Friday, April 27, 2012

Share and Share Alike

As a rather anxiety-prone person, there are many things about which I’ve always been nervous. One of the things most guaranteed to tie my stomachs in knots, however, is the prospect of disciplining, correcting, or otherwise training another person’s child. The reasons for my hesitancy? Before I became a parent, I’d not thought much about it and was well aware that I had no clue how to do it effectively. After I became a parent, I’d thought about it a great deal, developed my philosophies about how best to do it, and assumed that other parents had done the same—without necessarily coming to the same conclusions Jeff and I have embraced. That means that every time I discipline, correct, or otherwise train someone else’s child, I am aware that I may be undermining the parent’s chosen child-rearing strategy, and that the parent may be no happier about it than I would be if someone else interacted with Alexa in a way that I believed was inappropriate.

So what do I do here in Cambodia? I start attending a playgroup! Now, please don’t misunderstand, playgroup is a wonderful thing, and the other moms are truly good women and good mothers. And, although it didn’t occur to me until today, from what I’ve seen, they tend to interact with their children in ways that fit nicely with how I try to raise Alexa. BUT, in this playgroup, the children pretty much run all over our chosen venue—someone’s house or Monkey Business, which is deserted other than our group at the time at which we meet—without too much concern on the mothers’ part about keeping close watch on their kids; there’s always a locked gate to ensure security and plenty of adult eyes to prevent serious mishap. This state of affairs means that when kids get into disputes or otherwise do things they shouldn’t, the mother or mothers belonging to the kids in question is not always right there to resolve the situation. Sometimes, there arises a situation where a mother needs to get involved in a situation that involves someone else’s child.

(On a side note—no other moms have had to get involved with situations involving Alexa, mostly because she rarely gets far enough away from me to require it. She’s a bit anxious and shy, like her mama. But I do trust the other moms enough that when the day comes that Alexa is running around with the rest of the kids, I’ll have no problem with them intervening as necessary.)

Twice, I have become involved in a situation involving someone else’s child. Both times involved the same little girl.

On the first occasion, I was hosting playgroup at our house. One of the most popular toys of the day was a ride-on giraffe, a gift received before Alexa was even born. It’s become one of Alexa’s favorites lately, and apparently the other kids agree with her assessment: the giraffe rocks! Throughout our time together, the giraffe was zooming around the house. I didn’t pay much attention to which child or children were using it.

And then.
This little girl came up to me and asked “Can I ride on the giraffe?”
“Yes, as long as no one else is on it.”

“Can I ride on it for a really long time?”

Mental response: Child, why didn’t you go to your own mama with this question?! Ok, ok, I guess it’s because as the hostess, as the de facto owner of all the toys, since Alexa isn’t old enough to have a real say, I was the one with the power to distribute toys. But still. It was a rather simple question that felt more like a social landmine to me. However, the question had been asked, and so …

“Well, no, not for a really long time. Other kids want to play with the giraffe, too, so you have to share it. You can ride on it for a little while, but then you need to let someone else ride it.”

Ok, first test, and I think I did well enough. It really was an easy one: I was asked a direct question, for permission to do something, and all I had to do with give or withhold permission. Directing other people’s kids, lesson one: pass.

Fast forward to today. We’re at someone else’s house. The children of this house have several dolls, or “babies,” as Alexa calls them. Alexa was fascinated with the babies from the time she first saw them, but she wouldn’t play with them because I was talking to someone and wouldn’t walk across the room with her to get them. Eventually, she decided that the room had emptied out enough for her to be comfortable: Only three children still were in the room with us; the others had gone into the other room or outside. So, while I wasn’t looking to see what happened, she apparently walked across the room and took four babies, whose last known-to-me location was the toy crib, but who could have been anywhere at the point at which she took them.

A few moments later, after Alexa had returned to me and was sitting in my lap playing contentedly with the babies, the same little girl from before stalked up to me. “Excuse me. She took the dolls.”

