says the bartender at Metro, this place on the Tong Le Sap river I checked out with some new friends last night. They being rats. I'm still reeling from last night's incident actually. It involved me, some new friends, sitting on the patio at Metro, and me feeling something soft graze by my sandaled feet. Then, my consequent peering under the table to see what it was...and the release of a slight scream upon the realization that it was a rat. It's been about 10 hrs since the incident and it still gives me shivers. 30 minutes after my incident, I should mention that the dude sitting next to me got bitten by a rat, at which point he needed to be taken to the hospital to get some anti-rabies medication. All I can say is that at least it wasn't a monkey. I've heard that they bite a lot deeper.
I've actually never seen so many rats before. My new friends and I left this lounge called Pontoon last night. Pontoon is a, well I guess you can figure out what it is, on the river. Upon leaving, my new Zambian and Italian friends saw what seemed an entire pack of rats to rival both the Crips and the Bloods run across the the muddy road near us. Screaming resulted. Some hurried navigation of huge puddles of mud and dirty water in heels and flip flops and then me....almost falling. Keywod ALMOST. I think i've learned to save myself from such events these days.
So aside from learning a little too much regarding the happy hour activities of my boss from his friends yesterday, I have to say that the rat thing is still a bit blood curdling. Ewwwwww. I'm good with the smells of raw meat and fish, and their rotting consequences, in the Russian Market (I'm East Asian, I suppose such things are in my blood), but this whole rat thing still irks me, despite having read the seminal epidemiological work on rats...called...Rats. I highly recommend!
Friday, September 28, 2007
Thursday, September 27, 2007
Cambodia: Donors Scale Back HIV/AIDS Funding
From my work-Inbox and the newsfeed on the Global Fund Website on Monday:
The Global Fund To Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, USAID and the United Kingdom's Department for International Development have decided to scale back HIV prevention funding in Cambodia, Xinhua/ People's Daily reports...organizations made the decision because the country reportedly has achieved satisfactory progress in curbing its HIV/AIDS epidemic. HIV prevalence has declined from about 3.3% in the 1990s to about 0.9% in 2005.
While it is wonderful that Cambodia has been able to successfully reach one of its Millenium Development Goals (Combatting and halting the spread of HIV/AIDS), this new development will raise new problems for Cambodia's population as well as make my work a tad bit harder.
Cambodia's government relies, quite heavily, on the donations of developed countries and both local and international NGOs, ranging from UNAIDS, to the Cambodian Action Research on AIDS and Mobility. This money not only funds a large number of Voluntary Counseling and Treatment centres around the country, but as well helps provide for antiretroviral therapy for an all too small portion of the HIV+ community and helps fund condom supplies for the country's extremely successful 100% Condom Use Program among its sex workers. Such moneys also fund research that advises Cambodia's fairly liberal, albeit corrupt, government. Althought Cambodia has been fairly proactive in its abilities to limit the spread of HIV throughout the country (it received harm reduction with open arms), it remains that which has the highest HIV prevalence in the Asia-Pacific region.
The IOM Cambodia office hasn't really had much activities regarding HIV/AIDS. I hoping to change this during my placement. The assignment that Bruno gave to me was to find advice on potential donors for a Safe Mobility education package entitled For Life, with Love; this is a title that Bruno and I consistently fumble around with. It's essentially a social marketing/health promotion project that seeks to reduce the risk behaviours among vulnerable migrant populations.
There's also this really interesting research project that Bruno's got under his belt...but not yet actually started yet on account of that small problem of funding. It's a Foresight project that seeks to predict the depth and breadth of HIV infection when the new Asian Highway System is built in Cambodia. Given experiences already seen in truck drivers in East Africa, and then mining communities in Zambia, this would be a wonderful piece of work to advise the government in policymaking, no? Of course, it also requires $$, six figures of it to be exact. I really want to see this project come to fruition.
Of course, that will be a bit harder since NGOs will probably be scrapping and fighting over money for the next while. Anyone friends with a Rockefeller or a Vanderbilt?
The Global Fund To Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, USAID and the United Kingdom's Department for International Development have decided to scale back HIV prevention funding in Cambodia, Xinhua/ People's Daily reports...organizations made the decision because the country reportedly has achieved satisfactory progress in curbing its HIV/AIDS epidemic. HIV prevalence has declined from about 3.3% in the 1990s to about 0.9% in 2005.
