The Astray Rambler

I know, first my apologies for my absence...and on such a sad note too.  Horrible. I know.  In light of this, I will take you all the way to through the rest of Siem Reap up until Koh Kong, half so I can hit two birds with one stone, half so I don't get in to the vacation part which brings about the question that everyone has been asking me: "Do you actually work over there?"

The answer of course is yes.  But you can only work so much without any play without going crazy? Right?  So here it is...the wonderful Angkor Wat...and the saddening but beautiful Koh Kong...just in time for a much needed vacation...within a "workcation".

I can't even begin to tell you how beautiful and extraordinary it is to see something so historic and massive.  Its walls are adorned from head to toe with stories of Hindu origin that could keep you looking for weeks on end.  On the other hand, its beauty was clustered by the German construction company doing work on the front of the temple.  Slightly upsetting to not get the picture that "everyone" must get at Angkor Wat, but still memorable either way.  Bayon and Ta Prohm (the Tomb Raider Temple) were beautiful too, but both were hurried to be built and were not made with the same material and care of Angkor Wat which leaves most of their awe on the ground lying next to them.  Angkor Wat stands tall with precision and diligence that you can feel as you walk through every door, up every stair, and look out every window (not to mention I believe that about anything down to the smallest stone has been taken by a tourist or two).  On top of all of this, we received a blessing from an elder in the top tier of Angkor Wat.  This came in hand with that nifty little red string bracelet we had been looking for since Phnom Penh, along with getting our fortune told by placing a book of cards on your head, thinking about something you really wanted, then placing a stick into the book.  You then hand it over to the elder, and he tells you what it says.  Mine said something along the lines that I would have a rough start...but it would be worth it in the end.  As long as I am promised happiness in the future, I think I can handle a little roughness here and there.  Hey...what kills us only makes us stronger right?


Angkor Wat behind the reflection pool


Bayon Temple


Ta Prohm Temple


Laura getting her future read


A floating village we visited, but I don't talk about...opps!

After our time in Siem Reap, and I am sure that I am missing so much due to inactivity on my part, we had to bus ride down to Phnom Penh and then proceeded to crowd into a 4 seater taxi to head over to Sreambril, Koh Kong.  This was a mere 8 hour rest stop as it was late when we arrived and had to meet downstairs at 6 a.m. to head to a Quality Improvement Assessment at a health care clinic...that was another hour away.  On the other hand, this place was in the middle of pure nowhere, built like we were at a safari full of statues of tigers, lions, and rabbits...and we couldn't see any farther than 2 feet in front of us because we arrivedin the middle of the night.  To say the least, after Rebecca jumped from sleeping position from the bed next to me to my bed, and landed on the complete other side of me because of a strange bug noise...we were ready to get out of there...more traveling or not.

We then headed to another QI assessment, and at this point had grown weary of poor communication due to lack of a common language and a lot of sitting around.  This time was a little different.  Dr. Maly couldn't get enough of us!  He showed us around, translated everything he possibly could, took us to two local eateries, and really tried to show us RACHAs involvement at each clinic.  We then went another hour away into the mountainous, but eerily gorgeous country side to the "big" city of Koh Kong.  Our hotel had a beautiful sea side view and even better (and cheaper) drinks.  I mean...what more could a girl ask for?


Koh Kong from the roadside stall we ate noodles at for breakfast


Happy homemade noodle plate


Going through the QI Assessment

On Sunday, we took a boat to do something somewhat touristy (if Koh Kong ever really has tourist).  Koh Kong is the south-east most province that borders Thailand, the Gulf of Thailand, and is mostly populated with jungle.  When we were driving there...there were "elephant crossing" signs.  Pretty cool.  It is also known for its waterfalls.  This day we took a boat to a waterfall, trekked through the jungle full of huge ants to get to the actual waterfall, fell unexpectly in deep water with my purse around my neck and my phone at the bottom of it, and fell unexpectedly throughout trying to walk up the waterfall due to the algae covered rocks.  Every freakin bruise was worth it.  At some point, we reached a step of the waterfall where you could could jump off the rocks into deep water, swim, and best of all...we were the ONLY people around for miles.  Once in a lifetime experience, worth every injury, and even worth the sunburn.