Now, let me explain the reason my heart really started pounding here: This time, I had to play the role of authority figure in a situation that directly involved Alexa and another child in conflict. My instincts in this situation were divided. Due to my own anxiety-ridden past, I always seem to believe, instinctively, that I and mine should sacrifice—right or wrong, I should give up what I want if someone else wants it, and that extends to making my child give up a toy, or even encouraging my husband not to defend his political positions quite so adamantly. On the other hand, this is my child, and my instinct is to defend her: She’s a sweet little thing, she’d never take toys you were playing with, she’s mine and she’s perfect, so back off, kid! Luckily, I recognize that neither of those instincts should rule. Next instinct: Stall. Get more information. Give myself time to think. I went with that one.

“Yes, she did. Were you playing with them when she took them?”

I suspected the answer was no, because Alexa is too shy to do that yet (I’m sure she will at some point, but probably not while she’s still as timid as she is now), and this other little girl is not one to succumb to that kind of thing without a certain amount of noisy protest, which would have drawn my attention.

“We were playing with all those toys.” She made a wide gesture that included the little boy with whom she was playing and all the toys located in that corner of the room—approximately 95% of the toys in the room, way more toys than any two (or ten!) kids could play with at one time. The correct answer became clear, but I wanted to make certain, so I asked another question.

“Were you playing specifically with these dolls? Were they in your hands?”

“No. But we were playing with all those toys.” Ah, complete clarity, and a decision about how I was going to proceed!

“You can’t play with all those toys at once. You were not playing with these dolls when she took them, so she can play with them. But,” inspiration striking as I saw one doll lying untouched on the ground near Alexa, “Alexa needs to share, too, so you can have one of th—“

“I want that one!” The little girl pointed at a doll held securely in Alexa’s arms.

“No. She’s playing with that one. You can’t take it away from her. You can have this one.” And I handed her the doll from the floor.

Pouty face. Accept the doll. Go back to the corner and put the doll in the crib, then promptly turn away and start playing with something else.

My comment to my friend, who’d been sitting nearby, listening in, not intervening, despite my telepathic pleas for relief: “If Alexa went over and took that doll right now, I wouldn’t make her give it back.”

According to my friend, I handled the situation well. I think the outcome was the correct one, though I wonder if I was too stern in my tone of voice. My friend says no, and I think she would tell me if I had been too harsh.

I know you can’t judge my tone of voice, not having heard it, but … what do you think? If it had been you, would you have done anything different? If either of the children involved were yours, would you be upset or disappointed in my handling of the situation? I admit I’m looking for reassurance, but I also would like to know if anyone would have handled it differently, and how.

Tuesday, April 24, 2012

Our New Year "Stay-cation"


Wicker Nagaa at Wat Phnom

 Unlike American holidays, many countries officially devote multiple days to celebrating a single holiday. Back in Egypt, these multi-day holidays were Islamic religious observances such as Eid al-Fitr and Eid al-Adha. Here in Cambodia, some are Buddhist holidays (most notably, Pchum Ben), whereas others have less to do with religion and more to do with ancient cultural practices (Water Festival). Khmer New Year, a cultural celebration that includes religious elements, was observed this year from Friday, 13 April, through Monday, 16 April.

During Khmer New Year, many Cambodians who live in the cities return to the provinces to celebrate with their families. Many expats who live in Phnom Penh also leave, spending the holiday at the beaches of Kep or Sihanoukville, at the ancient temples around Siem Reap, or outside of Cambodia altogether. Those who stay in Phnom Penh over the holiday experience a rare treat: a nearly deserted city. Traffic is almost non-existent, tourist hot spots are significantly less crowded than usual, and (less ideally) many shops and restaurants are closed.

As an embassy employee, Jeff has the privilege of being off work for local holidays, so we had a four day weekend. Those who know us well will be unsurprised to learn that we chose to stay in Phnom Penh over the holiday weekend.

Wat Phnom, decorated for Khmer New Year
On Friday morning, we went to Monkey Business, where we met up with several friends and their little ones. Monkey Business is a great place to take kids of all ages. There are three separate play areas, one for infants under 1 year, one for children aged 1 to 4, and one for “big kids” over the age of 4. (The areas are designed for children of those ages, but the kids are allowed to play in any area, as long as they’re doing so safely and in a way that doesn’t prevent the younger kids from enjoying their areas … although, to be honest, the limitations always come from the parents, never from the staff.) The play areas have ball pits, slides, and various “obstacle courses” in which the kids can play. There’s a large seating area for the parents, with free wi-fi, and a cafĂ© with decent prices and pretty good food for both kids and adults (they even have decent coffee). There’s even an area set up for pedicures and foot massages! We stayed at Monkey Business for maybe four hours on Monday morning, and left only because Alexa’s morning nap time had come and gone, and her afternoon nap time was approaching.

