Visit to SMILE village

This week I went to visit Sala village where the SMILE (Supporting Maternal and Child Healthcare and Building Literate Communities) project is in action. The village has 413 people made up of 101 families. The project organises a meeting for the women in the community once a month for them to learn about maternal and child care and to improve their literacy skills. They each receive a pack with a SMILE text book and other resources they need for the course. The teachers are members of the community who are trained at CWDA workshops to give them the ability to teach at the SMILE sessions.

Today’s meeting was the 4^th out of 75 classes. The teacher welcomed everyone to the session, which included the chief of village who said a few words afterwards. The chief of SGK women’s affairs also attended and talked for a while about health issues.

The main part of the session was held and afterwards they allowed me to ask a few questions, with the help of Phanna (the director of CWDA) who translated. I asked them what the most important thing they had learnt was at the workshops. They stated that there were three key points they found the most important. Firstly, that they would be able to become literate; they all aspired to being able to read and write. Secondly, to learn how to look after their families when they were ill; especially older members. Thirdly, that they would become less susceptible to violence due to their increased awareness and confidence. I also asked them if they enjoyed attending the sessions. They all said yes in unison and laughed whilst saying that they always arrive early in anticipation of the class. This is really saying something in Cambodia when no-one turns up on time and everything starts later than planned.

The deputy of the commune also arrived at the end to say a few words. He told them that a doctor was going to visit to explain to the women about the causes and complications of rheumatism, as it seemed to be a problem in the village.  It marked a real sense of community and togetherness having so many reputable people from the community attend the session. Afterwards, I went with Phanna to take a closer look at the beautiful 6-month old twins and she showed me the village water supply which was a stream just the other side of the road.

It was a very interesting visit and I hope to see more projects in the future.

Here is the website link if you would like more information: http://www.pub22.net/cwda/community-self-prevention-against-trafficking-of-women-and-children-program-cspatwc/people

The Sights and Sounds of December in Phnom Penh

I want to tell you a few stories from my observations in PP – and yes I can call it that now as I am an official resident in a lovely apartment! I even cooked my first meal with Cambodian produce and bought myself a dragon fruit!

Outdoor photography exhibition on the riverfront

I have now had three skate-boarding lessons with some of the girls at the NGO Skateistan’s skate park. I was a little bit bruised and very sweaty after as it is so humid in the compound – one of the instructors we find very mysterious as he wears a face mask the entire time but is great at skate-boarding! He also teaches them Thai-kwon-do afterwards which is very impressive!

Thai-kwon-do at the skate-park

Weddings here are held on the street, so quite randomly, a large pink tent will be erected, filling the whole width of the street and blocking all the traffic. The festivities go on for a few days. One was set up near my hostel – I could see it from my window. Food stalls were set up at the end of the street to feed the guests and it looked like fun. However, it wasn’t so fun waking up to the chanting and prayers at 5am in the morning – thankfully that only went on for one day!

Another day when I left my hostel, there were young boys running around the entrance; one banging a drum whilst the others ran around with a dragon costume.

Teaching the staff English has become one of my favourite things to do. It is very entertaining as they are all so sweet and happy to learn. I have them a test to see what level they were at, and I got a lot of; ‘teacher, teacher, it’s too hard, too hard!’ They basically just discussed the test aloud and asked me questions, but they all tried hard so it was fine.

One evening, we went to Dreamland, the permanent amusement park in Phnom Penh. It was actually quite a big place and there were plenty of rides. We picked the ‘extreme’ ticket, so you pay on entry and go on all the extreme rides as many times as you like. Although we were sad this meant we had to go on only the stomach-churning rides, we somehow were allowed onto the carousel! As there wasn’t many people around, they let you stay on the rides for quite a while, which did leave your stomach turning after 10 minutes on the pirate-ship. My favourite was Apollo where you were locked in a cage and sent flying the whole way round – they kept you upside down for a fair while so you got a serious head-rush! It was all pretty safe – apart from the slightly unsafe dodgems where Ella scraped her knee. We heard a story later on where a girl was jolted out of one and was electrocuted as she hit the floor – she survived but it’s pretty shocking!

Apollo - I rode on it twice!

On the way back to work from the UN Women call for funds meeting, I rode on the back of my boss’ motorbike – I feel like we bonded a little bit as we flew around the streets.

With work we had the annual board meeting with all the staff and board members; it was quite interesting apart from the fact most of it was held in Khmer (Cambodian language) which left us sort of staring into space. They reviewed all the projects and spoke about the main achievements and difficulties. I gave a short speech on what the volunteers have done and what we are planning to do, which everyone seemed pleased with. The debate over the terms used in the strategy dragged on a bit and became very confusing between Khmer and English, but hopefully we will sort that out! We had a nice buffet lunch after in the courtyard.

Today I went to look for birthday cards and saw that some wedding invitation cards were spelt ‘invetation’ – just one example of the spelling errors all around the place.

Another amusing sign

We went out for a meal for a leaving party the other night, it was the most expensive meal I’ve had yet and happened to be the first one that made me sick… I think I will stick to the street food!

At riverside, I saw a motorbike with a basket straddled across the back with pigs and piglets inside, I tried not to think about the fact they were probably off to the slaughter house.

There was a slight Christmassy spirit around with Christmas trees in some shops and hotels and Christmas outfits and decorations on sale. It doesn’t have the same feel as the UK though and Ella has been doing an official countdown in the office and we play some Christmas tunes – but I feel like I could almost miss it by accident! Luckily I am taking the week off to go down to the coast for Christmas and New Year… I will post about that when I’m back!

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!! Here is our work Christmas card – can you spot me?