Jan & Feb 2010

On the last weekend of January ‘10, I went up to Ratanakiri to see my lovely dear friends Sareth and Srey-mom.

They are in their 3rd year of Nursing training now and have their placement in one of the Referral hospitals in Ratanakiri province.
I said I’d come up to see them, but they seemed very surprised und unprepared, once I was really there. I think, that is a Khmer thing.
The road to Ratanakiri is very bad, bumpy and very dusty. The sand on it seems to be like powder, and although being in the mini-van, my clothes were red from the fine sand after the journey.

After a good old ‘pot-lunch’, we went to Sareth’s house, which she was very shy about, because it was old. For me it wasn’t bad at all, but Sareth wanted me to stay in a guest house instead. Initially, I wanted to stay with them in the hospital, where they stay during their placement. The hospital director allows the students to stay in an empty room on a ward during their placement. They cook, sleep and live in there. Very handy during nightshift, if help is needed. They are available at all times, every day. But to stay there, Sareth and Srey-mom didn’t allow me to do so. Apparently not good enough either.
So I persisted on not staying in a guest house but in the big empty house of Sareth’s.

at Sareth's house

Her family now lives on a farm in the countryside. That’s why the house looked quiet deserted and rough.

Sareth with her family

But we decided to stay there altogether and I think it was very good for the girls to have a break from the hospital too. They’ve worked already for 3 weeks, every day, day and nightshift and they seemed very tired. Students also get used a lot here.

After a nap, we wanted to go with the moto to the lake. But suddenly the moto broke down and so we walked.

It was a long exhausting walk in the heat, then suddenly Sareths brother turned up and lead us along a small path through very thick bamboo jungle.

That was amazing and scary at the same time. We also saw a long snake, light green colour with a red head. Fortunately it run away from us.

on the way to the lake

At the lake, I wasn’t allowed to wear my swimming costume, the girls were quiet embarrassed about it. Because in Khmer culture, you go fully clothed. So I went swimming ‘Khmer style’, for the first time.

So did the girls. It was amazing. The beautiful sweet-water lake is really that journey worth it.

Then we were dripping wet and walked back home. On the way, our clothes dried fairly quickly.

just finished bathing

Being there on my own with Sareth and Srey-mom, it was like a second home stay. It felt like the real Cambodia, like the real thing.

From food ( ate yellow noodle in black water and lots of Khmer and Thai sweets) to sanitation ( I had my first wash outside with water from a ton in a sarong), things like that I wouldn’t have done even in Stung Treng.

The other new thing, I discovered, is this. I know that the people here love to eat instant noodles, me too. But I’ve never eaten those raw, uncooked. We had it as a snack, and it is tasty actually. Just open the package and dig in. “I like”, as the Cambodians say.

On Sunday, before we went to the pagoda, we visited the hospital, were the girls have their placement. It was early afternoon, and the patient rooms were moderately filled. But all the staff rooms were looked and I couldn’t see any staff.
Apparently, there was only one nurse on duty for that afternoon. After all, it was Sunday and after lunch.

The visit to the pagoda was also different, because again, the girls showed how to do it properly.

To show respect I had to borrow Sareths Mickey Mouse cardi to cover my arms for the pagoda,and then we also went up to see big Budda on the hill top.

It was so lovely to be with them. They are just so genuine and unspoilt, pure. And after I wanted to give them some money just for the rest of the placement to buy some nice food, they got really angry with me and said, they are not my friend because of money. That so much warmed my heart.

The real big event work wise was our Preceptor meeting, which was done twice for 2 different groups of Preceptors on 2 different occasions.

the second group of the Preceptors

My organisation was facilitating it and we had to prepare a lot for that and come up with good ideas.

At the end it was all worth it and a great success for the Participants and the Facilitators.

hey, listen, not chat all the time!

the VSO team Hor, Channa, Carol and me

Then we had to go back to PP for our ICT2, which is the second In-country-Training Language Update course.

Ash, Maria, Butz and Dutz with VSO shirts

It was actually 2 weeks, but because Carol and me were busy with the workshops, we could only attend for 1 week.

Mirco gives Dara our Goodbye present

our Dara, the best!

It was lovely seeing all VSO volunteers again,

Carol is having a Singapore Sling in Raffles in Phnom Penh

I had my initial 2 months ICT last year from October-December ‘09. It feels like we are related to each other.

The girls with a Famme Fatale

I also saw Oli again after a long time and with all the running experience we had previously, we thought, we also would take the chance and run the Valentines Race in PP.

Valentines run

It was very hard though because it was in the afternoon under the burning sun and on an uneven surface. But apparently I am very competitive, and so we made it and became 5th! (We had to run together as a couple).

the 5th couple!

The prize of being 5th was a really nice dinner in the Country Club in PP. We were even luckier, when our number got taken at the Lucky Draw!

a rose for Valentines day

Because completely out of the blue we won a night in a nice hotel in Siem Riep. I couldn’t believe it.

we made it!

