Sabrina's Travel Notes

The Final Entry

whitesa — Fri, 26 Aug 2011 22:09:00 GMT

Its Friday 26 August 2011 and I am now back in the UK. After an epic journey of 32 hours--(over 10 hours of which were layovers) it was amazing to wake up this morning to fresh country Gloucestershire air and Jon's lovely parents. It was very sad to get in the tuk tuk to the airport on Wednesday night, so thank you to Joe and Meander for making sure that I got there in the end.

So, now is the time to try and share with you the last bit of my Cambodian experience. It’s strange that the summer is already over, and it feels as though it weren't that long ago that I was writing the first entry. I think it is impossible to share fully with all of you just what the 3 month adventure was like, but I look forward to catching up with all of you over a nice glass of wine in the very near future.

I spent my last 3 weeks cracking on with work. The NGO I worked for presented at an NGO conference on reintegration programs for victims of human trafficking a few weeks ago. This was really the first time that I got to see all of the NGOs in Phnom Penh who work in the same area in the same room. The strangest part of the conference was leaving with a feeling that many of the NGOs were all in competition with each other, instead of keen to build on each other's strengths and weaknesses. Governmental officials also opened and closed the ceremony, and this, perhaps was the biggest shock of all. I left with the impression that the speaker’s had very little understanding of what NGOs in this field actually do and that the problem is too big to actually be able to tackle. You can imagine the shock. Either way, it was an enlightening experience. The aims of the conference were not terribly well understood on the whole, (there were, however, some wonderful presentations) and I believe a lot of this had to do with this sense of competition (over funding and/or status I imagine).

After the conference, I received approval to begin my research and interviews with some of the girls at the shelter, on top of finalising all of the bits and pieces that I worked on over the last few months, of course. After jumping through a few hoops, my lovely friend, colleague and excellent translator, Saran, helped me conduct 21 interviews with our girls. This was perhaps the hardest part of the trip, as I was given access to their case files and learnt about the horrible things that happened to them, but on the other hand, the findings of the interviews were very useful. It was a rather emotional experience, but it put a lot of things in perspective. These girls are the most grateful people I’ve ever met. They are grateful for everything, and do not complain. When I look at myself and children in the UK and USA, it is incredible how selfish we can all be. All for the sake of having been privileged enough to have born into a developed country which offers so many opportunities, many of us lose sight of what we have. Instead, we tend to keep asking for more, and can easily forget just how lucky we have all been. This was never more evident than in the recent, deeply embarrassing, London riots.

Perhaps the most depressing thing about the situation of these girls is that their opportunities are halted by a deeply embedded culture which represses women. I believe I have already written about the Chbab Srey, the Code of Conduct for Women, which more or less states that no matter what the man/husband does, the woman must support him. Even if the man beats her, rapes her, cheats on her, she must always support him. Additionally, once an unmarried woman has lost her virginity, she is considered of no further use to society and is heavily stigmatised. This usually leads to further vulnerability, which easily leads to further sexual abuse. Of course not all men/people in Cambodia adhere to these guidelines, but life in rural villages is very different and there is definitely a general sense that this is the accepted attitude. The girls, and even the young ones, are very aware of this and tend to feel very hopeless regarding prospects of one day returning to their homes. A few have decided that the best thing to do is to try to make it on their own in Phnom Penh through school and finding a good job.

Instead of becoming horribly upset, it was a good experience to become more determined to do something to try and change the future situation for these girls. I cannot do much from London of course, as the really amazing people are working every day in Cambodia with these girls and women, but I think that I have a good bit of research to try to put together something that may help in the future. I hope that the readers of this blog will also become more active in actively fighting against human trafficking, exploitation and abuse. These are not problems unique to Cambodia, but occur all across the world (and especially in Europe and the USA).