While it is wonderful that Cambodia has been able to successfully reach one of its Millenium Development Goals (Combatting and halting the spread of HIV/AIDS), this new development will raise new problems for Cambodia's population as well as make my work a tad bit harder.
Cambodia's government relies, quite heavily, on the donations of developed countries and both local and international NGOs, ranging from UNAIDS, to the Cambodian Action Research on AIDS and Mobility. This money not only funds a large number of Voluntary Counseling and Treatment centres around the country, but as well helps provide for antiretroviral therapy for an all too small portion of the HIV+ community and helps fund condom supplies for the country's extremely successful 100% Condom Use Program among its sex workers. Such moneys also fund research that advises Cambodia's fairly liberal, albeit corrupt, government. Althought Cambodia has been fairly proactive in its abilities to limit the spread of HIV throughout the country (it received harm reduction with open arms), it remains that which has the highest HIV prevalence in the Asia-Pacific region.
The IOM Cambodia office hasn't really had much activities regarding HIV/AIDS. I hoping to change this during my placement. The assignment that Bruno gave to me was to find advice on potential donors for a Safe Mobility education package entitled For Life, with Love; this is a title that Bruno and I consistently fumble around with. It's essentially a social marketing/health promotion project that seeks to reduce the risk behaviours among vulnerable migrant populations.
There's also this really interesting research project that Bruno's got under his belt...but not yet actually started yet on account of that small problem of funding. It's a Foresight project that seeks to predict the depth and breadth of HIV infection when the new Asian Highway System is built in Cambodia. Given experiences already seen in truck drivers in East Africa, and then mining communities in Zambia, this would be a wonderful piece of work to advise the government in policymaking, no? Of course, it also requires $$, six figures of it to be exact. I really want to see this project come to fruition.
Of course, that will be a bit harder since NGOs will probably be scrapping and fighting over money for the next while. Anyone friends with a Rockefeller or a Vanderbilt?
Monday, September 24, 2007
purposes, motives and desires
I mentioned in my previous post, the notion of what brings comfortable Westerners to places such as Cambodia, and a struggle with my own motives that brought me here.
Sitting at my Khmer cafe in the humidity that's hovers over PP right now, I couldn't help but wonder, beyond the tourists, what does bring people to work and live in PP and Cambodia? Is it the alarming ease to access prostitutes of all ages, types and psychological states? Is it the heat? Or possibly is it some sort of redemption from prior crimes that one can expect salvation through some act of altruism; playing with children in a Battambang orphanage comes to mind, as does, publishing useless and repetitve research papers about the forces which drive prostitution. Over dinner, I watched a white dude with the dreads park his moto across street from my outdoor table, and the older British man with the arms of a young Khmer girl wrapped around his waist while jetting down St. 278. Then there are the military offspring, or adult army brats, for whom consistent migration hass been engrained in their genes, such that the DFID contract in public health consultation in Cambodia comes with an obvious yes.
Finally, there are the people who just care. Like my boss Bruno. I can count him as one of those that I hope to look up to because they've essentially focused all of their time and energy, and perhaps have even made many personal sacrifices to get the work they want done. Over lunch at the one Italian place so good that it attracts Mafiosos galore, Bruno essentially gave me his life. Italy, Sarajevo, the Balkans, Mexico and now Cambodia, Thailand, Laos, Burma and Vietnam. His only mandate being that the place must be warm, such that the Balkans for his doctoral dissertation was a bit of a fluke and parts of Central Asia are out of the question. He's really passionate for his work concerning labour migration and human rights. To the point that I think he tried to continue doing it despite the physiological intensities that wrack him right this moment. I suppose I shouldn't deify him since I've only worked with him for one day thus far; any deities I have created in this field tend to crash into pieces of defiled rubble. It must be the heat that drives these illusions.
