It is late and I am heading to bed, but I wanted to briefly post some of the highlights from my weekend trip to the capital of Malaysia, Kuala Lumpur. It was a really fun trip and a nice break from Phnom Penh for a few days:
- On our first day, we stumbled across an IMAX theatre in a giant mall which was showing the new Harry Potter movie on its first day in Malaysia. Not only was it our first movie in a proper theatre in quite a while, but it was Harry Potter, so that was pretty great.
- Taking over the Mikado karaoke bar on successive nights.
- Climbing the KL Tower, the 4th tallest telecommunications tower in the world (#1 is CN Tower) and getting a good look around the city.
- Getting a free guided tour of a small rainforest sanctuary at the base of the KL Tower. Unfortunately we didn't spot any monkeys but it was pretty awesome to escape into the rainforest in the middle of the city.
- Checking out the Petronas Towers, the 2nd and 3rd tallest buildings in the world (I get a little confused about the distinctions in tallest world towers between KL and Petronas, but I trust their claims). Unfortunately all the tickets for going up the Petronas Towers were sold out, but the view from KL is apparently better.
- Making it to an Asian Cup soccer match between Malaysia and Uzbekistan. Better yet, tickets were just over $3 and we were able to sit wherever we wanted in the stadium. Uzbekistan killed Malaysia 5-0, but it was still a fun night out.
Those were the big highlights. I will try to post some pictures soon. Meanwhile, we are in the second last week of the internship here. It looks like I will be teaching some of our HIV/AIDS lessons next week to a couple of groups. This weekend I am also headed to Bokor Hill National Park in southern Cambodia with a few other interns for a quick getaway. June 30th I am off to Bangkok and then some of the Thai islands for about 10 days, and then I fly home on August 9th!
Tuesday, July 17, 2007
Sunday, July 8, 2007
Weekend Update
So, things have been pretty slow here the last week or so, but I thought I would update on what is going on. I have about 3 weeks left in my internship, then I plan on traveling in Thailand for about 10 days until I fly home a month from now.
Work has been somewhat slow as my HIV/AIDS group is finishing up our manual. However, we are planning to meet this week with some other organizations involved in HIV/AIDS awareness and prevention. We are also planning to teach some of our lessons to see how they work, hopefully at some of these organizations.
I am headed to Kuala Lumpur on Thursday with about 8 other interns for a long weekend. It will be excited to check out a different city, see the world's second-tallest building, catch the new Harry Potter movie, and watch an Asian Cup football match between Malaysia and Uzbekistan hopefully.
We finally made it to the Killing Fields on Saturday. There were actually many Killing Fields all around Cambodia where the Khmer Rouge executed people and left them in mass graves, but this was the biggest one, called Choeung Ek, and also where a memorial site has been set up. Choeung Ek affected me in a different way than the Tuol Sleng prison. At Tuol Sleng it was easy to imagine people being tortured and killed, as things were essentially left as they were during the genocide. However, at the Killing Fields, the setting is very peaceful, it is very green, and there are a lot of trees around. It is hard to imagine that thousands and thousands of people were killed there. There is a big shrine in the middle of the site which has many skulls of people killed by the Khmer Rouge, and that is emotionally affecting, but the rest of the site is not as intense. I think it is a very nice site to remember all those people who were killed by the Khmer Rouge and reflect on the horrible effects of the genocide.
Finally, a few lessons learned from a Friday night in Phnom Penh:
A) Do not go ride home from a bar by yourself
B) Do not carry your credit card, bank card, and driver's license out with you if you don't need to (and you almost never need to)
Yep, I was robbed on Friday night. Two guys pulled in front of my moto just about a block from my house and took my wallet and watch. I was not hurt and the guys were clearly just after my cash, but obviously it was a very scary incident, and I was very stupid to be headed home alone. Anyway, ultimately I realize it is just a big inconvenience and the most important thing is that I am OK.
So that was a bummer and definitely a crappy way to end off what was a long and somewhat boring week. But, there is a lot to look forward to, especially the Malaysia trip, so I am very excited for the last few weeks of my internship!!
