Code breaking

I have recently started learning to read and write Khmer with my new teacher, ChhengAn. It is seriously tricky. There are no gaps between words and no punctuation (so no opportunity for me to get my red pen out!), and it is really difficult to follow text. There are 32 consonants, many of which sound exactly the same to me. For example, eight of the letters correspond to our ‘d’ and ‘t’ sounds, and are pronounced eight different ways, but I cannot distinguish between any of them. There are 24 vowels, which are mostly completely different from English sounds. To make matters worse, if the vowels come after certain consonants, they sound different again, and if a word starts with two consonants, then the second consonant is written under the first in a different sub-script form. There are two styles of printed Khmer, both of which I will need to learn. Vowels are placed before, above, below or all around the consonants, so when reading you have to read from left to right and back again to check the vowels. The script is so difficult that by the time I leave Cambodia I really don’t expect to be able to do much more than look words up in a dictionary.

A boy and a boat

Last weekend, I went on a cycle ride through the stunningly beautiful October countryside. Wherever I cycle, I am greeted with excited "Hallo's" as I pass by, and as soon as I stop I am immediately surrounded by fascinated children. Last weekend when I stopped, a boy invited me to his house, and then showed amazingly kind hospitality. He and his mother got some coconuts for me from their tree, and then he commandeered a boat from some other children to take me out on the river. He showed me round his family's plot of land, with it's rice field, chickens, pigs and cows. We ate lunch in the area under the house, where the family spend most of the day. He has set up a school room here, where he teaches basic English to the neighbouring kids for an hour every day. I had a great time and am constantly impressed with the warmth of the people.

Got up, had breakfast, went to work, ……

I’ve now been in Cambodia a full year! Life ambles on, and what was once amazing is now quite mundane. I have developed a daily routine, which starts at 6 a.m. with me exercising to ‘Aerobics – Oz Style!’ on the TV under a large fan - it’s too hot to move later in the day! (I had become very lethargic and lazy, so I’m now taking myself in hand!!) Then I have my first shower of the day, after which I cover myself with mosquito repellant, pop to the market for my breakfast bread, sweep the house and moto to work for 8 o’clock. I usually spend four out of five days at the office, at meetings (very tiring when I understand so little), working on my laptop, writing reports or proposals and chatting to staff (as best I can!). Needless to say, it’s all a far cry from these same activities back in the UK. I have a tw0-hour lunch break, which is when I go home and shelter from the heat, before returning to work. For the last hour of the working day, I often give an English lesson to any staff members who turn up (plus assorted relatives!). About once a week, I go to “the field” usually to observe or take part in one of CoDeC’s workshops or meetings with rural villagers. I finish work at 5.

After work, for the last few weeks I have been having Khmer lessons at my house on three evenings a week . I’ve just started learning to read and write, although I don’t think I’ll ever be able to do much more than decipher a few words. If I don’t have a lesson, I often go for a cycle ride or go to the market for vegetables. The aerobics programme is repeated again in the evening, so I sometimes exercise again if I’m not too tired. After another shower I usually spend the rest of the evening indoors, cooking my meal and watching TV (a displacement activity for studying Khmer!), before going to bed at about 9.30 or 10. About once a week I go out for an evening meal at the local hotel restaurant, where the staff treat me like a long lost friend! I usually go away to Phnom Penh or Siem Reap every other weekend.

So, everyday life is not really that exciting but it’s quite pleasant. There are now a couple of other barangs staying in Kompong Thom – an American and a Filipino – who I can see occasionally, but most days I only see Khmer people. However, I’m not lonely as I’m in daily text contact with various other VSO friends in other parts of the country and I go to the internet shop two or three times a week to get my fix from the UK!

Chicken Raising

While I was in England, I was asked a lot of questions about the work that CoDeC does, and how it impacts on the lives of the poor people. Here is a typical case study of one of its beneficiaries:

Poeuk, 48, is a subsistence farmer with eight children and an 88-year old father who lives with her. Four of her children go to school and the other four work in Thailand. She has a small house (3 x 6 metres) with palm leaf roof and walls and a bamboo floor.

She joined the savings group set up in her village by CoDeC in 2000, and she started saving 1000 riels with the group each month (US$0.25). In 2005, she was selected by the other group members to become the “Model Chicken Farmer” in her village. CoDeC staff gave her training in the techniques of chicken raising, including setting up a chicken hut, selecting the right breeds of chicken, maintenance, sanitation, feeding, monitoring animal weight, vaccinations, natural resource substances and documentation. CoDeC also gave her 245,000 riels (US$61.25). With the money, she built a chicken house (size 2.5 x 3.5 metres) with a palm leaf roof, 30 chickens, chicken feed, materials and veterinary treatments. She raised the chickens following the guidelines given in CoDeC’s technical training courses. She is now the village expert in rearing chickens, and can show other villagers how to do it. She has benefited financially from selling chickens, and has earned a total of 50,000 riels (US$12.25) in eight months. Her family has eaten 13 of the chickens and she is left with 12 of her original 30, plus many more offspring, who are all busy laying eggs.

Although most rural families keep chickens, there is a surprising level of ignorance about how to rear and treat them, which is why CoDeC has to provide training and support. So far, Poeuk’s is a success story, although a profit of $12.25 may not seem much. However, it concerns me that no contingencies have been put in place regarding bird flu. If it does strike in Cambodia, Poeuk will be greatly disadvataged.

Comparisons

My trip to the UK has given me the opportunity to reflect on some differences between England and Cambodia. In many ways, life in England is so easy and convenient:
- Supermarkets are a joy, crammed with everything people could possibly want to buy – see photo of the Cambodian equivalent!
- Car driving gives fast, dry and easy access wherever people want to go
- People have enough money for all the necessities of life and are baled out by the government if they don’t
- Homes are secure, comfortable and full of technologies not available in Cambodia – washing machines, cookers, microwaves, dishwashers, hot water, computers, entertainment systems
- The weather is pleasant (especially at the time I visited!) and does not really hamper daily living
- Offices are efficient and productive and use advanced technologies
- Jobs are available and terms and conditions are good (usually!)
- Education and health services are good (yes, really!) and are for everyone
- Information is immediate and available to all
- People can and do openly complain about government (even though there is far less to complain about than in Cambodia)
- Some television programmes are well worth watching (although there’s lots of dross)
- Incidences of corruption (e.g. in football) are rare and scandalous, while in Cambodia there is an acceptance of widespread corruption at every level

However, in some respects England does not compare so favourably:
- England is over-regulated to a ridiculous level. (Car seats for 12 year olds? Tell that to Cambodian kids who drive motorbikes as soon as they can cycle, sit on bonnets of taxis, travel in crowded open trucks, share up to 7 people on a motorbike and carry their baby siblings in bike baskets or in scarves slung between the handlebars.) English workers spend more time complying with regulations than getting on with their work.
- People work long hours, get stressed and often don’t enjoy their jobs (except PCT staff of course!)
- People spend far too much of their lives travelling, commuting and sitting in traffic jams
- The media whips up public opinion so that everyone seems to be thinking the same
- Childhood is not so free, and children don’t have the benefit of living with large extended families
- People don’t have time to stand and stare and are not so relaxed
- English people make unhealthy lifestyle choices in spite of having the information and opportunity not to do so – overeating, smoking, binge drinking, not doing physical activity, driving gas guzzlers, .... (why???)
- Bringing up children is a major palaver - expensive, time consuming and prevents parents doing other things with their lives

In general, I think that England has become over-developed and needs to ‘get back to basics’. Cambodian people seem to be happier than English people.