Sampours

Only 2 days to go. I leave tomorrow.  I am going to miss Sampours very much. She makes me wonderful iced coffee in the mornings...I will also miss seeing lizards scurry across the floor when I walk into the kitchen.

Leaving Party

They held a fantastic leaving party for me on Saturday evening and the first years presented me with a beautiful painting of Angkor Wat with their names on the back.  Sokeang gave me a beautiful blue and pink silk scarf as a thank you from Harpswell. 

Killing Fields

Yesterday I went to The Killing Fields with Roith, Siekmouy and Kimlai. It is a very moving place and has very helpful audio information if you ever want to go.

DC Cam New Movie

We also watched the preview of a new movie by DC Cam "Don't think I have forgotten". Currently in the final stages of editing (it is currently 1 hour 40 minutes being cut down to 1 hour). It was all about the beautiful and thriving music industry in Cambodia prior to 17 April 1975 and about the tragic loss of 90% of the musicians afterwards.

The director of DC Cam (who I mentioned in the last post) survived the Khmer Rouge atrocities as a child of 14.  He talked about the fact that people died not only from starvation or torture but because of loneliness and loss of hope.  

When he was very young his mother told him about a dream she had.  In the dream he was lost in the jungle and she couldn't find him even though she screamed for him. Finally she found him lying in a hammock between a cluster of trees.  She told Youk that it meant that even though he was going to suffer one day, he would survive and would do great things one day.  He held onto that message and believes it is the main reason he survived.  He has indeed gone on to do great things.  He is the director of DC Cam which is dedicated to recording and sharing information about what happened.  Prior to that he worked at the United Nations and was appointed by them to head up the team supporting the first elections here following the atrocities.  

Golf

We went to City Golf, Phnom Penh on Sunday. It was fantastic, who would have known such a professional place to practice golf existed! 12 of the girls came, none of whom had ever hit a golf ball before. After an hour they were all hitting balls about 50 to 100 yards. Naturals!

Legal Aid of Cambodia

I've been there pretty much every day over the last week. Yesterday we submitted their proposal for funding to carry out a 3 year project to improve child protection systems in Banteay Meanchey province. Really interesting and a fantastic team. Clearly very knowledgeable. I hope hey get the funding!!
I believe Comic Relief is interested in supporting them through EveryChild (a UK registered charity) so that's exciting for them too.

Off to have a cheap manicure and pedicure (before I have to start paying London prices again) and do some final panic buying in the markets...

Rach

Best office I've ever sat in

So many wonderful things have happened over the last few weeks.  Where to begin!!

Top events

I've helped Sohim get an internship with the Cambodian Women's Entrepreneur's Association.

I've helped Nat with accommodation concerns linked with her graduating from Harpswell shortly.  Her company works 30 minutes outside of Phnom Penh and has "dormitories" fo staff (6 beds but 8 to a room with shared communal facilities).

Cambodian Centre for Human Rights came and talked to the Harpswell girls about access to junior level politics.  They discussed real life examples of four women working at commune level.

Documentation Centre for Cambodia -  Roith really wants to get into movie making.  I took her to meet the director of DC Cam. One of the most inspirational men I have ever met.  He has an insanely cool office, all distressed dark wood, well places piles of books with lamps in soft neutral shades and cotton fabrics with the odd piece of modern artwork thrown in.  Here's a picture.  I digress.  We talked to him for an hour or so and Roith is now going to film documentaries with DC Cam.

He talked to us about the process for interviewing survivors of The Khmer Rouge atrocities.  How sensitive you have to be not to cause further damage to people when talking and asking questions.  This book took five years of research and only this week are they finally in a position to be able to meet the women to gain further insight, so fragile is her state of mind.   

The director explained that with enough research and study into just one person's life it is possible to bring about national change for a country.  They hope to establish country wide mental health initiatives to work with the enormous number of people suffering from PTSD and other forms of mental illness.  There are only a handful of people qualified to help, for a population of 14 million people, and where 30 years ago 1 in 4 people were killed and many more abused by the Khmer Rouge.

Boat Party along the riverside was awesome.  We hired the whole thing and danced, ate and played music really loud.  

