COUNTRY: Cambodia
PROGRAM: UniBreak Groups
PROJECT: Edith Cowan University Nursing Placement
WRITTEN BY: Zoe Martinovich
DAY ONE: Friday 25th October, 2013
Ten excited students and one equally excited supervisor arrived early at Perth Airport one Friday morning ready to head off on the adventure of a lifetime, a two week international community clinical placement in Siem Reap, Cambodia. 3 planes, 2 stopovers and one bus ride later and we had finally arrived. Tired, excited, nervous and hot! We met Billy, Kaann, Siphuong and Bunthoern who will be guiding us and acting as translators for us while we are here. We headed back to our accommodation, the Ta Som Guesthouse, and after a brief introduction and orientation we retired to our rooms and settled into our new home for the next two weeks.
DAY TWO: Saturday 26th October
Our first full day in Cambodia! We started off with a getting-to-know-everybody session, meeting some of the others we will be working with while we're here and then a quick introduction to the Cambodian culture. Cambodian people have very conservative dress, and so despite the heat we needed to swap our usual singlets and shorts for trousers and shirts that covered our shoulders. We learnt about the poverty in Cambodia and were given a brief history on the people, their beliefs and values, and the Khmer Rouge and the direct impact it has had on their lives today. We then walked down to the Angkor Childrens Hospital where we were given a tour and told about its history. The ACH was started after a man was taking photographs of the Temples and came across some children nearby, including several who were missing limbs from landmines. He was struck by what he saw and the lack of adequate healthcare for the local Children and he has worked tirelessly to develop the children’s hospital. The hospital was originally run purely by donations and international support, however with time, education and experience, the hospital is now running more independently and the project has become far more sustainable. ACH is considered one of the best children’s hospital in the region and families will travel great distances to get there, passing other clinics and hospitals on their way. The hospital is now working to teach and try and improve the other facilities as often the children are too sick by the time they arrive but would have survived if they had stopped at the earlier clinics, especially if their facilities and level of care was better. It was a bittersweet experience, as whilst it was amazing to see the work they are doing, when compared to the Australian hospitals and clinics we are used to back home, there was still so much that needed to be done!
After this we went for lunch and sampled some of the local cuisine, then we had a brief walk through the markets before being picked up and taken out to the floating villages. We took a boat out to the water filtration centre where we were taught about how they filter their water to provide fresh drinking to the communities. After this we headed home and were treated to our official 'welcome dinner' where we had a buffet of traditional Khmer food and watched a traditional Khmer music and dancing performance.
Such an eye opening day with so many amazing sights and sounds to take in. Looking forward to what each day will bring over the next two weeks and getting out into the schools and clinics next week!
DAY THREE: Sunday 27th October
Today we all enjoyed a "free day" which gave us all a great chance to get out and explore the streets of Siem Reap. Markets, massages, riding in tuk tuks and finding relief from the heat in some local swimming pools were just some of the activities the city had to tempt us with. Later in the day we all met back at our guestrooms for a language lesson with our wonderful translators, learning some important phrases we will need for our work in the classrooms and clinics next week. After this we ventured back out and enjoyed dinner at the Home Cocktail Restaurant then tuk-tuk'd it back to our hotel for an early night ready for our early start tomorrow.
What a great way to spend our first weekend in Cambodia!!
DAY FOUR: Monday 28th October
Today we met Davvy who has been running volunteer programs with Antipodeans for six years. She met us at our guestrooms and together we walked to a new part of the city where we were to spend the day learning about child protection and how it relates to the communities here and the work being done in Cambodia to ensure the many children here are looked after. Whilst we are all familiar with the phrase "Australia has an aging population", it’s quite different here with Cambodia's youth accounting for over 60% of the population.
And so we arrived at ConCERT, which stands for Connecting communities, environments & responsible tourism (more infohttp://www.concertcambodia.org/). We were greeted by Michael who is an English expat who now works to promote child protection and works with NGOs and volunteers to provide education and advice to make sure that volunteered time and resources go to proper programs and are used in the best ways possible. We discussed child abuse and exploitation, but also considered the cultural differences that exist in the opinions of Westerners and Khmer people. We were also given a brief history lesson on Cambodia and its people, including the Khmer Rouge.
This 8 hour day was broken up by a wonderful lunch provided to us by the staff at Haven. Not only was the food amazing (and possibly the best we've had so far!), the real magic about this place is that it is a trainee kitchen setup to teach young adults from orphanages and remote rural areas lifeskills, a trade they can use in the future, and to allows help with community integration after growing up in an institutionalised environment. (definitely worth a quick read here: http://www.haven-cambodia.com/en/about-haven/). Amazing idea with yummy food, a beautiful location, and lovely staff.
A few more hours at ConCERT and it was time to say "lee-a hery" (goodbye) and head back to our guestrooms. After a quick freshen up most of us ventured back outside to explore more of this beautiful city. We tried some new restaurants for dinner and then some of us ventured to the night markets for some shopping. The night markets are just like the markets during the day, except somehow the lights and the darkness make it so much more appealing! A few hours later we arrived home, proudly showing off our goodies to our tutor Sue. Slowly everyone started heading off to bed ready for an early start tomorrow. Myself and Sue however found ourselves giving impromptu English lessons on our balcony to the locals who are trying to teach themselves!
Such a wonderful and insightful day, now to try and get some rest before tomorrow morning! Visiting and getting orientated at all our workplaces, should be very interesting to see the schools and clinics in person.
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