Buddhist flags
On Saturday, we waited until after Alexa’s morning nap, then made a trip up to Wat Phnom. We’d heard that there would be traditional games being played there pretty much all day, and we wanted to see what was going on. When we arrived, we noticed that the main entry area had been decorated with a lot of small flags. I recognized half of the flags as the national flag of Cambodia, but I did not recognize the others. A quick internet search once we got home revealed that those flags, as I suspected, were Buddhist. There didn’t seem to be much happening around the base of the hill, although there were more people there than usual. Some of these people were playing a game that looked an awful lot like hacky sack, and some crowded around a cage holding a monkey. We spent a few minutes letting Alexa see the monkey, but we left once an unwary woman started grabbing the monkey’s paw and laughing at its angry swipes at her—we didn’t want Alexa to develop a fear of monkeys once the woman received the scratches for which she was asking. Most people, however, were just standing or sitting around, chatting. We walked around the bottom of the hill for half an hour or so; we didn’t climb to the top because we didn’t expect the games to be played there, and it was possible that religious ceremonies (in which we did not want to participate) would be held there.
Captive monkey at Wat Phnom

After our unsuccessful but pleasant attempt to find traditional games at Wat Phnom, we headed to Paragon Mall. We weren’t interested in the mall itself; that’s where Monkey Business is located, but other than that, the mall consists of a supermarket, a few restaurants, and a few small shops that hold no interest for us. One of the restaurants, however, is a great one: Swensen’s! This chain of ice cream parlors was started in the United States, though I hadn’t heard of it there. Jeff was very excited the first time we saw a Swensen’s here, and immediately decided that we had to go there. The visit this weekend was our second time at a Swensen’s here in Cambodia (the first one we visited was at Soriya shopping center), and it didn’t disappoint. All three of us were very happy to have ice cream sundaes for lunch, especially after traipsing around in the heat and humidity.

We spent the rest of the weekend lounging around the house. I read, Jeff beat whichever video game that is that features John Shepard (the second one—he hasn’t started the newest one yet), and Alexa played, looked at books, and watched “Uh-Oh” (her name for Curious George) and Veggie Tales. We had planned to attend church on Sunday, but our tuk tuk driver informed us that he was going to his province, so he couldn’t drive us, and … well … we don’t know how to get there on our own. We have driving directions, which we passed on to him with great success, but our maps don’t cover that far out from downtown, and we weren’t even sure how to locate the starting point for the directions. That’s something we need to fix before the next big holiday, though. We also had intended to go back to Monkey Business on Monday morning, but we decided on Sunday night to be lazy and not set an alarm clock. We considered taking advantage of the empty city to visit a relatively deserted National Museum, too, but laziness struck again. We will get around to the museum one of these days, though … even if not until we have some more friends visit us this fall!

Saturday, April 21, 2012

Kosovo: Are We Excited?


Several people have asked me this question or a variant of it. Several others have asked me how we cope with the frequent moves that are part and parcel of foreign service life—how do we feel about living in one country while still missing a previous country and simultaneously knowing (and trying to prepare for) where we’re going next? These are good questions! The latter ones were questions that didn’t even start to occur to me until about a year before we left Egypt, when we found out that our next home would be in Cambodia.

I don’t have all the answers. I just began my second attempt at balancing life in one foreign country with the necessary preparations for life in another foreign country. In many ways, I feel like this attempt is my first one, at least the first one that counts, because our final year in Egypt was so chaotic that I was neither living in Egypt in a meaningful way nor preparing for Cambodia at all. (I was physically away from post for 6 of my final 12 months “in” Egypt, because of returning to the States for Alexa’s birth and during the evacuation, and I was focused on my new role as mother more than my life in Egypt per se for 4 of my 6 months there, with the last 2 months focused specifically on departure preparations.) With my time in Cambodia being so short—2 years never felt like such a short time!—and us being only 6 months in, I feel a need to be here, not in some weird hybrid of Cambodia and Kosovo.