Hanging out in a waterfall

Monday was a touching day.  This was our day for home visits and we were all very excited to participate.  This day started at the Pagoda in a small house with a couple rooms.  These rooms were used for adults and children who live in rural areas and have check ups with doctors in the city of Koh Kong.  All of these patients have HIV/AIDS.  There were mothers and children, and really, the children made it difficult.  All smiles, waving, and staring in awe of these foreign people, there is just a part of you that knows if they weren't here waiting for treatment, they would be on the other side of the spectrum.  Afterwards, and in the downpour monsoon weather we so love in Cambodia, we attended a couple home visits.  Home visits are used to  check in with rural HIV/AIDS patients.  One man had used his boat to travel to receive his ARVs, taken them, had a horrible side effect when turning home and almost drowned.  This made him lose the ability to use his left arm.  He then had a bad reaction to his ARVs and high blood pressure medication, which left him almost unable to walk.  On the other hand, his health was much better now.  The next lady had a little road side stand and two little beautiful and toothless faces with her.  She had lost her husband due to HIV/AIDS, she was infected, her daughter was infected, but her son had been spared.  All were on and had access to ARVs, all were in good health . The final couple we visited were not married, but helped eachother out.  They invited us to in to sit down and ask questions.  The women had received HIV/AIDS from her husband who was no longer with her and was on her death bed not long ago due to her infection and no ARVs.  The man had gotten HIV/AIDS from his wife, who had recieved it from her ex-husband, and was also near his death bed not very long ago.  He lost his wife from HIV/AIDS and had lost the will to live but with some great intervention, began taking the ARVs and his life turned around.  The women survived due to access as well.  Now they were both happy, healthy, and had no complications.  I know, heavy stuff, but this is public health and this is why we want to make a difference.  These stories motivate you to do better and not take a minute of life for granted.  Who knows what is around that next corner...sometimes this place won't let you forget that thought.


Laura giving stickers to the kids at the Pagoda


Meghan and I talking about clinic prices

The next day we did a small home visit where our trusty SUV got stuck in the mud for an hour.  Laura, desperately trying to help, only recieved "what does this girl know?" looks from the locals.  Laura's response?  "Hey, I have two brothers, I know what I am talking about".  An hour later, and some mud flung all over me from standing in the wrong spot, we were hotel bound and ready for vacation.  The next day was Bangkok and beyond, and among everything, a much needed break to the heart and mind.

I promise I will not leave you all again like I did recently, it was a matter of cheap hotels, little to no wifi, and just a large amount of fun.  I am back in Phnom Penh now with nothing but time...or so it feels...so no more excuses for my absence.  On the other hand...Vietnam, Malaysia, and Thailand are all in the mix coming up.  So little time, so much to do, eat, and see...and we are going to do, eat, and see til our heads spin...or we land back home:)

The Breaking Point

It is often easy to turn off your emotional senses and get down to business.  You can be blinded by all the positive QI assessments and all of the productivity in each clinic and hospital out there, but sometimes you suddenly turn off your tunnel vision and realize what you have seen and how it has made you feel.  It feels like a hundred bricks are dropped on your chest all at once and you do not know if you will every be able to pull your heart back up from the pit of your stomach.  This is what happened in Siem Reap.
 
The trip started out WONDERFUL.  Siem Reap is amazing in comparison to its Cambodian counterparts.  There are beautiful temples, great places to eat, and relaxing coffee shops.  Most of all, Mexican food.  We went there the very first night we were in town and it almost felt like the United States.  The nachos, enchiladas, and margaritas probably helped a little too.  We woke up early the next morning to attend a TBA (traditional birth attendant) training.  At the first section in the morning, all of the clinical supervisors were being trained on how to take correct inventory, follow up with patients, etc.  The nicest part of this meeting was that we finally got a translator.  What can I say...it's either mini bananas or a translator that we demand in order to sit through these Khmer meetings...(even though I think we sometimes prefer the bananas). 


Enchiladas for dinner

In the afternoon, Rebecca, Ruchi, and I went to visit a health care clinic in Angkor Thom to witness the supervisors teaching the actual TBA's the new information they had just received.  After going down a long stretch of road through the forest, we suddenly saw a old wall across a pond.

Ruchi asked the driver, "What is that wall over there?"
The driver replied, "That is the wall to the Angkor Wat Temple."

We immediately realized that we were getting ready to witness; a part of Cambodian history, a gigantic temple made in the 12th century, in which we had only seen in picture thus far.  I mean, this was half of the reason we wanted to go to Siem Reap in the first place.  Coming around the corner, we saw her for the first time.  She was a beautiful masterpiece of ancient times.  Breathtaking.  As we went deeper into the forest, simotaneously forgetting that we were even working , we passed monkeys, went through small brick arch ways that were just as old as the temples that surrounded them, and passed a plethora of beaten historic temples along the way.  We were as enchanted as our surroundings were.  Once we arrived at the clinic, some of us sick, most of us exhausted, we were all some how in great moods.  We watched the training, asked a ton of questions, took a tour of the clinic, and headed back to civilization just in time for dinner and to talk about the amazing sights we had just witnessed.  Most of all, just ready for the weekend.


