Phnom Penh 21st - 26th January 2009

It feels like it’s starting to get a bit warmer and I’m glad to get onto the motorbike this morning with Yuan (see photo on right - he's very serious for the photo but normally wears a big grin) to feel that nice breeze. Yuan tries to take a different route today, down a back street but there’s too much congestion and it ends up being a slower trip. The main culprit is a water truck that completely fills a street which was originally designed with nothing like this kind of traffic in mind. More like ox and cart I think. I attend an induction with Medicam for the three of us new starters. I’m slightly uncomfortable as the speaker speaks and directs most of the attention at me. This is something I’ll have to get used to I think. Where ever you go here, you become the focus of attention as a westerner, children stare at you, their eyes big with wonder at this large creature with the funny coloured hair and skin. The nice thing here though is that when you smile, everyone smiles back! A couple of big achievements today – found dishcloths and gas canisters for my stove. I asked some locals standing around outside a restaurant who pointed me in the direction of a tiny shop which really looked more like a shack. As always, the girl in the shop is lovely and we laugh together at our lack of understanding of each other. Luckily I’ve brought the stove with me so can point at what I want. She tries to explain through sign language about what I presumed was a safety message, or demo on use – not quite sure which. The mossies are biting tonight so I have to sleep with a coil in my bedroom. I cough and splutter and think it’s maybe not such a good idea for my lungs – will have to come up with another solution. Although there’s mesh on all my windows these blighters have their ways and means when they’re onto the scent of tasty “barang” blood. I’m up early to let in Srey, my new cleaner on Wednesday morning and once again we employ the semi-successful sign language technique to understand requirements and cost. Srey talks me into letting her do my laundry for a minimal extra charge per month. I think I may stay here forever! I finish getting ready for work and by the time I’m ready to leave Srey is already hanging out my washing on the balcony. It’s so sweet, as I look up at the balcony she’s waving me off as Yuan whisks me off down the street. On arriving at work we’re locked out so I stand chatting (or at least try to chat) with the guard and his brother. A couple more staff members arrive and we all sit outside reading the newspapers, Khmer and English versions and you can probably guess who’s reading which version. Everyone’s reading the same topic though – the Obamba inauguration. They seem to be as happy as I am about the whole thing and it will nice to remember that I was living in Cambodian at the time the first African-American got inaugurated.

(Picture of the Medicam office on right)

I have a call from Thai Airways Cargo that my boxes have arrived from home. Wow, it’s going to be like Christmas, once I get them out through customs. That process, as I soon discover, is a pretty exhaustive one with two trips to the airport, three to the Customs and Excise Department in town and obtainment of stamps and signatures from 21 people in total over a 24 hours period! And if I try to find the positives out of this experience it would be that, that many people are actually gainful employed in this one seemingly simple task and on top of that everyone is helpful, professional and keen for a chat. “Where you come from?” “My daughter, brother, uncle, cousin, nephew are living in Australia/New Zealand” Some commonality breaks down the barriers. Nothing is done with any sense of speed or urgency and all is done manually. The subordinates come toward the superior’s desk with their heads bowed and documents in both hands. When they leave they walk away backwards with heads down. I’ve half expecting to have to pay some backhanders throughout the process but this doesn’t happen. I do however end up seeing corruption or extortion in action on the way back from the airport though. The Police with batons in hand point at random drivers or motorbikes and motion that they pull over. Some don’t bother but just hand the money straight to the cop as they drive past. I saw one poor local on a motorbike obviously complaining and the cop was pulling at his handle bars to get him to go where he was wanting him to go, to a booth where other police were sitting. For Westerners the standard “administration” fee for the Police is $5us.

I attend an information session run by Medicam for all medical NGO’s and am driven there by the Medicam driver who I have a great chat with. He’s eager to improve his English and better still for me, he’s happy to help me with my Khmer. I’m the first to arrive at the training facilities and on walking into the room wake up the caretaker laying on one of the tables still in his underpants. Bless him, he’s pretty embarrassed but I show no sign of anything being untoward. I get to meet another volunteer from Australia who works for the one of the NGO’s who’s main focus is HIV/Aids, and discover we’re both going to the Vida drinks on Friday night. I have a feeling Phnom Penh is going to get smaller and smaller the longer I’m here.

The Westerners get to wear headphones throughout the discussion while the translation is remotely piped through as it happens. I’m so impressed that the translator is so quick, a real skill.