I bring this up because I question my own motives that bring me here. I mentioned before that it was the film, The Killing Fields left an indelible image of Haing S. Ngor, crawling his way through a swamp of deceased Khmer, skulls and blood in his escape from Pol Pots agrarian work camps. I think I was about 11yrs old when I saw this, and the helpless Sidney Schanberg, journalist, abandoned by a government who could not give a damn about the million Khmer dying. I've been criticized for this. For a film, and its most likely romanticized, aggrandized, bleached out images to impel me to pursue some sort of god-like solvent for the remnants of crimes against humanity; its absolutely ridiculous. But at least it happened, and that I'm aware of the very important fact that I am here to learn. It was a question that constantly haunted me at these expat gatherings. "What makes you, fresh out of college, decide that the only internships you really want are the ones in Cambodia?" Well, why not? If Welcome to Sarajevo, After the Wedding, or god forbid, Hotel Rwanda push you into that field, well, at least it succeeded, and it got to someone. Manufactuered motion pictures are not short term levers that pull at the heart strings. Sometimes the effects are permanent.
On a lighter note, I did order something for lunch without actually knowing what it was since the waitress didn't speak English and the menu only featured Chinese and Khmer. Thankfully 5 yrs of Chinese school was able to indicate to me that I had ordered something with beef.
Sitting at my Khmer cafe in the humidity that's hovers over PP right now, I couldn't help but wonder, beyond the tourists, what does bring people to work and live in PP and Cambodia? Is it the alarming ease to access prostitutes of all ages, types and psychological states? Is it the heat? Or possibly is it some sort of redemption from prior crimes that one can expect salvation through some act of altruism; playing with children in a Battambang orphanage comes to mind, as does, publishing useless and repetitve research papers about the forces which drive prostitution. Over dinner, I watched a white dude with the dreads park his moto across street from my outdoor table, and the older British man with the arms of a young Khmer girl wrapped around his waist while jetting down St. 278. Then there are the military offspring, or adult army brats, for whom consistent migration hass been engrained in their genes, such that the DFID contract in public health consultation in Cambodia comes with an obvious yes.
Finally, there are the people who just care. Like my boss Bruno. I can count him as one of those that I hope to look up to because they've essentially focused all of their time and energy, and perhaps have even made many personal sacrifices to get the work they want done. Over lunch at the one Italian place so good that it attracts Mafiosos galore, Bruno essentially gave me his life. Italy, Sarajevo, the Balkans, Mexico and now Cambodia, Thailand, Laos, Burma and Vietnam. His only mandate being that the place must be warm, such that the Balkans for his doctoral dissertation was a bit of a fluke and parts of Central Asia are out of the question. He's really passionate for his work concerning labour migration and human rights. To the point that I think he tried to continue doing it despite the physiological intensities that wrack him right this moment. I suppose I shouldn't deify him since I've only worked with him for one day thus far; any deities I have created in this field tend to crash into pieces of defiled rubble. It must be the heat that drives these illusions.
I bring this up because I question my own motives that bring me here. I mentioned before that it was the film, The Killing Fields left an indelible image of Haing S. Ngor, crawling his way through a swamp of deceased Khmer, skulls and blood in his escape from Pol Pots agrarian work camps. I think I was about 11yrs old when I saw this, and the helpless Sidney Schanberg, journalist, abandoned by a government who could not give a damn about the million Khmer dying. I've been criticized for this. For a film, and its most likely romanticized, aggrandized, bleached out images to impel me to pursue some sort of god-like solvent for the remnants of crimes against humanity; its absolutely ridiculous. But at least it happened, and that I'm aware of the very important fact that I am here to learn. It was a question that constantly haunted me at these expat gatherings. "What makes you, fresh out of college, decide that the only internships you really want are the ones in Cambodia?" Well, why not? If Welcome to Sarajevo, After the Wedding, or god forbid, Hotel Rwanda push you into that field, well, at least it succeeded, and it got to someone. Manufactuered motion pictures are not short term levers that pull at the heart strings. Sometimes the effects are permanent.
On a lighter note, I did order something for lunch without actually knowing what it was since the waitress didn't speak English and the menu only featured Chinese and Khmer. Thankfully 5 yrs of Chinese school was able to indicate to me that I had ordered something with beef.
Saturday, September 22, 2007
expats, my birthday, and heat
None of the events of the past 48 hours would have occured without the help of the expats. While I continue to possess a strange disdain and perhaps even confusion about hanging out with expats, I feel extremely lucky and really happy to have met them still. My ultimate goal is to build sustainable relationships with local Khmer. However, having a non-tourist population to discuss episodes of How I Met Your Mother, the sociocultural implications of Knocked Up and Canada as the 51st state is a nice cushion to have.