Work has been somewhat slow as my HIV/AIDS group is finishing up our manual. However, we are planning to meet this week with some other organizations involved in HIV/AIDS awareness and prevention. We are also planning to teach some of our lessons to see how they work, hopefully at some of these organizations.
I am headed to Kuala Lumpur on Thursday with about 8 other interns for a long weekend. It will be excited to check out a different city, see the world's second-tallest building, catch the new Harry Potter movie, and watch an Asian Cup football match between Malaysia and Uzbekistan hopefully.
We finally made it to the Killing Fields on Saturday. There were actually many Killing Fields all around Cambodia where the Khmer Rouge executed people and left them in mass graves, but this was the biggest one, called Choeung Ek, and also where a memorial site has been set up. Choeung Ek affected me in a different way than the Tuol Sleng prison. At Tuol Sleng it was easy to imagine people being tortured and killed, as things were essentially left as they were during the genocide. However, at the Killing Fields, the setting is very peaceful, it is very green, and there are a lot of trees around. It is hard to imagine that thousands and thousands of people were killed there. There is a big shrine in the middle of the site which has many skulls of people killed by the Khmer Rouge, and that is emotionally affecting, but the rest of the site is not as intense. I think it is a very nice site to remember all those people who were killed by the Khmer Rouge and reflect on the horrible effects of the genocide.
Finally, a few lessons learned from a Friday night in Phnom Penh:
A) Do not go ride home from a bar by yourself
B) Do not carry your credit card, bank card, and driver's license out with you if you don't need to (and you almost never need to)
Yep, I was robbed on Friday night. Two guys pulled in front of my moto just about a block from my house and took my wallet and watch. I was not hurt and the guys were clearly just after my cash, but obviously it was a very scary incident, and I was very stupid to be headed home alone. Anyway, ultimately I realize it is just a big inconvenience and the most important thing is that I am OK.
So that was a bummer and definitely a crappy way to end off what was a long and somewhat boring week. But, there is a lot to look forward to, especially the Malaysia trip, so I am very excited for the last few weeks of my internship!!
Sunday, July 1, 2007
Happy Canada Day!
Happy Canada Day to everyone back home in Canada, and I hope everyone is enjoying the day, especially in Ottawa on Parliament Hill and in Newfoundland at the O'Shea Canada Day party.
I was able to celebrate Canada Day here a few days ago. The Canadian Embassy held a reception on Friday night at one of the nicer hotels in town, the Grand Royal. Every Canadian in the country was invited-all I had to do was go to the embassy with my passport and I got an invitation. There are several Canadians in the internship program so we got dressed up (the dress code was "business attire") and headed out on Friday night.
We definitely felt a little out of place at the reception as the crowd was mostly businesspeople and diplomats, but the food was good and the drinks were free, so we didn't mind. There are rumors that the embassy is going to move to Bangkok, and the Ambassador, Donica Pottie, said in her speech that she is leaving Cambodia soon, although I wasn't sure if it was because her term was finished or because she is moving to Thailand.
Anyway, it wasn't a bad way to spend Canada Day away from home, although I do kind of wish I could be in Ottawa or St. John's this weekend.
I was able to celebrate Canada Day here a few days ago. The Canadian Embassy held a reception on Friday night at one of the nicer hotels in town, the Grand Royal. Every Canadian in the country was invited-all I had to do was go to the embassy with my passport and I got an invitation. There are several Canadians in the internship program so we got dressed up (the dress code was "business attire") and headed out on Friday night.
We definitely felt a little out of place at the reception as the crowd was mostly businesspeople and diplomats, but the food was good and the drinks were free, so we didn't mind. There are rumors that the embassy is going to move to Bangkok, and the Ambassador, Donica Pottie, said in her speech that she is leaving Cambodia soon, although I wasn't sure if it was because her term was finished or because she is moving to Thailand.
Anyway, it wasn't a bad way to spend Canada Day away from home, although I do kind of wish I could be in Ottawa or St. John's this weekend.
