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
It’s probably ignorant of me but I don’t think I had ever heard of boules, also known as pétanque before last week when a French colleague gave a set to the office as a Christmas gift. Since then I see it everywhere. It seems to be a sport du jour across Kampong Cham, probably across … More Boules, Badminton and a Broken Bamboo Bridge
It is estimated that 95% of Cambodians are Buddhist. Apart from the fact that people politely acknowledge Christmas as meaningful to westerners, there is a complete absence of Christmas here. I may have seen two Christmas trees, which appeared about a week ago, outside some tourist hotels along the riverside. Apart from that it’s been … More Cambodian Christmas
My brother is profoundly deaf and his primary communication is sign language. Living in a hearing world he manages to get by with spoken and written English, but his grammar and style are very similar to that of someone with English as a Second Language (ESL). His communication struggles can be extreme at times as … More Monolingual Me
A motorbike carrying four people is not unusual but I was slightly surprised to realise that Dad, driving, had one arm on the handlebars of a bicycle being driven home alongside the family. Ten year old boys line up two or three behind their underage driver alongside young families and crowds of teenagers. One father … More Driving Cambodia
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