Happy Merry Christma and Chol Chnam Tmei!

Christmas felt even more irrelevant this year than last year! Unlike the UK there is no build up to the festive season here in Cambodia: no buying presents, no sending cards, no Christmas parties, no “jingle bells” in all the shops you walk into since September, no school play and no de-icing the car windscreen before work! It is hot, dusty and work as usual! It’s been really refreshing to be in a different culture and climate for over a year now and observing the festival times and celebrations in Cambodia has been wonderful and has also made me appreciate my own culture more in terms of what is important, what actually means something and what is just inherited from traditions from the past.

Christmas Eve was spent motoring down to Onno in Bavel district with Corine as the sun was setting and falling asleep in front of Lord of the Rings with a gin and tonic! Perfect! Christmas morning four of us then motored on to Phnom Preuk, 2 ½ hours through beautiful Cambodian countryside, over very dusty and pot holed roads to arrive at John and Chris’ festive home! It had a very familiar family Christmassy feel to it and our hosts made sure we ate very well! A relaxed Christmas of mixed western culture and interesting sharing of traditions. Us Brits explained to the Dutch what a Christmas cracker was (although their origin remains a mystery to us all – that’s the crackers not the Dutch!) and the token American provided egg-nog for us all! I developed a very British head cold in true ‘end-of-term’ style which sent me to bed after a couple of games of Werewolf and after a family breakfast on Boxing Day we took to the dust ridden streets once more and the 4 hour journey back to Sisaphon!

Of course I missed the Maton touch on the whole thing but Ruth assured me that even though all the siblings were together with mum this year (minus me of course), everyone in Harrow would be having an utterly boring time without me! She reminded me how anti-climatic Christmas always was and that she would send photos to prove it! When I spoke to a good friend about my sisters’ promises I was told that, ‘Love’ is definitely letting someone you care about who is half way round the bloody planet volunteering in a tropical, corrupted 3rd world nation for 2 years know that they didn’t miss an unforgettable family Christmas together! I think my sister must love me a lot! But that wasn’t the end of Christmas! I enjoyed opening several parcels from the UK and another huge Christmassy dinner (this time with a streak of Australian festive tradition) in Poipet with Elise and some new friends!

And as if that wasn’t enough, the new year was seen in from Pam’s garden in Sisaphon with many friends from the province and beyond. A hat themed party (I wonder whose idea that was...!), fireworks, champagne, dancing, karaoke, sparklers, random improvised representational modern dance routines and vegetable curry! I had stupidly volunteered to be responsible for the music on the which meant we got a good portion of Abba hits but because of my distinctly lacking ability to forward plan and make up some playlists also meant that I was juggling 4 ipods all night! It was great fun and felt really good to have a proper dance in between setting the next song up. I’ve made no resolutions for the new year although 2009 will require some decisions to be made about the next chapter of life post-VSO! Still 10 months to think about that yet and lots to do in the mean time!

Happy New Year x

Mahob Anglais

That means English Food.

I have been endlessly spoilt by my Khmer friends, colleagues and at times perfect strangers, feeding me delicious Khmer food during the last 14 months. Actually, not all of it has been that delicious and I have sometimes found myself making excuses for not gobbling down bowls full of cow intestines, or knawing on chicken’s feet, or swallowing fish egg sacks, or eating fermented fish paste (Khmer cheese!) not to mention the MSG induced semi-comas I have occasionally found myself in! So I thought it was about time I got my own back, erm, I mean returned the favour to a few choice friends in Phnom Srok with a taste of good traditional English homecooking!

Set Menu:

Appetizer: Bread with a choice of meat pate or Marmite topping
Starter: Tomato Soup
Main Course: Shepherd’s Pie with boiled vegetables
Pudding: Trifle

Drinks: Orange Squash, Red Wine

The preparations were fun! I spent a small fortune in a western supermarket in Siam Reap on some necessities such as baked beans, gravy and orange squash! And I finally got to be head chef in my own kitchen! I got to dictate how the vegetables were chopped (there’s more than one way to chop an onion you know!). The menu sounded a lot grander (and English!) than it turned out and I was limited by the fresh food choices available to me in Phnom Srok! On the day there was no bread to be found in the district so the Crisp Breads from Siam Reap (rather more French than English) had to do, the pate was Dutch and the beef was sold out so the shepherd’s pie was made with pork which my beautiful friend Daney was happy to mince! I also found myself without a potato masher, or in fact potatoes, so again the shopping trip to Siam Reap proved to be useful as I had had the foresight to pick up some Smash equivalent while I was there!

