Mozzeenet

This entry is dedicated to my friend and loyal diary-reader, Mr Francis Johns.

Trying to think back to what has happened over the last week.

I did two more sessions of training on Thursday and Friday as well as this morning. Thursday and this morning were really good but Friday I was feeling really tired and it was a harder group to work with. Overall I’ve been pleased with the way it has gone. It is amazing how much it takes out of you. Doing an extra one on Thursday for two people who couldn’t make it this week and then a final one in a couple of weeks for the TV department. Already preparing for the next instalment - Excel training followed by PowerPoint at the end of June. So it’s pretty full-on!

Friday night, Ana and I had dinner in the backpacker area, a very narrow muddy stretch of road with restaurants and bars next to the lake. This is the first time we have seen the lake because everything is built right up to it. Phnom Penh is quite small but it’s funny how a lot of it seems hidden away until you find it.

Anyway, it’s a cool area and cheap food - not brilliant but the setting was good. We went to The Lazy Fish guesthouse which has a wooden balcony restaurant overlooking the lake. It was a good atmosphere.

Did a spot of market shopping with Sonia on Saturday. There are some really good second hand clothes in the Orassey Market. I picked up a skirt for 3000 riel (75 US cents)! I also bought a new bag which promptly broke the next day. Took it back and got a new one yeysterday so interested to see if it last more than a day!

We had a very big night on Saturday night. Mine started early with a work party. It was to celebrate some successes WMC has had in the past few months - a very successful video production and some other things. It was held at work and started at 5pm. I was expecting it to be in the centre in one of the big meeting rooms but I should have known better!

It was a big affair, held in the grounds of the centre with lots of tables and chairs, a karaoke band and a marquee, balloons and loud music. We had dinner and then there were presentations to the staff. They also presented me with a small gift which was very nice of them.

I had to leave early at 7:30pm to go and meet Ana then we went into town to Rubies and met Mark there. We had a couple of drinks and went for a Thai meal then back to Rubies to meet Sonia.

That’s when we made the decision to go to the Heart of Darkness, an infamous night club, fondly referred to by many as “The Heart”. It seems everyone ends up there at the end of a big night. Depending on when you go, it can be appallingly dicey and at other times, excellent fun. This was my first trip to the place.

I must have struck it at a good time because we had a lot of fun. Dancing and so on. We ended up at a pub called The Walkabout Hotel and headed off home, oh, around 4am. Big night! Good fun.

Sunday of course was a write-off, managed to fit in a massage though but that’s about all.

We’re headed off to Sihanoukville, about 4 hours away, this weekend - a beach resort area. Should be relaxing.

au revoir

Ruth e xx
Miss Phnomer in Cambodia

Work stuff the main news of the day but I just looked outside, it’s bucketing down. You can always tell when it’s about to rain because there’s an eerie wind which blows the dust around.

I did my first Computer Skills and Maintenance Workshop yesterday. It went well - only 2 trainees, the third one was sick. It went from 8:30am to about 12 noon. Did all the basics - hardware, software, managing files, maintaining the computer and trouble-shooting problems. I held it in our admin office so the trainees could practise on the computers. The next one is tomorrow.

In the afternoon, we had a group meeting with Pam Smith, the manager of the program from Austraining (contracted by AusAid) in Australia. She is visiting some countries in Asia to monitor how things are going. Then we had a dinner at a great buffet-style restaurant - a range of cuisines from Mongolia, Vietnam, Thailand, Cambodian BBQ, Japanese and Chinese. It was really good food.

Today I have been revising some of my training materials and started installing Norton anti-virus software on the computers.

Tooley the cat is funny - she’s very skittish, a bit like another cat in the same family! She jumps at the slightest thing and chases everything, even inanimate things. She sleeps on my bed sometimes and wanders around at night, quite timid though. She doesn’t venture very far. She’s very cute!

I have been going walking with Sonia in the mornings in town near the river. Sonia jogs and I walk (perhaps stroll is a better description). This morning, we went to a different spot just in front of the palace by the river. It’s like rush hour - so many people running, walking, crowds doing aerobics or the Chinese fan dance by the river and Tai Chi, playing badminton or just waving their arms around. It was quite entertaining. The sun rises over the river, the sky was a beautiful orange this morning. Again the communal spirit comes to the fore! We get a moto at about 6:45am and go for half an hour. It takes about 10 mins to get into the palace.

Feeling rather starving as I just came straight from work. Tonight is one of the nights Han cooks. Yay! Makes it very easy - she cooks delicious stuff. On Monday we had fried rice, stir-fried beef and greens and omelette-type thing to go on top of the rice. It was good. There is always leftovers too. She also buys lots of fruit - watermelon, pineapple, bananas, longans, mangos and papaya, all from Thailand of course except the mangos. They were in season recently and were about 15 cents for a whole bag! Bliss!

It is still pouring - I’m thinking I’m going to have to negotiate the torrents, luckily I have my raincoat - we have language class at 6:30pm.

Ruth e xx
Miss Phnomer in Cambodia

The biggest news of the weekend is that Tooly, the cat, joined the household yesterday.

She’s a small moggy with black and white colouring in patches on her face. She is a bit skittish but seems to have a nice nature.

Last night she wandered into my room and jumped up onto the bed - woke me up then she started playing with my silk kromah (the checked scarf the people here wear). Seems 4.00am is activity time - she’s definitely Khmer.

It’s nice to have an animal around. Apparently she’s mainly an indoor cat. And she doesn’t seem to make me sneeze - bonus!

A rooster is back next door but I suspect it is a different one because it isn’t nearly as noisy as the old one and hasn’t bothered me so far.

Had a couple of meals out on the weekend - Friday night, we had dinner up at the corner restaurant followed by a fruit shake and last night, Ana and I had dinner at Everest up on Sihanouk (main road).

We’re all going for a massage this afternoon at Seeing Hands - (despite the fact that I had one on Thursday) - but they’re just so good. I’m definitely going to miss that when I leave.

The manager of Austraining, the company which manages the Youth Ambassador program for Ausaid will be here this week. We have a group session with her on Tuesday then a dinner on Tuesday night.

There have been some issues among some of the other youth ambassadors in regards to health, finances and problems at work so there will be a few things to discuss.

It seems I have been the least affected by health problems here like gastro etc even though I have at times had ice and so on. Mark has told me that I must have a cast-iron stomach. I have never really had food poisoning so I guess I’m lucky.

Well I’m rambling on now about insignificant things because there’s not too much more to tell.

Bit nervous about the week ahead at work with training and so on. Should be fine but I think it will be quite an effort to do three morning sessions in the one week.

To end on a bit of a gloomy note, I’ve seen a few accidents around PP the last few days which has made me a bit nervous. You can always tell when there has been one because there is a crowd of people by the side of the road and then you see the motor bikes lying on their side on the road. I hate seeing them.

Saw it was 21 degrees in Sydney on the TV in the restaurant where we had lunch. Today is extremely heiss here again, has been quite coolish the last few days after the rains, a beautiful change.

Arive derci!

Ruth e xx
Miss Phnomer in Cambodia