Ups and Downs of Life in Cambodia

Hi Everyone

Just got back from Sisophon, the provincial capital of Banteay Meachey, the NW province next to us, and as its Human Rights Day and a Public Holiday, I have the day off. Although still dirty and dusty like Samraong, it is a town with a modern hospital, in parts, a large market, a university, wide roads and several reasonable hotels and restaurants which we don't have. Its famous for its karaoke bars as its on the main trucker road to Thailand! Although only 2hrs from us, it felt more modern and part of the world and shows how our region has really suffered from civil war, unrest and a lack of investment. Still, we came home to a surprise farewell lunch for Anne, a volunteer German midwife, who leaves us today after working with Cambodian midwives in health centres for 8 wks and we have had Wanda, a young accountant from Berlin join us for a short while and Pathma has arrived to start her VSO placement. So we enjoyed sweet and sour fish, a beer, and of course, rice, so life feels good!

We met in Sisophon for our 1st NW volunteer 'cluster' meeting and the UK nurses among us laughed afterwards as it felt very much like being back in the NHS - lots of talk about resources, or more precisely, the lack of them - although the setting, a noisy cafe, hot, and with lots of biting insects , I guess was a bit different. The most useful part for me was picking up some tips as to how best to utilise the skills of a volunteer assistant as my best news this blog is that I've appointed Vatanak as my VA. He'll work 2 1/2 days each week from January and will support me with interpretation, translation, teaching and the niceties of Cambodian culture. He starts 2nd Jan.

Another trip away has been to Battambang, Cambodia's 2nd largest city with friends we met on the training course. It is a grand place, falling to bits as usual, but with some wide, leafy boulevards and several beautiful colonial buildings like the Governor's Residence and an elegant and atmospheric hotel dating from the early 1900's which has been sensitively restored to its former glory. The French influence is still evident. Not as touristy as Siem Reap and less cosmopolitan than PP, we really liked it. We stayed at a Khmer hotel - the best shower yet, fluffy white towels, a big pool and of course young, charming staff, all for $30 ( approx £18) per night!

My organisation joined up with a large Cambodian NGO, to organise a community health forum last week in the grounds of the pagoda in Samraong. The idea was that about 350 poor people from some of the villages in which we work would be able to meet with health service providers like the public health and hospital director and ask questions about the quality of care they receive at the local hospital and health centres. The beginnings of accountability I guess, which they call here patient and health provider rights. There was a good representation of women and disabled people which pleased me. There was Emma, the other VSO volunteer, and me up on the pink, green and yellow silk decked stage, with all the' high ranking people' and I couldn't help but smile and reflect on what a privilege it is to be here, well, at least some of the time! We had a great staff post event discussion back at the office and the challenge now is to get them to formulate some constructive feedback which we can communicate back to the organisers.

Another fascinating experience last week was my organisations meeting in Siem Reap at a very grand hotel, with our donors, Malteser, a German international NGO. I was there to support my Executive Director and Programme Manager in their meeting with their partners. The development world is like all others - demands, constraints, project planning. We were given a great DVD on our work in OM Province, which will keep the memory of Samraong alive, should we ever forget this experience!

I've saved the bad news until last - we heard yesterday that CHHRA and its international partners has not had either of its EEC Food Security proposals accepted. We have funding to maintain our community based health insurance scheme hopefully until December 2010 but things look precarious for our health promotion team. So my time for the forseeable future will be taken up trying to support the management team to find a new donor. We don't need a massive amount of money in the big scheme of things as we have a good team, motor bikes and an established office in place. Salaries for 4 health promoters are the major item. People remain cheerful, philosophical and accepting of their lot however. Projects coming to an end and people loosing their jobs are just a way of life here, though an older Cambodian who spent his adolescence in the camps on the Thai border told me recently that he was weary of always asking for money to support basic services. So many services which we take for granted, like a health service available for all, regardless of wealth or social status is just not available here.

On that unhappy note I'll close. We'll be in touch before Christmas and our trip to Singapore which we're so looking forward to. It's hard to imagine you all preparing for Christmas. I don't envy you, but Geoff is missing the frantic activity and the crack amongst great friends at Winos, especially at this time of year!
Please keep in touch and lots of love to you all
Carol and Geoff