I would like to end this journal with a big thank you to all of the people who supported me on this journey, to friends, family, and my lovely boyfriend, and especially to all of the incredible people that I met in Cambodia. I feel very lucky to have such wonderful people in my life, and I truly cannot thank you enough. To my lovely friends in Cambodia, I will never forget you and I sincerely hope that it is not too long before we meet again. You have all, collectively, made this the most incredible experience of my life. For that, I am eternally grateful.

This will be the final entry of this blog-- but stay tuned in for next time, as I'm sure that there will be many more adventures to follow. And, as always, thank you for reading.

Love,

Sabrina

The final month

whitesa — Mon, 8 Aug 2011 13:49:00 GMT

It's now less than 3 weeks before I return to London. I am absolutely astounded at how quickly this summer has gone by, and will certainly be leaving Cambodia with a heavy heart.

Since the last post the bunk-beds have been delivered and assembled, Joe and I buried our heads in the mammoth EU Proposal for 2 weeks (we nearly didn't come out of it in one piece), HCC is presenting at a Conference this week, I've found a translator to help me conduct interviews and filter through other documents, John has arrived, and we spent a lovely weekend in Siem Reap. Not bad for a few weeks, eh?

The bunk beds went down a treat, and the HCC clients, staff, John, and Joe and his visiting friends, spent roughly 2 days assembling 32 bunk beds at the Shelter. It was a great day of team work, sweat, (no tears), and accomplishment. You should have seen the look on our faces when the delivery van arrived, 2 Khmer men jumped on top of the van and started handing the different pieces of the beds over the balcony on the 1^st floor of the shelter building. The best part was that everyone helped. The girls were keen to jump in and start carrying parts here and there, and it actually seemed as though everyone had a really fun day.

I'm not sure I can even fathom speaking about the EU proposal…it was a bit of a beast. The instruction manual alone was 20 pages and the final document itself felt more like a book than an application. After more than 2 weeks of hard work, Joe and I finally managed to complete the proposal and were so relieved when we dropped it off that the only reasonable thing to do was to sit and have a beer. I believe the results of the funding will be revealed in September, so cross your fingers for HCC.

Siem Reap is a definite MUST DO! It was one of the best weekends I have ever had. John and I ventured onto the Mekong Express Limousine Bus at 2:30pm for the 6 hour journey. 3.5 hours into the journey the bus totally broke down. We had no idea at the time how long we would be waiting, until about an hour later when we were told that a bus from Siem Reap was being sent to pick us up. It could have been a horrible trip, but we met some fantastic travelers on the bus (including an Australian beatboxer and a lovely Khmer tour guide). Finally at around 10:30-11pm we arrived in Siem Reap. The next few days were spent cycling endlessly through ancient temples, eating local delicacies (including snake and crocodile) and getting far too much sun. I don't want to spoil the trip for you by saying too much, but can only encourage you to do it. It is far too incredible to pass up.

So what will I do in the final 3 weeks in Phnom Penh? Well, I am finally starting to organise my own research into reintegration programs for victims of Human Trafficking and am looking to the future-UNODC maybe? There is also Regent's to think about, and finding a flat in London (and hopefully enjoying a roast dinner or two).

I know that the trip here isn't over yet, but I really feel like I've nearly done all of what I came here to do, both professionally and personally. There is still a lot of work to be done in the next 2 weeks, but I think its better that way. As I've said before, my only sadness is that I cannot stay a little bit longer.

I imagine there will be only one more post for this journey, so thank you in advance for all of your support, kind words, and keen interest.

X S

Photos: Siem Reap

whitesa — Mon, 8 Aug 2011 13:15:00 GMT

Exploring Ancient Temples of the Khmer Empire.

Photos: Koh Kong

whitesa — Thu, 4 Aug 2011 13:51:00 GMT

Field Visit to Koh Kong, Cambodia, on the border with Thailand

Photos: The Last Month

whitesa — Tue, 19 Jul 2011 12:52:00 GMT

I finally have a USB to upload photos. Many apologies for the delay

Bunk Beds and Chicken Coops

whitesa — Sun, 17 Jul 2011 20:04:00 GMT

I cant believe that I’m more thank half-way through my time in Cambodia. In a little over a month, I’ll be back on London. Although I miss my friends in London, I really wish I could have more time here.

