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.
There are so many cultural quirks in Cambodia that you could write a book on them, if you were confident enough in your knowledge. One of my favourites, perhaps because of the similarity with Central Australian indigenous custom, is the practice of referring to people according to an assumed kinship status. Here I am often … More Bongs and Tycoons
Just over two years ago, during a boat cruise on Lake Windermere in north-west England, a small island in the lake captured my imagination when the guide described it as the place which had inspired Arthur Ransome’s children’s adventure series, Swallows and Amazons. Tonight at a hotel in Siem Reap I turned on the television … More Miracles, Swallows and Amazons
A first impression of Phnom Penh for any newcomer will likely relate to the traffic. Sitting at intersections beside trailers piled disproportionately high, their loads towering ludicrously into the sky, you may have fleeting images of death-by-crushing. Ladders stand tall on seats of motos between the back of the driver and the front of the … More Making Sense of Another World
One morning about 13 months ago I was unsuccessfully trying to help Mum with her iPad. The Siri feature kept turning on at inopportune moments so I was showing Mum how Siri works, as well as how to turn her off. I turned Siri on to ask her a question just as Mum spoke, which … More Saturday Lunch Musings
The other day we saw a full-size fridge standing upright between two men, the guy at the back balancing it in place against the back of the guy in front as he drove them to their destination through dense traffic on a motorbike. Unprepared, no cameras were at the ready. It takes quite a lot … More Rainbows of Raincoats
It’s a five hour bus ride from Kampong Cham to Siem Reap. I was the only Barang on the bus which is a reasonably unusual experience, especially on a route to the very touristic town of Siem Reap. Seat 29 was my allocation but someone had already taken it. One of the many young men … More The Frangipanis Above Me: Part 2
A friend was telling me the other day about her experience on a medical mission in Haiti. In 2010 a catastrophic earthquake killed at least 100,000 people, maimed many more and destroyed existing infrastructure and services. Many countries responded with humanitarian aid. By the time my friend’s mission began, some years later, she witnessed examples … More The Frangipinis Above Me: Part 1
Today I visited Chey Chumneas Referral Hospital in Kandal Province, near the Ta Khmau roundabout a short drive south of Phnom Penh, with my friend “Samantha” and her severely disabled son who I will call “Alex”. He is 3.5 years old now, immobile, contracted, unable to speak or even so much as turn his head, … More Disability Detective
When I first met Paula and her family, her father invited me to visit their village with the offer that he would take us out on his fishing boat. Now that I know them well, he lives in Malaysia in order to earn enough money to continue paying off the family’s debt, incurred throughout the … More Far Flung Fishing Friends
Balancing two boxes of mangoes on her head, a complete stranger greeted me gregariously as we came face-to-face around the same corner this morning. The only word I understood was “American” but I recognised a sales pitch and turned her down as graciously as possible. Lifting my parasol to dodge the roofs of tuk tuks … More Pearls of Maternal Wisdom
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