Work news and sundry
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
