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2009-12-16T09:27:00.000-08:00

The last few weeks have been fairly intense. I've started a new virtual role supporting AIESEC Australia and travelled to Poipet to meet some of our Carpets for Communities families. Here is a short subjective summary of my experience so far.

The Good

The Palace - I live in a 4 story mansion. The owners occupy the bottom 2 floors and upstairs is a random Korean business/home occupied by atleast 1 gentleman with a penchant for young Khmer girls. The 3rd floor is occupied by myself and 4 other AIESEC trainees from around the world, and everyone that lives there is easy to get along with. My room is roughly 3 times the size of my bedroom in Oz; I wasn't really expecting this high standard of accomodation but it definitely improves the quality of life.

The bicycle - I'm actually surprised at the number of cars in Phnom Penh (more on that later), but there is still a healthy moto culture here, one in which I semi partake on my awesome old school bike complete with grandma basket. It's awesome to have the freedom to ride around the city without paying for moto taxis everyday. Best of all is the surpised looks or laughter from the locals as I pass a moto bogged down with 2-4 passengers.

Russian market - Our house is situated in southern Phnom Penh, around 4 blocks, a 5 min walk away from Phsar Toul Tompoung, known by westerners as Russian Market. On a sidenote, I'm yet to spot anything remotely Russian about it. This place is great because it just about has everything you need to get by. You can come for any meal of the day and it will set you back between 80cents and $2. Because it's so busy it also helps to ensure the food is safe. We also get all our fruit from here, and before I go home it'll likely be where I purchase my random t-shirts and fake CK underwear.

Innocence of children - Tonight I witnessed an interesting phenomenon. Every night people set up speakers in the major parks and play Western pop music thats been Khmerised. Depending on whats being played there are different age groups that gather at each of the 'stages' and they begin to dance in unison, each of them somehow knowing all the moves. At first it was quite amusing, but then I reflected how wonderful it is that these 12-18 year olds can happily dance in public with zero fear of embarrassment, while the social norm for Australian youth is to stumble around blind drunk in a friends back yard.

Meeting the families - Last week I travelled to Poipet to visit the site of the Carpets for Communities (CfC) project. Poipet is on the border with Thailand, and you really wouldn't want to stay here unless you were helping out with one of the many NGOs. We have 25 families in our CfC project who live in 4 different communities within 5km of the town. Basically CfC is about getting children with a very bleak future or at risk of trafficking (who are either begging or working at the border) off the streets and back into school. We do this by supplying materials and teaching their mothers how to hand make really beautiful rugs from home. These carpets are sold at market stalls throughout Australia at fair trade prices, providing an income that the whole family can survive on.

Meeting these families was an intense experience and yet so rewarding at the same time. I had tears in my eyes as the translator told me the story of the first family we visited. The mother had recently had a heart attack and was in her home province to recover; this left duties to the father who was extremely slow due to the onset of blindness. When asking about the children we discovered that the eldest had committed suicide, at that point I wasn't sure if I'd make it through the day. But after all this, to see that this man and his family could still be grateful towards CfC for helping them survive, that was the moment I knew I had made the right decision in coming here to help. As bad as it sounds, I think this is something that every young person in the developed world should see first hand.

2 weeks in Cambodia

2009-12-02T02:28:00.000-08:00

Note: You should probs read the end of the last post to know what's going on.

You know those times when you wake up and have no idea what's going on? After about 5 seconds you get your bearings; maybe you're on holidays, maybe you have to go to work, maybe it's 6:09am and you should have left the house 9 minutes ago. Somehow in the last day my phone had decided that day was night and vice versa, instead of a 5:30am alarm I was going to get a warning that I should start thinking about dinner. Thanks to Jess, I atleast had a couple of minutes to shower and run out of the house towards the moto drivers at the end of our street.

