A Day in the (working) Life

Thursday 3rd January 2008

Happy New Year!

I am under the impression that blog entries to date may confuse some readers into thinking that I am on some sort of extended holiday. So in order to dispel rumours that this might be the case, today I will attempt to give you all an idea of the working life of a volunteer. I would hate you to think that I was enjoying myself too much! Here goes...

6.00am – alarm clock goes off and I jump out of bed ready to do good things all day!
Well, sort off. The alarm certainly goes off at 6am but more often than not I am already awake having had the pleasure of listening to the dawn chorus of cockerels and dogs competing for air space.

6.45am – breakfast time!
I am still enjoying breakfast at my local restaurant where the owners know my order much better than I do.

7.30am – work starts.
I usually meet Sarey (my translator) at the office at 7.30. This morning we had to attend a meeting with the Child Friendly Schools Implementation Committee. Sarey has the tough job of translating everything into English for me, I have the tough job of trying to understand what on earth is going on and give some sort of acceptable response which Sarey then translates back into Khmer.
Quite often, so far at least, the morning will consist of a visit to a school. Sometimes I will ride my own moto there or sometimes I will ride pillion on Sarey’s – it usually depends how far away the school is (sometimes up to 30km away) and how bad the roads are (generally the roads aren’t too bad but I’m dreading the wet season!) If the school we are visiting is far away we usually have lunch there (fish and rice combination if I’m lucky!).

11.00 – lunch break.
I then have 3 hours to amuse myself until the office opens again in the afternoon. This can go surprisingly quickly especially if I need to go the market, buy ice for the cool box, eat lunch, drink water, sleep, shower and brush my teeth! I don’t normally do all those things in one lunch time but usually my lunch time consists of some if not all of those activities. It is however the hottest part of the day when everything stops so there’s not a lot else to do. It’s a far cry from the 45 minute lunch break at school in the UK when you barely have time to sit down with a sandwich as you multi-task all the other things necessary to fit it before the kids finish their lunch!

2.00pm – back to work.
There is definitely fewer people at the office in the afternoon for a variety of reasons. Many people in Cambodia (if not all of them in the rural areas) have a second or sometimes third job to boost their income to one they can actually live on, so many go to work in their rice field (particularly now as it is harvesting time), go and help their families or carry out other business of some sort. Some just start drinking beer at lunch time and forget to stop!
Today, we continued the meeting into the afternoon and then Sarey and I planned (if you can call it that!) the rest of the month as I travel to Kampong Cham in a few weeks for more language training so time is limited.

5.00pm – finish working! Phew!
After work I tend to sit with the family downstairs, pet the dogs, laugh at the children and attempt to speak some Khmer. My motivation with language learning has waned slightly as I used to take my language books to study down there for at least an hour a night! I also occasionally go and join the English class down the road if I have the energy but I’m conscious of upstaging the actual teacher and need my translator to help me come to an arrangement with him so that I know which day to come and help. I really enjoy it though – didn’t expect to miss being in a classroom of children quite as much as I do and even though our understanding of each other is a struggle (no different to the UK then!) it is great fun being with kids who are so eager to learn!

Other evening activities I have found myself doing are writing this blog so it’s ready to upload when I’m next in the vicinity of Internet. I also have taken up ironing my clothes as unlike teaching in the UK, I simply cannot turn up at work in a creased outfit! My Khmer colleagues are immaculately turned out in clean and crease-free shirts and trousers and I have followed suit – so to speak. So despite the fact that the office is in a field shared with a herd of cows and you have to dodge the shit to reach the front door, and despite the omnipresent dust which covers everything, I turn up to work in an ironed top and trousers! I also (thanks to my generous mates back home) have an iPod which provides a great means of entertainment in the evenings, oh and I have been known to write the odd letter!

8.00pm – bath time!
I shower at around 8pm in my lovely! bathroom. At the start of my placement I didn’t have running water so would have a scoop bath out of the tank of water in the bathroom – very cold but probably more energy efficient. Now I am blessed with running water so I have a (cold) shower and tap in the bathroom and a tap in the kitchen too!

8.30pm – bedtime!
Yes folks, Anna the night owl is in bed by 8.30 and usually asleep by 9pm. In fact, the whole of the district goes to bed then too!

Having submitted this blog entry, there really isn’t a typical day’s work and although the working week is Monday to Friday, the Cambodian calendar has about 40 national holidays so quite often the week is only 4 days long. There are also numerous summonses to Sisaphon and Phnom Penh for various meetings so I never seem to find myself in my district for longer than about 6 days at a time. Anyway, I hope it sounds like I am busy doing lots of work! The placement is still in the early stages and I still sometimes find myself wondering what I’m supposed to be doing here!