Chilling (?) Cambodia

Friday night and having a beer after a challenging week in Cambodia

 

Looking at this pic shows a few things about our Cambodian lifestyle.(Yes- you are lazy I hear you cry!)

In the UK Friday evenings were usually spent in Kendal town in one or other of the bars or pubs. In Stung Treng there are no bars or pubs so that is not an option so here I am in my chair in our house.

The furniture in our sitting area is not typical Kamai furniture, as we moved in our landlord went to the Capital and bought a vinyl 3 piece suite with foot stools for us to use.Very kind but it is fairly uncomfortable in the heat- sticky on your bare skin. Also it is fairly hard and has many cracks for the ants to hide in waiting to attack. So this is my favourite position.

You can also see the wood floor and walls as our house is a wooden construction on stilts. The landlord lives underneath us in a tiny room with his wife.

We are very happy living here and have been lucky with our accomodation.

Rental prices are increasing in Stung Treng as the Chinese are building a new bridge across the Mekong , in the short term bringing a lot of workers into the town needed somewhere to live. However when the bridge is finished with the new road system then Stung Treng will really change with a lot more traffic.

Note the wood stool in the bottom right of the pic. This is very typical in Cambodia, it is solid wood and very heavy to move.

My teeshirt was a Xmas present from my friend Linda last year it reads:

I'm Unreliable/disorganized/innefficient/unmotivated & immature BUT I'm FUN!

Oh how I have changed! (always was fun!)

 

Saturday evenings - the view from our table by the river

 

 Saturday evenings typically are spent at our favourite riverside stall by the river. I will have to get a pic of the stall but these are a cart on wheels with a cooler box full of iced drinks. There could also be a charcoal pot on which meats are cooked and served with sauces. Tables are set out with plastic chairs and as the sun sets it is very relaxing and special.

There is a choice of a dozen stalls but we go to the same one each week as we have grown attached to the Kamai family who run it. Mum,Dad and small child are there most evenings and have a lovely smile for us as we pull up on our bikes at 5 pm.

It is a great place to see local people - sometimes young lads are there drinking Mekong whisky and I have seen them unable to stand up afterwards.

 They get hauled onto their friends motorbike and dont fall off as they are sandwiched in the middle as three people will be on the motorbike.

About 7 pm we go to Mr T's restaurant for burger and chips our treat for the week. 

At these riverside stalls locals eat the popular chick in the egg which you may remember from an earlier post.

So nearly 5 pm on a Saturday and must be off to the river. Just checked the temperature inside the house it is 35 degrees C on a Saturday evening.



 



20 Months In Country!

 

Still close after all this time ahhhh!!!!

 

So, we've been in Cambodia 20 months now and plan to return to the UK 1st(ish) March 2013.
I'm (Chris) looking forward to returning , I'm missing the Lakeland hills and mountains amongst other things. As the time gets nearer there is that sense of trying to finish things off as there wont be another chance.
 I am presently teaching Intermediate English language and have a full Student's course book to get through with my class of some 15 students, they are a great bunch. Yesterday we were looking at the past tenses,the topic was sport and the two angles were cheating in sport and what happens to sportspeople when they retire.
We looked at famous (cheating ) moments in sport including Divine intervention?, Argentina playing England in the World Cup quarter finals in 1986. Diego Maradona scored a goal with his hand.
Amusing for my students as I stood at the front of the class jumping to head an imaginary ball, and then flicking the ball into the net with my hand. I understand Kamai teachers would never behave like that. The other fun point for them was the fact that I was alive and watched the match as it happened on TV - 1986 ? when was that?
Please keep watching the blog.
Friday evening now - beer time . Mmmmm Angkor beer, ice and Pringles.

Mud and Midwives!

So what is going on with the VSO work I came out to Cambodia to do?

Last week my VA Thol and I arranged to go out to the remote health centre at Chankaleu in the west of the province. It’s the rainy season here at present but the Health centre chief assured us the road was still passable.

First we drove along the Mekong River bank to the ferry port.

Photo of the ferry just arriving at the port.

Then with motorbike safely loaded we crossed the Mekong River and set off on a 30k journey.

Photo of Thol on the Ferry -it leaves when there are a minimum of 3 motos on it.

The road started as a rough gravel surface which rapidly deteriorated into mud and streams. I must have jumped off and pushed about 20times, dragging the motorbike(moto) out of muddy streams or more often walking round while Thol paddled through with the moto.