The gates to the temples


Being silly in the car


TBA training

The shops where women get family planning in the villages

Saturday was a lazy monsoon day, in which we took it easy and walked around to see the sights.  We had to get our tickets to see the sunrise at Angkor Wat the next morning, so our hotel owner suggested we go get them that night so we would also get to see the sunset as well.  Although we didn't get to see any sunset in the grey sky that just turned dark, we still had our walk around the decorative, historic, and grand temple of Angkor Wat. 


Us at Angkor Wat for the first time

This is the part in the story where my blinders came off.  It was not because of the magnificentness of Angkor Wat, but because of the intense work done by Dr. Beat Richner, also known as Beatacello.  Beatacello puts on a performance in Siem Reap every Saturday night in order to raise money for Kantha Bopa, his children hospitals that are located in Phnom Penh and Siem Reap.  We not only went to see him after our first trip to Angkor Wat, but had also looked forward to this event since we arrived in Cambodia.  He plays the cello so beautifully and passionately that when you listen, you can hear his cry for help for these children.  His sound represents the sad consequences of reality that many of the children face in Cambodia.  He receives 90% of his funding from private donors as no NGO or international organization recognizes his hospital as necessary in Cambodia, although to the people of Cambodian he is known as the "God of Cambodia".  He offers free services to equal the economic reality of this country.  Needless to say, after a short video of his work, many of us found ourselves in the front row with our hearts in our stomachs and tears down our face.  It was a sad reality, but a reality that was needed to be understood in order to grasp the conditions in which the people of Cambodia live.


Beatacello in concert

Before I can continue with talking about all the great tourist things we did in Siem Reap, I have to explain, that after the blinders came off, everything was a little harder to handle.  The worse was on Tuesday when we visited Angkor Children hospital in the morning to see how a private hospital was run.  It was a beautiful facility in pristine condition even on American standards, but walking through the ward with children looking so pathetic was heart breaking and difficult.  The hardest part was a little baby who probably weighed around 5 pounds hooked up to machines, eyes closed, with a tiny little hand in the air elevated on the pillow next to him/her which overpowered him/her in size.  I will never forget that sight.  Heart wrenching, heartbreaking, and yet somehow people can be so heartless about this situation.  This trip was followed by a visit to the provincial hospital in which we could only sit down and ask questions to the director due to massive flooding.  As we talked and asked questions, the harsh reality of what he was saying began to set in.  We were told many of the main diseases in Cambodia are ignored.  Many treatments are too costly and the government does not supply enough money.  The breaking point was when the director of the public provincial hospital told me that hepatitis was a large problem here, after being told time after time it was not.  He said that people come here too late with cirrhosis of the liver and they die.  It was the word die that got me.  I had to hold back my tears.  The whole way home afterwards I was literally sucking it up in the passenger seat.  It was something so personal to me, something that hits so close to home, and people here die due to it.  It is even hard to not cry right now as I am writing this.  Thinking about those people who come in with this preventable diagnosis die, those people that die of something I was told was not a priority in Cambodia...  When we got back to the hotel, I went in the bathroom, let lose and balled.  I cried for the reality of the situation, for those who had died or will die of disease that could typically be prevented, and most of all because I felt so helpless in this world.  One large world, and one small little Sarah. 


Countryside houses


A child in the country side

Just to see the little girls and boys on the bikes that are too big for them, the babies with obvious malnutrition, or even the smile on the faces from the children when they just receive a small sticker as they don't have much more...it all takes a toll on your soul.  I can't say it won't change me, maybe even stop me from complaining as much (I know, wishful thinking right?), but I can say that if it does change me, it will change me for the better.  However depressing it can be, it is motivating at the same time to make a difference.  I am sorry if this was hard to read, but trust me, it was equally hard to write.  But, ya know, in the end, I can just try to make a difference, and I truly believe that somewhere along the way, I will.  I will.

My Endless Pursat to Battambang

I know, its been awhile.  The last week and then some it has been a mix of work, sightseeing, exhaustion, and more work.  Can I just go back to being a student again?  Here I am again, in an all familiar setting, sitting on a bus going back to Phnom Penh only to drop off luggage and head in a taxi to the province of Koh Kong.  To pass the time, I will try to recollect my past experiences from Pursat and Battambang as this was our first taste of what actually goes on in this little country that is called Cambodia.  Well, here goes nothing..

