Only 19 work days left! : (

Hi There!

We are just about doing our annual survey against the baseline. This means that last year we did the baseline survey (the first survey of people's food consumption and income in our target areas) and we will do follow up surveys do measure how much impact our programs are having.

But before we could do this, we needed, Yes you guessed it, more refresher training! The first day was pretty standard and included GPS training. We wandered around Kampong Speu with our noses in GPS units much to the amusement of the households we passed. The second day was more interesting where we went out to trial the questionnaires about an hour and a half out of town.

Unfortunately it was totally PISSING down. Ironically enough up until that day, there had been no rain in that commune and we were considering drought assessments - in fact there was a meeting that day that my boss was attending to discuss this very problem. Safe to say the drought is over!

But this meant we were wandering around trying to find these households completely drenched. To make things worse, many households were on the other side of a swollen drainage canal with tiny makeshift bridges to cross to get there. As soon as i saw them i knew something would happen, and i said to myself please let us not have to cross those bridges! Sure enough, after yelling confirmations from the road this old man was the house we had to go to. Ive crossed my fair share of dodgy bridges and climbed many a dodgy ladder but the weather, my beer belly and everyone crossing on the bridge at once conspired to have me put my foot through this poor mans shitty bridge.


Luckily one leg kinda went through but i was able to keep moving and got off the bridge without falling in. To make matters worse it was the wrong house anyway! I asked about paying for it, but the guy said no problem, he could go to the forest for another tree.

And the next door neighbour had a very respectable and sturdy bridge which we didn't see!


So after about a week in the office (and a weekend in Kampong Speu where i did pretty much nothing) I was eager to head out to the field. Unfortunately come Monday morning i had developed a very annoying cold or flu or something. So i came into work and rummaged through the medical kits here and found some cold and flu medicine. I popped two and it soon became clear that these were not the normal strength we get at home. I got back to my desk and within half an hour i was asleep at my computer. Quite sadly no one really noticed and i woke up, tried to work through that haze then somehow peddled home and crashed out.

I had agreed to go on a field trip with Ratha because i hadn't been with him in ages, so i dragged myself out of bed and back to the office and we headed off to Kampong Chhnang. To compound my flu, we were doing School Feeding monitoring. So the next morning i was up at the bright and chirpy hour of 4:30am and we headed off at 4:45am. Nothing that exciting happened, just routine stuff. The food we are distributing is donated by the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, who may have outdone even the Americans on their labelling (Americans say "From the American People", Saudi's say "Kingdom of Humanity". When the price of food shot up massively and we suspended the program, the Saudi's came through and gave a shitload of cash to WFP, $5m of which made its way to us.

I think Ratha could tell I was feeling 100% so he suggested we visit a crocodile farm to cheer me up since our next appointment wasnt for a few hours. And low and behold visit a crocodile farm we did. The kid there was encouraging us to climb this rickidy wooden walkway to get a better look but after my experience with the old mans bridge, i thought better of it.

As usual the crocodiles kinda just lie there.

But then he made the noise he makes at feeding time and then they all went nuts. Hilarious.

The shop is owned by this guy who carves intricate designs into trees. They looked awesome but were like $20,000!



So after a night on the turps as usual (my beer consumption was down due to my flu but that didnt stop the the guys from ribbing me about it) the next day Piseth and I headed out on a ferry to vet a school for a visit from Voice of America radio. Ive done trips in this area a few times but we were heading not to the main port so we hired a boat.
We refuelled at the floating village so i got to have good look at the 'streets' of the village. Most of these people are ethnically Vietnamese but i dont know when they got there. Khmers are quite racist towards Vietnamese for a variety of reasons, but i am sure the Vietnamese treat the Khmers in their country the same way.

We passed by Kong Roeung mountain, apparently named after a female giant that fell asleep and turned into a mountain over thousands of years.


And we finally arrived at the village, greeted at the Pagoda dock.