Photo: Yes this is the road!-Now I need to find a way across.

Almost 3 hours later we crossed the final stream and arrived covered in mud and wet up to my knees at the tiny wood shack –the Health Centre where about 20 women a month give birth.

Photo: Chankaleu Health Centre

The four amazing young midwives who cover the Health centre 24/7 were pleased to see us and we then had a teaching session on Haemorrhage, Shoulder Dystocia (when the head is born but the shoulders get stuck)and recognising infection in the newborn. They then made us lunch of Fried egg, Omelette and rice –I think this was because I’m a foreigner and might not like Khmer food.  Then it was back to the mud and wet road for 3 hours home again.  I did wonder if it had been wise setting off in the rainy season but then what do the women in labour who need to transfer to the hospital do? They take the same road of course on the back of a motorbike too.  I also thought it might help avoid a transfer if the midwives are well trained in emergencies.

Later the same week, two hospital midwives and me again ran the same full day workshop as in June on Helping babies live. (Previous post) This time an amazing 27 different midwives turned up instead of just 14 last time which was great.

Photo: midwives practicing resuscitation.

Then last week I had another much easier trip to Kompun Health Centre 20k away and did skill drills again.

Photo of the lovely Kompun midwives with Thol joining in the skill drills for Shoulder dystocia.

Photo  Health Centre grounds complete with local buffalo that wandered in followed by kids.

After the drill we sat and chatted; one of them told me that last year they had a baby where the shoulders got stuck. They didn’t know what to do so transferred her to the hospital where the doctor managed to deliver the baby. The baby had a paralysed arm (a side effect of poorly managed shoulder dystocia) and died after two days. They said they did not know what to do to help get the shoulders out –they had never been taught before. They have asked me to go and teach suturing next time.

After that I stayed working with staff on the ward –two health twin girls were born at 1.8kg each the midwives gave them lots of advice about feeding and keeping warm and I gave them a cardi each, for the nights, that my friend Pauline brought out from England –thanks to all the knitters!

Photo –Twins in Cardis!

Women's Development Center Stung Treng

 

On Monday 13^th August I was invited to attend the official launch of the Women’s Development Center in Stung Treng.

 

 Tucked away over a rise, on the higher ground above Stung Treng town, I had no idea the place existed until I visited and must admit I attended not knowing what actual event I was going to witness. This happens quite a lot to me –

Chris you are invited to attend tomorrow at 8.00am.

Thank you, what am I attending?

- Yes tomorrow!

- Yes, but what?

- What?

- Yes, what?

- Tomorrow you attend.

(The person issuing invite now answers their mobile phone or drives off on motorbike)

Yes, thank you, I will.

So I attended and found I was to witness an important event, surprisingly, but in possible anticipation, I had dressed up a bit (Chris you look handsome today- male Kamai colleague).

I was particularly interested to see His Excellency Carlos Blasco Villa, Spanish Ambassador to Cambodia as guest of honor.

On listening, or more correctly, reading the speeches, all became clear:

Under an agreement between Peace and Development (PYD), an NGO, and The Ministry of Women’s Affairs, the Women’s Development Center (WDC) of Stung Treng was built from February 2011 and completed on 12^th October 2011 taking some 8 months. The money was provided by the Government of Spain through the Spanish Agency for International Cooperation and Development (AECID).

 

The WDC comprises two buildings:

 Building A is 25m x 13m and has two floors. Inside are four training rooms and one meeting room, five offices and two storerooms.

 

Pic of reception area

In the reception area, some nice furniture inviting you to relax, and I think the plan is to offer refreshments in the future.

 Building B is 25m x 11.2 m, again has two floors and is the home stay of the trainees coming from rural areas to receive training. Inside are a dining room, two rooms for preparing food and sleeping dormitories.

 

It became apparent how generous the Spanish people have been, the construction costs were

$ 246,047 in total including chairs, tables and equipment for the training rooms.

The WDC will be used for vocational training; teaching skills such as sewing, weaving, food processing, computer skills, accounting, marketing, leadership and other skills. The centre is to  be used to support the service delivery to rural poor women that aims to uplift their living conditions and their status and to move them out of poverty and to give prosperity to their lives. They attend the Center for six months as residents and leave with manufacturing skills but also business awareness to be able to start up a small business in their home village.

