Spues in the Spue

Photo Above: Confluence of the Tonle, the Bassac and Mekong Rivers in Phnom Penh.

Hi

I was all amped for the staff Khmer New Year party on Sunday, when on Friday night I decided to have some Vietnamese. Needless to say I spent the weekend surgically attached to my bathroom all weekend and missed the party. Eating Vietnamese any time around Khmer New Year was probably a bad idea! (Vietnamese and Cambodians don't really have a great relationship).

Last week I went with one of the guys here, Ratha, to check out some Non-Food Items (NFI). For Food-For-Work that pretty much means box culverts attached to irrigation canals that have been dug. The box culvert allows the villagers to divert the water from the main canal into the smaller secondary canals that run up along people's fields. With irrigation they can have two rice harvests a year, meaning they will have enough to eat for the whole year.

Oh another weird thing happened last week. Well a little while ago, Doramy (one of my colleagues) came in and asked if my parent’s were married. I didn’t think much about it at the time, but I got a phone call from the HR assistant in Phnom Penh. She asked me if I would be the best man at her wedding. She is marrying a German guy who doesn’t know many people here and they thought he would be more comfortable with a foreigner as his best man – even if he had never met him!

I thought this was awesome and was so ready to do it (the all white tux alone would be worth it) but unfortunately it was not to be as I was already committed on that day. Maybe another day I will be a completely random guy’s best man
Sigh

Blackout

Hi All

This past weekend was kinda bizarre. It was the commune elections (which is like local government) and there were demonstrations and parades everywhere. They also shut down the sms network to stop people starting trouble or spontaneous demonstrations. So everyone at work today has permanent ink on their index finger (you have to give your fingerprint to get your ballot).

Went out for drinks with some people at a Russian place on Saturday and drank far too much vodka - I can't really remember much but I know it involved swimming...hmmm. A WFP guy working in Sudan was over here to inspect the Cambodian deminers that are going over to begin work over there and he was pretty cool. Except that he was showing me some pictures of Sudan then went into the wrong folder and brought up pictures of a bus full of people that had hit a landmine which were very explicit...

Here's some interesting stats on Cambodia that came out recently.
13.7 million people
84% live in rural areas
GDP per capita is only USD$350
53% of children 5-17 work
Primary school completion rate of 42.9%
Upper Secondary completion rate of 11%
44% have access to clean water
1/22 mothers die during childbirth
22% of households have access to sanitation
1/12 children born will die before their 5th birthday
35% of children are underweight and 37.2% stunted
34% of people live under the official poverty line (which is 1861 Cambodian Riel or under US50c a day).