How to Waste a Day - Maybe a little harsh but I stand by it

Okay so as I think I already leaked on my facebook, we were visited by the Republican Presidential nominee's wife Cindy McCain. One thing I find funny about these visits is that these VIPs fly in, see something for a day and then piss off again. I wonder if they realise the amount of work that goes into these things (3 security dry runs, 3 days of work on WFP side and cost and time on the side of our partners).

Anyway she visited the centre run by a French organization called PSE that works with children who live and work on the garbage dump in Phnom Penh (which I didn’t attend) and a visit to Partners in Compassion (PiC) in Takeo, a cross faith HIV/AIDS orphan children’s community I have blogged about before. I was actually pretty excited about this.

She and her daughter (and her daughter's 'best friends) are doing some charity visits in Asia (and to her credit this isn't the first time she has done but the cynic in me questions the lashings of press following she has had in Vietnam and Thailand. In fact her visit to Cambodia was meant to be private and she ditched most of the media in Bangkok but this didn’t stop an obviously very private friend who also happened to be a journalist with TIME magazine. Thank god no one reads TIME magazine anymore. A campaign person from John McCain’s HQ was also with her.

Anyway this is what they came for

A feelgood shot to promote her as first lady and I almost wish they had just done it and left.

Notice her hat that says ‘NAVY’. I understand John McCain wears it as well everywhere he goes to underline this special infinity with the military for his campaign. Spousal solidarity I suppose but perhaps a broad brimmed hat may have been more appropriate in the sun.

Okay I am being totally harsh here, I didn’t actually meet her I was just in the back of the throngs. I guess what threw me was that of all the hordes of people there, hardly any of them asked any questions about anything. The closest I came was one of them was straggling behind I waited for them and pointed out the small farm they had as she had missed the explanation, but instead of any questions about the project it was all ‘how did you end up here!’. An American girl working for the Partners in Compassion felt the same way.

Ok so back to the story. So me, Mony and Piseth arrived a bit early to find one secret service agent already there (as we had been told) and dressed not at all what I was expecting (no black suit, no sunglasses but there was an earpiece). Also there were throngs of Cambodian police and people from the Ministry of the Interior. We heard 30 Cambodian security people came down from Phnom Penh and guarded the centre the night before.

So their convoy arrived led by a police pick up with 5 or 6 police men riding in the tray followed by 5 or 6 landcruisers. They of course kicked up a tonne of dust and promptly had to eat it when they hopped out. There were swarms of them.

Officially there were 10 guests but the most important one for me, her hot daughter, was not one of them. (Mony and I spent the morning trying to figure out which one she was and were very confused but it turned out she had gotten food poisoning and stayed at home).

This bit also got my goat up a little bit. Yes there were a throng of people there waiting to meet her and she greeted the cofounders of PiC, Wayne and Van Din. But then they just launched into the tour, I would have thought that she would have greeted everybody! I can imagine the Obamas doing that. Okay maybe I feel bitter because she (or any of her crew) actually said hi to me or any of the Cambodian staff but hey I guess she was overwhelmed).

It was also quite amusing because almost as soon as it arrived one of the cars got bogged. Karma? Well they got it out eventually.

For the rest of the tour I kind of hung back a bit. In our experience with large missions its hard for them to follow one person leading it so we try and pepper WFP staff around so they can ask questions etc. etc. This strategy worked very well with the last large mission we hosted, a delegation from Japan. But as I said, no questions. Granted it was very hot but I mean can’t you suck it in that you are spending a few hours away from the Raffles Hotel?

Ok I should also clarify Cindy was at the front of the group and was being briefed directly by Wayne and Thomas, our Country Director, so she may have been totally engaged and interested but I can’t comment on that but I have to say I didn’t get that impression as the tour finished well ahead of schedule because it wasn’t padded out by discussions.

So we did our little turn around the centre.

I found the secret service the most interesting part. There was this really angry looking woman always next to Mrs McCain and I was like what the hell is that woman’s problem, but Piseth later hypothesized that she was her personal security person which makes sense cos she was always with her. They were always staking out the next place the tour was going. The guy in the dark shirt was actually pretty cool, friendly and respectful to the locals.

See the strategically positioned guy waiting at the next corner.

The tour finished with a small show by the children for the group.

What happened next also pissed me off (but I have to admit not till the American volunteer pointed it out) is that she just kind of jumped in the middle of the kids to have her photo taken with them.

Okay fine, but maybe she should have like talked with them or played a game or something? That said again it looked like she genuinely enjoyed playing with the kids (some people find the whole HIV thing uncomfortable) .

She also spent all of five minutes talking to the people living with HIV who receive WFP food who had come specially. Maybe she was in a rush?

As our convoy was leaving the American volunteer at PiC wanted a lift to Phnom Penh so I went to Thomas’s car to ask if they could take her. Thomas said fine but the Secret Service guy started saying they are leaving now all stressed and shit and his lead car then sped away. It was also interesting to note that of the 6 or 7 cars that left most of them didn’t wave goodbye, except Cindy.

So yes it’s great that she came and she probably is a very nice woman but it could have been so much more. I hope she donates some of her estimated $100m value to PiC for hosting her. Overall i am disappointed by the entourage than anything else.

Anyway, I am headed to Pursat for TB food distributions this week. I am also making some very adult decisions in my life which is terrifying!