Whizzing through Vietnam……………..


Hoi An -A beautiful old town which is designated as a UNESCO World Heritage site. We only had 3 nights here and were hoping to arrive at 9pm. However, we set off at 8am on the first mini bus to get to the border. Then, changed to get on a local mini bus to the nearest big city Pleiku and changed again, then again after being literally chucked off at some unknown road junction. We had to pay more and then a final mini- bus (which broke down) then a big bus for the last 60 k and finally a taxi to the hotel. This is a nutshell version, it was one big adventure and included having to pimp out our daughter – not really!! We finally arrived at 12.40am the next day.

We spent the first day exploring the old town and had a river cruise and the final day we hired cycles and toured the magnificent beaches and the paddy fields. We ate a glorious meal at a restaurant called Miss Ly and explored the old town lit at night by lanterns.

Hanoi – Again only 3 nights here and our flight arrived late on the first night so straight to bed. Up early the next day for a really boring 4 hour trip to Halong Bay. Its so cold here. I did not realise how cold and that we had no suitable clothes or shoes.Once on the boat and away from the harbour it was stunning. We slept well on the boat but the food although plentiful left a lot to be desired. The next day the sun shone and we had a great day before transfer back to Hanoi. This night we went to a traditional water puppet performance and ate some better quality food. On the final morning we walked through the Old Quarter ( the traffic here is so bad) to Ho Chi Minh’s Mausoleum and the Flag Tower before the final flight.



Ho Chi Minh City- 8 million people and 5 million motorbikes in a big city! Wow! Crossing the road is a nightmare situation. We explored the Saigon River front then the War Remnants Museum which was rather grim. But we found a great place to eat called Barbecue Garden where you do cook your own food and can order a selection of skewers, etc. We all loved the garlic fried rice so much we went back on the last night.

The last day we took the hydro foil to the nearest coast at Vung Tau 125k away and only 80 minutes. We hired motorcycles and explored the beaches and then sat down for a long earned rest and to soak up the sun. Dave, not being able to sit for long went for a walk and got stung by a jelly fish.

The last morning we said an early farewell to Lucy who was flying back to London that evening. We took the local bus to Phnom Penh – 6 hours. Stayed overnight and got the bus home. 15 hours later we arrived after breaking down and having a 3 hour wait on the side of the road.

3 Days of Christmas - Ratanakiri style.
Christmas Eve.
Managed a lie-in till 7am which was great. We decided to hit the market for shopping before breakfast as it was still cool. We needed the essential Christmas food items such as papaya, pomelo, healthy chef cooking oil and eggs!
After a late breakfast we did some cleaning and washing the red dust layer off everything again, then friends arrived for an afternoon of making our own decorations and then the best bit...
we took them to the local bar to put up. This was extremely thirsty work so we all had a few drinks.

Christmas Day.
Maroesjka and Tania arrived at 8.30 am for a super breakfast, which consisted of apple muesli, scrambled eggs, baked beans, tomatoes and bacon which Dave managed to buy from a local restaurant, pomelo and orange juice, tea and coffee and gorgeous Dutch bread and ginger biscuits from Maroesjka. this was the most food I have eaten since being here and my tummy hurt all day.
At noon we packed some food and went to Yak Loam for a shared picnic and a swim in the lake. Our group consisted of 3 Aussies, 2 Koreans, 1 Filipino, 3 Brits and 1 Dutch and 1 Cambodian.
Back home for a shower and change then off at 6pm for the party with buffet in the local bar. A great evening with good food and great friends.
Boxing Day
Back to normal with a big bump. No such thing as Christmas here of course so was back at my desk at 7.30am.

November blog

One week in November


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.

Tuesday 8 Nov

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.

