Letters from Sarah (2008 Cambodia)Hi everyone,
Well week 1 is coming to an end and we have had the most amazing week. I am absolutely loving it here. We have been well looked after by our In-Country Manager Mr Hour and his two assistants, Roth and Souma.
I will try to be brief as I know how much you "love" the epics that I often write, but I can't guarantee anything!!
We are staying in Golden Street which is in the heart of BKK, the area where all the NGO's are - we are surrounded by UNDP, UNIFEM, Care, etc, etc, etc, and take interest each time a 4wd goes past with a new NGO symbol on it - I'm sure that will stop being exciting pretty quickly but at present it's still pretty cool!
We did an amazing boat trip on the Mekong the other day that Hour organised, complete with a pizza lunch and Asian hip hop blaring from a tv on board. We drove around for 4 hours just watching river/rural life go past and stopped at a village to watch the silk weavers, and visit a pagoda. Surrounded by children immediately - I don't know how word gets out, but it travels quick amongst the children when foreigners are in town!
Have been spoilt by beautiful food and cheap drinks! We ventured out to a couple of nightclubs the other night which was hilarious. The first one had a live Philippino band playing anything from REM to Van Morrison. The second club, aptly called 'The Heart of Darkness' was pretty crazy, a heavy dush dush style music, where you get padded down for firearms on the way in....hmmm, dodgy but fun, mixture of a gay bar/gangsta bar - not sure we'll be going there again but it was a funny experience! Apparently it's a place where the military/Prime Minister's sons go...
I met my new boss and the AYAD who's been doing my position Thursday night and they are both lovely, Rady has fantastic English and warmed up, telling me lots of funny stories, so I am sure that we will get along great and work well together.
We went to the Australian Embassy and met the AusAID staff who told us what a fantastic place Cambodia is to live. I think their stories were useful from an awareness point of view though, mostly problems of bag snatching and moto accidents, which with common sense can mostly be avoided!
Funnily enough though, for all those people who thought I was brave doing this, I will give you a taste of how we are living....yesterday I had a breakfast of bacon omelette and baguette, then went off for a short seminar on land mines (which are largely cleared now so not a problem for us), then a little nap (it had been a late night the night before), then I got up in time to head to the pool, which is called the Pavillion, amongst a tropical garden, with day beds spotted around complete with mattresses and cushions, a lovely place to read a book, had a swim, had a fruit juice and a green mango salad, played a game of scrabble, had a beer, had an hour long lounge in the pool, then headed home to get ready to go to a free concert. The concert was massive, held at Olympic Stadium - the biggest Phnom Penh has ever seen apparently. It was put on by a mobile phone network company as their launch. It was pretty hilarious but we were unfortunate enough to have to sit through an hour long set of Stacie Orricco's music, some American chick I had never heard of, who was full of self importance and seemed to like the sound of her own voice and wouldn't get off stage. The local acts were a bit more interesting...Cambodian pop, rap and hip hop - hee hee.
We've done so much more than that but if I do it day by day, it will be sooo long, we've done so much already...
So yeah you could say life is prettty cruisy at the moment - sorry must go, have to head off for my 1 hour massage for $10.
Hi everyone, well here we are, almost at the end of week 2.Busy, busy, busy but we have still had time for relaxing...we think it's the calm before the storm as we will all start working on Monday/Tuesday.
Week in brief:
Last sunday ventured to a Cambodian Beer Garden/Restaurant where we discovered"beer rockets", a plastic portable keg that you get for your tabel - a fantastoc invention - not that cold so we've discovered drinking beer with Ice - makes it a bit falt but it's better than warm beer. Had an entertaining communication brealdown as we tried to order off a Cambodian menu which we couldn't read - the boys were trying to act out various animals but it seemed to get a bit confused as cow got translated into frog - not sure how, but frogslegs were actually quite good - tastes like chicken. We were a bit perturbed when a plate of offal was delivered but it turned out it was the table next to us. The street sellers then came into the restaurant with friend snakes, crickets, worms, beetles. Tried the crcikets and they are actually quite good - still working up to the friend tarantulas though....
Started Khmer (Cambodian language) lessons on Tuesday, had 15 hours, very useful, we just need to keep practicing. We had a fantastic local teacher who has taught in Japan and Sweden as well. He escaped to Vietnam during the war so could continue his studies there. We have already had a few people tell us about their families' experiences during the Khmer Rouge, most people of the 40-50 year old bracket lost members of their families, especially their fathers - very sad. I'm reading the book 'Surviving The Killing Fields' too which is making it all pretty real - I just don't know how anyone survived and it's weird to think that anyone who is over 30 here is a survivor.
My name, pronounced se-raa here means alcohol - how fitting! Hilarious, I wil be the butt of many jokes!
We were taught soem more cultural do's and dont's too - learnt that as a woman that you do not take alcohol to a person's house if you are invited to dinner, that you should take fruit, but not pineapple or papaya as that is deemed a vegetable here...also learnt that Cambodian dogs will run away if they are chasing you and you sit down on the ground - don't really want to try that one out though!
I went to the Rose Charities Eye Clinic on Thursday to drop off some equipment I had bought from SA and some hats that Will had ordered in Phnom Penh. Dr Vra wa sthere, who I had met in Penang. He showed me around...it was really amazing just what they achieve with such modest facilities. The recovery room is really just a room with palette beds lined up, the patients are dependent on their families for food and water. We can't afford to provide them with any more care than that. This is an improvement though as they used to have beds outside on the verandha. They have two operating tables and can do up to 8 surgeries a day and can consult up to 100 patients in a day - unbelieveable - quite inspirational! I hope to visit the Rose Charities hospital in a couple of weeks when I am back in Phnom Penh.
I will be picked up by two of my colleagues that I haven't met yet tomorrow and will be taken back to Prey veng - pretty excited to be seeing where I will be based, a bit nervous too!! Looking forward to getting more settled - I have pretty much been in transit now for 3 weeks, since I left Sydney...and expect to be at the guesthouse in prey veng for at least a coupleo f weeks while I look for accomodation - apparently there's not much around at the moment.
We are feeling the effects of major inflation here as rent has become quite expensive - not so much int he provinces but the Phnom Penh volunteers are finding it hard to find a place. Tuk tuks and moto rides are getting more expensive to as the price of petrol soars, it's over a dollar a litre here too - crazy!
We went to a karaoke bar which was pretty dodgy, we think it was a brothel - we had a beer girl who kept coming in to pour our drinks...we gave the prostitutes a miss. The sng selection was pretty funny - early 90's was the most recent stuff we think! Unfortunately the sex tourism is very much in your face, we have found that pretty confronting.
Went to a bar that was floating on the river called pontoon, that was quite cool, again the music was stuck in the 90s though. Also went to FCC which wa sthe old war correspondent/colonial hang, beautiful building on the river. There was a latino/rock band playing which were great.
Well, I guess I'd better leave it there - I'm sure I've forgotten some crazy experiences, but you'll get sick of reading!
Hi everyone, well I've managed to survive my first week in Prey Veng!! It's so different from Phnom Penh but I am starting to learn my way around. It's not that big, probably about the same size as Yoshinaga, the town I lived in in Japan. This experience has reminded me so much of my time in Japan, I'm glad that was the dry run!
I was really looking forward to the drive from Phnom Penh to Prey Veng to see how quickly things changed from city to countryside, and is a pretty dramatic change. The road here was pretty hot and dusty as it's the dry season and there were some roadworks along the way (Japan has donated a new road surface for some of National Highway 1) but in all the trip was quite smooth - ie. it's paved the whole way (apart from where japanese earthmovers are working) - I thought it would be a lot bumpier and hairier but actually the traffic wasn't too bad - not half as bad as India! The ferry crossing was an experience, pulling up to wait your turn, your car is completely surrounded by roadside sellers, everything from CD's, crickets, mangoes and coconuts. I was a little bit scared to leave the car as they were pretty aggressive beggars - always the case at these weird kinds of travel stops...
Prey Veng has one main road, where there are markets and various other little shops. the markets are pretty crazy - lots of fruit and veg as well as meat and fish - plus tailors and shops that sell pretty much anything....it's a bit daunting to start with as you get a lot of stares but I'm sure I'll get used to it. I was glad to have Khim (my predecessor) with me for my first experience as she can speak Khmer which helps as no-one speaks English there.I have to learn the maguage pretty quickly - it's already testing what ilearnt in phnom Penh and I am so glad for that exposure, otherwise I'd be even more helpless than I am. I had that advantage in Japan and find not having tha language really frustrating - must study!! Will ring a guy to try and start lessons next week!!
Then there is a road along the riverfront/rice paddies, this is a big esplanade type road lined with huge trees which is a really nice place to hang out, there's a few open air restaurants along there too, so i'm sure they'll be my new hang, however they don't actually have menus so I need to learn some dishes in Khmer quick!! hav etried a few local delicacies, baked bananas on sticks which they sell on the side of the road - they were nice, baked banana wrapped in sticky rics and roasted in a banana leaf, also nice. Sugar cane drink and fruit smoothies all made from little carts on the side of the road....and I haven't got sick yet!
Khim helped my buy a bicycle so I have wheels which is really important to get around, got slightly lost the first day going to work by myself but managed to ring khim for directions...am better with directions now though and will do another orientation round today to get my bearings better. All the streets look the same though so it does take some time to get around by landmarks.
The kids are great, they had to get up one by one and introduce themselves in English (or Khmer for the youngets ones). I have a translator which I am so grateful for, there's not much English spoken - except for my boss and this guy so I really do need him. The kids are so energetic...there's 42 of them and they are all over you....they grabbed on to my hands immediately, checking out my skin (they love the white skin), checkig out my nails, touching my legs (lucky they were'nt to hairy), etc, etc. They call me "sister", or "sister sarah" which comes out with all different pronunciations! They can speak a smattering of English but not a huge amount, they are just starting to have Englsih lessons run by the orphanage in the evenings and I will be helping the teacher improve here skills due to my experience in Japan. They love to sing and dance and do all sorts of lessons throughout the day while they are not at school. Life skills, english, computing, sewing, the older kids teaching the younger kids, older kids working in the office, music therapy, art therapy, etc, etc....although they are children from a difficult background they are really becoming children of priviliege purely through there access to information in terms of health and hygiene, english, computers etc but there is still so much more that can be done.
Unfortunately the minimal budget with whcih they've got to work does mean that facilities are pretty rudimentary, they have 1 4wd which takes all 42 kids to school - 2 trips,they just pile in on top of each other. The office has plenty of laptops which were all donated but has a pretty poor printer, ink seems to run out and they have to wait til the next month - they just keep shaking it and hoping for the best but you can't really read what's being printed out this week...it's important culturally for people to have business cards here but they can't afford them for our Director...yeah so it's going to be a big challenge but so rewarding. Adjusting to not working with email is really weird...I'm looking into how much it will cost and are thinking about funding it myself if we can get it set up - for my own sanity as well as the opportunities that it opens up for office efficiency and ease of research...we'll see....
Sorry, so much....AGAIN, there's just so much to experience every day. Don't know how I'm going to fill the weekend but we'll see how I go - I thinka ride around town, braving a restaurant y myself, house hunting, language study and reading, as well as watching Grey's anatomy (got the latest season in Phnom Penh) will keep me busy for most of it. I have been invited to the cook's mother's funeral tomorrow too - not sure what that involves but should be a cultural experience....