So I find myself now in a place that is all too familiar to foreign service families: trying to strike a balance between participating in and enjoying life in the place where I am, and doing the necessary preparation work to ensure a smooth transition to life in the place where I will be. That preparation work includes a whole host of activities: paring down our stuff to an amount that will not cost extra to move and that will fit comfortably into a home of unknown size at our next post; reading books, blogs, and news sources to become familiar with our next home and minimize the culture shock that will come; purchasing the keepsakes that forever will be our reminders of the special people, places, and events of our time here; preparing Alexa to say good-bye to her beloved Miing-Miing (just what have I done to her by encouraging her to attach so deeply to someone whom I knew she couldn’t keep?!); and so much more. Some of those things I could do now, although it would be foolish to do others—really, can you imagine preparing a 21-month-old to say good-bye to a loved one in 18 months? Impossible and traumatic. But others I could do now, and some I have started already. The question is: Just how deep do I want to go into these preparations now? Just how deep can I go without divorcing myself from life here, which I want to avoid doing for at least another year?

I’ve decided on a balance that I hope will work for our family. We’ve announced our next post, but I won’t do much more than that for a while. Jeff and I will begin going through our stuff and getting rid of some (hopefully a lot!) of it—that’s something we would have done in Egypt had we had a more normal experience just before our tour there was over, so the project is as much a leftover from Egypt as it is a preparation for Kosovo. I’ve started following one blog written by an American woman in Kosovo. She doesn’t talk much about daily life there (I couldn’t find a blog that does that in the limited time I gave myself to look), but she does mention items of interest in Kosovan news. That’s about all I intend to do until early next year.

Sometime early next year, possibly in January but maybe not until a little later, I’ll buy a guidebook for Kosovo and start my bucket list. I’ll also go a bit more in-depth in the search for information about the daily lives of expats in Pristina. Our friend who currently is posted there may start getting a lot more questions, and hopefully we’ll be assigned an official sponsor then, so I can start pestering the person who’s supposed to answer my questions. I’ll do another, more intense, search for expat blogs. I’ll do web searches and contact the embassy’s Community Liaison Office in search of English-language churches and playgroups. In short, I’ll start preparing intellectually, laying the groundwork for a smooth transition.

This process, designed to ease our settling-in period in Kosovo, will have the side effect of beginning my emotional divorce from Cambodia. Next spring or summer, the urge probably will hit to go shopping—to buy whatever is most representative of Cambodia that has not made its way into our home already. As I learn more and get more excited about Kosovo, my head increasingly will be there and not here; when that starts to hit, my emotions will clue in on the fact that we're really leaving, and I'll become both nostalgic for Cambodia and detached from Cambodia at the same time. I won’t be at all surprised if by late summer, I’m distancing myself from friends and favorite activities here, making the inevitable good-bye easier.

So to get back to the most common question: Are we excited about Kosovo? No, not yet, by our own choice. We believe that we will enjoy Kosovo, that it will offer unique experiences and challenges that will help us to grow as individuals and as a family, that it will be an exciting place for us to be. The excitement will come. But when it does, we’ll lose Cambodia. So we’re holding that off for now. Right now, we want to be excited about Cambodia. Kosovo will have its turn later.

Thursday, April 19, 2012

We're Going To ...

Pristina, Kosovo!

Congratulations to our winner, MK, who blogs over at The More ... The Mery-er! You should have received your Amazon.com gift card in your email account already. For those who want to know, we had 14 guessers, 10 of whom came up with the correct answer. The first correct answer came on clue #3. There were a total of 70 entries in the drawing, and I used Random.org to pick the winning entry.

Now for those complete and total nerds (like me), here's a little explanation/elaboration on the clues.


Clue 1: We'll actually have winter again! With snow! But we'll also have warm-to-hot, dry summers.

Wikipedia describes Pristina's climate as a "humid continental climate with very warm summers and cold and often snowy winters." The average high temperature ranges from 37 degrees Fahrenheit in January to 82 degrees Fahrenheit in August, with average lows from 23 to 57. The average number of days with precipitation ranges from 4 in March to 13 in both April and May.


Clue 2: I'll still be in the religious minority; only about 10% of the population is Christian.

Approximately 90% of the population is Muslim, again according to Wikipedia. Most of the population is ethnic Albanian, and they overwhelmingly are Muslim. Around 10% of the population is Serbian, overwhelmingly Christian. I guess I'll be hearing those calls to prayer again!