High-Powered Meetings
First of all, I apologize for the lack of updates. The last week has been a bit slow here, but I will try to post more, perhaps talking a little bit about day-to-day life in Phnom Penh and Cambodia.
I will talk about a couple of neat encounters I had on Friday. First, my group, which is working on the HIV/AIDS legal rights manual, took a field trip to visit NCHADS, which is an off-shoot of the Cambodian Ministry of Health and responsible for, among other things, the country's response to HIV/AIDS. We were lucky enough to meet with Dr. Mean Chhi-Vun, the director of NCHADS, who spoke with us for about 45 minutes about the status of Cambodia's fight against AIDS. Cambodia has struggled a lot with AIDS in the past few years and in fact has the highest AIDS rate in Asia. However, apparently things are starting to turn around and recent statistics showed that the infection rate is slowing down.
NCHADS has been involved with and received funding from, among other groups, the Clinton Foundation and it seems they have become focused on the care of persons with AIDS in addition to the prevention of AIDS, which dominated the government's early work on HIV/AIDS. More and more anti-retroviral (I hope that is correct) drugs are becoming available and there are more and more HIV clinics opening up all over the country.
My second interesting encounter of the day was a presentation we saw on Friday afternoon from Richard Rodgers, who is a lawyer and deputy head of the Defence Support Section at the Khmer Rouge Trials. The trials are finally scheduled to get underway early next year after a lot of debate and disagreement about the rules and structure. Richard gave us the background on the trials and talked about some of the challenges in working for the defence side in a genocide/crimes against humanity trial.
Some people find it hard to believe that anyone could work for the defence of someone like Duch, who ran the Tuol Sleng prison and is the most senior member of the Khmer Rouge still alive. However, for these trials to be effective and fair, the defendants need to have a good defence to ensure that the prosecutors and the judges do their jobs.
There are a lot of obstacles in the way of making these trials fair and effective. Since the KR genocide happened about 30 years ago, it can be harder to obtain evidence. Further, most of the senior members of the Khmer Rouge have already died. Pol Pot, for example, died in 1998. Also, there are concerns about impartiality. Unlike other international tribunals, the KR trials are taking place in Cambodia (just outside Phnom Penh) and with Cambodian judges, many of whom likely had some connection to the genocide, either with family members who were killed or perhaps their own involvement with the KR. So, there are concerns that the judges may be somewhat biased and will not conduct a fair trial.
In any case, it was really interesting to hear about the background to the trials. It is definitely a unique time to be in Cambodia with the KR trials about to start. This marks a significant point in Cambodia's history and it is fascinating to be in the country to witness all of this happening.
I will talk about a couple of neat encounters I had on Friday. First, my group, which is working on the HIV/AIDS legal rights manual, took a field trip to visit NCHADS, which is an off-shoot of the Cambodian Ministry of Health and responsible for, among other things, the country's response to HIV/AIDS. We were lucky enough to meet with Dr. Mean Chhi-Vun, the director of NCHADS, who spoke with us for about 45 minutes about the status of Cambodia's fight against AIDS. Cambodia has struggled a lot with AIDS in the past few years and in fact has the highest AIDS rate in Asia. However, apparently things are starting to turn around and recent statistics showed that the infection rate is slowing down.
NCHADS has been involved with and received funding from, among other groups, the Clinton Foundation and it seems they have become focused on the care of persons with AIDS in addition to the prevention of AIDS, which dominated the government's early work on HIV/AIDS. More and more anti-retroviral (I hope that is correct) drugs are becoming available and there are more and more HIV clinics opening up all over the country.
My second interesting encounter of the day was a presentation we saw on Friday afternoon from Richard Rodgers, who is a lawyer and deputy head of the Defence Support Section at the Khmer Rouge Trials. The trials are finally scheduled to get underway early next year after a lot of debate and disagreement about the rules and structure. Richard gave us the background on the trials and talked about some of the challenges in working for the defence side in a genocide/crimes against humanity trial.
