Time Flies When You're Out of Town

October was a pretty busy month for Ben and I, as we got stuck into our various jobs. We both had a week break during the Khmer festival Pchum Ben, where the Khmer people return to the villages to pay homage to their living relatives and pray and give offerings for their ancestors passed, begging the spirits to free their ancestors from hell during the 15 days the gates are opened and their 'ghosts' are allowed to roam the earth... (who said Buddhism was all yoga and meditation and pretty smells? It can be pretty frightening to the Khmer). Anyway, during this time I had a 5-day business trip to Jakarta for PD, which was the first time I left Cambodia in 9 months! It was a busy conference where I learned a lot about my new role supporting high schoolers as they go on to University or return to their passport countries. It may come as a surprise, but Indonesia felt surprisingly foreign, western and quite developed in comparison to Cambodia! 

When I returned, I was greeted at the airport by my Mum! A few hours later and my Dad showed up as well :) They were here for their own conference and to visit us of course. I was so happy to see them, 10 months had been the longest I have ever gone without seeing them. I visited them at their hotel, we did some errands together and went to the tourist markets, before they came back to our place to stay with us. Over the weekend we went to Chambok Eco-village a few hours out of Phnom Penh, where you can hike to visit the waterfalls, climb into caves full of tiny bats, ride ox-carts, go twitching (that's bird-watching to you Noobs) and at the end of the day spend the night at a homestay of the local villagers. We stayed with a wonderful lady named Sarun. She was now a widow who lived with her 2 cows, 3 pigs, 4 dogs and numerous children and grandchildren (one just 5 days old when we arrived) in a little wooden hut on a small plot of land with a backdrop of mountains and rice paddies. In the evenings we'd chat all in Khmer and I'd translate for our two families, learning all about them and their lives, and especially about rice! She taught me all the different types of rice she grows, when it's in season, when they harvest, which different foods you eat the different types with, which ones weren't such a good crop this year, and when we must come back to help harvest! Haha :) But yes, we had a lovely time out there away from the city, swimming in the falls, enjoying wonderful home-cooked meals by the Chambok women's group, getting soaked by rain riding "iron buffalos" which are the funny two-wheeled tractors that pull wooden carts. The Eco-village project is run by the villagers themselves, with women on rotation forming the 'restaurant', young people being forest guides and the people opening their homes to tourists at just $4 a night for a perfectly decent mattress and mossie net :) And most of the money goes directly to them, with the rest going into a pot for loans to help other families get set up to join the program. A worthy cause if you ever get the chance to go. To be honest I was quite anxious much of the time, but being with my family was the best medicine- even if Dad being the Royal Nong that he is sometimes fueled the fire haha (you'll get a glimpse of that in the video). He works very hard all the time and was a bit ill when he visited, yet still managed make an adventure of every minute. Love ya Dad. Mum stayed with us a few days longer after we got back, and she took me on multiple 'therapy' trips to nice coffee shops and markets where she spoiled me rotten (it was nice enough finding our washing done and dried and folded!) I still miss her, and hope I can see them both again soon :')

Time went really slowly for a while after that. I was quite homesick for several weeks (still am a bit!) but we got stuck back into work, and then suddenly it was November and the Water Festival break! In Cambodia this is different to Myanmar and Thailand where they have a giant water-throwing fight in April. No, in Cambodia it celebrates the changing of direction of the Mekong River, the only river in the world to do so. After the monsoon rains, the Mekong river and the Tonle Sap Lake fill up so that the overflow makes it change direction. Or something like that. Anyway, usually all of Cambodia comes to Phnom Penh for the Dragon boat races of hundreds of men on skinny boats paddling like mad downriver... but due to civil unrest lately and some horrific accidents in past events (such as a stampede where over 300 people died) the event was cancelled this year. For us, it didn't matter so much, for we were getting out of town. Over the weekend we attended the annual Logos/ Asian Hope Staff Retreat at Sihanoukville, a beach town about 5hrs drive from PP. My family and I used to go there a lot, but gosh the place had changed. The days were broken into a few group sessions and then free time, which we mostly spent with friends walking the beach or eating haha. Forget Khmer food (which we eat a reasonable amount of) Ben and I probably put on a few kilos with all the delicious western food we could get at that tourist town! However, early the second morning, the first time I took a dip in the sea nearly ruined the whole trip. As Ben was photographing me in the water at a secluded little bay in the forest, a Khmer boy snuck up behind Ben, grabbed my handbag and ran off with it. I watched it happen and yelled to Ben who took off after him. Thank God he dropped it because inside was my phone and wallet with over $100 and all my ID, bank cards, license you name it. My anxiety took over for a bit that day, as you might image, but by the afternoon we found ourselves trudging to the ocean in the flooded streets and pouring rain, completely soaked to the core, having a good laugh with friends. Believe it or not but the ocean was like a spa-bath after that, so lovely and warm! Anyway, Ben and I stayed on a little longer after the retreat, and moved to a different beach for a change of scenery. It was a nice few days of riding bicycles, swimming in the warm, shallow water and stuffing ourselves with beach BBQs. 

