Project

Today I went to a meeting about choosing an evaluator for a project. I’m on the board for a small vocational training project. The grant is coming to an end so we need to write a proposal to ask for another one.

Before that we need to have an external evaluation, this will help clarify the plans we should make for the future, which we need to state in the project proposal.

This whole world of boards and projects is new to me. I’m definitely learning more than I’m contributing. There are so much of this type of development work going on in Cambodia, so its interesting for me to learn about it from the inside. (I think an evaluation is like an audit, but not to do with money, to do with everything else.)

Expat communities compared

“I’m good at Khmer (language). I can speak better than my dad.”

A girl at Sunday School said this, her mum is Khmer and her dad is Aussie. I was glad to hear this as I was teaching an international (English language) Sunday School class and there was a Khmer girl who didn’t understand English. Also in the class I was teaching last month there were kids from India, Singapore, a Canadian/Khmer and the UK. And the teacher in the next room is from Nigeria.

There are so many expats in Phnom Penh, from so many different countries. Where I lived in China there weren’t many foreigners (or foreign bookshops, food shops).

“You don’t look like a foreigner now,” a Chinese friend said to me one day. I was a bit confused- was I starting to look Chinese?

To read in full click here.

I bought a Christmassy looking tree today. My back was prickled all the way home. It was the first time I took such a big potplant on my bike.

Those pink things are...

In the recent flooding I saw those pink things around so much and they loooked so unnatural. Here are some of my blog readers (bleaders?) guesses in response to the photo futher down the page (or here).

Bubble Gum!
pink things .. um .. bubble gum?strange growing algae plants from all the wet?
Looks like wads of bubble gum. haha. Maybe some sort of pretty pink mold???
Mould? Bubble gum?...
My guess is that they are 'packing foam' that have been left there after the flood water levels have gone down! :)
Of course it's not bubble gum! Marshmallows. Clearly.

When I asked about it people here told me snails eggs. So I asked Mr Google about pink snails eggs and this is what I found: Snail egg photo, Apple snail eggs close up and some info about the Apple snail.

Water volley ball video

No, not in a swimming pool, on the usual court. I took this video a few weeks ago. They loved playing on the flooded court. Between the laughing and the splashing, it was such a noisy game! Soeun is wearing a white top and navy blue shorts, he is on the right on this clip. Look out for the bit where he falls into the water! (They all kept doing it, I think that was their favourite part.)

Pumping sand into the lake. So where does the water go?

Well, I heard they had stopped filling the lake...
Rising waters and rising fears as Boeung Kak filling recommences

Written by Chhay Channyda
Tuesday, 25 November 2008
Company officials say sand pumps will soon operate through the night

SAND-PUMPING company HSC has resumed the filling of Boeung Kak lake following a weeklong halt in operations due to the annual Water Festival and serious flooding in Russey Keo district.

(We live in Russey Keo district, you can see photos of the flood on this blog)

Guess the photo

I'm seeing these pink things everywhere! On plants, walls etc. This is the view from our back door. Its the drain and the fence- but what are those pink things? Serious and silly guesses welcome.

Schools closed because of flooding

Our flooding has been in the news. I made a collection here of links, and one of the articles from today is here: Flooding forces school to cancel holidays for students missing class
Written by Meas Sokchea
Friday, 21 November 2008
Russey Keo district's Fine Arts school has been closed for two months as high water continues to wreak havoc on the stricken neighbourhood

As I mentioned in my previous post this flooding time reminded me of SARS. This headline reminded me of another similar aspect. Our May 2003 holidays were cancelled, all the students had to stay on campus to prevent spreading The Disease.

Water Log: Some highlights

For the last week and a half we feel like we have been living on an island! Our area of the city has had flooding since late August, but the recently the water became so high that classes at Bible school had to be called off.

This amount of flooding hasn't happened in previous years. It seems its not just due to lots of rain, rather brought on by city planning activities. I have a collection of news articles and letters to the editor you can read by clicking here.

I have been logging about it daily on my water log, but here are some of the main events.

Some of our neighbours and most students aren't living here at the moment. Most of the buildings are higher than the water, including our house. We're very glad about that knowing that there's all sorts of germs in the smelly water. It used to be brown, its turning green now.

On Sunday 9th Nov, the water was higher than I had ever seen before, so I ran around taking heaps of photos (Day 82). But the next day it was even higher so I took even more photos! (Day 83, part 1 and 2). That week was a holiday week anyway, so most people were away. We had stocked up on food as we planned to stay home during Water Festival when the city gets really crowded.