The bus ride from Phnom Penh resembles every other bus ride; streets lined by too skinny cows, chickens, and roosters.  Amongst the consistent flood water, there are shacks for houses, people laboring away in the rice fields that consume the landscape, even people fishing in the standing water for a tiny catch of the day.  There are also dogs everywhere.  Sometimes so broken that it breaks the dog lovers heart into shambles.  Among most of these broken down villages that litter the side of the road, there are elaborate pagodas that differ greatly from their villages counterparts.  These are the heart and glue of the tiny communities, the part that hold every palm tree constructed house and family together.

These same sights were all too familiar in Pursat.  Pursat itself is a small community surrounded by many remote villages.  The only thing that puts it on the map is the dam built by the Khmer Rouge that took the life of thousands and never worked.  Seems to represent the whole idiotic ideology of Pol Pot, huh?  Although the province is welcoming of foreigners, it is not likely to see another one in this area.  On the other hand, I thinkour foreigner faces represent a level of stability for the community, since both Pursat and Battambang were not only hard hit by the civil war, but also one of the last areas in which Pol Pot still lead his regime despite opposing forces.

On arrival, we went straight to the RACHA office and were quickly sent out into the field.  This began our trip to different water sanitiation facilities and maternal and child health clinics for specific villages. RACHA places emphasis on community based health care and build clinics in some of the most remote areas of Cambodia to promote maternal health and reduce maternal and child mortality.  The water sanitation facilities, which you will hear me mention a couple times throughout this blog, offer 20L of drinkable water for 500 reil; the equivilant of around 12.5 cents.  The local villagers come, fill up their water tubs, and take them back home to ensure safety, especially since in recent years there was a large Cholera outbreak in Pursat.  There is not yet a delivery truck that can transport the water to the homes, but is in the future plans of these facilities. 


Water sanitation facility


Water bottles for the families in the village

The health care clinics in Pursat were not bad but no where up to American standards.  Since we are specifically looking at hygiene in these clinics, you have to rewire your brain to think what is acceptable here.  Things that are not acceptable was the fact that there was no running water in the delivery room at the first clinic we visiting in Pursat.  Also, lack of soap, clean beds, and poor disposal of bio-hazardous material is also not acceptable.  Don't be quick to judge though.  These are people whom many can't read or write and have very little training in terms of medical practice.  There are no real doctors on staff, only midwifes and nurses.  It truly is an infrastructure problem here in Cambodia.  One lady told us a story about how one of the education trainers showed many men in a remote village how to put on a condom by using her own toe.  Once they returned to the village, some of the men showed the new trainers how they had learned to put on a condom by actually placing it on their toe before they were involved in intercourse.  Funny, of course, but it also reveals one of the many barriers of public health in these areas.  Education is not only critical, but also allows for a sustainable environment in which each villager can have control over their own health.  Granted, don't even get me started on the lack of access part...its a real doosey.


Health staff prepares a nurse for an immunization

We also stopped by a location in which the World Food Program handed out food to all pregnant mothers and children under the age of two.  They had to learn how to treat their food properly before they were given it as well.  The only problem with this program is that no one can assure the the food is really used for the small population it is inteaded for.  It even sounded like it was rare that it actually did.

The women learning how to prepare food

The second day in Pursat was spent following a QI (quality improvement assessment) in another local remote village.  Most of these health clinics were far away from the actual downtown area, not to mention an extremely bumpy and tretourous ride.  Luckily, this day...the clinic was around the corner.  We say there and watched, preformed our own mild assessment, took pictures, got bored, and finally were taken back to the headquarters just in time for a huge meeting...in Khmer.  Luckily they had the best tiny little bananas I had ever had in my life.  We stared aimlessly at the people we could not understand eating small bananas, jujubees, and fried plantains.  Best way to make us happy, feed us.  Especially fabulous little bananas.  It is as simple as that.

The next day we stopped by a couple more health clinics and traveled to the Battambang province, more specifically,  Bateam Meanchey.  Being one of the more northern provinces, it was an area that was very hard hit by the Khmer Rouge.  The town itself still had many bruises on the buildings showing the severity of the regime and how many of its reprecussions still remain today.  This is seen through public health as well. Tuberculosis, for example, is a disease that is highly prevalent in Cambodia.  The number one reason for this is the Khmer Rouge.  With no medicine and too many people working, living, and suffering in the same place, TB spread like a wildfire and still remains one of the number one diseases in Cambodia today.  Talk about public health in time of conflict...and in this case the aftermath as well.