Now it'll once again be back to work- and my 24th birthday on Wednesday, gosh- for just a few more weeks and then it'll be Christmas. Where did all the time go?

Check out Ben's video to have a little sneak peak into these beautiful locations we visited- and maybe you'd like to come visit too! He's such a talented man!

Tragedy of the common (people)

"It's no problem for Cambodians".  A phrase which could apply to many things: wearing long-sleeves and pants in the afternoon, eating prohok like it's Nutella or driving a moto through a flooded street as if it were a boat.  I heard it today from a deck-hand on a glass-bottom boat when I was questioning why he was keeping 5-6 baby fish to eat.

Let me preface this by saying a few things: 1 - this man was not in poverty.  Working for a foreign-run business in a tourist area would be one of the better-paying jobs in this area.  Human life trumps the life of animals, so if all you can catch is baby fish, then by all means.  2 - these were varieties of cod, some of which grow in excess of 1m, and the smallest legal sizes for all but one species of cod in Western Australia is 30-40cm.  3 - these cod were about 6-10cm in length; literally babies.

Normally I'm a reserved person and don't directly question people about their actions, but in this instance I probed further:
Q - "Do you know that these fish will grow much bigger?"
A - "Here only little fish, big fish deeper in the ocean"
Q/statement - "In my country we have many bigger fish because we release the babies"
A - "It's no problem for Cambodians"

Which is exactly the point: in developing countries such as Cambodia, overfishing is one of the greatest threats to food security.  Not only is it a drastic problem for Cambodia, but for almost all fishery-dependent nation in the world.  According to the WWF, all but 15% of the world's fish stocks are fully exploited, over exploited, depleted or recovering from depletion, and at the current rate, all table-fish stocks are expected to collapse by 2048.

So, how do we create change?  If you know, please tell me, because the only idea that kept coming up in my head was to go full-greenpeace and tip out the bucket of baby cod (which I regrettably did not do).  But speaking to this man, I could see there was no understanding of the concept of "sustainable fishing".  The explanation for the observation of only baby fish being found was simply that the big fish are somewhere else, here there are only small fish, so I will eat these small fish.  Attempts to explain that these fish will grow bigger were futile, as was highlighting difference in fishing practices between our countries - "It's no problem for Cambodians".

Now I know what you're thinking - if this guy throws his fish back, the other fishermen are going to keep them, meaning he loses out, so of course if makes sense for him to keep keeping the baby fish.  However this situation mirrors the Prisoner's dilemma - if each fisherman acts in what seems to bring the greatest reward to themselves, both end up losing.  This is exactly what we've seen and continue to see around the world in instances beyond fishing.  To reap the greatest benefit for all parties, what's needed is cooperation - parties taking a lesser reward each, however the population benefits overall.

But how do we do that?  How can you convince someone to throw away a meal today to give a greater chance of a meal tomorrow?  It's so frustrating having these  conversations because skills such as reasoning, evidence-based practice and analysing observations are not at all emphasised in the Khmer school system, and even then, less than 50% of children finish high school.

Therefore, fostering these skills in the next generation of Cambodians is vital.  I am fortunate to play a small role in this, but I take it very seriously (not that my students would notice).  I believe it absolutely critical that future ministers, heads of industry and businesses are able to look at our world in all its complexity, balance and current turmoil and make informed decisions that will lead to the best outcomes.  But not the best outcomes for not only themselves, but make decisions that lead to the best outcomes for the flora and fauna, people of other race, social status or religion, and generations to come.

/rant