Libraries of Snuol

Back in April 2010, Shirley and I travelled to Snuol in Kratie Province, close to the border with Vietnam. Some time back, one of our OMF colleagues set up a library project there, and the main purpose of the trip was for Shirley to look over the libraries and see if, in discussion with our host, she could come up with some suggestions for improvement. It was also a good opportunity to visit with our OMF colleagues in the town - both the one who oversaw the library project and her husband, but also the other OMF family who lived in Snuol. It was also a chance to expand the number of up-country locations we had experienced for ourselves, always a good idea when the majority of one's time is spent in Phnom Penh. Lacking Shirley's professional library training and experience, my role in the visit was just as 'bodyguard' and photographer!

The project consisted of eight middle school libraries and two commune libraries, and over our few days there, Shirley visited them all, sometimes travelling 40km by motorbike to reach the more outlying ones. In the end, I accompanied her to some, but not all. (Those trips seemed a long way to us, but our host, who overseas the library project, visits all of the libraries most weeks in order to encorage and guide the library staff.) OMF provides the funding for the librarians' salaries, and has also covered the costs of some of the books, with the set-up costs of the libraries and additional book donations coming from elsewhere. Such library work is important in Cambodia, where many books were deliberately destroyed during the Khmer Rouge period (1975-9), and even today there is limited literacy (77%, UNDP, 2010) and little recognition of the library profession or availability of training for librarians.

The photos above shows a slogan from one of the middle school liraries, proudly displayed on the classroom wall: "Read a Lot to Understand a Lot", and some children at a commune library, demonstrating that libraries can be fun. The photos below show Shirley and our host talking to one of the OMF librarians, and an outside view of another commune library.

Deadly Stampede at the Water Festival

It has been some time since I wrote a post here, due in part to our being out of Cambodia, but it seemed time to start writing again. However, before composing anything about the Sinclairs again, mention must be made of the deadly stampede at the end of the Water Festival in November last year. Although the story only seemed to feature in the headlines for a day or so in the UK, I imagine most people will nevertheless have heard something of the terrible events, so I will just briefly summarise them here.

Phnom Penh, the Cambodian capital, is at the confluence of four rivers, two branches of the Mekong, the Bassac, and the Tonle Sap. The Tonle Sap connects the Mekong to a large lake, and is very unusual in that, although a natural waterway, it flows in different directions at different times of the year. When the Mekong is high, the water flows into the lake, helping to limit the rise in the level of the larger river. When the Mekong is low, the lake flows back out into the Mekong. The Tonle Sap Lake is a vital source of water for agriculture, as well as fish, and the reversal of the river in November is celebrated by the Water Festival. This includes fiercely competitive boat racing, fun fares and concerts, and nightly display of beautiful ornamental barges on the river accompanied by fireworks. The Water Festival attracts a large number of visitors to the city, swelling the population from perhaps 1.5 million to 2.5 million during the week.

Sadly, on 22 Nov at the height of last year's festival, a late-night concert was being held on Diamond Island, which is connected to the waterfront by two narrow vehicular bridges. The whole area of the waterfront and Diamond Island were cordoned off for pedestrians, but a large number of people tried to enter the island across one bridge, whilst a large crowd on the island tried to leave by the same bridge. In the centre of the bridge, people started to be crushed by the crowd pressure and fainted, panic increased, and some people tried to escape by climbing over the bridge parapets. It is reported that some of these were then electrocuted by unshielded power cables slung across the bridge, and then the stampede began. Some 350 people were killed and perhaps 750 injured. Cambodia has limited medical facilities, though any city would be stretched to cope with a disaster of this magnitude. Whilst grieving relatives searched the hospitals for their loved ones, Cambodia declared a national day of mourning on 25 Nov for this terrible tragedy.

As far as Shirley and I are aware, no-one we know was killed or injured in the stampede, but a lot of people said they had planned to go to Diamond Island that night, and changed their mind, or couldn't get through the crowd ... Several either knew victims, or the families of those killed and injured. Even though so far away, we were greatly saddened by what happened, and Shirley, with her counselling skills, particularly wished that we might have been there to try and help those coming to terms with individual and national tragedy.

