stay up late and study. They hope to be lawyers and doctors and businesswomen, fulfilling dreams their parents were denied. <o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Their parents are the children of the Khmer Rouge. They suffered interrupted educations. They were four and seven and twelve during the genocide.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
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My students and I talk of Pol Pot over dinner, sitting along the balconies in the afternoon sun, crouched over bowls of soup in the market place. The primary schools and high schools of the country cover the subject with a cursory sweep. All of my students have family stories – of starvation or slaughter. But many of their own parents remained tight lipped. But not all.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
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At dinner one night, while extracting meat from between the bones of a river fish, one of my students talks of her family.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
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Her grandmother survived the genocide. Her grandfather did not. Her mother was four at the time and remembers very little. She remembers being hungry, but not knowing why. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
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My student never met her oldest uncle. When he was twelve the Khmer Rouge wanted him to become a soldier to fight the Vietnamese. He nor his mother (my student’s grandmother) wanted him to join. And so the Khmer Rouge killed him in front of his mother.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
“She cries when she talks.”<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
It is Liberation Day, and the girls at the dorm are up early doing an intense cleaning of the entire building. As the sun rises and dries the balconies one of the girls points up at the sky. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
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A cloud of balloon clusters, ribbons fluttering, floats overhead. “They are from the celebration.” One girl explains. “To celebrate the end of the Khmer Rouge,” adds another. “It’s like a second birth. A new beginning.”<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
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The balloons float over the apartment buildings and the canal and the markets and the coconut trees heading south out into the province, until they are only specks in the sky. <o:p></o:p></div>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjQfztctE-aiVL3uHB5ULkjK1wZehdNZL5gtlns9nRrw7JED5-x14o90L_SR2JSHHpfQY0nPqzFENEFfxLf8GHCnIw-CrORJ1hJlw4hz-qXtn0znmFAp8Iwa6gjxfByycHwXZjs272RPYZJ/s1600/IMG_0757.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjQfztctE-aiVL3uHB5ULkjK1wZehdNZL5gtlns9nRrw7JED5-x14o90L_SR2JSHHpfQY0nPqzFENEFfxLf8GHCnIw-CrORJ1hJlw4hz-qXtn0znmFAp8Iwa6gjxfByycHwXZjs272RPYZJ/s400/IMG_0757.jpg" width="300" /></a></div>
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Jessica Landerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16118568033865933320noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6209505730442594193.post-16817013075836505252013-01-02T01:35:00.001-08:002013-01-02T08:20:04.731-08:00Gilded Bananas: or How I danced in Front of 300 Cambodians<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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In a traditional Cambodian wedding the bride changes her entire
outfit upwards of seven times. <o:p></o:p></div>
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When we first arrived at the wedding in the village of Ko Ki
Thong, the bride was wrapped in silver silk: a silver sarong, a beaded silver
bodice and satin silver heels. Not to
mention a silver necklace, large gold anklets, bracelets and earrings and a
pearl studded tiara. <o:p></o:p></div>
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An hour later, the bride appeared to have been painted
green. The sarong, bodice, even the
satin heels looked the same, except they were now a brilliant lime. An hour after that, she was a vision in
yellow. By the time eating had given way
to dancing, the bride had exchanged traditional Khmer for a billowing white
gown. By 10 pm dresses were abandoned all
together, and the Bride danced the night away in jeans and a striped
shirt. She did, however, keep the tiara
in her hair. <o:p></o:p></div>
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In the country less than a week, I found myself preparing that first Saturday afternoon, for a wedding out in the countryside. My roommate Houng’s cousin was marrying and I
was to be one of three western women in attendance. <o:p></o:p></div>
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To be specific we did not attend the actual wedding
ceremony, only the extended reception and party. But not even Houng could tell me precisely
when vows had been exchanged – the party was the main event.<o:p></o:p></div>
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From the start we were a spectacle. Our car’s arrival at the
