Christmas in Cambodia

Having expected nothing from home, I have been overwhelmed with the number of cards and pressies that I have received. It’s been really nice to hear what everyone is up to and to know that I’m not forgotten! Rachel, Bram and I invited three other VSO volunteers to stay for the weekend, and we have been celebrating Christmas in Cambodia with lots of western food and drink to make us feel festive. It’s not possible to have turkey or Christmas pud here, but I have managed to make bruschetta and banoffee pie (thanks for the recipe, Penny!), and drink French wine and gin and tonic! We’ve got a CD of Christmassy songs, and even some decorations! The temperature has been much cooler this last month, so although there’s no chance of a white Christmas here, at least the weather’s been pleasant. Christmas isn’t a bank holiday in Cambodia, so it’s straight back to work after the weekend.

Tha, my Translator

Tha has been translating for me since I started at CoDeC. He is 28 years old and has been teaching himself English for the last 12 years. As I have never worked with a translator before and this is his first translating job, we are struggling with how to use his time best. When I am in meetings or at presentations, Tha translates what is being said into English or Khmer and I also give him written documents to translate. He helps me to practise using some of my conversational Khmer language skills. I have started giving daily English lessons to the other CoDeC staff, and Tha is is a real godsend, as he is able to explain the rules of English grammar and translate words much better than I can. Rachel, Bram and I have asked Tha to give us two Khmer lessons per week during our lunch breaks, and we have been spending the time going over the lessons we originally did with our other teacher, Dara, when we were in Kampong Cham. Tha doesn’t have his own motorbike, so he rides pillion with me to and from work, and if we go on long journeys, I usually ask him to drive. In spite of being skilled, reliable and hard-working, Tha has been unemployed for most of his adult life, and his situation is typical of many local people. This is the first job where he will be earning a living wage ($170 per month), but the contract is only for 6 months, so I hope his experience with me will lead to other work.

Sponsorship by the Wates Foundation

I have just heard that the Wates Foundation, a charitable trust based in Leatherhead and linked with the Wates Building company, will be sponsoring me while I am overseas, by contributing to VSO’s costs in sending me to Cambodia. The Wates Foundation has been supporting VSO for many years, and is sponsoring five volunteers in total. I will be writing to them from time to time to report on my work and on what I hope to achieve. They want to understand the lives and work of people in communities overseas and what their grant is helping to fund. I am very pleased to have been selected for this sponsorship, and grateful to the Wates Foundation for supporting VSO in this way.
P.S. This doesn’t mean that those who have kindly donated to my VSO Justgiving campaign can now get their money back!!!!

New job

I have worked for CODEC (Cooperation for the Development of Cambodia) now for a week, and am still rather bemused by it all. The CODEC office is located in the middle of nowhere (actually about 1.5 kms from my house), and the office facilities are very basic. However, I have had an interesting and varied first week:

• On Monday, I attended a workshop organised by the Fisheries Department in a village 10 kms away, attended by local fishermen, police and other stakeholders, where the recently ratified Fishing Sub-Decree was explained (in Khmer, of course!). The meeting took place outside under a canopy, and there were lots of speeches.

• On Tuesday I went into the CODEC office, arranged selection interviews for my translator post, held the interviews and appointed on the same day, with my new translator, Tha, starting the next day!! Some things happen much quicker here! Also, the electricity went off at 3 p.m., but the staff all still stayed at the office until 5.00 p.m., even though they couldn’t do anything.

• On Wednesday morning, I inducted Tha (!!!although no one’s inducted me yet!), and in the afternoon took him to his first formal translation “gig”, at the very grand Provincial Hall where Bram, Rachel and I were introduced to the Provincial Governor.

• On Thursday morning, there was nothing much going on in the office, so Tha came with me to help me open a bank account. In the afternoon, I met my main colleague, Mr Yim Lam, for the first time, and he landed me with my first task – resolving a conflict between CODEC and the Fisheries Department!!! Apparently only VSO can sort out a disagreement about fishing lot allocations!! My friend, Rachel, has just started working in the Fisheries Department, so I went to her office and held a meeting with all of their staff, and tried to soothe ruffled feathers. We have now arranged a further meeting between all the CODEC bosses and the Fisheries department at the end of December to finally resolve the problem (I hope!!). And I still haven’t been inducted!
• On Friday, as part of it’s health programme, CODEC organised a big march through Kompong Thom in aid of the white ribbon campaign against domestic violence: “We respect men who respect women”. I sat through more speeches, and then marched with about 100 people (mostly high school kids), giving out white ribbons and leaflets to everyone we saw. Great fun!

My working hours are 8-11.30 and 2-5 Monday to Friday, although I am expected to be flexible, and I’m enjoying having long somrak (break) in the middle of the day. The CODEC staff seem very nice, and I hope to find out a bit more about my role soon.

New home

I’m in! I like my new home very much, and have been spending the first week sorting things out. Since I viewed it, my landlady has installed a new fridge, air con in the bedroom, a TV, a gas hob and has put up a fence to separate my drive from the path that others use to walk to the house behind mine. However, there were no pans, crockery, bedding, shelves, etc, so I’ve had to buy quite a few things. The location is excellent – right in the town centre, near to a good restaurant, a few doors away from Rachel and Bram’s house and opposite the market, which means that I can pop out to buy my breakfast bread before I go to work. The style of the house is very typical of Cambodia. It is basically a boxy bungalow with a very high ceiling, and it looks a bit like a shop from the outside! The front room serves as my living room, dining room and study. I sleep in the downstairs bedroom, and have a large spare bedroom above. At the back is a basic kitchen, with none of the many standard items found in British kitchens, i.e. no oven, hot water, microwave, washing machine, dishwasher, or even shelves, cupboards and work surfaces! There is a separate western style toilet, and a shower room (no shower cubicle or hot water!). The house is light, cool and airy, with mosquito screens rather than glass at the higher openings.
Downsides: In spite of all the mosquito screens, I am plagued by dust, insects and geckos, and have to sweep up dead insects and gecko poo several times a day. Fortunately I haven’t come across many biting insects so far, but there are loads of cockroaches, ants, crickets and pointy black insects. There is a pesky kid who lives in the house behind who finds me very interesting. Consequently, I keep my bicycle and motorbike inside the house, as he is rather too attracted to them. Also, the old man who lives there has nothing to do all day, so he lies in wait to have a chat with me (in country-dialect Khmer). Even though he seems very nice, I can really do without it at the moment. The family live in a squalid house in comparison with mine, which makes me feel guilty. Communication with them has been very difficult, when, for example, I needed to sort out the air con that stopped working, and to get the cable TV connected, but in the end I’ve managed to make myself understood. Exhausting!

The big move

On Saturday, I moved from our safe comfortable shared house in Kompong Cham to my new house in Kompong Thom two hours away. Four of us were being transported together, and we had an incredible amount of stuff to take, including three motorbikes, four bicycles, four water filters as well as all our personal luggage, which we had all been adding to since we arrived in Cambodia!! Everything was precariously strapped to the van, and the driver’s mate sat on top of it all to make sure that nothing fell off! We arrived safe and sound in Kampong Thom, with just a bit of damage to the bicycles which didn’t like having heavy things piled on top of them. Once Rachel, Bram and myself were dropped off, the van went on to take Joy to her placement a further six hours away.