Goodbye Kampong Cham

Friday 1st February

For the last 2 weeks I have been participating in the second leg of language training with 16 of my fellow volunteers. In theory I know, understand and can say hundred of words and phrases in Khmer and my confidence in speaking the language has definitely experienced a boost in the right direction. It’s also really exciting when you can confidently communicate with members of the Cambodian public and be understood. It’s still sometimes a challenge to understand what is said in reply but with a bit of luck and guesswork it is becoming more common that I at least get the gist of what people say to me. I guess it also helps that my conversations are pretty basic and commonly involve asking a motodop driver to take me to the post office or a restaurant so context also helps in my level of understanding.

I thoroughly enjoyed the 2 weeks in Kampong Cham and as well as language training, we got the opportunity to chat lots, play silly games, visit a Model school and stay up late! – very different from the goings on in my district! It was very relaxed and was a real treat to be with a lot of other English speaking people. The September ’07 group are a really diverse group with little more than an educational background in common but as a group we get on famously, can play group games together and share many an interesting discussion. It might be the last time we will be together as a group in this way and what a great time was had.

One of the amazing things about Kampong Cham is the bamboo bridge which gets built each year during the dry season to connect the main land with Koh Pbain, a ten-kilometre-long island in the middle of the Mekong River. Last time we were here, back in October, it was still wet season and a group of us crossed by the small ferry and took our bicycles to explore the very friendly villages on the island. It was so different this time as the River has greatly reduced in size, exposing sandbanks and making the island look a lot larger and allowing for the bamboo bridge crossing. Amazingly, the river and its banks look so different to the time before when we saw houses and trees standing in water. I was feeling much less adventurous this time round and didn’t actually cross the bridge but I did manage to take some photos...