Kandal Province is where Sodalin and Soklida live.  They came second in the Community Project Awards (see tab on the main page for the blog all the details!).  They are going to fix the toilets in the school so that there is actually somewhere to go. Impossible for girls in particular to study otherwise.  

They are only about to fix the one with three doors on their budget (they've only officially won $150 but it's not enough and I felt so awful when I got there I agreed to give them the extra $50 they need).

If anyone has a spare $1000, they could really do with fixing the second larger toilet (the one with six doors).  The roof is about to collapse and no one uses it. Grotty huh.  I also got stung by TWO hornets while standing next to the far right of the six doors so I have a personal interest in clearing it (killing all hornets in the vicinity) and turning it into a functioning toilet again.

Prey Veng Province is where Rachana comes from.  I went with her last Friday.  Her family welcomed me in and cooked one of the best lunches I have ever eaten.  Here is a picture.  She said she hadn't ever taken another leadership resident to her home and really valued all the time I had spent with her. She's an amazing girl.

Stupid question of the week

Has got to be me asking the street vendor whether one of his bags meets hand luggage requirements.  He had evidently never flown or taken hand luggage and probably never even been to the airport.  Jon would have guessed right, I bought it anyway because it was yellow and reallly cool. Luckily it does actually JUST meet Cathay Pacific restrictions...

I am taking 12 Harpswell girls to the killing fields today.  It's really hard going to see it all, let alone when your family actually died there or in places similar to it.  Please think of us. 

Coming back on Wednesday next week.  It's going to be a real wrench.

Rach xx

Half the Sky

4th Year Leaving Party

We had a leaving party on Sunday for the fourth years.  They are leaving the dorm in two weeks to start proper jobs!  

One of the problems with having 46 girls in one room is that when one of them starts to cry it sets them all off. Must have been crying for about 2 hours by the time everyone was too tired to carry on and had to go to bed.  

I hadn't appreciated what it means to be really scared when you first arrive from the quiet countryside and thrown into a busy city with difficult studies and lots of chores (like cooking rice, cleaning), particularly when you miss your family.  The other girls in the dorm become your family and help you through everything. It's a special bond, so much more than just being room mates at university.

Half the Sky Movie at the Cambodia Korea Coorperation Centre

We saw this recently. Very inspiring. Not your average bore about women in education, I promise.  Lots of celebrity endorsement with George Clooney and Hilary Clinton.

Satya was working with the Youth Ambassadors Council to organise the event. Well done her!

Highlight of the week

Lou Lou came to stay from Hong Kong!! 

The girls loved her of course.  It also meant I got to do all the things I like doing in Phnom Penh.  

We went for eggs benedict at the Foreign Correspondents Club, shopping for underwear and gifts at Tuol Tom Pong Market, ate slippery noodles on the street, watched Khmer boxing at CTN studios and had a manicure at Daughters NGO.  Love!! 

I've also found an awesome vintage shop. So far I have Raybans and a beautiful shirt which  I used for my court visits with LAC (see below).

DC Cam - A River Changes Course

This Saturday we had The Documentation Centre of Cambodia come to Harpswell to show their latest movie about three families' struggles in the countryside.  

There is a difficulty educating children, not only from a practical perspective (sometimes there isn't a school or a boat to get you to school) but also a a financial one.  If children study they cannot help their parents to earn money for the family.

Lots of land is being sold off to companies for development, there is no running water or electricity.  One girl leaves her mother to work in a garment factory in Phnom Penh where the minimum monthly wage is $62.  The money helps support her family but it is hard work and her mother doesn't cope with all the farming on her own out her daughter.  The daughter ends up coming back to the countryside.  

Legal Aid Cambodia

Doing incredible work to try to give people a fair trial.  

I saw a Supreme Court case today.  There are 9 judges in the final stage of the appeal.  The man had been in prison for 13 years and was only today hearing the outcome of his appeal to the Supreme Court.  His lawyer was on a mobile phone during trial.

Children are tried in adult courts, often without a guardian or legal representation.  They are kept in adult prisons.  LAC is doing amazing work with Every Child to secure rights for children in Cambodia.
With 600 practicing lawyers in Cambodia, only 200 go to court and only 75 provide legal aid. Not many lawyers for a population of 14 million. They desperately need support.

Cycling in the countryside

We had lots of fun cycling through the dusty dirt roads in the heat of the day!  13 of us set off for an hour. They enjoyed the fresh air and cool breeze as we passed by little farms and houses on stilts.  