Hey everyone, well what have I been up to for the past week?? Mainly just work, I've met a couple more foreigners in Prey veng too which is nice, everyone moves around a fair bit so it's not always easy to catch up but its nice to know there's some English speakers around. Good news is that I move into my new house today - I'm in Phnom Penh now but am about to get on the bus back to Prey veng for the big move - so I guess I'll be busy cleaning and getting setup over the next week. Then I have a week off for Khmer New Year and will be heading up to the NE of Cambodia, to a place called Kratie where one of the other AYADs is working, she is a vet nurse looking after the Irawaddy dolphins which seem to be dying out at the moment - she will be running tests to try and work out why. So all of us (9 others in Intake 21) are heading north! All good.
I've spent the weekend in Phnom Penh (PP for short) which has been nice. Good to catch up with friends and have a bit more luxurious food than Prey Veng has to offer, but I am actually looking forward to getting back to the quiet life - the big city is a bit crazy for me now! We went to the Australian Embassy for drinks on Fri night, they run drinks on the first friday of every month. The best bit is they do a sausage sizzle - yum! Then we headed off to have some dinner and then went to the "Elsewhere" party which was packed. This is the biggest party that goes on in PP, and is held at a big old house with a tropical garden and swimming pool. It was pretty mad, passionfruit cocktails, people jumping in to the pool fully clothed, etc, etc. It was a good night. then saturday we decided to go to the water park - which was very dodgy with a few waterslides and pools, we think the water is not chlorinated so are a bit worried we might get sick - uhoh...we'll see, I'm waiting with bated breath. An experience all the same.
So I'm going to have to buy some bits and pieces for the house to make it my home, hopefully my coleeagues or someone will help me as there really isn't any english spoken at the market and they will comletely try to ripme off being a newbie and all. I have started Khmer lessons in teh hope of learning the language as quick as possible - it's a must in Prey Veng!
This Thursday we have a Khmer New Yera party at the Orphanage which will be interesting, it starts at 5:30am with 7 monks visiting to bless the premises and the kids. Then there's games and special food, should be fun!! A lot of the other foreigners in town are coming so it will be nice to see the kids going crazy over them and giving me a break!!
Not much more to report I'm afraid...should be more next week, when I head off on the Kratie adventure!
Talk soon,
Hey everyone, I know I only wrote on Sunday but I thought I’d fill you in on my house adventure – that is my first time renting a Cambodian house – there’s been a lot to get used to but I’m feeling a bit better settled, at least better than I did on my first night in my new home….
I rushed back from Phnom Penh when I got word from the guys from work, who double as my translators, my estate agents and my lifeline when things go a little awry, that although I wasn’t meeting the landlord until this Thursday that he is happy for me to move in before we sign the contract on that day. After much confusion about bus times I caught the 10:30am bus whose bus driver actually rang my colleagues who booked for me, an hour early at 9:30am saying they were full and wanted to leave…luckily I was on my way to the bus stop in a tuk tuk so they waited for me. The bus was packed so it was lucky I had booked a seat….I think it could have comfortably sat say about 20 people but probably had more than 40 packed in, complete with plastic stools down the aisle just to make it more comfortable – no-one was standing they all managed to find somewhere to place their bums…the trip took just over two hours on the way down but on the way back it took over 3 hours as it seems extra people means that there’s more chance that people want to get off enroute rather than at the final destination so there’s a lot more stops. It seemed that it must have been consensus to stop at a bakery on the side of the road too and buy everyone’s bread quota for the week, I must have missed out on the memo! The ferry terminal was the next pitstop where everyone went crazy buying corn, crickets, pork & rice, coconut parcels which I think have red bean paste mixed in, green mangoes, and pretty much any other snack you might desire. No-one need leave the bus, it all gets carried to the windows on the sellers heads, it’s quite a mission to get your goods served, to pay and get your change sorted before the bus drives off though…
[Ok I am in my new bedroom and there’s a noise coming out of my wall that sounds half bird, half bull frog, I’m not sure what it is but it’s very loud and a bit disconcerting – maybe it’s a very loud gecko….hmmmm….it’s stopped now…back to the story….]
So after a very, very hot long trip I stupidly walked to FDCC (my office) and turned up a red, hot, sweaty mess. Should have got them to pick me up, but no-one ever walks and I think they’re just being lazy but it’s actually because you are dripping before you get to your destination! Sorithy (FDCC Administrator) & Tharoth (FDCC Translator) commandeered the FDCC 4WD and we took all my stuff to my new home. I had a quick stocktake and the boys took me took me to buy essentials. I still need people to accompany me to the markets or they will completely rip me off, especially because I’m still learning my numbers, getting much better though, in PP you can get away without khmer numbers cos they do all prices in English in American dollars, but in Prey Veng it’s all in riel and told to you in Khmer, which means I have to know how to say 100’s & 1000’s which makes things more complicated!!
Boys dropped me back at the house to settle in….hooked up my mozzie net, had a look around and discovered just how filthy everything was….Sorithy offered me the FDCC cleaner for Monday so I held back on cleaning but decided I would cook – seeing I’d bought supplies from PP. Then I realised that I didn’t have a fridge – well there was one there, but it didn’t work and seemed to be being used for storage rather than chilling….so I had to be careful what I opened…so pasta, moo cow cheese & tuna was all I could muster up…wasn’t too bad…but before I could work out how to use the gas bottle and gas burners I had an ant invasion and a leak in the kitchen so things were a bit fraught. There was heavy rain…a small leak started…nothing much to worry about…I had a bucket but then after I’d been in my bedroom for awhile I went out to the kitchen to discover a mass ant colony…basically they had been forced in by the rain and the more I sprayed them, more came in….they were everywhere, coming from 4 different openings and spraying their homes just made more flee into mine. In the end when I had a pile on the floor of big black ants I thought I’d better let the guys see for themselves so we could get the landlord to do something and at least they might be able to stop them. Tharoth came over, he must have thought I was a crazy woman…but still…it was a little traumatic being invaded on my first night in a new place. He just took one look and said, “it’s because of the rain”, I said “I gathered that” but wondered what would happen in the rainy season when it rains everyday…he said there are no ants in the rainy season because they all die when there homes are flooded…let’s hope this is the case. After he left I had an ingenious thought and used the vacuum cleaner, the landlord had kindly left me, to suck up all the dead ones and any live ones that headed my way. I must have sat there with the vacuum zapping them for a bout 30mins…they haven’t been back since…
Panic over, thought I’d have a nice cooling shower to calm down but that wasn’t to be, although I’d checked the shower on one of our inspections and it worked, it had decided not to work on my first night when I desperately needed a wash. So it was bucket shower time, reminiscent of India – cool but refreshing, for the morning session I was smart enough to put a little bit of boiled water in to take the edge off.
Now on my third night here, despite the weird sound coming out of my wall and the dogs howling all around me and the roosters cockle-doodle-dooing in the middle of the night – yes I thought it was just dawn that they did that but it’s 2am and 3am and 4am that they pipe up too, I am feeling much better. The shwer’s fixed and I’ve been using the older girls and the cleaner from the orphanage as slave labour to help me clean….I promise they wanted to, mainly to snoop amongst my stuff and get out of the gates of the orphanage…and I’ve unpacked a bit more, and it’s starting to feel a bit more like home….well except that this morning after I thought all the padlocks were changed and that only I had they key…the caretaker walked in the front door…I had met him before so knew who he was, but wasn’t expecting him to visit, let alone let himself in….luckily I was dressed as I’d not long got out of the shower. Anyway I rang the trusty Tharoth again and he explained to him that I had to go to work and it wasn’t appropriate for him to be there when I wasn’t, seeing all my stuff was there and all…so he left and I changed all the padlocks around again and we are now secure!!
We’ll see what happens when I meet the landlord on Thursday, lucky I’ve had a little time to discover all the things I need him to fix before I sign on the dotted line….
And yes, I am now becoming a morning person…it’s hard to sleep in past 6am when the roosters crow and I can hear my neighbours up and adam….gives me time to go to the market and get my roast bananas on a stick, or my baguette which I spread with vegemite and moo cow cheese, plus my take away iced coffee, just like farmers union – black coffee mixed with condensed milk, served on crushed ice in a plastic bag with a straw hanging out, or my fruit smoothie served the same way….I’m getting by!!
So where do I start, so much has happened since I last wrote – I had a week off for Khmer New Year which was quite an adventure – lots of travel, lots of partying, lots of relaxing!
It all started last Thursday when we had our Khmer New Year party at FDCC – the kids were so excited and had been building up to it all week, having been off school. The party was doubling up as Khim’s leaving party which made it a little emotional nearing the end of the night but mostly all good fun. At 8:00am we began with a blessing from the monks, 7 orange robed, shaved headed deities came to bless our office and the staff which was all new to me. It involved a lot of chanting, a lot of repeat after me, which started getting quite funny when the kids couldn’t quite remember the whole sentence they were supposed to say and petered off near the end – even caused the monks to giggle! Also involved a wet t-shirt competition – not what most people associate with monks but basically, everyone had to wear white tops and black pants/dark sarong and we had to sit, kneeling to the side style (my legs were completely dead!)….
I swear everytime I write in my bedroom – this is only the second time – my loud bullfrog friend visits – funnily enough I’ve worked out what it is – it’s not a bullfrog but actually a giant gecko – I knew the noise the small ones made but I only saw the big ones for the first time on my travels – they are about 20-30cm long – huge and make a noise that people say sounds like “geck….o, geck…o” – as I said when it’s in the wall of your bedroom it can be quite disconcerting – but at least I know what it is now! I’m learning!!
….I diverge….with hands in “sompeah”, prayer style in front of your nose while the monks had a great time splashing us with holy water – it wasn’t just a small splash – they really let loose – hence you had to use your prayer hands to cover your white top or things could get a bit embarrassing. Classic photo to come of one monk reading “Pocahontas” off our bookshelf which he was sitting next to during a lull in proceedings! Apparently last year Rady (my boss) didn’t get the monks to come and one of the bedrooms became haunted by ghosts and he had to get them to come and bless the room to scare the ghosts away as the children couldn’t sleep – the Khmer people are very conscious of spirits and do many traditions to appease them.
We continued the festivities with games and dancing – games very similar to fairs at home, ie. sack race, a duck, duck goose type game which was altered to include a towel to whip the backs of the players rather than tapping them on the head, tying balloons round the ankle and trying to stamp on the others, getting a mouthful of water, running to the other end and spitting it in a plastic bottle until it is full (gross), a pinyada type thing where you get blind folded and try to hit a terracotta pot hung from a tree with a bamboo stick – I had a go at that one and smashed it one – it’s full of talcum powder which everyone chases each other with and smear it on each other’s face. The older girls did a traditional dance performance which was amazing, they practice most days and have sewed their own costumes themselves, they were made up with lots of make up and their hair all done up with frangipani decorations – it was great – again I have good photos which will make it up on facebook eventually…
Lots of Khmer dancing to finish up, they can dance for hours and the traditional dance really just involves different iterations of twirling your hands around and stepping from side to side while moving in a circle…they bust out the western dancing too which s pretty hilarious! Then there’s karaoke – which incidentally we have a karaoke parlous across from work which means I get to listen to bad, bad Khmer singing all day long – torture! All of this around a feast of Gulang Phnom, thin sliced meat and vegies on a hot plate in the middle of the table…
I gave the kids and staff my little presents from Oz at the party to which seemed to go down quite well – sometimes hard to tell, but the girls were all wearing their hairbands the next day and the guys their hats. Khim gave the kids two rabbits as pets as a leaving present which they were all pretty excited about – they love rabbits for some reason…we made sure the cook knew they were pets and not for fattening up for dinner!