I attempt to rent a post office box and this develops into one of those really frustrating times that anyone living in a foreign speaking country encounters at some stage. I go to the General Post Office as I’ve been told this is the place if you want a box. I’m informed, “no it’s ok, you go number 3 post office” which is my local P.O. I’m there at 7.50am (they open at 8) the next morning and although the staff don’t speak any English there is already a customer ahead of me who does speak a bit. She translates that I need to go to the main Post Office, pay there and then come back here. Ok, I can do this! I head to the Main P.O and wait for about 15mins as no-ones actually serving there at Window Number 30 – the all important PO Box window. Eventually they come and I explain I need to rent a PO Box and she says “cannot” “none left” I said I need one at Post Office 3 she says “cannot” “they none left”. I quickly apply all the Buddhism teachings I’ve been reading about to remain serene and calm, this isn’t really that important, remain happy and smile at the world!!!!! Uuuuurrggghh I try to Skype with Bec on Wednesday night and although neither of us can see each other she can hear me clearly and I can hear her in spurts. Bec mostly sounds like she’s been sucking helium and gives me a great laugh even though it’s pretty frustrating for both of us. Lis rings me and we manage to talk ok and I can see her and Troy and the boys. It’s great! Hopefully I can get this thing working with Bec and everyone else, it’s going to be so good.

I have a chat to one of my work mates on Friday, who has already asked me my age, how many children I have and whether my parents are divorced. He clarifies this last by saying all Westerners get divorced, we’ll he’s got that 50% right. I asked him some questions in return, "he’s too old he says, 56", has four children and has worked at Medicam for 10 years. When I asked where he’d worked before that he said he fled from Pol Pot with his family to the Thai border for many years and didn’t return until 1992. I don’t know if anyone else can remember what they were doing in 1992 but I’m sure it wouldn’t have been anything as significant as returning to your homeland after having escaped genocide. He had a couple of other jobs before he applied for the one at Medicam and was chosen out of 40 people! No wonder he’s hung onto it for 10 years. The scariest thing is that life expectancy for Cambodian men is only 60 years of age, that having recently gone up from 56. Also, interestingly enough, I also learnt this week that Sierra Leone has the worst life expectancy – 37 years of age!!! and Japan has the best, at 81. Very excited on Friday night as I head to drinks at the Vida office where I get to meet up with the volunteers from our Pre Departure training and heaps of others. We eat cold pizza and cold chips, the catering provided by Vida and drink lovely cold, cold beer! Its stinkin hot today! We all jump into Tuk-Tuks and head off to a pub called Gasoline where there are dancers and African drummers putting on a show. We venture to a few other bars before Toby and Terri see me home in a Tuk-Tuk. I’ve been locked out by the landlords cousin and have to ring him and get him out of bed to let me in. Going to have to work on that, I feel like I’ve been naughty and stayed out too late.

I’m sitting typing this in darkness on Saturday night as the power has been out for the last 3 hours. I only have tea light candles to light my way and it could be kind of romantic if I wasn’t on my own. Very ironic though as I spent a good part of the day buying a second hand TV and DVD and was looking forward to a lazy night in, watching my pirate copy of “Slum dog Millionaire”. Instead I go out for a dinner of Pad Thai and Morning glory for $3 and go to bed early.

Sunday is a fun day. I take a Tuk-Tuk to meet Cara at the Russian market at 9 and we walk around buying bits and pieces of clothing and things for our apartments. We meet another volunteer for coffee and then head to a gym for a workout. It feels great to be getting some exercise again, especially in such a nice cool room. I decide I have to buy a cycle so I can get to the gym in the mornings before work. Sunday afternoon I pick up Mara, who I met at the Embassy, on my way to an Australian day event at the "Talking to Strangers" bar. The Tuk-Tuk driver says "yes, yes I know that hotel. But proceeds to take me ages in the wrong direction which I only realise when I think we've been going way too long and consult my map. Most Motodop and Tuk-Tuk drivers cannot read the city maps and don't understand the Street numbering system so it makes it pretty hard. But at least I'm learning quickly and can direct them to most places I want to go. The afternoon is great for meeting new people and finding out about what there is to do. It's almost a case of, you name it, they have someone already doing it, here. Yoga, touch football, Apsara dance lessons (native dance), Belly dancing, teaching English to the children who live at the Phnom Penh dump, photography courses etc, etc. And as is always the case with me, I want to experience it all and now! Mara lets me know that a hotel two mins walk from Medicam lets you use their pool for a $1us. That will help fill in the lunch hours!

Sunday night I wake up with excruciating pains in my stomach. It feels like it's on fire from the inside. Needless to say I spend most of the rest of the night sitting on the loo while throwing up in the bath simultaneously. In all my years of travelling I have never experienced food poisoning and I never want to again!! The scariest part of the experience was blacking out while sitting on the loo and waking up on the bathroom floor completey in a daze with no idea where I was. I recognised the tiles though and "thought, god I'm in Cambodia". Both my calves were knotted up with cramp and while I was struggling to get up noticed a scratch bleeding on my thigh. I can only imagine that I scratched myself when I fell as there was nothing sharp nearby. Pretty disturbing when you're on your own. I was completely shattered and had to take the day off work. I managed to eat something on Monday night and keep it down. I think boiled rice will be my friend for the next few days.