Beautiful mulitcoloured butterflies kept crossing our path and we stopped every so often to buy coloured liquid in little plastic bags with straws from the roadside sellers. 

Jobs and stuff

Having spent two grueling hours with Nat going over interview questions and techniques she got an amazing job at an electronics company called Minebea.  She is one of 10 senior management team looking after 1000 employees. Amazing.

Mala has prepared an excellent CV for a part time job at Acleda Bank PLC and Reaksmey is going for a nursing job at Rattanak Hospital.  It's exciting watching their lives take new directions.

Here's a breakdown of what I did with some of the other girls in the last week.  Didn't realise how much I did until I wrote it all down!!!

Sohim - 1 hour looking for jobs with her on the internet

Sopheap - 1 hour reviewing her 4 page paper submission to DK Kim (for a scholarship)

Siekmouy - 1 hour mentoring about internship opportunities

Kimleang Eng - 1 hour reviewing her application to DK Kim

Panha - 1 hour - mentoring re her position at her school and future goals

Panha - 2 hours - attending her work place at an international school to watch and support her teach and meet her colleagues 

Reaksmey - 1 hour mentoring re nursing jobs

Choronay - Attending church with her and talking afterwards

Sokeang - Her dissertation, direction, possible subjects

Mala - 1 hour on her CV and cover letter to Acleda Bank PLc

Nat - 1 hour pre second interview preparation

Vouchthou - 1 hour pre interview preparation at a softline testing company

Vatey - 2 hours attending meeting of CCHR to discuss election and media strategy

Dinna - 1 hour dilemma re exam overlapping with Burma trip. Talking through alternative options

Rachana - 1 hour dilemma about one poor result in exams and application for DK Kim

Sampours - 3 hours of grammar exercises

Vechou - 2 hours of grammar exercises

It's almost over

I can't believe it, the time has gone by so quick. Two more weeks and so many things packed in for the next few days.  I am going to miss these girls so so so much.  It's definitely not over.  At the very least I'm planning to come back and bring Jon for a couple of weeks next summer...and Juliet (the other leadership resident at BT dorm might do the same!)

Rach

Vatey and Roith

Work placements

Vatey and Roith have interviews for jobs in research with General Electric tomorrow. Fingers crossed for them. We're doing preparation tonight.

Chou starts at Cambodia Cares tomorrow for her 3 month work placement.

Some of Sodalin's pharmacy exams have been postponed while there is uncertainty about the political situation.  There are still road blocks and talk of protests. Other than that it's still pretty quiet in the dormitory.  

Recycling

I have implemented a new recycling scheme at the dormitory.  There are now four large blue rice sacks on each floor next to the bin.  All the girls now recycle plastic, cans and paper.  

I'm not normally that into recycling but it does have several advantages here.  Not only is it good for the environment but it costs less in refuse collection (there is no countrywide rubbish collection system - you have to pay for trucks to come and take it away).  In addition, those in the dorm that don't have much financial support can take the filled rice sacks to the local HI (which means recycling not a reference to HIV as I first thought!?).

Books

The books have also arrived (some via Hong Kong and others via Singapore). I've spent this morning wrapping each one in ribbon with a personal note.  Thank you to everyone who contributed.  It makes an enormous difference.  Most of the girls don't have any books and those that they do have are copies of books not the original (which often means it is of very poor quality).


Running


Is it weird that Silent Dude hasn't re-appeared at our unofficial morning running club since giving him his new trainers? Options I can think of are: 

(1) the trainers helped so much he is now on a Forest Gump type mission across Cambodia; (2) he got mugged on the way home; or 
(3) I need to start wearing my glasses to running....

Here's a picture of his trainers (in case you spot him).


Community Projects

Are flooding in.  Winner and details of the various bids to be announced in the next week.

Cambodia Daily

Tonight we are talking about the calls for an independent investigation into voting irregularities in the elections. 

Some sources say that voter names appeared twice, that people were turning up to vote only to find that someone had already voted under their name and that some people were mistakenly taken off the voter list. 

It's also party night tonight...there will be cake.  Whoop!  This is a picture of Chou, Sampours, Koeurn and Thiery making jelly for the last party.