Pox

I have five insect bites on my upper arm - five huge bites in a four inch radius. They are huge and itch like crazy. 1% cortisone is not very effective on such bites.

I look like I have the pox.

Nothings

You know, here every car that isn't a 4x4 is a Toyoto Camry. There are a ridiculous number of Camrys on the streets. I imagine that they account for 99% of the cars on the road. New, battered, lacking licence plates - there all Camrys. I have no theories apart from proximity to Japan but surely there'd be other kinds of Toyotos if that was the reason.

I may have mentioned that it is bloody hot at the moment

I found this a yuppie version of Howl by Ginsberg.

I'm going on holidays soon ... can't hardly wait

Ratanakiri

Well I've travelled all over this rather dusty land at this point from Poipet to Ratanakiri and its beautiful and frustrating and many other things. However i have discovered that Ratanakiri is dusty. So dusty that you cannot see out the window. I'm glad I wasn't driving. Think of the heaviest fog you've ever experienced - that is dust in Ratanakiri. In rainy season it is a town of mud.

To start, on Tuesday I was up for too early for someone who had been watching tv late into the night and off to Ratanakiri I went with my boss and the driver. The journey takes 12 hours by car and there's no other way to go as the plane has been nixed by security due to their habit of missing the runway.

So along merrily we go. I attempt to sleep in the back but the quality of the roads makes it difficult to slip into the arms of Morpheus and by boss told me that she has a great Vietnamese masssuse that comes to her house after such journeys to straighten out her back. After lunch the road got progressively worse and then we got a puncture.

Jumping out of the car was a mistake. The heat rose as the fires of hell and I would not have been surprised to see the soles of shoes dissolve but they did not. I wandered around the deserted road watching the driver changing the tire and perspiring muchly. I took pictures of the road to amuse myself - so hot - the tar was melting.

Of course then the spare tire was flat. There was no pump. The driver forget to put on the big antennae so the radio was no use. No signal on our mobiles. And the battery was dead on the satellite phone. My boss was panicking, the driver was apologising and I was thinking that I should have a quizzical look on my face. I told them that there was no choice we were driving on the flat tire to the next village because I did not want to spend the night in that deserted stretch of road - there could have been spiders!

So we drove, got the tire fixed. Finally we arrived in Ratanakiri where we were met by the project coordinator and shown to our hotel. It was lovely - nothing like the rattrap in Poipet! Dinner, book, bed.

Up early the next day and my boss is still talking about the tire to the project coordinator but I can ignore the topic now that the other girl is here. We drove over wooden bridges and crossed the river Sesan to visit the Community Development Initiative. The national volunteer has been here for the past 18 months teaching the locals about fish and forest conservation and it was a huge success. They are extremely poor but happy and insistent on sharing what they have. They fed us on fish and rice. We toured the river to visit the other project sites.

Our next adventure was that of a broken bridge. It had been fine in the morning but it was looking much more rickety now. So we got out of the car and walked over. I did not want to be in the car as it is was crossing and the driver ventured to drive over. Luckily the bridge held and we went on our merry way.

The next project was on forestry conservation and protection of the spirit forest. The indigenous people believe that spirits of their ancestors and those of the trees live in certain forests. However there is a serious issue about illegal logging by government-supported criminals and then there is the issue of the poor burning the forest to plant cashew - the local cash crop. This project will prevent the destruction of the forests and provide a sustainable livelihood for the people. One such livelihood is the sale of traditional wood carvings. They gave a wood carving to both my boss and I. Mine is a traditional hunter with a big knife. We drank rice wine and laughed a lot.

We headed back to the town of Ratanakiri for dinner and a well deserved rest - so tired I went to sleep at 8pm - had very freaky dreams.

The ride home the next day was uneventful. Mucho sleep again. Its exhausting being tossed around like a rag doll on appalling roads!

Have a great weekend

Weekend

Ugh Paddy's Day aftermath - the less said the better.

I'm probably going to Ratanakiri tomorrow. It is the most remote province and lies between Laos and Vietnam.

Should be interesting

Wild West country - Poipet

Ok so I'm back from Poipet. Poipet is a town on the border with Thailand. So much on the border in fact and immigration is in the town square. It is a filthy place. Rubbish is strewn everywhere. The place feels abandoned, as if it is not part of the rest of the country.