A more appropriate title for this entry therefore would have been Tiff Tsang HBSc or: How I learned to stop self-loathing and learn to love the expat bubble.
I bring up the subject of expats because I spent the large part of Friday pondering about my birthday, which you all should know is today. Of course, all of my fears of doing this alone were dashed once I met Prateek and company. Through Prateek, whom i consider of social saviour and big brother typology, I've had the chance to meet really interesting and amazing characters in the NGO population in PP.
What I've learned from meeting them, however, is that I seem to be the only one who actively sought to get myself here. Through work and such, this collection of USAID, PeaceCorps, JSI, PSI, UN, WHO, Save the Children employees, and consultants of other acronyms seems to just have found themselves in Cambodia on the single factor of circumstance, or paycheque. Nonetheless, they are really great to talk to, and to hear Happy Birthday in Khmer from. I've deviated from the subject of why exactly I chose to come to Cambodia, and not Latin America, Central Asia, the Middle East, or that sexy region of sub-Saharan Africa, but that is for another posting.
But, self-involved as I am, back to my birthday. I spent last night at a house party discussing the trials and tribulations of the expat community, post-conflict psychology and the retributive lyrics of the song "date rape" by Sublime. At around 130am, we wound up at this club called Heart of Darkness, more affectionately known as "the Heart". Joseph Conrad's vision of subcontinents really hit the right note here. In a crowd of equal parts tourists, expats and rich Khmer kids, I couldn't help but wonder..."this must be Orientalism, Chinoiserie, and yellow fever, applied..." All to the sound of not so great house music and the occassional Macarena. I kid you not. I especially enjoyed the Anglo grandfather-type (replete with sweater vest), standing in the corner and watching all of this rhythmic thriving of inter-cultural bodies injected with many doses of alcohol. And the icing on the cake were the not so inconspicuous body guards fervently monitoring the activities between their rich Khmer clients...or rather, their children.
My new friends, Drew, Liz and Annie informed me that this was all quite normal...and that there was a hip hop night if I so desired as I'm not the biggest fan of house. We even tried to play charades with the caged, and elevated DJ in order to communicate to him HIP HOP:
2 Words....then hopping around for a bit. He didn't really get it.
A final word about the expat community is that they are really protective of each other. While PP is safer than I expected, acts of violence against foreigners do happen. Rumours of an Australian girl getting sexually assaulted after leaving the Heart, as a result of her moto driver steering her in a direction that wasn't home are abound. I'm really lucky that Prateek, who is embodied as a football player-like South Asian dude, lives above me and has been around to slowly engrain PP living here. Like I said - turning 23 without my new friends would have been a tad lonely and I would probably be on the computer @ 2pm (Cambodia time) without the excuse of a hangover and 5 hrs of sleep. I also have the excuse of the heat.
It's about 38 degrees celsius out there. I suppose I should make another venture out again.
A more appropriate title for this entry therefore would have been Tiff Tsang HBSc or: How I learned to stop self-loathing and learn to love the expat bubble.
I bring up the subject of expats because I spent the large part of Friday pondering about my birthday, which you all should know is today. Of course, all of my fears of doing this alone were dashed once I met Prateek and company. Through Prateek, whom i consider of social saviour and big brother typology, I've had the chance to meet really interesting and amazing characters in the NGO population in PP.
What I've learned from meeting them, however, is that I seem to be the only one who actively sought to get myself here. Through work and such, this collection of USAID, PeaceCorps, JSI, PSI, UN, WHO, Save the Children employees, and consultants of other acronyms seems to just have found themselves in Cambodia on the single factor of circumstance, or paycheque. Nonetheless, they are really great to talk to, and to hear Happy Birthday in Khmer from. I've deviated from the subject of why exactly I chose to come to Cambodia, and not Latin America, Central Asia, the Middle East, or that sexy region of sub-Saharan Africa, but that is for another posting.
