Back Online!

Hi Everyone

I seem to have dropped off the face of the earth as far as this blog goes so here is an attempt to bring it back on the rails. It seems viruses of the computer and physical kind have been conspiring against me.

Last week I was OIC all of the week so I was looking forward to sorting out some of the food for work residual issues. Of course I contracted something on the Sunday (I always seem to get sick in Phnom Penh) which turned out to be a respiratory virus ,which i have almost kicked. Of course thats when the Belgians got together for a cheese party so I couldn't miss that!

So for the last couple of weeks we have been madly rushing to finish Food for work distributions which were due to end August. Our office had the only carry over projects, 20 in all, which is a little disapointing but we had pretty valid reasons (including our partners being the least resourced for some reason which i hope to change next year). Unpredictability, like this truck being stuck in the mud adds to it. Its kinda disappointing cos FFW will contract quite a lot due to lack of donors and it is by far the most interesting but we shall see how it goes. We had a party with our partners the other week which pretty much involved drunk Khmer dancing, which is always fun – i am master of the maddison (the messed up nut bush).

Yuki from country office who is really cool has come out to audit a few projects which i have joined him on a few times, including the really fun ons when the canal has flooded. My colleuagues never let me go all the way in so knee high wading is as good as it gets. I remember we went to one really flooded area and the rice bunds had collapsed in some places so i sunk into the mud several times (including when on the phone to one of the other offices which they found very amusing!).

One the roads we went and did postwork on was in a mixed Cham (Muslim) and Khmer village. It was particuraly nice as we had visited there a month or so earlier and approved an extra project as it was a really poor village. In fact, they had started building the road last year but it was never actually approved but the commune chief told them to do it anyway. Now the road is built up, so its nice to see the before and after shots. Except that the road finished in the middle of no-where... seems like they will add an extra 2km next year to link up to the health clinic and school.


Another particularly cool trip was in Kampong Chnang to a fairly remote site where we had to catch the river ferry for about an hour, then a motodop for abou half an hour to get to the site. Those trips are always the most interesting. We got to go through all the floating villages.

The rice we are using at the moment is a gift of Japan but the bags arent badged apart from a sticker, so its quite funny watching a distribution when everyone plays silly buggers with them (putting the stickers on eachothers backs/cows/children).

Anna (my equivalent in Siem Reap office and alround cool dudette) left for home a few weeks ago, so myself and Cristy (assistant head at Kampong Cham) took Friday the 13th off to go exploring. Anna wanted to go to the silk weaving villages in Takeo province and since that province is on my turf we went out there with a hand drawn treasure map. So we eventually got there which was interesting, but silk weaving isnt really my thing. We ended up getting into an argument with an old lady who turned nasty once she realised we didnt really like her designs. We then climbed up Phnom Chisor, a not particularly imposing mountain, and prayed at the cow temple at the top. On the way back we stopped at Ta Prohm temple, an Angkor era ruin which has been partly restored and quite nice. The entry ticket alone was worth it, imploring us to throw our rubbish on the clean side of the river ONLY!

So this week I am taking it easy. The weather has gone hot again which i prefer to last weeks consistently cold and wet and spattered in mud. We have a pilot project for fish pathways (i still dont understand the concept but its a canal linking rice fields and village pond for fish to traverse) which should be interesting and Friday we have our monthly management meeting where we meet the new Assistant head in Kampong Cham and farewell Cristy as well.

I have also started doing english lessons on the white board in the waiting room which is really testing my credentials as a native english speaker, like what the difference between solve and resolve is!

Umm other random news is that i bought a mountain bike off Anna who then used the money to set up a women's NGO...got to be some karma in that right?

Also had a few days in sleazy sex tourism capital of Asia, Pattaya Thailand with the folks as they were returning from a winter retreat to Europe. It was...interesting though i must say i just dont really like Thailand that much (gasp heresy i know!).