2 Day Week

When is a three day week not a three day week, when you are in Cambodia of course. Now the week-ending of November 28^th   was not suppose to be so short but between the having Monday, Tuesday off due to the Water Festival and then Thursday off due to national day of mourning for the Diamond tragedy. So you would be thinking that seems like a two day week. Well no actually I made up for it by working at the weekend well kinda of but more about that later.

So Monday and Tuesday I was down in Kampot easily my favourite place and people in Cambodia so far. To see I lived it up for 24hrs would be an under-statement it was great to meet up with the Kampot gang namely Chris, Charlene and Kampot Claire. Among the highlights were the ribs at Rusty Keyhole which were simple fantastic I mean half a pig BBQed and served with spuds how can you go wrong. 

Then we went to Bodhi Villa and for some reason I thought it would be a good idea to and drink the entire cocktail menu and I nearly did with Chris’s help. Then to sober and freshen up we went for a swim in the river which was very refreshing an felt great. Although unfortunately Chris’s phone drowned and we could not resuscitate it RIP Mr. Phone.  

On Wednesday I went to Meta House the German Cultural centre to see a documentary called enemies of the people which included a Q&A session with Thet Sambath you was the reported at the heart of the documentary about the men and women who perpetrated the massacres – from the foot-soldiers who slit throats to the party’s ideological leader, Nuon Chea aka Brother Number Two breaking a 30 year silence to give testimony never before heard or seen. It was very powerful and the Q&A session was excellent.

Radio Panel about Education issues

On Friday I attended a Radio panel discussion with Mr. Rong Chunn and about 30 teachers. This was very interesting for me as my colleague Sotras acted as a translator and I was able to learn allot about the main issues that teachers are facing. The topics were varied and included, poor salary, lack of resources including books, corruption and discipline in schools. It was great to hear teachers explain their problems in their own words and their commitment to education.

In the Mangrove Swamp

Mr. Rong Chunn and I

At the weekend I travelled with Mr. Rong Chunn to Koh Kong were we were having a meeting to try and establish a new branch of CITA. We left at 6am because it’s a 7hour drive to Koh Kong and unknown to me until 1pm Mr. Rong Chunn was taking me to see community mangrove swamp project which was great.

The next day we had a very productive and again it was great to meet teachers and talk to them about CITA and their issues.

Teachers Meeting in Koh Kong

So despite it looking like a two day week it turned out to have seven just like every other day and each one was more totally different be very interesting.