Clue 3: We'll be living in yet another poor country. Almost half of the population is unemployed, and the average per capita income is around $6,500/year.

That figure comes from the CIA's Kosovo page in The World Factbook. This average income is the lowest in Europe. Approximately 45% of Kosovans (to choose a language-neutral term; the locals call themselves Kosovars or Kosovacs, depending on their language) are unemployed.


Clue 4: As of 2010, the country boasted only 8 airports, 4 of them with paved runways.

This number also comes courtesy of The World Factbook's Kosovo page. I'm not sure where all of them are located. Wikipedia lists only three: Pristina International Airport, Dakovica Airport, and Batlava-Donja Penduha Airfield.


Clue 5: It'll be our smallest capital city yet. The population is only 10% the size of Phnom Penh's.

Pristina has a population of around 200,000 (source: Wikipedia). Phnom Penh has a population of over 2 million (source: Wikipedia).


Clue 6: The country has two official languages. If you use the wrong one in the wrong area, you may find yourself in trouble!

According to The World Factbook and the Department of State's Kosovo page, Kosovo has two official languages--Albanian and Serbian. Bosnian, Turkish, and Roma also are spoken. Blogger MTCowgirl, an American working with the UN in Pristina, says, "Now, in the beginning, the UN suggested that you don’t learn any of the local language…but learning some simple things can help…as long as you know how when to use your knowledge." Now, she doesn't actually say that you could find yourself in trouble for using the wrong language in the wrong place, but ... why else would the UN suggest that their workers not learn the local languages? She also suggests that we not use our thumb and first two fingers to signal the number 3 (as I became accustomed to doing when I started learning American Sign Language), in order to avoid inadvertently signalling "Serbian Victory."


Clue 7: Once I move there, I will have lived on a total of four continents.

I grew up in North America, then lived in northern Africa for three years (although with the Middle East being its own distinct area, many people don't think about the fact that Egypt is, in fact, on the continent of Africa). By the time I leave Cambodia, I will have lived in Asia for two years. Kosovo is located in the Balkans, a part of eastern Europe--although I have to admit that I had to look it up to know for certain whether the Balkans are considered eastern Europe or Western Asia! 


Clue 8: This country was at war even more recently than Cambodia! It's one of the newest countries in the world, recognized by some--but not yet all--of its neighbors.

I'm not going to go into the whole long story, but I assume that most of my readers have heard of Kosovo as a war zone. Kosovo was a province of Serbia in Yugoslavia from the end of World War II. In the 1980s, Kosovan Albanians began calling for independence. Slobodan Milosevic responded by revoking Kosovo's relatively autonomous status. Kosovan independence was declared in 1991, and Milosevic engaged in a brutal campaign against Kosovan Albanians. In 1999, Kosovo was placed under the UN Interim Administration Mission in Kosovo (UNMIK). On 17 February 2008, the Kosovo Assembly declared Kosovo an independent country. Over 85 countries have recognized Kosovo as an independent nation, including the United States, but Serbia has not (source for all of the preceding historical information: The World Factbook). Apparently, Serbia has not relinquished its perceived sovereignty over Kosovo, and currently is planning for local municipal elections to be held in northern Kosovo (source: MTCowgirl).


Clue 9: It's a small country, not quite 11,000 square kilometers. The whole country has about as many people living in it as Phnom Penh, our current city!

Kosovo comprises an area of 10,887 square kilometers (or around 4,211 square miles) and its population consists of approximately 1.8 million (The World Factbook). As mentioned earlier, Phnom Penh is home to upwards of 2 million. Kosovo is slightly smaller than the American state of Connecticut, which has an area of 5,544 square miles (source: Netstate). Although Kosovo's land area is approximately 75% of Connecticut's, it has only half as many people--Connecticut had a population of almost 3.6 million as of July 2011 (source: Google, using information from the U. S. Census Bureau).


Clue 10: The name of the capital city rhymes with a popular feminine English name.

The capital of Kosovo is Pristina. Change the "P" to a "K" for Kristina, or as it more commonly is spelled, Christina.


There you have it. I hope you enjoyed this foray into the land of random information about Kosovo!

