Tuesday 27/3/07
Cambodia – Instalment 1
Chum Riep Sue (Hello),
So far, so good. So much has happened already.
I have decided the easiest way to keep you updated is to write a little bit of a journal on my laptop. Will save me time and money at the internet café. Also, I can keep them for future reference. So here goes instalment 1:
It is my second day at work. I am actually on my two hour lunch break at the moment – so this writing business is cutting into my well deserved siesta time. This morning I went to my first community meeting about half an hour out of Kampong Thom town on the back of a ‘moto’ (motor bike) with my counterpart Nary and one of her staff members (whose name I forget). Talk about the middle of nowhere, well actually it is almost the middle of Cambodia – Kampong Svay district. The roads were rough and ready and my ass was quite sore by the time we got back. It is a weird contrast out there – it is really dry and dusty, yet it still retains this tropical feel. The kids yell out ‘hello’ when they see me. The roads themselves are on top of dykes that run between dried out rice fields. If you weren’t with someone you could get very lost, very quickly. You could see for miles and miles, but there was only dried out rice paddies and trees to see (and cows – Kwoo in Khmer)
The meeting went for about 3 hours and didn’t seem to resolve much. But I understand that is how they do things in Cambodia. It is much more important to talk, maintain relationships and try to meet consensus than actually make a decision. People don’t play numbers games. Everyone has to agree.
MODE are trying to establish sustainable democratic practices. They are trying to encourage the local villages to participate in decision making by establishing small villages committees who then lobby the commune council. During the meeting the villages were complaining they had no money to attend meetings (they are that poor they can’t afford the cost of travel), so once funding to MODE ends for this project, it seems likely to me, this system will fall apart. However, they seem to think that once they get people talking, the rest will take care of itself. My thoughts on ‘sustainable’ practices are clearly different to theirs. But I guess this is why I am here.
I have been pleasantly surprised by how advanced MODE is in their local governance project and with the office – it is shmick by Khmer standards (I have a desk). Shin’s (the other AYAD in Kampong Thom) office is literally a shanty in the middle of a rice paddy about 5km out of town and his boss doesn’t speak English – so I have it pretty good. My office is tiled and has big fans which keeps it coolish. My boss lives behind it with his wife and four children.
MODE seem to have a clear idea on what they want to achieve and have written some well designed, budgeted and informative reports. However funding is a major challenged for them. MODE itself is a local NGO who deals with many aspects of human rights in about three districts. They have a HIV program, a general health program, a disarmament program, an orphanage support program and the local governance (or decentralisation) program. Local NGOs over here tend to focus on an area (like place management) rather than on a specific issue.
The guys at work are very nice. There is a lot of smiling and bowing going on. Most of them speak a little English and are very keen to 1. Learn better English off me and 2. Visit Australia (every Khmer sees it as a better life – although most would probably struggle to get work). My bosses name in Sinal and he speak excellent English. They have had a foreigner before, so I am not a complete freak to them.
Last night I went out for drinks with the boys from the office – it was nice. We ate steamed fish (which they cooked in the yard) and what I can only describe as swamp weed – it was like eating peppery grass. But they told me it would stop malaria. So I hoed in. We had a few Black Panther beers – a stout beer made in Siem Riep which is surprisingly strong. I took some Pringles – cause we eat chips with beer in Australia…ahh, the cultural exchange…
My Khmer is improving: I can introduce myself, order food and talk a little about myself. I am organising lessons with a teacher who worked with the UN. I have taken to introducing myself as Eh-rin (it is easier for them to pronounce).
Shin and I have also found a house.
Tomorrow we are going to meet with the owner and discuss the contract – we are demanding a cooker. It is a big wooden house on stilts with a view of the river (where kids and water buffalo swim – personally I think it has Giardia written all over it). While we were looking at the house a couple of wild horses decided to have a fight (or flirt – I am not sure which) in front of the gate. It has five bedrooms (but I would say only three would be ok to sleep in), a veranda and a big back yard with hammocks (I can taste the mango daiquiri’s), coconuts, mangos and bananas trees. Bonus – it has a western toilet AND a hot water shower. Looks like we will be paying $250 US a month for it. It is a part of town called ‘Elephant on Tiger’, apparently both animals use to roam these parts, alas no longer…
I borrowed a bike and taken to riding around town, much to the amusement of the locals – who all stare at me. We are two of five foreigners based in town (although tourist buses often stop at the one restaurant for lunch). Kampong Thom itself isn’t much to speak of. It has a kilometre or two of shanty shops down the main drag. Off the side streets there a few houses and then there are dried rice fields – I imagine in the wet season it will become quite beautiful and lush, but now it is dusty and dry. And the dust gets into everything (it’s funny I kept reading about how dusty it gets but it never really clicks until you get here). There is a market and two blocks of shops in buildings and about twelve petrol stations (being on the ‘good’ road to Siem Riep from Phnom Penh).