This was a school we had just expanded to and the people were very grateful for the food assistance. Its such a good feeling to visit such a needy place and feel like our programs are making a difference!

In the end , the journalist just wanted to go somewhere close so we changed to a school in Kampong Speu so the trip was a bit of a waste in that respect but a great experience for me.

For the weekend i zipped up to Phnom Penh, ran some errands. Its really spooky how close to the end of my contract i am (end of November) and i feel pretty sad about it, but excited to go and see my friends and family. I am getting slowly accumulating all the crap i want to take back, despite not actually having my own house so i will be turning mum and dad's place into a gaudy ethnographic museum.

On Sunday afternoon, Piseth invited me over to have dinner with his family and parents. Its kinda weird being here in Kampong Speu in that people's homes are actually back in Phnom Penh so on the weekend all they (understandably) want to do is spend time with their kids therefore not many invites with the dudes, although we do spend copious time together on field trips. But i think he realised my time is running out here so he organised it which was so nice. It was cool being able to talk a bit with his parents in Khmer, with Piseth translating the bits i didn't get. The food was yummy and they insisted i come and eat at their house if i ever make it back to Cambodia.

This week we have an Estonian film crew coming out (don't ask why estonian!) then i head up to Kampong Chhnang to work there the rest of the week.

Bye!

Quirky Cambodia

Hi All

For a change of pace i have been saving up some quirky news stories for you.

Cow Responsible for at Least Six Traffic Deaths Taken in by Police

On Tuesday, authorities in the outskirts of Phnom Penh took into custody a cow that has caused another traffic accident, this time claiming the life of a 66-year-old man on a motorcycle when he crashed into it.

Five died earlier in the year and several others injured when the cow caused a truck to go off the road. Police chief Pin Doman says the owner faces six months in jail under a new law specifically for this type of incident.

Doman also said that the man was previously warned on four different occasions to make sure he kept his cattle penned up, and that any legal proceedings brought against him by family members of the victims could send him to prison.

Doman said he was holding the cow at his station.

And you thought i was joking about dodging cows on the way to work!

Airport Unsure Who Owns 727 Abandoned There Last Year

Vietnam: Officials at Noi Bai airport may be forced to sell a mystery Boeing 727 that flew in from Siem Reap, Cambodia last year for scrap after failing to locate its owner.

The aircraft sports the Cambodian flag and the words 'Air Dream' on its fuselage. Permission was given for the aircraft to remain at the airport until maintenance was completed but there has been no contact with anyone connected to the plane since.

Who parks a plane then just pisses off?


This is my personal favourite...

Divorcing Cambodian couple split house in half…literally!

A Cambodian couple hoping to avoid the country's convoluted divorce process have separated by sawing their house in half.

The husband, 42-year-old Moeun Sarim, has taken away with him all the bits and pieces of his half a house in the „strange“settlement, said his 35-year-old wife, Vat Navy. "Very strange, but this is what my husband wanted, “she said by phone from a village about 62 miles east of Cambodia's capital, Phnom Penh. She said they ended their marriage last month. "He brought his relatives and used saws to cut the house in half, “she said, adding that she now owns the other half that is still standing. The house is made from wood with a tile roof and propped up on wooden pillars, a typical style for a Cambodian country home.

She said her estranged husband and his relatives, after ripping apart half of the house, carried all the bits and pieces to his parents' house about 547 yards (500 meters) away.

"He wanted a divorce, and I said, "Let's divorce,“' she said.

Vat Navy, the wife, said her teenage children were reluctant to go to school and face their classmates because of the oddity of the situation. "They feel embarrassed (because) half of the house is missing. It's very weird, “she said.

The dusty highway

Hi Everyone

So i have finally returned to Kampong Speu after two weeks on the road, criss crossing the country for work and just this morning back from another great weekend in Singapore with Mark, Tara, Amali and Dilan. I have to say i am so happy to be back in my own bed!