reception was recorded on film, our presentation to the Bride and Groom exhaustively
photographed. We came early and were
ushered past a line of colorfully dressed men and women and through a palm froned
archway hanging with banana bunches spray-painted gold and silver. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
For weddings and other major celebrations, Khmer women wear a
silk sarong folded in the front and an elaborately beaded, gilded and lace-sewn
bodice. Everyone visits the hair salon for
crimping, spraying and curled extensions. Although I had too little time to be
fitted for a dress, I did submit to large quantities of purple eye shadow and fake
eyelashes. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhmkpGnxX_YZ8S_ngyYNEwAQN-R9itnzgfslU9WfnqW2meqJbIOvgLPbyeHJ7kBrlJKRfB3G-OuGG3k0XoWu43Njus7iz0hlPTTK3tP6x95e3Et_Ci8GJQMBq_gcZ-frM6uW1546HFjqYJW/s1600/IMG_0115.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhmkpGnxX_YZ8S_ngyYNEwAQN-R9itnzgfslU9WfnqW2meqJbIOvgLPbyeHJ7kBrlJKRfB3G-OuGG3k0XoWu43Njus7iz0hlPTTK3tP6x95e3Et_Ci8GJQMBq_gcZ-frM6uW1546HFjqYJW/s320/IMG_0115.JPG" width="320" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Khmer wedding celebrations follow a particular pattern. First there is food: plates and plates of
steamed fish, fried chicken, grilled chicken, cashews, boxes of raisins, freely
flowing beer, orange soda and sugary iced coffee. Elaborately made up women wove between the
tables distributing rice, while men did the same with cans of beer. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
At our table Houng’s uncle sat across from me and monitored
carefully the quantity of food on our plates, encouraging and then admonishing
us with a waggling finger to take more. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhaB-9TMTaZtpj0DPPI9M621W29W4Kjx-0AWJJ72jF0iKK5cT0F2P6I3PN5z4c4Ie2OZzaoG8ngUz9uW-VGez1PDqGORqePIC1moARSKrfYduMfYLI_r2YtpGICcdnsaThRHAAx-HsZvULT/s1600/IMG_0175.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhaB-9TMTaZtpj0DPPI9M621W29W4Kjx-0AWJJ72jF0iKK5cT0F2P6I3PN5z4c4Ie2OZzaoG8ngUz9uW-VGez1PDqGORqePIC1moARSKrfYduMfYLI_r2YtpGICcdnsaThRHAAx-HsZvULT/s320/IMG_0175.JPG" width="320" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
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<div class="MsoNormal">
Soon after we arrived, an oxen drawing a wood cart equipped
with a generator pulled up and the live band -- with dancers, strobe lights and
a perfumed fog machines -- started up in full force. From then until early in the morning, Khmer
music blared. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
As the sky darkened the tables near the stage were pushed
aside, all except one that sat in the very center. Around this table at least a
hundred revelers danced. Khmer dancing
does not respond to the tempo of the music, rather it exists at one slow stately speed: A few steps forward a few steps back, much twisting of the
hands. The continual sway is like the
lapping of seawater on the beach. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
As the night progressed so did the intoxication of the men,
who became more persistent in their attempts to persuade us to dance. Rather than decline one just to be asked by
another, I befriended Houng’s young cousins. With ten small children circling
we made our way into the throngs on the dance floor. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
While the men had no success cajoling me onto the dance
floor, Houng somehow succeeded in convincing me that I must dance on
stage. I’m still not quite sure how this
happened, but I am susceptible to the silly adventures that come with being a
tall white American in South East Asia.
So there I was at 10 pm, dancing on a wedding stage in perfumed fog and
strobe lights in front of 300 Khmer. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg_S8US99ndjoF6w9iEO6shGm2PSpJCwuSd_PjiuHwGcmpd3smno0RuRLGtQpYIeU2ejHLyPhHvr_4gQ9bCR6s3Nw-2PEYZzzOrhBI8B1dFiWny9gGKjSljN6S5Vq8dndP01vENHWQWB88N/s1600/IMG_0609.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg_S8US99ndjoF6w9iEO6shGm2PSpJCwuSd_PjiuHwGcmpd3smno0RuRLGtQpYIeU2ejHLyPhHvr_4gQ9bCR6s3Nw-2PEYZzzOrhBI8B1dFiWny9gGKjSljN6S5Vq8dndP01vENHWQWB88N/s320/IMG_0609.JPG" width="320" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Hours later, we slept under mosquito nets in Houng’s
house. The house, like most in the
countryside was raised on stilts with one large room where everyone slept
together. The bathroom, which housed one
hairy tarantula, was out back, surrounded by a collection of water urns for
bucket showers and dish washing. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The next morning was for lounging, for eating noodle soup at
the local market down the road and for playing badminton in the yard with the
collection of kids who had adopted me the previous night. Time at the stilt house in the countryside
grew lazy. There was a second breakfast (hobbit style) of forest chicken –
grilled and chopped by Houng’s grandmother – and of course large bowls of
rice. When the kids tired of badminton,
they went in search of wildlife, returning to the yard with an endless
collection of crabs, one snake and a cat.