The last few weeks have been great in very different ways. Thanks to a generous donation from one of the readers of this blog, the $2700 was secured for bunk beds in the shelter. We even managed to cut a deal with the bed makers so that we could mattresses and mosquito nets. Local builders are making the beds, and they should be ready for delivery on the 29^th of July, just in time for John to help put them together. I cannot thank the wonderful donor enough, and I know that the donation will help to make the shelter feel more like a home.

Yesterday was spent building a chicken coop. A lot of money is spent on food for the girls in the shelter, and so HCC has tried to find to ways to cut costs and make the center more self reliable. For the last few years they have been able to get fish from the lake on the premises, and this year they will get 50 chickens to raise as well as a vegetable garden. All of these projects are a great way to give the girls, and especially the young ones, what it means to work as a unit and also how to provide for yourself. It was very funny to build this chicken coop in the Cambodian heat, as it was not at all what I expected. I imagined an English style chicken coop—simple design, wood, nails, ect. I didn’t even think that we do it Cambodian style. When I arrived there was frame built out of what I think is bamboo, and there were hundreds of palm leaf roof parts. A few o f my colleagues immediately climbed high up on the structure to begin tying the palm leaves to the roof. I myself worked from the ground. It was really nice to be a part of the project, and great to learn about the process. The same methods used to build the chicken coop are used for houses in the countryside (except they are usually built on stilts). I have to admit, the heat got the better of me and I didn’t stay the whole day (I’m sure I will hear about it at work on Monday).

In the last few weeks I have been lucky to go to the shelter frequently and spend some time with the girls. In a short time, I’ve come to really enjoy my time there, and especially with the little ones. It is really heartbreaking, however, to see just how many young girls are there (and by young, I mean younger than 10 years old). Apparently in the last 5 years especially, the girls are getting younger and younger. For those of you who haven’t been reading, the girls are at the shelter because of at least 1 of the following reasons: Human Trafficking (usually sex trafficking for prostitution), exploitation (also usually sexual exploitation), abuse (also usually sexual) or because they are seen as being at high risk for one the previous situations. The youngest girl at the shelter is currently 6 years old and was abused by a village member, and she arrived in the shelter a few days before I landed in Phnom Penh. Many of the girls stay at the shelter for quite a long time, and there is one case where the now woman has been living there for 10 years. I don’t know her story, but have been told that the things that happened to her so terrible, that she now suffers from very severe mental disabilities. She doesn’t want to spend time with any people, refuses to sit near anyone, eat with anyone, speak with anyone, ect. I’ve never seen such dead vacant eyes in my life, and it is truly heartbreaking to even begin imagining what she must have gone through.

Work is great, and I am getting some experience in writing proposals. We are currently trying to attain funding from the EU for a social enterprise business/training center in Phnom Penh for the girls. One of the main criticisms of tertiary education in Cambodia is that it doesn’t provide transferrable, marketable skills which are useful in the work environment. My colleague, Joe, came up with the idea of setting up a business in Phnom Penh to give the girls the opportunity to attain a wide set of skills. Hopefully there will be more details to come, but we are both heavily buried under this monster application.

Other than that, John should be here at the end of the month so that we can to Siem Reap (where the infamous Ankor Wat temple is located) and Mondulkiri (apparently the most naturally beautiful province in Cambodia—I hope John and I can take an elephant ride tour through the jungle to all of the waterfalls). I can only now encourage you to visit Cambodia and see for yourself what a magical place it is. It’s impossible to put into words what I love about this place, but there is definitely something in the air, and I already can’t wait to come back.

Thank you again for reading and for your support.

Love,

X S

Week 3 & 4, Singapore and Batam Island

whitesa — Tue, 5 Jul 2011 21:00:00 GMT

I’ve now been in Cambodia for just over a month, and I absolutely cannot believe how quickly it has all gone by. Again, in some ways I feel like I’ve been here forever, but in others, it seems as though I’ve just arrived. It’s a strange dichotomy, but Cambodia is a special place.

