We're Done

Our time in Phnom Penh has finally come to an end. I cannot say that we are sad to leave as spending four weeks in one place has gotten a little old. Especially since Amanda, Gill and myself had gotten used to moving around quite a bit during our travels in Vietnam and Thailand before the projects began. Regardless, it has been a great learning experience and we have enjoyed our time spent with the people from the National Veterinary Research Institute (NaVRI) and the employees of our guesthouse. Both groups of people have given us insight into the true Cambodian culture.

I will finish this post by telling a few stories from our last week. Our last weekend was spent in Sihanoukville, which is a small city on the coast. We left from Phnom Penh after work on Friday and had to take a private car as all the buses leave before we are done work. The car ride there was one of the more frightening experiences we have had this trip as the driver spent most of the time in the oncoming lane traveling at about 100km/hr. Although this may not seem fast, on a single lane Cambodian road this is very fast. Amanda was getting so stressed out that she just gave up and fell asleep as she couldn't take watching out the front window anymore. I got the front seat of the car because I am the biggest of the four of us. I was grateful for this as it was the only seat in the car with a belt. Gill informed me that she hoped I felt guilty if we got in an accident and I was the only one who survived. To even the survival odds, I had a little boy sitting on the middle console of the front seat who I am fairly confident had Swine Flu. He could barely breathe, but when he did muster a cough, he did it in my direction. I will never know if this kid had Swine Flu but on Monday, Amanda and I read in the Cambodian Post that the first case of Swine Flu in a local had been confirmed.

While in Sihanoukville we stayed in beach side bungalows with an amazing view of the ocean. Spending the weekend here was very relaxing and what we all needed to get through one more week in the city. We spent Saturday going Kayaking, swimming and eating. The food and drinks were very cheap and we enjoyed a seafood feast that evening. The next day was short lived as it rained for most of the morning and then we had to take a bus back in the afternoon. We all enjoyed our time at the beach except for continuously being bothered to buy a necklace, get a massage, buy sunglasses or get the hair removed from my neck. One lady referred to my as a big hairy monkey and while I was about to feel insulted her friend downgraded me to a little hairy monkey. Although this made me feel a bit better I still refused to pay money for them to use two pieces of string to rip the hair from my neck with the promise that it wouldn't grow back for two months. After refusing for the 16th time they called me a, "Cheap Charlie Bastard" and walked off angry with me. I guess it was my loss.

Monday was Gill and Ryan's turn to survey and unfortunately for them it rained the hardest it has yet. They were delayed in the afternoon from the rain and when they finally finished and made it back to the guesthouse it was an 11 hour day. Tuesday was our turn to survey and it was a good day. Since the survey's are now conducted in the city there is much less travel time and we are able to come back to the guesthouse during the lunch-3-hours (I would have said lunch hour, but the government staff take lunch from 11AM-2PM). This provided us time to get caught up on all the translations of the qualitative data from the surveys in Kandal. Although we were very happy to work during the three hour break, our compadres were not so thrilled as Sem Tharin still needed at least a one hour nap, even if it was on the couch of our guesthouse. Sem Tharin participated for every day of the surveying while Bun Chan and Holl Sinel would rotate during the week. The four of us cannot relate to Tharin as we were getting every second day off, but I think the long days were starting to wear on him as he seemed to be aging before our eyes.

Tuesday night Amanda and I went out for dinner by ourselves as Gill and Ryan had eaten a late lunch. While at Anthony Pizza (a nice place around the corner) a gecko was on the ceiling and attempted to jump to the wall, failing miserably. He completed about a 9 foot swan dive from the ceiling on to the salt shaker on the table beside us. He made a loud splat sound and laid upside down for a few minutes. We thought he was dead but we were wrong. As Amanda got up to check him out, he flipped back over and scurried up the wall. He lived to see another day.

Wednesday was an uneventful day, save it being Ryan and Gill's last day surveying and someone trying to break into their room late at night. Gill woke to someone on their balcony trying to jimmy their window open. She became very scared and tried to wake Ryan up. When he finally stirred from his sleep he responded to Gill that she shouldn't worry because there were bars on the windows and he then went back to sleep. This commotion seemed to scare off the burglar and in the morning they found the frame of the window broken and the pane of glass halfway out. Even though there were bars on the window which seemed to comfort Ryan, there was plenty of room for the person to slide their arm into the room and reach the night table where Ryan keeps his iPod and money. Nothing was taken but Gill is still disappointed in Ryan's reaction to the situation.

Thursday was our final day in the field and everything went smoothly. We gave Tharin and Sinel a parting gift and after sharing email addresses and shaking hands we were gone. That ended our time with the men from NaVRI. The rest of the day was spent entering surveys into the data sheet and tying up loose ends.