Wednesday, April 18, 2012

Where Are We Going? Final Clue!

As I told you last week, we're announcing our next assignment via a trivia game, complete with a prize! If you missed it, you can check out the rules and method of entry here.


Here are the previous clues:

  1. We'll actually have winter again! With snow! But we'll also have warm-to-hot, dry summers.
  2. I'll still be in the religious minority; only about 10% of the population is Christian.
  3. We'll be living in yet another poor country. Almost half of the population is unemployed, and the average per capita income is around $6,500/year.
  4. As of 2010, the country boasted only 8 airports, 4 of them with paved runways.
  5. It'll be our smallest capital city yet. The population is only 10% the size of Phnom Penh's.
  6. The country has two official languages. If you use the wrong one in the wrong area, you may find yourself in trouble!
  7. Once I move there, I will have lived on a total of four continents.
  8. This country was at war even more recently than Cambodia! It's one of the newest countries in the world, recognized by some--but not yet all--of its neighbors.
  9. It's a small country, not quite 11,000 square kilometers. The whole country has about as many people living in it as Phnom Penh, our current city!

And here is the final clue:

The name of the capital city rhymes with a popular feminine English name.


That's it, people; those are all of the clues. I will be accepting guesses via comment or email (ReflectionsQA@gmail.com) until 7pm Cambodian time tomorrow, 19 April 2012. Sometime on  Friday, 20 April, or possibly after 7pm tomorrow night, I'll put up a post with the answer and with the first name of the winner. The winner also will be notified by email, possibly when the electronic gift card shows up!

You have 24 hours to enter your final guesses. Good luck!

Tuesday, April 17, 2012

Where Are We Going? Clue 9

Apparently this did not post last night as scheduled, for a reason that I can't begin to guess, so this post is late. The final clue will post as scheduled tonight (my time) unless Blogger decides to do something strange again ...

As I told you last week, we're announcing our next assignment via a trivia game, complete with a prize! If you missed it, you can check out the rules and method of entry here.


Here are the previous clues:

  1. We'll actually have winter again! With snow! But we'll also have warm-to-hot, dry summers.
  2. I'll still be in the religious minority; only about 10% of the population is Christian.
  3. We'll be living in yet another poor country. Almost half of the population is unemployed, and the average per capita income is around $6,500/year.
  4. As of 2010, the country boasted only 8 airports, 4 of them with paved runways.
  5. It'll be our smallest capital city yet. The population is only 10% the size of Phnom Penh's.
  6. The country has two official languages. If you use the wrong one in the wrong area, you may find yourself in trouble!
  7. Once I move there, I will have lived on a total of four continents.
  8. This country was at war even more recently than Cambodia! It's one of the newest countries in the world, recognized by some--but not yet all--of its neighbors.

And here is today's clue:

It's a small country, not quite 11,000 square kilometers. The whole country has about as many people living in it as Phnom Penh, our current city!


Don't forget; tomorrow is our last clue! Good luck!


Update: So far, we've had 19 guesses from 14 people. Ten people have guessed correctly and have earned from four to nine entries each in the drawing.

Monday, April 16, 2012

Where Are We Going? Clue 8

As I told you last week, we're announcing our next assignment via a trivia game, complete with a prize! If you missed it, you can check out the rules and method of entry here.


Here are the previous clues:

  1. We'll actually have winter again! With snow! But we'll also have warm-to-hot, dry summers.
  2. I'll still be in the religious minority; only about 10% of the population is Christian.
  3. We'll be living in yet another poor country. Almost half of the population is unemployed, and the average per capita income is around $6,500/year.
  4. As of 2010, the country boasted only 8 airports, 4 of them with paved runways.
  5. It'll be our smallest capital city yet. The population is only 10% the size of Phnom Penh's.
  6. The country has two official languages. If you use the wrong one in the wrong area, you may find yourself in trouble!
  7. Once I move there, I will have lived on a total of four continents.

And here is today's clue:

This country was at war even more recently than Cambodia! It's one of the newest countries in the world, recognized by some--but not yet all--of its neighbors.


Good luck!

Sunday, April 15, 2012

Where Are We Going? Clue 7

As I told you last week, we're announcing our next assignment via a trivia game, complete with a prize! If you missed it, you can check out the rules and method of entry here.