Some people find it hard to believe that anyone could work for the defence of someone like Duch, who ran the Tuol Sleng prison and is the most senior member of the Khmer Rouge still alive. However, for these trials to be effective and fair, the defendants need to have a good defence to ensure that the prosecutors and the judges do their jobs.
There are a lot of obstacles in the way of making these trials fair and effective. Since the KR genocide happened about 30 years ago, it can be harder to obtain evidence. Further, most of the senior members of the Khmer Rouge have already died. Pol Pot, for example, died in 1998. Also, there are concerns about impartiality. Unlike other international tribunals, the KR trials are taking place in Cambodia (just outside Phnom Penh) and with Cambodian judges, many of whom likely had some connection to the genocide, either with family members who were killed or perhaps their own involvement with the KR. So, there are concerns that the judges may be somewhat biased and will not conduct a fair trial.
In any case, it was really interesting to hear about the background to the trials. It is definitely a unique time to be in Cambodia with the KR trials about to start. This marks a significant point in Cambodia's history and it is fascinating to be in the country to witness all of this happening.
Sunday, June 24, 2007
Pictures From The Kep Trip
View from the porch of my bungalow as the sun sets on the Gulf of Thailand
I show off my mad farming skills at the demonstration farm in the village
Some of the kids in the kindergarten English class that I helped teach for a couple of days
One of the classrooms at the village school. The two teachers are 2 girls from Ireland teaching in the village for the summer. The class was for kids around 7-8 years old.
My bungalow in Kep...pretty sweet huh?
Looking down the beach on Rabbit IslandThe Rural Trip
In case any of you are wondering why there have been no updates in about 10 days, the reason is that I have been out of Phnom Penh for the last week on an outreach trip to see some of Bridges Across Borders' other projects in the Kampot province.
A group of about 12 interns left last Monday morning to take a bus ride to Kep, a beautiful sea-side town in Kampot province where we stayed for the week. However, the purpose of our trip was to spend time working in a small village about 45 minutes away from Kep. I would love to tell you what this village is called, and I asked several times, but I seemed to get a different name every time I asked. In any case, it was a very small village in an area that had formerly controlled by the Khmer Rouge, and the whole area is very close to the Vietnam border.
Bridges Across Borders runs a number of Community Development Programs, including one in this particular village. In the village there is a school building with 2 classrooms and a plot of farmland behind the school. This is the base of the BAB program in this town. The program focuses on 3 areas: education, agriculture and health. The school runs several English classes for children and apparently some health education classes for adults too. Behind the school, the program is setting up a demonstration farm, and I believe they are planning to start a co-operative farm there and sell crops for the villagers and to support the development programs.
During our week, we helped out with the farming and education. Several of us had the chance to teach English classes to kindergarten-aged children in the mornings. The kids are unbelievably cute but very rambunctious, so the teaching was exhausting, but obviously very rewarding too. I will post some pictures of the kids soon.
We were asked to help out with some farming as well, but we only did this in the mornings as it got too hot to work by mid-day. Our normal routine was to wake up around 5:30 AM at our beautiful bungalows in Kep and take the 45 minute moto ride into the village as the sun was rising. We would generally get to the school at about 7 and do some farming and/or teach an English class. Sometimes another group would stay back in the morning and then come in the afternoon to teach English classes in the afternoon and evening, but I enjoyed waking up early, working in the morning, and then spending the afternoons reading and relaxing. The farming was actually really enjoyable...it can be nice to do some manual labour once in a while and it certainly made me appreciate a little bit the life of a farmer.
The whole week was a great chance to get out of Phnom Penh to some clearer, cooler air and to see a very grassroots development project. The first few days in the village were a little bit frustrating as they didn't seem to have much work for us to do, the language barrier was evident, and the whole experience seemed unorganized. But, I soon figured out that the trick was to let go a little bit and go with the flow. The project is still in the early stages so I understand that there will be some bumps in the road early on. As well, I realized more and more that development work is a slow process and the village cannot be transformed overnight and certainly not just because a few law students come into town for a few days. Of course, as usually is the case with these types of things, I took more out of the experience than I was able to contribute, but I think that was the whole point in going in the first place. They certainly didn't need us to plant the corn and there were several English teachers working there for the summer already, but it was a very educational and enlightening experience.