I had a great, but hectic, week last week in Phnom Penh. We had some intense language and cultural training. But I still managed to check out the markets, the genocide museum, be massages by a blind man (in a centre that helps blind people get work – the best massage I ever had) and the Wat Phnom Penh (temple). I also manage to sample some of the local night life (surprise, surprise). On my last night a big group of us went out to Karaoke which was a lot of fun – the place had big sofa’s and was completely Asian kitsch. On the front door it said we could not bring in knives, guns or hand grenades (aw man, not the hand grenades too) - it was only the next day I found out it was also a brothel.
Cambodia – Instalment 1
Chum Riep Sue (Hello),
So far, so good. So much has happened already.
I have decided the easiest way to keep you updated is to write a little bit of a journal on my laptop. Will save me time and money at the internet café. Also, I can keep them for future reference. So here goes instalment 1:
It is my second day at work. I am actually on my two hour lunch break at the moment – so this writing business is cutting into my well deserved siesta time. This morning I went to my first community meeting about half an hour out of Kampong Thom town on the back of a ‘moto’ (motor bike) with my counterpart Nary and one of her staff members (whose name I forget). Talk about the middle of nowhere, well actually it is almost the middle of Cambodia – Kampong Svay district. The roads were rough and ready and my ass was quite sore by the time we got back. It is a weird contrast out there – it is really dry and dusty, yet it still retains this tropical feel. The kids yell out ‘hello’ when they see me. The roads themselves are on top of dykes that run between dried out rice fields. If you weren’t with someone you could get very lost, very quickly. You could see for miles and miles, but there was only dried out rice paddies and trees to see (and cows – Kwoo in Khmer)
The meeting went for about 3 hours and didn’t seem to resolve much. But I understand that is how they do things in Cambodia. It is much more important to talk, maintain relationships and try to meet consensus than actually make a decision. People don’t play numbers games. Everyone has to agree.
MODE are trying to establish sustainable democratic practices. They are trying to encourage the local villages to participate in decision making by establishing small villages committees who then lobby the commune council. During the meeting the villages were complaining they had no money to attend meetings (they are that poor they can’t afford the cost of travel), so once funding to MODE ends for this project, it seems likely to me, this system will fall apart. However, they seem to think that once they get people talking, the rest will take care of itself. My thoughts on ‘sustainable’ practices are clearly different to theirs. But I guess this is why I am here.
I have been pleasantly surprised by how advanced MODE is in their local governance project and with the office – it is shmick by Khmer standards (I have a desk). Shin’s (the other AYAD in Kampong Thom) office is literally a shanty in the middle of a rice paddy about 5km out of town and his boss doesn’t speak English – so I have it pretty good. My office is tiled and has big fans which keeps it coolish. My boss lives behind it with his wife and four children.
MODE seem to have a clear idea on what they want to achieve and have written some well designed, budgeted and informative reports. However funding is a major challenged for them. MODE itself is a local NGO who deals with many aspects of human rights in about three districts. They have a HIV program, a general health program, a disarmament program, an orphanage support program and the local governance (or decentralisation) program. Local NGOs over here tend to focus on an area (like place management) rather than on a specific issue.
The guys at work are very nice. There is a lot of smiling and bowing going on. Most of them speak a little English and are very keen to 1. Learn better English off me and 2. Visit Australia (every Khmer sees it as a better life – although most would probably struggle to get work). My bosses name in Sinal and he speak excellent English. They have had a foreigner before, so I am not a complete freak to them.