The road to Poipet is appalling. I have never experienced such roads - huge metre wide potholes and debris in the middle of the road. The last hour of the journey was bumpity bump and occasionally exclamations of shock at the size of the holes in the road. It is said that the government want to discourage people from using the land crossing because they earn more hard currency when people fly. It is $20 is arrive in or depart from Cambodia by air (one of the highest in the world), but just a couple of dollars for foreigners travelling by land. Incidentally it is 1000 riel or 25 cents for Cambodians to cross the border.

The entire journey was 6 hours 40 minutes to cover 360 kilometres. The final two hours took all the time apart from the occasional slamming of the brakes to prevent a pig or cow accident. The cows would not survive a clash with a Jeep – they are as skinny as supermodels. You can count each rib – I imagine Joseph’s skinny/fat cow dreams when I see them.

The land is dry. It seems parched. It appears incapable of supporting life and yet when the rains come, the colours will be vivid and I am told that the green of the rice paddies is a beautiful sight. All the houses are built on stilts (or on high pavements) in preparation for the rainy season.

My notion of going to Poipet was to accompany my boss and get a story out of it. I am a de facto journalist writing for the website and newsletter. The project in Poipet is concerned with victims of human trafficking. There was a community celebration because 75 former victims of child trafficking were graduating junior school. I interviewed one of the children.

Seila was eleven when she was stolen from her extremely poor family by a stranger who brought her over the border to Thailand. There she was obliged to beg or she would be beaten. She was there for six months before she escaped with a friend in the back of a car – she does not know in whose car she was. On crossing the border she was caught by Thai immigration and deported back to Cambodia where she was picked up by the transit centre and thus entered the UN system. She was fed, educated, housed, counselled, and reunited with her family. Yesterday she was awarded a special prize for her attendance at school. It is a brave story and she is a brave little girl who despite all that happened is still smiling.

I did several interviews and gleaning much interesting information. It will be published in the newsletter and online in due course. I might even try and get permission to publish in the Irish Times!

The children here are very much at risk of being retrafficked. Sometimes it is the parents who sell their children to the traffickers to buy enough food to live. These people live on less that $1 a day – it is more like 50 cents. It is as simple as a water filter. The children drink contaminated water and get sick. The parents incur debt to buy medicine. They have no way of paying the debt so the children are either sent out to beg to sold to traffickers. I admire S, the volunteer working with these children. She is doing a magnificent job and is really making a difference in the lives of these children.

I was well happy to leave that skanky border town and begin the bone shaking ride back to civilisation. Poipet felt like the Wild West, brutal, untamed, and dangerous, without the charm.

My desk pre mission

This is my working space. At this point, though I was trying to finish up and so you see the end result - messy messy messy.

Hope ya'll are good! 

Cutting hair

Well it was a grand weekend. The highlight of which was getting my hair done on Saturday evening. Along with the haircut there was a head massage with the shampoo part. When it came to the rinsing, it was a reclining massage chair. So relaxing. Before the girl cut my hair she also gave me a neck and shoulder massage. Its a great idea and only $7. Perhaps someone should capitalise on it at home, instead of bored "junior stylist"Jacinta scalding your head with hot water, you get a head massage.

Went out to lunch with a group of people from work to a lovely Khmer restaurant which is rapidly becoming my favourite. There we sat for three hours on the floor. I could barely get up afterwards. I'm just not used to sitting on the floor for that long. I listened to much Khmer althought there were English speakers and other internationals here.

The heat is intense and its going to rise until May. I don't leave the office at lunch time anymore because it is too hot. I'd burn in the two blocks to my house.

Tomorrow I'm going to Poipet a wild west town on the Thai- Cambodian border. I go as a reporter trying to get an interview (in English) with victims of human trafficking. I already have secured one with the volunteer who resettles former victims of human trafficking. It should be interesting!

Minor drama

I was cooking noodles and broccoli for dinner. The broccoli was perfectly done and I was heating the water for the noodles when pouf - no more gas. What to do? Half of my dinner was ready. I had no desire to go back out into the early evening's sweltering heat. I called the number on the gas canister and procceded to have a pidgin English conversation with the gasman. The upshot of which was that he agreed to bring a fresh can of gas to my house for the sum of $12.50 which was acceptable.

