It was an absolute pleasure to return home to Phnom Srok after another long stint out of the district and I had certainly been missed! My landlord was almost jumping for joy when I pulled up on my moto (either he was trying to distract his baby son from crying or he was relieved I was back to pay my electricity bill!). Actually I've made some progress with the baby son, who I've known since birth, as he now waves when he sees me instead of turning his face to find his mother in absolute horror! My puppy (now pregnant with her second litter) ran to me when she heard my moto, as always happy to see me and get a tickle behind the ears!
It was really lovely to moto around the village, waving to people and calling in on a few families I've got to know, and despite the office being closed every afternoon I've been pretty busy! I called in on Daney's family to say hello and have a little chat. Daney has landed herself with a new job working for RACHA, a local NGO, which is excellent news. I'm sad she won't be working as much with the DOE as it could really do with her skills, but I am thrilled for her. She'll be able to transfer her facilitation skills to train village people in creating community banks and the like. It's sounds fantastic! I was glad to reconnect with this family on this particular day as I heard sad news from the family later on the same week.
Later in the week I popped in on Mr Sophan's family. He was away but his wife welcomed me in and there was soon a little group of women and small children sitting around trying to make sense of my Khmer and hear about and see the photos of my recent travels to Kampot and Kep. It was there that I saw a baby with a black smudge of soot on her forehead. I knew this baby had been ill a while ago so I asked whether the child was still ill, expecting the soot on the forehead to be part of some traditional method of medicine. The baby was well but there had been a death nearby so the soot was to protect the baby from bad spirits. I was relieved the baby was well as I had met her along with her anxious parents at the village health centre a month back. I inquired about which neighbour had died and learn that Daney's cousin had returned from Thailand very ill, too late to see a doctor or be taken to hospital so she's died that morning, bleeding from her mouth and 24 years old.
I made my way round to the funeral the next morning to pay my respects and see Daney and her family. Tough times. The family had experienced a double tragedy as the night before another cousin had learnt of the death and set off from Sisaphon to get to Phnom Srok for the funeral, only to suffer an accident on the road and later die in hospital. He was also in his twenties. Half the family therefore travelled to Sisaphon to attend his funeral. Sadly, this type of news is not uncommon here and death is always quite close.
It was really lovely to moto around the village, waving to people and calling in on a few families I've got to know, and despite the office being closed every afternoon I've been pretty busy! I called in on Daney's family to say hello and have a little chat. Daney has landed herself with a new job working for RACHA, a local NGO, which is excellent news. I'm sad she won't be working as much with the DOE as it could really do with her skills, but I am thrilled for her. She'll be able to transfer her facilitation skills to train village people in creating community banks and the like. It's sounds fantastic! I was glad to reconnect with this family on this particular day as I heard sad news from the family later on the same week.
Later in the week I popped in on Mr Sophan's family. He was away but his wife welcomed me in and there was soon a little group of women and small children sitting around trying to make sense of my Khmer and hear about and see the photos of my recent travels to Kampot and Kep. It was there that I saw a baby with a black smudge of soot on her forehead. I knew this baby had been ill a while ago so I asked whether the child was still ill, expecting the soot on the forehead to be part of some traditional method of medicine. The baby was well but there had been a death nearby so the soot was to protect the baby from bad spirits. I was relieved the baby was well as I had met her along with her anxious parents at the village health centre a month back. I inquired about which neighbour had died and learn that Daney's cousin had returned from Thailand very ill, too late to see a doctor or be taken to hospital so she's died that morning, bleeding from her mouth and 24 years old.
I made my way round to the funeral the next morning to pay my respects and see Daney and her family. Tough times. The family had experienced a double tragedy as the night before another cousin had learnt of the death and set off from Sisaphon to get to Phnom Srok for the funeral, only to suffer an accident on the road and later die in hospital. He was also in his twenties. Half the family therefore travelled to Sisaphon to attend his funeral. Sadly, this type of news is not uncommon here and death is always quite close.
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