Alison's Adventures in Cambodia

Sunday, January 14, 2007

Living in a pigsty

The lady in this photo actually lives in a pigsty!! CoDeC agricultural staff have built a very smart concrete pigsty (including mosquito netting, no less!) for the benefit of a poor rural community. Good quality pigs have been purchased and a pig food production enterprise has been set up – see photo. The community selected this woman and her family to be the pig farmers for six months, and CoDeC gave them training in pig raising skills. In return for their work in looking after the pigs, the family can keep some of the profit and at the end of the six months they can take two piglets home to raise for themselves. Another family will then be selected to be pig farmers for the next six months. The family think they have been very lucky to have had this opportunity. They are so poor that six months in a pigsty is attractive to them, even though they just sleep in hammocks, and have no electricity, kitchen or bathroom. I found the smell quite overpowering, but I suppose that if you live in the pigsty you must get used to it.

Technology I wouldn’t be without

These are the top six possessions I value most here in Cambodia:
1 Mobile phone – my lifeline. My VSO friends and I send and receive lots of texts, and I can instantly contact home or be contacted if necessary. My mobile also serves as a torch during power cuts.
2 Motorbike – for getting around, giving me freedom and I love riding it!
3 Laptop – I couldn’t do my work without it; it comes to the office with me twice a day. I also use it to prepare e-mails, store photos and music, and it contains all the information I need most.
4 TV – for my aerobics programmes, keeping me up to date with news and so that I can veg in front of American movies. I watch far too much TV here, but it’s often too hot and I’m too tired to do much else. I now have a DVD player as well, and have some DVDs of British programmes which are very comforting to watch!
5 Fridge – for keeping ants out of food, keeping food fresh and for lovely cold drinks
6 Digital camera – for memories of my varied experiences, and also for making friends with local people. They love having their photo taken, and are in raptures if I subsequently bring them the prints

Who has the power?


Over the last year, the electricity company in Kompong Thom has been steadily raising prices by holding its customers to ransom. In order to get the provincial government to agree to the price rises, we customers are subjected to power cuts nearly every day. When I arrived here, electricity cost 1200 riel per kilowatt; the most recent price hike has brought it up to 1600 riel per kilowatt, but the electricity company doesn’t want to stop there. Already the price is far too high for most people, who earn less in a month than the value of my bill. No wonder that the majority stick to using car batteries for their light, have ice boxes and go to bed very early! This photo is of Rachel preparing a meal by candlelight; note the fleece she wore during our two week winter!

On top of the rip-off prices, I’m only given a small window of time in which to pay my bill, and on two occasions I have paid late, meaning that my power has been summarily cut off! Fortunately when the power was cut off one evening last week, I could use candles for light and it was cool enough to sleep without a fan, so I managed to get through the night until I paid up in the morning.