The Kings Birthday

Another month, another public holiday... So this time it was for King Sihamoni’s birthday and we have had three days off in total around a weekend.

A group of us decided to head to Phnom Penh for the weekend as it is easy to get to and there was a lot going on to keep us occupied.

On Thursday night there was a free concert given by the American band Dengue Fever in the Vietnamese Friendship Park, sponsored by the US Embassy to celebrate 60 years of involvement in Cambodia (yes, I’m sure there is irony here). Dengue Fever are based in LA and formed after having several trips to Cambodia and discovering 60s and 70s Cambodian music, which I have to admit, is actually quite great! So they set about reviving it and managed to recruit an amazing Cambodian singer to the band and now enjoy worldwide success. In fact, one of the girls I was with had actually already seen them at a festival in the UK.

The one thing which was obvious at the concert was the clear cultural differences between Cambodians and us Barangs. The Cambodians didn’t move during the concert, in fact, most of them didn’t even smile. Yet here were us foreigners cheering, clapping, dancing and singing along. I do not envy any band playing to a Cambodian audience, talk about a tough crowd!
I do feel that I and the group I was with are probably famous on the Cambodian social networking site as it seemed that everyone was taking photos and videos of us. We weren’t the only ones either, once glance around and you could spot many pockets of dancing Barangs causing a stir in the otherwise mostly Cambodian crowd.

The band themselves were great, particularly the lead singer who had an amazing and original voice. I have included a video link here to youtube if you would like to check them out and if they ever come to a venue near you I would definitely recommend that you go!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CQYOGkCk2DA

On Friday night we went to a modern dance performance which also included a section by Epic Arts, which is an organisation based in Kampot. They work with children with disabilities helping to support their social development and education, in a country which barely recognises disability. The four young men involved in the piece were amazing, two were in wheelchairs and the other two are deaf. Their performance was brilliant, one of the best modern dance pieces I have seen and it was easily as good as the professionals who followed them.

The main piece was by Belle Chumvan Sodhachivy who is a modern Cambodian choreographer who uses the traditional Khmer Apsara dancing in her modern dance pieces. It was very beautiful and the choreographer herself was an amazing dancer. The themes explored in the piece ranged from playfulness to quite dark group dances. Again, if she ever comes to a venue near you I would definitely recommend going.

http://khmerbird.com/entertainment/contemporary-dancer-belle-chumvan-sodhachivy.html

The weekend was very enjoyable and a definite break from the jungle. However, I was more than happy to head back to Mondulkiri as it is incredibly hot in Cambodia at the moment with high temperatures and humidity causing discomfort and sleep loss in the city! In the mountains the temperature is so much cooler, hitting 30c max during the day and dropping down to low 20c’s at night meaning it is a far nicer climate to live in. In Mondulkiri the rains have also started which make a welcome break to the intense sun.

I’m also looking forward to checking up on several projects I have been working on and am beginning to plan the holiday clubs I am planning on running during the rainy season holiday.

The Mango Rains

Last week saw the beginning of the ‘mango rains’ which means that it doesn’t rain everyday but when it does rain, it pours (and storms). They are so named as we are nearing the end of the mango season, which I will sorely miss. It has just come into avocado season too, which has been marvellous and I have had many VSO’s begging me to bring them a supply when I come to Phnom Penh.

However, this is now day two without any rain but as Chak just reliably informed me, the next time it rains that will be it. The beginning of the rainy season. This means constant rain for days, severely limiting travel and work and general madness caused by being continuously cold/wet and the noise of the rain pummelling the tin roofs.

As you can see from my above description, I am a little apprehensive about the start of the rains. The land here at the moment is parched beyond recognition, with river beds lying empty and waterfalls dry. I cannot wait to see again, Cambodia as it was when I first arrived, a lush green country with rice paddies as far as the eye could see and roaring waterfalls. However, practically, I am not looking forward to the boredom and frustration it is likely to cause (I have been reliably told by other people in Mondulkiri). In the rest of Cambodia during the rainy season it rains for perhaps a couple of hours a day maximum. In the mountainous region of Mondulkiri I have heard that it regularly rains non-stop for a week. I just can’t even begin to imagine what this will be like (apart from wet...) and I think it will certainly be an experience.

So in preparation I have changed my motorbike tyres to mud ones and will be purchasing a high quality poncho next time I’m in Phnom Penh. I may even get some wellies!

Perhaps Cambodia isn’t too far from England then, only, here it only rains for 5 months rather than 12!

Khmer New Year 2010

No dolphins in any of my pictures!
Collecting the blessed water

Giving buddha a spring clean

Posing on Don Dhet

From 14-16th April it was Khmer New Year, which is a Buddhist celebration of the new year of the Tiger.

Although there were only 3 days public holiday, most people in government offices and schools take from 6th April off as it is their main holiday of the year. So this meant a couple of fairly boring weeks for me, however, we had heard about this ahead of time so myself and the other youth volunteers decided to use this break to head off to Laos.

We decided to head to the area known as ‘4000 Islands’ which is really close to the Cambodian border and very beautiful this time of year as the water level has dropped in The Mekong causing lots of small islands to emerge from the river. This provides some beautiful swimming spots and beaches.