I have included below links to some of the news reports from the BBC:

• Hundreds killed in Cambodian festival stampede
• In pictures: Cambodia's deadly stampede
• Cambodia holds day of mourning for stampede victims
• In pictures: Cambodia mourns stampede victims
• Cambodia PM says no one responsible for stampede

A Moving Time

The week leading up to moving out of our house of three and a half years into the OMF Team Centre was a difficult one, although in truth nearly everything went to plan. Much of our furniture was part of the OMF Cambodia furniture pool - loaned out to us while we were in country, to be returned as we leave for use by others or stored 'til needed. In addition, over our eight years, we have accumulated some additional furniture, particularly to provide an extra lounge area for our teenage children, and also bookcases to hold our accumulation of books. We advertised around the team, as well as asking people individually, to look after our personal furniture. That worked well, as several new families were delighted to use our furniture for a year - acting like we were doing them a favour - whereas from our point of view, in looking after it for a year - they were doing us a favour. Some furniture left in a friends' car on Mon 5 July, and then we sent a whole lorry load to different friends on Tue 6. We had booked 'the man with the van' - a local Cambodian remover - to take stuff to three locations, and he brought three removal men with him. Then the negotiations started!

One family to whom the largest load was going - and who lived in a difficult to find house - had agreed to lead the lorry there, and so I had expected we would go there first. Instead, the removers insisted this would be the last of the three places, and our friends would have to drive their car with us to the other two places first. Our first stop was fairly uneventful, but the second was to a colleague who lives down a very narrow alley, difficult to spot except from one end. Our driver, however, was keen to avoid the police - a heavily loaded removal lorry like ours was subject to spot 'fines' of US $1.25 if seen by the police. By keeping a sharp eye out, and making U turns at a moment's notice, we avoided all but one such contribution to the police - made by one of the men jumping off the moving lorry, handing over the money, and jumping back on - a mode designed to minimise any possible inflation in the contribution that might arise if we actually stopped. Anyway, as we lurched around the streets, Shirley tried to spot the alley as our direction became increasingly confused, whilst I spoke to our colleague on my handphone trying to obtain a few additional crumbs of guidance. In the end, somehow we found the unmarked alley, only to spot that it was completey blocked by a wedding marquee - fortunately just beyond the house we were dropping furniture at! We 'phoned our friends, who had lost us in our efforts to avoid the police, and reunited, we made our way uneventfully to their house to drop the last load.

Needless to say, the ongoing thinning and packing of our stuff, and the cleaning of the house - by our househelper, plus one loaned by a friend who was on holiday - kept us hot and busy to the last day on Fri 9. OMF had booked the same removal guy for us, and this time one and a half lorry loads were needed to take the OMF pool furniture and our stuff packed into metal runks for storage. Metal trunks are used to avoid water damage - always a risk in Cambodian houses - and also as rats can easily eat there way into cardboard boxes. Talking of rats, our cats, Pepper and Sooty, also had to be rehoused. Pepper was taken by the colleague in the difficult to find alley above, and she has posted the tale on her own blog; Sooty went to another family, and I may tell that tale here another time.

The photos above and below show the lorry load of pool furniture leaving our house, and a photo of the OMF Team Centre where we finished up our last week in Cambodia before our flight on Sat 17 July.

Mercy Medical Centre

The CSI Mercy Medical Centre (MMC) is "a non-profit Christian medical center proclaiming the love of Christ to the people of Cambodia through excellent healthcare and training. Established in 2000, [they] are a multi-organizational, multi-national, multi-denominational, multi-specialty center with a passion for providing quality compassionate care and training others to do the same." OMF Cambodia has seconded several people to work with MMC over the years, and since March, Shirley and Mary, an OMF colleague, have opened a counselling service as part of MMC. Many people who are patients at MMC have anxiety problems or other mental health issues, and where appropriate these might be referred through to the new counselling service. As yet the number of clients seen has been small, but this is expected to grow over time.

Yesterday afternoon, Shirley, Mary and I met at MMC in order to take a few photographs of the centre and the counselling service in particular. The photograph above shows Shirley and Mary by the MMC plaque, and those below the entrance to the new counselling room, the two comfy airm armchairs, and Shirley at the desk.

Hope International School

Whilst both Lisa and Martin attended Northbridge International School (NISC) during our first term in Cambodia (2001-2005), they moved over to Hope International School from 2006. Lisa studied there for three years (Year 9-11) before heading back to England to study for AS-levels at The Sixth Form College, Colchester. Martin continues at Hope, however, and having completed Year 6-8, is currently in Year 9.

Hope has a strong Christian family ethos, and the curriculum is a Commonwealth one, leading to IGCSEs and AS-levels under Cambridge International Examinations (CIE). The school was only in its infancy during our first term, but by the time we returned from Home Assignment in 2006, it had become the clear choice for us as a family. Several OMF families made similar decisions around that time, and OMF children now make up some 10% of the school!