I quickly said 'central market, $1' to the first driver that saw me, he nodded so I jumped on the back and off we went. At the end of the street when he looked at me for directions, I realised his nod just meant that $1 sounded like good business for this time of morning. I had a very a vague idea of where the bus station and market was located so I pointed to a street and off we went again. Before long he was trying to ask me where to go, but all I could say was central market which he clearly didn't understand. So it was time for the obligatory stop to ask for translations and directions from street vendors; by now it was already 6:30am and I figured I had little chance of catching the bus. Off we went again, my driver with newfound confidence while I was more concerned than ever that we were nowhere near the bus station.

Finally we appeared from a backstreet with the market and station directly infront of us. A quick 'aw khon' to the driver as I started looking around for the bus with a sign to Siem Reap, which I had been told would be clearly marked; no luck. Thankfully the staff were able to direct me to the correct bus, which it turns out didn't depart till nearly 7am.

The bus ride itself would have been painful but for seeing the country side for the first time. I had been warned about the constant stopping for passengers, the unnecessarily loud honking and the downright bizarre onboard karoake. Despite being only 300km to Siem Reap the trip takes 6 hours total. Thankfully I was spared the onboard karoake, replaced by a DVD of a Khmer female artist singing at a ball attended by people intent on looking like they were having a good time.

Eventually we arrived in Siem Reap and after dodging some absurdly high quotes for motos I made it to the conference site. The conference itself was enjoyable, I met the expansion team plus a few other foreigners who are here to help in some capacity. I also met roughly 35 local members, some old, some new. That night everyone decided to go out, but as is plainly clear here, there is not a great deal of integration between the two parties.

I decided to join the locals at a Cambodian nightclub, which was certainly an interesting experience. For starters half of us were dressed in shorts and flip flops, so I was sceptical about our chances of getting into a place that looked quite flashy from the outside.

It turns out that age and dress isn't important, all that really matters here is money; these are upper class kids and me being white instantly means I'm rich (despite the fact I'm poor as hell and not being paid whilst here). We were ushered into what was basically a VIP section and then served buckets of beers on ice, all of which was concerning for the health of my wallet.

After that it was pretty standard fair, apart from the 30min set by a local band which included everything from rock to love songs and some choreographed dancing thrown in for good measure. At the end of the night I was somewhat relieved to see a bill of $60, roughly $3.5 per person which is something even I can afford.

It's been 10 days since conference finished. The first week was actually a real struggle, not with full on culture shock, but rather a sense of 'where do I start?'. I don't have a workplace here, and only have to check-in with the boss once a week so it certainly didn't induce productivity in the first week.

I joined the members of my host university at their local committee meeting on the weekend and had a chance to present briefly about myself, Australia and the project that I'll be working on with them. I think one of the keys to me really enjoying the experience here will be getting to know the members, as they can give me a greater insight into actualy Khmer life, rather than just being another white foreigner.

Tii muy impressions

2009-11-25T23:21:00.000-08:00

Where to start? I've been in Cambodia for almost one week, which is scary to think because it means I only have 11 left and I feel like this is type of place that becomes more enjoyable the more you know.

I arrived on Thursday night after a slightly delayed flight due to one passenger losing his bearings between the check-in desk and the plane, subsequently not making it on board. As is customary now, they have to delve into all the luggage and remove any items belonging to the potentially sinister non-passenger.

On the plane I also saw something interesting which immediately made me realise that Cambodia was going to challenge my mindset. At the cinema in KL two nights prior I was surprised to learn that you don't just buy tickets, you book certain seats. But now as I walked to my seat I saw two separate instances of a Cambodian sitting in the seat that had been assigned to someone else and the westerners were really struggling to come to terms with this. An English guy was doing everything he could to overcome the language barrier and get his point across that you just can't take someones seat like that, I laughed and then got to my row to find someone in my seat.

I hate to say it, but my first impressions of Cambodia weren't great. Maybe it was just in my head, but the process and people involved with purchasing a visa felt really dodgy. Also I had a short moment to reflect on the current state of my life whilst filling out the documentation. Occupation________. Hmm, what do i do? Is volunteering an occupation? I considered writing I'm an AIESECer but I didn't think they'd get it. I went with 'student', I'm just taking my learning outside the classroom.