The actual meal was a fantastic experience! It was really interesting to see how my Khmer friends reacted to a different culinary experience, using different cutlery, eating in a different order, having a whole meal served on your own plate rather than sharing from dishes in the centre of the table, and so on. The crispbreads went down a treat, the Dutch pate was a hit and naturally some loved the Marmite while some hated it! The soup course was very funny! I wolfed my soup down from the bowl while everyone else politely sipped one spoonful and then left the rest aside. “Oh no!” I thought... “They hate the soup!” I dished out mashed potato and the minced pork and veg mixture (Shepherd’s Pie, my eye!) and observed as they began to eat the soup with the main meal! It was amazing and very amusing to see such familiar food being eaten in such a Khmer style! The boiled vegetables (cauliflower) were looked at very suspiciously, politely tasted and then blatantly ignored and as I followed suit I realised that vegetables here are served in or with other foods and always with a sauce of some sort! I had to agree, they tasted awful! The pork mixture was a hit which I was really pleased about although some of my guests insisted on pouring (yes, literally pouring) salt over it which I chose not to take any offence at! And then came the trifle! Wow! Although everyone was full of mashed potato, the trifle didn’t last long at all!

The meal was enjoyed with a few bottles of red wine (French!) and basking in the apparent success of my first dinner party in Phnom Srok I explained how I am much better at cooking Italian food to which confession I was promptly asked to prove it! So, not one to turn down a challenge I have offered to cook an Italian dinner for all the staff at the District Office of Education next month! Oops! Watch this space!

Encouragement vs Boredom

It’s been a strange few weeks in Phnom Srok lately. The weather has suddenly turned a few noticeable degrees cooler and I’m taking two blankets to bed most nights and usually left longing for some socks and a cardi most mornings. It is harvesting time also which means most of my colleagues at the DOE are somewhat distracted by the fact that their fields of rice need cutting. In fact the whole district is busy with harvesting. Those that don’t own fields are busy working in their neighbours fields and it’s the main reason for the half empty classrooms I’ve visited recently as so many children need to work as well or look after their younger siblings while their parents work.

I tried my hand in one of Mr Sophan’s fields and managed to cut my little finger on a scythe and make a complete hash of my flooded patch of field. It looks so easy and there must be some system to it but it just wasn’t my day! I got sunburnt and bored! Tough work! I was much more successful at bagging the dried rice after threshing. I actually enjoyed this: partly because I had turned up to an empty office so was glad of having something remotely useful to do; partly because the late afternoon is such a beautiful time to be outside in the Cambodian countryside and party because it was highly amusing to observe passing Khmers almost falling off their bikes in shock at the sight of a female barang doing manual labour!

Encouragement has been found in the cluster core schools I have visited this month – thank God! I have been so pleased, motivated, overwhelmed and even proud of the developments I’ve witnessed in all the schools I’ve been to since the ETL training and Resources workshops of the last few months. Instead of walking into sad, bare classrooms I walk into classrooms with children’s work on display, learning posters hanging from string, clean water available for students to wash their hands, lessons being carried out without textbook dependency, children enjoying games as a learning activity. What has almost moved me to tears has been the school and cluster directors falling over themselves to show me around their school, motivated teachers who look proud rather than scared to death of the thought of us peering into their classrooms, and very happy children!

Sound perfect? Ha ha – well it’s not, it’s all still a long way off the inclusive child-friendly objectives the World Bank are dreaming of but it’s such an enormous and positive step in the right direction! To my relief the cluster schools who were given materials last month have actually used them and, more to the point, have shared them with and encouraged their satellite schools to do the same! Amazing! The newly acquired office laminator has never been so busy!

So, fuelled with very positive feelings about the progress Phnom Srok schools are making and desperate to spend some VSO money, we have made lots of exciting plans for the next few months and the infamous emotional rollercoaster is on the upward climb. Life is fantastic once more and I realise that even in the most boring of times there is never a dull moment.

Off She Went With a Trumpety Trump

Trump Trump Trump!

I left mum on Koh Chang, island of elephants, on Friday and she headed on to Singapore as I returned to Phnom Penh. But not before we had enjoyed what Koh Chang had to offer and we finished the holiday off in style with elephant riding, snorkelling and swimming in waterfalls.

I don’t think I have ever spent 2 whole weeks alone with my mother, having grown up with 3 other siblings, and certainly not shared a bedroom with her for quite some time! Our roles were also reversed for most of the holiday. She still woke up before me but I found myself nagging her to hurry up when getting ready to go out, something she must remember doing during my teenage years. I was also constantly thinking about whether she was comfortable or not, had everything she needed, knew where the nearest toilet was and was having a good time, all of which made me feel more like a parent than a child! She held the purse strings though and I was definitely the child when the opportunity to shop presented itself: “Mum, can I have one of those?”

The two weeks were a real treat for us both, it great to have my mum all to myself and the holiday was rounded off nicely in Koh Chang which was more of a holiday for me than tour guiding round Phnom Srok and Phnom Penh. Mum felt that she was getting 3 holidays in 1: a city break; a country retreat and a beach holiday and was also looking forward to a few days in Singapore on the way home.