Then came the waiting and the wondering. Would he show up? Was this going to be another locksmith drama?

Then four kids appear at the door and following them huffing and puffing was the gasman with a new gas canister. All is well. My dinner is saved!

It was actually edible for my second shot at Asian cooking. I can reveal that my first attempt was not successful. I'm going to see if they had that book "The complete idiot's guide to Asian cooking" here.

I think the key is either oyster or soy sauce - but I don't know which!

It's been a fun couple of days

On Tuesday I went to meet the editor of the major English language newspaper here who is Irish. We had some great discussions and I gave him some Barry's - he was delighted. I enjoyed myself very much. After we finished the politics discussion, Dani, Editor, Editor's Friend, and I went to a boat bar on the Mekong. The breeze was very enjoyable. Met loads of newspaper staff and volunteered my services as freelance editor.

I celebrated International Women's Day by lying in the sun, swimming, chatting, and relaxing in the Jacuzzi. The was followed by drinks at the Elephant bar and watched Beijing Summer in Elsewhere - a lush tropical bar with a pool.

Good times!

Images of Cambodia - not mine

 

Things to do

I have a meeting on Friday with the Head of Communications and the webmaster to sort out the website. Any and all suggestions for improvement will be appreciated. I'll be working on this all day today and dreaming about it tomorrow!

I have a day off tomorrow! Its International Women's Day and recognised as a holiday for us. I've got plans of the best sort. Sleep in as long as the heat permits and then trundle off to the luxury hotel, gym, swim and be served cocktails on silver platters by uniformed waiters. Sweet!

Well at the moment I don't have any irritating coworkers so I can't take advantage of this wonderful festival. Many people have sent me this and I thought I'd spread the joy. Now get slapping.

Slap Your Irritating Co-workers Holiday: Do you have a co-worker who talks nonstop about nothing, working your last nerve with tedious and boring details that you don't care about? Do you have a co-worker who always screws up stuff creating more work for you? Do you have a co-worker who kisses so much booty; you can look in their mouth and see what your boss had for lunch? Do you have a co-worker who is SOOO obnoxious, when he/she enters a room, everyone else clears it? Well, on behalf of Ike Turner, I am so very, very glad to officially announce today as SLAP YOUR IRRITATING CO-WORKER DAY! There are the rules you must follow:

* You can only slap one person per hour - no more or you may be considered postal.
* You can slap the same person again if they irritate you again in the same day.
* You are allowed to hold someone down as other co-workers take their turns slapping the irritant.
* No weapons are allowed...other than going upside somebody's head with a stapler or a hole-puncher any abuse of this and you will be thought to be postal.
* If questioned by a supervisor [or police, if the supervisor is the irritant], you are allowed to LIE, LIE, LIE!

Now, study the rules, break out your list of folks that you want to slap the living day lights out of and get to slapping.....and have a great day!

Not so much

Did not a lot this weekend as was feeling poorly.

I believe it was the change from air con to fresh air but who knows.

Watched a ton of movies. Think I'm going back to bed now. Zzzzzzzzzzzzzz

Water

Well I was walking to meet Dani to go for Indian after work yesterday when it started raining. That was fine I continued walking only about five minutes from the restaurant at that point. But then the heavens opened and the water poured down. It was raining so heavily that it hurt to be under it. In the end a dashed into a nearby restaurant for refuge. It continued to rain and I could hardly hear Dani when she called to discuss the situation as the rain was beating down on the corragated iron roof of the restaurant.

It felt like I was living Bibical prophesy from the days of old.

Eventually it eased off. At that point it was too late to go to the Indian so I made my way back to my place. It was not easy. Within thirty minutes the water had risen a foot. Firstly there was no way to leave the restaurant without stepping in water, and so my Birkies got soaked. I waded back to the house reflecting on water bourne diseases but I'm not too worried. I disinfected my feet upon arrival.

I was wondering before why the pavements are so high - now I know. Got to get some new sandals soon or my Birkies will not survive the rainy season. This morning it was so cool. I did not feel the heat or the humidity - it was loverly! The water had gone - not a trace remaining. I wouldn't have believed that the streets had been flooded if I did not see it myself.