Big Poppa

Hi Ya'll


So for the last few days I have been a/g Head of Sub-Office as Mony is on leave. Not very different from assistant head except that I am signing off petrol coupons, travel allowances etc. Not that exciting :) I was a bit late today so I got swamped by forms to sign before people could go out on their field trips so lesson learnt I have to get to work at about 7 when I am OIC.


Anyway, last week I went out to visit some Tuberculosis clinics in Takeo Province. As I have said before, WFP provides rations to patients undergoing the Directly Observed Treatment - Short course (DOTS). Basically you are an in-patient for 2 months then an outpatient for about 7 months. WFP has a pipeline break (run out of food) so the TB program is being interrupted. We were there to see the distributions of the leftovers from the last shipment.


Of course the first place had forgot to inform the patients to come and collect it and the second place only had enough food for seven patients. I am not sure what the effect of the health of people trying to kick TB but we will see. Hopefully it should restart in April.

Anyway after a weekend in Phnom Penh (Chinese New Year so not much was open- I am a pig and being a golden pig year it is meant to be very lucky for me!).


Monday a few WFP cars went out with a mission from Bangkok and Rome who have come here to try and do some mapping of food insecurity. The idea is to have a world map so food insecurity can be compared across the world. This is , of course, easier said than done.

We went thorugh Kampong Speu and Kampong Chnang to talk to drought affected communities. Firstly we visited a Khmer village (and were escorted by World Vision who we met at their office which was adorned with bibles and signs saying ''our core value is that we are Christian'' and then organised for the meetings with villagers to happen in...a church!).


Secondly we went to a Cham village (the Cham are the Muslim minority who were particuraly targetted under Khmer Rough (mosques destroyed, forced to eat pork etc.) and it is estimated about 1/2 of the Cham population perished.


Thirdly we went to a village that was set up for internally displaced people. Basically, when Khmer Rouge and Government were fighting in early 90s, these people were put in a camp by the government to remove them from Khmer Rouge area and were resettled here after Khmer Rouge were driven from the area.


Basically, all these communities had rice deficits because of water shortages. Generally the family had to leave the village to work in Phnom Penh for periods of time, pulling their kids out of school. We also heard that things have become easier since the garment factories opened. They can send their daughter to work there and she can send home about $30 a month. Anecdotally, we have heard Khmers want to have more girl children (boy children are traditionally favoured) because they have a chance to work in these factories. Male children dont really have much option but farming.

Sorry I couldnt really take any photos as it wasnt all that appropriate but hopefully more next time!

Oh I have got to tell you about this place we went for lunch yesterday. There was only three of us in the office and everything was closed for Chinese New Year so we drove out of town a bit to go to a wild animal restaurant. We had some kind of deer stir fried with tree ants and tree ant eggs. Then we had wild boar (cue image of pig hunting magazine) and then pigeon soup. I couldnt help but ask about the alleged dog restaurant and they confirmed it. One guy said he ate it every Sunday as a child but doesnt anymore. They offered to buy me some but i passed it up. That ten dollars goes wanting (for now!).

Bye :)