Hi everyone.
What an eventful month this has been. Carol `s review over, we turned our attention to social matters. An unexpected invitation to a birthday party took Carol off into the countryside,while I took the opportunity to spend a couple of days in Siem Reap, my classes being on holiday.
VSO people can be very intense and discuss their experiences with each other non-stop. I can sympathize so much then I need to break free!Siem Reap is ideal. Two hours by taxi and you have a wide range of hotels, restaurants, bars and shops to suit all tastes. The town is small and most destinations are walkable, but I enjoy riding the tuk-tuks.
We seem to have decided on one hotel in Siem Reap and staying there is a pleasure. The staff have got to know us and are charming. There is a good pool and the rooms are almost Bali style.
Carol came straight to the hotel from her party and we had the last two days together. A Dutch VSO girl threw a surprise 40th birthday party for her partner in a village without electricity and with even fewer amenities than Samraong! Met a couple from Coverdale in the Yorkshire Dales.
Back to Geoff -
I trawled the bookshops as there are none in Samraong, nor is there a library. I tend to take home ten at a time. We both had pedicures while in SR and I had a massage too by Rothana who seems to have become my personal masseuse and pedicurist at the Spa we use. As well as relaxing by the pool we also tried some different restaurants including one owned jointly by a Frenchman and his Vietnamese wife. There was time too, to stock up on goods not found in Samraong, like milk, cereal, brown bread, orange juice and white wine. As you can see we are not typical volunteers as we have more disposable income - our pensions go a long way here.
A few days later we were off to Singapore to spend six days with Laura and Alberto. It was Laura`s birthday while we were there and a school holiday too. However the holiday was most noteworthy for Carol`s haircut. My hair has been such a frizzy mess since arriving in Cambodia, that drastic action needed to be taken, and I was duly marched off to Laura's hairdresser and colourist at Tony and Guys. 3 hrs later, I emerged with short curly hair which I can just scrunch up and leave to dry. Well, thats the theory. Will soon see what 90% humidity does to posh styling!
Laura and Alberto are in great form and entertained us royally. Started off at the Shangrila - remember Sue and Howard?- for a 'brunch' style dinner with lots of school friends.Visited a new country park with a canopy walk, the pictures to see 'Inglorious Basterds', an exhibition celebrating Prehanakan culture, (chinese/malay/indian) a couple more stunning restaurants and of course, shopping.It felt restorative if not other worldly, but it was great to spend time together. Such a different Asia! We're booked in for Christmas.
Back to work today which is quiet as most people are still on holiday. I was in the office on my own for 3 days last week, but I had a lovely experience on day 2 when Bona, 19, and the youngest of the health promoters ,turned up to take me on the back of her boyfriend's moto to O Smach, a Cambodian town on the Thai border. She travelled on the back of another friend's moto and even though we had a 3hr round trip on a muddy, slippery road and came home through the afternoon monsoon, it felt great to be out with 3 young Cambodians who were full of fun. We went to some water falls and had a meal in the local market. Unfortunately, I didn't think to take my pasport, so we couldn't walk into Thailand, so we'll have to do the trip again! I haven't heard yet as to whether VSO will fund a volunteer assistant for me. This would make me more independent as I would have my own interpreter/translator and it would be good for cultural stuff. James, the 3rd volunteer here has just finished his placement so his VA is available. We'll miss him - he worked on a sustainable forestry project and had a wry sense of humour.
Back to Geoff - On our flat roof, which is where we usually entertain guests, there are ten exit pipes so that the rain can run off during the monsoon. Our landlord places large containers at each one to collect the rainwater. This month he has garnered a rich harvest. It has rained, and how, most days and the water containers are full. But fortunately the rain has not spoiled the unmade roads as in past years, although enough has gathered by the roadsides for children to swim in.
Good news from Newcastle this week in that Geoff's Mum has had her long leg plaster reduced to a foot plaster. He will come home this side of Christmas, hopefully to help her adjust to life at home. Hope all is well with you all.
With much love from us both
Carol and Geoff xx
Thursday 24 September 2009
Sunday 6 September 2009
Working Hard!
Hi Everyone
A quiet Sunday here and as hot as ever, even though we've had some proper rain this week which hopefully will help the rice. Some of the new rice has died because of the lack of rain and people are worried that the drought will cause food shortages and higher food prices. One of our proposals - as a small organisation we have partnered with 2 international NGO's and applied to the EC's food security programme - is to support poor people to diversify their food supply to things like mushroom farms and peanut butter production so that as well as being better nourished themselves, they might have a surplus to sell and so generate some income.
