The Ugly Duckling
on Jen VSO (Cambodia), 11/Sep/2009 05:36, 34 days ago
This is just going to be a quick update - I've forgotten the flash drive that links my camera to my computer so I can't upload any photos at the moment, so I'll have to do that another day...The reason behind the title of the post is that I have a growing and sneaking suspicion about my placement location. Every time (and it's a lot) we are asked to introduce ourselves and where we are going, everyone gives theire location and people respond with some gushy "oh - how lucky!" type comment. Unfortunately, when I inform people where it is that I'm going there's just this strange sort of silence and people seem to just nod politely and move on. I don't thinkSisophonis going to be the most picture-perfect part of Cambodia. Oh well. Still, it's near a hospital so it can't be all bad!We're inKompangChamat the moment and have just started language training, which was really good. Dara the teacher is great, he kind of reminds me of my dad a bit, quite loud and enthusiastic. So now I know 20 words in Khmer and can put together a fewsentences. Unfortunately I don't know any food words other than bread and rice, so if I want a bit of variation I'm a bit stuck. Mind you, the way my stomach is at the moment, keeping to bread and rice isn't probably a bad idea...Thanks everyone for all the comments, it made me smile to read them and it's good to know I've not been forgotten about. But Chris I'm afraid you'll be disappointed - I can count the number of amputees I've seen on one hand, I think Cambodia's moved on a bit since you were here! Although I haven't yet had the courage to stand and take photos of the piles of rubbisheverywhere, and there is no word to describe some of the smells that waft around. Sometimes I think it's best not to think about that and to just keep on washing your hands and feet and having lots and lots of showers.