Get Up Offa That Thang!

Hi Everyone


So the last few weeks i have been in a bit of a funk, i think partly cos its been so quiet around here so i have been skulking around the office even though there really hasn't been that much work to do here. For some reason I really didn't want to head out to the field and one week I worked the whole week in the office!

So finally Mony ordered me out and Ratha and I went out to Kampong Chnang to check out some schools and Food-For-Work projects. As i mentioned, food distributions have been suspended during the election but the schools are still cooking until the end of the school year so that means early morning visits (4am/5am visits which i despise, but its part of the job!).


Driving around and seeing the rice fields was just great and really got me excited about my job again. Chatting with the guys , having snacks and working together outside the office is what i really love about this job so i dont know why i forgot that.

The first early morning visit we did to a school was a really well run school and no evidence of diversion so that kinda set the mood for me, as it sometimes gets a bit depressing seeing the program poorly run over and over again. The storekeeper of this school's son was attending class and wandered out (prob about 5 or 6) of his classroom to watch us counting the stock. Normally Cambodian kids are really shy, at least around me, but this little fella was hilarious and kept jumping all over the rice bags.


When we pulled into the hotel and i looked up to see my friend American friend Shanti there , who works in Phnom Penh. Totally spun out to randomly run into each other in Kampong Chnang of all places! It turned out that she had agreed to lead this group of totally loaded high school girls from Beverly Hills who were doing this 'volun-tourism' thing, where they learn about the world, paint orphanages etc etc. So she invited me to have dinner with them and speak to them about my experiences here. It was a little staggered to begin with but we had a really interesting conversation which turned into a little motivational speech to them which upon reflection was hilarious. I just rambled on and on, contradicted myself at several turns but no one seemed to notice. It was a different experience thats for sure. I had to laugh on the inside a few times when they were giving 'shout outs' to each other and one asked Shanti if they could have an 'ETB' which apparently means Early to Bed in hip talk. Oh dear I am getting older...


One incident we had when monitoring the schools is we pulled up just as the school director was driving off on his moto with a box that looked remarkably like a box of our canned fish. He saw us, kept driving, pulled into the cooks house (which is next door to the school) and dumped the box then he and the storekeeper came out to greet us. We did small talk for a bit and they said they were on the way home so we said we would come back another time. So they went to the cooks house to wait for us to go and we popped the bonnet and pretended out car was broken to wait for them to go so we could interview the cook. After ten minutes of this stalemate we decided to drive down the road, pretend we had gone then drive back. This rouse was successful and we were able to interview the cook and get some evidence to fine the dude for stealing commodities. Nothing like a stake out!

On the next day i met up with Chantheoun who is a great guy who works for Phnom Penh office to go and review some food for work projects. The countryside is just stunning at the moment.

The people below are pulling up their seedlings which will be transplanted into flooded fields like this...



On that note everywhere in Kampong Chnang looks flooded which is great for rice crops. It is nothing like that in Kampong Speu which as Cambodia's driest province is also one of its poorest.



To fully utilise this water you need irrigation canals and culverts to divert water. This is one shit hot one WFP built last year. Connected into it are local culverts (hollowed out trees) which link to rice fields.





We also checked out this road we built this year that leads to a cliff overhanging the Stung River. I found the sudden stop quite amusing but apparently there are plans for someone, sometime to build a bridge. In the dry season this river is able to be crossed but obviously in the wet you would be swept away.


We also ended up at the lovely village of Srae Ouk which i love visiting (the mixed cham/khmer village I always end up having hijinks at). Its amazing to see this very dry and sandy place turn flooded and green. From even a month ago when i was here its totally different! We met up with Thaym who knows WFP well to show us some of the projects he coordinated on and he also showed us his big cock...
Umm sorry, bad joke : )

As we were checking one road out a guy wandered past walking his pig on a leash to add to the number of quirky things i have seen in Cambodia.

This land was all jungle up to a few months ago but now a road cuts through it, consequently people are able to clear the land and open up areas to farm more rice.

I also took this shot of the house of some people i interviewed when we were doing a baseline survey. These people were living on less than a dollar a day at the time but seemed to be coping, in part thanks to WFP food support in Food-For-Work. But i remember thinking at the time on paper these are the poorest people i had ever met. Its kinda nice to be able to stay in contact with people you meet over the years and see what happens to them. Like the daughter of the people here was pregnant when i met her last and this time i was able to see her bouncing baby.

I skipped out on the review of projects in Kampong Speu to make sure i didnt miss my flight to sunny singapore to see Mark, Tara, Dilan and Amali. I kinda lied to Mony and told him that i had a meeting in Phnom Penh to see my volunteer supervisor cos i feel kinda bad saying i am going to Singapore for a weekend. I was especially proud of myself as the share taxi driver tried to rip me off on the way up so i gave him a serve in Khmer much to the delight of the motodops watching and the others in the van as they had no idea i could speak a bit of Khmer.

Sin City was great, managed to pick up some essential supplies, spend quality time with the babies who were really well behaved and cuties and have some good old fashioned fat bastard eating time. Oh yeah.

On a domestic note the rat battles continue, in fact this little mouse is taunting me at work now in the grates watching me, I wonder if that psychological warfare? Have the house mice and the office mice teamed up?






Oh and another video but this time of a much welcomed house guest.