The speeches finished (finally! thankfully!) with the four gems of Buddhist blessing:

 Longevity, Nobility, Health and Strength.

After the ribbon was cut, everyone was invited to tour the WDC and look at the training rooms and samples of the produce in the small shop area.

 

 The display area where items made at the Center are on display for sale.

Photographs of the construction were posted on a large display board. Curiously, I was the only person looking at the photos; why was nobody interested to look at the shape and number of steel reinforcing bars in the concrete pad foundations?

Why weren’t they interested to see how the reinforcing bars for the vertical concrete columns were tied into the reinforcing bars of the ground ring beam? - Your Excellency: Ambassador Sir: have you seen this detail?

I think it is a lovely Center and the buildings are the nicest I’ve seen in Stung Treng and possible Cambodia. It is light and airy and gives a positive, happy feeling to be inside.

 

Another view of the Sales area. Nichol , Angela and our guide.

Initially I thought it was designed by a Spanish Architect along the lines of:
Spain is providing the money so they would wish to give the project to a Spain practice as a challenge to design a project in Cambodia. I have since been told the initial ideas and scheme were advised by Spain but a Cambodian Architect was employed and designed the Center. So my considered opinion is Well Done and the Construction team can be proud. I never took my camera on the opening day, why would I, not knowing what event I was going to.

However I have been back taking Angela and Nichole to show them around.

 

The weaving training room. On the day of the opening there were four women demonstrating their skills.

We were very lucky to meet a member of staff who showed us around the whole complex including living quarters.

 

Women's dormitory

 

Clothes made in the training rooms and on display for sale.

Angela bought a bag:

 Bag: $5, made from Bamboo. Lots of different sizes and designs to chose from

 and blouse and Nichole ordered some made to measure work clothes.

 

The training room for sewing. The sewing machines appear to be second hand and of the foot treadle type.

The challenge now for the department of Women’s Affairs is to move forward and make full use of the facilities. It stands at the top of the town but do the residents or visitors to Stung Treng know of its existence?

In the shop the stock levels are low and the display cases are gravitating into the corners, there is litter on the floors. I hope it will prosper not stand still.

 

Equipment in the weaving room

 

This Little Pig went to market.......

This video is one I took a few months ago whilst waiting for my ferry to leave. The small passenger ferrys runs across the river linking  Stung Treng and Thalaborivat district, which is where the target beneficiaries live for the NGO I work with.
All kinds of goods are taken on the ferry icluding plastic containers of petrol , and heavy pieces of wood destined to be turned into furniture. Whatever comes onto the ferry, the passengers have to move themselves and rearrange around the cargo. Health and safety is left to your own wits.... and animal welfare?.......
So on this day I was waiting for the ferry to fill up before it could leave. There is no ferry timetable so you may have to run and jump on board or you may have to wait 1 hour.
I heard the awful noise first and turned in the direction of the loading ramp. See video........

 

The noise was very upsetting for the young children on the ferry and you can see the small child trying to block his ears.

So animal welfare in Cambodia , yet another challenge for the Western Volunteer.

 



Riding the bamboo train

Recently we went for a few days break to Battambang , Cambodia's fourth tourist destination (after Siem Riep, Phnom Penh and Sihanoukville).
We started the journey with a 3am wake up phone call from the mini van driver who called round our house to pick us up. Then the battle began to get a seat in the bus but to be able to put my feet on the floor and not sit with legs bent on a big sack of wood etc.
By mid day we were in Phnom Penh and caught a bus to Battambang, arriving about 6pm , a long day of travel.
One of the reasons I wanted to visit was to ride the Bamboo train described in the Lonely Planet guide as one of the world's all- time classic rail journeys- ........the train clicks and clacks south east to O Sra Lav along warped, misaligned rails and vertiginous bridges left by the French.

The following article emailed to me by a friend describes a typical experience:

 It rattles along at 20 miles an hour, swaying back and forth on uneven rails, the engine so loud it makes your teeth hurt. Then, rather unceremoniously, it runs out of petrol and dies.

And you find yourself stranded in the middle of Cambodia on a handmade "norry" train, feeling a bit exposed on a 25-square-foot platform made of bamboo and scrap metal attached to wheels salvaged from old tanks.

