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Published: March 16th 2011
Hello!
Well the week so far has been brilliant!
I boarded my bus from Kompang Cham on Sunday morning, all set for the 8hr bus journey - however, I was not set for 8hrs of Ka'mai karaoke videos on the flat screen above my head! Either as a joke or as a courtesy, I'm still not sure, the bus ticket lady gave me the seat directly behind the driver...thus allowing an adrenaline fuelled trip along the Cambodian roads coupled with a prime viewing spot for the music videos! Thank God/Allah/Budda/Ganesh for my for ancient iPod and for my Kindle (no, thank you Manisha!).
I arrived into Sisophon thoroughly knackered, but thanks to the help of another fellow volunteer Oly, I had a helpful Tuk Tuk driver on standby to take me to my hotel (thanks for booking this Alison!). The hotel is lovely, and there is also another new short-term volunteer staying here, so we've been able to have some banter in the evenings.
On Monday I was met by Jon, the Nursing Advisor in Preah Net Preah alongside whom I'll be working with at the hospital and health centre. He's a really sound lad, and
along with our Volunteer Assistant (VA) Sam Ang, has helped me enormously this week in getting sorted. I have now got a bank account and house! After looking at a few in the area, I have taken on the house formerly occupied by a previous health volunteer in Preah Net Preah - Leonie, I hope it's nice to see the old place?!? However, before settling on this house Jon, Sam Ang and I went to a few others, including traditional houses on slits....rustic, but a bit too basic even for my uncultured tastes!
One gaff we checked out though was absolutely awesome! It was basically a huge gated compound - think Playboy Mansion crossed with Saddam Hussain's Palace! It was massive, had a roof terrace that covered the whole building, an interior balcony looking out into the downstairs and a kitchen/dining room bigger than the entire flat I had in Walthamstow. Alas, for us volunteers with a rent allowance of $150 dollars a month, the $300 asking price was just too much....but I'm only on a 3 month contract at my new place, so I'm keeping my options open should I win the lottery!
The best part though
was meeting the staff at the hospital and health centre, and getting a sense of the geography of where I'll be living for the next two years. Everybody was very polite and welcoming, and at the hospital we had a meeting of all staff so that I could introduce myself and start to know who did what - my Ka'mai went down with aplomb! I also had a tour of the hospital and so was able to check out the facilities, equipment and potential areas for work.
This morning I travelled to the health centre with Jon and Sam Ang, which is about a 40min moto drive away down the most awesome road you can imagine! Even in the dry season some parts were barely passable, with hundreds of pot holes, ruts and trenches, so how it looks in the wet season will be even more interesting! The health centre was very busy, staff all lovely and I was actually able to do my first bit of "Hospital Management Advisor" work.....I resized and recoloured a logo for a Health of Ministry report!
And so, I went back to hand over the $ for my house, contracts signed. Done.
So, I'm all done in Sisophon/Preah Net Preah for 2 weeks, until I return in the 1st week of April to start proper. Tomorrow I am heading to Siem Reap to meet up with Louise (another volunteer), then we are headed down to Phnom Penh for the weekend before returning to Kompang Cham for our final week of language training. So, busy busy busy....well, kinda!
Lots of love, take care and please let me know how you are all getting on.
Pete
xxx
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Helen
non-member comment
love it!!
looks gorgous pete, know where ill be going for my hols next year ;)