You’ll be disappointed to learn that my Khmer still isn’t up to scratch. Its all of those symbols, and the different dialects that people use. I can’t seem to get my head around it, but will certainly make it a goal this month. I can finally hear when one word stops and another begins, so that is progress.

The last few weeks have been quite busy as I am sort of creating my role within HCC (Healthcare Center for Children Cambodia). I’m learning a lot about the different ways that NGOs work, and the many different dynamics that are required to make it successful. I suppose in a way you have to run it as you would a business, but due to the human rights nature of the work, it needs something really special—entirely in the form of people. I cannot express enough how lovely the staff at HCC are. There is nothing but kindness, compassion and incredibly hard work. In the last month, approval to open another shelter for trafficked victims has been approved. I had nothing to do with it, but am amazed at watching it all come together. We are also in the process of finding $2,700 USD to buy beds for the 51 girls we currently have housed in one of the shelters. The women and girls have all been victims of either human trafficking, exploitation or sexual abuse (some are as young as 4 years old), and we are trying to make the shelter more comfortable for them. At the moment they are all squeezed on mats onto a hard tile floor, scrunched together. Hopefully we will find a generous donor in the next week or two.

So what am I doing? Well, I’m trying to reinvent the wheel. Not totally, but I’ve found a nice productive point to work in. I’m spending a lot of time creating legal documents to ensure confidentiality and protection of the clients, working on the way research is conducted, and am trying to write an article for publication for HCC (separate from the article that I will submit in London). I am really enjoying it, and am really getting into research methodology, drafting sensitive and thorough questionnaires, analysing data, ect. I sort of feel as though I am in my element. The last month really reassures what I have thought about for a long time, and that is increasing my experience and professional capacity as a researcher. (Hopefully the school’s reading my PhD application will feel the same—but that’s another chapter to explore when I get back to London).

Phnom Penh, again, I can only say that it is an amazing city. I don’t know what it is about this place, but I really love and am planning my return next summer (if optimism is enough to fly over on). The sights, the sounds, the food markets (I’m becoming a good barterer in my weekly market food shop—although usually I’m staring at a fruit/vegetable trying to figure out what it is). I’m settled in well in my flat, and have even made friends with my local moto/tuk tuk drivers. They are very sweet and finally give me a reasonable price when I want to go somewhere.

Last weekend I finally went to see John at his new place on Batam Island, Indonesia. After torrential rains and wondering if I was going to have to swim to the airport in PP (and one change of clothes later), I finally got on a plane for Singapore. Poor John was waiting for 2 hours while I queued for eternity in customs, then found a lost child in the terminal. But, we finally made it, a real “Love Actually” airport moment. The really funny moment was when we arrived at our backpackers hostel. Singapore is an extortionately expense place, so we decided to splash out for a double room in a hostel. To our surprise our private room had 2 tiny beds with bars in-between them. (I’ll leave you to laugh on that one). But, the evening was great-we went out for drinks on the river and saw some incredible places and beautiful Singapore by night. The next day was spent sight-seeing (drinking our favourite beer—Erdinger), drinking Singapore Slings in the famous Raffles Hotel, and finally getting on the ferry through turbulent waters back to Batam Island. I won’t bore you with the details, but it was beautiful—sunshine, beaches… and then the funny side. On Saturday we spent the day exploring Batam's scenery and going to the other 3 island attached by bridge to Batam (which was incredibly, breathtakingly beautiful). There aren’t many Boule’s(western people) on Batam Island, and so everywhere we went, we were greeted with 20 or so screaming girls asking to have photos with us. This was very strange. After 1 day of trying to mix with the locals and have a real Indonesian experience, we ended up escaping to a quiet resort beach. It was the strangest feeling, all of these people watching you, chattering after you, ect. The Khmer in Cambodia are too reserved, polite and/or shy to do such things. I really understand what John means when he says he is totally isolated. He really is. It is a beautiful island, but unless you aren’t western, searching for prostitutes, or old, there really isn’t much to do. (He has since made a few younger friends).