Picture one of those hand-pump rail cars depicted in old Westerns, and you're close. It's powered (when it has petrol) by a converted outboard engine. The brakes (when it has petrol and you need brakes) are a wooden board pushed against the wheels. No seats.

All this bamboo and scrap metal give it a makeshift appearance, and appearances do not deceive. Pretty soon, driver Path Chanthorn starts pushing the disabled norry with hands that are missing a few fingers from a run-in with a water buffalo -- "a strong cow," he mutters.

Another norry approaches from the opposite direction, every inch of its platform covered by a dozen people headed for a festival. With a single track to ride on, etiquette dictates that the norry with the lighter load be taken apart so the other can pass. So Chanthorn and his assistant quickly dismantle their vehicle and let the other one by, then put theirs back together again, all within minutes.

And you are on your way.

Now a government plan to upgrade the country's rail system may end up forever stranding the norry, an ingenious response to the decades of war, destruction and dire poverty that have afflicted Cambodia.

Under the Khmer Rouge in the mid-1970s, as the country descended into civil war and mass murder, 2 million people perished. And in leader Pol Pot's quest to reach "Year Zero," Cambodia also saw most of its roads destroyed, its trucks blown up, its locomotives charred.

By the early 1980s, as Cambodia started to emerge from the nightmare, people remembered the small vehicles used by rail workers in the 1960s to repair the tracks and started building their own. The norry, a name some say is derived from a mispronunciation of "lorry," was born.

The humble norry is a reminder of how much Cambodians lost, but it also speaks to their persevering spirit. All but left for dead under Pol Pot's genocidal regime, they defied the odds to rebuild, sometimes literally: Witness the land mine victims who picked up their lives by crafting homemade wooden limbs.

"It shows how ingenious people can be," says Ith Sorn, 55, who's been driving norries for three decades. "Cambodians came up with this when they had almost nothing."

The unique mode of transportation saw its heyday in the 1980s when other vehicles were scarce. "There were bombs and mines everywhere, roads were destroyed and rail cars a shambles," says Kot Sareurn, 50, a union leader for 23 norry drivers in Battambang, a picturesque provincial capital along the tranquil Sangker River. "Norries helped a lot of people survive, get to hospitals, get food."

Initially operators "rowed" the norries with poles, gondola-style, carrying loads of up to 40 people, eight cows or three tons of rice. After a few years, small gas engines were added.

So what about our experience riding the train?
Angela and Nichole sat on the bamboo train:

A view down the track .Yes the rails are very much out of line the worst points are at the butt joint of two rails which produce a lound bang and jolt when you pass over them.

 

Just about to set off. Note the wheels from another train lying on the ground

 

 Moving a train off the track to allow another to pass.

 

 

 Nearly ready for our train to move forward



The engine and drivers seat. the stick in the foreground of the pic is used to lever  the engine block and put tension on the drive belt to give motion to the wheels. Moving the lever the other way releases tension the drive belt goes slack and the wheels loose the driving force. The brake is a board pushed against the wheels by the drivers foot.

Nice and light to pick up, the train is lifted off the wheels.

Getting ready for the return trip. This picture shows the train and how the passengers sit on it. 

 

So now enjoy the video I shot from my perch at the front of the train. Watch until the end when you see we wait for an approaching train. This then stops in front of us and the drivers dismantle the train so our train can move forward and pass. They then put the train back together and proceeded away from us in the opposite direction.

 

So after a trip like that what is ther left to do?

Buy the T-shirt of course, been there ,done that, bought the T shirt.

 



 

 

Olympic Stadium Phnom Penh

This is a post I started last year and never got round to finishing but, as it is coming up to the Olympics in the UK, it’s now or never.

 Olympic Stadium Phnom Penh

When we visit Phnom Penh one of my favorite places to visit on my own for some peace and solitude is the Olympic Stadium. I have only recently discovered it although I have passed by it a few times without calling in. It interest me on two counts, architecturally, and as an open space and place to observe Cambodians exorcising.

Local people exorcising in the cool of the evening

It is constructed mainly out of reinforced concrete and the first time I visited was in the morning of a weekday when it was fairly quiet and I could wander around exploring all the buildings and rooms. Wherever I looked I could see how well it was designed to handle large crowds and with thought given to flow of large masses of people. Spaces were filled with water that seemed to me to serve two functions, to stop people accessing areas across the water and also to split up the concrete spaces and give a feeling of space.

Looking across to the main stand and indoor arena.

