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
He lives in a home with walls constructed of bamboo, elevated on wooden stumps ten ladder steps from the ground. I have cycled or tuk tuked along this track which runs parallel with the Mekong countless times over the past four years. The track passes through many impoverished communities, an interweave of Buddhist and Islamic … More Boat Baby Update
“Kindness is a free currency from a well that will never dry up,” “The most efficient way for you to act with young people is to be a calming force.” ~ Lady Gaga … More The Only Thing is Kindness
The congested, hot, overstocked and fascinating Phsar (Market) Tuol Tom Poung, or Russian Market as it’s known in English, takes up a full block of the Phnom Penh neighbourhood I live in. From the top floor of my apartment building we can see the rooftops of the Russian Market – a patchwork of multi-coloured, rusty … More Heart Strings 02
When I first heard about Sokum’s condition, her husband called it “corollary heart disease”. Obviously he meant “coronary artery”, but why would a 20 year old already have coronary artery disease? It had to be Rheumatic Heart Disease. When I visited last week I wrote “Rheumatic Heart Disease” on a scrap of paper for her … More Heart Strings 01
Anyone else with a tendency for writing would have blogged ceaselessly had they lived the month I just lived. Midway through my one year assignment in Cambodia, I traveled home to Australia and New Zealand to visit family and friends, visiting two major Australian cities, the Australian outback and various locations around the south island … More Culture Clash
Fundraising for the 20yo woman with (probable?) Rheumatic Heart Disease needing urgent heart surgery continues. A friend asked me to prepare a Powerpoint presentation for a fundraiser she is organising and I thought I would share it here as it summarises some of the stories I’ve spoken about disjointedly. Story One: An Inconceivable Connection In … More Unconnected Connections
Yesterday I received this message from Sokum’s husband. It’s not a good medical description of her condition but it’s an excellent description of what she and her family are experiencing right now and of why I’m hoping along with them that the money for her surgery can somehow be raised in time. Anyone touched by … More Update on Being Twenty
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