1. Welcome K6s to Peace Corps
Cambodia

2. Hopefully by now you’ve read through all the documentation Peace Corps has sent you
about Cambodia, and your job here. You’re probably really overwhelmed. Don’t worry, that
feeling won’t leave you, even after you reach Cambodia. No amount of research about
Cambodia will prepare you 100% for your time here. Don’t worry that you can only say
“hello” in Khmer when you step off the plane. Don’t worry that you’re probably still
pronouncing “Khmer” incorrectly. Peace Corps is all about learning. The Peace Corps staff,
your teachers, and even us fellow volunteers are here to help you learn how to make it
through the next two years successfully.
Training All Peace Corps countries are unique, and Cambodia is no different. Cambodia has a
Teaching fascinating, ancient culture with which the people living here today still identify.
Cambodians are warm, loving people who are nice enough to open their homes and houses
Health Center to volunteers for two years. Many volunteers feel like a member of the family by the time
Home Life they leave. Through interactions and building relationships with your host family,
counterparts, friends, and community members you’ll be able to get to know not only your
Market area, but Khmer culture as a whole as well.
Clothing
Cambodia is still just beginning to open up to the world after the horrors of the Pol Pot
Animals regime. As a country Cambodia has only recently been able to start down a long path of
growth and development. Through working with other volunteers and counterparts you can
Transportation help Cambodia continue down this path of development. Some days volunteering in
Scenic Cambodia will be almost unbearable, but it is important to recognize even the most subtle
impact in your community means you have made a difference.
Peace Corps Cambodia is still a very young program. This means you have the great
opportunity to help a country that really needs help continuing down the path of
development. From all of the K4s and K5s, we congratulate you on your invitation, and are
excited to see you in a few short months.
-Sam Morgan and all of the K4s and K5s

3. Training
Training
Teaching
Health Center
Home Life
Market
Training will last 8 weeks. Your life will be
Clothing very busy during this time; dedicated to
learning the language, technical, and
Animals cultural training. You will be split into two
Transportation villages, but will get to see everyone once
a week. You’ll get to know your fellow
Scenic volunteers very well during this time.
Training is a great transition to life at
permanent site.
Top L: K5s upon arrival
Top R: K4 greeting party at the airport
Bottom: Traing village at the
wat before meeting training host families

4. K5s during “hub site day”, this
is once a week when all
trainees come together
during training
Training
Teaching
Health Center
Home Life
Market K4s relaxing during training
Clothing
Animals
Transportation
Scenic
K5 trainees in Tram Kok during
a Khmer language lesson

5. Tram Kok trainees after
playing volleyball
Training
Teaching
Health Center
Home Life
Market
Clothing
Animals
Transportation Kirivong trainees
Scenic before competing
with the local high
school in a soccer
game…they got
schooled

6. Villagers in Traing
at the wat for
cultural training
Training
Teaching
Health Center
Home Life
Market
Clothing
Trainees enjoying
Animals some snacks at a
Transportation little stand in
Takeo
Scenic

7. At the wat at 4 am for Pchum Ben holiday
K5s waiting for site announcement
Training
Teaching
Arnolodo learning how to fish
Health Center
Home Life
Market
Clothing
Animals
Transportation
Scenic

8. Training
Teaching
Health Center
Home Life
K5 swear in
Market
Clothing
Animals
Transportation
Scenic
K4 Erin and Chris
preparing to move to
site

9. Teaching
Training
Teaching
Health Center
Home Life
Market
Top: Tim’s school in Kampong Kdei
Clothing Bottom: Stewart’s school in Angtasam
Animals
Transportation
Scenic

10. Charlie with his class during
practicum week
Training
Teaching
Health Center Vaughn, Latoya, and Kate with
their practicum class
Home Life
Market
Clothing
During training you will
Animals spend a week teaching
Transportation students in your village to
gain practice teaching and
Scenic altering lessons out of the
Cambodian English textbook

11. The inside of a typical classroom
Training
Teaching
Health Center
Home Life
Market
Clothing
Animals Students lined up for
the morning flag
Transportation raising and
announcements at
Scenic Joyce’s school

12. Kate giving a
presentation at
the RTTC in Takeo
Training
Teaching
Health Center
Home Life
Market
Clothing
Animals
Transportation Kirsten’s co-teacher
signing off on the
Scenic attendance and
lesson

