Anyway, it turns out it was acute salmonella poisoning which is fairly nasty and if left untreated can cause your insides to go septic...which I’m sure is something you wanted to know!
However, being in Phnom Penh gave me the opportunity to go shopping with a small budget VSO gave me. I have decided to create ‘resource boxes’ for the School Support Committees with materials to help them support the schools, whether by having learning resources making sessions or running arts activities with the children during school holidays.
I have as yet been unable to get up to Pu Trom Cha School to check on the well’s progress but I hope to do so this week.
VSO Mondulkiri is also welcoming a new volunteer this week! Ben will be working on Effective Teaching and Learning in Pechrada District and is here on a visit week to introduce himself to the office here, sort out a house and generally get himself a bit settled in the place where he is to spend the next two years. Ben is very nice and experienced as he has already completed a two year placement in Papua New Guinea so Jeltje and I look forward to working with him and increasing the size of our team here!
As I am now almost exactly at the half way point of my placement here in Cambodia I thought I’d share a little bit of how I’m feeling seven months down the line...
Things I have learnt about life in Cambodia:
‘No’ is not an answer (e.g. ‘Yes, I understand what you mean’ only to find out later ‘I didn’t know what you meant’ and ‘Yes we can fit two more people, a moto and a bunch of chickens into the full mini bus’).
Being clean all the time is not necessary and everyone is as dirty as each other so it really doesn’t matter (this is in reference to the dust and not poor personal hygiene!).
If you don’t have at least two mobile phones you are a NOBODY.Karaoke can grow on you.
Things will get done at some point. Just because no-one knows when that point will be doesn’t matter, it will get done.
Air conditioning always has to be on an absolutely freezing setting or you’re not getting value for money.
People are, in general, happy!
Going one day without eating rice (nyam bai) is a fate worse than death (this is genuinely the fate of bad people and there is one day a year when you leave out rice balls for your naughty ancestors).
When I first arrived in Cambodia I was completely overwhelmed. Everything seemed really intense; the climate, the traffic, the food and the people but seven months on I really feel like I’m starting to get the hang of things here!
When I return home I wonder if I will have to reacclimatise to the weather, food and traffic!!
No comments:
Post a Comment