Doctor's Orders! Rain and rain.....
on So Now It's Cambodia (Cambodia), 05/Oct/2010 09:56, 34 days ago
I haven't exactly been following doctor's orders! This is unlike me as I always try to act on their advice. Instead, I have taken to my bed (well a bed! - haven't seen "mine" for over 6 weeks!) for a couple of days with a dreaded sickness virus!When I was teaching I often got these early in the term - around about now - I used to discuss it with colleagues and rationalise that it must be something to do with the effort made at the beginning of term! This time I don't have this explanation! There have been people coughing and spluttering in hotels and hotel staff in Siem Reap and Phnom Penh have talked of a "cold" (man flu!) going around. Maybe travellers are bringing it in with them and sharing it across the air con!! We had hoped to get away from all that when we came out here!So maybe it's nothing to do with work - you just get viruses. Of course if you believe these things are stress related you could argue I've been under stress anyway....It's also hard to imagine having to set work while ill which was always fun back in the old days!So I've been holed up in my room eating hardly a thing. The good news is that, miraculously, my foot is far less swollen and is finally starting to look like a normal foot again though still a bit reddish. I stopped taking all the anti inflamoratory drugs in case I needed to take steroids for my asthma which had got really bad. Whether that's made a difference or the rest with my foot up or just time ie. coincidence I don't know, but it is at least encouraging - at last.The rainy season appears to be on the wain though still with us. There is, however, talk here of not enough rain this year - maybe it started too late or has been too intermittent - you could have fooled me! I hadn't realised it lasted six months when I came out here! Having said that, reports of vital water holes not being sufficiently refilled is of of real concern for those rural communities that are dependent on it for most of their water. Certainly Alison's second hospital -Thmar Pouk - is in this situation. It's great that they have dug a trench from Mongkul Borei to Thmar Pouk to carry the internet - such a useful if not vital resource these days. Shame they didn't build water pipes as well!Cambodia labels itself "The Kingdom Of Water" and in my travels across country recently there has been plenty of evidence of this. So it really is hard for us westerners to imagine just how critical this rainy season is in such hot and developing countries.