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