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Published: October 18th 2007
Kompong Cham Training Venue
Not used to this formality!As I write this entry we have conducted 15 workshops and have 3 to go, not including the 8 week training program which will run up until the day before I leave to go home. So we are well over half-way now! Many of the one-day workshops we have conducted at our Chab Dai premises (where our work office is) in a fantastic training room that has cushions and straw mats on the floor. It has been a great learning opportunity for us to be doing training while sitting on the floor. Much more relaxing! (Unfortunately for the participants too - many have been tempted to doze off particularly after lunch!). During these workshops we bring a caterer in who provides lunch and refreshments Khmer style - very yummy food. For the other workshops, we travel to the different NGO services and provide the training in whatever space they have. I have attached some photos of our workshops so far…
On the first weekend in October we had planned to travel to one of these NGOs in a province called Kompong Cham. It is about 2.5 hours from Phnom Penh. Unfortunately Jacina could not attend this training due to her
Kompong Cham Training Group
Me sitting next to my translator and group on either side. study commitments and the social worker I had asked to go with me suddenly got sick the day before we were supposed to leave. So, I went on my own! Thankfully the leaders of this NGO were already in Phnom Penh the same day I was due to leave so they blessed me by taking me in their car to Kompong Cham. It is a pretty town which has the same name as the province in which it is located. It is quite scenic too as the town lies beside the Mekong River. Not the cleanest river in the world, but at least it offers visitors a sense of calm and peace. I stayed in a local hotel, which incidentally was next door to a very flash new bank which looked 5-star compared to my hotel! But the hotel staff were lovely, and I had air-conditioning and a double bed which was a real treat. I was optimistic when I saw the hot water mechanism in the bathroom, but soon became realistic when it didn’t work. This is Cambodia after all...
Over the next two days I ran two workshops - one on basic counselling and communication skills, and
the other on child behaviour management. The group of people I worked with are an amazing bunch. They all work in the same NGO and have various job roles. They all work with girls who have been abused or exploited. It was a real honour to hear of their work experiences and to see the commitment that each one has to make their roles better. The training room that the hotel had set up was a real shock to me when I first entered - it looked so formal and sophisticated! You just never know what you’re going to get from place to place! As you can see from the photo it was set up in full conference style with podium, VIP seating, and table microphones. I decided not to use the podium (very easy decision to make) and instead conducted the training from the other end of the room which made it slightly less formal. But at least in this setting the participants were not in a place conducive to dozing!
Unfortunately for me I developed a tummy bug the day before the training started and often had to run to the toilet over the ensuing three days.
Thankfully the toilets were close by and the participants were aware of my problem so gave me welcome permission to leave whenever I needed to. Thankfully for them! After the two days of training my body decided that the day it was supposed to go back to Phnom Penh it didn’t want to go and instead made me stay in bed all day. I therefore had to stay in the hotel another night and get many to pray for me so that I would be well enough to travel the next day. Unfortunately this meant that Jacina was in Phnom Penh on her own and had to run one of our workshops by herself because I could not get there in time. She did a great job!
Fortunately however, and thanks to the prayers of many, I woke up on Monday feeling okay to travel again, so after a quick debrief meeting with the leaders of the NGO I caught an air-conditioned bus back to Phnom Penh. These buses are much like the ones in Oz but very cheap - only $2.50US to travel 2.5 hours! When you get on one of these buses you have an assigned seat.
Our training group - Play Therapy workshop
15th October, Chab Dai office, Phnom Penh
All participants are from different services and all provide various support to persons in the community; plus our Khmer translator (bottom left-hand side). I was happy to see that I had a seat next to the window, but then dismayed when I saw that it was right under the radio speaker which was turned up very loud. Oh well, I said to myself, the trip will be over soon enough. As we started to travel I realized that sitting under the radio speaker was a gift from God as our bus driver blasted his horn all through our 2.5 hour journey. I had forgotten in the quietness of Kompong Cham (KPC) that the beeping of horns was a necessity on the roads and although it was annoying at times I was thankful that he was a safe driver. I was told by the leaders of the NGO on the way to KPC that fatalities on the journey from PP to KPC are quite common…. I am thankful I didn’t get to see any of these accidents on my journey there or back.
