Asia's Ups and Downs
on Carol and Geoff in Cambodia (Cambodia), 12/May/2010 11:53, 34 days ago
Hi EveryoneGood to say hello to you although you've probably stopped bothering to look at our blog as its such a long time since we last spoke! We're fine, just been busy with lots of work and holidays.The hot season is still here with a vengeance, and although its begun to rain, its difficult to sleep, our bedding and clean clothes feel hot and we're damp and shiny faced all the time. It drains us of energy too. Not quite the same as Singapore where we are this week - air con, Italian food, the pictures, all a lovely treat. We collected the keys for Laura and Alberto's new condo yesterday, from a Chinese lawyer, and came away with 3 sets of keys for each room and an attache case full of documents! They've bought a 6th floor new apartment, airy and spaceous, with a big balcony for outdoor living. Laura is well, a bit scared about only having 4 mths off work after the baby is born, but hopefully we will be around to help in the NewYear for a while, VSO permitting!Our Samraong community has grown with 2 new volunteers, Sarah and Anne, and an Australian/Sr Lankan couple with their 2 yr old son Joshua who has also joined us to work on Malteser's Maternal and Child Health programme. We spent a lot of time finding the 2 houses to look at, and advertising for VA's for them, not easy as there are not many peple with reasonable English and houses are often without kitchens, privacy etc. Both Anne and Sarah will work with the Public Health Dept. as Behaviour Change and Nutriton Advisors. As the 1st volunteers with this organisation, their placements will be tough. Emma has also sadly left early, after falling down the stairs at her house, fracturing her wrist and a bone in her heel. It was all very traumatic for her and us. VSO acted promptly though, and got her to Singapore for medical care as BNK was problematic because of the Red Shirt protests. As you will have gathered, Cambodia is not a place to be disabled. We miss her. She was a kind and reliable friend who had a fantastic memory and was very well organised. We're the 'oldest' volunteers now -we've been here 14 mths! The volunter community is so transient. On a bad day, I wonder what we can possibly achieve here as there are such massive cultural barriers, poverty and gross inequalities.We were recently in Pnomh Penh - I ran a session with another volunteer for the 2nd time, on how to work with a volunteer assistant, for the newly arrived volunteers. They were well received, so hopefully that was useful. I enjoyed it too. There is a great camaradie here and it still feels good to meet so many can - do people with a great variety of experiences from all over the world. Work is still good but things move slowly. I'm part of the place now and the staff are more confident to practice their English, thanks to Geoff's efforts. My VA Vatanak is a joy to work with, enthusiastic, quick, smiley and always willing to have a go. He has a great rapport with village people. However, CHHRA has very little vision or forward planning. I've spent a lot of time supporting Hing and the Executive Director to write 2 proposals which would bring funds to the organisation. One would bring funds from a Dutch International Organisation, International Child Support, to support activity in several schools whereby children would learn the value of boiling water and cleaning their compounds with our health promoters supporting both their parents and teachers to change their behaviour. The other is for EU money, lots of it, with our donor as partner, to tackle dengue fever by teaching school children and their parents to distribute 'bugs' which eat the dengue parasite. This would ensure CHHRA's survival for the next 3 years.We had a trip to Laos for Khmer New Year, Vientiane and Luang Prabang. A country poorer than Cambodia, nominally Communist, still a French influence, and very laid back. Not quite our experience, as they were celebrating New Year too, so it was noisy, busy, with lots of water being thrown around! All a bit disappointing. We should have researched things a bit more carefully, but it was great to see forested hills and Laotian silk is beautiful. Geoff didn't like not being able to communicate and was pleased to get back to Cambodia. We've also had 2 more sets of friends to visit, Barbara and Tom and Win, Brian, Lucy and Michael.So, we've been tourists too and really enjoyed showing them around. It felt good to re-connect and feel reassured that things have not changed very much at home, although this was all before the Election of course.Back to reality next week for us! Hope all is well with you all. Whilst in Singapore, I'll try to catch up with emails. Meanwhile, keep in touch.With lots of loveCarol and Geoff xx