Not that we have had a lack of food this week - we had a staff party to celebrate the beginning of Pchum Bhen, a time in the Budhist calendar when people return to their villages to remember their ancestors and visit the pagoda. A small ox was bought and killed in the office garden, thankfully before I arrived at work and the day was spent roasting it over a charcoal fire with staff taking it in turns to turn the pole. Eating, dancing Khmer style, karaoke and lots of beer seem the order of the day with everyone joining in. One of the health promoters has built a new, traditional wooden house, on stilts and invited us to the house warming party. Here we had what they called ' cow on the mountain' - beef barbecued on a small barbecue on each table with a mound of a grass like vegetable. Stir fry veg and rice with lemon grass, galangel and garlic was served too. All delicious.
Geoff now has classes every day except Friday and has offered to teach English to senior staff of local NGO's over lunchtime. There's a big demand for teaching, especially from a native speaker as in order to get promotion in the Aid world you have to be able to speak and write in English to a high level. Our landlord's son has just come back from a week in Holland, training with his organisation, International Child Support.
My VSO meeting went well. The Health Programme Team spent the morning with CHHRA and I gave my impressions of the organisation, its strengths and challenges, and then presented my work plan. I felt a bit daunted as people are very direct here but the programme manager said some complementary things and VSO were happy with my plans. We had a smile earlier, as Hing my manager, asked Geoff to correct his written report about me! My work, I think, will be largely staff training, and mentoring and support to the management team. We were all taken out for lunch, including Geoff, so it felt a very supportive and encouraging day. Unfortunately, we've had a slight damper on this over the wkend as Sophy, our newest appointment as a communith based health insurance manager, has emailed to say that he has resigned as his family has problems and need him in PP. He's young, talented and very personable and I think could have done great things for the organisation and himself, but this sort of thing seems to happen a lot.
I've spent quite a bit of this weekend taking in clothes as I think I've stopped loosing weight We both feel very well here.I've also got the sketch pad out and taken my 1st faltering steps at drawing a coconut palm! Geoff's Mum, after a rocky few days seems to be improving and is looking forward to her full length cast being reduced in 3 weeks. Hope you enjoyed the Bank Holiday weekend. Looking forward to catching up with your news.
Lots of love
Carol and Geoff xx
A quiet Sunday here and as hot as ever, even though we've had some proper rain this week which hopefully will help the rice. Some of the new rice has died because of the lack of rain and people are worried that the drought will cause food shortages and higher food prices. One of our proposals - as a small organisation we have partnered with 2 international NGO's and applied to the EC's food security programme - is to support poor people to diversify their food supply to things like mushroom farms and peanut butter production so that as well as being better nourished themselves, they might have a surplus to sell and so generate some income.
Not that we have had a lack of food this week - we had a staff party to celebrate the beginning of Pchum Bhen, a time in the Budhist calendar when people return to their villages to remember their ancestors and visit the pagoda. A small ox was bought and killed in the office garden, thankfully before I arrived at work and the day was spent roasting it over a charcoal fire with staff taking it in turns to turn the pole. Eating, dancing Khmer style, karaoke and lots of beer seem the order of the day with everyone joining in. One of the health promoters has built a new, traditional wooden house, on stilts and invited us to the house warming party. Here we had what they called ' cow on the mountain' - beef barbecued on a small barbecue on each table with a mound of a grass like vegetable. Stir fry veg and rice with lemon grass, galangel and garlic was served too. All delicious.
Geoff now has classes every day except Friday and has offered to teach English to senior staff of local NGO's over lunchtime. There's a big demand for teaching, especially from a native speaker as in order to get promotion in the Aid world you have to be able to speak and write in English to a high level. Our landlord's son has just come back from a week in Holland, training with his organisation, International Child Support.
My VSO meeting went well. The Health Programme Team spent the morning with CHHRA and I gave my impressions of the organisation, its strengths and challenges, and then presented my work plan. I felt a bit daunted as people are very direct here but the programme manager said some complementary things and VSO were happy with my plans. We had a smile earlier, as Hing my manager, asked Geoff to correct his written report about me! My work, I think, will be largely staff training, and mentoring and support to the management team. We were all taken out for lunch, including Geoff, so it felt a very supportive and encouraging day. Unfortunately, we've had a slight damper on this over the wkend as Sophy, our newest appointment as a communith based health insurance manager, has emailed to say that he has resigned as his family has problems and need him in PP. He's young, talented and very personable and I think could have done great things for the organisation and himself, but this sort of thing seems to happen a lot.
I've spent quite a bit of this weekend taking in clothes as I think I've stopped loosing weight We both feel very well here.I've also got the sketch pad out and taken my 1st faltering steps at drawing a coconut palm! Geoff's Mum, after a rocky few days seems to be improving and is looking forward to her full length cast being reduced in 3 weeks. Hope you enjoyed the Bank Holiday weekend. Looking forward to catching up with your news.
Lots of love
Carol and Geoff xx
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