The next day the kids were all being picked up by their guardians – usually an aunt, uncle or grandparent and would be spending the week in their home villages which they were also very excited about. I went in to work to see what the process was for this – it is so well documented, with contracts for both the guardian and the child to make sure they will be protected and will return to FDCC on the right day, etc. The children were also involved in Child Right’s sessions which Rady taught – I was watching these sessions and although I couldn’t understand exactly what they were talking about, was really impressed by Rady’s facilitation and the children’s participation – they were really engaged and Rady said that they remembered a lot from last time, mainly around how to identify a “bad” person and their right to say no to something they don’t want to do. There’s obviously an element of risk in letting the kids go home but it’s an important that they feel like they still have some family. Apparently there is a worry that relatives may see a strong, healthy girl and think that they can make them some money and send them off to the garment factory (or worse)…but everything possible is put in place to ensure this does not happen.
God I was going to write the whole Khmer New Year week in one email but I think it’s best to split it up a bit….otherwise there will be information overload…
Friday afternoon, I was supposed to meet my ever elusive landlord but he cancelled…yet again so I headed to Phnom Penh to catch up with the others to start our journey to Kratie – NE of PP the following day. Of course the one night we had in PP ended up being a huge one and we were all late and hungover getting in our taxi the next day – we hired a minivan with a driver seeing there was 8 of us travelling. It was not a pleasant trip up with the state of us…inevitable to go out drinking til 4am before catching a 7am bus – nice…Kratie was a 7 hour drive…
When we finally got there, we settled in to our bungalows – two wooden houses overlooking the Mekong – beautiful scenery with amazing sunsets over the river. It was paradise really – swum in the Mekong – unfortunately when we wanted refreshing cold water we instead got water hotter than a bath…hmmmm, not great in 40 degree weather, but at least we got wet. Next day we headed to see the Irrawaddy dolphins which is what Kratie is famous for – apparently there used to be around 200 or so, now there is about 60 left – one of the AYADs is researching why they are dying. We saw quite a few, pretty close to the boat – only about 10 metres off shore – they are a bit weird looking – they are snub-nosed (not as pretty as our dolphins I’m afraid, they just look like they’re missing something…a nose perhaps!)…Then off upstream where there are rapids, basically there are wooden shacks/platform built over the water and you sit in the rapids – which are very strong so you have to hold on the bamboo platforms – and let the water rush over you – slightly colder than the day before too.
New Year’s Day so parties kicked off that night – being foreigners we managed to crash a local party – welcomed with open arms and warm beer – great. You are immediately passed a long neck of warm Angkor beer and must cheers it and bottoms up – not pleasant really, then there’s the dancing, which alternates between khmer traditional, same old, same old and trance type mad techno music – interesting. They are very forceful when it comes to drinking and dancing, you really can’t say no, so we had to leave after about an hour or so or we would have been on the floor! An interesting experience to say the least…Next night we changed to a different hotel as the bungalows were booked out, we ended up having a massive roof top balcony so spent the day relaxing with a couple of beers and travel monopoly, finished off with another Mekong Swim and an impromptu toga party that night at a local restaurant – I don’t think the other diners quite knew what to make of us…
After a day in Phnom Penh where I had a million things to do and everything was shut, Celeste (another AYAD), Kate Barry (who some of you Adelaide people will know and who was in Cambodge on holiday) and I, headed off to Kampot Province – south by the sea. We had a quiet day in Kampot town, things were still pretty dead with a lot of places still closed because of New Year but we managed to amuse ourselves with a nice rooftop balcony, naps, books and beer. We didn’t realise what the time was and suddenly decided at 10:30pm that we wanted dinner, luckily our guesthouse was run by a Liverpudlian/Australian who was still up and managed to whip up a cheese, tomato, olive tasting plate with homemade toasted bread – sheer luxury at $2 a piece – some might not appreciate how rare and good this is when you’ve eaten rice for every meal for 6 weeks…
The next day we hired a car, driver and guide to take us up to the Bokor National Park, has a lot of rare animals there but hard to spot them when they are constructing a new road and have been blasting the rocks, the animals are smart enough to hide. We were really there to see the old hill station which had been developed at the top of the mountain – the area has a really interesting history – was developed by French Colonials to escape the heat (like hill stations I visited in India built by the British) but the weird thing is it was abandoned in 1972 with the invasion of the Khmer Rouge – so it is now completely abandoned and is just stone shells of housing….quite creepy really, especially when the cloud rolled in and we were completely surrounded with mist and the houses are supposed to be haunted – got some eerie photos. There was an old hotel where the Vietnam soldiers were holed up with the old Catholic Church in sight where the Khmer Rouge where holed up – you can see the bullet holes in the walls and I guess the weird part is, it wasn’t that long ago – compared to all the history in Europe. We were a little shaken when our guide pointed out the Cambodian soldiers who were camped out in one of the old buildings, they were there because a land mine had been found and they had to “re” de-mine the area – yes it had been cleared but they obviously weren’t that thorough – we stayed extremely close to the Guide after that – especially when we walked past a display of what they had recently found – we could have touched it if we wanted and it was all still live – the only thing notifying us was that it was roped off and surrounded by the telltale red skull and cross bones sign….hmmm….stay on the paths!!
That afternoon we ventured to the next town on the coast, Kep which is famous for its seafood. We had a great little bungalow with hammocks out the front – another paradise. Aimee came up from PP to meet us and we had an interesting night drinking with some Japanese tourists – they’d brought their own shochu (sake) and were quite drunk by the time they decided to join our party – great chance to practice my Japanese, surprised at how much I remembered – just proved how much Khmer I don’t know!!! Funny night…
Kate left us the next day to head back to PP and on to Siem Reap and the rest of us headed to a nearby island – Rabbit Island, which was great, pretty primitive, kind of like how Koh Samui used to be in the good old days – mid 90s! Proper beach with hammocks tied between the trees and wooden benches to sleep on, the seafood…yum, I had crab for breakfast and prawns for lunch – luxury! – pity about the ants…while monkeys were the bane of my existence in India, Ants are the winners here…I seem to be allergic to their bites…..and there’s 5 different species and counting, small red ones which keep biting my left foot (not my right one for some reason) and bring out extremely itchy, red, splotchy, swollen reactions – very uncomfortable and then the large red ants that I think my latest bite is from on my arm which has caused a severe allergic reaction where my arm has become achy, with a big welt looking bite where I can feel the poison stretching down my arm causing a growing red splotch as it goes. I was a little worried so showed it to a Korean nurse friend in Prey Veng, she thinks I’ll live!! Keep taking the Claratyne and ice it which I’ve done and it’s gone down a lot today….and I thought it would be the mosquitos I’d have trouble with but it seems like it’s the ants, what a bugger, they are absolutely everywhere as you know with my house ant infestation stories!
It was great to see Kate – my first Aussie visitor – who brought me Rid, Aussie Hats for my colleagues and camembert cheese – what a champ!! Great to share some of our experiences with friends from home – hope she’s the first of many visitors – book your holidays kids, hint, hint!!! Jetstar fly to Phnom Penh now I hear!!
Oh by the way, if you want to see my “profile”, ie. me talking myself up with pretty picture attached, you can go to the AYAD website, I think you click on “Meet the AYADs” and “Intake 21” and you get to meet all the wonderful people I’m over here with – don’t believe a word of it, they’re not all as fantastic as they sound on paper – don’t tell them I said that! In fact they are actually pretty amazing, interesting people with fantastic experience, an inspiration really!
Til next time….
Hey, more on day to day life here this week as I’ve had my feet back on the ground in Prey Veng after my travels and have also spent the weekend here playing house and getting myself organised.
So now that my house is a bit better set up after we had to hire two cyclo drivers to be our removalists and move all the unwanted furniture to a downstairs storage room, I’m feeling like it’s more my own. I got rid of all the fake flowers, which were very aesthetically unpleasing, and have got rid of the hotch potch of furniture and it’s feeling a bit more to my taste. The house is beautiful in terms of being a traditional wooden house, but I’m starting to get the idea that rich Cambodians are more difficult to deal with than poor Cambodians. That may sound a bit harsh but I thought that seeing my landlord is obviously a rich man, has an abundance of unrequired possessions that he is rich enough to leave in one house while he starts up a new home elsewhere, that he would be happy to do a few alterations for the foreigner to feel comfortable enough to keep paying the rent – seeing it was sat empty otherwise, but alas we had to quibble over every thing – and I really wasn’t asking too much compared to what other people have gotten away with.
Anyway in the end I signed the contract after my mosquito screens were installed – which he really didn’t want to do – but I’m still waiting on the bathroom curtains, towels are doing the trick at the moment to ensure my neighbours don’t see more than they bargained for! You would think that being rich would mean you could keep a clean, tidy home as you would have a cleaner, etc, but it doesn’t seem to be the case in Cambodia!! The place was just filthy and it has taken some good cleaning stints with the help of the cleaner and some of the children from work (I know don’t accuse me of slave labour, they wanted to come – mainly so they could look through my stuff!) to get it into shape. But now I have my cabinet with “ant bowls” under the legs – a brilliant invention, where plastic bowls that can be filled with water are placed under each leg so the ants can’t invade – they can’t swim you see! Brilliant! Which means that I can open some of the packets of food I brought up from Phnom Penh….not all of it yet unfortunately…not until I get my fridge next week in PP. YAY!!
Then Leena and Sam (the married couple who are Peace Corp volunteers in Prey Veng) helped me go shopping yesterday for all the housie things I needed, essential things like buckets, sponges, paper towel, table cloths, mouse traps, hooks for mosquito net, handtowels, foot mats, etc, etc. They have been here a year so know where to get these things from at a good price – I would have got completely ripped off if I went alone! We even managed to get an extension cord for my TV ariel so I can move the TV to a position where I can see it from bed – unfortunately the shopkeepers attempt at souldering the right ends on to the cord left a little to be desired and it’s not working at present – but I think it’s just a matter of a few repairs – will get the handyman at work onto it!
