Khmer word of the day: tummy ache: chew puh
Weather report: No more rain but it has been replaced by cool winds which really aren’t much fun. Especially if your house is on stilts!
I’m sorry for not updating my blog more recently but please accept this following blog entry as way of explanation...
So a couple of Sunday’s ago Jeltje (the other new VSO in Mondulkiri) and I decided to head up to Sen Monorom waterfall with a couple of friends for the afternoon. However, in order to get to the falls you have to go up a really steep hill...which is where we ran into trouble. I was riding pillion behind Jeltje, as I was yet to receive my own bike, and J was trying to shift down the gears but struggling, then it clicked into first and J lost control, opening the throttle up full. This caused the bike to fly straight up in the air and for me to go flying off the back. I was completely winded and rolling about, some Khmer people came running out of a house and carried me inside lying me flat on my back and immediately covering me in tiger balm (which causes your skin to burn like mad!!). This probably helped quite a bit as it probably prevented any more bruising than there was.
So here I was, lying on the floor of a tiny wooden house, everything I feared coming true. Seven hours from any real medical help. Anyway, the friends I was with managed to borrow a 4x4 to take me to the hospital. When I say hospital here, it is a very loose interpretation of what is considered a hospital. The most medical thing about it is the big sign outside and the pictures on the bill boards. When we got there we realised that there was absolutely nothing there, which is very sad as this is supposed to be the entire provinces access to free healthcare. However, we were informed that there is a private clinic in town which has an x-ray machine, so off we went there. Again, this clinic is extremely basic with a pharmacy shop at the front and 3 beds with drips behind. They did have an x-ray machine of kind upstairs though (a really steep, skinny set of stairs...what if you had a broken leg?!). Anyway the x-rays didn’t show any fractures, but got to admit, the doctor really didn’t know what he was doing. He didn’t even check me for concussion until we made him. Anyway, we relayed all this info to VSO who informed London as they have to do.
I stayed with J that night just in case, plus I really couldn’t move properly so I just laid where they left me! So that was Sunday, then Tuesday night I get a call from VSO London telling me that I had to go to PP asap for further scans as they always treat neck and back injuries very seriously. Fortunately Veasna (one of the volunteer assistants) managed to arrange travel for me the next morning in a taxi, which only took 6 hours (VERY good!).
So I went to the hospital in PP and had lots of x-rays done again which came back clear. However, by this point the bruising and swelling was really getting going and it was actually more painful then after the accident. So I was quite grateful to get some anti-inflammatory medication and head on back to the Programme Office to lie very still!
However, being back in PP does offer some advantages...I went to the Pavilion Hotel one day and had a nice swim and hot power shower. I also got to see the new batch of volunteers again, which was nice. The vast choice of food in PP is also great...always somewhere nice to go for dinner relatively cheaply.
I also got to pick up my handmade shoes from ‘Beautiful Shoes’ and they are indeed very nice. Fit really well but my feet just aren’t used to wearing closed in shoes after sandals for so long so the blisters came swiftly. It is amazing that you can get a pair of bespoke shoes here for $18. Love it.
Whilst in PP I have also managed to make contact with friends of a friend from Uni who have just invested in a bar on an island just off the Cambodian coast! Pretty brave step and they only arrived two weeks ago and have been really busy setting everything up. So it was nice to meet up and I have been showing them around PP and helping them to source stuff they need for the bar, which has been quite fun really.
But please, don’t think it has all been fun! I have also had a bout of gastric-enteritis whilst here which has been far from pleasurable but not something a course of antibiotics can’t fix.
So, I am feeling well again and looking forward to getting the go ahead to go back to MDK soon, so that I can really start to get my teeth into things up there again.
Since being in PP has given me some spare time I have done lots of research into a Girls Support Network programme and am really interested in setting one up at a couple of schools as a community project. I now just need to figure out how....!
I promise to update again soon!
Charlotte x
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