We felt like we were living by a lake. We enjoyed some relaxing brunches as we watched the sparkling waters of Lake Car Park.

One day I ventured off the island and took some photos you can see by clicking here. That day I saw a boat on our street, and water being pumped into a nearby street (I thought the side of roads was for drains to drain away the water??)

As soon as we saw a dry patch of ground we took a photo which you can see here. That was last Wednesday, and the water has been going down since. Rainy season is over and cool season is here. It has been very chilly, one morning it was down to 23 deg.C! Where are my socks!

It has rained since then, but I think it must be cool season rain rather than rainy season rain, as the water is still going down each day.

We have had students over for meals, and seen some sunsets over Lake Soccer Field as you can see here.

We have been walking with fish and watching trees die and fall over as their roots become too water logged. (Photo here)

And this week we are watching the water level fall, each day we go and look to see how the shore line has moved. (Photos here)

Its reminded me of when I was in quarantine during SARS (China, 03), not being able to come and go freely, being isolated. When I was stuck home alone then I emailed people heaps (some of you may remember getting emails from me every few minutes!) This time I blogged on my Kronicle Extra.

Are we home yet?

From above, the hot, tropical midday sun beat down. From below the dark red-brown rainy season mud splashed and splished around, often upwards on to the motorbike riders surrounding us.

We, and almost the whole city were heading back into town after the nation wide festival. The two lane road was being used as a four lane road. From our car we had a great view of the mini buses, motos, and various other vehicles that were packed full, as an Aussie I would say more than full.

I’ve lived in Asia for four years but I’m still amazed at the amount of people and things that can be packed into houses, beds, classrooms, cars, buses, on bikes, motorbikes and other vehicles I’m not sure what to call.

“I can’t believe we didn’t think to bring the camera.” Soeun said for about the fourth time. Even my Cambodian husband was amazed at the sight that surrounded us.

Rice sacks, backpacks, suitcases, guitar cases, bundles of sugar cane, motorbikes, bikes were tied on to the tops and sides of vans. Arms and heads could be seen protruding out the windows. Sometimes the hands would be letting rubbish fall on the ground, and sometimes the heads would be ejecting vomit.

To read in full click here.

Water Festival

While I've been enjoying our water here, the rest of Cambodia is enjoying the Water Festival. Rachael joined in the fun and shared her experience here. From the roof here I saw some fire works, and I've seen some of the races on TV, but that's about it for us this year.

The unusual flooding continues

For the last 86 days our area of Phnom Penh has been flooded. It hasn't flooded like this in previous years, this is something unusual probably due to city planning activities. You can see above a families shop/home is flooded, and below you can see some truck inner tubes people use to float around on.


I have been keeping a journal of life on "Island Bible school" click here to view: Water Log, and all the related posts on this blog can be found here: Big tropical rain

From flooded to more flooded

The photo above I took last week. Normally people can just walk on the volley ball court and the path ways to get to the red steps to go into the building. But as it was flooded last week they had to walk along the edge of the grass, then step onto some cement tiles stacked up in the water, then on to the steps. You can see from the photo below this week it is even more flooded!

I took some photos of different places around campus and compared last weeks flooding to this week's. See Day 83 photos part 1 and part 2

High high higher

Yesterday was day 82, and the water was higher than I have ever seen it, so I posted 3 photos on my other blog click here: Day 82 never been this high
But when we woke up today the water was even higher! I posted some photos to compare, some from last week mixed with yesterdays and todays, ones taken of the same thing side by side so you can watch the water rise.
Click here: Day 83 photos part 1, and Day 83 photos part 2
Apart from the headache I've got from being on the computer for too long, its been kind of fun , splashing around. There are heaps less people on campus too as this is a holiday week. We're enjoying our island holiday!
Oh, and I forgot to say yesterday was Cambodia's Independence day, I watched the parade on TV last night, it was really interesting, I'll tell you about it one day. Rachael was there, have a look! 55years!

Oops, What did I say?

“My mother in law hired a bus.” I said this (in Khmer) to a Cambodian friend and her face suddenly changed. She looked something like horrified, I had never seen her make that expression before. I was confused.

Lucky for us, Soeun overheard. He began laughing! Now both I and my friend were confused. We looked at him and waited for him to stop laughing so he could explain.

It turns out I pronounced the word for “hire” incorrectly. Instead of saying “hire” (something like “jool”), I said “chol”. I had actually told my friend that my mother in law had been run over and killed by a bus!

(more language learning fun: Khmer Karaoke and the plethora of pronouns )