The crabs became instant pets with impromptu leashes made of string
secured to their claws. The snake was prodded. The cat smartly ran away.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg-I2nuD64Ync7j7Ymt5krciy27zfiRySaN8eFVEScZYaYw9Jw0z_WtBlLAmDRw9-Kt4SGv9f4yWhyYShoG8fuohoGfKoNncTaZO4vRuYF2_CcAECEb39NDyQPt3cvNSZpvKn4KRLWTt1vT/s1600/IMG_0268.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg-I2nuD64Ync7j7Ymt5krciy27zfiRySaN8eFVEScZYaYw9Jw0z_WtBlLAmDRw9-Kt4SGv9f4yWhyYShoG8fuohoGfKoNncTaZO4vRuYF2_CcAECEb39NDyQPt3cvNSZpvKn4KRLWTt1vT/s320/IMG_0268.jpg" width="240" /></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjvMQRyqiW-UJZUseeFX9ntpjckK41h-PHORNlrkC75uGXM1w7cP3IrvWM20ELE57UI67ksAMHrtTL-fe345woYsm30d_ljUECe1hOdPhSE5I76Bq9OQtrOyphvuwVGQZ_7B4wHyHsYsfJl/s1600/IMG_0324.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjvMQRyqiW-UJZUseeFX9ntpjckK41h-PHORNlrkC75uGXM1w7cP3IrvWM20ELE57UI67ksAMHrtTL-fe345woYsm30d_ljUECe1hOdPhSE5I76Bq9OQtrOyphvuwVGQZ_7B4wHyHsYsfJl/s320/IMG_0324.JPG" width="320" /></a></div>
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
We stayed as long as we could, relaxing under the shade of
the house. In the end though, we needed to return to the dust and bustle of
Phnom Penh. And so we made our goodbyes,
piled into the car and headed back to the city. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh1mv4i-XaURXks3XvdoPbFd-FX_lGAa6zPRGjbKZ2GlowGde6eVo5B5BMe9ehVBP8FHw9WNzJlEEbUWAQ3OAhVyo9NO9E6vxLGfgrGDF_1q8Q1EOEmH9AYHeAVaDt1uzrOOtpciJTAQvuK/s1600/IMG_0164.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh1mv4i-XaURXks3XvdoPbFd-FX_lGAa6zPRGjbKZ2GlowGde6eVo5B5BMe9ehVBP8FHw9WNzJlEEbUWAQ3OAhVyo9NO9E6vxLGfgrGDF_1q8Q1EOEmH9AYHeAVaDt1uzrOOtpciJTAQvuK/s400/IMG_0164.JPG" width="400" /></a></div>
<!--EndFragment--></div>
Jessica Landerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16118568033865933320noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6209505730442594193.post-85396284072625109002012-12-27T08:15:00.000-08:002012-12-27T08:15:04.228-08:00Tuk-Tuk, Madam? <div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<!--StartFragment-->
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
By my calculation, since I’ve moved to Phnom Penh I have
been in fifty-seven near-accidents in city traffic. This is a conservative estimate. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I am not a stranger to the chaotic roadscapes of Asia. I have waded into the rapids that are the
Saigon streets – ten to twelve lanes abreast. I have snaked my way through the
busting avenues of downtown Jaipur.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
When I first arrived in Chiang Mai in northern Thailand two
years ago, I found a general disregard for any variety of traffic
regulation. I documented with amusement
the varying interpretations of traffic lights and stop signs and the liberal
understanding of the purpose of sidewalks.
None of this, however, prevented me from hopping on my own motorbike and
joining the driving experiment.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Here in Cambodia I am more ambivalent. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Succinctly put, Phnom Penh drivers make those of Chiang Mai
appear law-abiding and demure. Drivers
here appear to believe they are steering the Knight Bus from Harry Potter, with
the magical ability to squeeze through the tightest of spaces. They do not. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
And yet still they try. They accelerate and weave James Bond-style
through rapidly narrowing gaps between a motley collection of motos, tuk-tuks
and SUVs.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Sidewalks are unashamedly employed as extra lanes, and
corner gas stations double as access ramps for perpendicular roads without
having to wait for a green light. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Besides the cars and bikes and trucks and motos and tuk-tuks,
the streets of Phnom Penh are filled with an entire produce markets on wheels. There are flocks of chickens strapped to
motos, and bags of rubbery plucked chickens in bags. There are towering bags of
cabbage, stacks of eggs, bundles of eggplants and protruding poles of sugar
cane. There are large wicker baskets of
mangosteens that sink on either side of the bike, extending the width of three
motos strapped together. <o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjJByfhxTnD9Jwc4qsSvxhXEGi3GXhhBe-WfV8ixlOGEXqDzL53pi1gejrMvZT7JCY4UemoMT9CnOkk9-jqMBzN0BlN-cFI08YMa6ns8MOlOnbcRxCYh9Ec-5P2Ul7Zm6ief-jfobCiYDPy/s1600/IMG_0074.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjJByfhxTnD9Jwc4qsSvxhXEGi3GXhhBe-WfV8ixlOGEXqDzL53pi1gejrMvZT7JCY4UemoMT9CnOkk9-jqMBzN0BlN-cFI08YMa6ns8MOlOnbcRxCYh9Ec-5P2Ul7Zm6ief-jfobCiYDPy/s320/IMG_0074.JPG" width="320" /></a></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
In the weeks that I have been here, mostly I have ridden on
the backs of motos. They are cheaper by
half, than the cushioned, canopied and wood carved tuk-tuks. The increased danger of course may not be
worth the cost.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
As in New York or London, one never needs to search out
tuk-tuks or motos. They lounge on every
street corner. “Tuk-tuk, madam?” “Moto,
moto.” Their profusion on the streets of
Phnom Penh is explained two-fold: it is a product of the imbalance between available
jobs and city population, as well as the ease of becoming a chauffeur. If you
have a moto, you have a job. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiVQVQlA4wojKr8UN7jrUDLjeqJWj-7epZKgAredzIpTXWK4q9BkuPU4hokdHpwMmW5nPY9TOn7u4kzjqVpJIVzPviOHpGjomG5yPVFS1i1UKBHye9g-MuLD_NC67ZyDvgjaV5_2XJsOxZt/s1600/IMG_0085.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiVQVQlA4wojKr8UN7jrUDLjeqJWj-7epZKgAredzIpTXWK4q9BkuPU4hokdHpwMmW5nPY9TOn7u4kzjqVpJIVzPviOHpGjomG5yPVFS1i1UKBHye9g-MuLD_NC67ZyDvgjaV5_2XJsOxZt/s320/IMG_0085.JPG" width="320" /></a></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The lack of barriers to entering the profession comes with
tradeoffs. In London, want-to-be cabbies
must first learn “The Knowledge” – memorizing 320 routes, and upwards of 25,000
streets and 20,000 landmarks, to any of which passengers might request
transport. In Phnom Penh an aspiring
cabbie need not know any streets or any landmarks. A passing knowledge of the city is
desirable, but beyond that it is often up to the passenger to navigate the
journey.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I have yet to decide whether I will join the fray. I continue to weigh the relative safety and
stupidity of being a passenger versus being a driver. I take motos when I must, and I inevitably
clench my teeth the entire time – a fact that some passing moto drivers have
