First two weeks in Mondulkiri

I’ve now been in Sen Monorom for two weeks. They have been very good and I feel quite settled already. Following the tradition we started in Kampong Cham of naming everyone after what they sell (fish lady, beer lady, noodle man etc), I’m happy to report that I have settled on a very nice vegetable lady who has a friendly child and husband, an expensive UHT milk man, a bread and fruit lady, an egg and banana lady (shops often sell quite a random selection of products, and for some reason bananas are never sold in the fruit stalls) and a fish man. It sounds silly but it’s actually quite nice to buy from the same people, as you get to know them in a way, although that knowing is mostly them laughing at you and you laughing as well to pretend you’ve understood what they’ve said. Being laughed at is something I’m getting used to: the other day a woman pointed to my bag of tomatoes, said ‘tomatoes!’ and started laughing, which I couldn’t understand at all until I realised that people tend to buy green tomatoes, so my red ones looked as silly as buying mouldy bread or brown bananas. Anyway, I now have a kilo of respectably green tomatoes.  

Having been here over two months, it’s probably about time I mentioned work. As I had been warned, work has been quite slow, especially as the beginning of a VSO placement is focused on meeting people and building relationships rather than launching into activity too quickly. It’s been a useful fortnight, though: I have visited most of the schools in the district I’m working in, and have a few more to see this week. Jeltje, another volunteer who’s working in the same schools on improving teachers’ capacity, has been here a year already so I have tagged along with her, which has actually been very helpful because I have been able to join her in lesson observations, to see some of the things going on inside classrooms. I think it’s too soon for me to make any conclusions about teaching in Cambodia, but I was struck by the scarcity of resources and how this places huge limitations on teaching techniques – it’s very difficult for a literacy lesson, for example, not to be teacher-led when there is only one copy of the book for the whole class.

As well as visiting schools and meeting school directors, I have attended quite a lot of meetings and workshops, including the annual meeting between VSO and the Provincial Office of Education to review the partnership between the two organisations. It was very useful to have that meeting so early in my placement as it has given me a fairly clear idea of what they want my work to consist of. There is no finalised plan yet, but one of the things we discussed was supporting the creation or development of groups such as School Support Committees (similar to a PTA, I think) and Student Councils that can take responsibility for organising and implementing school improvement projects. It’s not necessarily what the school directors want, I think, as they are understandably focused on immediate needs such as fixing wells and rebuilding roofs, but if they function effectively, such groups can help the schools become self-supporting in the long-term rather than reliant on hand-outs from NGOs. Anyway, we’ll see what happens.

In terms of social activity, Sen Monorom has proved itself surprisingly good fun considering it’s a town where everything is closed and silent by 6.30pm.  Apart from last weekend which was a bit lonely because Chak and Jeltje went to Phnom Penh and it rained all weekend (I read three books!), there’s been lots going on. It’s a small group of volunteers in Mondulkiri (Jeltje, Daniel and me, plus Chak and To, the translators) but a very friendly and sociable one, so we’ve met up many evenings for food, and yesterday some of us visited a nearby elephant project.

Chak, too, has been great in inviting me when he goes out with his friends, all of whom are very welcoming although I do wish I could speak the language more fluently, or at all, even. Last night was particularly good: we went in a big group to a town in the next district for what looked like a wedding party – lots of immaculately-laid tables with delicious food, a massive sound system and people dancing - but turned out to be a birthday party for a one-year-old child! I’ve never seen so much alcohol at a child’s birthday party, nor so few children, so I think it was more of an excuse for lots of people to meet up, eat good food and get drunk. I was the only foreigner there which was nice but also dangerous, as everyone found it hilarious to make the foreigner down all his drinks. I felt a bit like I was a 13-year-old being made to drink by a group of irresponsible 17-year-olds, and felt a bit ashamed of being in that position, but it was good fun and after about the eighth beer they were right: it was hilarious, although I was aware that it would stop being hilarious if I threw up over them. Luckily it was only beer which Cambodians drink with ice, so it was quite diluted, and we were downing small glasses rather than pints.  That was fortunate as losing face is a big thing in Cambodia, with people careful to avoid anything that would make themselves or others publicly embarrassed. I definitely don’t think I’d be able to recover my lost face very easily if it was dribbled with beery vomit.

Anyway, in my reluctance to write too much about my impressions of work before I feel like I’ve spent enough time there, I’ve once again made it look like I’m on a year-long holiday. I’m not, honestly!