But, self-involved as I am, back to my birthday. I spent last night at a house party discussing the trials and tribulations of the expat community, post-conflict psychology and the retributive lyrics of the song "date rape" by Sublime. At around 130am, we wound up at this club called Heart of Darkness, more affectionately known as "the Heart". Joseph Conrad's vision of subcontinents really hit the right note here. In a crowd of equal parts tourists, expats and rich Khmer kids, I couldn't help but wonder..."this must be Orientalism, Chinoiserie, and yellow fever, applied..." All to the sound of not so great house music and the occassional Macarena. I kid you not. I especially enjoyed the Anglo grandfather-type (replete with sweater vest), standing in the corner and watching all of this rhythmic thriving of inter-cultural bodies injected with many doses of alcohol. And the icing on the cake were the not so inconspicuous body guards fervently monitoring the activities between their rich Khmer clients...or rather, their children.
My new friends, Drew, Liz and Annie informed me that this was all quite normal...and that there was a hip hop night if I so desired as I'm not the biggest fan of house. We even tried to play charades with the caged, and elevated DJ in order to communicate to him HIP HOP:
2 Words....then hopping around for a bit. He didn't really get it.
A final word about the expat community is that they are really protective of each other. While PP is safer than I expected, acts of violence against foreigners do happen. Rumours of an Australian girl getting sexually assaulted after leaving the Heart, as a result of her moto driver steering her in a direction that wasn't home are abound. I'm really lucky that Prateek, who is embodied as a football player-like South Asian dude, lives above me and has been around to slowly engrain PP living here. Like I said - turning 23 without my new friends would have been a tad lonely and I would probably be on the computer @ 2pm (Cambodia time) without the excuse of a hangover and 5 hrs of sleep. I also have the excuse of the heat.
It's about 38 degrees celsius out there. I suppose I should make another venture out again.
Friday, September 21, 2007
jungle parties, poutine and the lot
I've now begun my first foray into living abroad. Sure, South Africa was 2 months, but really, I was more of a tourist in that setting.
The romanticized musings of a foreigner introduced to the new lands of the east continue; I'm a honeymooner essentially. It's now been 48 hrs since I've arrived and for some strange reason, I find myself sitting here, typing this out before I head off to see the waterfront.
Since I've probably communicated with many of you (thank goodness for the internet) as a result of being smacked in the face with a mean case of jet lag (I am 11 hrs ahead of EST), some of you probably have heard the following....
1) I found poutine in Cambodia. I later learned that a Quebecois guy came over, married a girl, and opened this restaurant that's just down the street from my hotel. Oh Chinoiserie, how you make the world go round. I suppose he missed the mixing of melting cheese curds in hot gravy slathered on French fries so much, he insisted on putting it on the menu. I'm slightly hesitant about this, and we all know that curiosity killed the cat.
2) I rode my first moto! The first of many subsequent rides I'll be taking while i'm here. For those worried about my neurologic health, yes, I will be buying a helmet once I move into my flat next week. I also rode my first tuktuk, but unless it's raining, I much prefer the wind blowing through my hair and watching my motodriver deftly navigate the uber-busy streets of Phnom Penh. In fact, this morning, my moto-driver managed to move in the opposite direction of the lane we were driving in.
Success has also been wrought in making friends! As much as I wanted to first avoid the expat crowd at first, I now realize that the melting pot is inevitable, and could never be a tossed salad. Through a fairly convoluted 6-degrees of separation, the guy who had booked my hotel for me, Prateek (who is friends with future roomie, Tara) came knocking at my door yesterday, when I was coincidentally shacked in while waiting for a perpetual rain storm to stop. He's a USAID public health specialist from Texas. Meeting him lead to really good Khmer food, and an invitation to an expat party in which he dressed up as some sort of Jungle warlord, in uniforms bought from some black market army outfitter. Now let me offer you a key piece of advice to travelers going to the other side of the world. Alcohol, in this case, "Jungle Juice" and jet lag do not necessarily make the best of mates, but in the end produce what's probably the best solution to jet lag. But aside from Jungle Juice and jetlag, I did manage to make a very diverse group of contacts, including an Aussie mercenary who patrolled the Lao-Cambodia border, and told me this while adjusting his loin cloth so that all necessary bodyparts were appropriately sheathed.
On the way home, I also heard my first gunshot in the street while tuktuk-ing along a seemingly quiet, barren, street. This was around the tacky and glittering Millionaire's Club. Note to self..stay away from there around midnight.
