When I was about ten years old I used to visit a young mother because I liked playing with her baby. I don’t remember how I came to know her but she lived in a house on a street between my house and St Josephs Primary and I remember stopping in to visit them on … More Imperfect Souls
Coming from a place where this is the normal standard of sharps care in hospitals… …. it came as quite a shock to me when I first visited a health care facility in a third world country and encountered this. Puncture-proof, well designed plastic containers with clear labeling are the basic standard in western hospitals, … More My Cambodian Week
United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) defines an orphan as a child who has lost one or both parents. Using this definition, they estimate that there are 132 million orphans in the world, but of this number, children who have lost both parents (double orphans) total 13 million – still a staggering number. HIV is named … More An Infinite Learning Curve
This week I met a new patient who was unable to control quiet tears every time any of the staff walked into her isolation room. That’s not especially surprising, being diagnosed with two stigmatising diseases (HIV and DRTB) in a country where the majority are already consumed by poverty-related stress. I knew that as the … More Unequal Exaggerations
If that was a week in Sihanoukville, then I guess I’ve had it! Today I start the journey home in time for work on Monday afternoon. Partly to have some down time and partly to avoid the seediness and desperation in the tourist areas, we chose to stay near the private beach of our basic … More When the War Was Over
After spending more than ten years in the same job – which I loved very much – I was well and truly ready for a change. But being slightly older, settled and happy made for a very cozy comfort zone. One friend jogged me into action. Prompted by regular ambiguous references to my imminent Long … More From Comfort Zone to Coconut Mission
The other night we went to Sandan Restaurant in Sihanoukville for dinner. Very young apprentice waiters and waitresses, many quite hesitant and nervous, served us under the watchful eye of a slightly older, more confident and experienced young supervisor. Occasionally the apprentices would approach us independently and occasionally the supervisor would accompany them to our … More Templed Out
The roads leading out of Phnom Penh are chaotic with many traffic sights. Traveling south on the bus I had my camera ready and snapped many pictures, occasionally noticed by subjects who happened to realise what I was up to through the bus window and who without fail responded with an amused smile from their … More A Parable From Paradise
Yesterday four of us (2 Australian, 1 French and 1 Slovakian) cycled a 70km journey through the Cambodian countryside. We had two aims. First, to experience the fairytale scenic villages along the shores of Kampong Cham, including a visit to a beautiful temple complex. Second, to visit a young patient who was sent home from … More Cycling in the Countryside
When it’s time to plant and grow the rice, it’s time for Barang to take a lot of photographs ~ Me, July 2014 Our current pre-language-class routine happens at the end of three work days per week. One, two or three of us meet three of our young students at the office, wander past another location to … More Rice and Resistance
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