A once-in-a-lifetime experience

COUNTRY: Cambodia
PROGRAM: UniBreak Groups
PROJECT: Exercise Physiology
WRITTEN BY: Brent Luckman, Notre Dame University

Our final week in Cambodia began with two village outreach clinics on Monday and Tuesday. Dinner for the next few nights saw us become regulars at a newly discovered Italian restaurant named Little Italy (or Sicily for short), where we got stuck in to some delicious lasagna and steak. One more school visit on Wednesday afternoon and our final shifts at our placements on Wednesday and Thursday meant we had completed our month of work in Cambodia.

Having finished our practicum for the month, we started to look back and reflect on the once-in-a-lifetime experience we had just been a part of. We have helped stroke patients, people with diabetes, polio sufferers, amputee victims- the majority of which were from landmines- and cerebral palsy sufferers. We helped run outreach clinics in villages often 1-2 hours out of Siem Reap (where some people have never seen Westerners before) and provided exercise and fun activities to hundreds of over-energized primary school children. We have seen the result of a truly horrible government regime that still affects the country nearly 40 years on, and we've visited killing fields and prisons where Cambodians tortured and killed their fellow countrymen and women. But most of all, we have realised and seen first hand the difference that we’ve made to the lives of people less fortunate that us, whether it be as little as showing someone how to stretch muscles that are stiff and tight, or teaching people with new prosthetic limbs how to walk properly.

We have also made so many new friends on this journey. Over the course of our time here we became close with our translators, the employees of the various clinics and organisations we worked at, the teachers that supervised our trip, the many patients we worked with, and our amazing in-country organisers Billy and Vichay. As a student group we are closer than ever before. We have even witnessed the emergence of a new celebrity couple in the group that now rivals Kimye and Brangelina, known only as Jafiq…

We have enjoyed a month with some of the best- and cheapest- food and drinks in the world (massive call, but I dare you to prove me wrong), and experienced parts of a country completely different to our own that no common tourist would ever see. Joel managed to go through over 100 water bottles on the trip, Jarvey polished off 3L of hand sanitzer (and still managed to get sick), Matt made an Aussie hiphop video, Chris has a table tennis record of 1 win and 47 losses, and everyone danced on a table at some point at Angkor What bar. Unfortunately, it had to come to an end at some point, so with no American dollars left we departed Siem Reap to return to the cold and wet conditions in Perth (yay…)

Before I sign off I need to say a massive thank you on behalf of the group to Tanya, Fiona and the Antipodeans team for making this trip truly unforgettable. I also need to thank Chris and the translators for all the help they gave us. Finally, I urge anyone who has the opportunity to travel/volunteer abroad; I promise you won't regret it and you certainly won't forget it.

Johm riab li and saamnang la-aw (thank you and good luck)

Notre Dame Exercise Physiology Students in Siem Reap

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.