Old Friends and New Friends

Returning to Cambodia is exciting because it means being able to catch up with old friends...

Sreytouch (and baby on the way), Sophani, Naomi, Em and Tim. 

 

Naomi in 2010

I met Sreytouch on my first visit to Cambodia. It is an honour to now have spent time with her in Cambodia and in Australia, and to be able to get to know her family as it grows.

Mr Lizy

Lizy used to work at the Star Hotel and he is now the proud owner of a tuk tuk. We consider him to be family. He led Tim astray, or maybe Tim led Lizy astray when they hit the night spots in Battambang together.

The T.A.B team- old friends and new friends.

and an opportunity to make new friends...

 

 

 

 

 

Em, Kolap and Tim

We met Kolap in Battambang although she lives in Phnom Penh. She is the head honcho librarian at the University of Phnom Penh and ran a follow up workshop for librarians in Battambang.

My co presenter Matt and our translator Samroun.

Em and Jenny (affectionately nicknamed Jelly by a Cambodian)

The logistics team: Claudio, Norman and Tim.

Felicity, Lauren and Em.

A Tale of Three Cities

 I have a collection of half finished posts from when we were away. Perhaps now that I have some time I'll finish them off and pop them up even though we're already home.

As it was Tim's first visit to Cambodia we decided to add some extra time either side of our official visit to explore a few different spots. 

Our first stop was Siem Reap, home of Angkor. The town has a population of around 85 000 people and it relies on the tourist trade. Despite having a small population compared to some other spots in Cambodia, having the tourist draw card has meant that a lot of money has been invested in Siem Reap. There is a lot of development, particularly of large hotels and other facilities that are targeted at the visitor. It has quite a laid back feel but it doesn't really feel like you are in the 'real' Cambodia. Sadly, I met a number of tourists who had flown in for a couple of days to tour Angkor and then will fly out straight away, without visiting any other parts of Cambodia.

Angkor, Siem Reap

Battambang was where we were based for the Teachers Across Borders Workshops and it feels like home. It is the second biggest city after the capital Phnom Penh, with a population of over 250 000. Despite being the second biggest it as the feel of a rural town. It is very laid back, there are not many foreigners (although this is changing as more and more tourists want to 'get off the beaten track'), but there are still plenty of things to see and do around the place. We hired a moto for a day, visited some of the temples, went on the bamboo train and attended the Phare Ponleu Selpak Circus.

Battambang statue.

 We finished our trip with five days in the capital Phnom Penh which has an estimated population of over 2 million people. It has been developing very quickly, and really is taking off as a capital city. It still has quite a relaxed feel, although the traffic can be a little overwhelming during a peak times. There are some seedier sections of the city that we avoided and unfortunately not too far below the surface there are some serious social issues. I also find Phnom Penh to be a challenge in terms of being confronted with the growing gap between rich  and poor which is clearly evident and I think I've already mentioned in an earlier post. We enjoyed our time in Phnom Penh as we relaxed, caught up with friends and finished out shopping and we would happily return.

Independence Monument, Phnom Penh

Same Same But Different

We are winding down after our three weeks in Cambodia and preparing for our trip home. Once again I am sad to be leaving. I am so very attached to this country and I feel quite at home here. It has been interesting to observe the changes that have taken place over the nine years since my first visit and even in just the two since I was here last.

Pockets of Cambodia have really taken off. Siem Reap which benefits from the tourist dollar seems to have had a lot of money invested into it. There are many many tourists and most of the town is geared towards making foreigners feel as comfortable as possible in hope that they will spend money there. My experience at Angkor was quite different this time around. On my first visit I remember being able to wander around most temples with very few people except the group I was with. Now in the most popular sites you are shoulder to shoulder with hundreds of other tourists. It seems that UNESCO, the Cambodian Government and International Governments are making much more of an effort to preserve the ruins, with board walks and set paths so that the millions of people that visit do not destroy what is left.  

Sunset at Bakheng, Angkor.

Battambang has not changed as much, there are some newer buildings and an urban sprawl but it has the same country town feel. The biggest difference that I noticed was the number of cars on the road. In just two years the number of cars in Battambang and Phnom Penh has grown exponentially. It makes driving around a little more difficult as the streets cater for smaller vehicles, so things get a little squishy at times.