Today is Friday and we are about to leave on a bus for Siem Reap. We will spend four days there until we fly to our Elephant project in Thailand. As bored as we got sometimes, we have all had a great experience working for Vets Without Borders. We look forward to sharing our experiences with our class when we return to Guelph.

Matt, Amanda, Ryan and Gill

Authored by Matt

The end of Kandal…..

After 8 long days of surveying throughout Kandal province we finally finished the last of our 15 villages on Thursday morning. I think we are all a bit surprised that after completing 150 surveys we have managed to remain perfectly on schedule for the rest of the project; none of us would have guessed that during our first week here. As well as the surveys have gone for us they are being slightly overshadowed by the monotony of Phnom Penh. Though we would probably be laughed at if we said we hadn’t enjoyed our time last weekend at the Royal Palace following an afternoon of $2 foot massages and pedicures, truth be told we have done all there is to do in the city. 33 degree weather and endless calls from Tuk Tuk drivers have taken their toll, and sadly even the life threatening cross walks have begun to present an unlikely banality I never thought would have existed. Fortunately the boredom found in the city was helped by what was quite a unique week of work.

Matt and Amanda were out performing the questionnaire early Monday morning, surveying villages located on an island in either the Tonle Sap or Mekong Rivers. Though the ferry ride was short, it was still a harrowing adventure trying to guide a large van onto a small boat without a loading dock to work with. Coupled with a snack of fried crickets, the day offered welcoming variety to what is normally monotonous work.

On Tuesday it was time for me and Gill to get some ferry experience. The first of our four ferry rides that day was quite long and allowed us to glimpse the entire Phnom Penh waterfront, from Wat Phnom in the north to the Royal Palace in the afternoon. We were all quite worried that the ferries would cause unwanted disruption to our quite inflexible schedule, because if we do not manage to get all 10 houses in a village surveyed before the 3 hour lunch break there is a good chance we will not finish the second village in the afternoon. However we were quite fortunate that day to never have to wait more than 5 minutes for a ferry. Unfortunately the day did not run entirely to plan as we were virtually accosted in the second village by the local silk merchants. Not even in high school was I as intimidated by teenaged girls as I was of these young female villagers pressuring me in to buying their products. In the end I was 3 silk scarves richer but had lost $12 and most of my dignity in the process.

Up until Wednesday we had not had to deal with any anomalies in the villages we were surveying. Though some were slightly poorer or more rural than others, we certainly had not surveyed vastly different areas of wealth, geography, or culture. However when Matt and Amanda surveyed their second village on Wednesday they discovered it to be almost entirely Muslim. I have actually been surprised by the size of the Muslim communities in Phnom Penh, a city where Buddhist wats and monks dominate the landscape. Because the village surveyed was Muslim there were no dogs owned by the villagers. If we had not previously been working in Indonesia we probably would have been very surprised at this fact. What we learned there however is that dogs are generally thought of as unclean by most Muslims and thus are rarely kept. Other than providing some unique data for our study it also made for some quick surveying and a highly sought after shortened day.

And then it was Thursday: the end of Kandal. Gill and I set off for our last hurrah in the country. Though one would think it would be quite exciting the day was quite uneventful and our last village was finished before lunch. With the afternoon free, we decided it best to tackle the stack of questionnaires we had piled up and begin some translations. Though most of the questions we ask are multiple choice, there are roughly 6 areas which require short answers, usually written in Khmer. It doesn’t take long to translate fortunately, though we are finding that people have answered the exact same way in 99% of the surveys! After translating 85 surveys we were almost fluent in Khmer and decided it was safer to end for the day rather than drive ourselves crazy by reading yet another questionnaire.

Unfortunately it appears as though we may be wishing Kandal could have lasted another few days. Friday was the beginning of Phnom Penh and as Matt and Amanda were finding out, we weren’t in the country any longer. Things in the city are much more regulated and having permission to talk to certain areas of the city is a very strict process. Furthermore, we are no longer able to split up into 2 groups, thus making surveys take twice as long. It is not all bad though, being in the city definitely cuts down on commute time and we have surveying almost an hour earlier each morning compared to what we were able to muster in Kandal. Not surprisingly we also have a short trek home after work on most days. Sadly however, the worst part of switching to city life is that our co-workers often feel less ‘welcomed’ when they approach people. They appear quite worried that we are interrupting people at work when we ask to do a survey and that the whole questionnaire in general is less well received. Though I have not felt quite as unwelcomed, when you don’t speak the language you have to trust the feedback you’re getting from your co-workers.

With only 4 more days of surveying we are getting quite excited to see the light at the end of the Phnom Penh tunnel. There are a few more hurdles to cross but I think being so close to the end we have more than enough determination to make it to the end of the week without any trouble.

