Mozzeenet

Had a great week - work really progressing well. My presentation last Monday at the management meeting was successful - the directors seemed to understand what I was saying and started nominating staff for wev dev training as well as desktop computer maintenance training so I was really pleased with that.

They also started putting together content for the website, so far only updated text but I was impressed that they were enthusiastic to improve the website and it is a good starting point.

I have done some designs and am creating some templates just to get things moving for the website but I will get suggestions and feedback from staff in a planning meeting, hopefully this week.

We had the monthly staff meeting on Tuesday and I was excited that Sarayeth talked about what I will be doing in regards to training in the next 2 months and that they would be selecting staff to be trained in different areas, after my presentation.

I helped writing a proposal last week for WMC - Yeth supplied the information and I helped her put it together. The Asia Foundation, an organisation which was an agency for USAID here, managing the distribution and acquisition of funding, did not get the contract this year which is a concern for WMC. The centre must approach the new management group.

I did (or perhaps should say did not) do Internet training this week. It was a bit of a disaster - could connect to the Internet but it was incredibly slow and kept getting errors so really couldn’t show anything. Finally got on at the end of the week but it was very frustrating because it wasted a lot of time and money (on the pre-paid card). I will try again this week.

On Friday night, we had dinner at the house of one of the groups of new YAs. There are 4 of them living here, all really nice people and a great house - very open and comfortable. It was fun - we had Nepalese home delivery, delicious. Home delivery here is fasntastic - you don’t pay any extra and the restaurants will deliver even small meals for one person. It’s delivered by moto. You can get almost anything you want!

Sonia moved to the new place yesterday and I will move next weekend. It is great not having much stuff here - makes moving a much more pleasant experience. There are already new tenants for the house - they’ll move in the day after we leave so we were pleased about that for the family.

It’s still sad though and we’re planning on giving them a present and spending some time with them next Friday night.

Last night we found this fantastic Japanese restaurant, reasonably priced. Inside it is all woven walls and wood. You get your own little room with cushions and a table in the centre. It is like a traditional Japanese house.

The food was great - we had mixed Sashimi, vegeatables, rice and miso soup. Then we went for a quiet drink at The Tamarind Bar which has a great atmosphere, on street 240 where there are lots of nice restaurants. The new place is 5 mins from there which is very exciting.

I moved some stuff over yesterday too and we started setting it up the way we want it. It’s got a great atmosphere with a big tree out the front, shading the tiled balcony. We have a hammock and ceiling fans. It’s great. Sonia has a loft room, up a ladder with louvres opening out onto the main area. It’s a nice space. My room is downstairs with a window opening onto the lounge. I can open or close the curtains depending on whether I want to get some light and breeze or sleep!

I think it will be nice to have a room which will be very quiet compared to now but it’s feels strange not to have a window, very Khmer! It is set up well with wardrobe, chest of drawers, big bed and fans.

The street is lively - lots happening which is fun and there are lots of little shops and restaurants around.

Ruth e xx
Miss Phnomer in Cambodia