noticed and laughed at. If I can, I walk
-- although sidewalks are haphazard. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Perhaps, if I decide to get a moto of my own, I can start
offering rides as well. In the mean
time, I’m practicing up on my Khmer driving vocabulary. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgcWgWCKQg0T41c-gFBUXwqdz6LIIY2YHCviB9yf9fatjvmXrd9YDKUZFHEnnYhq_8bzsv-a62G_dU9rpgMFQT4-MP6gLQw7GmD45yO_o-XcIVLDQFXwWaylVhh6q44sGyCVP4ZbdHrcvbU/s1600/IMG_0365.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgcWgWCKQg0T41c-gFBUXwqdz6LIIY2YHCviB9yf9fatjvmXrd9YDKUZFHEnnYhq_8bzsv-a62G_dU9rpgMFQT4-MP6gLQw7GmD45yO_o-XcIVLDQFXwWaylVhh6q44sGyCVP4ZbdHrcvbU/s320/IMG_0365.jpg" width="240" /></a></div>
<!--EndFragment--></div>
Jessica Landerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16118568033865933320noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6209505730442594193.post-72435815930179047562012-12-22T22:18:00.000-08:002012-12-24T19:56:47.777-08:00Under Construction<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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Phnom Penh is being built at my doorstep.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Saws, wood sanders and hammers are the white noise of our alleyway, tucked into the southern tip of the city. The alley is near what was once a small lake. The lake is gone, recently drained, filled and built over. On Western maps the lake still exists, they have not yet caught up with the rate of construction.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Phnom Penh used to be referred to as the “Pearl of Asia.” The Vietnam (or American) War and the Khmer Rouge have dulled its luster. The city is caught in the in between: dilapidated colonial grandeur, glitzy new skyscrapers and the low-storied growth of a developing nation. Construction sites are everywhere.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<o:p>From the balcony of my dorm I can watch the progress of five-story cement facades criss-crossed by sapling scaffolding. Construction workers double as trapeze artists along the roofs.</o:p></div>
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Craning over the balcony I can make out the alley’s carpentry shop below the coconut palm. Men and women crouch over elaborately carved wood furniture, heavy bed boards and boxy chairs. I pass the carpenters on my search for motos and tuk-tuks at the alley’s mouth. Often I see the smallest of puppies playing in the sawdust.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Our dorm is set amidst apartments, primarily two story hastily constructed structures with exposed cement and jutting wire crossbeams. The most active apartment is directly across from us, five stories and set with curved balconies that would not be out of place at a 70’s style movie theater. In the early evening shirtless men spend long hours on these balconies, in between the hanging laundry. They talk on their phones or lean over and watch the alley below.<o:p></o:p></div>
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In the alleyway, children, ages one to twelve, play. The kids congregate on a parked tuk-tuk, or pedal wobbly tricycles, or shoot at each other with plastic gold automatics. When I leave the dorm I am greeted with a chorus of “Hello” “Hello” “Hello.”</div>
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Farther down the alley, is a warren of slum dwellings – narrow alleys and lopsided structures. I have found tucked into a corner, a neighborhood temple that looks like just another cement construction until you get up close and peer through the grate and find Buddhist murals.</div>
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Outside our dorm there are two hole-in-the wall hair salons (quite literally). I have spent an hour in one watching my roommate have her hair teased and sprayed and curled. And I have submitted to heavy amounts of purple eye shadow and half inch lashes for the occasion of a wedding.<o:p></o:p></div>
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There are house fronts up and down the alley that double as storefronts. On tables they sell everything from pre-wrapped sandwiches, to coconuts, to bottles of soy sauce, to whole glistening fishes beset by flies. A few stalls compress stalks of sugarcane, mixing limes in the juice and serving it in plastic bags with a straw – a Khmer to-go mug.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Food carts meander by at unpredictable hours hawking buns, bananas wrapped in sticky rice, and most commonly – salted and roasted eggs on a stick. The man driving the cart plays a recording on-loop. “Eggs delicious eggs – they are hot, they are nice, they are delicious.” Even the singsong voice sounds heat-wearied.</div>
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In the evening when the sun dips behind the new construction, the street fills with families and neighbors dragging circles of plastic chairs into the road. The men go shirtless and the small children pant-less. It is not uncommon for small boys to run down the streets completely bare.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Our alley is a workspace, a playground, a communal living room. By late evening though, the dust settled, the neighbors retreat into their homes and the on-and-off electricity. Grates are pulled down and locked. The symphony of a growing city – the saws and sanders – ceases. <o:p></o:p></div>
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I like to stand on the balcony at this time – ignoring the hum of mosquitos, taking in the fleeting quiet, the slight breeze. <o:p></o:p></div>
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And then clattering into the night a lone man walks down the now deserted alleyway. He carries two sticks in his hands and plays out a beat of taps - a delivery boy for the midnight snack attacks of the neighborhood. Soup, noodles, dumplings – all of these he will seek out and deliver for a fee. He disappears into the gloom of the alley, his tapping following in his wake. Rat-ta-tat-tat, Rat-ta-tat-tat.</div>
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Jessica Landerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16118568033865933320noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6209505730442594193.post-72624721530689001792012-11-08T12:26:00.000-08:002012-11-09T06:16:11.709-08:00Four Electoral Votes<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<!--StartFragment-->
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
We were racing against the clock.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