The next morning we woke to attend a health facility launching for a health center that had set the standards of hygiene for all other clinics in the rural areas.  We walked into a gigantic tent, sat down and ate our angel food cake muffin provided, and waited for the "party" to being.  Again, the service was all in Khmer...so we sat there and our new friend Bona translated as much as he could while he could keep our ever shrinking attention span.  After all the speeches concluded, including one for the deputy of the Ministry of Health, the actual man in charge of the health of Cambodia, we all went over to walk around the clinic and look at its spectacular hygiene.  While standing our front, we saw the Minister of Health come around the corner and start making his way over to us with his huge posse surrounding him.  Ruchi and I awkwardly started to get our of his way not realizing his intentions were to say hello to us.  He said hello and thanked us for being there. We then watched the ribbon cutting ceremony and stood back to watch all the big wigs at RACHA and the Minister of Health take a picture, when we suddenly saw hands waving for us to come over.  Although I don't have the picture (the other girls do), there we were, surrounded in the big wigs and smiling for hygiene in a community clinic.  It was pretty cool.  The deputy of health asked us jokingly if we wanted to go around to the other provinces with him, and we laughed and went on our way.  Hot, sweaty, and pictured out, we left only to eat and start on our next journey to Siem Reap.  Oh how the time flys by when you are having fun...or don't even know what day it is:).


Funding by USAID


MoH cutting the ribbon to the clinic


Us with our Battambang contact at the launching

Saying this, I am safe, making it, and still learning more than I could ever imagine.  On the other hand, Siem Reap was a nice break from the provincial life...although a mind blowing experience that will forever weigh heavily on my heart.  More to come soon...

You Say It's You're Birthday!

Sunday was Meghan's birthday!  We had to celebrate of course, Cambodian style! The celebration started Saturday night by going to dinner at a place that we had heard had traditional Cambodian dancing.  This type of dance is not just about moving and shaking, it is an art form that takes many years to do correctly.  Apparently, most of the dancers start out as children.  You can tell that this is the case by the intense bending of both their toes and feet.  The farther you can hyperextend, the more beautiful.  Every single step has a certain design and must be done in a precise way in order to be preformed correctly.  It looks tedious but graceful.  We were really excited to see that the dancer came out in the same traditional dress that we had worn the day before for our pictures.  It reestablished the authenticity our outfits, hair, and makeup.  The first two dances were significantly slower,  the focus was mostly on fluidity and positioning.  The second dances were almost like a play.  The couple acted like they were working in the rice fields but yet had this flirty appeal to it.  The final dance was the most entertaining and had a story of its own.  They were both workers, the boy would bother the girl and mess with her why she looked irritated by his jokes.  Eventually, the girl realized he was just flirting with her and eventually started to like the boy as well.  By the end they developed a relationship but decided to keep it secret at work.  It is always nice to know that although we may not be able to understand one another, music can help heal cultural boundaries no matter where you are.
Sunday morning we woke and attempted to go to our first pagoda to receive a blessing.  A pagoda or wat is just a Buddhist temple where the monks live and pray.  Typically, you bring offerings to the monks and they bless you and give you a little red bracelet in order to protect you from harm.  Due to a miscommunication with our tuk tuk driving, we missed the morning market to get our offerings (sugar, flour, jasmine, and other things we still don't know about because we failed to get it!!) and only brought ourselves to the temple.  Luckily, a small skinny monk in his early 30's greeted us and took us into a large building.  We followed in awkward fashion not quite knowing what was going on.  Once in the large room, we discovered a huge room lined with cots for the monks.  In the center of the room were about 50 Buddhas in all different positions and in all different sizes.  We went around to the the front of the stack of Buddhas and were given incense from the young monk.  We followed his direction and lit the incense and placed them in a vase full of incense sticks burnt all the way down past the start of the wood.  We gave our offering, bowed, and followed the monk to his quarters in the next room.  This was another large room that appeared empty at first glance.  Looking closer, you see more cots sporadically placed by the walls, exercise equipment, a place for games, and a small mat in which we were asked to sit on.  There the monk spoke to us about finding help within ourselves before we could help others.  He also told us about other wats to travel to in the areas we would soon be visiting.  At the finale of our visit, we exchanged emails, gave him a small amount of money to continue his studies at the pagoda, and received a small blessing.  No bracelet, but I am sure there are many to come.
After this bright and early excursion, we went to a Khmer cooking class that we had signed up for.  We started the class at the market.  This was no touristy market either.  It was littered with food, people, and the hussle and bussle of early morning.  We were the awkward parade who often stopped in peoples way, but there was absolutely no avoiding this.  You could poke the cross neighboring shop with a stick the aisle were so narrow.   In the meantime, we were told about all the fruit, eggs (white are typical chicken eggs while brown are half fertilized eggs), and meat. 

