COUNTRY: Cambodia
PROGRAM: UniBreak Groups
PROJECT: Exercise Physiology
WRITTEN BY: Notre Dame University
The first week of our exercise physiology practicum placements in Siem Reap, Cambodia, was an eventful one. It involved introductions to our placement centres, a day course on child protection training, outreach clinics in the villages surrounding Siem Reap and a number of adventures in the heart of the city.
The three placements we are working at are the Angkor Association for the Disabled, Cambodia Diabetes Association and the Siem Reap Physical Rehabilitation Centre. In our allocated groups of 4 we will spend 4 days at each placement completing health assessments on patients and prescribing appropriate exercise programs where necessary. The difference between clients we will see here as opposed to those in Perth is that almost all of the Cambodians have Type 2 diabetes due to a variety of reasons but mainly because of their diet. Many of the clients also complete low or no amounts of physical activity due to their busy working lifestyle and lack of facilities.
During the first week we also spent 2 days at outreach clinics in villages about an hour out of Siem Reap. These clinics are run by CDA and involve villagers coming in to get their blood glucose levels checked during a quick health assessment and then collecting medication from the CDA doctor. It was our job to take anthropometric measures as well as blood glucose and then prescribe 3 exercises that patients could complete at home.
Both villages, but especially the village we visited on the second day that is usually flooded at this time of year, provided an amazing experience in an unfamiliar environment. We will complete another 2 outreach clinics in the remaining 3 weeks.
The other side of our trip here involves exploring Siem Reap and taking advantage of their dirt-cheap and extremely delicious food and drink found around the appropriately named “Pub Street”. Restaurants of all cuisines provide quality food and drinks usually for less than $10 a meal. So far Chris has managed to stick to his rule of 1 beer per day, and on Friday night the group ended up on a pub-crawl through some of the bars and pubs in the heart of Siem Reap along with 75 other tourists from various countries around the world.
All in all it has been a great start to the trip (other than Matt and Jess being sick for a few days) with everyone settling in to our accommodation and starting to know our way through the bumpy streets of Siem Reap.
Week Two!
Our first weekend in Siem Reap saw the majority of the group (including Tanya and Chris) nursing hangovers for the best part of Saturday, after a late finish on Fridays pub crawl. Our recovery method eventually turned into a game of soccer at a local pitch, where we played with 6 Cambodian boys who had way too much energy. Once we had sweated out the previous night’s alcohol we watched Fremantle play the Eagles on a big screen and had a greasy lunch.
The next morning we woke at 4am and went off to see Cambodia’s most well known tourist attraction, the temples of Angkor Wat. Even though the sunrise was hidden in a cloudy sky, the experience was incredible and we ended up seeing close to 10 different temples in the area. After such an early rise and close to 8 hours of walking up and down stairs we were wrecked and slightly delirious. At one point we caught Mathias yelling at 2 ants to stop fighting each other…
The start of the working week commenced as per usual, with Wednesday the last day of our first of the 3 placements. On Thursday afternoon we went to a primary school and in pairs, ran different games and activities for the students. The next 2 hours were a blur, with close to 250 kids rotating through the 6 groups. If I had to describe it in 1 word, I would either use hectic, or mayhem. I have never seen kids having so much fun before in my life, and I don’t think any of us could wipe the smiles off our faces either.
On Friday we had a half day at our placements before catching a bus for 7 hours to the capital, Phnom Penh.
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