With an hour and fifteen minutes before the close of
elections in Merrimack County, New Hampshire, we took to the cars and the
streets. We abandoned our staging
location, grabbed walk packets and lists of sporadic voters and charged out
into the dark for our final Get Out the Vote effort!<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
We tore down dark rural roads scanning mailbox numbers. When
we reached a house on our list, the older woman accompanying me would zoom in
to the driveway and I would hurdle out of the car and up to the door. “We are just making sure everyone has
voted. And offering rides for those who
haven’t. Have you voted sir?”<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
For the last two and a half months, I suspended my life as a
teacher, trading it for life on the campaign trail. I moved up to New Hampshire and set up as a
full-time, unpaid fellow with Organizing for America – President Obama’s
grassroots campaign. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Four years ago I volunteered on Barak Obama’s campaign, but
in a more limited capacity. I was still
in college. I canvassed and phone banked on holidays and during the final weeks
of the election – on evenings in between paper writing. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
But this election, with no hard commitments, I wanted to do
more. Why? Simply put: I believe in the
president. But I also have a deep
conviction that, as an American -- as a
citizen of a country where I have the power to be involved in the political
process and the possibility to effect change -- I have an obligation to participate.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
And so, I traded lesson plans for walk packets. For two months my life took on a new routine:
hours of driving around rural New Hampshire, walking up drive ways and into
trailer parks to talk to voters, then back to our office for yet more hours sitting
on the floor making phone calls to more potential voters.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I canvassed the house of a 75-year-old Irish priest who
invited me into discuss politics in the rectory, and I knocked on the door of a
19-year-old girl who had never considered voting before we talked. I traipsed up a long driveway to a
dilapidated mobile home and spoke with a grizzled, beer-bellied man with no
shirt who politely refused to share his political leanings. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
It wasn’t easy. There were days when I canvassed for six hours
alone, in the rain – going from silent home to silent home, leaving behind a
wake of literature. There were nights when
I made 250 phone calls. I would be
cursed at, lied to, hung up on – not just by Republicans, but also by Democrats
fed-up with the political season. We
would spend hours prepping canvassing packets and then be told that our targets
had switched and we had to scrap our work and start afresh. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
But there were also the volunteers who worked with us week
after week -- as the leaves changed
colors and then fell, as the air went from crisp to biting. There was the sixteen-year-old high school
girl who was a powerhouse on the phones, who admitted that her grades were
slipping as a result of being at our office for so many hours a week, and who in
the same sentence brushed that concern aside with a simple “This is more
important.” There was the 84-year-old
British woman who had been a nurse in Boston and spoke bluntly about watching
women die on the operating table from back-alley abortions in a time before Roe
v. Wade. She and an older gentleman
would sit near the windows and, between phone calls to voters, reminisce about
life under FDR. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
For two months I listened to stories – from men, women, old
and young. I listened to worries,
concerns, hopes, fears and dreams. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
In the end, all of our hours of canvassing and phone calls
came down to one day – November 6<sup>th</sup> 2012. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
It came down to how many people we could encourage to
vote. It was a numbers game. But it was also, on the ground, an individual
game. We arranged rides to the polls
for elderly people. We followed up with
others to ensure that they registered at the right polling location. These were men and women that I had grown to
know over two months, whose doors I had knocked on, whose stories I had
listened to.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Each vote was a story.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
A week before the election one of my volunteers canvassed
the house of a man with a minor criminal record. A town clerk told him that he could not vote
because of this record. Checking, we found that New Hampshire law
disenfranchises only those still serving time or those convicted of voting
fraud. We returned to his house to tell
him so. At 6:30 am on Election Day he
called my boss to thank her and say that he was off to the polls to vote for
the President. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
During that last hour of the election, as we sped along the
back-roads of rural New Hampshire looking for final potential voters who had
yet to make it to the polls, we swapped stories in the car. The older woman with whom I was driving told
me that she became politically active at a young age. When she was fifteen, she proceeded to tell
me, Dr. Martin Luther King came to Boston. Skipping school, she wore her Catholic school
uniform and joined in the parade. As they marched down the streets of Boston,
older men began ushering her to the front, until she was, in the end, walking
hand in hand with Dr. King. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Hours later we, all the staff in the Concord office, crowded
into an unheated room in our office to watch as the polls come in,. We fretted as we refreshed our internet
browsers incessantly. Around 10 pm, they
called NH for the President. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The election was still to be called. But we in New
Hampshire, with our four precious electoral votes, we had done what we set out
to do. There was champagne, hugs, tears
and a little dancing. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
And then, finally, we went home to sleep.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
President Obama has another four years to help move America forward. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The campaign is over and I am heading back to the
classroom. I miss students, I miss
teaching. But for all the worry, stress,