We exhausted ourselves with sharing new experiences together. Riding an elephant was one. The elephants ambled through jungle, countryside and a rubber plantation, until they reached a fresh water pool where e all donned our swim suits and joined our elephants for a swim! Mum was even persuaded to climb onto an elephant in the water which was hilarious! She was left on the (very tame) elephant for quite some time with no one directing the animal while I snapped photographs and dodged the occasional fresh elephant turd floating past me. We were amazed at how well trained the animals were, their size and also the fact that despite their size they moved so gently and silently.

From creatures great, to creatures small, the following day was spent snorkelling in the sea surrounding some of the neighbouring Thai islands. It was a beautiful day and we saw countless numbers of different species of fish and coral under the waves. The water was crystal clear and it was just like peering down into another universe, there was so much going on! At times we were swimming face to face with fish all around us, close enough to touch, if quick enough! And other times we just floated still on the surface of the water watching the hive of activity below and around us. I was relieved we didn’t see anything the same size as the elephants below the waves. It was amazing to observe so much sea-traffic! Despite my camera claiming to be waterproof I decided not to put it to the test on this occasion so only the memories remain of the incredible sea life we saw. Again, mum had a blast, her snorkelling lesson paid off and I think it was even worth the painfully sunburnt backs of legs she endured for the 2 days afterwards.

Fishing with Mother

Like most of my visitors, mum absolutely loved Phnom Srok! We arrived extremely tired in the late afternoon and fell straight into bed after I had rejected invitations of joining a colleague’s party nearby. We ate a very traditional Khmer dinner when we woke up, prepared by my landlady’s family which was delicious, and as mum went back to bed I joined the party as my conscience reminded me that however tired you might be it is very rude in Khmer culture to turn down an invitation and switch your phone off! Oops!

We had a relaxing day on Thursday motoing around the district and I took mum to see Phnom Srok’s main attractions; Tropieng Tmar reservoir and the traditional silk weaving houses. We took the long way to the lake so mum could enjoy the scenery of bright green rice fields and wooden houses and get a grand view of the reservoir. We enjoyed lunch and some time out in the little bamboo shacks near the restaurants and visited silk weavers on the way back home where we were easily persuaded to buy some! Mum was continually bombarded with new experiences and she commented on how exhausting but stimulating and exciting it was to constantly see, hear, do, smell and taste everything which was different to anything from home. Sitting on the floor to eat was challenging as the day was topped off by a dinner invitation from Daney and her family where we were treated to even more delicious Khmer home cooking and mum got to meet some more of my friends and colleagues. She even made some Scotch pancakes to share some traditional English baking!
I had been waiting for Friday for months! Mr Chamroeurn (the accountant from my DOE and owner of the breakfast restaurant I frequent), had been promising for what feels like an age, to teach me how to fish with a large net. I have seen men and boys at various times throwing this huge circular net weighted with metal rings which looked like a bicycle chain, into water to catch fish. The net is held in such a way and thrown in such a way that it opens to its biggest circle before dropping into the water (if you do it right!) and with any luck when it’s pulled back out it is full of small fish. Watching the whole performance beggars the question whether all the effort is worth such a small looking catch? I learnt however, that these small fish can be immediately fried whole to provide a tasty snack or they are used to make a Khmer favourite; prohok. In English, prohok gets called Khmer cheese but this is not because it contains any dairy products! Oh no! It is called cheese because it smells like cheese. It is really fermented fish. This is one dish my Western taste buds have still not been able to adjust to; in fact it makes me want to heave so I avoid prohok at all costs. It was fun catching the fish though!
Mr Chamroeurn is quiet a quiet and very well mannered man at my work place. I have been reminding him of his promise to teach me to fish for months and he always told me that November was the best time. So what better time in November than during mum’s visit! He has a gentle face and was an exceptionally patient and understanding teacher of his two clueless barang fishing students. There were many people out fishing, some because it provides a free meal and some just for fun. The Boat Race and Water Festival marks the end of the rainy season and the beginning of fishing season in Cambodia and as water poured out of weir from the reservoir many men and children used nets to catch hundreds of small fish.