For the New Year ceremony itself we headed to the local temple on Don Dhet (the main island in the complex) to see for ourselves exactly what is involved. The ceremony began in one of the small temples with the men entering with a couple of monks and chanting. Meanwhile, outside, families were setting up camp, sat in small groups with bowls of what looked like tea and fruit. When the monks were finished all the men carried out all the statues and religious artefacts (including bits of wood and stones) and placed them on a bamboo table in the main area of the pagoda. After some more praying it was a mad rush to grab the biggest and fanciest looking statue and bring it back to your families’ camp. The whole family then proceeded to wash them with the tea, scrubbing them with the fruit and leaves and rinse it all down with what looked like yellow dyed water. After the cleaning process the statues are returned to the tables and water is thrown over them all (and everyone stood around!). It took me a moment to notice but the space underneath the table was crammed full of young children capturing the liquid being poured over the religious statues. This is seen as blessed water and afterwards someone poured some over my head declaring that I had been blessed by Buddha. Happy days.

After this ceremony the main party began with many water fights ensuing and people generally celebrating. It was a lovely experience and I was really glad that I got the opportunity to witness the New Year celebrations which were taking place in Thailand, Cambodia and Laos.

On my way back from Laos I took the opportunity to spend the weekend in a town called Kratie, famous for its fresh water irrawady dolphins. These dolphins are very endangered as something has happened to the species meaning all the calves keep dying. It is unknown what has caused this, although environment is thought t be the most likely. WWF have said that they will have completely died out within 10 years so I took this rare opportunity to view them. When we got to the pool where the dolphins are most frequently seen I was surprised to be quickly ushered onto a boat and proceed to see many of these rare creatures. Naturally they were practically impossible to get a photograph of and I have many shots of just random patches of river. If you want to see them you will have to visit Kratie!

So that is the end of holidays for the moment for me, however, in May there are lots more public holidays (there isn’t a month in Cambodia without at least one!) so I hope this will give me a chance to pop to Phnom Penh to have a bit of a reality check!

Well Update!

Me with the new VSO Volunteer Ben and some of the school children from the village.

So this week I made it up to Pu Trom Cha School, where the community well is currently being dug, to check up on the progress and success! The well has been dug to a depth of 22m and it has just over a meter and a half of water at the bottom and with rainy season about to start, that level is soon to rise.

All that is left to do now is to build some kind of small wall around it to stop children/animals falling down it. Jack, at the Elephant Project, has offered to donate the bricks and concrete so that I can use the remaining money to buy a good water filter to be kept at the school so the children have access to safe water.

I am hoping the well can be finished next week and I have asked a fellow NGO worker here who is an agricultural adviser here on community gardens to come to the school and speak with the community about setting up a small vegetable garden in the school. This would then be a push off point for creating ‘breakfast clubs’ to provide a morning meal for the children which would keep them in school and help their performance in the classroom.

Charlotte

Further Information

If you are at all interested in looking a little further into the current political situation in Cambodia please check out the following links. The first is to a film on youtube which shows the problem of land grabbing and the second is a report by Global Witness.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2G_4J94kGIs

http://www.globalwitness.org/media_library_detail.php/713/en/country_for_sale

So, I hope you find these both as interesting interesting as I did.

Another week another random sickness!

So last week I had to rush off to Phnom Penh as I was really, really sick. Yes. Again.

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!!

The Khmer Riche 160310

As you have read in my previous blogs I am really struggling to balance the complete and abject poverty experienced by the majority here in Cambodia, forced on them and hindered by a small percentage of highly powerful 'Khmer Riche'. This small group run Cambodia, politically and economically, with corruption at such a high rate it is very difficult for the average Cambodian to get anywhere without becoming part of the process.

The selling off of land which belongs to indeginous people, who have been working it for years, in order to log it for the highly sought after (and illegal) tropical hardwood is just one of the many ways in which the rich are profiting from taking advantage of the poorest.It is not just a problem in Mondulkiri either, all over Cambodia huge swathes of land have been sold off in order to extract the natural resources, whether it is wood, gold, gems or oil. In the linked article from The Times it says that Cambodia should be making billions a year in oil revenues alone and yet it still receives more than this in foreign aid.

So why, I hear you ask, should we support a country which is so set on not helping itself? This is a difficult question and one I have asked myself many times, especially when I come across corruption perpetrated by Cambodians which directly damages those most in need.

Firstly, Cambodia needs help. The Khmer Rouge destroyed an entire generation of professionals like teachers and doctors, so advisors are needed to temporarily fill the stop-gap. However, the government regularly fails its key workers when they need support the most. For example, teachers are paid $30 a month on average. $30? Even here that is barely enough to support a family for a week. So they need to generate more income and this is done by corrupt practices such as charging students to come to school, making students pay for exam papers or even insisting that the children buy snacks from the teachers spouse. This in turn causes parents to resent teachers and means the poorest will never succeed at school. I have seen this happen regularly and teacher/parent relations are a huge aspect of my work here. However, how much sustainable success can I really have if the Government continues its low salary policy?

Secondly, if foreign aid pulled out from Cambodia it is the poorest who would suffer. The rich elite rely on NGOs to support the poor and I fear that if they did leave in protest at the system, the rich would not suddenly revert to social responsibility. The poor would suffer a huge drop in services and in the short term there would be a peak in mortality rates, not to mention the long term effects such a radical change would cause. The Department for International Development (DFID-British Government) have recently pulled out of Cambodia; I wonder who will be next?

So, although I regularly feel that Cambodia has been let down by those who are supposed to protect, conserve and love their country I do not think it wise to abandon Cambodia to its fate.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/asia/article7023700.ece?token=null&offset=0&page=1