Sand castles

When I returned to my house last week after nearly four weeks away, I was confronted with knee-high dust (well nearly) throughout, plus a big pile of sand outside my gate. My landlady, who lives in Phnom Penh, is in Kampong Thom at the moment and had arranged to have her land extended at the back of her three properties by building a wall and filling in the waste land at the back. I’m quite sure that no land deeds were exchanged! Anyway, the sand was moved bucket load by bucket load about 80 metres to the back of the property (haven’t they heard of wheelbarrows?), and every day since I came back more piles of sand have been dumped and moved. A very slow, hot and tiring process, but hopefully security on the plot will be improved. Apparently people living in the road beyond the waste land had been using the property as a cut through to the market.

The two children who live in the house next to the new wall in the photo have enjoyed playing on the piles of sand. Even though I have been living in my house for 16 months, they are still excited by the novelty of having a Barang next door. Every time they go through the side passage to their own home, they shout out “Hallo - Goodbye” to my house, whether or not I’m in sight. I feel like the Boo Radley of Kampong Thom!

Year of the Golden Pig

The Chinese New Year was heralded in this weekend. My Khmer teacher, Chheng An, invited me to a family get together at his parents house 25 kms away. When I accepted the invitation, I didn’t realise that I would be asked to take Chheng An’s 4 year old son on the back of my motorbike. The little boy has been transported on motorbikes since before he could sit, so no one could understand why I was concerned for his safety, but I got really worried when he started falling asleep behind me. However, we arrived without incident; thank goodness for the child’s innate sense of balance and self preservation! We spent the morning mostly sitting around, eating and snoozing on hammocks. Chheng An’s brother in law was the only one who had any sense of occasion, and he prepared gifts for the spirits, including a newly plucked chicken and cigarettes.
Back in Kampong Thom, the lion dancing troupe was being kept busy, going round houses, restaurants and shops. The usual fee for the troupe to perform at your home is around $20. Outside each house the lion and boy performed a ritual dance accompanied by drums and bells, and then went inside to bless the shrine (every home has one!) and all the rooms. They would then return outside and a long string of firecrackers would be let off. The lion would then stand on its back legs to stretch up to grab a gift of food dangled from above.

Pyjama parties in Battambang

Last week I went to Battambang, Cambodia’s second largest city, for a partnership meeting with ACR, one of our donors. The meeting was held at a centre for street families and abused women and was a really inspirational place, with its holistic approach to helping poor people by providing support in housing, education, health, hygiene, farming and alternative livelihoods. Families live at the centre for a year, learning how to look after themselves and all sorts of other skills, and are then given a small plot of land and a basic house so that they can integrate into village life. There is a school for children and young people, and one of the skills they all learn is traditional dancing. It is amazing that only three months ago the dancers in this picture were living on the streets and had never danced before.
During the week we visited an HIV/AIDS project. The man in the photo has HIV, but he is remaining positive and active, keeping busy rearing his fighting chickens and arranging cockfights. It was the first time I’d seen any evidence of cockfighting, but I hear it is very popular in rural communities.
The most wearing part of the week was sharing a hotel room with my Khmer colleague. When we arrived back from the meeting at 5.30 each day, she’d immediately get into her night wear and spend the rest of the evening flicking through TV channels. She was scared of ghosts and intruders, so didn’t like me leaving the room, although I managed the odd quick trip to the internet shop! She’d go to sleep with the light and TV on, clutching the remote control! On the last night, I woke in the middle of the night to find she’d invited another of the meeting participants to share our room. They were both asleep fully clothed on her single bed with TV and light on. Our visitor then had a noisy half hour phone conversation at 1.30 am.! No thought that she might be keeping the other two of us awake. All part of the Cambodian experience.....!

Lovely Laos

I’ve just had two weeks holiday with Ken in neighbouring Laos. What a beautiful country! I was surprised to find that Laos is quite unlike Cambodia. The scenery is very varied, with limestone karst landcapes, low plains, high mountains and lots of clear water (not the muddy variety of Cambodia!). The facial features of the people are coarser than the Khmers and they have darker skins. Their lifestyles are more basic in some ways and more advanced in others. Their woven bamboo houses look charming, but are not very comfortable by our standards, and there is no privacy. Food is spicy, often eaten without cutlery and has sticky rice as the main staple. Laos has a fascinating history, including an appalling period 30-40 years ago during the Indo-China War, when US funded bombs were indiscriminately rained on the country. In spite of all the bomb damage there are still lots of beautiful wats to visit, and I also enjoyed seeing the mysterious Plain of Jars, which is a bit like Stonehenge, in that no one knows quite why the stone jars are there. The capital city, Vientiane, makes Bexhill-on-Sea seem like a heaving metropolis. January in the mountainous areas is really cold, particularly for me coming from steamy Cambodia. Travelling around the country is hard work, so it’s not a place for softies, but the rewards definitely outweigh the effort.

VSO trip to Pottery Province

A few weeks ago, I went to Kampong Chhnang (a province located on the west bank of the Tonle Sap lake) for a VSO Livelihoods Sector workshop, which I helped to organise. Instead of the usual all day workshop in a Phnom Penh meeting room, we opted this time to do a study tour in a province. 25 of us visited a community fishery group in a remote village, accessible only by boat. It was interesting for me to compare the achievements and challenges of the fishery group here with those of Kampong Thom. One big difference was that this village is located right on the river, whereas some of the so-called community fisheries in Kampong Thom are more than 20 kms from the nearest fishing ground! The lifestyles of the local people are very primitive, and while it was nice for us to be away from motorbikes and cars for a day, I am sure the villagers would prefer to be a little more connected with the 21st century. Back in the town of Kampong Chhnang, I stayed a couple of nights with a VSO friend, and we had a nice bicycle ride through lovely scenery, visiting chhnang (pottery) workshops and passing this pretty wat.