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!)

Accounting matters

Thursday & Friday the finance team from one of the donor organisations came to check that recommendations had been implemented following their previous audit. There was a meeting at the end to discuss the report with about 20 people from AHC present (which seemed to be rather a lot).

After a lot of research I found out how to design a limited number of reports on Intacct , the online accounting system here. At first glance it is an impressive “cloud” accounting system implemented by the treasurer of the umbrella charity Friends Without Borders in New York.

I don't find the Intacct system that user friendly and I haven’t come across anyone knowing of any other organisations using it. (if anyone out there reading this has, please let me know). AHC in Cambodia do not have access to Intacct's functions which makes for a slow and frustrating process here as any queries have to go through New York, which is difficult when there is a 12 hour time difference. I have been looking at ways of doing more in Cambodia so that more information can be accessed here.

Cambodian Wedding

After avoiding two Cambodian weddings I couldn't get out of the 3rd one last night. Pol insisted that I came along for the Cambodian wedding experience. I had heard a lot about these events,of which there seem to be a lot, but actually it was fine and we didn't stay very late.Other people had told me they go on to the early hours of the morning (not much different to home when I came to think about it!)

The women were all in elaborate dresses, some more traditional and others more western evening dresses but all with lots of sequins and sparkle. I definitely felt very under dressed. The food and drink is served continuously and a band played very loudly. Envelopes are handed out for guests to contribute money instead of presents which helps pay for the wedding.

Japan

Everyone here is aware of the terrible news.The hospital has close links with Japan as the founding funder is Japanese and there are a number of donors in Japan. There are also Japanese staff at the hospital whose families have been affected. It is obviously very hard for them.

Another day in the office

I have got used to getting to the office for about 7.20 am, not something I am used to! Most of the accounts staff start at 7am and then go for breakfast at 8am but I usually prefer to have a coffee first and come in a (little) bit later.

I have been to a lot of meetings some starting at 7.30am. Some days I feel as if I have actually done or contributed something useful. Other days, such as today, I don't.

Auditors for one of the donors are coming tomorrow to check that recommendations they made have been carried out. We went through these today and most have been done but there are a few that I am not sure about and there wasn't much I could do to make sure they were in place by tomorrow. We only heard on Tuesday that they were coming on Thursday. I think there was a bit more tension in the air today because of this.

The hospital vegetable garden

The hospital has its own small vegetable garden. This provides food for some of the patients but more importantly is used to teach the parents how to start their own vegetable patches when they return to their villages. Many of the children that are brought to the hospital are malnourished or suffering from malnutrition and a important part of the hospital's work is about educating the parents about nutrition and eating healthily on a very, very small budget.

Nearly 2 weeks in Siem Reap

Angkor Hospital for Children

Oh dear, nearly a month later and getting on for 2 weeks in Siem Reap and I haven’t added anything to my blog yet!! So to keep it short I think it will have to be a very brief summary of events so far.
The work that the hospital does with the children and their families is inspirational and it helps to remember that that is what is all about.

The work with the accounting systems is proving to be a challenge. For the 1 ½ weeks I have mostly been getting to know the system and procedures as they are in practice and getting to know the staff, not just in the accounts department but in the other departments. One of the things I have been involved with so far is not so much accounting but trying to help improve information sharing between the different departments.

Pol,the senior accountant here is very kind and friendly and despite some communication problems I think we manage to understand each other most of the time, it just takes a bit longer.

Pol gave me a quick tour of Angkor Wat on my first evening after work and invited me for a meal at his friend's house which was lovely of him. Among other things we had a paste which he called "cheese" which turned out to be a very strong fermented fish paste.

I have spent a lot of time walking around Siem Reap. The place is expanding at a rapid pace. There are the contrasts you would expect between rich and poor with Raffles Hotel at the one end of the scale and people living in all sorts of home made huts at the other end.

It was national Women's day on March 8th and a national holiday here. I think this is a very good idea and we should definitely have this is a holiday in the UK but only for women!
We had a volunteers outing to Tonle Sap Lake and saw the floating villages. There are lots of houses, shops,schools built on floating platforms (I even spotted a police station). The water level changes so much from the dry to the rainy season that the houses are moved as the water level rises.

i am trying to learn some Khmer, the Cambodian language, which is difficult! Using my new found Khmer language skills (which hardly anyone Cambodian seems to understand ?!) got me talking to the (english) people at the next table to me in a restaurant this evening. They asked me what I was doing here and hearing i was an accountant told me that the drummer of the sex pistols was looking for someone to do his VAT in the UK ( I declined the offer!!)

A bit more about my placement

My placement was arranged through  AFID (Accounting for International Development) www.afid.org.uk.
A f I D offers accountants the opportunity to make a genuine difference while gaining invaluable hands-on experience in the international development sector. They provide charities and their NGO partners with a specialist pro bono volunteer programme, designed to build the financial management  capacity of small community based organisations.
AFID came up with a number of potential placements and it was not easy deciding a) which part of the world to go to and b) which organisation to go to (assuming they would have me!) but so far I feel happy with my decision.

Pre departure preparations

My departure date of 28th February is coming up fast! My destination is Siem Reap and Angkor Hospital for Children (AHC) where I will (hopefully)be of some  help looking at their accounting procedures. My flights are booked, travelling  via Kuala Lumpur and I have my visa, which was surprisingly quick and easy to obtain on-line in less than 24 hours. I have bought a Learn Kymer cd-rom and I am struggling to try and learn a few basic words before I leave. This is proving to be quite a challenge!!