Every day of the year seems to be dedicated to the awareness of an issue, even an International Day of the Toilet! Which is not as ridiculous as it sounds given that billions of people do not have a toilet and are forced to defecate in the open. 10 December (yesterday in my hemisphere) was … More International Human Rights Day
There are so many worthwhile causes in this world. I find myself saying “no” to requests for donations to all kinds of charitable organisations who approach via door knocking, mailouts, emails and telephone calls. It seems overwhelming sometimes. Only recently have I realised that the reason “we” in the western world are so inundated by … More So Many Worthwhile Causes
Many stories came out of my year in Cambodia. I feel particularly close to one of my patients and I am not sure I ever fully told (my part of) her story. At 25yo this young woman who I will give the pseudonym of Phan, was admitted to our ward weighing 21kg. Her father carried … More The Story of One Patient
A quick message from Phnom Penh Airport. Last night I received a message from one of the Alice Springs town camp kids I have known since she was five years old. She is a real stand-out and now at 16, attending boarding school with a focus on her education which if you knew where she … More Special Farewells
There’s something quite exotic about the streets of Phnom Penh, especially at night when I regularly get a sense of being inside a historical South East Asian novel, which I don’t ever recall reading. The closest I can think of is the film The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel which is set in 21st century India. … More Here in Subcity
As a young teenager in the mid 1980s Mum sent me off to boarding school and suffered severe consequences for her sins. Noone is capable of shedding such sorrowful and persistent tears as the teenage me was. Then in 1989 I traveled to London and spent the following six years living, working and studying in … More Crying for Cambodia
Cambodia has an impressive total of 28 national holidays per year. That’s another 5+ working weeks of days off added to the annual leave people can take. Not that most people are entitled to annual leave given that less than 20% work in occupations which follow the labour laws. Most people work seven days per … More Millions of Monks
Life-changing, terrible, amazing, love-drenched, enlightening, emotional, sickening, indescribable. These are a few of the many adjectives deserving of a mention in my attempt at summarising the year I just spent living in Cambodia. There are a million ways to measure my year. The number of people able to fit on a single motorbike is a … More Measuring a Year
Today I had my first contact with someone in Australia introducing me to the beginnings of what I hope will not be a quagmire of red tape around trying to raise desperately needed funds for our small but functional home of 12 HIV orphans. This evening I visited the children and had my arms draped … More New Beginnings
It’s now over a week since I saw the homeless lady with her baby. I like to think that she was able to find a safe alternative and has gone onto better things, kick started by the money earned from selling her hair. In reality it’s just as possible that she has been trafficked to … More The Difference a Little Can Make
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