Battambang

Doing the workshops this year was a different sort of experience, partly because I was a lot more relaxed, but also because over the six years that T.AB. has been running the workshops in Battambang they have built relationships with the Ministry of Education, with schools, directors and teachers and there is increasing dialogue and trust. My workshop this year was made up of younger teachers, more women than last time and there was a really great sense of collegiality amongst the participants. There is much more sharing happening between Cambodian teachers and with more Cambodians taking part in the workshops as trainers or workshop presenters we are slowly moving towards Cambodian teachers taking more ownership over their professional development and of education across Cambodia in general.

Enthusiastic workshop participants, Matt - co presenter, Samroun- translator

While there are obviously lots of positive changes happening in Cambodia and many developments taking place it is also distressing to see the gap between the rich and the poor getting wider and wider. The wealth that is being created in Cambodia is not being shared. A Cambodian friend was telling us this week that both oil and gold have been discovered in Cambodia but that it would do nothing to help the average Cambodian. Corruption is rife, those who have power have wealth and vice versa. (Cambodia is ranked 164 out of 182 in Transparency Internationals Corruption Perceptions Index 1 being perceived as least corrupt to 182 being perceived as most corrupt). Those who are poor continue to be marginalised and oppressed. You only have to look at the current news headlines of homes being bulldozed to make room for development and families being pushed out of areas that they have lived in for years because there is not enough housing to replace what has been lost in rebuilding parts of the city.

Transport variety in Phnom Penh

It will be interesting to continue to observe what is happening in Cambodia. Will it continue to develop as it has been or will the average Cambodian become tired of the corruption and exploitation of Cambodian resources? Will the people get to a point where they will demand change? Perhaps the upcoming 2013 elections will give an insight into whether the people desire change.

Independence Monument- Phnom Penh

Battambang 2012

It is hard to believe that we are already down to our final few days in Cambodia. The past two and a bit weeks have flown. Our time in Battambang was very busy and with early mornings, intense teaching workshops and a busy social calendar which meant that at the end of the day I fell in to bed quite exhausted only to wake up and do it all again.

The T.A.B. team 2012

Our time in Battambang with Teachers Across Borders was sensational. We had a diverse and dynamic teaching team and we had a blast working together. This year I shared the teaching of my workshop with another teacher Matt who was having his first taste of Teachers Across Borders. It really made a lot of difference having someone else in the room to share the workload. While I enjoyed running the workshops last time, it was very difficult being on my own. Having Matt in the classroom released some of the pressure, allowed me to connect with the participants a little more as I had the opportunity to get along side them while Matt facilitated parts of the workshop. We were also able to share in the confusion and laugh together when translations or activities went a bit crazy.

Workshop participants 2012

This year Teachers Across Borders also had a Train The Trainer program which ran for a few days before we started the main workshops and then the trainers were in different workshop programs. We were lucky enough to have Chivinna, a young Cambodian teacher who teachers Khmer Language. She was a great help, assisting with everything in the classroom, working with participants and even running a part of the workshop one day. We hope that in the next few years more and more Cambodian teachers will partner with us or lead their own workshops. Eventually Teachers Across Borders hopes that they will no longer be needed to provide professional development to teachers in Cambodia as Cambodian teachers start to lead the way in improving their own education system.

Chivinna running a session on levels of thinking.

Having Tim with me has also been great. He is a great support and I think secretly (or perhaps not so secretly) he really enjoyed it. You will have to check out his blog for an update on his activities.

The "logistics team" Claudio, Norman and Tim

There have been many highlights and once I have a little more time to process and reflect on all that has been happening I will write a little more.

For now, we are in Phnom Penh for a few days. We arrived last night. We will do some sightseeing, catch up with some friends and rest our tired minds and bodies before coming home at the end of the week.

Happy New Year from Cambodia

I'm feeling the pressure to put a post up because my sister and my husband are trying to out-blog me. I'm pretty sure that Tim has already posted twice since we left so I am lagging behind.

