Sunday 6 Nov
Up early as David had promised to take Sothia on a farewell outing to the border with Vietnam. Sothia is a nurse from Korea who is working as a school nurse in one of the schools David works in. She is leaving after a two year stay but is being replaced by an equally nice girl called Sun-ne. After a damp, drizzly start the weather improved and we had a good motorbike run there and back. We finished the day with a Korean meal at Sothias house that she had prepared as authentically as possible. It was good, lots of vegetables but very spicy hot, also dried seaweed and two different varieties of pickled cabbage.
Monday7 Nov
A videographer and a journalist are with us at work today from VSO Canada. They are trying to recruit more donors and more volunteers and are preparing stories and film from volunteers already here. It was a busy day and strange being in the classroom delivering a lesson on gender equality through an interpreter as well as having these two guys either scribbling away in the corner or shooting film close up! The teacher and the kids all 51of them loved it. We finished the day by taking them to the bar we have just found with a great view and cheap jugs of beer. Yes, after all those years of not liking beer I am now drinking Angkor with lots of ice just like all the locals do.
We have a very important 3 day holiday starting tomorrow so it was hectic trying to get all my VSO accounts in order ready to send with another volunteer to PP. Remember , no postal system here! Everything I need I have to request the cash, then spend and then do monthly accounts. Every time we do any training or hold a workshop we have to pay travel, lunch as well as buy all the resources needed, so it’s a lot of dollars to account for. Finally, I finished and rushed off to meet Sam and Gilly - two really lovely VSO volunteers working in Kratie (home of the fast disappearing Irrawaddy dolphins) who are visiting Ratanakiri for the water festival with Gilly’s parents from the UK. We ended up having dinner with them and catching up with all the latest VSO news and stories.
Wednesday 8 Nov
The big water festival celebrations in PP have been cancelled this year due to the heavy monsoon rains and flood damage to the farming communities. Over 270people have lost their lives too – we all hope the money reserved for the celebrations will be diverted to help those in need as the PM has promised.
I had a lovely, lazy morning at home and then went to another volunteers house for an afternoon of tea and chat. In the evening we went with Sam and Gilly on our motos to one of the local Tampoun villages where one of the elders is also called Sam. Elder Sam was so excited to meet someone with the same name ( very unusual in Tampoun culture) he wanted to adopt him into his family.We had a really fascinating time as this was the only house in the village with a small generator which they started when we arrived. About 35 village children all arrived to watch TV whilst we ate rice and the sacrificed chicken with a very hot aubergine dish. Then we had to make special prayers to the spirits and finally drink the rice wine which is in a clay jar with one plastic pipe to suck up – all shared around of course! We also received a thread bracelet each from the Elders wife. It was a very special event and we were very pleased to be included. Especially as, luckily, we suffered no dire effects the next day.
Thursday 9 Nov
No swimming at the lake this week. For the first time in living memory the lake is covered in algae and declared not fit for swimming. The Tampoun people have prayed to the spirits and sacrificed a pig so it should be ok in another week we are told. So I had to pay to use the only swimming pool in town at the swanky hotel “Terra Rouge”. Still, it was very nice and I spent all morning in the water and came out prune like at 1pm. Sam and Gilly came to say farewell for 4pm tea and Sothia came for a farewell meal. We finished off the busy day by taking out homemade boat with its offerings of fruit, money, a lit candle and cake down to the lake in the town to send it on its way to the spirits in the lake with our wishes. It was pretty hectic there with everyone and his wife out, eating, drinking, watching, throwing fireworks into the crowd. No regard to H and S here at all –even young teenagers selling the fireworks.
Friday Nov 10
Up early and ready for a long motorbike trip with two other volunteers. We were off to Lumphat. This is one of the remote districts in Ratanakiri and used to be the capital town of the province until the Khymer Rouge moved it in 1975. Now there is little to see but a few B52 bomb craters if you hunt in the scrub. However, the river (Tonle Srepok) is the one used in the filming of Apocalyse Now and we took a picnic to have on the banks of the river. The journey was demanding in places as they were filling in giant potholes after the rainy season – no signs warning you of roadworks, you just have to find a way round the heavy machinery. On the way home trying to find a shortcut I fell off for the first time trying to balance the bike going uphill on a track no wider than the tyre width between 2 large ruts on either side. Luckily I was going very slow and just fell over on my left side. Needless to say we abandoned the short cut and went home via the road works.
Saturday Nov 11
Lazy morning at home cleaning and cooking – trying to make spring rolls from scratch! Taste ok but don’t look too neat.
At 4pm we went to another volunteers house where a few of us had made a selection of dips and then were going to have a drink, a few dips and a beer and watch the sunset. They were so delicious we sat at the table inside and we all scoffed the lot! We had 3 varieties of salsa, tzakkihi, spring rolls, hummous, aubergine with chilli, garlic mayonnaise, toasted bread, oil and vinegar dip, carrot and cucumber sticks. We missed the sunset but there was a glorious night sky with beautiful moonlight reflecting on the lake as we drove home.
Finally, it seems at long last that the rainy season is over. Its bright blue sky and sun again but with a breeze. We must be getting used to it as its now 29 C indoors and it is feeling just like a nice warm day.