My first week in Phnom Penh

12/01/09 – 18/01/09 My first week in Phnom Penh. The butterflies that have been rampant in my stomach since getting up this morning have finally stopped as I take my seat on the plane. Mum and Dad were there to wave me off, it must have been about 30 years since that last happened and it was really nice. But now the goodbyes and strict luggage checkpoints are behind me and I’m just excited that my journey has finally begun. I’ll worry about what lies ahead of me when I get off the plane, for now I’m relaxed and ready to enjoy the flight as I have the luxury of three seats to myself! My flight from Singapore to Phnom Penh is spent observing the Cambodian father and son sitting next to me. They’re wearing matching sapphire and diamond-like rings and enjoy (very quickly) a bottle of wine each. The father gets quite merry and vocal while the poor son gets more and more flushed until I think I may have to resuscitate. The descent for me is amazing as I get to see Cambodian from the air for the first time. The sun glints off rice paddies through the haze and what looks like roads, as we get closer reveal themselves as canals. I begin to see houses on stilts and it looks just like a toy village created out of matchsticks. I’m ready to burst with anticipation and can’t get the smile off my face. My bags arrive all in one piece and for the first time I’m one of those people who has a card held up with their name written on it as Soma and driver are there to meet me. Soma briefs me enroute to the hotel while I keep an eye on the chaos that is the traffic in Phnom Penh. Massive 4x4’s, expensive looking cars, motorbikes, pushbikes, cyclos and Tuk-Tuks all jostle for position inches apart as two roads intersect with no traffic lights. The traffic comes to a stand still until eventually someone gives way and inch by inch we move again. Even though it’s dark when I get dropped off at the hotel I can’t resist going and checking out the neighbourhood. I poke my head out of the open hallway window and see a building that looks amazingly like the photos of the apartment I’m supposed to be moving into. And even more amazing, it actually is! That’s one hurdle out of the way. I only wander around for about 15 mins as I’m getting some strange looks from the locals (“crazy barang”). My first night in P.P ends to a lullaby of voices from the Tuk-Tuk drivers downstairs, not a word of which I can understand. My escorted tour of P.P starts at 9am. The city seems huge and confusing but Soma assures me it’s actually quite small. We go to Phsar Toul Tompoung known to Westerners as the Russian Market. They’ve got it all here, skinned black chickens (??) with the heads and feet still on, eel, numerous fish and any cut of meat you want, all sitting out in the open. There’s some really interesting looking vegetables, stall after stall of clothing, handbags, watches, gems, and tailors all beavering away in front of you, etc, etc. The senses are in overdrive and I already have a mental list of the Buddhist carvings I want to take home. I’m taken to a sumptuous buffet lunch and my fist Angkor beer. Then I arrange to view my new apartment. Although it’s only a one bedder, it’s massive. The previous tenant has left me a lovely welcoming message written on the wall (all the walls are tiled) and kindly donated a boxing bag, some hand weights, some books etc. Great! with my yoga mat and exercise ball I will have my own wee gym at home. Hour our In-Country-Manager briefs myself and another Volunteer on culturally differences. One of the interesting points being that Cambodians don’t like to say no and will therefore nod and agree even when they don’t. Also, the Western symbol of fingers crossed for good luck actually means to Cambodians what our middle finger raised in disgust means – have to watch that one. I’m not sure the fingers crossed thing will work back in Australia in moments of road rage. Hour also takes us out to dinner and we get to sample a chilli soup complete with fermented fish – very tasty if you didn’t think too much about what was actually involved in the whole fermenting process. Next day we get to talk to a volunteer that’s been around a while to pump him with questions. He’s a lawyer and is working on the land grab issue. It was reported last year that the government had sold off approximately 45% of the land to foreigners. Poor people get relocated with little or no compensation and have to rebuild their homes wherever they get moved to and however they can. I have some free time and manage to find a post office for stamps, a supermarket to supply me both with an iron and Vodka cruisers at $1.20 each! Then it’s off to work for a couple of hours to meet my new company of 14. I’m part of the Organisational Development team of 4, two of which they’re still recruiting and one of which is in the field. Everyone speaks English to some degree and are all extremely polite and smile constantly. I’m shown to my office that I share with one of the doctors. I have my own wooden desk complete with laptop and two in trays – that’s it! The bonus is the bathroom off our office which comes complete with bath and shower! I’m left up to my own devices so I have a look through the files on the Laptop left by my predecessor then totter off in my heels along the gravel road to find the main road and some mode of transport to get me home. Amazingly easier said than done (normally Motodops (Motorbike taxis) and Tuk-Tuk’s are at you from every direction) but not this time. I try ringing the “safe” Motodop recommended by Vida but he’s busy and cannot pick me up for over an hour. Eventually a guy on a motorbike turns up and has no idea where I want to go – his English is almost as bad as my Khmer. Another motorbike turns up and I point out on my map to both of them where it is I want to go. I’m still having no success, when another motor bike turns up and he explains to both the others for what feels like an hour how the first guy is supposed to get there. I just keep smiling at them and although I’m hoping for the best there’s no way I’m crossing my fingers. On I clamber, feeling a bit special with me heels and handbag and we’re off. I thought the traffic was bad enough from the relative safety of a car, start of peak hour on the back of a motorbike weaving and ducking and diving in between any number of different vehicles was a whole other level of chaos. All the same quite exhilarating as I can’t help but be impressed with my drivers skill and lightning speed of reaction. I book him for 7.30 the next morning and wonder if he’s actually understood a thing I’ve said as he smiles and nods and says “yes, see you” I take a walk to the Olympic Stadium where Cambodians come out to exercise. They’re either running around the stadiums concrete seats or doing aerobics on the very top platform of the Stadium where every 50metres or so massive sound systems have been set up and are pumping out anything from hip hop to local music all fighting against each other for sound space. I think I'll have to come and join them one day. I’m feeling like I’m getting my bearings in my new neighbourhood and find somewhere for a dinner of ginger chicken and Angkor beer then head home to pack ready for check-out prior to work in the morning.