Signing out, Ryan, Matt, Amanda, and Gill

Authored by Ryan Aguanno

Week Two in Phnom Penh

Last Monday morning we were all very anxious to see how our final revision of the survey would turn out in the selected villages for the day. We started the day at 7am, bright and early, in order to finish our work at a reasonable hour. After picking up our two NaVRI surveyors and the provincial veterinarian, we were off to Preuy Toteung: a village in the commune of Trapeang Veaeng.

All the formalities of conducting surveys in Cambodia have been costly in terms of time. Before entering the village, we had to go to the office of the commune we were visiting to get permission. This usually takes around 30 minutes, after we find where the office of the commune actually is. The next task after that is finding the house of the village chief, so we can find out how many households are in the village. This is important, as our survey is being conducted based on the principles of random distribution. This means that we are selecting the houses randomly based on an interval that is determined by the number of houses within the village. For example, if there are 100 houses in a village, our interval between households will be 10 because we are doing 10 surveys per village.

Getting back to that first Monday of surveys, upon entering Preuy Toteung and finding the village chief, we discovered that the village contained 184 households, meaning that we had to survey every 18 houses. Trying to organize the two survey groups that morning was a bit of a disaster. It seemed as though it took us forever to decide who was going where and how we would meet up again. It is rather complicated considering we only have one village chief and one vehicle to work with between two groups. This is further complicated by issues such as not having a map of the village, and trying to work in villages that are very spread out.

Regardless, once we got going the surveys were being completed very quickly. We all agree that the survey is now at a manageable length for both the respondents and the surveyors. After lunch, we completed our second set of surveys in Ampov Prey. Organizing our groups was faster that time and we were able to finish all the surveys by about 4:30pm. That night we had another great dinner at our guesthouse (Me Mates Place), and spoke with Sonia about the progress of our work.

Tuesday was another busy day of surveying. We ran into more problems upon learning that our first village contained 552 households. That meant that we would have to skip 55 houses between surveys! Surely this would pose some problems with regards to time. However, we were able to complete this task by remaining open to the idea of walking a fair distance. My group was lucky enough to steal the van for our surveys, while Matt and Amanda stuck it out walking the distance. At lunchtime we were able to map out the rest of our survey days in the province of Kandal. We planned on doing villages within the same commune each day so we wouldn’t have to drive to opposite ends of Cambodia in one day.

At the end of Tuesday, Ryan, Matt and Sonia had a meeting with Holl Davun (the Deputy Director of NaVRI) regarding the future use of the information from our project. During that time Ryan tried to draw a picture of a carcass we have often seen on display outside restaurants which we originally identified as a dog. However, Sonia would describe Ryan’s picture as more of a platypus than a dog- and I would describe it as a bunch of scribbles. Regardless, the director had no idea what Ryan was trying to draw, but managed to figure out that the restaurant carcasses are in fact a calf rather than a dog.

As Sonia was leaving us on Wednesday morning, we all went out for a nice Italian dinner later that Tuesday night. It was great to have some good pizza and talk about something other than our survey/project. With the rest of our time here planned out, and our data input sheet almost complete, we were all feeling confident that the rest of our work would run smoothly from then on. We were all very happy to embrace the idea of having only 2 people accompany the surveyors each day. This gives one group the chance to sleep in, and input the data from the previous day- a win-win situation of course. So we were more than excited to implement this new system as soon as possible: starting Wednesday morning. But then came the clencher, who would be the first group to work the next day? The only way to solve this fair and square was to flip a Canadian loonie. As Matt tossed the coin, I called heads (as I always do), and once again, it didn’t fail me. Poor Matt and Amanda were off to another bright and early day of work on Wednesday morning as Ryan and I enjoyed sleeping in. I finished off the data input sheet that morning, and sent it off for Sonia to check over and offer some suggestions. Ryan spoke with Sonia that afternoon, and we made some finishing touches to our input system. We then spent the afternoon inputting 40 surveys, which went by fairly quickly.

The Thursday that week happened to be the former Queen’s birthday, so this meant we all had the day off. Matt and Amanda took the extra time to relax, while Ryan and I had an adventurous day out in Phnom Penh. After almost being attacked by a monkey, I decided that I would try to keep my distance from any monkeys I come across in the future. However the rest of the week was fairly uneventful. Ryan and I worked on Friday, surveying 2 villages in northern Kandal. Everything went according to plan, and the surveys are being completed in a much more timely matter now. Getting permission from the commune officer and finding the village chief’s house still seem to take the most time in our day, but at least we are able to do the surveys quickly once we are with the village chief. We discovered that most village chiefs are able to call in some help to escort us around the village, so splitting into two groups is working just fine. We then need to split the money between the two people that help us get around the village, but luckily thus far nobody has had any problems with this.

