Conversations

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Last night I had dinner with two people named Ali, both associated with Travel Blog. We watched Apsara dancers for a while and then talked about travel. It was a lot of fun and not something I'd usually do. Ali lives in Malaysia, whereas Ali (Allie? Alie?) lives in Australia.

Today I visited a local school, Phoum Stung Primary School in Stung Village, Bakong Commune, Prasat Bakong District, with an agency called Schools for Children of Cambodia. It's about 18 kilometers from Siem Reap, which we accomplished with 5 people in a tuk tuk (and, at times, 5 people walking next to the tuk tuk while it negotiated potholes). We talked a great deal about Cambodian education, teacher salaries, and community development. The outgoing Marketing, Public Relations, and Volunteer Coordinator Cate, and the incoming person, Nikki, were very helpful in explaining what their agency does and what it coordinates with other agencies such as Save the Children.

In the evening I had dinner with Barbara and Bill. Barbara is a nurse practitioner and instructor who is volunteering at Angkor Children's Hospital, and Bill is a photographer. We had a very pleasant conversation about cupping, coining, moxibustion, cultural differences in the use of antibiotics, and child abuse reporting dilemmas when working with immigrants.

The air quality is quite bad; it's one thing to burn coconut husks, another to burn plastic. Some of the hotels recycle, but this is not a widespread practice. If you'd like to read about a variety of social and political issues in Cambodia, try The Phnom Penh Post.

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Photos

Classroom
No electricity

Trash burning
Organic and artificial trash are burned on the street