After this high anxiety event, we were swept off to a home with a large covered balcony to start our actual cooking class.  We chopped, slices, banged, fried, and steamed like we had never done before.  All together we made and ate 4 dishes; spring rolls with sweet and sour, fish amok (Cambodia's national dish), banana flower salad, and sticky mango rice.  It was fun and fabulous to eat the final product.  We laughed with our instructor as he tried to teach us more Khmer and we struggled to pronounce it right.  He even brought out his friend to hear our poor pronunciation!  We received a book with all the recipes in order to share with those of you who love Asian food so much when we return back to the states.  One thing is for sure....we sure can make a mean spring roll. 







We finished the night with a short dinner and one large slumber party in a 2 bed room in order to prepare to head to the provinces bright and early in the morning.  It was a nice way to finish our finals days in Phnom Penh for the next month.  Now our difficult but enlightening journey begins.

Comforts of Home

Since we arrived in Phnom Penh and had no idea what to eat or what to do, we had began to see a similar theme of the same Asian cuisine and poorly interpreted "Western" food (although much of it was pleasurable to the palate).  After consuming the same noodles, fried foods, and Fish Amok for a week, we began to have the typically cravings for sandwiches, soups, pasta...normal daily life food.  On top of this, we were beginning to get tired of feeling like tourist.  Understandably, there are things you must see in Phnom Penh, but we didn't know the secrets of the city quite yet.  We wanted to start grocery shopping, doing laundry, and getting back in the groove of living but had little to no direction in how to do so in this foriegn country.  Luckily, Dr. Bazzano to the rescue.

Dr. Bazzano is our advisor and professor at Touro who has set up this whole project.  After a long battle with the administration at Touro University, they finally bought her a plane ticket to Phnom Penh in order to introduce us to our pilot field study and the city itself.  Dr. Bazzano first met up with us on Monday to take us to our first meeting with RACHA for our field study.  Afterwards, she began to give sus her helpful tips and tidbits, not to mention exposed us all the cute nooks and cranies around Phnom Penh.  We realized that you could easily live like we were used to in the Bay if not better.  There were places you could go for tea/coffe with long bed type benches to lounge on with a lap table in order to do work.  There were salad bars that you could pick your own freshningredients, even make a wrap if you wanted to.  There were smoothie cafes and phenomenal ice cream.  And the shopping???  Outstanding.  Many of the places resembled small botiques that are tucked away within our home cityscape that we usually just look through and run our the door as soon as we see a pricetag.  This was one gigantic sale on quality and quaint clothing.  An Anthropology dream sale.  And this wasn't just one store, they were EVERYWHERE.  How we managed to miss these I still have no idea...

One of the restaurants we went to was an NGO sponsored place called Romdeng.  We went here for one primary reason, the fried spider.  Common cuisine of the Cambodian people, and as courageous as we all are, none of us could suck up the nerve.  On the other hand, we had them bring out the tarancula in order to see him.  I mean you can't play with your food and eat it too, right?

From Drop Box

From Drop Box

During lunch on Friday, the whole Touro group grabbed a some food, some brews, and a boat and went off for an hour and half lunch time cruise along the Mekong River.  I sure have seen some dirty water before, but this was the murkiest of the murky.  The boat itself was a "double decker".  It was a wooden boat with a table in the middle that we all enjoyed lunch at and a "deck" on top covered by a blue tinfoil slate that burned your feet if you walked without shoes on.  We sat on a couple of the makeshift benches that were screwed into the roof and observed our surroundings.  As we looked around, disparity stared us right back in our faces.  There were huge elaborate houses neighboring broken down wooden huts.  All of our studies thus far were becoming a reality.  We would always leave class and talk about how depressing many of our topics were and how we never discussed solutions.  After our pleasurable but knowledgeable boat ride, we saw the scale of what we are up against and why solutions were never really discussed.  No matter how much effort is put in, unless you can change the way people view their fellow man and the compassion they feel for one another, the crosscutting aspects of public health will always be difficult to deal with.  The feeling of helplessness is overwhelming for both the people who see the larger picture and those who are oppressed by it.  "No money, no honey" as our Sihnoukville taxi driver would say.

