Working in the Hospital

First Impressions of the Hospital I work at in Stung Treng.

These views and impressions are my own and do not necessarily represent the views or opinions of VSO or of any of the management or staff of the Hospital.

My Hospital working day begins at 8am with a Management meeting where Ward Managers report on the activity over the last 24 hours and other likely and unlikely issues are discussed, for example:

-The Hospital has run out of strong painkillers and will not get any until the end of the week.

-A sick child needed a transfer to Phnom Penh but even though a Charity was found to pay for the transfer, the parents, who were poor village farmers, said they had no money to temporarily stay in Phnom Penh or to return afterwards, they therefore took the child back to the village untreated.

-The men: Doctors and Administrators, of the Hospital should not begin playing Boules in the Hospital grounds until the afternoon- in the morning they should work.

-Someone stole the pillows from the doctor’s overnight room so now he doesn’t have one!

By 8.30 I go to the Maternity ward, there are 10 beds on the main ward, two early labour beds and a room for births. One day there were as many as 22 patients lying on benches, on the floor or on mats with their babies etc.

The Maternity area is situated in a relatively new building built by Overseas aid.The Maternity ward is light and bright with white tiles everywhere but has no sinks in it at all. The birth room had 2 sinks both tied off with tape as the drains were blocked, all the toilets were also blocked- this lasted for 3 weeks and was blamed on relatives putting food waste and fish bones down the toilets.

Each woman/patient has relatives who stay with her (they sleep on the floor) as basic care and meals are not provided by the hospital to the patient.

Relatives bring food from home or buy it from the market nearby or give some money to a woman who has a basic kitchen under the Maternity Waiting House (a place where pregnant women who live a long way from the town can stay to await labour)

Photo of the Kitchen area under the Maternity Waiting House. There is no other kitchen in the hospital.

If the cleaner has just been the main areas look clean but on busy days especially if it is raining then the floors are very dirty even though people take their shoes off outside before entering.

The Patients are a very mixed group all bunched together- women who have miscarried, women with new born babies, women whose baby was stillborn, readmitted women who have hemorrhaged,women with eclampsia(fitting) also some older gynae. patients with cysts or bleeding etc.

The Labour ward bed looks very basic and is not very ergomomic.

Wood delivery bed with vinyl cloth. Every woman who gives birth in the hospital uses this bed. Also see basic wood trolley.

New birth beds came with the new building but they are more like large flat trolleys- no back rest and the Lithotomy poles are too wide apart .The new bed is rarely used for women and is used as a shelf to store things on.

The delivery instrument trolley is a basic  wood thing with dirty rusty wheels. Bits of vinyl tablecloth are put on the bed and trolley –these are wiped between patients.

So far staff have been mainly welcoming and friendly and there are some lovely 3^rd year student midwives who are intelligent and caring. There are no teaching aids in the hospital so after  a teaching session with me about cervical dilation,  one student made an excellent teaching aid using cardboard and paper  I was delighted by this and am hopeful that changes for the future of maternity care is in their hands.

Lovely student midwife with her home made teaching aid.

I will write more about the Midwives and the care they provide next time.

Cambodian'' Kicker'' Game

We have noticed in Cambodia, especially when we were in Kampong Cham ,the local people play a skillful game in the evening when it is cooler and before it goes dark.

What is used to play the game , a Shuttlecock

I mentioned I’d seen the game to our language teacher Dara and he kindly bought for me, from the market ,what they kick around which I can only describe as a Shuttlecock.

It seems a very social game with laughing and chatting as they kick the shuttlecock between them with the aim to keep it up in the air and to set your opposite number up with something they can return and therefore keep the flow.

I think to be really skillful you need to have been playing since your school days?

Some people seem to get quite flash and kick with the side of their heels.

Hope you get the idea from the short video.

Dressing up

One weekend we joined with the other Volunteers in Stung Treng to go along to a Photo Studio and have make up applied and dress up in Kamai clothes and adopt some of the classic poses they use for photographs.

Whats in the Box?

We met at the Studio and some of us went straight to the makeup chairs others went to select what they wanted to wear. You could also just sit down and watch the others having their makeup applied and being transformed and take pics of your own.

 The makeup was applied to the men also and was applied quite thickly. Many hairpieces were used especially on the women to create totally different colours and styles compared to when entering the shop.

Nice shoes Chris- did you keep them?

The size differences to the Cambodians soon became apparent when we tried on the clothes quite often they were too small so the choices were to change to something bigger or if you liked the item to squeeze into it and possibly have it gaping open at the back.

Note feet nowhere near the floor!

When we were all made up and dressed we went into the photo studio to be put into various poses with props for the pictures taken.

Head stretched?

We had then to wait for 2 weeks for the pictures to be sent to and returned from being photo-shopped in Phnom Penh ,there looks to be a bit of stretching etc applied as well as adding the background scenery.