So that brings me to Sunday, where I’m writing this in my hammock with portable fan blaring on me, on my balcony, there is just about to be a storm, as there was last night, which will be good for my garden, the mango trees and orchids need a good water. Woah, I’m glad I’m under cover, it’s pissing it down!! It’s just halted the workers across the road, which I’m quite happy about as they were ruining the relaxing atmosphere with their welding – they have been building a fence for the house across the road for weeks, complete with gold buddhas and all, I think a big fence must be a status symbol – the fences are often more impressive than the houses they guard!! Ahhh the rain brings cool winds, what a relief! Uhoh there’s guys on motos riding past absolutely sodden…
This week at work, a new child came….it was quite sad and moving all at the same time. She is 11 years old and is from Prey Veng town, which meant she arrived at the gates, rather than us going to pick her up. I wasn’t aware a new girl was starting so was kind of wondering what was going on. She arrived with her grandma, in quite dirty clothes with a plastic bag that contained all her belongings….apparently her mother had recently died in childbirth giving birth to a son, who later died. So her father took off with her older brother and has apparently sold him – the family doesn’t know where either of them are and this girl had been in the care of her grandmother but apparently her grandmother is very sick and can not look after her. So she comes to us. She looked so terrified while she was waiting to be processed, I can’t believe how scary it must be to think you are being left at this place that you don’t know, to be looked after by people you don’t know and to live with 42 other children you don’t know….she was given her trunk, which everyone is issued, some new clothes and some toiletries, assigned a bed and then, that’s it…she’s part of the gang. The other kids are pretty good, they are pretty welcoming but it must be pretty terrible. I saw her in the afternoon though, attending music class with a big smile on her face and running out of the car when she was dropped off after school, smiling again..so I think she’ll be alright. I guess as terrifying as it is, being fed three meals a day, having clothes and somewhere to sleep is much better than a lot of these kids are used to before they come to Mekhala House.
The next day was sadder again, a mother arrived at the gate with her daughter, who looked very young. She knew the security guard at FDCC and had travelled from her village to talk to the staff. The girl was too young to be accepted and we actually already have our capacity – as two more children will be picked up in the next month or so – 45 kids is the limit on the present grounds. The woman couldn’t travel back to her village that night so they stayed at FDCC and were heading off the next day….the cost of the trip to Prey Veng from her village would have cost about $5 which is a huge amount to this family, but we just couldn’t accept her….they said she was going to try and get a job in Phnom Penh and would now have to take the girl with her, the father had disappeared and the mother could not look after the child without an income, but she couldn’t look after the child if she had a job either as she would be at work….catch 22…very sad.
Uhoh…my front yard is flooding…the drain is blocked….I should probably do something about that……it’s too wet, will deal with it when it stops……………………………………………………………………ahh it’s Ok, it’s unblocked itself…great, or I might have had to get very wet!
Well I finished the week off with a trip to the doctor, yes I was dreading this happening but on the other hand if there’s anything wrong you really can’t delay, so I bit the bullet and went. My translator Tharoth came as well as Sinath (the FDCC house mother) and Ching (the youngest boy at FDCC who has a skin infection), so it was like a family visit! Luckily Tharoth wasn’t needed as the doctor actually studied at the Uni of NSW for his Masters for 2 years so his English was good. The insect bite on my arm was not really improving and was still quite painful so I thought I’d better get it checked out, he cut it open but nothing really came out even though it is looking like a boil, or a ginormous pimple. He squeezed and prodded but no, it was pretty sore but Sinath held my arm straight for him and I tried to be a good patient. It is a bit nerve-racking though when you’re wondering about the cleanliness of tools but, they came wrapped in a blue sheet so I’m sure they were sterilised….hmmmmm. No really it was fine, he betadined it up, put a dressing on it and gave me antibiotics, I just have to keep it covered, wash it each day and take the tablets and I should be good as new. I’m going to PP next weekend anyway so if there is no improvement by then I will go to the Australian Embassy Dr. The good part is that we have a Dr amongst the AYADs in our intake, so I rang Patrick for a second opinion and he said that the antibiotics were the right ones and the treatment sounded fine – glad to get a second opinion. When we were waiting for the drugs, the doctor came out after examining another patient and regaled us with his problems, kidney stone, he seemed to like talking about this poor man’s urethra – love that patient confidentiality protocol!!
Ok now a guy is walking his cows past my place in the rain, all he has on is a krama (kind of like a sarong)…ahh the things you see…
Hi, well some of you have heard but I thought I’d write about my further experience with the medical system here in Cambodia. As I wrote in the last email I have had a bite on my arm which I consulted the Prey Veng Dr about. Well, after 3 days of antibiotics it actually got worse, very infected – we’re not sure if it was provoked by the needle that Dr used or if it was already infected and it just got worse….anyhow by Sunday night I was getting a bit frantic as it was a gaping, pussie hole in my arm…ewwwwww!! So Monday morning I alerted my colleagues showing one of them and they said that I should go straight to Phnom Penh, their worry panicked me a little as they are usually pretty blazae about medical complaints but seeing I’m a foreigner they know I read differently to stuff…
I couldn’t get an appointment with an international Dr until Tuesday but we decided that I should go straight away just in case I could get in earlier. So after thinking I would have a busy day at work I instead ended up being driven to Neak Leuong, an hour away and put in a share taxi to PP. I thought I’d better call in to the AYAD Office when I arrived to let them know what was going on – Poor Mr Hour was shocked when I walked in – he already had 2 other provincial AYADs there with sickness and drama so he wasn’t expecting me to walk in the door – I immediately assured him my shift to PP was temporary!
I showed them and they we’re suitably sympathetic and I’m sure secretly a bit nauseus, it really was pretty foul. It was completely oozing, I had to clean it 4 times, Mr Hour was right in there squeezing out the gunk, ewwwww. Anyway I filled in the time with retail therapy at the Russian Market, buying some more housie stuff and some material to get some more shorts made. That night I revealed the wound for Aimee and Celeste to view, they were my nurses helping me clean it – and then suggested I call AHI, which are our insurance providers who offer a 24hour nurse service so we can talk about our symptoms and get advice – they suggested I go straight to the emergency clinic. So then at 10pm I end up with Aimee and Celeste in the Naga Clinic, I wasn’t too keen to see a Cambodian Dr after my first experience but that was all that was available. He seemed nice, thorough, worked for Medecins Sans Frontieres during the day. I was happy that he cleaned it properly once again, was relieved no more cutting was required and was put on stronger antibiotics than before. He then consulted a medical dictionary and announced that he was sure that it was a reaction to a scorpion bite – hmmmm, interesting – I think that’s a pretty cool story, especially being a scorpion star sign!! He gave me some more drugs which I misunderstood and thought were antihistamines but were actually pain killers…
The girls convinced me to still attend my original appointment with an American Dr so Mel accompanied me to the SOS clinic…..and I am glad I did. Apparently the dosage that the last Dr had given me was double what he recommended – he said I would have got a severe stomach upset if I continued taking 2 tablets, 3 times a day, and reduced it by half. He also told me that the ones I thought were antihistamines were in fact narcotic based painkillers. I had been told to take 2, 3 times a day – again completely overdosing – I didn’t even require painkillers really….anyway he reckons it’s a spider bite, although the Cambodians have told me there are no poisonous spiders in Cambodia – my initial reaction convinced him I was bitten by something venomous….I am sticking with the Scorpion – we think I was bitten while sleeping at Rabbit Island and the reaction just didn’t kick in until the Monday…
Who knows, but after having to stay in PP for 3 days, I decided to cvome back to Prey Veng today to get some work done for the next two days before heading back to PP on Saturday for another check-up with the American Dr.
So it’s been a dramatic couple of days, it has now improved quite a bit so I hope that if I keep bathing it and dressing it, it will clear up by the end of the weekend….ahhhh, lesson learnt, head straight down to PP at any sign of medical need…
Thankyou for all the well wishes!! Not sure about the sickos who asked for photos of the puss!! Ewwww. I actually tried to take a photo of the venomous reaction, but my white arm reflected off the flash and then my camera ran out of batteries so I have no record of the experience – not one I’d like to remember really anyhow! Good news is that I was given the all clear by the Dr on Saturday and I will not loose my arm, don’t think I’ll even have a scar!!
Not sure how up to date everyone is on the history of Cambodia but I am sure that you know that the Khmer Rouge committed atrocious genocide during the 70’s. The effects of this are felt everywhere in society and it is pretty rare to find a family that did not loose members during this time. A few people we have met have shared their stories with us which are usually pretty heartbreaking and hard to believe that it happened in my lifetime – still so raw. At the moment the Khmer Rouge Tribunals are going on, I haven’t heard too much about it but there is some controversy, seeing many people have been allowed to move on in new positions – ie. the Prime Minister Hun Sen is ex-Khmer Rouge just to name one. Those that are being tried are mostly in there 70’s or 80’s and really the feeling is that it is a complete waste of money – costing millions – and that nothing can reverse what happened and the people would rather forget and move forward rather than bring up the past once again.
Anyway all this is going somewhere…to a bar of course…Aimee and I decided to go to a bar that we had visited briefly once before on the “other” side of the river. It’s called Snowy’s and an AYAD from the last intake introduced it to us. We were only going for one drink as we were supposed to be going to the circus – yeah weird, but there was a circus in town, it was sold out though so 6 hours later we were still there at the bar. What had kept us interested so long was Snowy, the guy who owned the bar. We got chatting and he was relaying his story to us – you sure do meet some characters. He arrived in the 90’s, during the UNTAC time – this was when Cambodia was inundated with foreigners who came to run the UN-sponsored elections in 1993 – the supposed end to Khmer Rouge. Anyway, Snowy, an Australian who used to drive trucks at mines, came over here with a contracting firm and ended up in the north of he country moving a huge convoy of UN 4WD down to Phnom Penh – this was an extremely dangerous area during this time as Khmer Rouge still had strongholds throughout this area. Snowy was responsible for getting these cars safely down the highway – they were paying something like $100 a car to the Khmer Rouge in exchange for safe passage. Snowy was driving these cars down, with a Khmer Rouge soldier as his passenger – he showed us photos as he’d kept a photo diary of his experiences, it was amazing. The Khmer Rouge soldier looked like a great guy, smiley, gentle face – not at all what you would expect! He had photos of UN tanks rolling down Phnom Penh’s main street and talked about how much it was a frontier town back then with gunfights a pretty regular occurrence. I can assure you it couldn’t be much more different to that today!
Snowy started his bar about 5 years ago, he has an 8 year daughter (half Khmer, not sure where the mother is) and bides his time by doing Cambodian inspired, Aborginal style dot paintings which are displayed in the bar – pretty talented! He had such a lovely nature and was really interested in what we were doing here – we had a great night. Pretty crazy stories. I have read so many books about this time in Cambodia that it was so interesting for me to hear first hand info, much of which verified what I’d read, pretty cool! O Although working with the Khmer Rouge is pretty much one of the most dangerous things you can do, his actual near death experience was medical. He contracted TB and was given some medication that he was supposed to take for 6 months, after 3 days, his body had almost shut down, having been poisoned by a “bad” batch of tablets. He had to be driven to Bangkok – nightmare roads…and almost died in hospital, it’s taken him 2 years to completely recover. Crazy….
More on the day to day, I have to clean up gecko poo everyday and had to clean up a dead rat carcass this morning in my yard that was really starting to stink. It is impossible to stay in front of the dust and ants and rotting mangoes – I think I might get a cleaner….and a gardener! The problem is that our idea of clean and Cambodian’s ideas of clean seem to be two quite different things, I do have a new appreciation though for how hard it is to keep things clean – spider webs, ants nests just appear overnight! When I got home from PP last night, the giant gecko – which my friend Will has informed me are called Toika lizards and can bite…was inside my loungeroom, usually they hide inside my walls so this is the first time I’ve seen him….due to my problems with things biting me though, I kept my distance…
My fridge was brought up to Prey Veng from Phnom Penh in the back of a mini van, and I mean tied on to the back with the boot tied down so we fit us much as possible inside – the rest of the van was full of motos. This driver is my new regular pick-up – he leaves Prey Veng everyday at 7:30am and returns at 1:00pm from PP. I have no idea how he manages to do this every day – he speaks no English but my Khmer is improving and we are managing to have some kind of communications – sometimes with my colleagues help on the phone! He wants me to call him “Bong Mom” – Mr Mom – not sure if he’s seen the movie!