Wow, this is going to be long. After picking up my luggage I managed to escape past the first line of tuk tuk drivers thrusting their services upon me, but I didn't anticipate the second wave that were slightly more persistent. I sat down to relax, take in the moment and wait for Jess who would soon be arriving to pick me up. Unfortunately I was joined by a driver who spent the next 5 minutes trying to convince me that she wasn't coming; in the end I told him that if she doesn't arrive I'll make a concerted effort to find another driver after he bothered me so much.

Thankfully Jess had been able to climb off her sickbed after a severe bout of food poisoning and arrived to pick me up in a tuk tuk (motorbike/scooter pulling a small 4 seater carriage). From the air I was surprised to see how small and undeveloped Phnom Penh actually was, and this was now confirmed as we rode through the streets to our house. Our house is actually a 4 story mansion, of which a few AIESEC associated expats inhabit the 3rd floor. It's really not what I expected, especially after my trip to Vietnam last year, when I shared a bed for every one of the 20 nights there, despite staying in 3 different locations.

I'm currently living with 2 Germans, 1 Pole (who has just finished 2 years working for AIESEC International), 1 American and 1 Dutch girl.

That night a few of us went out to a nice dinner as Jess was understandably avoiding anything that might give her a 3rd round of food poisoning. It would have been great, except they gave me green curry instead of red curry. I ordered red because I figured green would be too hot and probably induce tears. I figured correctly.

That night I also learnt my first oddity about Cambodia; the tuk tuk drivers don't know where to go, and maps only confuse them even more. To me it seems that detailed street knowledge of your city would be integral to being a taxi/moto/tuk tuk driver, but it's a rare commodity here. You have to navigate by the well known landmarks or the main streets.

Friday was spent with Jess as she transitioned her knowledge of Phnom Penh and the role that I have now taken over. Basically my role is to ensure that Carpets for Communities is understood by the AIESEC members of Phnom Penh local committee, and that they engage with the project to help raise funds. Also I get to work on bringing in other interns from around the world to work on the CfC project as we try to help more families and increase the production of carpets.

Friday night I packed a small bag as I was heading up to Siem Reap to join in with AIESEC Cambodia's first ever national conference. The I knew the bus was 6 hours each way, and I would only be in SR for 24 hours but it was a great chance to meet everyone at once. Jess was also leaving Phnom Penh on Saturday morning, so we agreed to say goodbye as I left the house at 6am for a 6:30 bus.

More to follow tomorrow.

Malaysia lah

2009-11-18T07:51:00.001-08:00

Tuesday

Well I’ve finally departed Australian shores and at this stage I think I’ve only forgotten my shower sponge. The last few weeks have been hectic and I’ve run my health down a little bit, unfortunately I doubt there will be much chance to catch up on sleep in the next week or so.

In true form I left it to the last minute to pack my bags as well as my room. Sadly, I think this habit is here to stay, if I haven’t learnt my lesson after 6 years of travelling and a recently missed flight to Hong Kong I can’t imagine it’s going to change.

Monday night was also the farewell for our 2009 Executive Board. (For non-AIESECers, the Executive Board is the group of 6-7 people responsible for the different aspects of AIESEC in your university, each also leads their own team of members). It has been a really amazing experience to work so closely with people over the past year and become friends along the way. Learning how to work with different personalities is such a great experience, and it also teaches you so much about your own strengths and weaknesses. It was also saddening to realise how quickly this opportunity passed without me getting to know some people as much as I wanted. I think this is a valuable lesson for the next few years; that you can’t wait for the perfect time to get acquainted with people, just make the most of now.