Not to mention that we were staying in a beautiful guesthouse overlooking the ocean, got to eat fresh crab, squid, and shrimp every night, and had the chance to stay Friday night on a virtually deserted island called Rabbit Island, about 30 minutes away by boat from Kep. We finally returned on a hellish bus ride (no A/C) Saturday afternoon, exhausted but also recharged by the change of scenery. It was a great week and I am ready to get back to work, finish up our HIV manual and hopefully move on to some more tasks, including perhaps teaching some of the lessons we have written.
I will post some pictures from our week shortly.
A group of about 12 interns left last Monday morning to take a bus ride to Kep, a beautiful sea-side town in Kampot province where we stayed for the week. However, the purpose of our trip was to spend time working in a small village about 45 minutes away from Kep. I would love to tell you what this village is called, and I asked several times, but I seemed to get a different name every time I asked. In any case, it was a very small village in an area that had formerly controlled by the Khmer Rouge, and the whole area is very close to the Vietnam border.
Bridges Across Borders runs a number of Community Development Programs, including one in this particular village. In the village there is a school building with 2 classrooms and a plot of farmland behind the school. This is the base of the BAB program in this town. The program focuses on 3 areas: education, agriculture and health. The school runs several English classes for children and apparently some health education classes for adults too. Behind the school, the program is setting up a demonstration farm, and I believe they are planning to start a co-operative farm there and sell crops for the villagers and to support the development programs.
During our week, we helped out with the farming and education. Several of us had the chance to teach English classes to kindergarten-aged children in the mornings. The kids are unbelievably cute but very rambunctious, so the teaching was exhausting, but obviously very rewarding too. I will post some pictures of the kids soon.
We were asked to help out with some farming as well, but we only did this in the mornings as it got too hot to work by mid-day. Our normal routine was to wake up around 5:30 AM at our beautiful bungalows in Kep and take the 45 minute moto ride into the village as the sun was rising. We would generally get to the school at about 7 and do some farming and/or teach an English class. Sometimes another group would stay back in the morning and then come in the afternoon to teach English classes in the afternoon and evening, but I enjoyed waking up early, working in the morning, and then spending the afternoons reading and relaxing. The farming was actually really enjoyable...it can be nice to do some manual labour once in a while and it certainly made me appreciate a little bit the life of a farmer.
The whole week was a great chance to get out of Phnom Penh to some clearer, cooler air and to see a very grassroots development project. The first few days in the village were a little bit frustrating as they didn't seem to have much work for us to do, the language barrier was evident, and the whole experience seemed unorganized. But, I soon figured out that the trick was to let go a little bit and go with the flow. The project is still in the early stages so I understand that there will be some bumps in the road early on. As well, I realized more and more that development work is a slow process and the village cannot be transformed overnight and certainly not just because a few law students come into town for a few days. Of course, as usually is the case with these types of things, I took more out of the experience than I was able to contribute, but I think that was the whole point in going in the first place. They certainly didn't need us to plant the corn and there were several English teachers working there for the summer already, but it was a very educational and enlightening experience.
Not to mention that we were staying in a beautiful guesthouse overlooking the ocean, got to eat fresh crab, squid, and shrimp every night, and had the chance to stay Friday night on a virtually deserted island called Rabbit Island, about 30 minutes away by boat from Kep. We finally returned on a hellish bus ride (no A/C) Saturday afternoon, exhausted but also recharged by the change of scenery. It was a great week and I am ready to get back to work, finish up our HIV manual and hopefully move on to some more tasks, including perhaps teaching some of the lessons we have written.
I will post some pictures from our week shortly.
Thursday, June 14, 2007
Update and Travel Plans
In the last few days I have been able to get a better sense of how I will be spending the last month or so of the internship, specifically in terms of travel plans.