I have become addicted to shopping at the Russian Market, which everyone who has come to Cambodia knows, it’s becoming my favourite place in PP and I keep coming home laden with purchases! My newfound Khmer is helping me bargain – I can now say, “I live here, I know how much things cost!” – sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t! I have gone a bit crazy decorating the house – the silk scarves are just beautiful (make good table cloths) and there are so many amazing cushion covers, etc. I could buy so much more but am trying to be sensible about buying mostly things I can take home – not sure the fridge will make it though but it’s just so nice to drink cold water…..
So, this one is written from Hanoi, as I sit in my hotel room, complete with 24 hour internet access - pretty good for a room that's $10 each a night - three of us sharing. I am hotel bound though as I have had another medical problem, well it's linked to the first one - I have just got back from the Hanoi SOS International Clinic where I managed to see an Australian doctor as I have had another infection - this time in my nostril - nice ehh, couldn't be more painful or inaccessible! We had to rush back from Halong Bay today to make the appointment as the infection had been growing since I arrived in Vietnam - the diagnosis is "staph" - oh dear, this is a secondary infection after my arm - good news is that I am now on more antibiotics which should kill off the infection throughout my body and hopefully no more lesions will occur - I have no more cuts on my body but this one started through a pimple in my nose so I have to be on high alert. Nice hey...so I fly back to Phnom Penh tomorrow and it looks like I will not be able to go back to Prey Veng again until the infections have improved. At least it's diagnosed now, I will spare you the details of the doctor's visit - my experience there was the most painful that I have ever been through - as you can imagine it's a sensitive part of the body!
right so now that I've brought you up to date with my health, I will get on to the more interesting part, my trip in Vietnam. Some of which was following the same path I took with my travelling partners, Krissy, Catherine, Sarah, Ellie, Adam and Cane in 2001. Brought back lots of great memories but the change in Hanoi in terms of infrastructure etc, is quite unbelievable, especially when compared to Phnom Penh! The nice part is that parts of the Old Quarter in Hanoi still have the french colonial feel and the lake is still beautiful, there are still ladies in conical hats which sell fruit and still a million motos. The problem is there are hundreds more tour companies and hotels, the bars are more established and western (however there are still some Beer Hoi - draught beer served at blue plastic chairs on the side of the road), the ladies now try and put their shoulder board with the baskets hanging off each end on unsuspecting tourists and then demand money when you take a photo, and the motos have road rage, twice our cab has been banged on angrily as it stops to let us out!!
We did manage to do some sightseeing, the old turtle temple in the middle of the lake that I'd been to last time - the embalmed turtle is still there! And then headed to the Temple of Literature which I hadn't been to before which was the first university in Vietnam, and then to the Museum of Women, which was fascinating - all about the role of women during the wars - they are formidable people, the Vietnamese women - and we have experienced that on the road here too! We did a bit of shopping and came across a fantastic gallery which sold screen prints on canvas of old propaganda posters, they were so interesting, I had to buy a couple to be framed in Oz one day. We then headed off to Sapa on the overnight train - this is about 10 hours north-west of Hanoi, right on the Chinese border and is an area of hilltribes such as the H'mong and the Red Dzao. It was quite cold, an old hill station high up in the mountains, not the kind of scenery you are used to in tropical Vietnam, but so beautiful. Bright green terraced rice fields, cut high in to the mountains, reminiscent of areas of the Himalayas in India or Nepal. The town of Sapa is like an alpine town in Austria or somewhere, wooden type houses - very quaint.
We were surrounded by the women and children dressed in traditional clothes when we first arrived, it is amazing how they have picked up English - "buy from me", "What is your name", "How old Are you", "Remember Me", "You buy from me", over and over got a bit overwhelming. Tourism has struck this area in such a way that although it is preserving their traditions in some ways, it is so dependent on tourism that I fear for its sustainability. We walked down to the first hill tribe village and it was almost like the whole village had become a tourist display, you could walk between the houses etc which was quite interesting but it just felt that everything they did was for the tourists, was not just living their every day life - there were some elements of this but it was all a bit strange...next we went by moto to another village which was where the Red Dzao's live (the first village was black Hmong). We were accosted when we first arrived but had an interesting walk up to someone's house with some of the women, we had 10 in tow. They had amazing english, all learnt for the tourist trade and were all dressed up with their wares in the baskets on their backs. It was a lovely experience but then all turned a bit nasty - once we had walked around a little it was time to buy - I had been talking to 3 women in particular so felt obliged to buy from them, I bought some bags I didn't really want but had to but something - however Celeste and Aaron had a harder ask being surrounded by more people - they couldn't have bought from everyone - it more to the point the prices were such a rip off. Anyway the whole way back down they were hassled, "You didn't buy from me", etc etc which really did ruin the experience a little...
After Sapa we headed back down to Hanoi again on the overnight train and then went straight on to Halong bay - to stay one night on a boat and one night on Cat Ba Island - I had done Cat ba before with the gang but we didn't have the opportunity to stay on the baot last time which I was really looking forward to. The boat was good, the highlight being a sunset kayak amongst the huge limestone cliffs - stunning. We did hit frustrations though in the way the tour was handled - I think we can say the Vietnamese are completely over tourism - you are herded on and off, and there's no personality to it - the tour guides don't introduce themselves, don't fill you in on any historical facts, etc and are incredibly disorganised - so disappointing really...Cat Ba hadn't changed much - we visited the same beach as last time, which was undeveloped and relatively private, now has rattan shelters that you have to apy to use, etc etc. The boardwalk is shut for repair too which was a shame, but there is now a road direct to it!
So I guess mixed feelings about Vietname - I don't think I will come back again, although am still keen to visit friends in Ho Chi Minh City - but was glad to have seen Ha Long Bay again - it really is a wonder and now heritage listed - and Sapa was an interesting experience, being a place I hadn't been the first time...so yeah interesting...pity about teh horrendous infection that makes me look like a leper but hey, you win some, you loose some - at least its diagnosed now...
So finally I can write an email that does not focus on insect bites or infections – I am illness free! Shouldn’t jinx myself should I….
Finally got back home on Tuesday night and have had a busy half week at work. The highlight of which was being able to accompany my colleagues to go pick up a new child for the orphanage. A pretty sobering experience but one that has really put everything in perspective in terms of what we are doing and what amazing opportunities FDCC is offering these children. They really arrive with nothing. We drove about 40 minutes NE of Prey Veng town, close to the border with the next province, Kompong Cham, to a small village which really just consisted of wooden stilt houses/shacks lining the main road. This area is ricefield country with huge palms dotted across the horizon. I always thought these palms were coconut palms but actually they have a different kind of fruit which I found out later as the villagers collected them for us.
My colleagues, Sorithy and Tharoth decided that we needed to stop for breakfast, Leena (the American Peace Corp volunteer who helps out at the Orphange) and I had already eaten, we didn’t know that this would be part of the road trip! But we managed an iced coffee, (black coffee, on ice with condensed milk mixed in). I was kind of glad we’d already eaten as the boys had noodle soup, which normally I like but this had weird meat creations floating in it, was definitely some liver in there…
We arrived at the house where the child was living, yet it wasn’t really her house, the wooden stilt house was that of her cousins, she had been living with her mother in the makeshift shack next to the house on her cousin’s property. She was a stunning little girl, smiling ear to ear, confidently sompeahing (hands in prayer near your nose) us one by one. I did not expect her to be so warm towards us and definitely did not think she’d be smiling, but I think she has been waiting for some time for this moment. Having been promised a real bed, 3 meals a day and school is a pretty enticing thing for these kids but they are still so brave to leave their families. I guess I need to explain that in Cambodia, you are considered an ‘orphan’ even if you still have one parent alive, I guess this is mainly because it is next to impossible to be a single parent, there is no childcare, and surviving through subsistence farming is really a full-time job so if a parent is looking after a child, they really are not able to work, which includes not being able to grow enough food to survive. This girl’s mother was there, her father had died from HIV/AIDs 4 years earlier, her brother had been given to her husband’s family and the mother was unable to look after her daughter any more. She also had HIV/AIDs. We believe that HIV/AIDs is mainly brought to Prey Veng by the men who go to Phnom Penh to find work and visit the prostitutes there. Although I do think prostitution is still something that is prevalent in the provinces as well, but perhaps not as accessible as it is for men alone in the big smoke.
We attracted quite a crowd, mostly relatives we think but some villagers standing watching from afar as well. We sat outside on the wooden slat beds which are always kept under stilt houses for gathering upon. Sorithy explained the paperwork, which basically signs over official guardianship from the mother to FDCC. Sorithy explained to the family about FDCC, our values, objectives, etc but the mother did have some doubts. Apparently there was another child that was a cousin that we were also due to pick up that day but she had pulled out as her relatives got cold feet, rumours had been going round that the children would not be treated well at the orphanage. It is such a big decision for the Khmer families, they have such a strong family bond, but this decision may save their child’s life or at least give them the opportunity to change their futures. They asked me to explain how FDCC works and how we are funded to ease her concern, which I did through a translator – a pretty hard task when put on the spot and are not exactly sure what her fears are. She asked me whether the children would be adopted out to Australians, I assured her no, that we do not allow the children to be adopted and that we work on the premise of preparing the children to live within Khmer culture, to live a sustainable, independent life. We give them skills such as life skills, computer skills, English skills, an education which we hope will bring them a good job. But how do you explain that to a mother who is about to give up her child and be left completely alone and knows she is seriously ill.
Sorithy suggested that the mother come back to the orphanage with us so she could see for herself how the orphanage is run and how happy the children are. She decided to do this which I think was an important step. It must be so much harder when you can’t even picture where your child is. The other children were immediately warm to our newcomer and the older children showed great maturity in approaching the mother and speaking to her about their lives at FDCC.
We had to wait for some time in the village while the mother took the paperwork to the village chief for signature and were told that there were two more children in another village further down the road who also required help. Sorithy decided that we would go visit these children as well and find out their story. One was actually the sister of two of our other girls and one was their cousin. The problem was that we only have room for one more child, another problem was they didn’t know the age of the child and she looked quite young. We do not take children under the age of 4. The cousin was being looked after by her grandmother because her mother had died and her father had disappeared, he was a drinker. This grandmother seemed to look after many of the children in the area, there were no men around, they had all gone to Phnom Penh to find work and the mothers had to work in the fields all day. The grandmother was delightful, she took a liking to me and kept slapping my arm, cracking up laughing. I took her photo and showed her, she thought that was hilarious. She had obviously survived the Khmer Rouge, being 74 years old. She had a goiter in her neck, a sign of malnutrition, I think it’s a lack of iron, or is it iodine – can’t remember from my nutrition course. The other children also had signs of malnutrition, such as skin diseases and bloated tummies. My colleagues looked to me to make the decision on whether we could take these children, they knew that we couldn’t but needed me to instruct them so it looked like the decision came form me, not them as a way of saving face - a difficult thing to do, but I asked them to explain that it is not our decision to make, that each case is assessed by our executive director, that we only have the facilities to house one more child and that we only take children that are over 4, that we would take these cases back to our bosses. I am not sure quite whether they said all this or not. Apparently they did say that they would need the signature of the father to release the girls into our care, we could not take a child and then the father returns and is not happy with the decision – that is too much risk for the other children, in case they came to the orphanage in a rage.