13. Trevor leading a
computer class
Training
Teaching
Health Center
Home Life
Market
Clothing
Animals
Transportation Sam’s 11th grade
Scenic students competing
for a spelling bee

14. Kirsten’s student answering
questions on the board
Training
Teaching
Health Center
Home Life
Market
Clothing
Animals
Transportation Trophie teaching a
class at an NGO in
Scenic Banteay Chmar

15. Health Center
Training
Teaching
Health Center Katie’s Health Center in Kampong Kdei
Home Life Community Health Volunteers spend time at their Health Center, working on
outreach and educating people against common health myths. Many Health
Market Volunteers also partner with NGOs to help with health related projects in their site
Clothing or provincial town.
Hal at his Health Center in Preah Net Preah
Animals
Transportation
Scenic

16. Kop Health Center
in Banteay
Meanchey
Training
Teaching
Health Center
Home Life
Market
Clothing The midwives room
at the Kompong
Animals Kdei Health Center
Transportation
Scenic

17. Training
Teaching
Health Center
Home Life
Market
Clothing
Animals Above: a midwife talking about how to make healthy rice porridge
Below: families tasting the healthy rice porridge
Transportation
Scenic

18. Students practicing their drawings
for painting the Health Center
Andrea D. with the students who helped
Training paint her Health Center with positive
health messages
Teaching
Health Center
Home Life
Market
Clothing
Animals
Transportation
Scenic

19. Kids playing board games
about Health in Preah Chor
Training
Teaching
Health Center
Home Life Mothers learning how to make
Market healthy weaning porridge in Nimitt
Clothing
Animals
Transportation
Scenic
Women participating in exercise
classes in Boribo

20. Home Life
There are three types of homes
in Cambodia: the top is a half-
cement and half-wooden
house, the bottom left is an all-
cement/newer house, and the
Training bottom right is a typical all-
wood house.
Teaching
Health Center
Home Life
Market
Clothing
Animals
Transportation
Scenic

21. A bedroom in a wooden house.
Peace Corps issues you a mat
to sleep on, and you’ll get used
Training to sleeping in the mosquito
Teaching net. It will hopefully keep out
all of the mice, spiders, and
Health Center insects.
Home Life
Market
Clothing
Animals A bedroom in a
cement house. If
Transportation you’re lucky, your
host family will give
Scenic you a real bed.

22. Many Cambodian families use
traditional stoves and cook with
charcoal
Training
Teaching
Some wealthy families use
Health Center double burner propane stoves
Home Life
Market
Clothing
Animals Most volunteers
who cook use
Transportation small single
Scenic burner propane
stoves

23. A typical Khmer
bathroom, with a squat
toilet and cistern of
water.
Training
Teaching
Health Center
Home Life
Market
Clothing
Animals If you’re lucky enough to have
Transportation running water, you may have a
western toilet seat and a sprayer.
Scenic

24. Peace Corps will give you a
water filter to help keep you
hydrated because you’ll
sweat, a lot.
Training
Teaching
Health Center
Home Life
Market
Clothing
Animals All laundry is done by hand
Transportation with a large bucket, some
soap, water, and a scrub
Scenic brush. We promise you’ll
never take a washing machine
for granted again. We’ll teach
you our own techniques, and
eventually you’ll develop your
own methods to getting your
clothes clean with the least
amount of sweating involved.

25. Training
Teaching
Health Center
Home Life
Market During training, and when you move to site it is the rainy season (May – October). The
sudden monsoon rains are probably unlike any rain you’ve ever experienced. All of your
Clothing staying dry methods are useless. It’s better to stay inside wait the storm out.
Animals
Transportation
Scenic

26. Training
Teaching
Erin’s host sister’s first Christmas Kate with her host niece and nephew
Health Center
Your host families are your link to integrating into the community.
Home Life They will naturally be curious about the things you do and own. Let
them be a apart of what you’re doing, and share experiences with
Market them. The children will especially keep you smiling on a hard day.
Clothing
Animals
Transportation L: Hal’s host
brother in
Scenic training wearing
his pants
R: Kirsten’s
training host
family

