Stepping stones

The water has gone down now, but the other week this is what the campus looked like. They used bits of the drain to make stepping stones.

New Typhoon looms as South East Asian Death toll nears 400

and from the Phnom Penh Post

Photos of the typhoon damage in Cambodia.

Recent flood photos

This morning I went for a ride down our road. The duck farmers house is flooded, so they were doing it all on the road. I also saw people using boat type things to get around. I've been posting photos on our other blog Kronicle Extra, also some of the fishing nets that are set up on campus.



I have a friend whose house is really hard to get to, so she and her 3 year old are staying with her mum. But her husband has to stay and look after their ducks. They were joking about how its like they are divorced for rainy season. She's looking fwd to the water going down so she can be married again. Although for the long weekend she is going home, and taking some friends to visit her house. They are excited because they will be catching and eating fish.. fishing from the comfort of your own home!

Flood!

The water levels on campus are about as high as they were at their highest last November. If you click here you can see photos from last year, in each set there is one or two for when it was pretty flooded, and one for when it was really flooded.

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.

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!

Day 79

The school campus is flooded as you can see in this photo. For more news and photos of todays water events click here: Day 79

Day 77 of flooded roads

Today I had some more watery adventures and took some more watery photos as you can see here and here.

And the Phnom Penh Post had another article about it:

Russey Keo flooding crisis takes on political edge as SRP insulted

""Russey Keo, where building projects' reclamation of nearby holding ponds have been blamed for heavy flooding that has blocked roads, polluted homes and forced children from their schools, has come to signify for some the impact of poorly-planned development in the rapidly growing capital."

and on the KI Media site this one:
SRP warns that it will lead flooded residents to demonstrate.

The stuck truck and the gas guy

The other day a truck got stuck on a near by road (You know things are bad when a tow truck needs to get towed.) Well the next afternoon it was still there as you can see in the photo. By the evening it was gone.

Our gas for cooking is delivered by a guy on a moto. The gas bottles are so big and heavy, I'm always amazed they can make it over the roads and through the traffic which a heavy metal bottle on the back. But look at this guy! It must be even harder with the water.

Our boat-car

Going through the water in the car feels like you're in a boat. You can hear and feel the water swishing around the sides and underneath.

Water..water.. Why? Why?

For over two months our area of the city has been flooded, it wasn't like this last rainy season. There was a bit of flooded for a short while, and it also flooded in a nearby part of town. This year that part of town didn't flood, landlords said it's because this year they are pumping water out of town.. to the area we live in it seems. There are major drainage and pumping issues in Phnom Penh these days. Here is what the Phnom Penh Post has to say about it today: Flooding forces school closures.
Missed classes and the risk of disease are the results of nearly two months of deluge that educators in Russey Keo district blame on poorly planned development projects

And someone else wrote this: A disaster resilient city?

You know things are bad when a tow truck needs to get towed!

Well yesterday I had a muddy experience and today I took photos of more mud. The first photo is of a yellow cab tow truck trying to pull a red and blue truck out of the mud. This truck is huge and its just sitting in the middle of the road, stuck. There is also a green bus that looks like it's stuck on the side of the road.

But the tow trucked failed to pull out the red and blue truck- it had to be towed itself, by this bright yellow earth mover. Did I mention our roads are bad? Its so hard to go anywhere. This morning I took a photo of the road outside school, as the tuk tuk tried to make its way through the flood. Well, that was at around 8am, now its the afternoon and its heaps more flooded.

Here are some photos from the Bible school graduation that was held today. If you read my previous blog post about the slippery mud, you can imagine what it was like for everyone to get to the school today. In one of these photos you can see some guys pushing a tuk tuk through the flooded road. I took it this morning while people were arriving. Since then it has rained some more. I heard some stories about cars and trucks getting stuck.
You can also see a photo of one of the students preparing the take away lunch of rice, meat and egg we all ate today.