Stung Treng

A week later, I attended to my first Khmer funeral.

The grandfather of the girls where I teach English died with 90 years.

Vandy, their mother asked me to come. We are quiet close by now, I see them regularly and they are just so lovely to me.

So in the evening, the day before the funeral, I was invited to play cards with them after I had my shower. I went around 8pm, and in their living room it was like a big party.

It was very full, the coffin in the middle of the room, where the granddad was in apparently for nearly a week. A plastic pipe was leading from the coffin into the ceiling, apparently for the bad smell. They couldn’t go ahead with the funeral earlier, because the monks said, that only the next day would be a lucky day. Lucky days are very important here, you know when it’s a lucky day because they sell Lotus flowers at the market and those days are blessed by Budda and usually you have on a lucky day either a funeral or a wedding. That day I had both.
So the next day, I was invited to come around 8 in the morning. I had no idea what was coming. Basically, the house was full of people, more and more were arriving, giving money wrapped around incense sticks and/or uncooked rice to Vandy. She gave all of them food, Borbor- Rice soup with meat. The men were together and the women were together. I was brought outside, were around 30 women prepared food and cooked in giant pots over open fire. They put a knife in my hand and made me chop meat. Then I told them that I don’t eat meat and they were laughing away. Then I was brought back into the house, where I could help decorating the coffin instead.

But it was also sitting, looking, chatting, playing with the kids, observing the atmosphere of happy Khmer people. That went on until lunchtime, were then all of us were eating rice again on the floor.

At 14.00, the ceremony continued first with some praying monks who suddenly appeared.

Then the coffin was put onto a cart

and we all went along the street until we arrived at the burning place. Peach, Touch, Reak-smey and Thida were crying a lot. I didn’t really expect that, because I thought, they don’t show such break out of their feelings. But they were really sad.

grandchildren in grief

the wood goes onto the coffin

the monks give their last prayer

Then I went to work for a couple of hours, until I got ready to go to the wedding where I was invited to by one of the Teachers of the RTC. His brother got married, I never ever met him in my life but I danced on his wedding.

my local Wat, Wat Loehr

The same weekend, I witnessed something else unusual.

in Thalla Borivat Pagoda

A Ceremony of a monk, who stepped out of Monkshood.

in Thalla Borivat Pagoda

All VSO volunteers from Stung Treng went and my 3 friends Parim, Sareth and Srey-mom.

during the ceremony

He is the leading monk of Thalla Borivat, his name is Thoom. My VSO colleague Ferdi works with him now with an NGO called NOPAHA. Together, they manage an orphanage at a Pagoda and teach those children, who are also affected by HIV and AIDS, and try to give them a better life. They need much more funding, but it is difficult to get it. So that’s why Thoom decided, he could achieve and help much more, if he wouldn’t be a monk anymore. After 19 years of monkhood, he got ‘de-robed’.

money put on both wrists for good luck

It was a long ceremony in the pagoda and they sang a beautiful song, Thoom had written. Afterwards, we ate borbor-Ricesoup.

eating borbor at the wat

the next Prime minister

Parim, Srey-mom, knyom, Sareth

Ferdi and Jan

Parim and Sareth

Carol, Maria, Helen and Sareth on the boat

on the way back from Thalla to Stung Treng on the boat

Last weekend, I finally saw my Oli again. After a long trip from the Northeast to the Northwest of Cambodia, we met in Siem Riep and checked out our voucher, which we won at the Valentines Race. We had a fantastic time. Siem Riep is always the journey worth it. We’ve seen Angkor Wat from above

; met the director of nursing in the Angkor Hospital for Children; we met the family of my friend Parim; we witnessed the amazing Dr. Beat Richner and his Cello. He is the funder of the 3 Kantha Bopha Children Hospitals, which are in Siem Riep and PP and the excellent treatment of all children is for free. Beat Richner runs 5 hospitals in Phnom Penh and Siem Riep with 1600 beds. Over 2000 Cambodians work for him. In the past 17 years, he has treated 9.5 million children for free. Every day, 1600 healthy children are vaccinated and 3.000 sick children come to the hospitals. Most can be helped in out-patients but 10% are admitted. On average for 5.5 days, which costs about 2500 Swiss francs in all. Each year, 14.000 children are born in the maternity wards. 100.000 pregnant women have been tested there for HIV since 2001, 500 babies have thereby been saved from Aids. More info about how to make a donation you can get from me. Instead of money, you can also always help by making a blood donation.
Everyone should go to his concert, where he updates regarding activities in the hospitals and plays works for Cello by J.S. Bach along with songs by Beatocello. It is every Saturday and for free.

We’ve also been karaokeing and clubbing of course. The only shame was that I had to cure my hangover on the bus back to Stung Treng

Stung Treng eving light

Phnom Penh, Cambodia