I spend the whole day reading files, we all share some Jack fruit for morning tea off a tree in the Medicam grounds. I go for a wander at lunchtime and find a supermarket with Australian red wine! My lovely driver is back for me at 4pm and drops me back at the "Home View Hotel" for the last time. I haul my bags across the road and move into 27a. Then it's Friday but there's no casual days here. I attend a meeting where (thankfully) everyone speaks good English. More reading and the receptionist asks me a couple of times to do some proof reading of his English for him. I'm quietly very chuffed and feel like I've actually achieved something today.

Yeah! it's the start of the weekend and Mike (an American that's been living here for 18 months and is on the Board of Directors for Medicam) comes and picks me up for dinner. We go to the legendary Foreign Correspondence Club where photos adorn the walls from the photographer portrayed in the Killing Fields movie. It's full of foreigners (oh yeah, I'm one of those) and I relent and have pizza while we have a great view over the Tonle Sap river.

My Saturday starts with me sleeping in - my bedroom is like sleeping in a dark cave and I think I could almost snuggle up like a bear. I still have time to get ready and walk to meet Peta at the Java Cafe although in two different jandels (thongs). People don't tend to walk in P.P so I'm propositioned by Motodops etc constantly offering me a lift. But I just smile and shake my head and most of the time they just smile back at me, which is nice. I get to have my first Chai tea in P.P and it's devine. There's a great menu of western choices here and I'm not doing so well on "doing as the locals do" so far. But still, I'm thinking this may become a regular haunt for me on a Saturday morning as they have free internet and it has a comforting feel as it's a lovely old colonial building with Rattan furniture and ferns etc all around. Peta generously shares with me lots of advice and suggestions for places to go and then takes me on the back of her motorbike (this girls a pro) to go check out some drawers for the apartment. I find what I'm looking for and it's so much easier with someone who knows the language to do the haggling and to organise the delivery of my goods and me home - see photo above.

I spend the rest of the day cleaning the apartment, (it has 2 months build up of dust in it - this sure is a dusty place in the dry season) and trying to make it feel like home. There's no gas for the cooker so I end up having pot noodles for dinner 'cause luckily there's a jug, and drink my red wine which is a little on the sweet side. I sleep like a log as I must be learning to ignore the tiny yappy "guard dog" from downstairs. He's blind poor thing but he sure doesn't miss a beat, I can't make a move out of my place without his vocal cords being engaged at full throttle. Mike picks me up late on Sunday morning and takes me looking/shopping for a TV and DVD player. I come home with a rice cooker and hand weights. I can't believe all the stuff you can buy here - just about everything you could want from home. Some things are expensive though, a 500ml bottle of olive oil cost me $8US. It's a great day being chauffeured around and we go to a lovely French cafe where the food is (again) not Khmer but very good (the baguettes are to die for) and full of French people. I take my laundry into a place around the corner for $1 a kilo and back the next day then clean some more, decorate some more and then try out the new rice cooker. Unfortunately the instructions are in some foreign language so it could be a bit of trial and error for a while. And so there ends my first week, pretty much settled into my new home and quickly finding my feet. Looking forward to what lies ahead of me at work and a trip to the Australian Embassy tomorrow, to let them know I'm here, I think. They have drinks every Friday night but this Friday I'll be going to the Vida drinks to meet some of the other Vida's and Ayads.