The first part of this foray was over to Prey Veng (other side of Phnom Penh) for the annual Food-For-Work workshop. I had never been to this town before and had pretty much assumed it was a bit of a s*ithole based on reviews of others, but its actually a really charming town. As usual, whenever we go to a new town the guys always want to do a city tour so we drove around and saw the sights, including this massive reservoir.

Turns out its not a reservoir, but a low lying piece of land that fills up when the Mekong and its tributaries flood. We also reflected that almost without a doubt, every town is miles more picturesque than Kampong Speu. I still love the speu, but it ain't exactly a pretty place!

It was bloody hot for the field exercises but as always lots of fun. I particularly like this training cos i get to hang out with Chantheoun and Narin (the Disaster Risk Reduction section in Phnom Penh) whom i get on really well with.

Midway through the training, we took refuge and ate our lunch at a pagoda, in the monk's dining room. I once again earnt a lifetime of baldness by wearing my hat inside the compound. The guys were discussing the girl's at the karaoke place the night before and then realised there was a Buddha shrine nearby. Piseth then made a small prayer asking that all his sins be placed on the Barang (foreigner)!. As if i dont have enough to worry about! Everyone also had a bit of a snooze.

So much time with my crew means of course hitting the Karaoke bars repeatedly. I have slowed down on my K consumption but I went crazy this time. Most of the places were very seedy but there was this quite classy place where i bust out ten songs in an evening (great hits such as " Hello" , " House of the Rising Sun" , " Unchained Melody" and "Black or White" to name a few). Mony and I did a duet of " I Just Called to Say I Love You" which was highly acclaimed : )

Some of the guys (the drivers) were not attending the training and sent an SMS over dinner one night. " We are very sad. We are at the office drinking beer and eating dog". Make of that what you will.

After a weekend in Phnom Penh (mainly beginning my shopping for stuff to take back to Oz), we zipped over to Kampong Thom province for HIV/AIDS Home Based Care training. This wasn't nearly as fun as the other training but its useful for our partners to network and receive best practice. I had sent a couple of stinging emails to the head of Health and Nutrition Unit because of a few cock ups that have happened in our area so i was concerned it might be awkward but it turned out okay.

On the way up I had to ring a journalist to clarify why some of our schools had started the school breakfast a bit later than our press release. I was really nervous because i know how journalists misquote things and this particular paper was notorious for targetting WFP (probably because the editor runs a competitor to our school breakfast program). Anyway, the article came out the next day and i was mostly happy with it.

At the first coffee break of the training, I came out and everyone was craning their necks out the windows. When i elbowed my in i saw there were tens of trucks of troops moving along the road, as well as countless supply trucks. You may remember i mentioned that Thai troops moved in Cambodian territory a few months back, caused by a disagreement of the border demarcation and a particular temple called Preah Vihear (something i want to visit in December). Well they kind of never moved.

By 1pm that day everyone's mobile phones were going off. Cambodia and Thailand were now at war. Rumours were flying everywhere and the staff based in Siem Reap (quite a distance from the action) were mulling over driving back and moving their famillies. There was even a rumour that the Vietnamese Army had arrived on the scene to support the Cambodians (despite the logisitical impossibility of them doing so). I got a call from my friend who works at a large international agency and they had removed all their staff from all provinces bordering Thailand and reports that many villages along the very long border with Thailand were being evacuated. And worst of all, a lot of the action seemed to be not very far from a plot of land i bought earlier this year! (as if my shares being decimated in the financial crisis wasn't enough!).

So the real story? The Thais were stalling on withdrawing their forces (they have their own internal problems going on that feed into all this) , so Hun Sen (Cambodian PM) signed orders that Cambodian troops can fire on any Thai troops inside Cambodia. There was only one small, localised firefight that resulted in two (rumoured three) Khmer casualties and 10 Thais were captured. The Thai's were already tetchy because the week before two of their soldiers lost their legs stepping on landmines (they claimed the Cambodian's laid fresh ones but more likely it was one of the thousands still left there by the Khmer Rouge - who were karmically enough supported by the Thais).