Sadly, the weekend came to an end far too soon at 5am on Monday morning when John had to bring me back to the ferry. Then began the most adventurous journey to the airport that I have ever had. First, the ferry left 30 minutes late, then it stopped in the water for 15 minutes (letting a shipping boat pass), then I was shoved out of the way on the race to get to immigration, waited in another queue 45 minutes, raced to a taxi, got stuck in traffic, and finally made it to Singapore airport 15 minutes before check-in closed. It was certainly an adventure, but you cannot always plan for disasters.

I’ll leave you with that. I know you are all asking for photos, and they are coming, but I have to find another lead that goes from my camera to the computer as I’ve lost mine. I will make it a priority this week.

Thank you again for reading, it is really lovely to share this with you, and especially with those of you that I’ve lost touch with.

X S

Week 2 & 3

whitesa — Thu, 16 Jun 2011 12:31:00 GMT

Hello All,

I’m now 2.5 weeks in and already have quite a lot to share with you.

Ive been working in the office for over 2 weeks now, trying to get a feel for all of the work that HCC does. The staff at HCC are some of the most wonderful, goodhearted people that I have ever met. I get the impression that they function like a little family. I’ve been very lucky to have been met with such kindness and support. The work I’ve been given is also very satisfactory. I’m pleased to see that I am actually going to be doing the kind of work that I wanted to.

Also, I’m now an avid Phnom Penh Cyclist. It took a bit of hesitation to get on the roads, but being a barang (that’s the Khmer word for “French”, from the days of Indochina, but they now use it to refer to white/western people), most Khmer avoid me on the roads. There is a strange rhythm to the chaos that I’ve gotten used to pretty quickly. I’m going to try and put together a video with a friend of mine to show you what driving on the roads here is like. The best way I can describe it is for you to imagine you are walking down oxford street on a Saturday afternoon. The way that people walk in Oxford St is the same way they drive in Phnom Penh. As with Oxford St, you just have to sort of find your way in the chaos.

The flat is great, and it is really nice to begin feeling settled. I live with a French and an Italian, and they are great fun. There are many evenings spent on the balcony listening to music and drinking tea. The tuk tuk drivers outside of our house are now less harassing, and much more friendly. As I live so close to the entrance to Tuol Sleng, the first week I moved here all I heard when I left the house was “Tuk tuk”, “Tuk Tuk”, “moto” from about 15 different drivers. Somehow getting on my bicycle wasn’t quite enough of an indication that I didn’t need a lift.

Last night I returned from a field visit to Svay Rieng Province, where some of our projects are in the works. We arrived Monday afternoon to a town very close to the border with Vietnam (about 20km). We were met with about 16 gigantic casinos, and very little else. The town is a popular stop off point for migrants and travellers heading towards Ho Chi Minh city, and is a bit bleak, to say the least. I didn’t realise that when you are at any border town in Cambodia (and probably in the whole region), there are 2 languages frequently spoken. So in our town, all signs were in Khmer and Vietnamese (as was the cuisine). I have a new found love in Vietnamese coffee, which is everywhere in most parts of Cambodia (due to high migration rates and the former invasion of the Vietnamese at the end of Pol Pot’s regime). In the border towns, you are never very far from a great café. For those of you who know me well, it was a great relief to find good coffee.

On Tuesday morning (at 6:30am L), after battling with a very unhappy tummy, we headed out to the remote communities within the province to conduct some awareness raising events, in order to prevent sexual and labour exploitation and blind migration (migration where you do not have a job lined up before you cross the border to another country). Our first stop was a school, where one of my colleagues was giving a day’s workshop to teachers, students and school directors. The aim was to give them the communication skills they needed to arrange further events, meetings and discussions regarding the issues. Pulling up to the school was very funny, as the children there had not seen many “barang”. There were about 70 little faces peering through the classroom windows, smiling and staring at my English colleague and I. They did eventually become a bit braver and started shouting “hello” at us, to show off their impressive English skills. We then visited another school and did a session with children on the dangers of migration.

