Someone is burning the remnants of a fallen tree on a side street near the hospital. Thick smoke billows out, giving a hazy hue to the torrid air. As I cycle through the hospital grounds I wish I could photograph the family of four parked on their motorcycle under a tree. One child stands on … More Cambodian Revelations
I’ve left work behind for a few days of rest and recreation in the city, my main aim being to have the mop of discoloured shaggy hair on my head revived into something half-tolerable again. Witnessing the suffering of our patients is often heart-wrenching and this week the severe chicken pox blistering of a patient … More Pedalling Phnom Penh
Disease incidence rates are defined as the number of new cases of a given disease in a given period of time, per population. According to World Health Organisation (WHO), in 2012 Swaziland had the highest global incidence rate of Tuberculosis at an estimated 1349 people per 100,000 population. South Africa came in second at 1003/100,000. … More World Tuberculosis Day
Siem Reap is a bustling hive of tourism and wealth. Unless you are not a tourist, or one of the privileged minority benefiting from the tourism, in which case it is a bustling hive of desperation and poverty. Either way, it is a busy, vibrant place, situated 5km from the historic Angkorian temples made famous … More Monks on Motorbikes
After one of the worst weeks I’ve experienced here, it is nice to finally be able to report on something positive. Bad work experiences here are far less to do with the extreme emaciation, shocking breathlessness and brink-of-death states that surround us (horrific as they are). Rather, they have to do with trying to work … More Paralysed Carpenters and Pagodas
Today, after re-stocking my wardrobe and sipping some wine, we were approached in “Pub St”, Siem Reap by a very courteous man who had no fingers on either of his hands, and missing a foot. Not fluent in English, he presented us with a piece of paper with the below message typed out in English. … More A Brief Encounter
Tonight my mother arrived in Phnom Penh from New Zealand, and my good friend’s mother arrived with her from France. They met up in Singapore, arriving in Phnom Penh on the same flight. We were sitting poolside sipping wine at our boutique hotel when a call came through from one of the nurses. 14yo’s father … More Tonight she died
Last time I gave a pseudonym to a young patient so I could refer to him easily, he died, making me reluctant to name my young friend. But she is the same 14yo with HIV and TB that I refer to in my previous entry “Observations of Poverty”. She has been with us for the … More The Anguish of AIDS
For much of my time here I feel harrowed by the situations I see people existing in. I regularly have to talk myself out of the tears which threaten to surface as I realise the significance of the poverty I’m witnessing. But the smiles on the faces of those who own these situations usually manage … More Observations of Poverty
About half a million of Cambodia’s 15 million population are employed in the garment factory industry. These workers make around $80 per month. Export from this industry earns the Cambodian economy around $5 billion per year. In recent times garment workers have been lobbying for a pay rise to $160 per month. Today at least … More Attacked by a chicken
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