27. Rtop: Fish soup
Rmiddle: food at a wedding
Rbottom: fish and fried eggs and something that
tasted like cat food
Bottom: Rice porridge being made for a wedding
or funeral
Are you ready to eat rice? Cambodian meals are
served family style usually with multiple dishes which
Training you take a spoonful at a time to put on top of your
rice. Although Cambodian food is sometimes hard to
Teaching get used to, the fresh fruit helps make up for it.
Health Center
Home Life
Market
Clothing
Animals
Transportation
Scenic

28. Rtop: rice with pork, a common breakfast
Rmiddle: Cambodian noodles and tapioca pudding
Rbottom: dried fish for sale at the market
It’s great when you have time to prepare
western food. Below Travis prepared sloppy
joes and french fries, and shared it with a
Cambodian friend.
Training
Teaching
Health Center
Home Life
Market
Clothing
Animals
Transportation
Scenic

29. A wedding in
Kompong Thom
Cambodian weddings
are a real party: expect
Training a lot of food, drinking,
Teaching and dancing.
Health Center
Home Life
Market
Clothing K4s at a wedding K5s at an LCF’s wedding
Animals
Transportation
Scenic

30. Training
Teaching
Health Center
Home Life
Market Erin at the wat with her family for Pchum Ben festival
Clothing You’ll find lots to do around site as you make friends with the people in your
community.
Animals
Andrea P. and Erin helping with the rice harvest
Transportation
Scenic

31. L: a friendly soccer game M: men playing Khmer chess R: Andrea P swimming with children
Training
Secondary projects, working on projects with other PCVs, and making friends will help
Teaching keep you sane when work at site is slow.
Health Center
A student during a field day project in Kampot
Home Life
Market
Clothing
Animals
Transportation
Scenic

32. Market
Training
Teaching
Health Center
Home Life
Market
Clothing
Animals
Transportation Clothes at Takeo Market
Scenic
Every town has an outdoor market that is open every day, including
holidays from dawn until at least 11:00. Markets in smaller towns usually
shut down after 11:00, but markets in bigger towns are often open until
dark. Markets in provincial towns are much larger and offer more
selection. No matter your market, be prepared to bargain, they price they
tell you is always higher than the actual price.

33. Training
Teaching
Health Center
Home Life A meat stall in the Kompong Kdei Market
The fish section of a market in Pursat
Market
Clothing
Animals
Transportation There are definitely areas of the market where you
may not want to frequent, they usually emit a
Scenic certain…smell.

34. A tuk-a-luck (smoothie stand) Don’t worry, you can still find bread A girl selling insects to eat
Training
Teaching Hal buying vegetables at Preah Net Preah market Fruit section of the Takeo market
Health Center
Home Life
Market
Clothing
Animals
Transportation
Scenic

35. Clothing
What male teachers wear
Training
Teaching
Packing clothes for 2 years is
Health Center very difficult. Hopefully showing
you clothes that most PCVs
Home Life wear every day will help you Tim teaching a private class
Market pack appropriately.
Clothing Kirsten with her co-teacher
Animals
Transportation
Scenic What female teachers
wear

36. Sean with his Health Center Director
What male Health
Training Educators wear
Teaching
Health Center
Home Life Clothing for working at the
Market Health Center is usually Business
Casual, and is very relaxed at
Clothing some Health Centers.
Animals
Transportation
What female Health Educators wear
Scenic
Erica with her OD Director

37. What Khmer people wear What PCVs wear when they’re not at work
to relax
Training
Teaching
Health Center
Home Life
Market Relaxing after hiking a mountain in Kirivong
Sam’s host mom in a sarong
Clothing
Animals Don’t forget to bring clothes to
Transportation relax in, or to dress up for those
times in Phnom Penh and Siem
Scenic Reap, as that’s what you’ll be
wearing most of the time in the
big city.
What to wear out in
Phnom Penh

38. Animals
Training
Teaching
Health Center
Home Life
Market
Clothing
Animals
Transportation
Scenic

39. Lizards are every
where in Cambodia.
Don’t scare them
away, they’re a natural
Training mosquito repellant
Teaching
Health Center A Traing farmer with his cows, which
are Cambodia’s lawnmowers
Home Life
Market
Watch out, monkeys may bite!
Clothing
Animals A Traing market pig enjoying his meal of garbage
Transportation
Scenic

40. You may think roosters crow only in the
morning, but be warned, they crow all
day long
Training Tied for public enemy #1? Is it
worse to be woken up by a pack of
Teaching dogs barking in the middle of the
Health Center night, or a rooster crowing very
early in the morning?
Home Life
Market
Clothing
Animals
Transportation
Scenic
Animals in Cambodia are usually not
pets, they serve a purpose either
killing mice, laying eggs, or protecting
the house, and are therefore not
really taken care of. Don’t worry, this
dog has since recovered.

