A little about my work.

It's about time I actually let people know about the work that I am doing. I am working for an organization here called Child Helpline Cambodia. As you can imagine, it is a helpline, where children in Cambodia call when they need someone to talk to.

Right now the organization (CHC as I call it) is in its preparation phase, so there are only 3 of us that work here, but soon there will be more people. As it is so small, my work has been quite varied. One of the big things that I did was to design a database using Access where we could enter the details of any organizations that partner with us. This was a big task. Normally in Canada, when a child calls a helpline, and it is clear the child needs ongoing help, the helpline can just make sure a local social worker takes the case. However, in Cambodia, this does not exist. So since we are not going to be able to go bring kids the food they need, or give them shelter, or stop them from being abused, we need partner organizations that can do all these things. And we need a way to search all these organizations that lets us easily find the best option for a child in need, and that's what my database is for.

Creating the database has been a really interesting time for me, and a lot of fun since I get to think logically about how things interact, and also I get to pretend to code. If I did another database, I would definitely design it and then make it, not the other way around, because I spent a large amount of time realizing that I'd made a huge mistake and starting over when halfway through, and then another large amount of time making small corrections everywhere.

Another large part of my work here has been to find the organizations that we should be working with, and to convince them to partner with us. This is generally quite easy. I stress that we only want to send children to an organization that is a very good fit for that child, and many people respond well to that idea. Also, I think that the idea of giving children the voice to speak their issues is something that people really identify with. I have really enjoyed this part of my work. Talking to all of these organizations has given me a really good broad view of the work being done here in Cambodia. I have talked with people who work with children and youth from: Legal organizations, Human Rights organizations, Shelters, Work Programs, Education Programs, an HIV/AIDS support centre, Crisis Centers, and more. While the problems facing children in Cambodia are certainly numerous, it has been very uplifting and hopeful to meet so many people who are all working to bring hope and change to the lives of children here in Cambodia.

I also support my boss in many general office ways, taking minutes at meetings, preparing presentations, and so forth and so on.

The one other thing that I do, that I am really enjoying is working with another ex-pat from a different organization, who started working there as an artist, and has moved into a more development-type of role. I have been meeting with him and one other person from his organization, and sort of working through a lot of development thinking. Most recently we developed a Logistical Framework Analysis for a program he is working on. It has been really great for me because it is easy to meet with people who work in development, and have been for years sometimes, and have no idea about the types of issues that arise when development work is done. To have someone who is so keen to learn about some of the pitfalls of development work, and who is willing to put in a little extra work to avoid them, has really made me enjoy my time here.

I am sorry for all the text and no photos.

Ho Chi Minh City

We haven't told you about Vietnam yet! Although it was a month ago already, it's still fresh in my mind because we had such an amazing time! We were gone almost a whole week, leaving on a Saturday and getting back on the Thursday. We didn't have many plans when we set out, but had a guesthouse booked for the first few nights in the backpackers' district.
Ho Chi Minh is such a great city. We enjoyed it very much, found our way around the main area pretty quickly, loved the neighbourhood we were staying in and ate oodles and oodles of noodles! There are many more green spaces than in Phnom Penh and it was nice to walk and sit in the big park near the market. We also ate in a nice little Russian restaurant, which made us feel like we were in Charlie's Oma's house eating borscht and pirogies.
On our second day, we joined a day tour and saw the Cu Chi tunnels, where Viet Kong fighters hid out during the war. It was really interesting and very propaganda. We even got to walk along part of a tunnel that had been expanded to 'fit' tourists (the normal size tunnel required you to shimmy along with your elbows on your stomach). I had to remind myself a few times not to panic, but I was glad I did it.

Charlie fulfilling a childhood dream... shooting an AK-47
Can you see me?

We also visited the Cao Dai Temple that day for the noon mass. Cao Dai is a strange religion, which we learned a little about from our tour guide, who liked to be called 'Slim Jim'. It is a religion that combines aspects of Buddhism, Hinduism, Christianity, Taoism and Confucianism. They also worship Victor Hugo as one of their saints... umm, yeah, we're still confused by that one. All in all, though, it was an honour to be allowed to observe their worship service.

Some of the priestesses; men and women sat on opposite sides of the temple
Can you find Jesus?

The last thing we did that day was visit a handicraft factory workshop where the government hires physically disabled people, which Vietnam has no shortage of thanks to Agent Orange (thank you, America). The crafts are beautiful and the people very kind. It was obviously a tourist trap, as almost every tour bus going through this town stops here, but it was a nice experience anyway.

After a couple more days hanging around Ho Chi Minh we decided to get back to Phnom Penh by the scenic route, literally. We booked a two day boat trip along the Mekong, stopping by a floating market and a few other coconut and rice paper workshops. It was lovely. Some bits were by bus, but we caught a beautiful sunset on the ferry ride across the river.

Kitty!

We have a new friend - a kitten! Helen found him on the roof of her house a few days ago and we have adopted him. He is very young, can't be older than 2-3 weeks old. We think he was abandoned by his mother and had very little to eat for a while before he was found. So we've become parents! Feedings every two hours from a bottle, lots of cuddling, and we're so proud when he pees! We haven't settled on a name yet, but we're attached already. We're taking name suggestions :)

A lazy Saturday

Yesterday, our friend upstairs bought a "Christmas tree" and decorated it with lights and a few balls. It truly is a Charlie Brown tree, but sitting by it with the apartment lights turned off made it feel more like the holidays than we've felt until now and it was nice. We have decided the best way to not feel too homesick this Christmas is to tackle it head on. So we will bake cookies, get a small tree, stuff stockings for each other and listen to carols over and over again! Of course, on Christmas day itself, we will be at the Angkor temples, so will have things to distract us all day!