Here are the previous clues:

  1. We'll actually have winter again! With snow! But we'll also have warm-to-hot, dry summers.
  2. I'll still be in the religious minority; only about 10% of the population is Christian.
  3. We'll be living in yet another poor country. Almost half of the population is unemployed, and the average per capita income is around $6,500/year.
  4. As of 2010, the country boasted only 8 airports, 4 of them with paved runways.
  5. It'll be our smallest capital city yet. The population is only 10% the size of Phnom Penh's.
  6. The country has two official languages. If you use the wrong one in the wrong area, you may find yourself in trouble!

And here is today's clue:

Once I move there, I will have lived on a total of four continents.


Good luck!

Saturday, April 14, 2012

Where Are We Going? Clue 6

As I told you a few days ago, we're announcing our next assignment via a trivia game, complete with a prize! If you missed it, you can check out the rules and method of entry here.


Here are the previous clues:

  1. We'll actually have winter again! With snow! But we'll also have warm-to-hot, dry summers.
  2. I'll still be in the religious minority; only about 10% of the population is Christian.
  3. We'll be living in yet another poor country. Almost half of the population is unemployed, and the average per capita income is around $6,500/year.
  4. As of 2010, the country boasted only 8 airports, 4 of them with paved runways.
  5. It'll be our smallest capital city yet. The population is only 10% the size of Phnom Penh's.

And here is today's clue:

The country has two official languages. If you use the wrong one in the wrong area, you may find yourself in trouble!

Good luck!

Friday, April 13, 2012

Where Are We Going? Clue 5

As I told you a few days ago, we're announcing our next assignment via a trivia game, complete with a prize! If you missed it, you can check out the rules and method of entry here. Today's the halfway mark!

Here are the previous clues:

  1. We'll actually have winter again! With snow! But we'll also have warm-to-hot, dry summers.
  2. I'll still be in the religious minority; only about 10% of the population is Christian.
  3. We'll be living in yet another poor country. Almost half of the population is unemployed, and the average per capita income is around $6,500/year.
  4. As of 2010, the country boasted only 8 airports, 4 of them with paved runways.

And here is today's clue:

It'll be our smallest capital city yet. The population is only 10% the size of Phnom Penh's.

Good luck!


And a reminder: In order to count, guesses must include your email address. I have received a couple of guesses that did not include an email address. If yours is one of them, know that even if the guess is correct, it will not count unless you provide an email address! If you submit another comment that contains your email address, using the same account identifier that you used before and confirming your guess, then your guess will count ... if it was correct.

Thursday, April 12, 2012

Where Are We Going? Clue 4

As I told you a few days ago, we're announcing our next assignment via a trivia game, complete with a prize! If you missed it, you can check out the rules and method of entry here.

Here are the previous clues:

  1. We'll actually have winter again! With snow! But we'll also have warm-to-hot, dry summers.
  2. I'll still be in the religious minority; only about 10% of the population is Christian.
  3. We'll be living in yet another poor country. Almost half of the population is unemployed, and the average per capita income is around $6,500/year.

And here is today's clue:

 As of 2010, the country boasted only 8 airports, 4 of them with paved runways.



Good luck!


Now for a quick update on the voting: So far we've had 9 guesses from 6 people. Two of the guesses were right! (And no one who already knew the answer has chosen to participate as of yet.)

Wednesday, April 11, 2012

Where Are We Going? Clue 3

As I told you a couple of days ago, we're announcing our next assignment via a trivia game, complete with a prize! If you missed it, you can check out the rules and method of entry here.

Here are the previous clues:

  1. We'll actually have winter again! With snow! But we'll also have warm-to-hot, dry summers.
  2. I'll still be in the religious minority; only about 10% of the population is Christian.

And here is today's clue:

 We'll be living in yet another poor country. Almost half of the population is unemployed, and the average per capita income is around $6,5000/year.


Good luck!

Tuesday, April 10, 2012

Where Are We Going? Clue 2

As I told you yesterday, we're announcing our next assignment via a trivia game, complete with a prize! If you missed it, you can check out the rules and method of entry here.

Here's yesterday's clue:

  1. We'll actually have winter again! With snow! But we'll also have warm-to-hot, dry summers.

And here's today's clue:

 I'll still be in the religious minority; only about 10% of the population is Christian.