It was amazing to see nationalism inflame so rapidly. If i was a Thai i wouldnt have felt safe being in that room. Thankfully things seem to have calmed down.

So after this training (and a lighter karaoke schedule) I zipped down to Phnom Penh for a meeting to introduce the new Country Director to AusAID. I have been here for almost two years and the old director/deputy country director never used these contacts I had when i was fresh and knew more about AusAID! A little frustrating but hey.

After another meeting on Friday I popped over to Singapore for a weekend. This is the last of my flurry of trips i booked when homesick a few months ago but i will be back again before i leave Asia. When i got out of the airport, my heart sank a little. I think the combination of knowing im leaving and the exhaustion of the last two weeks (including a lovely 4:45am wake up that morning) made me feel a little less than enthusiastic about the bodge.

But the Bodge must have been listening because the share-van i flagged down was half full of monks. Monks generally have to travel in the back seats or up with the driver because people sit on both sides of the seats in the middle and they can't sit next to women cos they is dirty. Anyway, so i was slotted in the back with three monks and after a while started making half khmer/half english chit chat with a monk a bit younger than me. He then pulls out some books and asks me to teach him grammar. We went through the book and it soon became apparent i had no idea what a preposition was. So for the rest of the trip, we did his homework on selecting the main verb and the helping verb.

Just when you feel down, the bodge has a way of picking you back up again!

Oh and this is the latest critter to join my menagerie living in my house : )

Singapore Night Race

So for the occasion of the Pchum Benh festival (The festival of the dead) , I scooted over to Singapore (again) to see Mark and Tara and the gang. And low and behold i just happened to arrive on the weekend of the first Singapore Night Race F1 Street Race.

Now not being much of a rev head, i can't say i was really into F1 but it seemed interesting and hell its on and a once in a lifetime opportunity. And Tara was nice enough to foregoe her ticket on Saturday (and the final on Sunday) to let me go. And it turned out to be exceedingly awesome :)

So Mark and me went to the Saturday (which was qualifiers). It was blazing hot, much hotter than Cambodia but was fascinating. This was a street race so the track was made up of city streets with barricades and stuff. I think that makes it much more interesting than a purpose built track.

SO first we checked out the Aston Martin racing and the pits...

Then the Formula BMWs

and saw them moving someone who had crashed, which was highly amusing because none of these guys really knew what they were doing so there was a lot of standing around.



Our seats were pretty awesome . They were in the Bay Stand (which was a massive grandstand that held 30,000 of the 100,000 visitors, with a good view of several turns (which turned out to be quite eventful including seeing Fernando Alonzo [the eventual winner] conk out on that stretch relegating him to last place on the grid)

The actual final was very exciting, it went for two hours but felt like it flew by. Nelson Picquet Jr had a spectacular crash right in front of us, which was a real race changer.

At the end, due to the woeful crowd control, they allowed us to cross over the track to get to the other side. That was kinda cool. The bottom pic is what we think were Nelson's skid marks and where he collided with the wall.


So apart from that I spent lots of time with Dilan and Amali, and did a bit of shopping which is always fun. Dils was so cute with his dummy and blankie : )

So i returned to Cambodia on the last day of Pchum Benh, waking up at 3:30am (Yikes!) and was extorted on the taxi fare back but i was glad to be home. Everyone is on leave so this week has been so quiet. Even the cleaner set up a hammock in the office.
Life remains muddy and wet as usual but i am not nearly as mud splattered as i used to be. Oh and after almost two years here, the office guard comes up to me the other day and says "Matthew, what are you having for dinner?"...IN ENGLISH. Turns out he speaks a little but was too shy. Hilarious

Next week we have food-for-work training and the week after home-based-care for people living with HIV both of which in different provinces. Should keep things interesting!