frustrations and pure exhaustion of the last two months I would not have had it
any other way. It has been my privilege
and my honor as a young woman, and a young American, to work for my President.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
There is still work to do.
<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
But I can now return to the classroom knowing that I have a
President who has my back and has the back of my students. <o:p></o:p></div>
<!--EndFragment--></div>
Jessica Landerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16118568033865933320noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6209505730442594193.post-47433063641036074232012-07-16T14:37:00.000-07:002012-07-19T18:50:54.230-07:00Elementary<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
This spring I became obsessed with the BCC’s Masterpiece
Classic series about the famous literary detective, <i>Sherlock</i>. Within a week I had watched the series twice over. I then
devoured all 2,000 pages of Arthur Conan Doyle’s original stories. I talked
about Sherlock, I dreamed about Sherlock. Yet I wanted more. And then I hit
upon it: I would teach Sherlock. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
With a week-and-a-half left in the school year and the June heat
transforming classrooms into saunas, forging on with lessons about decimal
conversions and sentence structure seemed not only pointless, but deleterious.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Instead, my fellow teachers and I turned our attention to
teaching lessons whose content went beyond the standardized statewide MCAS
test. Some conducted classes on the art of henna, the legends of Big Foot and
American’s obsession with space aliens. Others crafted lessons on constructing catapults
and sewing stuffed animals. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I taught Sherlock.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
We opened the day with a little history about secret
messages – a brief discussion of the American Code-Talkers and the German
Enigma – before diving into the art and intricacies of codes. Symbol codes, cypher wheels, code creation
and code cracking strategies. My boys created codes with money signs and
elaborate squiggles standing in for letters.
One girl created a code devised of twenty-six smiley face derivatives. Next,
we launched into a four-way student riddle and logic-puzzle race.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br />
I even managed to show a small excerpt from the BBC show, of
Sherlock using his powers of deduction.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
It’s an ancient maxim, but still valid: teach what you love. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Yes, our students are just middle schoolers. There are so
many facts and concepts that they must absorb: times-tables, construction of
grammatical sentences, how to compose a thesis-driven argument. While I am not a fan of standardized tests, I
grudgingly concede that they can help ensure that a student has acquired
foundational knowledge and skills on which they can build. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Yet, I hope there continue to remain moments, even within a
public school curriculum focused on end-of-year tests, when teachers can share
their passions with their students. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Allowing us teachers that flexibility and freedom is not
simply about letting us indulge our obsessions. <o:p></o:p><br />
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
If I have ever been inspiring in the classroom (and I hope I
have), it has most often been when I have drawn on my passions -- delving into the art of Shakespearean insults
and the character development of Macbeth, and sharing with my students the intricacies
of the Thai political system. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I see the energy in my own teaching. I bounce on the balls
of my feet, I stride up and down the rows of desks and, when a student makes a
connection or an intellectual leap, I am known to exclaim with loud and
enthusiastic validation. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
“So if the Prince is not respected then…then the monarchy
will have less power…then, maybe there wont be a monarchy” <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
“YES!” <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
“Ms. Lander, when Macbeth says ‘out out brief candle,’ is
that like the earlier scene where Lady Macbeth goes crazy and says ‘out, out
damn spot?’” <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
“YES!” <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
“Because of the code-letters we already know, that other symbol
there must be an N and that one must be a D!” <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
“YES!”<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
At such moments I often take my students by surprise. I see
it in their manner. They sit up a little straighter, they look hesitantly at
their peers: <i>Is Ms. Lander really
bouncing up and down because of the answer I just gave?</i> They are also intrigued: passion and
excitement is infectious.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I think back and wonder how much of my love of Asia comes
from my own 6<sup>th</sup> grade teacher sharing her passion for China. I know that my drive to write creative
non-fiction can be credited to a high-school English teacher who sent us to the
cafeteria with notebooks, pencils and instructions to sit, listen and record. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I will continue to teach decimal-to-fraction conversions, basic
geography lessons and the elements of writing a story. I will continue to correct my students’
spelling and press them to give full synopses in their reading responses. These are all essential building blocks they will
need for the future. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
But, in between such lessons, I will continue to slip in Shakespearean
sonnets, and perhaps a code or two. Who knows: One of my 6<sup>th</sup> graders
might just grow up to serve in the FBI or the CIA. And, if not, I will at least
have succeeded in cultivating a few more fans for <i>Sherlock</i>. <o:p></o:p></div>
</div>Jessica Landerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16118568033865933320noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6209505730442594193.post-75502394944995481132012-07-02T07:58:00.000-07:002012-07-02T08:05:34.553-07:00Army of One?<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
The classroom can be a lonely place. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
My students surround me.