Last night I went out for drinks with the boys from the office – it was nice. We ate steamed fish (which they cooked in the yard) and what I can only describe as swamp weed – it was like eating peppery grass. But they told me it would stop malaria. So I hoed in. We had a few Black Panther beers – a stout beer made in Siem Riep which is surprisingly strong. I took some Pringles – cause we eat chips with beer in Australia…ahh, the cultural exchange…
My Khmer is improving: I can introduce myself, order food and talk a little about myself. I am organising lessons with a teacher who worked with the UN. I have taken to introducing myself as Eh-rin (it is easier for them to pronounce).
Shin and I have also found a house.
Tomorrow we are going to meet with the owner and discuss the contract – we are demanding a cooker. It is a big wooden house on stilts with a view of the river (where kids and water buffalo swim – personally I think it has Giardia written all over it). While we were looking at the house a couple of wild horses decided to have a fight (or flirt – I am not sure which) in front of the gate. It has five bedrooms (but I would say only three would be ok to sleep in), a veranda and a big back yard with hammocks (I can taste the mango daiquiri’s), coconuts, mangos and bananas trees. Bonus – it has a western toilet AND a hot water shower. Looks like we will be paying $250 US a month for it. It is a part of town called ‘Elephant on Tiger’, apparently both animals use to roam these parts, alas no longer…
I borrowed a bike and taken to riding around town, much to the amusement of the locals – who all stare at me. We are two of five foreigners based in town (although tourist buses often stop at the one restaurant for lunch). Kampong Thom itself isn’t much to speak of. It has a kilometre or two of shanty shops down the main drag. Off the side streets there a few houses and then there are dried rice fields – I imagine in the wet season it will become quite beautiful and lush, but now it is dusty and dry. And the dust gets into everything (it’s funny I kept reading about how dusty it gets but it never really clicks until you get here). There is a market and two blocks of shops in buildings and about twelve petrol stations (being on the ‘good’ road to Siem Riep from Phnom Penh).
I had a great, but hectic, week last week in Phnom Penh. We had some intense language and cultural training. But I still managed to check out the markets, the genocide museum, be massages by a blind man (in a centre that helps blind people get work – the best massage I ever had) and the Wat Phnom Penh (temple). I also manage to sample some of the local night life (surprise, surprise). On my last night a big group of us went out to Karaoke which was a lot of fun – the place had big sofa’s and was completely Asian kitsch. On the front door it said we could not bring in knives, guns or hand grenades (aw man, not the hand grenades too) - it was only the next day I found out it was also a brothel.
I am glad I am out of the capital though – I can see how easy it would be to fall into that ugly ex-pat life style and completely miss out on the wonderful cultural experience that the provinces can afford. To me this is the real Cambodia – this is where most Khmer live and work. I have been here three days and have little idea of what I have actually put in my mouth. Yesterday I got my first bout of explosive gastro – completely gross, I won’t give details. I had a drink with some ice in it. I was hanging for a cold drink – it’s damn hot – but I paid the price.
The flight over seemed really long, mostly because I had the flu. When we were landing it felt like my brain was going to explode. Thankfully a few days in the dry heat sorted out my sinuses. The first thing that always strikes me about Asia is the smell. It is always that sickly sweet rotting fruit smell you find around the back china town. The second thing is always the heat. It’s like a wall. It was most noticeable when we landed in Malaysia for the stop over. We had to catch a golf cart to the hotel from the airport it was so overwhelming (ok, we didn’t have to, but it was far more fun than walking).
I have had a few cultural insights since I got here. Our Khmer teacher Sitha (we call him ‘Look Kruu’ meaning my teacher) was really good on that for us. Firstly – you can’t touch a Khmer on the head (it is real bad luck), but it is fine to put your hand on the inside of another males thigh. Secondly, Durians under the bed keep mosquito’s away, but they stick to high heaven...could you imagine picking up – ‘I hope that is durian under your bed that I can smell’ …Look Kruu also told us a his experience with the Khmer Rouge which had us all holding back the tears while he smiled (he was keeping face) but his eyes gave away the pain…I found that story a lot harder than looking at the genocide museum. I guess it made it all personal.
I will try and stick some photo’s in too – not sure if I am going to be able to post them on the web…
I will be flying back to Sydney for three days for my sisters wedding on the 28th of April. So I may see some of you then. Otherwise I will keep you posted.
Also, feel free to pass this on to anyone. I am not precious about such things.
Chum Riep Lieu (Good bye)
Lots of Love
Erin
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