We stopped at another home, which was one of our child’s guardian’s, with Sorithy’s cousin living next door (he knows absolutely everyone in the whole of Prey Veng province I think!). They took us out the fields to watch them pick the fruit from the palms, they looked kind of like small coconuts and are apparently native to Cambodia. You slice off the top (with a machete of course) and there are three jelly like compartments inside, you scoop these out with your finger (or a natural spoon, which they made for us out of bamboo) and slurp it up – a little like a lychee but more juicy. Quite nice…they picked enough so we could take them all back to the orphanage, one for each child…44…
Just a normal day at work….
Hi everyone, sorry haven’t written for awhile but work has been flat out and looks like it’s set to be like that for my whole assignment! I am about to be inundated with visitors from the Australian Board so that will make us fly in to a frenzy.
Work is great and I feel like I’m achieving a lot, feel like I’m finally working in an area that suits me and that I actually now have skills that I can offer – it’s right down my alley, starting with documenting all their policies and procedures, getting everything in order so that we can start applying for grants to enable our funding to be a bit more stable than just depending on ad hoc fundraising. Important seeing we have 44, almost 45 kids relying on us for their basic needs of food and shelter. It’s also got an element of training which I quite like, legacy of teaching in Japan so I get to run workshops and share my vast knowledge!!
So I’m focusing a lot on trying to build relationships with other organisations which can partner with us in areas where we lack skills – being such a small organisation we can’t be experts in everything and need to stop trying to “invent the wheel” but instead learn from others. Really my job could be the work of 10 but I just need to try and focus on what I can get done in 9 months – pretty short timeframe! Mainly looking at getting support in health, getting first aid training for the staff, partnering with organisations that offer vocational training so the kids have that option when they graduate from high school, with universities so we can try and get scholarships for them, giving the children the “life skills” needed for life after Mekhala House, writing a proposal to get funding to set up a community library, etc, etc, etc – ahhhhh so much to do!!!
We had some sad news last week when I took 5 kids to the Doctor – 4 of them had a similar skin disease so I was scared that they were contagious and it was going to go through the whole lot of them. I was also worried that it might be staph, after my little experience. It was the same doctor I first went to and I don’t have huge confidence in his qualifications but he thought that 4 out of the 5 kids had tuberculosis – oh dear, a bit of a shock! Anyway, we took the kids to the TB specialist this morning and the good news is only two of them have it. It is not pulmonary TB which is good, it means it is not contagious, they are not coughing so no-one else can catch it from them. The two kids are brother and sister and they may have had it for some time – poor little things, they are just tiny – Ching, a little boy is 5 years old and 14kg, Siumey, his sister is 7 and 17kg. The TB prevents them putting on weight. Both of their parents had HIV – their father died and the mother is dying, they probably caught it from her – many HIV patients get TB because their immune system is so weak. They have to have medicine for 6 months but that should make them feel a lot better than they have been feeling and hopefully they will start getting stronger and putting on a bit of weight. So there’s always something – just glad it’s not me this time. It really is sad though, they are just so young and already have enough to worry about without health problems as well. Just glad we got the diagnosis when we did, even if it was a slightly misguided trip to the doctor by me!
So anyway, I had a great weekend, my friend Celeste in PP decided last minute to come down to Prey Veng so I had a visitor for the weekend. I had planned dinner out and drinks at mine on Sat night for the few expats in town so it was the first time we christened the gazebo I have in my yard – it’s a great party house – gazebo complete with fairy lights and fan!! We explored Prey Veng a little, with Scott, a Canadian guy who’s been her for a year, as our guide. You only have to go one street over from mine to be really out on the outskirts of town which is very village like, very poor – my street is the edge of the paved road area. It’s fascinating, just so different to life in Oz and then some things are similar….the noises and smells are sometimes so familiar and then sometimes so totally different!
So I’m really loving the rural living, I have a beautiful ride to work each morning, I start at 8am, so it’s cooler then and I try to vary the route to witness all the different lives that surround me. So much to learn each day….. I get to follow the monks each lunchtime when I ride back to work as they walk with their matching umbrellas to their afternoon classes – it’s a vision every day. I get a two hour lunch break, so manage to get home most days for some timeout – the Cambodians usually have lunch with their families during this time and then have a nap and a shower – I do my Khmer homework, or read in my hammock. It’s quite a good recharge although riding in the heat of the day leaves me dripping! On my way home, just before dark at about 6:30pm, I get to ride past the square and watch the people meeting with friends and feeling the relief of the slight drop in temperature as the sun goes down. It’s late 30’s every day and drops to 30 at night – well it’s probably cooler outside – but 30 degrees in my bedroom according to my alarm clock’s thermometer!! My neighbours have a stall down by the riverside near my house where they sell baguettes with pate (sort of luncheon meat) with cucumber and pickled salad, eaten with marinated meat on a skewer – delicious! They start with a trip to the market, then all the women contribute to prepare the food, then the brother uses his cyclo to transport all the tables and chairs down to the same spot each day, they set up every evening and pack up at about 8 every night – a lot of work, it’s very communal though and they are a lovely family – I wave every time I pass and get a big smile and wave – I am dying for my khmer to get better to be able to talk to them more – I’ve managed a few broken conversations but it’s not great!!
Not too sure about the mouse/rat problems which come with rural living though, was traumatised the other day to come home to find a rat dead in my trap with it’s head ripped off – nice! Managed to dispose of that – well kind of, chucked it on the rubbish pile with the view of getting some petrol and burning it but the remains were gone when I came back! I soon learnt why when the next afternoon I came home to have the cats that hang around my house running through the roof – they were chasing a mouse or rat – all very good, but quite disconcerting – they did sound like they were about to fall through my ceiling. The next morning I walked into my kitchen to find a baby kitten in there, sniffing around the trap – so glad I saw it and managed to set off the trap before she did….so no more traps for me – too scared of getting the kitten – she’s tiny. So she hid under the cabinet in my kitchen all day, couldn’t entice her out – then I saw her parents, and decided if I left the back door open, they would come and retrieve her. By this time though I had decided to keep her as a pet but then eventually they enticed her out and I haven’t seen her since. So I have three cats living in my roof now – not sure if I should start feeding them, don’t want the kitten to die….but I guess I have to keep them hungry enough to hunt my vermin!!!
So, what’s been happening? Here, it’s been a busy week, Friday night last week I headed up to Phnom Penh for a party weekend, it was Aaron’s birthday, one of the AYADs, so we helped him celebrate!! Friday night we went to the “Elsewhere” party which is a party that happens the first Friday of every month, is really just a big ex-pat fest, but fun to go to every now and again. Always ends up being a big one, 4am later, I was wrecked the next day and we had to get ready for the real party, which was a BBQ at “Casa Cambodge”, as Celeste, Aimee and Patrick’s pad is now christened – my “Home Away from Home” as it’s where I crash when I’m in PP! So we spent a hungover day shopping at “Lucky” supermarket – the ex-pat supermarket which has such joys as bread, nuts, baked beans, butter and yoghurt, things I can’t get in PV. We sourced a BBQ, unfortunately a coal one which from my experience in London is next to impossible to stop flame grilling (burning), sourced sausages, vegies, an esky, party lights, a monkey magic, and we were ready to go!
Sunday, and I had to set off on an airport pick-up, FDCC’s founders son, Ben, who has been to Cambodia quite a few times and has had a lot to do with getting FDCC off the ground. At the ripe old age of 23, he has been exposed to the whole development industry for some time, especially when his mum is now the HR Director for ChildFund in America, looking after South America & Africa.
Monday I headed off with Ben and my colleagues, Sorithy & Tharoth to the villages once again to pick up our last child. This child was a little more solemn than Lekanaa, the last one we picked up. She was leaving her grandma and her sister behind, so that’s understandably difficult. We visited the same village we went to last time and went to get more of the fruit that we got last time, T’naut, which we take back for the kids to eat. It was pretty sad though this time, as we met a boy which we’d seen running around last time who had since had an accident on the back of his bicycle. He had slipped and sliced his ankle open, right down to the bone. It had happened 20 days ago and was not looking at all good, it was infected and swollen, we thought he might have actually broken his leg. They were looking at me for answers, I asked if they had given him any medication or consulted any health worker, they brought out a packet of pills – they were paracetamol. He was feverish, and I’d been told by the doctors when I had my infection, that that is when it gets serious. I think the infection had entered his bloodstream and maybe even his bones, and that he might loose the leg, or even worse. The only thing I could do is take some photos and tell them I would take them to the Dr and see if I could get the right antibiotics for him, but when I went to the Dr, his wife said he would not be there til the following week. I fear I might be too late. The problem is that these people do have access to health centres which are supposed to give care for free, but they all think they will be asked to pay for something (which may well happen with corruption) or maybe the transport to the health centre is more than they can afford, especially when petrol is at 5600riel ($USD1.30). So they just don’t go, instead they consult traditional healers which provide traditional medicine, which for some ailments can help but for something like this, it is useless.
Wednesday night, and Ben and I, along with some of my colleagues, Leena & Sam, the American Peace Corp volunteers included, were invited round to our bosses, Rady’s for dinner. My first Cambodian meal at someone’s house, it was great – good food, beer flowing and everyone joking around – I feel like, now after 3 months, I’ve had a bit of break through with my colleagues and they are now are all used to me, and the teasing and senses of humour have come out – it’s great fun!
Thursday was an exciting day, we had been invited by an organisation called Healthcare Centre for Children (HCC) to the World Day Against Child Labour event that they were organising in another district of Prey Veng. We only had short notice and unfortunately couldn’t come up with any other transport options but our trusty 4WD, so only managed to take the 10 oldest children & 5 adults – yes we all fit in a Pajero – it’s the Cambodian way to fit as many people as possible in one car! So we travelled the 1.5 hours that it took, to Preah Sdach District and the middle of nowhere! We gathered with other children that had been invited from the HCC shelter and the HCC Youth Clubs and started a march through the village which was to create awareness of the issue of Child Labour and promoting “Education: The Right Response to Child Labour”. After this we gathered for the mandatory speeches, no event can be held in Cambodia without the speeches from the govt officials, governor and whoever else! Of course these officials took an hour to rock up so the kids waited patiently while the ex-pat adults shuffled their feet and got impatient – we will never rival the Cambodians in their ability to wait!! The kids sat attentively through the speeches, even took some notes, and then actively participated in all the games and dancing to follow. They were great and they had a ball, I was so proud of the way they behaved. They really don’t get out much so I was expecting them to be quite shy but not at all, they asked questions in English to the Laine (the AYAD at HCC, who had invited us) and even performed an impromptu song for her. They first up to play the games and first up on the dancefloor! They sang all the way home – a sign of a fun day! Unfortunately, just as we turned into the FDCC gates after a very long day, one of the girls just couldn’t quite make it before throwing up –she got two girls on the way through – oops, lucky it was in the other direction from where I was! The poor little thing had obviously held it in the whole way but couldn’t quite get to the end, could have been a lot worse though, it it had happened half way through we would have had a barf-a-rama on our hands. The kids aren’t used to being in the car for such long distances, they really only get the 5 mins, each way to school!
