Life in Cambodia

What is this work you speak of...

Matt: So we’ve been gone awhile and you’re expecting exciting stories of adventure, mystery, and intrigue, right? Well, if that is the case, prepare to be disappointed. As you lower your expectations, please be aware that the past couple months have been extremely slow and unexciting for the most part. Things were kinda dead for a while, picked up a bit and were really busy, and now, despite being in the office the entire week, I’ve worked the equivalent of maybe 10 minutes.

It’s actually been a bit tough because the organization I work for hasn’t received the funding we were promised for quite some time. We are currently being “funded” by a Spanish NGO (funding insomuch as they haven’t yet given us any money though we officially began on Jan. 1st). It will eventually get here, but in the meantime, we’ve used up all our money and are kinda subsisting on IOUs. Without any money we haven’t been able to do a single thing for the past two months. During January, “work” consisted of trying to explain to the Project Manager the difference between goal and objective or what “a bird in hand is worth two in the bush” actually meant. The Spaniards continually thank us for our patience, but they don’t seem to realize that patience doesn’t feed the kids (nor me!). However, we’re about to double our budget with a big injection of cash from Asia Foundation, opening up a shelter for boys and improving the shelter for women/girls. It was busy last week writing the proposal for that, but now…..

This past week a team has come from Phnom Penh for a week long assessment of the shelter. They are not here to say we are right or we are wrong, but to identify the gaps, weaknesses, etc so that we can fix them. I explained to the Project Manager that it is an assessment which the sole purpose is to find our faults and identify our mistakes to become stronger and well, to ensure he doesn’t fib (as he is sometimes apt to do). For the past 3 days the team has sat with the Program Manager and basically grilled him about our activities—from how often we clean the toilets to our procedures for counseling rape victims at the shelter. I know he’ll be happy when they are gone. I know its for the better good and nothing but healthy improvements will come out of it, but no one likes having a horde of folks passing judgment and pointing out your faults for 3 days. I’m just glad it’s him and not me!

Old news, but the GRE is out of the way. Let me first mention that the test was a lot longer than I expected it to be. I was in there from 9am to 1pm testing, with all of a 10min break at about 10.30. I think I did OK, and I feel really confident about the verbal section, but feel like the Math could go either way. I think I should get the scores in a few weeks, so we’ll see what happens. Speaking of that, we got to spend the entire weekend in Ho Chi Minh City while I was there for the test. If HCMC is New York, Phnom Penh is Detroit. HCMC was crazy, motos everywhere and just a lot of folks crammed in, but it has some nice restaurants and if Maggie is to be believed, nice shopping as well. Maggie and I even got to have lunch with a friend of mine that I knew in Ghana and hadn’t seen for over 2 years. I never thought I would say this though, even after only a weekend, I was ready to get back to Svay Rieng (though that feeling didn’t last too long once we returned!)

Now I’ve moved on to writing my application essays and what not, though that’s not been too difficult. I finally have time to read some good books. I know I am a bit behind the times, but I just finished “Freakonomics” this afternoon and was quite impressed with it. Also, check out “The Tender Bar” for those of you interested in beer drinking or “Papillion” for a good escape. Used book are surprisingly expensive here so I am not sure what to start next.

It rained for the first time in a long time yesterday. It’s been teasing rain for quite some time and I’m not sure if this heralds the beginning of the rainy season or not, but regardless, quite welcome. The heat is coming on strong and April/May is supposed to be a scorcher.

Maggie: It is not yet the rainy season so don’t expect stories of mud-drenched moto rides and flooded rice paddies, but we were pleasantly surprised by two days of misting and overcast sky; it was a nice change that actually brought a smile to my face because I wasn’t drenched in sweat just sitting at my desk.

As Matt mentioned it’s been relatively quiet on the home front here, but work is busy for me too—we’ve had an advisor from East Africa region here for the last two weeks to train us and help us adapt an HIV prevention and community mobilization method using SARAR methodology, which was really exciting. Any of you in the international public health community will probably know SARAR not by name, but by the first method/module developed using it called PHAST—an exceptionally well received and effective participatory hygiene education series put out by WHO several years ago. Anyway, the woman who came to work with us on the HIV module was the one who developed PHAST, so that was very exciting and a great learning experience for me and my colleagues. We’re excited to adapt, test and implement the HIV module here in Cambodia and that’s what we’ll be working on for the next several months, with other mid-year reviews, reports and planning. Additionally, I’ve been working reconnaissance with some team members, ah, just working...we're looking for more funding; I’m writing concept paper to get prepared so we can diversify. The two weeks of training and work on our HIV module ended with a big ‘ole party in SVR—we rented tables and brought food in from our favorite (read: ONLY) Khmer home-cookin’ restaurant to cater the informal event and had about 30 people—lots of Anchor beer with ice and all of our male colleagues bought all of us women in the office little gifts for International Women’s Day—a nice effort and a good time had by all. Although one of the best discoveries of the evening was after everyone left; during the party our colleague from East Africa gave a slide show of her travels through Ethiopia and we had the computer set up with the LCD and a nice big screen from the office…the party ended, everyone went home and thanks to our friend Michelle’s advice we decided it would be a perfect screening for our many DVDs we have accumulated. Good idea Michelle. We sat up and watched two episodes of Heroes on the big screen. (the first two; yes, we’re behind, no TV and well, we waited to get the DVD hand-me-down from Michelle) Very cool, it was much better than hunched over and hovering around our laptop screen.

We did have a great time in HCMC, once Matt was relieved of the test-taking. I had to take care of him a bit after the testing episode, it was intense. All hand-written! Plus he took the new version which includes 2 essays…pencil on A4 paper?! That’s crazy. But he did it and I know he rocked it, so top schools here we come! As for the rest of HCMC, I agree, we were ready to head back to the peace and quiet of our little SVR. HCMC is just like no escape, you’re in the middle of it and it won’t let you go. But the shopping was quite good and the food was excellent—we celebrated Valentine’s Day at a really nice Mid-eastern place after which we had drinks on top of a fancy hotel and posed with the Vietnamese New Year life-sized pigs stationed all over in preparation for the big two week festival. We also caught some dragon parades down small streets and in the market.

The next few weeks will bring more travel between PP and SVR, but I’m also heading up to Battambang for the first time for work next week. The best part of this past weekend and coming week is that we have two great friends in town visiting—Madhavi, a dear friend from Mercy HS days and her husband Nima are stopping by on their fantastic around the world trip, of which we are about a mid-point stop. We’ve had a great time catching up and they even put up with going out for cheese-y dance toons last night and danced away with our PP friends. We’re trying to convince them to come out to SVR and we think we’ve almost got them fooled into thinking it’s a cultural Mecca that can’t be missed, so it’s looking good for us. We’re still waiting for the rest of you!

Time is flying by and it has already been a year here in Cambodia for me and 8 months for Matt. Life is pretty good to us here but we miss you all! Mostly we miss being able to call you, go out and meet for a beer and be a part of exciting events like weddings and welcoming babies, but we hope you know that you’re all in our thoughts and hearts. More to come in the next few weeks—Khmer New Year celebrations await as well as our upcoming vacation to Kep and Kampot over Khmer New Year.

posted by Life in Cambodia @ 12:42 PM