One of the strong distinctives of Hope is its aim to provide affordable schooling for Christian workers in Cambodia. To maintain this the Board comprises (alongside the Director, teacher and Parent Council representatives), representatives from the member missions who are committed to the school. Amongst these is OMF, and I have served as the OMF representative on the Board since December 2007. I am currently Vice Chair of the overall Board, as well as acting as Appeals Member, and chairing the Personnel Committee.

The picture above shows the main entrance of Hope (with some Sinclairs in a tuk tuk outside), and those below, Brent Willsmore (the Director), a Year 11 science class (with Lisa hidden in their midst), and the dining area.

The Killing Fields of Choeung Ek

Although we went to see the Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum fairly early in our time in Cambodia, somehow that seemed enough horror for us. We only finally made a visit to the killing fields of Choeung Ek in 2008. This is where the 17,000 prisoners of Security Prison 21 (S-21) were taken to be buried. Some died under interrogation and torture, some died at Choeung Ek immediately before burial, some were buried alive. A little over half the thousands of bodies have been exhumed from the mass graves, and the skulls placed in a glass windowed stupa, with the remaining bones housed in the roof. Part of the site is now under water, and so the graves in that section have never been opened.

For some visitors, as they walk around the many, many mass graves (now not so deep due to the earth being washed back in over the years), with the soil surface still littered with scraps of clothing from the victims, the horror seems greater than that of the prison. For me, somehow, the deaths at Choeung Ek seem almost merciful following the terrible torture of Tuol Sleng, as the prisoners desperately tried to satisfy their interogators and so bring an end to their suffering in death. Either way, both sites are an horrific reminder of just how near unspeakable cruelty and genocide can be.

The final three pictures show some juvenile skulls in the stupa; a tree near the mass graves with the caption 'Killing tree against which executioners beat children'; and a plaque describing some of the terrible details of burial.

Koh Kong

Last week was the Khmer Water Festival (Bon Om Duuk), and Shirley, Martin and I took the opportunity for a week's holiday in Koh Kong. The town is a provincial capital, but it is very close to the Thai border, and is becoming popular as an entry point to/from Cambodia, as well as for 'visa runs', where expatriots in either Thailand or Cambodia cross the border and back just to get their visa renewed.

We stayed at the Apex Hotel, which proved to be good value for money ($15 per night, extra for breakfast), but the hotel had some of the usual eccentricities! The hotel is only about a year old, but the plumbing is already in trouble. In one of our rooms, whenever you used the pedestal basin in the bathroom, about half the water contents simply flowed out onto the floor (and your feet and trouser legs)! The hotel was very full, and this caused two problems of note. Most (all?) rooms had DVD players - we had spotted this on the website, and so taken some with us to watch - but only some had the essential remote controls. The hotel staff said that when the hotel was not so busy, they took them from empty rooms, for guests who wanted them. As the hotel was busy this week though, we would have only one control between our two rooms! Somehow, it didn't seem to strike them as a situation that required any more action than this. A more irritating problem though was the electricity - for three evenings, the hotel was so full that the electricity kept overloading, throwing the circuit breaker in reception. The whole hotel would be plunged into darkness, but the desk clerk would calmly walk over, throw the circuit breaker back in, and go back to his desk. For a few hours each evening, the power went off for 30 secs every five minutes! This, of course, made it impossible to watch a DVD - you could not wind back to the point you were at before the power went off again. We discovered, however, that reading a book with a torch to hand was still possible. Anyway, the restaurant was good value, there is a swimming pool, it is conveniently located, and the hotel's eccentricities are by no means unusual in Cambodia!

On an entirely positive note, we found a lovely restaurant, Fat Sam's, on the main street. This is owned and run by a Welsh man (Sam of the title) and his Cambodian wife. They have tracked down and serve high-quality and affordable British cooking, such as we hardly ever find in Cambodia. Delights included battered fish and chips, steak pie and chips, cumberland sausage and chips, baked potatoes, apple & blueberry pie and custard, and apple & rasberry crumble and custard. The owners and staff made everyone very welcome, and we met quite a few Brits over meals there, entertaining one another with travelling tales, and receiving tourist information from Sam as well.

Although most of our week was sleeping, watching DVDs, reading, using the internet cafe and visiting the restaurants of Koh Kong, we did manage one trip out to a nearby mangrove swamp, which has had access walkways installed to allow visitors to go right into the forest with ease. At the end of the walkway is a pedestrian suspension bridge, and from there it is possible, as we did, to take a boat trip out to nearby sandy island. Although some people showed us photos of snakes they had taken under the branches, the Sinclair party proved far too focused on not falling off the walkway to spot all the available wildlfe. However, the trees proved slow moving enough to get on film.

Altogether, it was a very enjoyable week, and we look forward to doing more of the potential Koh Kong day trips on future visits.