tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-67562312294918976832011-08-01T22:42:13.917+01:00JNKhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11591704475825803755noreply@blogger.comBlogger331100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6756231229491897683.post-89706999962805769672010-04-05T08:00:00.016+01:002010-04-26T10:12:53.847+01:00

So off we troll down to Phnom Penh, our usual journey governed by a number of variables most of which out of our control. However, the weather had been kind during the last couple of months with minimal rainfall, so we expected uneventful travel. So it proved to be - taking about 6.5hrs and the road continues to improve beyond recognition from when we arrived some fifteen months ago.Phnom Penh

JNKhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11591704475825803755noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6756231229491897683.post-54700550368976574852009-12-22T05:12:00.012Z2009-12-28T10:29:25.492Z

Well here we still are - our second Xmas in Cambodia. It sometimes feels like an age and other times like we arrived only yesterday. Current weather conditions include very dry, nice and warm during the day, cool at night and windy. Oh yes and very, very, very dusty! It’s a bit like California except its dusty and not by the sea and very different people!However life here is never boring. There’s

JNKhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11591704475825803755noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6756231229491897683.post-20758388343517383622009-11-29T03:19:00.003Z2009-12-22T05:11:46.427Z

November 2009.After being very big and brave receiving my dental treatment in Phnom Penh we awaited the visit of Sophie, Jan’s youngest.Still dubious that all arrangements were going to work, as nothing is ever written down, we waited outside VSO central at the allotted time for our taxi. Eventually it turned up only a few minutes late to being our next adventure!We duly arrived at the airport

JNKhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11591704475825803755noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6756231229491897683.post-61563721191995642832009-11-14T05:28:00.006Z2009-11-21T04:09:18.773Z

As the new school year opening approached we were subjected to a cyclone. Ketsana, as it was named, wreaked havoc and left death and destruction in its wake as it traversed Vietnam. It lost much of its potency as it swept into Cambodia. However, it still killed eleven and caused extensive flooding in low lying areas before we were caught by the tail end of it. VSO managed to email us the day

JNKhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11591704475825803755noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6756231229491897683.post-52045427492112723652009-09-19T09:22:00.023+01:002010-03-05T09:49:13.454Z

July, Aug and Sept 2009!July was an odd month with schools generally winding down due to exams and the rainy season closing in. Despite these difficulties we still managed to hold several workshops and meetings.Jan, with Meg our Youth volunteer, wrote and held a very successful workshop on resources. This included making and using available materials to support teaching and learning. Each

JNKhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11591704475825803755noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6756231229491897683.post-52698406500111951782009-08-20T19:58:00.004+01:002009-10-19T13:16:25.700+01:00

The weather in June was really sunny and hot. Then July started and so did the rain. When I say rain I mean RAIN. As a Brit you know the experience behind the comment but it has rained persistently hard for day after day, and night, without respite. I suppose we should have been suspicious when we passed a white haired man with a long beard on top of one of the local hills. He seemed to be

JNKhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11591704475825803755noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6756231229491897683.post-24246927772977256612009-07-12T10:31:00.011+01:002009-07-12T11:18:07.747+01:00

What a month! Started at a fairly sedate pace, low key and routine then – kerpow! We had his Excellency the Minister of Education arrive mid June for a two day visit to see the impact the current project has had.The build up had grown a pace beginning with a suggested itinerary with poor weather alternatives built in (another Khmer first!). Teachers and children were excited and it was a big deal

JNKhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11591704475825803755noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6756231229491897683.post-46149407079449675872009-06-09T01:21:00.009+01:002009-07-12T08:08:29.662+01:00

Funny old place Cambodia. They have a big celebration for Khmer New Year where nearly everything shuts down (it seems most schools also take a week before and a week after as well) and people travel all over the country to visit friends and relations (see last months Blog for our adventures). Then a week or so after being back at work there is a series of celebrations which wrap up effectively

JNKhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11591704475825803755noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6756231229491897683.post-21883394482537466022009-05-07T01:43:00.009+01:002009-05-07T03:07:26.922+01:00

