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.....!