Most doors were open and I wandered about and went inside the main building to what is the main indoor sports arena. Whilst indoor it still has a feeling of the outside with regular slits and gaps in the walls giving airflow and a glimpse of the sky.

Side View of the main stand and indoor arena.

I also enjoyed looking at the outdoor track and climbing up the seating to stand on the top where I got a fine view of the city. I was able to walk over to the commentators box which hangs over the track and this would be where the official trackside announcer no doubt sat and gave out information on what they saw below.

It looked open and could be accessed by a narrow precarious ladder but my nerve gave out as I was on my own and who knows what the box was currently used for. I could almost guarantee that this being Cambodia, and in the middle of the capital city, somebody would be living in it.

I never feel threatened in Cambodia although I get approached regularly and asked for money , in the indoor arena a fellow living rough asked for a dollar and then went away, without.

But back to observing the residents exorcising. When I went back over the next few days it was apparent that the whole area is used regularly by people who have their set routines. It is popular to walk along the top level of seating, then drop a level, walk and repeat. A man walks backwards and weaves between obstacles; another man walks along the narrow crowd control wall with a drop on one side, of a water filled trench and spiked railings, and the concrete seats on the other.

Every time I go, I will see at least one rat, the structure of the seating seems to have been built to house them whereas if I was the architect I would have purposely designed out all the gaps and the  holes which now serve as ideal bolt holes.

Local football match in progress late Sunday afternoon

As I have visited I have built up a picture of the places current use. A large number of local football teams use the grounds for training and there are some 5 aside football pitches including the only pitch I have ever seen with a light pole in the centre; play around it, don’t run into it!!

The indoor arena is the home of the Cambodian Volley ball association, one of the smaller buildings the Cambodian weightlifting association.

Another interesting find was the outdoor, Olympic size, swimming and separate diving pool.

Outdoor swimming pool looking towards diving pool at far end

This is open to the public and we have since been swimming there, it is fairly clean and very refreshing although the changing rooms are untidy and decrepit. Again you can see in the design careful consideration to handling large numbers of athletes (swimmers).Maybe the pool is used early morning when I have never been but I haven’t seen many people swimming there. I had a swim in the diving pool but looking at the diving boards there is really scary; how could you ever dive from that height?

Joe licking the Olympic bowl when he was over on holiday.

So, once I found the place I was fascinated to learn more about it especially as it was called the Olympic stadium and has the usual large bowl for the Olympic flame. I found that it had a chequered history, some grim periods and the setting for some financial skullduggery. So onto the internet where I found out the following:

Construction on the national sports complex started in 1963 and was completed in 1964.

The stadium might have been built to host the 1963 Southeast Asian Peninsular Games but the games were cancelled due to political problems in Cambodia.

The stadium played a small part in the 1966 FIFA World Cup. Unexpectedly, North Korea faced Australia in a qualifier. Because North Korea lacked diplomatic relations with most countries, finding a suitable venue for the match proved difficult, until Head of State Norodom Sihanouk, an ally of Kim Il-sung, said the matches could be held in Phnom Penh. The matches attracted 40,000 fans, with Sihounouk decreeing half would cheer for Australia, while the other half cheered the Koreans. The matches were held on 21 November 1965 and on 24 November 1965 with North Korea winning both (6–1 and 3–1). Because South Korea and all African teams had withdrawn in protests against FIFA, North Korea were thus directly qualified to the final tournament, where they reached the quarter-final.^[3][4]

Among the facilities are Olympic-size pools for swimming and diving and an indoor volley-ball court with a capacity of up to 8,000, now known as the Olympic Stadium Indoor Arena.

During the Khmer Rouge era, the stadium was used as an execution site where officials of the Khmer Republic formerly led by Lon Nol were killed.

In the decades following the Khmer Rouge era, the stadium facilities fell into disrepair. In 2000 the stadium complex was redeveloped by a Taiwanese firm, the Yuanta Group, which refurbished the stadium but also redeveloped parcels of the complex into condominiums and commercial properties.

As of 2007, the stadium has come to be a popular attraction for Phnom Penh residents, who attend daily exercise sessions, as well as football games and other activities.

In May 2007, the Irish singer Ronan Keating performed in concert in the stadium's Indoor Arena, the first concert by a major international act.

So it’s a place we keep visiting and has a nice positive feel to it.