Highlights - Celebrating Chinese New Year, answering the question of 'how many people can you fit in a tuk-tuk?' & the views from Udong. Lowlights - A very sore eye & running the gauntlet with a swarm of mosquitos outside our bedroom door.
The week did not get off to a good start, waking up with an eye that was swollen, half closed and constantly watering - bit of a lesson learnt there on the perils of wearing contact lenses in Cambodia! I was due to meet with the CEO that morning to visit the beneficiaries of the charity in Kampot but headed back to Phnom Penh to get my eye sorted out. Disappointing to miss out on the Kampot trip but necessary, and am pleased to say that a couple of days of drops and 'eye' was on the road to recovery...
It was the 3 day Chinese New Year year celebration, starting 2nd February and therefore the CCAF office was closed Wednesday to Friday. Tuesday at the office I worked with the Programmes Assistant, Dara to build up the history of CCAF - charting it's progress in donors and the successes of the Programmes. Since the charity started in 2007 they have helped in excess of 300 families with farming training and have increased pre schools from 4 to 18. The challenge now is around the long term sustainability of funding for the programmes and this is something which Channarith, the CEO, is seeking to address with the introduction of an Aquaponics farm. The intention being that the fish and vegetables produced in the farm can be sold and the proceeds used to help with funding the Programmes that CCAF deliver.
Wednesday through to Friday was put to good use, writing up reports and completing my objectives agreed for this assignment. I have to admit that it got pretty lonely for 3 days with no-one to speak to with just my i-pod for company. I knew I was begining to slightly lose the plot when I found myself dancing along to my i-pod and talking to a stuffed toy...
Wednesday evening we were invited to celebrate Chinese New Year at the home of the founder of Tiny Toones NGO, where Rich is volunteering. A memorable night ensued with me attempting to dance Khmer style (its all in the wrist action) and the Tiny Toones boys showing us how its done, busting a few break dancing moves! The journey to and from the party was interesting with 10 of us packed onto a tuk-tuk. At one point, we bumped our way along a dirt track aided only by the light from a mobile phone, with 2 of the boys jumping out every so often to stop the tuk-tuk tipping over on the really bumpy bits. On the way back into Phnom Penh around 1.30am the tuk-tuk started spluttering and stopped. Yes - we had run out of petrol. 3 of the boys pushed the tuk-tuk as we shouted encouragement from inside the vehicle - my excuse being that I had inappropriate footwear on to assist in the pushing activities...Then appearing like an oasis in a desert, we found someone who was awake, and willing to siphon petrol from their compressor and sell it to us. Drama over, the boys piled back into the tuk-tuk and we sped off towards home.
At the weekend we decided to stay in Phnom Penh. The plan had been to visit another province, Kampong Cham, but the logisitics of getting there for a weekend were proving problematic. Public travel around Cambodia is limited to bus or possibly taxi (only if you can find a taxi driver willing to go to your destination) and journeys take hours. So we decided to stay local and headed out by tuk-tuk to Udong which was the ancient capital of Cambodia. It was badly damaged by the Khmer Rouge but restoration has taken place so it is definitely worth the visit, even just for the views from the top.
So, I will endeavour to do more exciting things next week, given its my last full week in Cambodia (boo hoo), but for now a few pictures to share my memories.
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| Break dancing the night away |
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| Monks receiving their alms |
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| Udong |
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| Udong |
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| Udong |
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| View from Udong |
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| Anyone for a ride? |
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