I've also managed to find really good Italian food in PP. It gave me the first sense of home, or Toronto, since arriving here (which I suppose speaks heavily about Toronto itself). This was a result of finally meeting my boss, Brrunnnnnnnnnnno Malton-i. At least that's how I like to pronounce his name. I look forward to working with him, and hope he gets over his Dengue fever soon. Despite this, he insisted that he give me a short tour of PP on his moto this afternoon, which was really great. We then spent lunch discussing Fellini, Mexico-US border issues and being sick in Cambodia. All of this took place sitting in an Italian restaurant, next to 2 Italian men, who appeared to have some sort of stereotypical affiliation with a certain organized crime posse from Italy. Globalization is wonderful, no?
I also learned today that Cambodia has 60 days worth of public holidays. Yee-hah The IOM, my employer, however, is the one who decides which holidays we get. Damn it.
The romanticized musings of a foreigner introduced to the new lands of the east continue; I'm a honeymooner essentially. It's now been 48 hrs since I've arrived and for some strange reason, I find myself sitting here, typing this out before I head off to see the waterfront.
Since I've probably communicated with many of you (thank goodness for the internet) as a result of being smacked in the face with a mean case of jet lag (I am 11 hrs ahead of EST), some of you probably have heard the following....
1) I found poutine in Cambodia. I later learned that a Quebecois guy came over, married a girl, and opened this restaurant that's just down the street from my hotel. Oh Chinoiserie, how you make the world go round. I suppose he missed the mixing of melting cheese curds in hot gravy slathered on French fries so much, he insisted on putting it on the menu. I'm slightly hesitant about this, and we all know that curiosity killed the cat.
2) I rode my first moto! The first of many subsequent rides I'll be taking while i'm here. For those worried about my neurologic health, yes, I will be buying a helmet once I move into my flat next week. I also rode my first tuktuk, but unless it's raining, I much prefer the wind blowing through my hair and watching my motodriver deftly navigate the uber-busy streets of Phnom Penh. In fact, this morning, my moto-driver managed to move in the opposite direction of the lane we were driving in.
Success has also been wrought in making friends! As much as I wanted to first avoid the expat crowd at first, I now realize that the melting pot is inevitable, and could never be a tossed salad. Through a fairly convoluted 6-degrees of separation, the guy who had booked my hotel for me, Prateek (who is friends with future roomie, Tara) came knocking at my door yesterday, when I was coincidentally shacked in while waiting for a perpetual rain storm to stop. He's a USAID public health specialist from Texas. Meeting him lead to really good Khmer food, and an invitation to an expat party in which he dressed up as some sort of Jungle warlord, in uniforms bought from some black market army outfitter. Now let me offer you a key piece of advice to travelers going to the other side of the world. Alcohol, in this case, "Jungle Juice" and jet lag do not necessarily make the best of mates, but in the end produce what's probably the best solution to jet lag. But aside from Jungle Juice and jetlag, I did manage to make a very diverse group of contacts, including an Aussie mercenary who patrolled the Lao-Cambodia border, and told me this while adjusting his loin cloth so that all necessary bodyparts were appropriately sheathed.
On the way home, I also heard my first gunshot in the street while tuktuk-ing along a seemingly quiet, barren, street. This was around the tacky and glittering Millionaire's Club. Note to self..stay away from there around midnight.
I've also managed to find really good Italian food in PP. It gave me the first sense of home, or Toronto, since arriving here (which I suppose speaks heavily about Toronto itself). This was a result of finally meeting my boss, Brrunnnnnnnnnnno Malton-i. At least that's how I like to pronounce his name. I look forward to working with him, and hope he gets over his Dengue fever soon. Despite this, he insisted that he give me a short tour of PP on his moto this afternoon, which was really great. We then spent lunch discussing Fellini, Mexico-US border issues and being sick in Cambodia. All of this took place sitting in an Italian restaurant, next to 2 Italian men, who appeared to have some sort of stereotypical affiliation with a certain organized crime posse from Italy. Globalization is wonderful, no?
I also learned today that Cambodia has 60 days worth of public holidays. Yee-hah The IOM, my employer, however, is the one who decides which holidays we get. Damn it.
Wednesday, September 19, 2007
TIFFANY TSANG IOM PICK UP.