We arrived in Siem Reap safely after an uneventful trip and have quickly adjusted to a different pace. When I walked on to the tarmac at the airport, and the warm sweet air hit me, I felt like I had arrived home. Our tuk tuk, weighed down by some very heavy suitcases, brought us to our hotel right next to the river (Ask Tim about the river sometime). We had a quiet afternoon once we arrived, walked the streets around our hotel, had dinner. I started with one of my favourite dishes, chicken amok.

Today we spent the morning wandering around the old market area, which is the centre for much of the shopping and dining in Siem Reap. In the afternoon we spent a couple of hours at The Children's Sanctuary, a home for about 15 orphaned and abandoned children. The Sanctuary is directed by a couple from Dean (just outside of Ballarat). We were able to deliver some donated items and met the children. They work on a model that uses nannies that are responsible for 3-4 children each.

Tim setting up the computer with a little helper.

The Sanctuary was a very happy place but there are some very sad stories. There is a one year old baby girl who has heart problems and her mother is unable to care for her. She needs to have complicated heart surgery which cannot be done here in Cambodia. The Sanctuary have approached a number of countries including Australia, but so far have had no luck in find a country that will do the operation. If she is accepted by another country that can do the operation it will be very very expensive, but it is her only chance. I chatted with her Sanctuary Mama for quite a while and she is very determined to find a way to give her baby a chance at life. I will be praying for a miracle.

 Tonight we planned on having a quite night, but we have come across four others that are heading to Battambang and so we went for a stroll through the night market and out for dinner which was lovely. Tim was able to get a few bargains and sampled an authentic Khmer... hamburger and fries. I finally got some springs rolls.

Tomorrow is a day of hardcore sightseeing. We will be doing a whole day of Angkor temples... I'd better rest up.

One Sleep!!!

I have been running around like a headless chook and needless to say have run out of steam for thinking of creative post titles. All there is to say really is ONE SLEEP!!
I think we are organised....
See you in Cambodia.


P.S Meggles, if you are reading this I do concede that it doesn't count as a real post. xoxo

Two Troubling Truths

I love Cambodia. I am deeply attached to the people and the country and have had many fantastic experiences there. However, my attachment to Cambodia also causes me to grieve. It is a country that has suffered enormous trauma in its history and continues to face huge social and economic challenges. Here are two troubling truths

Children are extremely vulnerable. Cambodia has the highest infant and under five mortality rate in South East Asia and 45% of Cambodian children show signs of stunting from malnutrition (UNICEF). Children are vulnerable to exploitation, abuse and neglect particularly in poverty stricken areas and  children with disabilities or HIV/AIDS even more so. My heart aches for these children.

Human trafficking and sexual exploitation is a serious problem in Cambodia. Widespread . unemployment and high rates of poverty contribute to the issue. It is heartbreaking to see young girls on the street who are caught up in this darker side of Cambodia.

It is easy to sit in our comfortable chairs in front of the television and to forget or ignore the plight of our fellow human beings in other parts of our world (perhaps even as close as the world in the house a few doors down). Going to Cambodia the first time transformed my thinking about the world. I wish that everyone at least once would step outside of the their own world and look poverty in the eye. You never know, it might change you as well.

This reminds me of a blog post I wrote in 2008. It explains a little more about how I was changed by my experience in Cambodia. Here is an excerpt. For the full post go here.

 I had associated poverty with the ads on television, the faces on the calender on my wall, the photos that visiting organisations showed when doing a talk etc. I was touched by these things but I wasn't changed. Going to Cambodia did change me. I built relationships with children and adults who were living in poverty. My whole perspective on this giant word changed, poverty was personified.

 Poverty waited patiently at the gate of the centre ready to greet us with waves and smiles. I sat and shared a meal with poverty everyday. Poverty loved playing silly games with me. Poverty loved showing off her dancing. Poverty would take my hand and drag me over to something that he had drawn. I cuddled poverty, I laughed with poverty, I cried with poverty.

 Ever since that experience poverty to me is no longer an issue that is out in the world that I can ignore. Those faces on the calenders and on the ads are just like those that I got to know on my trip. They have stories and families, they laugh and cry, they celebrate and they grieve. And this is why I care about the issue of Poverty.

Oh I almost forgot... TWO SLEEPS!!!