We also went to a local village meeting, headed by the village chief, to give a discussion on domestic violence and its effect on children, the family and the community. It was a big shock to see the kind of poverty that existed in this village and in the villages we passed. The roads are really dire (we nearly tipped over into a rice field a few times). The houses were also poorly constructed, with many made out of clay and palm leaves, others of sheet metal, and a few of wood. Many young children were running around barefoot and naked. Many people, young and old, had nearly all of their teeth rotted out. The toilets were also a new experience for me. (I will leave you guessing on this one).

The Khmer women are so very shy and it was difficult to get them to speak out in the presence of the men. We did see quite a lot of involvement from them, but I couldn’t understand most of it. I did have the wonderful translations provided by my Svay Rieng colleague, Wootee. The funniest thing on this day was running in to a Peace Corps volunteer who was from Georgia and went to the same undergraduate university that I did! (Valdosta State University).

On Wednesday we went to a few schools to conduct more awareness raising activities with the children, had another village meeting on domestic abuse, and conducted a few home visits to families with children at risk of not attending school. The home visits were the most fascinating to me. HCC works not only in protection of children/young people who are sexually/labour exploited, but also in PREVENTION programmes, aimed at curbing the likelihood that the children will be sold, pulled out of school, sent to work abroad. Many of the families sell their children or send them away because they need money for medicine, food or other basic necessities. Therefore, we have a few programmes aimed at helping them improve their financial situation. We give families 1 cow, vegetable seeds, and agricultural training. We then monitor their progress to see if they are managing to earn more money. It was nice to see the programme implemented, but unfortunately our field staff in Prey Vieng are under huge resource constraints. The province is quite big, and most of the villages they serve are very remote, and impossible to get to if there has been a lot of rain. Therefore, in conducting the trainings, awareness raising, monitoring visits, meetings with chiefs to identify at risk families, they simply do not have the time in the day to gather the needed data in order to analyse each situation entirely. We are hoping that in sending a volunteer to Svay Rieng, it can help spread some of the work load that these two incredible people are doing. We then had another meeting with the local village, at the Buddhist monastery, to again speak about the consequences of domestic violence and migration. It was funny to be sitting next to a Buddhist temple with the orange robes hanging on the washing line. For those of you who do not know, Cambodia is a primarily Buddhist country, and all of the monks wear beautiful orange robes. It is also considered to be the greatest honour for a family to have a male child join a monastery and become a monk. Unfortunately, the greatest honour that a female child can achieve is to marry.

Last night, before heading back to Phnom Penh, one of our S.R. colleagues invited us to his family home to join them for a traditional Khmer dinner. It was such a lovely evening, filled with fantastic food, beautiful scenery of rice fields, and truly wonderful company. One of our colleagues is in his 40s, and shared some of his experiences of the Pol Pot regime and the following civil war. As a teenager in 1975 he was sent to a camp for other teenagers to learn how to work in the rice fields. Later on, he was trained to become a soldier. He didn’t want to say much about what happened, but only told us of a few horrible things he witnessed. For instance, as part of the KR (Khmer Rouge) policy, religion was not allowed. If any person was caught worshiping a Buddha or conducting any religious ceremonies, they were killed. If a man and woman wanted to get married, there were 1 or 2 days in the year where all of the marriage ceremonies would happen on the same day. If a man and woman were seen not to get along (if they were fighting/unhappy) in their marriage, they were killed. If you were not working hard enough in the fields (stopped to take a break for a few minutes) you were killed. They worked incredibly long hours in the fields (more than 12 hours per day), in the horrendous heat and worst conditions. I cannot even begin to imagine the fear and suffering that these people experienced. I feel in many ways that this is still very fresh, as a lot of the older generation who were caught in the midst of the violence are still alive.

