The last day dawns

This weeekend brought another wedding and most of the accounts and admin department of AHC were there with the girls dressed up to the nines and looking fantastic. It is compulsory for them to dress up , but not the men, and luckily for me foreigners are let off too. The bride at this wedding changed 3 times while I blinked. Changes of 10 dresses over 2 days are not unusual.


Today was my last day at AHC. I am sad to leave but looking forward to seeing my son Matthew.
Although we were working (for most) of today it was very special. I was invited to Pol, the accountant's house for lunch and met his wife and 3 of his 4 children. The youngest was recovering from chicken pox. The eight year old read some of her English school book to me and they all showed me around the neighbourhood.

Then on the bike (yikes!) for a visit to 2 of his friends in the countryside, this is very different to the town and the houses are very simple shelters. One friend has made some ponds on his land and farms fish that I didn't recognise.

Then we went on a last tour on the roads around a few of the temples and to Bearay lake which I wish I had visited before.

After work and the final group photo most of the accounts department took me to a lovely Khmer restaurant which I would never have know about as a foreigner. It was all set under a thatched roof and the many courses of food were Ch'naing (delicious).

Kuala Lumpur for one night tomorrow and then onto London on Wednesday, not sure how I feel yet.

Unseasonal weather

March is supposed to be near the height of the hot dry season but we have had 4 torrential downpours in the last week with cloudy weather most days. Instead of getting hotter it has steadily been getting cooler and this evening it was actually chilly outside!

I just realised this is my second post about the weather but it is very odd and I feel I must keep up the British tradition of mentioning it nearly every day.

Phnom Penh

I took a couple of days off and went to Phnom Penh and back by bus, which took 6 hours each way.

Phnom Penh is bigger, noisier, dirtier and has much more traffic than Siem Reap. It had to be experienced but I was glad to get back.

The S21 genocide museum based at the old school that was used as a prison by the Khmer Rouge and where they documented and took pictures of the atrocities carried out is not only very sad and sobering but helps you to understand that the Cambodian economy and society were almost completely destroyed and why Cambodia is still recovering from this today.

Volunteers

I have talked to quite a few of the volunteers here and there seems to be a recurring theme. Being volunteers they are in a unique position to observe things going on here. People have shared stories from the medical side which can easily be compared ( by me, another volunteer) with the things happening on the administration side, but this generally only happens volunteer to volunteer over dinner etc.

I am wondering how we can share all this really useful information with the hospital. Most of this information leaves with the volunteers as they don't know how to share it with the management here or think it is not their place or role to do so.

Shadow Puppet show at hospital

We had a fundraising shadow puppet show at the front entrance of the hospital on Tuesday ( luckily it only rained at night that day).
It was interesting but all in Khmer so didn't know the story. There was a big bonfire at the back of the screen which was a bit disconcerting and it must have been incredibly hot for the actors.

Tropical storms

So much more to add but there have been 3 tropical storms in the last three days and I have had trouble accessing the internet especially to download pictures. Spent three days trying to download a picture of a tuk tuk, now I give up! It isn't supposed to rain until July!

Angkor Wat, Ta Prohm etc ,etc

(I am having to do another catch up as there doesn't seem to be enough time to keep this up to date!)

I can't do justice to the temples here with my limited photograhic skills. They are all amazing.
I have been three times now. The first with with Pol, the accountant. Last weekend with another volunteer, we travelled by Tuk-Tuk, basically a rickshaw pulled by a motorbike, it is actually a very pleasant way to travel,also it may be an illusion but it feels safer than the back of the motos or motorbike. The third time by bicycle which was extremely hot and tiring and I got slightly lost so went much further than planned.

I was so glad to get back to Siem Reap and the swimming pool of the Prince D'Angkor which volunteers at AHC can us can use at a special daily rate. As you can see I am not exactly roughing it here ( Why am I admitting this!)