The highs, the lows and not much in between

I’ve quickly learnt that Asia and volunteering involves a lot of extreme highs and extreme lows, both of which can take place within minutes.

You’ll all be delighted to know, god knows I was, that we’ve sat down and put together a more comprehensive budget for the schools. The funding we are looking for is to cover the main teacher training school and 2 classrooms, which provide 200 children with an education, for 3 years. Now just to wait for the funder to agree to it. Exciting times!!

Another one of my jobs was to put together a more suitable orientation for the volunteers. We sat down a few weeks ago and I explained what volunteers needed to know and what they didn’t. I didn’t get the most detailed orientation and was kind of left to fend or myself. A few cultural difference and a few hours later we had a list of what to go over with volunteers. Everything from where the hospital is, to what to wear to school. It was an interesting conversation as the Cambodians do not want to say anything to anyone through fear of offending and I think people don’t want to offend the locals with something as simple as what they are wearing. Simple things that could create big issues if not addressed. Explaining what travel insurance is to someone that has never travelled outside of Cambodia was a challenging one!! The next week the orientation was put into practice.

2 new volunteers arrived this week to assist with the teaching training programme and to work as teaching assistants in the classrooms. Natasha and Beth are both 19 and from Swansea. They have taken to the role like a duck to water. I’m so impressed with them and the way they have taken everything in their stride. They have listened, soaked up the culture, even trying crickets and snails at the local market, and most of all have provided really good feedback and have just got stuck in.   They are here for 3 weeks and I can easily say I will miss them and the kids and teachers will miss them when it’s time for them to leave.

When I first came here I was discussing birthdays with the teachers and they said that they didn’t celebrate them. I thought, well we have an English class not just for language skills but to also learn about the culture so told them I would bring in cake on their birthday.

This week 2 of the teachers had a birthday so I decided that if we were going to celebrate their birthdays we needed to do it properly. So me, Natasha and Beth went around town looking for party hats, balloons, cake and candles. Not the easiest things to find in a country that does not celebrate birthdays!! But we pulled it off and managed to coincide the birthday party with a day that a volunteer from Australia was coming to do arts and crafts with the kids, so everyone could get involved.

I managed to hide the birthday cakes from the teachers, get through a 2 hour arts and crafts lesson and get everyone together with them having no knowledge of what was happening. When the cakes were pulled out the look on Pok and Phallas faces was worth every penny. They had never had a birthday party before and of course never tried cake, let alone their very own birthday cake. We had to explain that they needed to blow out the candles, whilst not spitting on the cake. Pok was not overly keen on cutting the cake as he didn’t want to ruin it. Cake over and done with and all the kids were given a balloon to take home. Seeing them all ride home on their bikes with balloons hanging from them was quite sweet. These kids don’t need fancy toys. A balloon, some coloured paper and they are happy for hours, if not days. Days like this make it all worthwhile and I’m reminded what the project is all about.

You can see the pics on the following link:

https://www.facebook.com/media/set/set=a.237989249552343.65371.100000238085236&l=0ac7505280

And now for the lows………………..I’m pretty sure I can safely say I’ve never been so sick in my life. I was all prepared for this when I left the UK. I took as much medication as I could possibly get my hands on for any type of illness that would be thrown at me but this one has totally wrecked my body. So far I’ve been ill with something or another since I landed.

Last weekend I got what appeared to be food poisoning. One of the other girls at the guesthouse I live at got it too so I didn’t really think too much of it. Hers passed in a day so I thought this was nothing I hadn’t done before and it would be over and done with soon. A week later and it’s still not passed. I’ve had a really rough week. I’ve taken everything I could, eaten 3 meals a day but continued to get sicker and lose more weight. An effective way to shed the extra weight, just not the most comfortable!! Thank god for a sense on humour and having no boundaries about what you can talk about amongst friends!!

Saturday morning it all got a lot worse. I’d spent the past 6 hours on my bathroom floor not being able to move (it’s my blog but I’ll spare you the details). I knew I needed to go to hospital but being on your own is a little hard in these situations. I could either ask people I don’t know that well to help or I could do it alone. 

New lesson – Asking for help and not always being so independent and doing it alone!!  

(We all know I needed to learn that lesson)

So I sat on the floor just outside my bathroom, opened my door and waited for someone to come out of their room so I could call out to them. My neighbour Cathy came out, I’m not sure she knew what hit her when she saw me. Within about an hour I had new antibiotics in my hand (can’t swallow pills – a western disease apparently), a Popsicle and Inga, a nurse who is also a volunteer here, taking me to the hospital. It all went very fast until we went to get the tuktuk. Tuktuks are like busses and taxis. There are 100s there when you don’t need one but when you do, they are nowhere to be seen.  About an hour later I was in the hospital with drips coming out my arms, a nurse speaking to me in broken English and me struggling to understand what was happening. I spent the next 3 hours being pumped with anything and everything and being comforted by nurse Inga. Not feeling overly better but at the end of my course of treatments I was discharged and given a $200 medical bill for 3 hours work. May not sound like a lot but this is Cambodia, $200 can keep a family going for 4 months!!

My body is very weak at the moment and the decision over the next few days will have to be, can my body actually recover and can I stay in the tropics. It’s going to be a very hard decision to make but I may have to leave it all behind and return to London or go onto New Zealand for more medical treatment.