From Drop Box

From Drop Box

From Drop Box

From Drop Box

On a lighter note, after the boat ride, we went in search for a place in which Dr. Bazzano heard took traditional Khmer photos.  There are many photo shops around town and most offer traditional Khmer wedding photos for a cheap price.  This is no take your picture in some dress up clothes with some cheesy background (although they do insert the cheesy background later).  These are pictures in which you get your makeup and hair done in Khmer style following by a 10 minute dressing in order to make you look like you were going to be married in a traditional Khmer wedding.  The process takes around 30 minutes per person and the pictures are even more difficult to take.  You have to hold Khmer poses, which for an unflexable human being like me, is extremely strenuous.  Our final copies of the photos were hilarious.  They photoshopped Cambodian landmarks in the background and made us all, even me, look even whiter than before.  It was an amazing experience to see their precise attention to detail from head to toe.  As soon as I find a way to transfer the final copies of the pictures to the computer, you can bet your bottom dollar that they will be up here!

Although this post is called the comforts of home, one thing that does not offer us this feeling is the fact that we have to do our own laundry by hand.  Rebecca, Ruchi, and Lauras hotel room mirrored that of a sweat shop by the time all of us were done.  So please, appreciate your local laundry mat because...hey....at least you don't have to hand wash it all:)

Until next time....Chom moy! (Cheers!)

From Drop Box

From Drop Box

RACHA

And you thought we were just on vacation huh?  Well so did we, or so it seemed.  We worked hard to see as much as we could before our field study began only to find that our work would be slow starting...or so it appeared.  We went in on Monday (I know, my blog is seriously lagging) to take our first tour of the place that wi ll be taking up all of our time over the next few months.  I must say, the place is a charming 4 story building that depicts the French colonial scene of early 19th century Phnom Penh.  As a matter of fact, in many of the places here you can find yourself wisked away for a temporary moment to Paris, sipping on tea and eating a French baguette in a laissez fair manner.  It is quite enthralling.  It has a charm that can only be seen by looking through the utter disparity and repulsive oppression that has been apart of this countries history.  This is a place that one does not have to look very deep to see what is wrong, it is obvious in the scenery.

After brief introductions and detailed presentations at RACHA Monday and Tuesday, we chose our unit that we wanted to be involved in for the remainder of our field study.  Rebecca, Laura, and I all decided that we would like to be engulfed in a world of Capacity Building.  The Capacity Building team works to strengthen the capacity of the Ministry of Health at the health center, district, provincial, and national levels.  In other words, we will be focusing on strengthening a broken and starving health care system.  With visions of saving the world in our heads, we returned the next day to meet with our director to discuss further what we would be doing with our time at RACHA.  Suddenly, our heads were sent in a whirlwind as we quickly learned what the next month had in store: none of this which involved staying in Phnom Penh.

As we opened our calenders, we quickly learned that we would be heading out to the Provinces in Cambodia to see and do many different things.  We would start the following Monday by heading to Pursat, a province just west of Phnom Penh and a town that "isn't much of an attraction, nor does it have anything that will distinguish it from other small capital towns in provinces throughout the country" (thanks Wikitravel).  All in all, we are only there for 2 days, then we head off to Battambang by way of Siem Reap, spend about a week once we leave Battambang in Siem Reap, head to another Southern province Koh Kong, and after two weeks take a bus to Bangkok (due to the convenience level of proximity from Koh Kong to Bangkok) and spend the remainder of a large holiday week parading around Bangkok, sleeping on beaches in Bali, and practicing Yoga in Singapore.  I know, that was a long sentence, but it is truly the only way I can help depict the whirlwind in which our heads were sent as we found out we would be leaving Phnom Penh not to mention so soon.  We barely knew where these places were much less how to pronounce them right, and we were about to dive right in to the thick of things. 

On the other hand, there are a lot of things we will be viewing.  This includes health clinics, floating villages, sanitation facilities, and local health staff including birthing assistant trainings.  I will keep you updated on those as we go.  As for now, we are packed, typhoided up, and malarial pill ingested...in other words, we are ready to hit the road for a month.  We will be making our way from place to place via bus (and hopefully we won't be on the Antartic bus again). Wifi may be poor in some of the places, but I can promise you one thing, the experience and the pictures will make up for it later.  Here's to our new visions of helping women and children one Cambodian province at a time.

What a Beautiful Day for the Beach...

Not.  Good thing we have good company!

Yesterday, we went to Sihnoukville.  A place with beautiful beaches, warm cozy water, and lots of sun...or at least we thought that's what we were going to get.  I said before that we got our first taste of monsoon season the other day, but I don't think we really got it until yesterday.  Down pour to the point of flooding.  Lovely day for the beach right?

