Being There

Channa and I stayed one more night in Preah Vihear so we could visit his fiancées family home. It only took a couple of hours from the centre but I was sitting on the seat belt receptacle (is that what it’s called???) so 2 minutes would have been plenty. I kept quiet about it as the only other option was perched on bags of rice in the back of the pick-up truck and it was raining cats and dogs so I thought best not complain…I’m just so British sometimes!

I had offered to stay in a local guest house so not to make the family feel uncomfortable (where apparently lots of Chinese gold diggers would be staying……!) but when I met the mother she would not hear any of it. We had the usual banter about me being beautiful, me saying thanks you are also very beautiful and her saying no I am not you are very beautiful and then we moved on to her house not being very beautiful and I said it is very beautiful and ….I think you get the gist? I think we agreed on everything being beautiful but my language isn’t that good so who knows....

All the beautiful people.....!

It really was great just being there, it reminded me of growing up in a very small house with a very large family where privacy was something that I would know and embrace when I was much older (basically when I moved away from home) and the fact that I spent years queuing for the toilet is something that I owe my pelvic floor to ...always a silver lining!

I was sent around various members of the familys' homes and had food thrust at me and ate when I wasn't hungry (I don't like to refuse food, it's far too precious and it's not something I do where ever I am!) and was then sent to sleep at 9. I did sleep and the I woke up at 5am with everyone else, it was great, a real cambodian homestay-a cherished memory.

Inside and outside the beautiful house






Ready for bed and for going out to eat ( well I wanted to do it proper Cambodian style so the bananas go on immediately !)

3 months to go.....

So it’s now the homeward run with only 3 months to go and I think this blog is suddenly going to get busy as I’ve just discovered that my laptop is no longer reading my DVD’s (and what an absolute wind up that is, I’ve been watching ‘West Wing’ for months and was about to start the last season !!!)….so what with no television and the internet connecting whenever it feels like it (blimey all I need to happen is to no longer have any electricity and it will the VSO experience I expected it to be!!) .... my evenings are going to now involve writing this, lots of reading and bed by 8 which you could argue isn’t a bad thing but I think I may lose the plot…or perhaps the will to live without any of these stimulants …. I’ll be relying on you to let me know if there’s even a hint of it…..

I don’t think I’ve said anything about my work – preceptor advisor-what’s that then? Sorry to my nurse friends but not all are so allow me to explain, in a nutshell it’s a senior nurse who likes to support student nurses-it’s great, I do it at home and will never forget the hideous way some nurses didn’t support me when I was a student so go out of my way to ensure that students don’t feel like a spare part when they come on the ward. Same idea here and my role is to support those preceptors across the North East of Cambodia. At the moment there’s 50 of them that I support (photo shows some of the preceptors with my lovely Katja).It ‘s challenging to say the least as they are spread out over a large area, the furthest being a 12 hour bus journey away in a province called Preah Vihear and the closest being down the road here in Stung Treng! I started with a needs analysis and basically they are doing an ok job. To be honest I admire anyone who comes to work everyday for $50 a month (and no it’s not a living wage, even here). Of course there are things that could be better (as there could at home), they’re not giving feedback to the students in the most effective way and are not very creative with their teaching so that’s what we’ve been discussing but in my opinion it really isn’t that bad. Some are more enthusiastic than others but these nurses and midwives were told they are going to be a preceptor not asked ! I go around with my lovely volunteer assistant Channa and share my skills which some embrace and others not so much!

There are a lot of people trying to make things better (both local and international) but until the government start valuing their health workers and recognising and accepting that they are the backbone of healthcare and deserve to be properly trained and equipped to do their job then I am not sure we will get very far.

The public hospitals are not used like they should be- the main reason being poor quality of care which of course results in reduced demand. The poor quality is evident in poorly maintained infrastructure, lack of medical equipment and supplies and low morale of personnel. We also need to move from a patronage system to a system of merit where people get power or money on the basis of their capabilities not on the basis of nepotism.

There’s also the fact that many nurses and midwives are either working in or own private clinics which of course they need to because of the ridiculous wage they get from the government.

So lots still to do but as the sayings go…. one little step at a time… Rome wasn’t built in a day…..the elevator to success is out of order, you’ll just have to use the stairs-one step at a time….there is no sudden leap into the stratosphere, there is only advancing step by step, slowly and tortuously, up the pyramid towards your goals…..and one of my favourites-a german proverb apparently-the greatest step is out the door….and on that note I think I’ve rambled enough…it’s 7.30pm and I’m going to bed with Terry Pratchett.

An active weekend in Stung Treng !

Coconuts being cut down in my garden

I was woken with the sound of shouting and laughter and looked out and discovered that some young lads were having a good time cutting down the coconuts from the tree in the garden. The job was done very swiftly and before I knew it they were whisked off on the back of their motorbike to be sold at the riverfront at a whopping 50p each ! I highly recommend them, they're absolutely delicious and apparently full of all sorts of wonderful nutrients. I'd spent the rest of the day trying to think of a dessert that did not contain a can of 'My Boy, My Girl or My Captain'....they're tins of sweetened condensed milk that most of the desserts contain which I must admit I got slightly hooked on, especially with the coffee, until my last visit to the dentist resulted in 4 fillings ! So I consulted Delia on-line and the BBC for ideas for desserts which are chock full of wonderful, delicious recipes but of course, I can't get any of the ingredients here...! Here's where the toiling starts as I now have to be creative! So struggle I did, but finally I presented a puree of mango on a chocolate and cappucino crunch base ! It went down rather well....! The theme of the evening was magic ! This came out of a very casual evening at the vietnamese noodle place (one of my favourite places to eat here in stung treng). When the owners 8 year son started showing Linda and I some tricks he could do with elastic bands, VSO, being all about sharing, resulted in us saying to him that next time we will come with some tricks to show him hence spending a lot of Saturday practicing card tricks .......even though I say so myself I can do a pretty nifty trick without even touching the cards..... You'll be impressed, I guarantee it!...
Excitement all round as there's a massage parlour that's been opened here which isn't a cover for a brothel....I hope, it certainly has signs up saying no sex, no drugs so let's hope they keep it that way. Spent a very pleasant hour sunday afternoon in an air-conditioned room having my head neck and shoulders massaged.....don't think sundays get much better in Stung Treng.......

One of the many beautiful temples at Ankor Wat (Bayon Temple)

So my new year's resolution was to keep this blog updated, it's nearly July and it's about time I put that into practice....!
I'm back from a forum in Siem Reap, that place where a whole heap of extremely old and rather beautiful temples are called Ankor Wat....
I was there for the first 'Preceptor forum'. It's a start, at least it was an event that was put on at a national level which, to me, means that there is an element of interest of the issues and challenges that the preceptors are having at their hospitals. It was interesting to hear that most are having the same problems i.e. not enough staff, too many students, financial incentive not high enough for them to want to do the job...sounding all very familiar to me !
It was quite amusing to be listening to a secretariat from the ministry of health banging on about how important it was for the staff to be committed to their role as a preceptor....I don't know anyone who would be committed to their work if they were paid such little wages as the nurses do here (the equivalent of about £40 per month). It's cheap here...but it ain't that cheap!!
I spent most of the time with my volunteer assistant Channa and a clinical instructor. We ate and drank beer and were having a jolly old time together (you know, like mates do) so you can imagine my shock and utter dismay when, after discussing plans to get back home over lunch, the clinical instructor came back from the afternoon session, picked up his bag and said that he had found a taxi with another colleague and waved bye bye to Channa and I.......I was positively flabbergasted!!!
Channa, my volunteer assistant