First, I found out a couple of days ago that I will be spending next week working in the Cambodian village of Kep. My NGO, Bridges Across Borders, has several outreach programs in Kep, including a school, so we will be working on various projects in the community. I'm pretty excited because it is a nice chance to get out of the city for a while, do some different work, and also see what life is like in a Cambodian village. We're actually going to be staying in the provincial capital, called Kampot. After our week of work there we will have the chance to spend the weekend on a small island called Rabbit Island, which apparently has some nice beaches, so all in all it should be a really fun week.
I will definitely write a lot about this experience when I get back on the 24th and share pictures as well.
I also made some travel plans for July today. Several interns were making plans to go to Kuala Lumpur, the capital of Malaysia, for a long weekend in July. The flights were pretty cheap and we found a promotion through Malaysia Airlines, so I decided to join the group and go! I also found out that Singapore is only about a 2 hour bus ride away from KL, so we might go there for a day and have Charis, who was ending her internship just as we arrived, show us around her hometown.
Better yet, I checked online today and found out that there will be an Asia Cup football (soccer) match played in KL while we are there. The Asia Cup is the big soccer tournament for Asian countries that happens every 4 years, similar to the European Championships. Malaysia is playing Uzbekistan while we are there at the National Stadium, which was built for the Commonwealth Games a few years ago and seats 100,000 people!! Now, Malaysia v. Uzbekistan is not exactly a clash of the titans, but I found tickets for the game online for only $6, so I think we are going to buy a Malaysian t-shirt and a big Malaysian flag and go to the game!!
I don't have a definite date on when my internship will be wrapping up, but I suspect it will be around the 24th or so of July. My plans are tentative so far, but I am pretty sure I am going to be travelling in Thailand for most of the time after the internship. I would like to make it to Laos as well, but apparently flights are pretty expensive, although I might be able to take a bus from Bangkok.
So, that is what is in the works for me in the next few weeks! I will try to update some more this weekend before leaving for Kep, and then will definitely write more when we get back the following weeks about my adventures in a Cambodian village!!
First, I found out a couple of days ago that I will be spending next week working in the Cambodian village of Kep. My NGO, Bridges Across Borders, has several outreach programs in Kep, including a school, so we will be working on various projects in the community. I'm pretty excited because it is a nice chance to get out of the city for a while, do some different work, and also see what life is like in a Cambodian village. We're actually going to be staying in the provincial capital, called Kampot. After our week of work there we will have the chance to spend the weekend on a small island called Rabbit Island, which apparently has some nice beaches, so all in all it should be a really fun week.
I will definitely write a lot about this experience when I get back on the 24th and share pictures as well.
I also made some travel plans for July today. Several interns were making plans to go to Kuala Lumpur, the capital of Malaysia, for a long weekend in July. The flights were pretty cheap and we found a promotion through Malaysia Airlines, so I decided to join the group and go! I also found out that Singapore is only about a 2 hour bus ride away from KL, so we might go there for a day and have Charis, who was ending her internship just as we arrived, show us around her hometown.
Better yet, I checked online today and found out that there will be an Asia Cup football (soccer) match played in KL while we are there. The Asia Cup is the big soccer tournament for Asian countries that happens every 4 years, similar to the European Championships. Malaysia is playing Uzbekistan while we are there at the National Stadium, which was built for the Commonwealth Games a few years ago and seats 100,000 people!! Now, Malaysia v. Uzbekistan is not exactly a clash of the titans, but I found tickets for the game online for only $6, so I think we are going to buy a Malaysian t-shirt and a big Malaysian flag and go to the game!!
I don't have a definite date on when my internship will be wrapping up, but I suspect it will be around the 24th or so of July. My plans are tentative so far, but I am pretty sure I am going to be travelling in Thailand for most of the time after the internship. I would like to make it to Laos as well, but apparently flights are pretty expensive, although I might be able to take a bus from Bangkok.
So, that is what is in the works for me in the next few weeks! I will try to update some more this weekend before leaving for Kep, and then will definitely write more when we get back the following weeks about my adventures in a Cambodian village!!
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