Wild West

I went to visit Onno this week in Bavel district in the province of Battambang. Onno arrived in the same batch as me, way back in September last year, and seems to have a placements most similar to mine. He too is alone in a fairly poor district, an hour from his provincial town. He too is the first volunteer to work in his district, lives in a really nice little Khmer house (unlike mine!) and has managed to build really positive relationships with his willing Khmer colleagues.

I was on my ‘Dream’ for almost 4 hours to reach him from Phnom Srok, where we caught up and planned our few days together. Then, interspersed with visiting the market, meeting friends, watching DVDs and visiting the office, I joined Onno, his VA and DOE colleague as they finished a series of CFS (Child Friendly Schools) Introductory workshops.

It was great to see Onno in his natural habitat and fab to steal some ideas for work to take back to Phnom Srok. He had written the workshop himself, initially presenting it to his DOE, in order to give it at 9 target schools. However, by involving and encouraging his colleagues so well and training up his VA, it is now them running the show rather than Onno which is ideal! As their understanding of CFS increases so the DOE takes on more and more ownership of it. It also means time isn’t wasted going through everything in 2 languages (and Onno is Dutch so presumably has to go through a 3rd language too!).

Corine joined us for a party on Friday night which started as a small get together and ended up a slightly bigger event. Onno’s landlord and lady came bringing a table and chairs, apologising to me about the state of the garden!, some of Onno’s colleagues joined in as well as some Khmer friends from the local moto garage. Fortunately, for Onno the reluctant cook, his friends had friends who worked at one of Bavel’s restaurants so after a quick dash to the market, all the food was brought round ready prepared. Perfect!

On Saturday we all travelled further west to visit Chris and Jon in Phnom Preuk. Now they really live in the Wild West! I was amazed at the change of landscape as we drove into the district. There were no more rice fields here as the land is not flat, instead they grow corn. Many ‘mountains’ (the Khmer ‘mountain’ is more like a hill really) dot the horizon. In fact I nearly fell off my moto in surprise when I had to drop a gear to get up one of said hills. It was really beautiful countryside and so different looking to Phnom Srok. It was nice to be recognised by one of their DOE staff who visited Phnom Srok last month and they even have my photo, amongst others, on the wall to remind them of their trip!

Phnom Preuk is on the Thai border and has only been established recently (i.e. in the last 10 years) and is an interesting mix of residents including ex-Khmer Rouge cadres and displaced families. Again, it was fantastic to see fellow volunteers at home as it makes it so much easier to picture where they are. Weary from the long moto journey, we turned down the offer of a guided tour and instead opted for Pimms on the balcony.

It was a great evening, 5 of us volunteers as well as Chris’ son and his mate from the UK; I felt like we were all part of the family! We ate a delicious Bar-B-Q and spent the evening chatting and playing games. And then, thankfully with not a rain cloud in sight, we travelled back to Bavel for a quick pit stop, on to Battambang where we met Jean for lunch and left Onno to catch a bus to Phnom Penh. Corine and I took the road back to Sisaphon together and except for a near miss involving a young cow; the journey was smooth and fairly enjoyable.

In some ways I can’t believe it has taken us this long to take these longer moto rides to visit friends but I guess we’ve all been busy settling into our placements and gaining confidence. I’m so glad we did it this weekend, just before the big rains are due to start, as now the country seems a little smaller than before and friends feel a little closer.