Today we're having a relaxed day of nothing. This morning we watched our weekly shows, The Office, Bones and HIMYM (I do have my woo moments). Then we went to a cafe near our house for hot chocolate (which, in Charlie's words, was "just as good as Starbuck's but $6 cheaper!") We were there for a while just reading and now we're hanging out in our apartment... um, doing nothing. It's nice.

Leaving a Legacy

At the beginning of November, Chab Dai had its bi-annual all member meeting. Over 100 people came to share what they've been doing, network, and learn together. The theme of the meeting was "Leaving a Legacy" and so what was most discussed was what we are leaving behind through our programs, organizations, and relationships. For many expats this is a very real issue as many, like us, are here for a definite period of time. For many Cambodians and long-term expats it is an important issue because there is limited time and funding for a lot of projects.

I was pretty busy during these two days, especially on the first. I was acting as note-taker for the whole meeting, but I also did a presentation on child protection and our upcoming training workshops and I led a focus-group discussion on the theme of the meeting as well. In the end it was a great day, I met a lot of new people and some people I'd been emailing with but had never met face to face, and really started to understand how important Chab Dai is as a coalition of committed workers.

It went really well, and Charlie and I were definitely ready for some R & R afterwards, so I guess it's a good thing we left for Vietnam the next morning! More on that soon, I promise!

Here we all are! Can anyone find Charlie?!?! Yeah not that difficult. Try to find me, though!

Here is one of our member organizations presenting on a new game developed by the Chab Dai Family Forum. It is played by families in the communities and gets them talking about all sorts of issues they wouldn't usually feel comfortable talking about. The pilot project went really well and now they will replicate it and distribute it to the other members!

Here are some members being presented with program grants after having completed, or are completing a Project Cycle Management training course.

Poipet

Last week we went on site visits in three provinces, in the cities of Poipet, Battambang and Siem Reap. It was four days filled to the brim with a lot of meetings, field visits, and travelling, travelling, travelling. Thankfully, many of the "highways" in Cambodia are pretty smooth and the only real scare we got was when we stopped to refill the taxi's propane (yes, propane) and the driver lit up a cigarette in the middle of a small sea of propane tanks. (We've also heard of a moto driver lighting a match for light to see how empty his gas tank was!)
Our first stop was Poipet, a city of the border of Thailand about 6 hours northeast of Phnom Penh. In the past 10 years, Poipet's population has grown 2000% and it's only attraction is the collection of casinos right at the border. Gambling and casinos are illegal in Thailand, so they just opened them up 10 feet from the border crossing into Poipet. The contrast between the glamorous mini Las Vegas and the actual town is striking. The main road through town isn't even paved. It's just mud.

Poipet's population grew way too fast and development and infrastructure just couldn't keep, as is the case in so many developing world cities. This particular bording crossing is infamous for smuggling, trading, and trafficking anything from drugs, clothes, food and even people. Also, when the Thai police round up illegal Cambodian workers in Bangkok and other cities, they drive them to this crossing in big trucks and literally drop them across the border (where many of them will cross back into Thailand the next day). Among these are many children who had been trafficked into Thailand and sold into labour or sexual exploitation. 

One of Chab Dai's partners is running a program up there to take in some of these children. The shelter can house up to 40 kids and most of them will stay in this facility until they grow up, for many different reasons. Some don't know where they came from in Cambodia, others can't go home because they are at high risk of being re-trafficked. So this organization kind of serves as a surrogate family for them. 

Another project this organization is running is a transitional living community for people with HIV/AIDS. Families with at least one HIV positive parent are referred to the project if they are extremely poor, cannot buy their ARVs, and the children are at risk of being orphaned. The project provides housing, ARVs, school fees for the children, primary health education and vocational training so the families can survive economically once they are reintegrated into the ommunity.

Additional training on HIV/AIDS is done to reduce the stigma these families face in their communities.

Although the situation in Poipet seems grim, there are some amazing initiatives here and everyone we met seemed very hopeful. We visited with other organizations there, but I'll have to write about those later. There's so much to share and I want to do them justice!

Udong

Two weekend ago we made a first of many day trips out of Phnom Penh - on motorbikes!! We travelled with 4 of our friends to the old capitol of Cambodia, Udong.  Famous people you may (but probably don't) know who were crowned here include king Norodom and king Sihanouk. The main attraction is two hills with several stupas on them. These hills jut surprisingly out of the Manitoba-style terrain (uh... flat). We climbed up over a hundred stairs to the top and got a spectacular view of Cambodian countryside.

It was an awesome day. After the short hike, we rode around the hills and stopped for lunch on hammock laden platforms. Though we were slightly overcharged, it was still worth it. Julia tried to order chicken fried rice for us all, but it came as a large bowl of rice, and an entire chicken. Including the giblets. And the head. And the feet.

One of the nicest parts of the day was getting to drive through Cambodian countryside, and not in a bus, which is not the best venue for admiring the view. It is really beautiful, and the driving is really fun. We passed all sorts of people including a group of 3 motos carrying double bed frames on the back of their seat! Also, we saw lots of cows. And rice fields.

Besides the wonderfulness of the drive, and the great company, the best part of the day was knowing that it is getting cooler back home, but we all 6 of us got sunburned. Suck it!