2 months ICT - Blogabond

Some people complained that I hadn’t written anything on my blog for a while and I must say they are right and I apologize for not letting you know more about my recent adventures in Cambodia. Now, finally, I feel de-blocked.

I suppose the long silence also resulted of being in a completely new environment ( out of Stung Treng, and placed in Kampong Cham) with a whole bunch of new people around me.It is also called ICT- In country training.
It started on the 16th of October, that’s when I went from Stung Treng to PP.

When I arrived, I found Alison, whom I knew from the previous preparation training in Harbourne Hall, Birmingham, England. She brought me Yorkshire tea and a few other goodies, Dave got for me and gave her to give to me. The most important thing was that finally, my credit card arrived as well, to replace the stolen one. It felt weird to meet all the new people, the brandnew arrivals. But also interesting to hear their observations and first impressions. I shared a room with the rather crazy but very lovely indian volunteer Mohib.

Mo and me

After a few days of orientation in PP, the whole group moved to Kampong Cham, a nice province which is around 200 km away from PP.

view from the Leap Viraksar Hotel in Kampong Cham

Here, VSO volunteers have their intensive language training with the one and only Khmei teacher Mr. Dara Thann.

eating Ban Chau for breakfast

my new friend Kunthea (in the raincoat)

group dinner at Jo's

new working colleagues

our boat at the front of the picture

On the first weekend, we went on a boat trip, organised by John, the barrister.

We went to a local village and we saw a beautiful temple komlex with a very old wooden temple.

Then we visited a local silk weaving village.

in the Silk weaving village

Mosque in a Cham- village

We have language training from Monday to Saturday. There are two groups.

happy language class

I am in the afternoon group, it starts at 13:30 until 17:30. We have two breaks in between.

Johns Panama hat on a table in Cambodia

John gave two very good presentations about the history of Cambodia. The first one was about the reasons behind the political developments. The second was about the horrifying time during the Khmer Rouge Regime. He studied a lot about it in the past so he is very knowledgeable. I borrowed a book from him which is called: To the end of hell, written by Denise Affonso, and I can recommend everybody to read it.

At the end of October, I went to PP to attend to my first VolCom meeting ( Volunteer Committee), which was very interesting and useful. Some people followed from Kampong Cham (KC) a day afterwards because on the 1st of November, there was the amazing Dragon Boat race with the great After party at the roof of the Tamarind.

Yes, I am having fun!

PP impressions

01.11.09

Sue and Carol

The Boat race was such an amazing experience! Around 400 dragon boats were waiting to be raced on the Mekong river during the current water festival.

yes, we are ready to win!!

We were 42 VSO participants in life jackets, the only boat with women on board!

our Captain

Hakki and me

After the dressing up with VSO cap and T-shirt (this year all in green), we went on a big pick up truck to the river front, where lots of other teams were waiting already.

the Stung Trenger- Helen, Delia, Holli and me

The actual race was great fun.

Although this year the river is one meter higher then usual.

So the stream was strong and it took us a while to paddle up the river to get to the start line.

group picture with life jackets

Also all the other boats overtook us of course already by then and made fun of us in a nice way. I could feel then that Cambodians take this event very serious.

When we had the initial race against our racing partner, we didn’t even manage to keep up with them for a minute.

VSO in green and orange

They overtook us in seconds.

getting sorted

Then the next two boats who raced after us came and overtook us. Fortunately we then finished but the very strong stream took us away a long way, so we weren't able to pass the king and the queen to wave at them, like the other participants did.

before the race started

Apparently, we were in telly that day. Must have looked pathetic...

The 'After party' was great fun

Oly

with Wendy at her local po-cha-nea tan mee

knyom

Dels

Ems

Holli darling

Evic and Helen

Then we had another week of Language and getting used to KC, until we went off to the placement visit week.

In this week, each volunteer traveled to their own province to see their placement, meet future colleagues, sort out housing and get an impression of what they can expect after the ICT.

Impression on my way home from work

more sunset in ST

I travelled up to Stung Treng with lovely Carol, whom I will work closely together with, Ferdi, and Maria.

ST waiting house

Both of them are from the Philippines and Ferdi works in Livelihoods and Maria will replace Delia

Delia on peadiatric ward

at the end of the year, as a Nutrition Advisor : ( . I showed Carol also the hospital complex.

at peadiatric ward in ST

I stayed in my house and it felt very weird, being back home, but also very nice and like home.

in the market in ST, a beggar with a half dead

my orchid, first time it's blossoming

spritz the juice into your beverage,

On the last day in ST we had a party at my house.

Ferdi made Phillipino food, sticky yello rice

Then we travelled back to PP the next day.

dry your hands with some tissue

and then ask for more ice, or a toothpick

Carol having a good time

In PP, I partyed hard I must admit, too much probably, going to the Heart of Darkness and all that... but it was also fun.

I also visited the "Killing Fields" with John of course, who gave me another lesson in history.

Carol

with colourful sarongs in the background

The Programme Office in PP provided us with other interesting sessions about HIV- and AIDS in Cambodia, Child protection and First Aid Training, as well as a visit to the British Embassy where we met the gorgeous British Embassador.

drink after saying: cheer-moi or soka-pe-ap la-or

Afterwards I went to the German Embassy and got myself registrated ( endlich Mami!)

Dara, our language teacher, is also a survivour of the Khmer Rouge regime, he did forced labour in the countryside and then stayed for 10 years in a Refugee camp. He told us his moving story. He is a great man.

Back in KC, more language every day, eating out, getting to know each other.
I got a nasty chest infection, treated myself with fresh ginger, lemon and honey tea. After a week, it got better.

pulling on a tail of a crocodile

One afternoon, Oly organised a little charity thing at a temple, not far from our school.