That's the sign that the IOM driver, Prak Lay held when I stepped into the ARRIVALS section of the Phnom Penh Int'l Airport. I suppose that's also when all of the adrenaline came coursing through my veins. I am in Cambodia now.
There are not many traffic lights so I might just get hit by a car, a tuk tuk, or a moto, again. (I say that in jest) Everyone is really nice, and it seems genuine. My boss, Bruno, has Dengue fever (for the 2nd time) right now, but insists on having lunch with me on Saturday since he couldn't meet me today. His Italian accent is really thick, but absolutely lovely and charming nonetheless and I eagerly await to meet him. My current temporary living situation is called the "Golden Comfort Hotel" and is next to "Golden Gates", "Golden Bridge" and across the street from "Golden Sun Hotel". They are all in front of a golden bridge. I really hope you expected that. All of this appears to be in the NGO area of Phnom Penh as I already have seen Save the Children, some sort of German agro NGO and various other social jusice affilated organizations in one city block. Oh, and my office is across the street from the Embassy of Pakistan, and there are a lot of Indian restaurants on my hotel's street. Halal even if anyone needs. It seems that I cannot get away from all things South Asian! Perhaps I will later watch a downloaded bollywood film in my jetlagged stupor.
In sum...i'm apparently in the "honeymoon phase" of my intercultural adaptation. Conflict and crisis to come soon, but i seem to love it thus far. It's really hot here. However, that thought came secondary to me upon my release into Cambodian air; the first being my sheer delight and excitement in finally living and working in a country I only knew in moving pictures. The city is not as dense as I thought it would be. It's actually quite reminiscent of Havana, or any other post-colonial city in a developing nation. I suppose if I were in Nairobi, I would see similar architecture and urban planning.
Cambodia is nothing like I expected. It's much more and I really can't wait to soak it all in.
I wish I could take a picture from my hotel room, but the window faces a brick wall and another apartment building I think.
However, I expect to spend most of my time at work. They really think that I know quite a bit about HIV/AIDS. I learned this when I visited the office of the IOM (non-religious) Mission to Cambodia today, where I'll be sharing a room with Bruno, my boss. I have learned much about the social determinants of HIV/AIDS prevention and treatment, but much of it remains in North American and southern African contexts. As a result, and thanks to the free internet in my room, I will be reading papers from PubMed about migration health and HIV/AIDS in the Greater Sub-Mekong Region this weekend. Oh, and getting my Japanese Encephalitis shot and hoping not to catch Dengue.
In the meantime, as Bruno and my friend Sadia would say,
Ciao.
There are not many traffic lights so I might just get hit by a car, a tuk tuk, or a moto, again. (I say that in jest) Everyone is really nice, and it seems genuine. My boss, Bruno, has Dengue fever (for the 2nd time) right now, but insists on having lunch with me on Saturday since he couldn't meet me today. His Italian accent is really thick, but absolutely lovely and charming nonetheless and I eagerly await to meet him. My current temporary living situation is called the "Golden Comfort Hotel" and is next to "Golden Gates", "Golden Bridge" and across the street from "Golden Sun Hotel". They are all in front of a golden bridge. I really hope you expected that. All of this appears to be in the NGO area of Phnom Penh as I already have seen Save the Children, some sort of German agro NGO and various other social jusice affilated organizations in one city block. Oh, and my office is across the street from the Embassy of Pakistan, and there are a lot of Indian restaurants on my hotel's street. Halal even if anyone needs. It seems that I cannot get away from all things South Asian! Perhaps I will later watch a downloaded bollywood film in my jetlagged stupor.
In sum...i'm apparently in the "honeymoon phase" of my intercultural adaptation. Conflict and crisis to come soon, but i seem to love it thus far. It's really hot here. However, that thought came secondary to me upon my release into Cambodian air; the first being my sheer delight and excitement in finally living and working in a country I only knew in moving pictures. The city is not as dense as I thought it would be. It's actually quite reminiscent of Havana, or any other post-colonial city in a developing nation. I suppose if I were in Nairobi, I would see similar architecture and urban planning.
Cambodia is nothing like I expected. It's much more and I really can't wait to soak it all in.
I wish I could take a picture from my hotel room, but the window faces a brick wall and another apartment building I think.