It was a complicated preparation of the net, folding, holding, gripping and separating and using both hands to do different things. Mr Chamroeurn spoke to us in Khmer, we spoke back in English, there were lots of smiles, more than lots of failed or pathetic attempts, but eventually lots of caught fish! The lovely thing was that Daney joined us for a lesson as well as some of the kids from the village who had come along with their parents. We entertained them no end and they encouraged us with giving us their opinions on our efforts, sometimes “Very good” and sometimes “Not good!”.
In the evening we joined Mr Sophan and his wife for fresh fruit ice cream, an evening snack enjoyed in the village and Mr Sophan introduced mum to some other guests at the table as ‘mdai kaun Khnom’ which roughly translates as the ‘mother of my child’. Mum found this highly amusing and Mr Sophan explained that I am his adopted English daughter. He called mum Bong Srei (older sister) so we all immediately became members of the same family, and he repeatedly commented on my mother’s good health particularly at her ripe old age of 61! It felt like we had been eating all day as when we returned to the house we were presented with pork from the pig we had watched being killed that morning. I don’t think I would’ve had the stomach to watch 6 months ago but I’m hardening to country living and thought I should see what happens (especially after being woken up at Corine’s house in Sisaphon in the early hours by the squealing of dying swine at the abattoir next door!). It was vivid and gruesome by the way and yes, I did take some photographs but have refrained from posting them on the blog due to the graphic images – not for the squeamish!

Parental Guidance

It was great to meet mum at Phnom Penh airport and share her very first experiences of Cambodia in a white knuckle tuk tuk ride to our guesthouse. Just over a year ago I arrived at the very same airport at around the same time of day and experienced all the same ‘firsts’ as she. We chatted for the most of the hour long journey through the city’s rush hour traffic, coughing through the fumes and other various smells of the city, gasping and squeezing our eyes shut when it looked like a collision was likely or the gap the tuk tuk driver had chosen to drive through looked too small. We both reflected on how much I was now accustomed to things in the bustling city and we planned a rough itinerary over a traditional Khmer dinner and I managed to catch up with the family through photos and videoed messages.

I tour guided mum round the colourfully claustrophobic Russian Market (Psar Toul Tom Poung) which she loved and where we bought silk and goodies, the spacious art-deco Central Market (Psar Tmei) where she bought some inexpensive Dolce & Gabbana sunglasses! And we also managed to fit in some of my favourite little cafes where we dined on very un-Khmer muesli breakfasts and slabs of cake! Yum!

We had a Cooking lesson with Cooking Cambodian (www.cookingcambodian.com ) which was a superb experience. We were picked up from our guesthouse and taken to the Kandal market to buy the food. I’ve been round countless food markets in Cambodia but this experience was unique and wonderful. I saw so many different foods that I haven’t seen before and the amount of food and business going on was wonderful to see. It was also great for mum to witness such a big busy market and see so much fresh food for sale – she loved it! We saw live fish writhing around in a huge metal tray waiting to be bought, decapitated fish heads trying to breath while their large bodies lay motionless beside them, four pig heads adorning a man’s blood covered moto before being dropped off at a stall, pink eggs?, live chickens tied by the feet roosting next to their dead, plucked counterparts and bananas in their thousands! It really was a complete attack on the senses.
The lesson was fantastic and the two of us had a trained chef between us as our teacher. We made Cambodian spring rolls and a peanut sauce as our starter, followed by Fish Amok and then Banana Tapioca pudding. The pounding we had to give the sauce ingredients in the pestle and mortar was like an upper-body aerobics session and we also made cups from banana leaves with cocktail sticks holding the sides together for the fish and sauce to be steamed in. The food was really delicious, the teacher an expert and the recipes relatively simple!

The tour guiding continued to the Royal Palace and Silver Pagoda, an obvious tourist site but one I hadn’t visited yet. We didn’t really see much of the palace but the pictures of the Boat Races were interesting. The Silver Pagoda houses priceless bejewelled statues of Buddha amongst other various treasure and is called the Silver Pagoda due to the 5329 silver tiles that cover the floor.

We were also fortunate enough to be in Phnom Penh at the same time as the Water Festival (Bonn Om Tuk), an annual festival marking the Tonle Sap’s change in direction at the end of the rainy season. VSO had their own boat crew again this year of which I was a member so mum joined some other VSO parents in watching the boat of barangs make complete fools of themselves! Again, it was great fun to participate in such a colourful and important festival in the Khmer culture and I’m sure we did better than last year. Hundreds of brightly painted dragon boats race in pairs down the river to the finishing line outside the Royal Palace. In last year’s race the VSO boat managed not only to lose the race it was in but was also overtaken by two races behind, in effect coming 7th in a race of 2! This year I’m sure we were overtaken by fewer boats; the final result is still to be announced!

Phnom Penh was a hive of activity with thousands of people celebrating the four day holiday which followed the celebrations of Independence Day on November 9th. It meant that mum had come at the busiest time but also when the city was at its most colourful and vibrant. Flags were on every street light, food sellers on every street corner, huge balloons strung up and the riverfront packed with revellers. It was an amazing atmosphere to be a part of for a few days. And after those few days we were ready to escape the city for a very different part of Cambodia – Phnom Srok District. Our 7am bus drove mum and I through rice fields, villages and towns giving a very different view of Khmer life. Next stop, Phnom Srok.