They vie for attention, they want advice, they want answers, they want
me to listen to a story about their weekend.
In the cafeteria it is a chorus of “Ms. Ms. Ms. Ms. Lander!” <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br />
Simultaneously, I am alone. For help on a math problem, my students turn
to me. I turn to myself. On hot muggy
days when all my students want to do is poke each other or practice step
routines, it is solely my responsibility to refocus the class. I discipline the class clown, or break up an
argument. My students grumble, “You’re
forcing it Ms. Lander.”<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Out of the classroom, teaching is lonely too. I worry about my students on the drive home –
about how two students didn’t get along, or how another student is having
difficulty grasping a math concept. I
dream about my students and wake up from nightmares set in classrooms. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
These are solitary concerns.
I share classroom stories with friends and family. I share with them stories about how one
particular student wrote a particularly moving poem or made an insightful
comment during a discussion. My students
infiltrate most of my conversations. But
to friends and family, they are just stories. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Yet, I know that, compared with most teachers, I am incredibly
lucky. As a teacher with Citizen
Schools, I am surrounded by an incredible support system. It is this support
system, a cadre of colleagues who are there for me each day that has let me
grow so much as a teacher this year. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
As a group of teachers, we meet before class, we meet after
class. We discuss lesson plans and we practice lessons. We strategize about certain students, we
share success stories, we talk through disappointing classes. We devise extra worksheets and pass them
around in a flurry of paper.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The situation could not be more dissimilar to my teaching
experience last year. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Less than twenty-four hours after landing in Thailand, I was
handed a pile of textbooks and a list of room numbers, and I was sent off to
teach students at Chiang Mai University.
A semester later, my students sat their final exams. In the intervening months, my teaching was
never once observed. Not that I expected
that to happen, the university has 40,000 students. The independence was daunting but also exhilarating:
I had to find my own confidence in the classroom. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
This year, colleagues not only sat in the back of the
classroom to observe my class, they have once or twice pulled out a camera to
film. Later, after students have gone home, we sat and discussed the films, as
a coach does with their players: <i>Could I
have laid out this concept more clearly? What if I broke down those instructions
to even more basic steps?</i><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Yet, this kind of support system is not the norm for most
teachers across America. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
School days begin early and extend until early evening, leaving
little room for additional meetings to discuss best practices. Tight school budgets make it difficult to
support a teacher who can observe other classes and provide feedback. And,
observation systems that have recently been created in a number of districts
for the purpose of setting merit pay have become more judgmental than instructive
for teachers’ personal development. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
In most professions, collaboration is an integral part of
the job. Scientists, Lawyers, Doctors all work together, relying on support,
feedback and discussion with peers and mentors. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
It is difficult to teach teaching.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
You can’t simulate the experience of teaching a classroom
full of 6<sup>th</sup> graders, short of having an actual class of them in
front of you. For the sake of
practicality, most classes about teaching are therefore taught in the abstract.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Before shipping off to Thailand, I attended days of sessions
intended to train me to be an effective teacher. But, I learned just as much in my first
45-minute class in Chiang Mai. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
We know that great teachers make an enormous difference to
students (Harvard and Colombia economists even quantified the impact,
calculating that a great elementary school teacher increased the average
lifetime earnings of a student by $25,000 compared to a subpar teacher.) <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
But, how can we fill our classrooms with great teachers?<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
There is no shortage of proposed solutions – from hiring
teachers with better credentials, to providing merit pay for high performers, to
developing stronger accreditation programs, to firing ineffective teachers. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Whatever the merits of these approaches, I wonder if we
might be wise to help teachers, already in the school system, improve their
game in the way that other professionals do – meeting in teams to discuss
strategizing, taking time to visit classes taught by other teachers, having
other teachers regularly visit one’s own classes, having master teachers
serving as coaches and mentors to budding teachers. These measures might
increase schools personnel budgets by 10% or even 20%. But the payoff for
students could be enormous.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
And, with teachers learning from each other, the classroom might
just become a bit less of a lonely place.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br />
<br />
<br />
Source: <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/12/opinion/kristof-the-value-of-teachers.html">http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/12/opinion/kristof-the-value-of-teachers.html</a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-size: xx-small;"><br /></span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<o:p></o:p></div>
</div>