However, I expect to spend most of my time at work. They really think that I know quite a bit about HIV/AIDS. I learned this when I visited the office of the IOM (non-religious) Mission to Cambodia today, where I'll be sharing a room with Bruno, my boss. I have learned much about the social determinants of HIV/AIDS prevention and treatment, but much of it remains in North American and southern African contexts. As a result, and thanks to the free internet in my room, I will be reading papers from PubMed about migration health and HIV/AIDS in the Greater Sub-Mekong Region this weekend. Oh, and getting my Japanese Encephalitis shot and hoping not to catch Dengue.
In the meantime, as Bruno and my friend Sadia would say,
Ciao.
Not yet in Cambodia, but almost
So, here goes my first foray into the newly culturally embedded phenom of cyber-voyeurism known as blogging. I'm currently in Hong Kong, having survived a not very difficult 18hr flight from Toronto. Actually, no, the man sitting next to me had this profound smell of mothballs and not having showered in several days. I should also mention that he had a couple of moles which seemed to have some sort of lengthy beard growing out of them. They were reminiscent of some wise old Chinese man circa-1920 growing out of them. Kung Fu: The Legend Continues comes to mind.
Otherwise, the rest of my flight was spent passed out, or having sudden spasms relating to the fact that I'll be in Cambodia for 8 months or longer. I'm not actually too sure what to expect and having realized that my childhood viewing of The Killing Fields can become an asset and a fault. Having to balance the expectations of seeing small children wheel their limbless parents around in wheelbarrows, while simultaneously offering themselves for sex tourism, and the sheer immensity and beauty of Cambodian history is a tad daunting.
Speaking of media and it's role in the amelioration of the density of social justice and development issues...it's an interesting topic of contention. What are the roles of movies like "The Killing Fields", "Hotel Rwanda" and "Blood Diamonds" in the current global environment? Do they have the ability to inspire and teach to those who merely glanced over the headlines in the newspaper like they did during the actual events? Or, do they merely engender a sense of comfort among the population, knowing that these issues weighing upon their oh so fragile consciences are now over? And what do films such as Brian de Palma's "Redacted" and Paul Haggis' "In the Valley of Elah" also indicate? These are films that are regarding issues in there here and the now..and depict actual world events. Do they even fall in the same sphere? Do they further support Naomi Klein's notion of the Shock Doctrine?
But getting back to Cambodia...I suppose I should leave my mind open for what to expect. To understand the rampant poverty and the results of the genocide and decimation of culture and economy caused by the Khmer Rouge is what I should have in my mind if and when I see such things in about 3 hrs. I really can't wait to arrive in Phnom Penh.
I think I've wanted this since I was about 12 years old. And now it's here, 10 yrs later. I should take life by the balls and kick really hard.
Otherwise, the rest of my flight was spent passed out, or having sudden spasms relating to the fact that I'll be in Cambodia for 8 months or longer. I'm not actually too sure what to expect and having realized that my childhood viewing of The Killing Fields can become an asset and a fault. Having to balance the expectations of seeing small children wheel their limbless parents around in wheelbarrows, while simultaneously offering themselves for sex tourism, and the sheer immensity and beauty of Cambodian history is a tad daunting.
Speaking of media and it's role in the amelioration of the density of social justice and development issues...it's an interesting topic of contention. What are the roles of movies like "The Killing Fields", "Hotel Rwanda" and "Blood Diamonds" in the current global environment? Do they have the ability to inspire and teach to those who merely glanced over the headlines in the newspaper like they did during the actual events? Or, do they merely engender a sense of comfort among the population, knowing that these issues weighing upon their oh so fragile consciences are now over? And what do films such as Brian de Palma's "Redacted" and Paul Haggis' "In the Valley of Elah" also indicate? These are films that are regarding issues in there here and the now..and depict actual world events. Do they even fall in the same sphere? Do they further support Naomi Klein's notion of the Shock Doctrine?
But getting back to Cambodia...I suppose I should leave my mind open for what to expect. To understand the rampant poverty and the results of the genocide and decimation of culture and economy caused by the Khmer Rouge is what I should have in my mind if and when I see such things in about 3 hrs. I really can't wait to arrive in Phnom Penh.
I think I've wanted this since I was about 12 years old. And now it's here, 10 yrs later. I should take life by the balls and kick really hard.
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