One funny part about our surveys is our gift giving at the end of the survey. We decided that we needed to offer some kind of compensation to our respondents for completing our surveys. The best gift we could come up with (considering cost and value) was a pencil with a notebook. However, the cheap notebooks we bought here all come with a picture on the front. So of course half of our notebooks have half-naked oiled-up WWF stars on them. I can tell you that all of us have some qualms with offering these notebooks as a ‘gift’; so we all give these particular notebooks face down. The situation gets even more comical when we visit wealthy houses, where the residents have occupations such as ‘the secretary of the Cambodian Peoples Party’. In the future, we are hoping that we will be able to get less WWF themed notebooks but who knows if we will be so lucky.

With another week under our belts, we can’t believe how quickly time is passing us by. It’s hard to believe that we only have 2 weeks left in Cambodia! We are very much enjoying our time at Me Mates Place- the food is excellent and the staff are practically like family to us now. They actually call us ‘sister’ and ‘brother’ while serving us! It’s a great comfort after a long day of work.

So we will begin another week of surveys, and have more stories to share soon enough.

Signing out,

Gill, Ryan, Matt and Amanda

Authored by Gillian Park

Our First Week...

We have been in Cambodia almost a week now, having arrived Monday June 8th. Sonia, the director of our project met us at the airport and we set out to find our hotel. The next day was spent at the National Veterinary Research Institute (NaVRI) in the outskirts of Phnom Penh. We worked with 3 NaVRI employees editing and attempting to help translate the survey Veterinarians Without Borders provided. Explaining the questions to the NaVRI staff in order to ensure they were properly translated took up the majority of the time. In the end, the appropriate changes were made and the survey was ready for translation.

The next day, the 10th of June, we went into the province of Kandal to obtain permission to enter the villages, select the villages for our surveys and to pick up a required Provincial Veterinarian to accompany us. This consumed the better part of the morning and at around 11am we arrived at a village that had not been selected for our surveys to pilot test the questionnaire. We arrived at the village chief’s house and much to our surprise we were told to come back in 3 hours, as lunch is from 11am-2pm. We went out for a really nice lunch in a local restaurant where we were served shrimp and lemongrass soup kept warm over a flame, along with rice (of course) and fried egg, vegetables and other stir-fried items. After lunch we went to a large open area by a river and discussed the survey with our translators over iced sugar cane juice. This discussion really helped our translators understand how questions should be asked and reiterated what information we were hoping to obtain from each question. We headed back to the village and performed our pilot surveys. The pilot run was exceptionally useful in that it helped to identify the most time consuming and confusing questions in the survey. We found that surveys were very long, ranging from about 20 minutes to over half an hour in length each. This was a bit concerning for us, as 20 minutes was the maximum time per survey reasonable in regard to completing 250 surveys in 10 days (with travel time and the rather large lunch hour factored in). Going to a place not frequented by westerners was a really fascinating experience for us all, and we found the people we interviewed were really friendly and willing to provide information. Overall it was a very long but useful day.

The next day was spent at NaVRI, making the appropriate revisions and translations. Sonia ended up staying late until 7:30pm working with our translators to perfect the changes while we went to run errands for our survey (printing tables off for record keeping, buying incentive gifts for the interviewees, etc).

On the morning of the 12th we piloted the revised version of our survey. It went so much smoother and we only identified a few more changes that needed to be made. Sonia met us in the afternoon at the Ministry of Animal Health in Phnom Penh, where we explained our project and requested permission to survey different communities within the city. After we were granted permission, groups within the communities were selected and we returned to NaVRI to put the finishing touches on the questionnaire.

It is hard to believe we have been here a week already! It really flew by because we were so busy preparing everything. We all agree however, that our hard work has paid off and we are quite pleased with the final product. The goals set out for our project seem more attainable now with the changes we made to the survey, and the questions seem to be clearer for the interviewees. We still have several obstacles to overcome, such as the random selection of houses within villages and how we will achieve the appropriate random distribution as we go from household to household. It would be easier if we had a map of each village or if the communities were set up like the ‘cookie-cutter’ subdivisions in North American suburbia, however this is far from reality here. We are hoping to work out those details this evening or tomorrow morning before we start our data collection.

Although we have not had an extensive amount of time to explore Phnom Penh we have found the city to be quite intriguing. There is substantial European (French) influence evident throughout it, with large open boulevards and green parks and gardens set amongst the polluted chaos. It is quite the contrast! In addition to exploring some of the crazy and crowded markets this weekend, we decided to go to the S21 museum and the killing fields. It was a very sobering and disturbing experience, seeing the atrocities and crimes against humanity that occurred here only 30 years ago. It was a really big ‘eye-opener’ for us and really put a lot of things into perspective.

Tomorrow we start data collection and we will spend the entire week surveying in the province of Kandal. We will post another update at the end of the week about our endeavours.

Until then,
Amanda, Matt, Ryan, and Gill

Authored by Amanda Breuer