We should have read the signs.  We were taking the 1:30 am bus to Shinoukville which I almost slept through (thank god for Rebecca, Ruchi, and Laura for knocking on our door).  We hussled over to the bus stop by Tuk-Tuk thinking we were going to make it close for our bus, but the opposite happened.  We waited, waited, waited, I feel asleep on Rebecca's luggage in my lap, and before we knew it, it was 3:30 am.  "The bus is broken, but it will be here soon".  We heard this a million times.  As we continues to stared at the numberous geckos on the ceiling (and get pooped on by them-Rebecca), we finally saw a bunch of Tuk-Tuk drivers run across the road to meet an arriving bus.  We hopped on and were finally on our way to our destination.

Top: View of Victory Beach
Second: Our first set of wild monkeys to see
Third: Victory Beach
Bottom: Flooding from the monsoon outside of our restaurant

Needless to say, we all passed out as soon as we sat down.  It was a about an hour later that we realized it felt like it was sub zero in our bus.  We all grabbed every extra item we had and used it as a cover in order to warm up.  I can't express enough how ridiculously cold it was to a girl in a bathing suit, shorts, and a T-shirt.  Cold but excited, I somehow managed to fall back asleep only to wake to a rainy day in wonderful Sihnoukville.

We got off the bus only to be greeted by about 10 taxi drivers offering rides to the city.  We stood there weary eyed and wet waiting for the people to start to thin out.  A little Cambodian man approached us who spoke English very well, so we decided he would be our driver for the day.  After stopping for some much needed grub, we realized the rain was not about to let up.  It was so loud in the restaurant from the rain we could barely even hear eachother speak!  We decided to call back Mr. Im and take him up on his offer for a tour of the city by car, and I think all of us can honestly say it was the best decision we have made yet.

Mr. Im began to describe his city and tell us about the beaches, what to see, etc.  We passed a huge house and commented on how it was the Prime Ministers house.  He also pointed out that he had expanded his house to build a garden, completely ruining the small farms to its right.  This began our conversation about the corruption in Cambodia.  Mr. Im had an associates degree in English but could not afford to go get his bachelors because he had to drive in order to take care of his family.  His parents were still weak in health due to the harsh conditions of the Khmer Rouge so it was his job to take care of the family.  As we drove around the city, he pointed out all the Chinese, Russian, Japanese, and USA investments in development of large 5 star resorts and huge apartment buildings.  One of these buildings was heartbreaking as it was a large apartment building that sat on the side of one of the cites slums.  He said "no money, no honey", meaning money can buy you anything in this country.  He said these people don't follow the any laws and pay for their government positions.  They would rather expand their mansions than pay for better drainage systems.  They would rather develop big hotels than educate their people.  It was truly an first hand experience that we all walked away from realizing the reality of our surroundings.  What we have learned all about was true, and these were the people directly effected by it. 

On a lighter note, we went to the central market since it was inside and walked around a bit until the lights went completely out.  We realized that it doesn't matter where you are in the world, when the lights go out, there is a universal reaction.  An "oooooooohhh" echoed through the entire market.  We left and went back to the beach, had some lunch, played some cards, and Rebecca and I could no longer resist, we had to get into the water.

The night market after the lights went out

Cooked squid by the beach

The waved were massive and the water was a perfect luke warm.  We ran in, jumped around in the rain and water, and came out forgetting that the weather itself was poor.  We were having a great time despite mothers natures plans.  We walked further down the beach in our ponchos and noticed that the beach was mostly occupied by Cambodian people.  The people here are quite modest and even swim in their clothes instead of bathing suits.  After a quick chat we walked back to meet up with everyone to chill and pass the time until our new friend, Mr. Im, came to pick us up to take us to the bus again.  Of course right when he came, the rain finally stopped.  Just our luck.

He took us back to the bus station and we said our goodbyes promising him we would see him again.  Once on the bus, we continued the 4 hour trek back to the city with our crazy bus driver weaving around buses, cars, trucks, and motos.  After another FREEZING trip, we finally made it home safe and sound, while the temperature outside suddenly had a dethawing effect.  I still don't think I have recovered from the cold.

Another view of Victory Beach

The coldness of the bus taking its toll

Although we were battling the elements, it was still a blast.  The water was great, we saw monkeys, and we had a great time together.  At least I know one thing, the girls I am here with are awesome, and no matter where you put us or what you throw at us, we are bound to have a good time.