Lastly, I’ve just finished a very insightful book on the sex trade. It is by Siddharth Kara and is called “Sex Trafficking: Inside the business of modern slavery”. http://www.amazon.co.uk/Sex-Trafficking-Inside-Business-Slavery/dp/0231139608 It provides a good introduction to what the trade looks like in many parts of the world, and I highly recommend it.

I will leave you all with that for today, and pictures are on their way.

Take care and thank you for reading!

x S

Nearly the end of the first week

whitesa — Sun, 5 Jun 2011 16:26:00 GMT

Hello to All.

I've been here for nearly one week and here is the status:

weather: HOT

cold showers: 25

sampling loads of the local cuisine: check (its fantastic food)

apartment: check

1st ride on a moto: check

getting lost on the back of a moto and having to call for help: check

boat down the of the banks mekong river: check

Garden party at the U.S. Embassy: check

Asian karaoke: erg...check

buy bicycle and brave the roads.... in progress

I'm nearly there.

It really has been a fantastic week. I was immediately immersed into a fantastic group of people who are all mostly working for local NGOs as well. I have been very lucky to be able to jump straight in to a wonderful group of people.

I've only completed two days of work, but I'm really pleased with the role and the potential for what I can contribute. Thursday morning began with a visit to the HCC centre in Kandal (just outside of Phnom Penh). The centre houses around 50 sexual abused, prostituted, or labour exploited girls. Most of them are quite young. The biggest shock was walking into to meet their newest girl. She couldn't have been more than 4 years old, had her 2 front teeth nearly completed rotted out, and was rescued from a village where a local villager had sexually abused her. This, for me, was the first reality check. The women who are working at the centre, teaching them vocational skills and providing counselling and rehabilitation services are the real heroes here. The work that they do is unrivalled in so many way.

Another horrible shock took the form of the dormitories that they sleep in. As HCC depends entirely on outside donors to support its 4 centres around Cambodia, there are certain basic items that just aren't possible to attain. They of course have safe shelter, protection, food, access to medical care, ect. But, there are 2 rooms with tile floors where 50 girls sleep on the hard floor. Often they are sleeping very close together in hot weather. Hopefully in the next week we can find some money for 30 bunk-beds, but we've been quoted at $3000 to get them made, complete with mattresses and delivered to the centre.

We also visited the local school in Kandal, which is located just next to the HCC centre. The school cuts a deal for the HCC girls and their education is free. The way this works is that occasionally the school will ask HCC for something, a computer, a desk, a chalkboard, ect. It was very funny to walk past all of the classroom, because at the sight of white people, all of the children ran to the windows and were staring at my colleague and I. I suppose they don't get many visitors like us.

The HCC office in Phnom Penh is also lovely, and the group of people working their are fantastic. n

The Flat:

I've just moved into my first PP flat yesterday morning. I'm still just next to Tuol Sleng, and have moved into an open air apartment with a French and Italian guy. The flats here are quite funny, as they are huge, and also quite open air. I presume it is because of the heat, and also because air conditioning is quite expensive. The bedrooms all have 4 solid walls, but the rest of the flat has aerated walls. What does that mean? There are squares cute into the wall that let you see directly outside. Its like having many little windows with no glass. I have also met the local family of bats who occasionally chill out right next to our flat.

The boatride last night was really lovely. It was one of the girl's birthdays and so we got a boat, brought our own beer, and sailed for 2 hours on the mekong. It was lovely to be able to see the city from the water, and also to enjoy a cool breeze for the first time in about 3 days.

The Karaoke, well, that was an experience. Karaoke here is very different from what you might expect. We walked into what looked like a trashy, boudoir hotel, and it is actually just a karaoke joint..nearly. You go into a private room with your group and sing just to eachother, from a very strange list of songs. Apparently it is really big with Koreans (as 3/4 of the song book was in Korean). But, that wasn't the shocking point. It turns out it is also a sort of brothel. As we walked up to our room their was a queue of 10 girls waiting for a client to choose from them. Apparently, this is very commonplace in Cambodia. There is apparently hardly any hotel, bar, ect that you walk into that doesn't have some semblance of a brothel. I have to say that will be my last journey to that place.

