What I did last weekend

We had our workshop in Sihanoukville for Wednesday to Saturday of last week and it was mostly good. Sihanoukville is a coastal town so there was quite the beach atmosphere even if it rained like Kerry in November. It was not cold of course merely pleasant and wet. I swam in the Gulf of Thailand and enjoyed it muchly.

I was giving a presentation on sexual harassment that was well received and prompted many questions from men and women alike. The most boring presentation was of course the one given by a government official from the Ministry of Planning. He abused Powerpoint severely and bored us all for 90 minutes by reading off his slides. I was doing the summary of the day and had his part completed before he had finished reading off the second slide, the second of 42 I add.

The only issue about the workshop was that the Cambodians stuck together at every opportunity. There was no mixing. The first night we wanted to go to a western restaurant and they refused to go and left without a backward glance. Their idea of compromise the following everning was to go to a Khmer place.

A Filipino told us how once dinner was organised at an Indian restaurant on his agency's night out. The Cambodia staff brought their families but when they arrived and saw that it was Indian they accused the head of agency of poisoning their children, and again, they left en masse. It seems like they think their children will really get sick unless they eat Khmer, which as I have mentioned is marinaded in sugar.

On Saturday I went to Kep which is as close to paradise in Cambodia that exists methinks. I stayed in a wooden cabin in the middle on a rainforest next to the ocean. The view was specatular and I really enjoyed myself. I met up with friends from Phnom Penh as well and met some new ones.

We have a new boss here - Mark - from Kildare, lovely man. It's great to have another Irish person around.

That's about it - I wish it were the weekend again cos I need sleep. Because of the workshop there was no lie in this Saturday. I want to rest in the arms of Morpheus.