Wednesday (sorry for the novel)

Woo I made it. Arrived at Leon’s house around 7:30 this evening, a few hours later than originally planned. As I stood in the customs line at KL LCC airport watching other people fire up their phones and remark on the four bars of signal strength I knew I had a problem. Travelling to Hong Kong earlier this year I had international roaming activated without me even asking, which turned out to be a quite useful at the time. To be on the safe side I checked the website to ensure that roaming was still automatically activated, and it is, just not for me apparently. No worries I thought, I’ll just get a local sim card and problem solved. It turns out there isn’t anywhere at the LCC international terminal that sells sim cards, so I decided to head into the city and figure things out there.

After an hour on the bus into KL, I arrived at KL Sentral where there is a plethora of mobile dealers. By now I knew that my hosts would be starting to worry that I hadn’t called or replied to their texts, so it was somewhat disheartening to hear that I had to wait 30 mins to call while my account was ‘activated’. No point in waiting around I thought, better to head to the designated train station and call from there.

I waited patiently at the platform along with the rest of the peak hour commuters and managed to squeeze myself into a carriage. Having rarely used trains in the past I learnt something new: when a peak hour train is packed at the central station, it’s not a good thing. Between the 2^nd and 4th stop, roughly 15 mins, I was so close to strangers that they would have been arrested if we were on a normal street, it’s probably best I didn’t see their faces.

As I we neared the designated station I had a major concern, if the exit door was opposite to the one I had entered there was no way in the world I would make it off with my luggage. Thankfully fortune was on my side and I was able to get off without any problems. Alright, mission almost successful I thought incorrectly. The shady character that sold me the sim card said I just had to dial a number and I would get a lady asking what language I wanted. All I got was a lady telling me some important information in Malay before saying ‘bye’, and by ‘bye’ I knew she actually meant ‘sorry buddy, you’re shit out of luck’.

By now I was 2 hours late and had images of Leon cursing my name and blacklisting Australian backpackers as hopeless fools who aren’t fit to leave the country. Thankfully there was a pay phone outside and I managed to procure some change to make a call. Problem: I only had numbers with international codes and had no idea which ones to take off and what to add. After trying a few different combinations and generally looking like a lost tourist with too much luggage I was saved by a friendly lady who helped me figure out the correct number to call. And the lesson is: if you come across a lost looking tourist, do your good deed for the day and help them out.

In the end all was well; Leon and Mann Dee have been absolutely fantastic hosts and I’m so grateful for their generosity. We went out last night for a movie and spent today touring the city and visiting one of the orphanage projects that we are sending QUT students to. Tomorrow I’m off to Cambodia, I can only hope I make it to my accommodation with a little less hassle.

One of those defining days

2009-10-20T06:10:00.000-07:00

Today I woke up without enough sleep, as is usual for me in the last month or so. About two weeks ago I realised that the summer holidays were fast approaching and I needed to organise my plans ASAP. I work (volunteer) about 25 hours a week for a student group at university, which has essentially become my life in the past year. Most people think I'm crazy for spending that much time on something that I don't get paid for, and to be honest it is a few more hours than I would like, but overall I'm really grateful for the opportunities that it has given me.

Anyhow, today should have been a normal day, but I sit here now with a one way ticket to Cambodia leaving in 4 weeks. I had been thinking about this for a few weeks, but there were a number of people that I had to talk to and a few things had to be arranged. In the space of 4 hours all of these things came together with the help of 1 great person who I know well and another that I'm about to get to know. When I realised that tickets from Brisbane to Cambodia via Malaysia were on sale for $230 I had to make a quick decision which I'm sure will turn out to be extremely rewarding.

So I'm moving to Cambodia for atleast 3 months to work for an amazing NGO called Carpets for Communities where I'll have a direct role in helping families earn an income and allow their children to attend school instead of begging on the streets.

In the next 4 weeks I have to say goodbye to 1 girlfriend, pass 2 exams, work 3 jobs and sort out all my logistics for Cambodia. I have developed the worst habbit for organising everything at the last minute but I guess it allows me to do cool things like this.