We saw children who danced for us traditional khmei dances

and it was so great.

Apsara performance

I loved it so much.

the coconut dance

we just about made it over

Especially one girl was outstandingly brilliant and beautiful.

Afterwards we all gave a donation to the charity.

Troughout the two months of being away, I run in preparation for the 10 k marathon in Siem Riep, around Ankor wat. Now I feel more then exited about it. Can't wait in fact...

Oly is doing Carol's blog with a brushetta on his lap

This weekend ( 28/29.11.), we'll have a home stay planned. That means tomorrow, we will be picked up to stay with a local family in a rual village over night. Everything will be very basic and they can't speak any english or german. So we can practise our newly learned khmei plenty. We got instructions what to take with us and also for the family, so Carol and me got shopping at the market the other day and bought Sompots ( traditional long skirts, one for us, one for the mother), Kroma ( the traditional red and white checked scarf for the father), colouring books and kreyons for the children and fresh fruit for the whole family. I also got soap for them. We also have toothbrushes and toothpaste from the hotelroom that we will take with us. Everybody takes a moskito net also.
Looking forward to that.

After that weekend we have only 4 more days here in Kampong Cham language training and eating out....

Carol and Ashish

Dara njam bay

dinner in KC at Jo's

then we will go back to PP for another 2 days and then a few of us will go to Siem Riep for the Marathon and then thats it. ICT has finished.

I'll return back to work for 2 weeks, until my dear friend Carmen arrives from the UK. We'll spend christmas together and New Year in the hot. And once she leaves, my sister and my mum will arrive. So I have so much to look forward to.

I hope you are all well. Saw the other day on a german programm in TV, called DW (Deutsche Welle), how the lights got started on the Ku'damm in Berlin and I saw the christmas markets and I felt very homesick then. It looked cold but cosy... Here, I wouldn't notice at all if it was christmas or not. They don't celebrate it.

Take care everyone! And I am open to any kind of donation you want to make.

inside the Fraginpany's

Lots of love,

Yours Katja

28./29.11.2009

“This night is never going to end” I thought, when I tried so hard to sleep last night.
It was the end of our 7th week of ICT and we were doing the “homestay”.
This time, most volunteers shared a family, because our group is big, with 21 education, livelihoods and health volunteers; we also needed to be paired off into vegetarian and non-vegetarians. Our landlady and mum for one day and one night picked us up after we all met with the local village chiefs. Maria and I shared, and we had plenty of time to practise our newly learned Khmei, with which we had been well equipped by our one and only Dara. In the morning we played with children from the neighbourhood and got to know our new home and had lunch. After having had a nap and getting a first taste of the bed, which didn’t have a mattress, we walked to the market, strolled around and met other friends. I was very thankful to get an insight of village life, especially wandering through paddy fields enjoying the typical rich aroma of the rice plants; I experienced the wonderful silence except from the occasional birds, singing from the palm trees, feeling the warm sun on my skin and seeing the lush green shades and blue sky together. It made me realise again, how much I love Cambodia.
After an early “meaty” dinner, we played with the children again. The colouring book with the crayons were especially appreciated.
The light went out at 8pm. In the room where our bed was, also mum and her two children slept on a mat on the floor. Before she went to bed, she gave us a potty to use during the night, in case we need to “wee”. The heavy steel doors were locked.
So the night started early, and I tried every position to make myself comfortable, but it didn’t help to make the bed any softer. Meanwhile I could hear mum snoring, rats running around and the scratching sound of cockroaches. Each time I dozed off a little bit, mum or one of her two children used the potty in the dark. Although we had a mosquito net, something horrible stung me on my arm through it and it made me really jump, because of course I thought at least it must have been a scorpion. To get over that shock, I tried to read to let time pass but then I didn’t want to wake Maria with the light. So finally when the roosters started to welcome the morning, I found a little bit of sleep. At 6 I was glad to smell the firelight and was looking forward to the “meaty” borbor (porridge) breakfast.

I heard that the majority of our group really enjoyed the experience. Some of us had mattresses, some didn’t. Some just couldn’t sleep together in one bed, as one particularly manly pairing started to get into the double bed to which they had been assigned, one of them cried out: “ I can’t do this! I am a man! And I only sleep with women!” After some small commotion, mats were laid on the floor and another mosquito net was rigged up, upon which both manly parties could sleep soundly without trepidation and an easy conscience; the house also proved resilient enough to withstand their snoring.

Another volunteer was called by nature in the night; venturing to the outside toilet with her headlamp, she discovered that her path to the WC was blocked by four cows, who looked particularly threatening in the dark. Not daring to disturb them and cause a stampede in the middle of the night, she retreated back into the dark common sleeping area where after some thought and using the profound ingenuity of the English, she improvised a urine recepticle the nature of which is unmentionable; only to say that it resulted in great mirth for the other onlooking nek-smek-chet. The volunteer in question was particularly fearful “in case her cup runneth over”!

The food was delicious and the host families very friendly and helpful everywhere. The children were always cute and smiling and curious about the strange foreigners in their midst. Somehow communication always worked despite our limited vocabulary. Some of us discovered that with the older generation of villagers, that a combination of “Khmei”, “Barang” and “sign language” worked very well. Some of us were even seen to be declining French verbs using fingers in the dust. Others proved themselves much more capable and fluent in Khmei alone (Thank you Dara!)
At 8:30 in the morning, we made our “bumpy” way back to the guest-and VSO house in Kampong Cham.

Thank you VSO, especially our great organizers Pisit and Soklaing.

Katja H
John P
Carol K

Article for nek-smet-chet, the quarterly newsletter for volunteers in Cambodia*

written by

katja-horsch on November 25, 2009 from Phnom Penh, Cambodia

from the travel blog: ICT- In Country Training

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