Other than that, I'm going to buy a bicycle today and try to brave the roads for work. The tuk tuks and motos are really making a dent in my budget, as there are hardly any sidewalks here- and it is too hot (and often dodgy) to walk anywhere. Thus, bicycle it is.

Many Thanks to all readers, and photos will come shortly.

From Phnom Penh,

Sabrina

Tuol Sleng and exploring

whitesa — Thu, 2 Jun 2011 02:56:00 GMT

My first day on PP was a bit funny. I woke up rather late--after the 25 hour journey from the UK, and had my first mission of finding a phone. I went in my first tuk tuk and manage to complete the task with a lovely driver called Rethy. Then, a cheeky massage, emails, another nap, and dinner with my future colleagues and some of their friends. It was a great first day and we went to an ex-pat bar. All in all, great group of people and really good fun. It was nice to see that there were so many people here for reasons very similar to my own.

Day 2: I'm feeling more brave and decided to go and see the town before work starts tomorrow. I started off with a visit to Tuol Sleng, the S21 Khmer Rouge Prison, which happens to be just around the corner from my hotel. It was rather embarassing to get in a tuk tuk to go about 200 meters around the corner. I did manage to get a map today so as not to embarass myself further.

Tuol Sleng: I don't think this needs much explanation. It was very sad, somber and horrible to imagine what these thousands of people had to go through. Let it be a lesson to future generations of enduring pain that this kind of hatred can cause. I've posted a few photos, certainly not of the most disturbing things I saw there.

Afternoon: Got in a tuk tuk into the centre of town-- I wanted to walk along the river. The moment I got out of the tuk tuk, the sky opened up and I got very wet, very quickly. I really must go and find a raincoat tomorrow. Then I walked around, and ended up at Phsar Thmey market, met up with a few people I had met last night for dinner, and thats all. All in all, productive, but I definitely ready to start work tomorrow.

Photos: Tuol Sleng

whitesa — Thu, 2 Jun 2011 02:33:00 GMT

S 21 Prison--wa, rningdisturbing images

Photos: Phnom Penh

whitesa — Tue, 31 May 2011 17:40:00 GMT

Arrival in Phnom Penh

whitesa — Tue, 31 May 2011 04:13:00 GMT

Hello All,

I've just arrived at my hotel in Phnom Penh and thought I'd take a moment to jot out a few thoughts. The journey was good, although quite long. My flight to Seoul was 10 hours, then had 3.5 hours layover, and then a 5 hour flight to Phnom Penh. I really did go the long way, but the price was right ;) Upon arrival it took me approximately 3 minutes to get a visa, grab my bag and exit the airport. It was a nice change from the labyrinth of Heathrow. Then there was a blast of hot air--- the doors were open, and I had my first taste of the heat that I will surely enjoy for the next few months. I was then greeted by a driver and 2 western development workers who took me to my hotel, had a beer with me, and gave me the low down on the city. All in all, not too tired, and really excited to be here.

5 Days to Go!

whitesa — Wed, 25 May 2011 01:11:00 GMT

With this entry, I hereby christen this Journal.

It's 5 days until I leave for a very long flight to Phnom Penh, and there is still quite a lot to do. Jabs, check; malaria tablets, check; mosquito repellent, check; laptop--currently being held hostage at the neighbours after a stupid delivery man left it with people we do not know and who seem not to be home, ever; packing....this is more complicated. I'm packed for Cambodia, but still need to pack up everything else and put it in storage for the summer.

I'm starting to get quite excited, but the recent volcanic eruption in Iceland could delay my flight. Cross your fingers that the ash disperses properly and its safe to fly by Sunday night at 9pm. If I can just get a plane out of Europe, it should all be fine.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-13502009

Other than that, I'm enjoying wearing long-sleeves and jackets for the last time this summer. Bring on the Heat!

Until next time.