If i ever run for the National Party (highly unlikely but who knows!) I think I will use this photo on my pamplets :)

So the story behind this is that I had Food For Work Measuring Training. Basically we drove out to the middle of Takeo province and had to do a full volume measurement of a road that the villagers had built, which was aproximately 1.5km long and about 1 metre off the ground. The villagers get a 4.5kg of rice for every cubic metre of earthwork done, and 1.5kg of rice for every square metre of grassing (grass has to be grown on the slopes of the road to help stability). Theoretically it is a straightforward equation (thank-you Maths in Society!) but in practice the road dimension vary a lot. So we measure the volume of a representative section every 100m. 90% of projects are checked by the sub office at three points but 10% are fully measured by HQ.

It was so hot and so dusty but lots of fun. This signboard is put up at the start of the road so the villagers know how much rice they are theoretically entitled to if the project is done to the right specifications. This helps prevent some corruption but doesnt help much if many of the villagers cant read or write.

Oh and this is some of the traffic that uses the road.

The second half of my tail involves going to the seaside town of Kep for the w.e. Basically it was a resort town in the French colonial days with many grand houses but it became a Khmer Rouge stronghold during those years and all the houses were totally gutted. As you walk around you can see the shells of these places, riddled with bullets. The place I stayed at was great , like a giant treehouse.

The beaches on the mainland are pretty dodge but you can take a boat out to various islands which are better (Crab at Kep is divine!). I went to Rabbit Island which was nice but there is meant to be some really good snorkelling at some of the further out islands. Plenty of time for exploring. Rabbit Island was the first time I have shared the beach with livestock!

And hopefully next week I should begin formal Khmer lessons, prob 3 days a week for 1.5 hours.

Have staff retreat at Sihanoukville (the more famous beach resort town in Cambodia), then the w/e after i will have to go to Phomn Penh then the weekend after that I go for a few days to Singapore to spend time with Mark, Tara and Amali. YAAY.

Pond-ering

So my weekend in Pnomh Penh (PPN) was pretty uneventful. Mainly consisted of shopping (books, clothes, groceries) etc. I visited Wat Phomh (a pagoda on a hill in the middle of the city) quite by accident, with my razor sharp directional skills ending me up at the wrong end of the city. Simon, you will be happy to see that Sam Bo the elephant is still going, if a little tired!

It amazing how much a little Khmer language can make life so much easier. I think they get sick of the bolshy Western tourist in PPN and delight in ripping them off, but once you can say a few things to them they really appreciate it. Of course in Kampong Speu, speaking english at the stores just isnt an option (although i have to say its more sign language than Khmer at the moment).

On Monday morning I got a lift with my boss back down to Kampong Speu, packed my bags and hopped in a WFP car with one of the Field Monitors (his name is Hay) to head to the province of Takeo. Basically we are at a stage in the food for work where the projects have been identified and WFP is going out to take the measurements of what is proposed. We also measure the exisiting earthwork there to come up with how much rice will be needed for that project. Once way of ripping of the system was to claim for work that was already there (e.g. claiming for a 10km road, even if 5km was already there). This trip we were measuring ponds (for irrigation, drinking water, livestock etc.). Ponds get first priority because they have to be finished before the rainy season begins.

The first place we went to had a massivly wide pond full of water hyacinths (which technically are a weed but they are so perty!) but it wasnt very deep so they were going to make it three meters deep and slope the sides to reduce erosion. The rice ration is only 4.5kg of rice per cubic metre of dirt moved, but the pond will enable them to keep their animals healthy, water their crops, access to drinking and cleaning water and most importantly withstand a drought.

The second place (below) had a tiny pond that they wanted to extend out to 30x40x3. The pond in the picture serviced 68 families at the moment. I turned up and about 40 kids rushed out of their houses to stare at the Barang (foreigner). It was quite surreal, but quite sad. One thing i have noticed in these poor villagers is how thin the kids are. Cambodia isnt in a famine but many people in rural areas simply arent getting enough food or enough variety of food for vitamins. You can see many children with their ribs exposed, and some kids look like they have mild cases of kwasikor (the swelling of the stomach that comes with malnutrition). The third pond was completely covered in lillies and green slimy stuff but had tonnes of widdle ducklings swimming around on it.

I also though i would share with you another Khmer Rouge moment. Its very hard to escape the impact its had on peoples live. For instance in the car we were talking about our families and Hay casually mentioned that two of his brothers were killed by Khmer Rouge. Even after the Vietnamese liberated Cambodia he said it was so hard that he bought a compas and a world map and was going to go to the port, get a boat and try and sail to Australia.

Anyhoo on a lighter note, i am going to the seaside town of Kep this weekend and next weekend on the coast again in Sihanoukville for a staff retreat.

Animals for all seasons

Hi All

Sorry about the break in blogging, i spent last weekend in the lovely speu and the net has been down in the office all this week (till now of course :). The w/e in the speu was ok. Pretty much just read, watched dvds and ate. The most exciting excursion i had was to the market to buy some food. Next w/e in the speu i will explore the rice paddies and river. I am getting better at buying food at market but the next hurdle is ordering food at a restaurant by my self (where i cant point at things in absence of words). All in good time.

In fact yesterday i was very proud of myself, successfully buying some bread rolls then wandering into the market to buy some pork. The meat in the market is pretty much just slabs of meat sitting on a table. Whilst its not exactly refigerated meat at coles, i think its relatively safe and not so disgusting to buy as i thought it would be. I slipped up in not knowing what the khmer word for 'gram'was and cheated by just saying gram, which of course didnt work (the woman thought i wanted to buy 200kg of pork). A lot of pointing later i eventually got my pork.

It's actually cheaper to buy your meal from a stall than to cook it yourself but a mix of the two is good. I have been going to the meat on a stick stall near my house where there are lots of unidentified things on sticks. The chicken is great, the whole fish on a stick is awful.

Speaking of food, WFP is in a bit of a pickle as we have almost run out of it (food not pickles that is). As a result all TB, HIV and school feeding have been cancelled until someone donates money (hint hint AusAID). We will continue the food-for-work so the next few months might be a little quiet apart from doing pre work measurements for roads, ponds and dikes.

On to dogs, the link to food? Well Thierry told me that one of the innocuous looking houses near the market had dog on a spit. Cambodians like to say that only Vietnamese eat dogs but i think its their dirty little secret. I will try and get you a photo. One dog that isnt being eaten is my land lady's dog christened 'Little Man' by Brian the American. So cute and i bought some dog treats from Phomn Penh to buy his love. How he hasn't been eaten by the other mangy dogs in the neighbourhood i have no idea!

To buy chicken in the market here is to buy the whole chicken...might give that a miss :) But i do have three lovely roosters that strut around the yard of the office. I have named them Natella, Latrina and Keisha in honour of the Bromwell High girls (yes i know they are male chickens). Every afternoon Latrina and Keisha face off outside my window and stare at eachother for one minute then one looks away and the other one attacks. Poor man's cock fighting!

My house has been painted and looks quite nice so i might have to take some more photos. I might even do a video on my camera and see if i can put it on youtube.

Had a workplanning meeting today which was interesting. Everyone applauded after each of our objectives/outcomes/activities/indicators was filled in which meant a lot of clapping. It reminded me of everytime i drink with these guys you have to say cheers maybe 20 or 30 times! Also found out some of the staff speak russian as they were given scholarships to Soviet Union during the time of the Vietnamese occupation. Nyet Problemski.
So off to PPN tomorrow evening for my 6 dollar a night room.

Bye :)