September - work and fun

Work and play has been very busy this month as we have been short staffed at work and no supply teachers here either! School officially begins on the 3 October but we went to many last week and no teachers so maybe this week!
I have organised and run 7 school enrolment campaigns and 3 workshops which has been very hectic as well as having a week off for a big Budddhist holiday called Chum Ben. This has meant for 15 days the monks have woken us with thir chanting  and drums fom 3am to midnight!! Since it has stopped we are now woken by rats which are coming in the houses to escape the rain. Although noisy they do at least stay in the space between the two wooden walls.

So here are a few snapshots of us over the past month -

This is the office where I work and this is one of the workshops in full swing. 20 teachers and school directors all making primary literacy resources. Never thought I knew enough about primary, thank goodness for all those lesson observations I did at Finborough.

This was the playground of the first enrolment campaign and things didn't get better.

Water buffalo- the size in the picture is deceiving-it's huge! 

Pigs in the playground -well at least they eat all the rubbish that gets throw away here.

Here you can see we were trying to keep out of the mud, but it is so slippery. Well, I was walking around the Tampoun (an indigenous group) village and it was campaign no 6 and I was doing well. S'reyden the girl in blue gave me a fruit to try and the next thing I am on my bum in the mud! Luckily, nothing was too injured but I was very sore for a week.

Every campaign starts with grouping in the playground, then a march around the village telling everyone through loudspeakers to enrol. It ends back at school and we provide snacks and water for all. My favourite moment was when a mum with a child of about 8/9 arrived to enrol and the School Director told her he was to busy to enrol her as he was busy holding the campaign. I hope she came back!

Holiday time -

Laos was really good, we went with Lucita(Phillipines) and her husband Yasir(Pakistan). We packed a rucksack each and travelled by local bus which was quite an experience. We travelled from our town to near the border on one bus and then got this sleeping bus to the capital city Vientiane. It didn't quite work out and we had to spend one night in the bus station guesthouse - not one to go in Lonely Planet.

We had the top bunk.It was a great experience - just ruined by the horrid toilet, which they then locked so no-one could use!

Vientiane was lovely, but very hot and humid - thought I was used to it by now. This gate was built by the French and we climbed the 200 steps to the top to see the views over the city and the Mekong.





Local transport



So finally, back to Ban Lung and home again, which was nice - we really have a lovely home.

Rainy season in full swing

Imma, Maroesja, Erin and Janet

This month started with a super party for Imma (Spanish) who is leaving for another posting. She has been working here for 3 years with a Spanish NGO who are trying to work with issues such as gender equality and domestic violence. Erin and Maroesja decided to wear traditional Khymer tops but I could not cope with all that bling!! I will miss Imma but she has left me a great stock of lentils. 



This is my moto parked at work.



The rainy season got off to a slow start which gave me time to practice my skills at riding in red mud!

It is so slippery and there is a big big puddle at the end of the road- too deep for motos so we have to go down and up through a ditch! This is not too scary if you attack at the right angle, but this week a big scary dog has decided to attack me at the same time as I attempt the ditch. So far, it has only grabbed my clothes! But this week the rain has really begun and it is quite dangerous driving at times.



Rainy weather gear (note the rolled up trousers).





Local Ladies outside our house this morning.
I am not sure what they are picking. the rain and the warm weather makes sure everything grows so fast. This was bare scorched earth just a few weeks ago.  Now it is like a jungle.

This is my last posting until I return from annual leave in August. So I hope to see many of you soon.



http://www.ourvso.com/

http://www.ourvso.com/

June 2011

Beside the sea on a windy day at Kep

Deserted properties left from the KR days

Kep crab market



Most days we had the pool to ourselves



Kep

This month has just disappeared so fast. We eventually took a week off and travelled over 800k from the far north where we live to the south and the sea. First time we have seen the sea since last August Bank Holiday when our good friends Carol and Kenny took us out for the day as a farewell gift. It took us over 14 hours in 2 days with frantic mini bus drivers playing Khymer karoke music at full blast for hours on end. It was worth every hour of travel as Kep was cool and quiet and just what we needed to recharge the batteries. We also realised we should not have left it so long before taking a break. And the big bonus on the way home was that the new bridge is open which cuts 2 hours off our journey –but only for those drivers willing to pay the $5 corruption fee.