To those who follow this blog you may be surprised to find an ‘April’ entry. We must now all face up to reality and assume that Cirqe du Soleil have not taken up my high wire repair the water tank routine. The interview went well enough but I was somewhat upset having to share a dressing room with a former Olympic gymnast who was also auditioning with some gimmicky turn yourself inside out and

JNKhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11591704475825803755noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6756231229491897683.post-84563993452150865742009-04-01T15:16:00.007+01:002009-04-01T15:39:26.246+01:00

30th March 2009Things continue at a pace, well for Cambodia anyway! We are trying to introduce a new (and impose) a new concept, punctuality! We are attempting this ambitious feat by introducing what we have called UK-Khmer time (for VSO who love acronyms, perhaps it should be UKKT or UK2T). The former, or as I should write UK2T, as opposed to Khmer time, or KT, which is the actual time +

JNKhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11591704475825803755noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6756231229491897683.post-8602624901307319862009-03-15T02:31:00.009Z2009-03-21T10:11:01.323Z

Sunday March 15thA colleague from the POE (Provincial Office of Education) arrived Friday afternoon 06th March about 1100hrs to present his work plan for inspection for the next six months. Great thinks I forward planning but then it becomes clear that we leave for the first inspection on Tuesday 10th March with a meeting Tuesday morning (Monday is International Women’s Day holiday) to clarify

JNKhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11591704475825803755noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6756231229491897683.post-21913978148399885592009-02-21T08:23:00.006Z2009-03-15T02:30:27.202Z

20th Feb 2009Just returned back to good old Sen Monorom after a double stint in Phnom Penh.School’s out FOREVER, what a turn around. The photo shows me collecting ‘best in class’ award from Dara our Khmer teacher. We have just completed our second stint consisting of two weeks of Khmer language training. As you may recall from an earlier blog missive, the first ‘dose’ comprising of two, two week

JNKhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11591704475825803755noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6756231229491897683.post-89818896031555361392009-01-25T07:52:00.006Z2009-01-25T09:13:08.630Z

25th Jan 2009Since my last month's missive I thought what there was to write about but worry not there’s lots to note, so much so my editor (Jan) will savage this sagacious commentary! In this edition I will highlight some of the Cambodian ways mixed with what we are actually doing (please keep reading it will not be that bad (promise).We held another VSO team nosh night, once again trying to

JNKhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11591704475825803755noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6756231229491897683.post-24522702092955821932009-01-06T11:51:00.011Z2009-01-07T12:00:27.502Z

Jan 04th 2009After our excellent Xmas repast we wend our weary way westwards whence we came i.e. back to the centre of all things Khmer, namely, Phnom Penh, as every journey seems to begin and end here no matter where you want to go. After spending the customary seven+ hours from Sen Monorom and completing an overnighter in PNH we can be seen waiting at the bus station.As you can see Jan has not

JNKhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11591704475825803755noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6756231229491897683.post-47328499527338347832008-12-26T11:16:00.012Z2008-12-26T11:55:19.841Z

26th December 2008Well it’s all over, Xmas for another year! As a normal work day, yes Dec 25th, we found the usual frustrations of stop start projects and issues. Jan and Meg (a youth volunteer) went to a ‘cluster’ meeting only to return a bit fed up with the Deputy Director who is basically a lazy ‘whatsit’ (those readers who know me well will be able to infer the comments I would like to write

JNKhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11591704475825803755noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6756231229491897683.post-74095225248721000182008-12-16T11:11:00.006Z2008-12-16T11:55:28.340Z

No doubt you are gearing up in the UK for the usual festive excesses. Too much food, too much drink and banal TV….oh to be home!!We have the unusual situation for the first time to be in a country which does not observe this festival, or so we were led to believe.Whist in Phnom Penh a couple of weeks ago the supermarket, Pencil, was stocked with Santa hats, faux trees and all manner of

JNKhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11591704475825803755noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6756231229491897683.post-90804314293105852952008-12-10T11:15:00.005Z2008-12-10T11:28:42.185Z

Now early December and we hear of chills and snow back home, shame!We have ventured from out temperate paradise to engage in ventures far a field.Due to circumstances beyond our control we have no VA’s, or volunteer assistants, who act as our translators at workshops, meetings etc, etc, etc. They are extremely competent and very skilled and get paid very little. Anyway, I was invited to a CESSP

JNKhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11591704475825803755noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6756231229491897683.post-71133447395882564332008-12-09T11:36:00.002Z2008-12-09T11:57:43.669Z

Now the 25th November; it’s amazing how quickly the time goes and yet we seem to be pottering about not feeling that we are doing very much to further the good work carried out so far.If you have read the previous blogs (and if not, why not!) then you may have changed your opinion re: poor them living in such conditions. Before you fully make up your mind let me point out a few other ‘issues’ for

JNKhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11591704475825803755noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6756231229491897683.post-70103884670245233682008-11-16T04:26:00.005Z2008-12-09T11:51:22.472Z

Our first week at work consisted of an initial meeting with Rith from the VSO office in Phnom Penh (a rare visit by all accounts), general information and essential nuts and bolts of how things work or not as may be the case. There were also meetings with various personnel, trying to get a handle on who does what etc.Jan has been in discussion with an outgoing volunteer from Holland called Wanda

JNKhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11591704475825803755noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6756231229491897683.post-91315990880218964282008-11-16T01:48:00.004Z2008-12-09T12:13:26.721Z

Our journey up from Phnom Penh was in the (luxurious) VSO pick-up with our accompanying goods and chattels. As always it proved to be eventful and a little scary. Rith (a very nice man) who is our VSO office contact in Phnom Penh for all matters educational, drove the pick-up. Poor lad had never before experienced such road conditions much vaunted and described by other Mondulkiri volunteers (

JNKhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11591704475825803755noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6756231229491897683.post-25615006503549280432008-11-15T01:55:00.003Z2008-11-15T02:07:43.623Z

The assembled group (as per photograph) is our long suffering language class. Long suffering on two counts, namely: our teacher or, as we call him, “The Dara Learner” who has had to remain sane and those in the group who have had to endure our (Jan’s & my) fairly pathetic attempts to learn enough vocabulary and grammar in order to string a (complex) sentence together e.g. this is my purple dog.

JNKhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11591704475825803755noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6756231229491897683.post-70869659215292892702008-10-25T12:09:00.002+01:002008-11-15T01:54:50.026Z

This is for anyone who will probably never visit Kampong Cham - nor would I recommend it, unless you like bridges e.g. the much revered Spayan Kizuna. The entertainment capital of Kampuchea aka Cambodia IS Kampong Cham or as VSO volunteers see it (probably through very thick ‘rose tinted’ spectacles) the only entertainment capital in Cambodia.Anyway, such is the vast array of leisure

JNKhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11591704475825803755noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6756231229491897683.post-88150281579702223212008-10-17T13:24:00.002+01:002008-10-17T13:28:00.245+01:00

Sunday 05th OctWe duly waited for our 0900hr transfer to arrive. At 1100hrs a pick-up truck (which I will refer to as the “coop”) emerged packed to the gunnels with goods and chattels and then topped off with about ten people. Our luggage was summarily tied on (somewhere) and after much debate and discussion by phone we reluctantly climbed aboard the pre-reserved four seats (ha!). This is worthy

JNKhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11591704475825803755noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6756231229491897683.post-87306136721404446732008-10-17T13:20:00.001+01:002008-10-17T13:24:05.696+01:00

Our final few days in Kampong Cham (start of October) saw the last of our torture, sorry Khmer language lessons, and getting sorted to go to placement to Sen Monorom the ‘capital’ of Mondulkiri province.On Friday evening 03rd October we held the second of the VSO world series pub quiz across from the Mekong hotel in Kampong Cham over looking the mighty Mekong river (perhaps why it’s called the

JNKhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11591704475825803755noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6756231229491897683.post-37698798418990305932008-09-29T12:13:00.001+01:002008-09-29T12:17:33.955+01:00

Our trip to Kampong Cham was uneventful (if you ignore the road traffic etc). We had a brief stop to be offered deep fried spiders and all manner of ‘food’ from questionable origin, which we politely declined as we had been advised by other VSO volunteers.The Mekong Hotel is clean and comfortable in VSO’s price range (which isn’t much) and overlooks the mighty Mekong River. We were allocated

JNKhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11591704475825803755noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6756231229491897683.post-80927680419033452392008-09-19T11:00:00.003+01:002008-09-29T12:19:38.119+01:00

We left UK on Wed 10th Sept after imposing on relatives for sixteen days. Returning back from Newark to Lichfield we re-sorted essentials and packed for our departure.Jo kindly ferried us to BHX airport with as much as we could cram into our 22Kg allowance (although we also had two crash helmets, two computers wearing two coats with pockets full of a plethora of electronic bits and pieces).

JNKhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11591704475825803755noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6756231229491897683.post-53570067058031865272008-08-30T18:21:00.003+01:002008-08-30T18:42:15.658+01:00

As you can see, "fame at last". The image is part of an article featured in the current edition of our local paper, the Lichfield Mercury. Apologies for the photograph (please feel free to use it to keep young children from an open fire). We are now homeless, having left Lichfield Saturday 23rd August to stay with Cliff & Jean, Jan's mum & dad, in Exeter. It sems really odd at present as if we

JNKhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11591704475825803755noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6756231229491897683.post-3097120632888305032008-08-17T08:45:00.012+01:002008-08-18T21:10:07.393+01:00

Today (Sun 17th August) we are exhausted after (successfully) completing back to back training courses. Our first was the SKWID course (another great VSO acronym!). This consisted of a five day residential at Harbourne Hall, B'Ham 08th - 12th August. In total there were approx forty people in attendance and six trainers. To summarise, we covered all manner of issues to support our placements in

JNKhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11591704475825803755noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6756231229491897683.post-33178585214166242582008-08-15T19:05:00.010+01:002008-08-18T21:02:27.298+01:00

We recently managed a final sortie into our beloved Derbyshire Dales with Stressbusters (our regular walking group). We met near Biggin, walked down a beautiful dale to the river Dove then to Hartington for lunch. We then trolled up past Hartington Youth Hostel, joined the Tissington Trail, returning to Biggin. The weather was very good (one of the few ones this summer) we shall miss the

JNKhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11591704475825803755noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6756231229491897683.post-81422809073926285942008-07-21T12:29:00.013+01:002008-07-23T18:01:00.879+01:00

Fund raising has kept us busy at home and at school. In total we've raised approx £450 which will be forwarded to VSO and Water Aid. Thank you to all those smoothie drinkers and cake eaters!In the immortal words of Alice Cooper "School's out" and we are now in the throws of final sorting. The mini bus has provided excellent transport for all items, bulky or otherwise, to the Tardis aka the '

JNKhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11591704475825803755noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6756231229491897683.post-26704847796876298272008-07-04T12:02:00.006+01:002008-07-23T18:00:04.903+01:00

Recent events have seen more activity on the 'jabs' front including rabies! Both Jan and I have been busy still sorting the house out. Trying to tie up all the house services such as council tax, insurance etc, etc seemingly take ages to organise. We have been both busy at school raising funds by making cakes, fruit smoothies and milk shakes, selling them at lunch times. As the end of term

JNKhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11591704475825803755noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6756231229491897683.post-81504012736240065282008-06-22T07:37:00.010+01:002008-07-05T08:25:46.114+01:00

13-16th June saw our first training course at the VSO training centre, Harbourne Hall, Birmingham. Beginning each day at 0900hrs and finishing at approx 2000hrs (just sufficient to catch the Euro 2000 football tournament and my Swiss team in the school sweep to be the first one knocked out). We attended a variety of sessions ranging from global awareness / issues to HIV & Aids. We were impressed

JNKhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11591704475825803755noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6756231229491897683.post-19973651985155214332008-06-07T19:25:00.011+01:002008-07-07T18:08:18.604+01:00

After the rigours of 'selection' and much deliberation, Jan & I have decided to go to Cambodia as part of a VSO initiative and have both resigned from our teaching jobs. We are currently very busy trying to sort out all the logistics of our two year placement scrounging extra garage (storage) space, rationalising goods and chattels, rearranging bank and matters financial.We seem bombarded with

JNKhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11591704475825803755noreply@blogger.com0