The Women Volunteers of Stung treng!

A  selection of photos were printed out in the shop and the whole experience was paid for by buying at least 3 printed pics each ,we also got a CD with 40 odd pics on. Yet another Stung Treng experience!!

Male Volunteers Stung Treng

Washing Day

There’s no doubt about it clothes washing is certainly different for us in Stung Treng, the method we us here is the normal way for Cambodians and Volunteers we know.

We don’t have access to a washing machine or mains hot water. We have a large circular aluminium bowl that we take outside with our dirty clothes to the washing area for the house we stay at. This has water pipes that contain cold water that comes from where, we do not know, it could be the rain that is collected off the house roof and which is stored in big concrete tanks at the back of the house.

Angela just starting the wash( note Dog in picture it chews everything!!)

Anyway the water is not heated and is luke warm from the ambient temperature.

Bowl on the ground under the tap, you squat down and put in the powder and fill with water. You then squeeze, pull, pound, rub with a brush, let soak, the clothes and hope they are coming clean. Then pour all that water onto the concrete (including your hopefully bare feet) and the water runs into a drain of sorts. Fill the bowl up to rinse then pour out and fill again with fabric conditioner.



Chris doing his bit sitting on very small stool



Let soak for 5 mins then pour out again and hand ring the clothes.

The washing is best done early morning when it is cooler, there are fewer flies about and the large ants don’t run as fast.

Chris scrubbing clothes with a brush on a board.

We then take the wet washing and put it on a wheeled frame to dry in the sun.

Good drying days are guaranteed you just need to watch for the Monsoon rains later in the afternoon.

Then next day your clothes are ready to wear again we don’t iron as it’s not really possible with no board and a tiny travel iron and it doesn’t seem necessary-have our standards dropped or does the Cambodian sun contain anti creasing rays?.The last excuse is that we are poor VSO Volunteers with more important things on our minds!!

Bend that stiff back Chris!!

The landlady has a local women who comes a couple of times a week to wash their clothes in much the same way we do but they would think far more efficiently. The funny thing is they have an electric washing machine outside which looks quite new but we have never seen it used.

For me, Chris, it is a fairly painful experience washing clothes. You have to get so close to the ground and the stool you sit on has legs 6inches./152mm/15cm long. The only way I can stand from this lowly position is to grasp the full bowl and jerk myself up. If the bowl is empty i.e. not heavy, I have to crawl onto my knees to stand- it’s all because I am not supple. Also I need to be wearing my shorts as I get wet with the water slopping about. Also the ants are waiting for me to assume this position and they race onto my legs to enjoy the experience of being lifted up high hanging on with their teeth.

Angela washing, Chris up a Mango tree taking picture

VSO Volunteer tips for clothes washing: do some every day so they don’t pile up, don’t ring out clothes too much the soaking ones dry in the sun it is so hot.

VSO 20 Years in Cambodia

On Saturday 28^th May we went to Phnom Penh for a boat party to celebrate VSO 20 Years in Cambodia.

For us the day started early as we had to travel from Stung Treng in the North East of Cambodia down to the Capital Phnom Penh. For this journey there are 2 options – the Bus leaving say 7.30 ish and taking 10 hours or a shorter sharper shock to the system i.e. Minivan. We joined with the other Stung Treng Volunteers and went on the Minivan. When you book a seat the driver takes your phone number to call you on the day of travel and tell you he is outside your house. We were called at 3.30am and picked up about 4.00am.

We arrived in Phnom Penh about 11.30am excited at the prospect of a party later in the day but equally excited about………….SHOPPING!!!!!........being able to buy essentials we couldn’t get in Stung Treng e.g., face cream, Gin, chocolate, pasta and savory crackers.Maybe these can be bought in ST but they aren’t really visible in the shops.

4.30pm we set off to a loyally Posh Hotel ,Raffles, as they have a Happy Hour for Cocktails so instead of $8 each drink we paid $4.

Then 5.30pm down to the water front to see the boat and board the good ship.

It was great to see other Volunteers from our starting group again, those who had gone off to other Provinces, and we were soon chatting about Cambodian experiences so far.

We drank the good old staple (for us anyway) Klang beer.

We set off to cruise the river but as it went dark about 6.30 I soon lost sense of where we were in relation to the starting point.

When I looked over the side we seemed to have a similar boat tied to the each side of us so we were in effect 3 boats fastened together I can only think this was for stability to stop us turning over.

We had a fantastic time and caught a Tuk Tuk back to the hotel. This took far longer than it should as I mistakenly gave the driver the address for the Computer shop I’d visited earlier in the afternoon and told him to watch out for the hotel. There had been a traffic accident on the road and we drove around in ever decreasing circles passing through the middle of the carnage each time.

It was nice to go to Phnom Penh for a change of scenery and the long periods travelling is part of the Cambodian adventure.