</div>Jessica Landerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16118568033865933320noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6209505730442594193.post-68325237040769376122012-06-28T11:12:00.001-07:002012-06-28T11:23:12.771-07:00R.E.S.P.E.C.T<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
A week after moving to Chiang Mai in northern Thailand to
take up a teaching post, I visited the Sunday night Walking Street Market. The
market bisects the ancient city with vendors peddling everything from brilliant
red Thai silk scarves to knitted bumblebee-colored dog sweaters to egg-parceled
Pad Thai. As a young teacher with meager
pocket change I attempted to haggle with the merchants: “A little bit less
please, I am a teacher, I don’t have much money.” They shook their heads and
laughed in disbelief that a teacher could claim to be poor. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
And then, they nodded with gratitude. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
To be a teacher in Thailand is to be respected and, comparatively
speaking, well paid. As it is in much of
Asia, teacher is an honored title. My
very first week in Thailand coincided with Wai Kru – the national Teacher’s Day,
when students and families put on elaborate performances to honor their
teachers. I found myself on a stage along with the rest of the English
department before hundreds of students who had prepared speeches and elaborate
flower offerings in our honor.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
A year later, when I returned to the US, I entered a very
different kind of school system. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
“Oh you teach 6<sup>th</sup> grade?!” “That’s a really tough age.” “I wouldn’t be
able to do that.” “We need more young
people like you.” These are the kinds of
responses I receive on telling people I teach inner-city middle school. They are impressed, and often disbelieving
that I would take such a job. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Fifty years ago it was fashionable for young Americans to
enter the Peace Corp, packing their bags for the dusty cities of Tanzania and
the rural slopes of Chile, giving up creature comforts to devote two years to spreading
democracy and education. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Today, teaching has become a domestic Peace Corps. Last year more than 50,000 recent college
graduates applied to Teach For America (TFA), Citizen Schools and other similar
programs. More than 8,000 are chosen.
They pack their bags not for international hubs, but for the inner cities
of New York and Baltimore and Boston, or the rural river towns along the
Mississippi Delta, ready, like their predecessors, to devote two years of
service.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
My friends and I, in cities across the country, have
exchanged college parties for late nights grading papers and planning lessons. We balance small checkbooks and, to make ends
meet, some of my colleagues rely on food stamps. We arrive at school early to
proctor exams and devote time on the weekends to calling students’ parents. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
In educational organizations, teaching is described in the
language of service. In the 2010
documentary “Waiting For Superman”, director Davis Guggenheim likens classrooms
to <i>trenches </i>in a war. Teaching is
akin to military service.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The attitude is commendable. But the situation is not sustainable.
<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Looking just at TFA, a recent study showed that 50% leave
the classrooms as soon as their two-year fellowship concludes. By year three, 80% have left for other jobs,
other professions. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
These statistics do not phase organizations like TFA, whose stated
goal is not necessarily to train a teacher corps, but rather a cohort of young
professionals who will carry lessons learned in the public schools to the power
worlds of Wall Street and politics. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
But when teaching is marketed to college graduates as
community service and an honorable sacrifice, does teaching cease to be
considered a respectable career profession?<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
While we as a nation respect the sacrifice college graduates
are making by devoting two years in the classroom, our nation’s prevailing
policies, budgets and support systems do not send the message that teaching should
be considered a respected profession worth devoting a life to. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Once last year, when returning through Thai customs in
Bangkok, the agent stamping my passport discovered that I was a teacher. As he handed me back my passport, he thanked
me for being a teacher. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
In Thailand teachers are not only respected for their
service. The profession itself is
considered a respected and prestigious choice for a life-long career. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
As a recent college graduate myself, I see friends accept
Wall Street consulting positions, secure places at law schools and medical
schools in the country. And even though
I am secure in my desire to continue a career in education, a tiny voice
remains: “Is teaching enough? Should I be striving for a more powerful, a more esteemed
profession?”<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Last year my Thai students asked me to teach them a bit
about America. So, I slipped in – between units on grammar and pronunciation –
a lesson on American city slang. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Two weeks ago, as the school year in Boston came to a close,
I taught my middle schoolers a little about the Kingdom of Thailand. We discussed the monarchy (including that the
Thai King was born in Cambridge). We talked about Thai food and learned a few
words of the Thai language. I then decided to teach my students how to bow: a
half bow to friends, thumb to the chin for teachers, thumb to the nose for the
principal. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
In the cafeteria the next day I was waylaid by a group of my
students. “Ms. Lander, Ms. Lander” Hands
together, thumbs at their chin they all bowed.
Smiling, I put my own hands together and bowed back at them in return. <o:p></o:p></div>
</div>Jessica Landerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16118568033865933320noreply@blogger.com0