Saturday, it was back to the airport, we left at 5am from Prey Veng, I was pushing for later but again the Cambodians seemed to think waiting for 2 hours at the airport was better than a sleep in! Unfortunately my stomach had been a bit upset the night before and I got next to no sleep so was feeling a bit worse for wear, but still managed to pick up melani, one of the Aust. Board members and whiz around PP for the day doing shopping for FDCC and then back to PV last night, another long day and I fell into bed at about 8:30am last night!
So much happening…..
Hi everyone, well I’m afraid there’s not much to report but I’ve been told that people are waiting for my words of wisdom but I don’t know what to write.
I’ve been pretty busy with two visitors to the orphanage, we have been discussing our strategy a lot. It was nice for the staff in Cambodia to be involved in strategy planning as they have not in the past been that involved in decision-making, more just operational. It was great to see that the Cambodian staff and the Australian Board are on the same page. So what does this mean for me – well basically I’ll be working on all kinds of proposals – we really need to start up a “community” project so that we can get our tax deductibility status which would help with our funding. So I’ll be researching all kinds of things, some ideas are a computer learning centre, English school, community library and then we are looking at some business ideas, something that can provide the older kids with a career option when they leave school and something that can generate funds for the orphanage – we’re looking into handicrafts, a bakery, a conference centre, sugar cane processing plant, etc, etc….
And other than that, I’m still trying to build up relationships with other NGO’s, trying for meetings with UNICEF in Prey Veng this week. We’ll see what they’ve got to say for themselves. So busy, busy…..
So what have I learnt this week then…well I’ve learnt that stomach bugs are still rife especially with newcomers, my houseguest Ben, has been suffering quite badly…One night of the runs and then a week later he had a night of hugging the toilet bowl for the other end….hmmm not nice…poor thing was chucking his guts up all night…needless to say I didn’t get much sleep, but I didn’t feel quite as and in the morning as he did….he only just managed to get back to my place, I heard a little feeble “sarah” as he threw p on my front gate…nice! But all is good now, I was contemplating taking him to PP but he’s improved now so medical emergency over….and thank god, I didn’t catch it!
So Wednesday was another public holiday, we have so many…Melani threw a party at the orphanage, the kids loved it, a presentation, balloons (which sent them in to frenzy – not sure why as it wasn’t the first time they’d seen them but I think the Australian quality compared to the Cambodian quality means that you can belt each other with them without popping them which seemed to be the thing to do!), dinner (“meat on the mountain”, which is sort of like Japanese sukiyaki, vegetables and thin sliced meat on a hot stone), then the obligatory dancing. I’m still not an expert with the khmer dancing, there’s not too much too it, but me trying to coordinate the feet and hands doing different things at the same time is a bit beyond me! They have an interesting mix of western style music, nothing you’d really recognise, they’ve kind of been asianised – I think there’s the Macarena in there, and the horrible “beautiful girl, suicidal, suicidal” song is everywhere – it’s great what makes it over and what doesn’t, some Pete Murray and Powderfinger wouldn’t go astray! The Cambodian music is pretty painful, especially when sung karaoke, I don’t think I’ll ever get to like it but there is a couple of songs I at least know now and can kind of hum along too.
Friday I held a bit of a party myself, more of a western style one….poor Ben was out of action so it was just me, Melani (Aust. Board member), Scott (a Canadian guy who also works in Prey Veng) and Leena & Sam (the American Peace Corp couple who also volunteer at FDCC). They’re a nice bunch and finally I have some drinking friends and some people to use my gazebo and outdoor areas with, it’s a perfect party house… Scott works out in the villages in Prey Veng province and comes back with all kinds of rocket fuel…some kind of rice wine mixed with chinese herbs, hmmm interesting…but the best news is that you can get a case of Asahi cans for $11.20 – nice! They’re cheaper than the local brands…weird.
Yesterday afternoon, after a very lazy morning and an “Entourage” marathon, a tv show that I had always been recommended but never watched cos it was on cable only in Oz (I got through the whole first season in one day – only cost me $4 – now I need to get Season 2-3), Scott, Ben and I went for a bike ride. It’s amazing how quickly you get out to the ricefields, small villages on the outskirts of the town, it’s a different world from the centre of the town and amazing that we can ride for 10 minutes and be out amongst the fields, the dirt roads were a bit perilous though, you had to watch where you rode, a whole bike could have been lost down the potholes, glad I wasn’t riding out there in the dark, people might never come back from that road at night. One weird thing we came across in our ride was while cutting through the high school, we noticed a mine sign on the outskirts of the grounds – that’s not something you want to see at a school. Apparently there’s no mines around here but unexploded ordnance is a problem, I’m thinking of tracking down the CMAC guys (Cambodian Mine Clearance) and asking them what the deal is and if we can fund it being cleared as that’s pretty crazy…at a school….unfortunately because Prey Veng is near the border it was a very heavily bombed area during the war.
My language teacher opened up to me a little the other day, he asked me when I was born and when I said 1978, he said that in that year he was a “slave” to the Pol Pot regime. He was in an area not far from Prey Veng town, he was 24 years old, and his wife was chosen for him by the Khmer Rouge (which was another way they controlled the people). He said he was lucky because the girl was actually from his original village so at least he knew her, but that might explain why he has worked as a private teacher in Prey Veng for 15 years while his family is about 1.5 hours away and only goes back on the weekends to tend the fields. I didn’t want to ask too many questions, if people bring up their story I just let them talk, but I’m dying to ask more questions, the questions are not easy to ask. My translator borrowed the movie “The Killing Fields” from me the other day, I warned him but he wanted to borrow it, he didn’t know anything about the movie. I warned him not to show anyone older than him, especially not his mother, I felt like I was selling contraband but I think it’s important for the younger generation to understand more about what happened as they aren’t taught too much as understandably people don’t like to talk about it.
See, not much to report but I manage still to write two pages….
Hi everyone, so another week passes, man they are flying past, I’ve now been here four months – crazy! So we are gearing up for election which are now in one month’s time. This means Monday at work I had to listen to the Cambodian People’s Party (CPP) which is the ruling party, sprout propaganda from all day. They’d strung up a loud speaker in the house next door to the orphanage which I feared would be there for the next month – but luckily it was gone today – taken away to bother another corner of the neighbourhood!!
The other day it was exactly a month til the elections so the parties were out in force, CPP, which will win no matter what – corruption and intimidation the order of the day like to win votes by giving caps and t-shirts to the masses – this is all that’s needed really, especially as they aim it at the uneducated peasants. So I was at the internet café the other day and a foreigner I didn’t know turned up – unheard of – so I got chatting, as you do – it usually starts off….”what brings you to Prey Veng” (as it’s not somewhere many foreigners come!)….anyway turns out he’s from Slovakia of all places and him and another lady are here as European Union Election Monitors for 5 weeks. He was looking for translators and people to interview to suss out the situation locally so I hooked him up with some of my friends. Samang, my Khmer teacher was interested in doing some translating, especially seeing he has the perfect experience – he translated during the UNTAC elections in 1993.
I think I mentioned Samang, my Khmer teacher, he’s been telling me stories about his Khmer Rouge experience – fascinating….he was 24 when the Khmer Rouge attacked Phnom Penh, where he was an army man and learning English. Luckily he had got his cyclo drivers licence to fund his English Lessons – this is what saved his life. When he had to join the exodus out of Phnom Penh he went to his families homelands – Bat Phnom, which is near to Prey Veng. He could prove to the village Khmer Rouge leaders that he was not an “educated” man because he told them he was a cyclo driver and because he had his ID pass for this, they believed him. He holds it to this day as without it he would have surely been killed. He was charged with being the fisherman during his time at the Khmer Rouge camps – this was the second thing that saved his life. He was given this task alone so if he was sneaky enough he could steal some for himself to eat and some to give to his family and friends – in doing this he risked being killed, but if he didn’t do this he more than likely would have died of malnutrition. He used to catch the fish wherever he could – sometimes they were in puddles and he would scoop all the water out and catch the fish with his hands. The survival instincts that kicked in during this time where amazing….
So I had a wonderful weekend with my good friend Liz, who came for a fleeting visit on her way to Malaysia. It was so nice to show her where I live and to take her to the orphanage – we had a ball – if only for a short time – she was with me for two nights and one night in PP. She absolutely spoilt me too with all sorts of presents, even Mint Slice biscuits, as well as clothes, knickers, jewellery, Haighs chocolates, not one but two cooler bags – wow, how lucky am I!! We had a house full – with 3 visitors in the house – Ben, who’s been with me for the past 3 weeks, Liz and Margie – who is a volunteer who’s come to work at FDCC doing staff training for the next 2 months. So 3 months of housemates – hmmmm, starting to think that might have not been my wisest move – decided on that when I was first here and thinking I might need some company but now I’m settled I am finding it a little claustrophobic – seeing there’s 2 this week, Ben and Margie – but as of next week, just two so I should be able to handle that!!! All those years of share houses and after 3 months on my own it looks like I like the single living….
So that’s it for me this week…..have to go eat a Mint Slice….
Hi everyone,
Well after such a crazy week last week, I ended up having a pretty quiet week this week. I think I needed it, was exhausted after all the excitement!! So I still have a burnt out shell of a gazebo in my garden, the landlord came down on the weekend as he was in town for the election. First time I’ve met him, only managed to meet the crazy wife last time. The one who decorated their bedroom with yellow fake flowers stapled to the walls and polystyrene toadstools – it made for a pretty trippy awakening!! Have replaced it with photos now…..
Anyway, they managed to say over and over that they’d pay for everything, which I am of course pleased about but also felt that it was weird that he had to keep making that point….then they decided that I would make a good match for their son, who happens to be living in Sydney, Cabramatta of course, where all Cambodians in Sydney live. So they decided to call him in Australia and put me on the phone…great, at the same time the mother thrust photos of him in my hand. They’re not shy….