Good luck!

Monday, April 9, 2012

Where Are We Going?: A Trivia Game (With A Prize!)


It’s that time of year again. Foreign Service families all over the world are working on the process of learning about, bidding on, networking for, and otherwise securing their next posts. Typically, this process starts early in the year and finishes up sometime in the spring (with a few exceptions for late-breaking openings, cancellations, or other random events), with the families moving sometime the following year. We went through the process roughly a year before we left Cairo, so we knew that we’d be in Cambodia over a year before we stepped foot in Asia. We’re in the process of going through it again now. It isn’t finished yet—the proverbial fat lady hasn’t sung, so everything could change—but we’re almost certain that we know our next assignment. We’ve decided that we’re certain enough to go ahead and announce it.

But just announcing it wouldn’t be very fun.

So we’re going to play a guessing game. Every day for the next 10 days (including today), I will provide one clue about either the city or the country in which we will live. Your job is to guess the city and country.

The day after I post the final clue, I’ll do a drawing. Everyone who submitted a correct guess will be entered in the drawing. There will be one winner. That one winner will receive a gift card to Amazon.com worth $10.00 (ten U. S. dollars).

Let’s start with the fun stuff—the first clue!


Where Are We Going? Clue 1:
We’ll actually have winter again! With snow! But we’ll also have warm-to-hot, dry summers.



Now for the boring details about how this game will work:

  • A correct answer will include both the country name and the city name—and here’s a freebie clue: We will be living in the country’s capital city, so once you know one, it’s pretty easy to figure out the other.   
  •  Clues will be posted in separate blog posts, one each day for 10 days. They already have been written and scheduled to post each day at 7pm Cambodia time, which is 8am Eastern Standard Time in the States.
  • Guesses should be submitted in one of two ways: comment on one of the related posts (I have enabled comment moderation, so that I can see the guesses without publishing them for others to see, thus keeping it fair) or send an email to me at ReflectionsQA@gmail.com. For those of you who are my Facebook friends, guesses posted there will not count. I want to keep the guesses private until we announce the correct answer in order to keep it fair.
  • Entries must include a valid email address. Guesses submitted by comment will not be published, so I will not put your email address on the blog. The email address included in your entry is the one that will receive the gift card. If the email address is invalid, a new winner will be chosen.
  • Only one correct answer per person will count. If you happen to have children who are old enough to participate, but who do not have the means to send me an email or comment on the blog apart from your account, I will allow multiple correct entries from one account if you specify that a specific guess is from a specific child, i.e., “this entry is from my daughter Jane” on one entry and “this entry is from my son John” on another. You’re on the honor system that the kids (1) exist and (2) are actually participating, not just serving to get you extra entries.
  • You may guess more than once. However, only your last guess counts. So what I’m really saying is that you only get one “final answer” guess, but you can change it up to the last minute. If you guess correctly on the first day, then guess again incorrectly on the last day, your first guess is negated, and you are not entered in the drawing. This rule is to prevent anyone from gaming the system and entering 196 guesses (there are roughly that many countries in the world) in order to cover all their bases.
  • People who guess correctly on fewer clues will be rewarded with additional entries. If you guess correctly when only one clue is showing, you get one entry for the correct guess, plus an additional 10 entries. If you guess correctly when only two clues are showing, you get one plus nine entries. So forth and so on until if you guess correctly when all ten clues are up, you get one plus one. The time stamp on your entry will determine on which clue your entry was submitted—anything at or before 7pm Cambodia time counts as the previous clue, and anything after 7pm Cambodia time (even if only by a minute) counts as the next clue.
  • There is a very small number of people who have been told where we’re going. These people are still eligible to play, but they will receive only one entry, no matter when they “guess.” In this way, people who truly guess are rewarded for the extra effort and uncertainty involved in following the clues, but everyone still can participate.
  • The drawing will be held roughly 24 hours after the final clue is posted. The winner will be notified in the follow-up post in which we actually announce our next home and via email.
  • Obviously, you must have an email address, or permission to receive email at someone else’s email address, in order to win. The gift card will be delivered via email.
  • The gift card will be to Amazon.com, not to one of its international affiliates.

And if you made it through all that, congratulations! Now get to guessing--and good luck!