On the way home from KPC we stopped off at a half-way point at a place called Skuon. I had already passed through this town on the way to KPC and for some reason didn’t recognize it when we got
Chab Dai Training Room
Making the workshops culturally appropriate :) to it on my homeward journey. We all hopped off the bus for a toilet stop and a quick bite to eat. As I crouched down over the non-western toilet I was instantly grateful to the person who invented gastro-stop. Because without this drug, using this toilet would have become very humiliating for a variety of reasons which I won’t go into and will leave to your imagination (better yet, don’t imagine, just keep reading). For those of you who have used a crouch toilet for any length of time you will understand when I say that it often gives your thighs a good workout - particularly for those that like to have long sits (or in this case, long crouches). But as I crouched, I started to wonder how do the elderly do this? What about those that have hip problems? I then started to think about the fact I hadn’t seen many older folk with hip problems here. Could it be that using crouching toilets to “go” over the years actually strengthens your hips leading to less hip problems in later life? Hmm, something to ponder…
Anyway, when I got back on the bus after some fried
rice for lunch my co-passenger said that this town has lots of spiders in it. Hmm, “oh” I said “Is this Skuon?” (as I remembered that Skuon was well-known for their local delicacy, fried spiders - big black ones) “Yes” he said “Well I haven’t seen any of those spiders here” I said. And he seemed surprised and started to look out the bus window to find some for me. I then wanted to tell him not to worry about it, that I would leave it to my imagination. So to change the topic a bit I asked him “Are those spiders poisonous? When they bite you can you die?” “Oh yes” he said. Well, I am glad that I did not realize that this town was Skuon as I was crouching over the non-western toilet in the darkness… it is good to be blissfully naïve sometimes.
Safely back in Phnom Penh we all got ready for the three day public holiday festival that occurs the same time each year - called Pchum Bun (?spelling). It is the time when Phnom Penh empties out and becomes a ghost town. Most people travel back to their homeland which for the
Before the clean
Months of dust build-up - yuk!! majority is in the provincial areas. During these three days most Buddhist believers, and others who are not believers, will worship at the Temples and sacrifice offerings to their dead relatives' spirits. My understanding is that during this time of year they believe that their relatives' ghosts are 'let out' of hell and that if they do not make sacrifices for them when the doors to hell close again their relatives' spirits will stay with them and haunt them for a year. They also believe that if this occurs, they will have bad luck for the next 12 months. This is how some Khmer people explained the festival to me. So during this time, many westerners who live here go for a holiday or stay in PP to enjoy the quietness. I chose to begin biking around PP at this time so that I could become confident in the 'mild' traffic before the 'manic' traffic returned at the end of the week. Here is a photo of our bikes.
We have been so honoured to be a part of training people here in Cambodia, and we have learnt so much from those whom we have trained and spent time
with. The workers here are under a great deal of stress, often doing their work in extraordinary conditions, not to mention for little pay. The issues they have to deal with are things we just don't experience in the west on the same level as they do. I admire their perseverance, their humility, and their strength in dealing with these issues. A lady who is a counsellor told me of a 14 year old girl who had been rescued by an organisation from an abusive and neglectful homelife, where she was given shelter, care, counselling and education to assist her to develop to her full potential. Many organisations work towards reintegration for these children, so that they can go back to their families when they have all received appropriate intervention. This young girl went back to her family and was then promptly sold to a "restaurant" in another town. She was to spend three months working as a waitress, then she was going to be transferred to the "Kareoke" section at the back of the restaurant, and eventually she would have ended up as a prostitute in a brothel making money for pimps who have no conscience. She has since
Farewell to Audrey
Audrey from Singapore, me, and Michelle from Australia - farewell dinner before Audrey left PP to go back to Singapore been re-rescued again.
Another worker told me of a young girl who was 12 years old. Her parents died so she was looked after by some relatives. After some time she was sold for her "first night" as a virgin to some male stranger for a lot of $US. She was 're-sold' many times and eventually ended up falling prey to a Paedophile along with some other children. These stories are not uncommon. Rape, sexual abuse, and trafficking are unfortunately a 'way of life' for some girls. This is their experience of what life has to offer. Spare some time and pray for these girls that they would be saved from this life of being slaves to the desires of men who should know better. Pray that they will be led to people who will care for them, show them genuine love, and help them to grow up to be the women that they have been created to be...
Many of you already know that I have decided to come back to Cambodia for two years from November 2008. For those of you who don't - you now know! It has been an enjoyable time so far -
Hanging out with So
Me and my bicycling Khmer friend, Sovannara rewarding, exciting, challenging, stressful, frustrating, joyous - and everything else in between. Thought I'd like to do this again for a longer stint this time 😊. I have a job to come back to (unpaid one) which is great! I love the Khmer people - they are much like Australians - they love to laugh, they are friendly, and also laid back. I hope that many of you will come to visit me when I am here in 2008 - 2010.
Well, must go now. Hope you enjoy the photos of all I have been up to. Love you all - take care. See you soon.
Kxx
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Brick Chick
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Wow!
This all sounds amazing Kirsten; kept checking for a blog update and now it's here it's not a let us down ... + great photos ... but, TWO years in Cambodia, I didn't know about that - ahhh that's big, that's great girl, praise God that what He put on your heart so long ago (it now seems) is finally coming to pass! xx