Long time, no blog.
Jean arrived from the UK on the 8th and I have been too busy with this volunteering lark and host anxiety to blog. But now I find myself sat in Siem Reap waiting to see if a tuk tuk can get through the Tonle Sap (quite literally) and get us to our bus to PNH.
It has been a pretty full on couple of weeks with much non-volunteer dining out and excursions whilst still 'working full time'. The rainy season has really stepped up a notch hence the flooding and as Jean exclaimed the other day - she is having a "tropical nightmare". I am thankful that it has actually been quite cool for her because her 'nightmare' alludes to the heat and sweating which could be a lot worse if it wasn't constantly raining.
Last Sunday we caught the boat from BTB to Siem Reap - a 7 hour journey that could have only been improved by being 3 hours shorter. It was an eventful trip with many branches whacking the face episodes (me) and a boat attempting to pick up someone from a little boat and crashing into a tree with a wasp nest in it resulting in many wasp sting episodes (Jean). Ironically I found the existence of the people in the floating villages of the Tonle Sap lake very claustrophobic - water, water everywhere etc and no dry land - now I am in Siem reap which due to the Tonle Sap bursting its banks is also a floating village. As I waded back from Angkor Hospital for Children last night to the Guest House I felt the same claustrophobia rising in my chest. At least the floating villagers have boats - I am trying not to think about what is in the thigh high water but can't stop thinking about hook worm, leptospirosis, faeces and other badness. This anxiety stems from having an open would on my foot from a previous bicycle versus moto incident where my foot came off the worse. I have had an offer of amputation from one of the surgeons from BTB which I was hoping would not be necessary but after a day of flies eating it, then wading through raw sewage maybe I will have to take the winking surgeon up on his offer.
Jean was in Siem reap to spend three of the days in the rain seeing temples - wading at some points in thigh high water to reach temples that had no entry. The day after she visited Banteay Srei the road flooded and nearly 200 tourists were air-lifted out back to Siem Reap - I think 9 Cambodians have already died so far in this months flooding.
I have been having a drier and less dramatic week teaching on a Primary Trauma Care course - the first of its kind in Cambodia. It was a great injection of motivation, well timed for my 6 month dip. Suzi was the course director - an Australian anaesthetist with Cambodian heritage and she had press ganged another anaesthetist from Australia (Sathi) and a tiny trauma surgeon from the Philippines (Jovy) but also working in Oz to come along. Between them they had many years of international health experience and really buoyed my spirits - who knows perhaps my 2 years here may even end up being meaningful. Sathi told me a great story of going to Mongolia for 3 years and seeing no changes, just as his group decided to give up they received an email from the hospital in Mongolia to say that they had reviewed there mortality statistics from the last 3 years and could see that since introducing a recovery room the number of surgical deaths had more than halved. I have said it before and no doubt I will say many more times but capacity building is a slow and time consuming business but eventually there are results - that's what I have to keep telling myself.
The first course we instructed and then we trained 10 of the participants to be instructors including a surgeon from BTB. They then went on to train on a second course - by friday we were all entirely broken so wading home through raw sewage was just what I needed. Never has a trip to the beach been more needed. In reality Jean & I know that we will be sat in the rain playing yahtzee and backgammon in Kep whilst I eat crab to Jeans disgust. Although it is probably worth noting that sea-food hating-Jean ate fermented fish (Prahok) and liked it but she is quick to note that it was in a dish and 'not in isolation'.
So the question remains - will our tuk tuk driver a) turn up at 11 30 and then b) be able to get us to the bus station or c) will there even be a bus.
When I left home last weekend I knew I had forgotten something....I should have brought a boat.
Jean arrived from the UK on the 8th and I have been too busy with this volunteering lark and host anxiety to blog. But now I find myself sat in Siem Reap waiting to see if a tuk tuk can get through the Tonle Sap (quite literally) and get us to our bus to PNH.
It has been a pretty full on couple of weeks with much non-volunteer dining out and excursions whilst still 'working full time'. The rainy season has really stepped up a notch hence the flooding and as Jean exclaimed the other day - she is having a "tropical nightmare". I am thankful that it has actually been quite cool for her because her 'nightmare' alludes to the heat and sweating which could be a lot worse if it wasn't constantly raining.
Last Sunday we caught the boat from BTB to Siem Reap - a 7 hour journey that could have only been improved by being 3 hours shorter. It was an eventful trip with many branches whacking the face episodes (me) and a boat attempting to pick up someone from a little boat and crashing into a tree with a wasp nest in it resulting in many wasp sting episodes (Jean). Ironically I found the existence of the people in the floating villages of the Tonle Sap lake very claustrophobic - water, water everywhere etc and no dry land - now I am in Siem reap which due to the Tonle Sap bursting its banks is also a floating village. As I waded back from Angkor Hospital for Children last night to the Guest House I felt the same claustrophobia rising in my chest. At least the floating villagers have boats - I am trying not to think about what is in the thigh high water but can't stop thinking about hook worm, leptospirosis, faeces and other badness. This anxiety stems from having an open would on my foot from a previous bicycle versus moto incident where my foot came off the worse. I have had an offer of amputation from one of the surgeons from BTB which I was hoping would not be necessary but after a day of flies eating it, then wading through raw sewage maybe I will have to take the winking surgeon up on his offer.
Jean was in Siem reap to spend three of the days in the rain seeing temples - wading at some points in thigh high water to reach temples that had no entry. The day after she visited Banteay Srei the road flooded and nearly 200 tourists were air-lifted out back to Siem Reap - I think 9 Cambodians have already died so far in this months flooding.
I have been having a drier and less dramatic week teaching on a Primary Trauma Care course - the first of its kind in Cambodia. It was a great injection of motivation, well timed for my 6 month dip. Suzi was the course director - an Australian anaesthetist with Cambodian heritage and she had press ganged another anaesthetist from Australia (Sathi) and a tiny trauma surgeon from the Philippines (Jovy) but also working in Oz to come along. Between them they had many years of international health experience and really buoyed my spirits - who knows perhaps my 2 years here may even end up being meaningful. Sathi told me a great story of going to Mongolia for 3 years and seeing no changes, just as his group decided to give up they received an email from the hospital in Mongolia to say that they had reviewed there mortality statistics from the last 3 years and could see that since introducing a recovery room the number of surgical deaths had more than halved. I have said it before and no doubt I will say many more times but capacity building is a slow and time consuming business but eventually there are results - that's what I have to keep telling myself.
The first course we instructed and then we trained 10 of the participants to be instructors including a surgeon from BTB. They then went on to train on a second course - by friday we were all entirely broken so wading home through raw sewage was just what I needed. Never has a trip to the beach been more needed. In reality Jean & I know that we will be sat in the rain playing yahtzee and backgammon in Kep whilst I eat crab to Jeans disgust. Although it is probably worth noting that sea-food hating-Jean ate fermented fish (Prahok) and liked it but she is quick to note that it was in a dish and 'not in isolation'.
So the question remains - will our tuk tuk driver a) turn up at 11 30 and then b) be able to get us to the bus station or c) will there even be a bus.
When I left home last weekend I knew I had forgotten something....I should have brought a boat.
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| Tonle Sap Lake - Water-world |
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| Siem Reap - floating village - town centre |
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| Bonsak & Chheng modelling the cambodian turn-up |
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| Human mannequins |
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