41. Training
Teaching
Health Center
Home Life Baby birds living in Ace’s bathroom ceiling
Ace’s frog Chester who lives in his room
Market
Clothing
Animals
Transportation If you’re lucky you can
Scenic make friends with
some of the animals,
or people who own
them
Irene riding a water buffalo

42. Training
Teaching
Scorpion in a PCVs bedroom You WILL see these everywhere A decapitated cobra in a PCVs backyard
Health Center
Home Life
Of course Cambodia also has its
Market share of creepy crawly things too.
Clothing
Animals
Transportation
Scenic
Remember
geckos are on
your side, this
one caught a
scorpion in a
PCVs bedroom Check your shoes for squatters (worse
things than toads will take up residence)

43. Transportation
30+ people in the back
of a truck is a common
mode of transportation
for Cambodians
Training
Teaching
Health Center
Home Life
Market
Clothing
Animals
Transportation Transportation in Cambodia can be a
little bit crazy. They are constantly
Scenic trying to fit as any people in any
“vehicle” going in any direction.
A Cambodian family fitting 9
people in their tuk tuk

44. Training
Teaching
Health Center A touri, a 12 passenger van usually filled with at Toyota Camry = taxi
least 20 people
Home Life
Market
Clothing
Animals
Transportation
Scenic Why wouldn’t 4 grown men share
the front seats in a taxi? Can you
guess which is the driver? –On the
road to Banteay Chmar.

45. Training Right: a roma--a hay cart pulled by a moto
Bottom: a moto pulling an average load
Teaching
Health Center
Kate riding around Takeo town
Home Life
Market
Clothing The envy of every volunteer arriving to work
dirty and sweaty, the Peace Corps car
Animals
Transportation
Scenic

46. Heather captured 6 people
getting ready to leave on a
moto
Motorcycles, tehcnically mo-
peds are the most common
Training method of transportation in
Cambodia. They often ride
Teaching with up to 5 or 6 people on
Health Center them
Home Life
Market
Be careful of motos when riding your bike. L: Sam, the first k5 to get hit by a moto
Clothing R: Garrett, the first k4 to get hit by a moto
Animals
Transportation
Scenic

47. Scenic
Cambodia has some of the most stunning views of any country out there. Some pictures
that PCVs have taken could give National Geographic a run for their money. You’ll arrive in
July, during the rainy season when everything is wet every day and a brilliant green. This
gives way to the dry season when everyone becomes a farmer. No matter the season
there is always something blooming and some fruit ready to eat.
Training
Teaching
Health Center
Home Life
Market
Clothing
Animals
Transportation
Scenic
A girl in the salt farming community of An A pier in Sihanoukville
Gold, Kampot

48. Sunset at Angkor Wat, if you
go after 5, you can watch the
sunset from inside for free
Cambodian sunsets and
Training sunrises are commonly a
Teaching spectacular site.
Health Center
Home Life
Market
Clothing
Animals A sunset in Takeo province A sunset in Angtasam, Takeo
Transportation
Scenic

49. Caves in Kampong Trach, Kampot
Training
Teaching
Health Center
Home Life
Market
Clothing
Animals
Transportation
Scenic
The pier in Kep
Chris riding through rice fields

50. Training
Teaching
Health Center Rice harvesting A floating village
Home Life Monks walking around Independence Monument in Takeo town
Market
Clothing
Animals
Transportation
Scenic

51. Training
Teaching
Health Center
Home Life
Market
Clothing
Animals
Transportation
Scenic Thanks to everyone who lent their pictures for
this project: Erin, Garrett, Andrea P., Jill P, Jill L,
Stewart, Danielle, Irene, Kate, Katie, Sean, Erica,
Joyce, Heather, Trevor and Kirsten.