Master of Public Health & Tropical Medicine. Long standing experience with infectious disease surveillance (including influenza-like-illness monitoring), outbreak control, case management, vaccination program management. There is no health without liberty and justice. Ask anyone existing in poverty.
~ quoted in Born to Love As an expat living in Phnom Penh it is perfectly easy to ignore the poverty that the people surrounding you are immersed in. Two nights ago I walked through a crowded Night Market making my way towards colleagues at a Sky Bar above the market. A detached bystander weaving … More An Epidemic The World Needs
Recently I discovered Birdy, an English folk musician with the most unique and dreamy voice. Assisted by Birdy, the dulcet harmonies of Ed Sheeran, a good book and good friends, I enjoyed a week off with neighbours from Australia at Siem Reap and Battambang. I must have listened to Birdy’s Not About Angels a thousand … More It’s Not About Angels
One of my favourite sanctuaries in Phnom Penh is a restaurant with a secluded garden terrace on a corner. I first came here in January 2014 with Mum and Ruth, attracted by the leafy entrance as we wandered past one evening. Today a noisy construction site on the opposite corner destroys the ambience somewhat. I … More Christmas Now and When
This week I was invited to a Cham wedding through an American connection I made when we took Paula to her surgery. Despite learning a lot about Cham people in recent years, they still seem foreign and exotic to my western eyes and last night’s wedding did nothing to expel this notion. Our arrival at … More An Arabian Night
I get off the tuk tuk and the limit of what I can say to Tuk Tuk Madame (TTM) translates into something like “See you next time. I don’t know. Me …. Telephone … You” (including a little sign language just to be on the safe side). He laughs and I laugh back. The best … More Touching My Heart
MUCH has been happening here and I will blog about some of it when I can find the time. Meanwhile this powerful and beautiful song is worth a share. Especially the message at the end of the video. World Humanitarian Day One day, one message, one goal. To inspire people all over the world To … More I Was Here
Some of every day in Phnom Penh is spent in a tuk tuk with my colleagues. A few regular drivers have become firm friends through shared amusement at each other’s little ways and our limited common language. My fellow expatriates and I are currently holding a photographic competition, each of us preparing to show our … More Notes From A Tuk Tuk
This week I lost my housemate and friend to Bangladesh, where she will work with the Rohingya refugees escaping indescribable violence in Rakhine State across the border in Myanmar. We spoke a lot about them and about Cambodia before she left. It always looped back to ourselves, our appreciation for our extreme luck of birth … More Eye Is For Ice
My second bicycle ride in Kampong Cham in 2013 was with another Australian nurse and a German doctor. Four years ago perhaps even to the day, it was the end of the rainy season and the Mekong waters had receded. Planting on the floodplains was well underway, with lush green crops contrasted against deep blue … More My Cambodian Kaleidoscope
When I lived in Kampong Cham during the two years between 2013 to 2015 there was one swimming pool in this town, about 5 metres long and knee-deep, belonging to a local hotel. In the past two years two swimming pools have appeared here. “The Chinese” built a large town pool complex with four different … More Perspectives
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