I thought I would just explain a day which is very typical. So this is yesterday Monday 27th June.

Woke at 4.30am with the monks chanting – think it was part of a 3 day ceremony for someone who has died! Had a restless night as the wind got up and I had to shut the bedroom windows which means struggling with the mosquito screen first. Then the rats in the ceiling space were especially noisy. Up at 5.45am for a cup of tea on the balcony (yes that’s me drinking tea). Then bread lady arrived shouting “nom pain” and Dave trundles to the gate to buy 2 sugary loaves for 8p each. Really nice with a cup of coffee for breakfast. Whilst having coffee I realised that something was going on over the road – the children were not getting ready for the 7am school start but were playing in the yard. I realised that Mum was inside having her 4th baby.

Off to work at 7.20am and a short 5 minute ride on my moto trying to avoid the mad dog that chases my bike and going up and over the ditch to avoid the huge puddle at the end of the road. Arrive at work at the same time as Narin my VA and we plan our day. First off to the bookshop to get some printing done for my school inspection on Weds. Back to the office to find only 1 of my 3 co –workers are working here today ,then a colleague from the inspection dept arrives to tell me the inspection is off as Unicef arrive tomorrow for a big 5day training session and all school directors will be there!! Why such short notice – it still really annoys me that anything I plan can be cancelled at short notice as there seems to be no communication or planning in advance. So spend the rest of the morning re-packing and sellotaping together the 28 boxes a of Literacy

reading scheme for ages 5-8 which is put on hold whilst we introduce the numeracy scheme first. Of which only 3 boxes arrive. These boxes have travelled in an open truck for 560k and arrive broken and wet. Spend the next hour making frantic e-mails to secure donor funding so we can put on some training for schools as we plan in July. Will we get the funding or will I be sitting and making 100 number cards or flashcards with Khymer numerals?

Home for lunch at 11.30 but first I have to do the daily clothes washing which consists of washing with my feet the clothes I have soaked overnight in a bucket. Then hanging them up outside one of the bedroom windows and hoping they dry at this time of the year.

Lunch consists of bread today, a cheese slice each (great luxury item here) and some chopped avocado with tomato and onion. Followed, by a beautiful, large, fresh, locally grown pineapple and some rambutans. After a 30 minute read of an old Guardian Weekly dated March 17th from another volunteer it was 2pm and back to work. Everybody here this afternoon for a big team meeting as we have to put on a 2-day workshop on gender equality and advocacy(for over 120 delegates) in 2 weeks’ time. Lots of heated discussion as you will expect from 4 different nationalities, ages and experience. Then just as we were about to go home at 5pm there was a huge thunderstorm and I expected my washing to have blown away. I just had to wait and sit it out. “Oh no”. I have left my plastic yellow, disposable raincoat under the motos seat so I get wet just putting it on.

Luckily all was ok apart from being extra wet again. The family downstairs tell me that the woman across the road had another baby boy at 6am. Two families with 5 children between them live in this one room shack. She had her baby with no ante natal care, no hospital to turn to, no pain relief and just a traditional birth attendant from the village present as well as the all the families and children who never moved out. Are you reading this Emily!! I will never again complain about the care we get in the UK

Finally, after a shandy on the balcony with Dave I begin to cook dinner. Stir –fry vegetables with rice. Make the stir-fry and begin to cook the rice –what are all those black bits? Weevils again! So throw it out and end up with stir fry veg and spaghetti from my limited supply of goodies. It is not a nice combination. But washed down with my extra strong de-worming pills and a glass of water it is time for bed and at last the plumber has mended our pump for the shower and I have my first shower for nearly two weeks. Bliss.

6.30am and bread lady arrives in her pyjamas - normal working wear for women here.