So Saturday morning we were all set to go sightseeing, Margie and I had forked out for a car for the day and had tried to organise a day trip. We asked Sorithy & Tharoth at work where we should go, they pretty much said there was no where to go within a 3 hour driving radius….I found that hard to believe, suggested a Wat, suggested a market, no, no, no….then Tharoth had a bright idea about going to see a waterfall – it was all set, Sorithy wanted to come, and Tharoth, and then we wanted one of the girls to come from work, so I conceded to 4 in the back – Cambodians usually try for at least 6 in the back…
Then unfortunately just as we were to be picked up – 10am (we were very clear that they were not to come before that – the Cambodians like an early lift off!) and Rady my boss, who had been sick all week, had heard our plans and put a stop to it….apparently it was too dangerous….the road could get muddy. So that put a stop to that, there’s no arguing with the boss. We asked if there was somewhere else we could go, and that was a ‘no’, so all plans were off, which left the day free to lounge in my hammock and read a book. Not a bad day, just not what we had in mind…
So Sunday was the big day, the National Election…there’d been lots of rallies leading up to it but everything peaceful as far as I could see. There were some reports of intimidation and gift-giving but no violence, although things aren’t that free in the press here so who knows. Anyway, I went out of my gates….venturing out with two mates, Scott & Carol – my bodyguards…we were told by some people that there was nothing to worry about and then by others not to go out at all. So we decided to go half way, in a pack and just cruise around and see what we came across…OK well we thought that we’d cruise the polling station – but it was totally dead. The foreign community of Prey Veng which usually sits at around 12 had bulged to about 30 – Election Monitors…they were everywhere. So we stopped by the school first, there were reporters from the Cambodia Daily – the English paper here and then a car full of monitors arrived. Word on the street was that it was all quiet on the western front. We cruised around to a couple more stations but it was eerily quiet…the thing was that there wasn’t as many people voting as the last election – it’s not compulsory here and quite frankly they all knew the result before they’d even voted. It was good to see the black inky fingers of my colleagues on Monday, most of them voted – which means you have to dip your finger in black ink to ensure that you don’t vote at all of the stations which apparently was something that happened in the UNTAC elections.
Anyway so that’s where we are at – the exciting thing is that I’ve been invited to a World Bank Info Sharing Day – hmmm, for us NGO types, that’s exciting – see I’m getting sucked in…
And this weekend, it’s off to Sihanoukville (the beach) with the AYADs….all good!
Hi everyone,
Well I’m at home for the first weekend in 5 weeks or so, and am really enjoying having some time to relax and enjoy the quiet life in this sweet little town. I am watching my neighbours transport everything down the road for their restaurant, the makeshift stall which they set up every afternoon like clockwork – it’s a joint effort and amazing that they can set up a whole restaurant each night and pack it away as if it never happened, using only cyclos for transport.
I’m sitting in the notorious gazebo, which is now re-thatched – tiles cost too much….and has been re-electrified with fan and lights – I figure it can’t happen twice! The orchids that were singed are coming back to life, one’s even flowering so I think they’ll be OK and the Mango tree has all new leaves so it’s almost as if nothing ever happened, except for the melted black plastic on the balustrades and the pile of part-burnt thatch which is in a pile in the back yard waiting for me to burn. The cats are even back, well, two kittens and the father I think, although the father and mother are identical so they might both be here. I’ve been feeding the father hoping that the others will come back. I got some whiskas which they seem to like, I tried Cambodian cat food – rice and leftovers but they turned their nose up and preferred the rats. I was trying not to feed them too much as they still need to be hungry enough to help me with the mice and rats but after the whiskas got breached in the ant cupboard and was absolutely crawling with the little bastards, I chucked it outside and the cats seem to have got into it last night…the packet was sprawled out on the ground this morning and there was three cats sprawled out dead to the world with very full tummies by the looks of things…I guess the ants don’t bite them like they bite me – probably coz they are Cambodian, the ants are racist here….
There are cows walking down my street, there are lots around at the moment seeing rainy season has brought green grass everywhere – it’s much more beautiful countryside than the dry season where red dust swirls and colours all the trees, houses, people are coloured a reddish-brown. I have to be careful to avoid the cows in the street each day when I ride too and from work, they seem to get brought to a green patch, get left there and then get picked up at the end of the day – they’re too interested in the food to run away.
I just went down to the Prey Veng market, the place to be in Prey Veng – well the only place to go really….I rode along the riverside which is beautiful at the moment, the water is really high. The problem with that is that the squatters have been forced up onto the street, this in itself isn’t a big deal but I now have to ride past the delicacies they have each day…..fried snakes on a stick, fried sparrows and fried frogs. Rainy season has brought out the frog catchers…who you see on the sides of the road with head torch on catching frogs. So I went to the market to get some vegies for a satay stir fry for dinner – I bought a carrot, onion, capsicum, fresh mint (well I think it’s mint, the herbs look different here so it’s a bit of pot luck), already shredded ginger (how thoughtful is that, I hate cutting it up!), and some bean shoots, all for a grand total of 50c. Can you understand why I don’t barter with the food sellers! My colleagues tell me off, but really what’s there to argue about! I walk through the market, greeted by the food sellers, some say hello in English, most say Susadei – hello in Khmer. Then I am followed by these murmurs of sa-at nah, sa-at nah – beautiful – yes it does a lot for my ego but it’s kind of sad, it’s just the white skin, I’m not looking particularly beautiful, never wear any make-up, are wearing baggy shorts and a t-shirt (form-fitting tops and shorty shorts sends them into a spin, so I always make sure I change from house clothes – which usually consist of a singlet and my pyjama shorts to something more culturally appropriate when out in public), and especially since I have a massive scab on my knee,– yes another injury!
Thursday was an interesting day, I was having an “I love Cambodia” day, happily riding my bike back to work after my two hour lunch break in which I’d knocked off another couple of Seinfeld episodes….the sun was shining, I’d passed the monks in their orange robes on their way to school which always makes me smile, and then must have got a bit cocky on the old bicycle because I turned the corner, off the bitumen into the road to the orphanage which is sandy dirt, and started to slide out….slow motion as these things tend to be…I tried to straighten up as I’d taken the corner too quick and was on the wrong side of the road with another cyclist coming in the other direction, I slid, I snaked the wheel and then I was tumbling…sliding…oh dear. I was sprawled on the ground, lucky there was only the one guy coming in the other direction and it wasn’t peak hour. He stopped to help me – god I was so embarrassed, he was speaking to me in Khmer and I couldn’t understand…I collected the contents of my handbag which were strewn across the road, the man was brushing off the dirt from my back, my knee and hands were bleeding – lucky I was just down the road from work! I hobbled back on my bike and made it to work. I stumbled in and said I’d been in an accident – I was laughing, I felt like an idiot…I acted out the accident as they all rushed to the first aid kit, I kept on saying “jih kong, jih kong” – bicycle, bicycle. The House Mother patched me up…we only had alcohol swabs rather than betadine so there was a bit of pain as we scraped the gravel from my knee graze – it was a good one but I think I’ll live. Six bandaids later and I was good as new! I felt like a 10 year old…I was never really that accident prone in Australia, I guess there’s just more scope for injury here!
That night, Rady my boss was having a party for his son’s 5th birthday – he said it wasn’t very big but I now know not to believe that when the Khmers are talking about celebrations, especially when the older children were taken round to his house to help with preparations. So I was at the internet café after my accident and was waiting for someone to pick me up seeing I’d been driven as I wasn’t quite in a state to get back on the bike. I soon got phonecalls from Sorithy at the office to say there had been a car accident, the FDCC driver had hit a moto driver in the 4wd – luckily no children were in the car when it happened….everyone was OK however the moto driver was pretty badly injured he ran into the side of the vehicle so got quite a knock across his chest when he hit the car – he must have been going pretty fast…So I waited and waited to be picked up at the internet café to get taken to the party…I was just considering walking when Sorithy came past on his moto and ferried me back to FDCC to try to organise how to get Margie to the party – she’s not really a moto person and without the FDCC car she was a little stranded – we ended up getting Rady’s brother in law who has a taxi to pick us up. So all the children from the orphanage were invited to the party – so that’s 45 to start with, plus all the staff, so that’s another 12, then Rady’s colleagues at the university, probably another 10 or so, then his relatives…which I think ended up making about 90….sit down dinner…and this is not a big deal in Cambodia at all – everyone pitches in, tables, chairs etc are hired and a party is born. The kids had a ball, lots of dancing which is customary here, I can actually do a couple of the local dances now, well kind of!
However just to add to the two accidents that had already happened that day, Borin – the oldest boy got a moto burn when he was sent off to get more supplies for the party and then a girl collapsed….it looked like she was having an allergic reaction, she was itchy and sort of convulsing – she was raced off to the clinic….it turned out she was allergic to prawns which had been served for dinner and were most likely something the kids had never eaten before….oh dear!!! So that was 4 incidents in one day….my colleagues decided they hadn’t been praying hard enough and this had brought badluck to FDCC. The next day all the kids made offerings at the spirit house in the FDCC grounds and the shrine in our office had a big bunch of bananas in front of it – I’m hoping this is going to cover me for the next little while as well….I think I might do some offerings at the spirit houses and 3 shrines I have inside my house…..maybe that’s why the fire started……
Another lazy weekend at home but I managed to go and see the only ‘sight’ in Prey Veng today when I accompanied the children on a school holiday trip. They have had 3 consecutive trips, the first one to Kompong Thom with the kids aged in the middle range – a day trip. The second was an overnight trip to Kratie for the oldest group, and today was a day trip with the littlies. It was fun, we went to Baphnom, which is still in Prey Veng province but about 1 ½ hours from Prey Veng town where I live. Baphnom is famous as it has a mountain which is the only raised land in Prey Veng province – it is the flattest province. To commemorate the mountain a pagoda has been built on the top, it has fantastic 360 degree views. We all climbed up, about 300 steps stopping to pray at the shrines along the way, kneeling down and offering incense, then making the sompeah sign, (hands together in prayer near your forehead) and touching the ground 3 times. The Khmers are very superstitious when it comes to offerings to the gods…as was evident in the offering frenzy that happened after our bad luck last Thursday!
We reached the top laden with lunch, which was a picnic Khmer style – rice, salad – cucumber, carrot, lettuce and roast chicken. The chicken was delicious, apparently it was fried whole as they don’t have ovens here but it looked and tasted like rotisserie chickens except for the fact that the head and feet were still attached. The Khmers love chicken bt I think mainly because they hardly ever eat it, chicken is the most expensive meat for some reason….we were laughing because the foreigners – me and the two peace corp volunteers were sent to sit by ourselves away from the other staff…we always get special treatment when it comes to meals, and nearly always get segregated…not sure why? When I eat my meals at the orphanage I have to sit by myself at my own table as I get different food to the kids and it would be seen as favouritism if I sat with one table of kids and not the others! Anyway we pulled apart our chicken and ate the white meat, recognisable parts of the bird, such as head and feet were put aside, then the staff came over to take our bones to their table so they could suck off the meat…apparently they think all parts of the chicken is delicious and don’t want to waste a bit so suck the bones dry, not really my taste!!
We came back early as the rain clouds were looming so I’ve come back to a ‘Die Hard’ movie marathon, god I forgot how old the first ones in the series where – a pity that my cables jumping, but I pretty much know the movies by heart, I’ve seen them so many times. Gosh you’d think that $5 a month would get you better service than jumpy cable!!! And to think I was thinking I might not have TV at all when I was wondering where I’d be living….and now I have cable with Star Movies, HBO, National Geographic and CNN, plus box sets of any TV series you’ve ever seen. We found 21 Jump Street the other day and Summer Heights High! So I’ve come back to a yard full of coconuts, my colleagues hired a little man to shimmy up my coconut trees this morning and cut them down…I offered to pay him but they paid him in coconuts! I now have 45 coconutc to take to the orphanage, just enough for one each. I’ve got pomegranites too, just waiting for them to ripen and then mangoes in the dry season so it’s quite a fruitful garden. I now just need to get the cows into my yard to chew down the metre high grass in my backyard which grows too quickly for me to cut down, especially when the only cutting implements are hand-held shears…
…to be continued….
I have no face, no job, and I will suffer forever.
