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| Katie - taking the second lock-out from her flat all in her stride |
So we have left the bubble of security that was in-country training, and what I have discovered is we may have thought we were acclimatized but that was just all a delusion.
It all started on Saturday with a 5 am start to pack up from the programme office. Some of us had been sensible and got to bed before 1 am on Friday night!
Katie & I set off at 6 30 am to catch the bus to our new home with the pick up truck with all our worldly possessions on the back and Scott, Sonia & Peter crushed into passenger seats. Katie & I actually had a civilised journey up with laan krong capitol, air-con, leg space, snacks and 6 hours of dry paddy fields and palms burnt into my minds eye. We even arrived in plenty of time to collect keys and have a smoothie. I bought a dongle to secure the intravenous drip of internet required to keep me in protai Kampuchea and then the real VSO experience started....
The pick-up successfully delivered to my place and then the great lock/key debacle began. It started with us being unable to even get into Katie's compound front gate and then another 20 minutes to get into her house's front door with it's dodgy padlock. After a successful unpack, Katie & I retreated to the Bamboo train opposite my place for an ice cold lime juice & soda. Then the heat began. April is meant to be the hottest month here and it certainly felt that way as we sweated quietly into our sodas.
It was some time after this I discovered my dongle doesn't work in my house, probably the enormous Spring Park Hotel blocking any signal. Internet withdrawal commenced.....
We went into the market to practice out khmer to buy Katie a new lock, it took several attempts, then on return to Katie's house we discovered she had locked the front door but didn't appear to have a key to open it. 30 minutes of sweating, failed attempts with a hair grip and quiet resignation commenced. "How come it wasn't this hard for the last 2 months?" we asked ourselves whilst blinded by the sweat pouring into our eyes.
The Wat's plinky-plonky music that Katie had initially told me was relaxing proved not to be so much the case for the 4 am wake up call.
I promised no further bite photos so I'll spare you all the 50+ bites on both my arms which have been confidently diagnosed today as bed-bug bites - well my mum always used to tell me to mind them. An interesting conversation with my land-lady via my VA awaits tomorrow. How do you say "please fumigate my house and burn my mattress" in khmer?
It's way too hot to scrub my house of all the dirt and dust just yet - I've already decided the cobwebs can stay - I need all the help with pest control that I can get and spiders are suddenly my new best friends.
My VSO bicycle is called Nala, Katie's old language training bike that she rejected for very good reasons as it turned out. I picked it because it was orange not because of the absence of brakes, the punctured back tyre, the perished back tyre or the slipping chain. An orange bike will only take you so far.... a swap is imminent as after a 45 minute walk in the hot season of the tropics to work, a bike is now considered more essential to me that the internet.
And then it was our first day at work - then the fun really began. I was surprised by a warm welcome from the surgical team and a request for my expert opinion. The surgical SHOs in the UK may think my opinion isn't worth much but in Cambodia they are clearly very desperate.
So this week I will be heading to Bakan Hospital to see how it's done there with URC doctor D, then going back to Phnom Penh for a BLS meeting on Friday, can't escape the bloody place. Apparently it's chest compressions first for all ages according to the American resus council, you go away from clinical medicine for 2 months and it all changes....
Any insider resus knowledge before Friday's meeting will be gladly received....
Below is the sign that's outside the Admin block at work, it may well be a sign for what I am currently looking for....
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