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.