US Peace Corps embedded with Khmer families

In Cambodia's North East, where American B52s once dropped a rain of terror, Allister Hayman finds the locals ready and willing to embrace the country's first ever delegation of US Peace Corps.

In Kampong Cham province's Prey Chhor village Molli Barker, of Iowa, talks of her fear of spiders. Sitting on the front steps of her new home, a traditional wooden Khmer house in this tiny village about 30 minutes from Kampong Cham town, Barker said the resident tarantulas unnerved her.

"I'm terrified of spiders," she said. "But then again, I've also eaten them. So long as they're not moving, it's OK."

Barker, 21, is one of 30 US Peace Corps volunteers ensconced in villages across rural Kampong Cham province, where they're now living with Cambodian families.

The Peace Corps volunteers - most in their early twenties - arrived in Phnom Penh on February 2. The group is stationed in Kampong Cham to learn English language teaching methods and the culture and language of their hosts.

After two-months' training, the volunteers will relocate to permanent sites in seven provinces, where they will live with a local family and teach English to upper-level high school students for two years.

Van Nelson, country director of Peace Corps Cambodia (PCC), said it has taken the organization a long time to arrive in Cambodia and he's proud to head the first mission.

"To the Peace Corps, Cambodia is an unknown," he said. "For this mission, we were looking for generalists. But all the volunteers have done some tutoring and they've all come with a zeal. They've come here to serve Cambodia."

Nelson, who first volunteered with the Peace Corps in 1969, said Cambodian authorities identified English education as their priority.

"Peace Corps doesn't say what we will give; we ask what is needed," Nelson told the Post. "And we were repeatedly told that there is a real need for English language teaching."

Nelson said the purpose of the PCC was cultural exchange, language teaching and community development.

"The objective is to expose Cambodians to typical Americans, and give Americans an insight into everyday Cambodian life," he said. "We go in very much at ground level and give Cambodians an idea of what an American is like. We also help them when help is needed. We estimate that over the two years our volunteers will touch over 60,000 lives."

Cheryl Turner, the PCC training officer responsible for setting up the village living arrangements, said there were only three prerequisites. The volunteers had to have a room of their own, the toilets had to be of a "decent" standard, and there were to be no pigs. "It's hard enough for them to cope with the heat and dust, let alone the smell of pigs," Turner said.

The PCC volunteers are paid a living allowance of less than $100 a month, roughly half of which is given to their host family. The volunteers are not permitted to take on paid employment or ride on motos - they've been given mountain bikes. Also, they must live with their host family for the duration of their stay.

Turner said the organization's welcome to Cambodia has been "overwhelming."

"We thought we would encounter some resistance, given our history, but we haven't," she said. "People have only said, Why has it taken so long for America to come back?"

According to Turner, the PCC will expand to about 120 volunteers by 2009. Eventually, the volunteers will move beyond English teaching into youth development, health and sanitation.

"We've been in Thailand for 45 years now," he said. "And we plan to be in Cambodia a long time, too."

The PCC's arrival comes at a time of increased United States efforts to cultivate closer ties with Cambodia.

In February, a US warship visited Cambodia for the first time in more than 30 years, and on February 15 President George W Bush signed a resolution lifting a near decade-long ban on direct aid to the Cambodian government. This follows the opening of a $60 million state-of-the-art embassy last year, as well as the establishment of an FBI office. The US is a key donor to Cambodia and accounts for more than 70 percent of Cambodia's garment exports.

US Embassy spokesman Jeff Daigle said there had been "a broadening and deepening" of US-Cambodia relations in recent times, and the establishment of the PCC was "symbolic" of this.

"The Peace Corps was set up so Americans at a grassroots level can do really good work," Daigle said on March 5. "But, on another level, also function as unofficial ambassadors for the US. The volunteers can go into villages in far-flung places where a Cambodian may never have met an American."

It's the volunteers' unofficial diplomatic role that has sparked controversy. Thrown out of Russia in 2002, amid accusations of spying, the Peace Corps has long been criticized as the "smiling face" of US foreign policy - and even a conduit for the CIA. Although the latter claim has never been substantiated, the Peace Corps' public relations function is integral to its mandate.

When former US President John F Kennedy established the organization in 1961, the Soviet Union was sending teachers and technicians to developing countries and Cuba's Fidel Castro had just come to power. To counter the spread of communism, Kennedy popularized the notion of an "army" of young Americans acting as "missionaries of democracy," and charged the Peace Corps with combating notions of "Yankee imperialism," and "ugly Americans."

Some 40 years later, in his first State of the Union address after the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on the US, Bush linked public service to the "War on Terror." Echoing Kennedy, Bush appealed for all Americans "to commit at least two years - 4,000 hours over the rest of your lifetime - to the service of your neighbors and your nation." As such, he promised a doubling in size of the Peace Corps in order "to extend the compassion of our country to every part of the world."

In Prey Chhor village, the idealism is more tempered. Conscious of America's tarnished reputation and the world's intractable problems, platitudes do not come easily to the volunteers.

Felicidad Garcia, 23, of Florida, said joining the Peace Corps was something she'd wanted to do since she first heard about it in high school.

"I guess I wanted to save the world," she said. "No, actually, nobody 'saves the world.' I'm just trying to help."

As the volunteers struggle with the heat, and stumble over the sounds of Khmer, they speak of the two years ahead and discuss criticisms of their organization - and their government.

"I had serious conversations about it and you have to come to your own conclusions," said Zac Child, 22, from New Jersey. "But for me, it's about learning why people want the things that I'm able to take for granted. I'm not overly idealistic or romantic about this. I know I will gain more than I can give. I guess I just want to make myself a better American."

The volunteers did not choose Cambodia - the organization only allows applicants to specify regional preferences - but they now speak of excitement, eagerness and gratitude for the welcome they've received.

"All over the world the way people think about America is on a downward slope, so I expected some resistance here," Barker said. "But the people are so open and receptive. Given their recent history, and our history, you'd think they'd be more closed."

Apart from the spiders, the language difficulties and stomach complaints, Barker said she has had little trouble settling in. She'll spend her next 24 months stationed in a sleepy village in Svay Rieng province, near the Vietnamese border and a site of major US bombing raids. Between 1969 and 1973 the US dropped more than half a million tons of high explosives on eastern Cambodia - more than three times the quantity dropped on Japan during World War II.

"The biggest problem is that my family want to feed me too much and I can't eat it all," Barker said. "And then I feel embarrassed about saying no."

This article first appeared in the Phnom Penh Post