Phnom Penh Pride!

This is the article I wrote for the VSO newsletter ... :o)

Were you in Phnom Penh between the 11th-17th May 2009? If so you couldn’t possibly have missed Phnom Penh Pride, where Cambodia’s LGBT (Lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgendered) comminity joined people from all over the world to celebrate International Day Against Homophobia 2009. Events lasted for a week and there was something for everyone. The queer film festival at the Meta-house showed a range of films from hugely inspirational international struggles, to love stories and comedies exploring LGBT themes. A range of SE Asian queer films ensured the film festival was proudly Asian!
Also at the metahouse, the ‘I am Pride’ art exhibition included art from both Khmer and international artists (including our very own Alan Flux!). The exhibition featured interactive ’womens’ and ’mens’ spaces where guests could explore their own creativity and express ideas about sexuality and gender through art.
Don’t forget the parties! Spirits were high and people were brimming with Pride- the perfect combination for people to dance the night away! The first party was held at MHSS (Mens Health Social Service) and the Mstyle boys led the party with games, performance, singers and a fab show- whilst delivering an all important safe-sex message. The show attracted a growing crowd of tuk tuk drivers, motodops and Khmer families, grannies and babies included! This contributed to an inclusive party which everyone enjoyed and just goes to show, you don’t have to be gay to be proud!
MHSS set the standards high and the other venues didn’t fail to deliver. Gloryhole at Pontoon welcomed a fab, mixed crowd of ex-pats, travelers and Khmer boys and girls of all ages. The boat was packed with lots of beautiful, strong, proud people; many looking very sexy in their Pride T-shirts. Blue Chilli was so full that they had to hire a tent and take over the street to contain the crowd. An incredibly dramatic Khmer blessing dance from DeeDee kicked of the show and world- class international and Khmer drag acts followed. The cocktails kept flowing, the drag shows kept wowing the crowd and Blue Chilli certainly has a lot to be proud of after delivering such a superb show! Salt Lounge provided the perfect ending to the week and crowned one lucky boy ‘Mr Gay Cambodia.’ Members of the Khmer LGBT community celebrated, united with their international friends and these events provided a safe space for people to celebrate being themselves, and feel proud of who they loved.

Whilst you couldn’t have missed the parties that painted Phnom Penh pink for the week, you could be forgiven for not noticing the important work going on behind the scenes. Whilst I am a big fan of the parties myself, there is much more to Pride than that. There are serious underlying problems that Khmer LGBT people face and the focus of Pride was to raise awareness of these issues, and provide an opportunity for LGBT people to meet and support each other. Pride 09 is the culmination of a huge collaboration between Khmer NGO’s, local businesses, LGBT volunteers and international NGO’s. VSO volunteers joined forces with NGO’s including Womyns Agenda for Change, Marie Stopes and Mstyle and together we were Ongka Pride and organised an Pride that was inclusive for LGBT people from the provinces. International LGBT groups further provided both moral and financial support, a powerful statement of unity as many of these countries are themselves facing struggles against homophobia and discrimination. Many of the LGBT community from the provinces had not previously met other LGBT people and some are living in isolation because of discrimination from society. Ongka Pride bought in 40 lesbians from four provinces, this is because there are NGO’s already working with gay men from a health perspective but until now, lesbians have been fairly neglected. We held workshops where men and women could voice their needs, meet others and learn about services/ support which are available to them. We also had a very special viewing of ‘Khnoyom chea neck na?’ Cambodia’s first lesbian film which, very conveniently for us was released in May! This was followed by a moving film made by PRySM, a group of LGBT Khmer people living in Prividence, USA. The film was made especially for Khmer LGBT attending Pride and was a message of encouragement, hope and unity. Pride also held a stakeholders workshop, which bought together NGOs concerned with LGBT health and support. This provided a good foundation for people working together in the future to ensure that people can expect respect regardless of who they love.

Following Pride, the future’s looking bright for the Khmer LGBT scene. The metahouse planning a monthly queer film night and there are rumours of the FCC starting an LGBT night once a month. If that’s not your scene then Salt Lounge, Blue Chilli, Gloryhole and MHSS offer a variety of different social events that should keep most people happy. Perhaps one of the most important outcomes of Pride is that Khmer lesbians have had a chance to stand up, and be heard and as a result, NGO’s that work with MSM (men who have sex with men) are exploring ways to expand their work and include lesbians. The message of Pride this year was simple and evident to see, love is a beautiful thing and something to be proud of.

My 2 seconds of fame!

This is a video of the end of our current project. Very excitingly I'm in it! :o) But more importantly it also it shows the province that I live in (Mondulkiri) and one of the four schools that I work in (Pu Loung). It also talks about what it is that I do in Cambodia! Please watch it, :oD Its beautiful!

Happy New Year! (Again!)

Well another month has gone by and yet ANOTHER new year…

Khmer new year- this is fab for my new years resolutions since

they only need to last a month each time, still though, they are not often kept!

April has been a month of holidays, with Khmer new year lasting officially a week- schools and the ministry are closed unofficially for a month- which means work is a write off! So I took myself off to Thailand and after 2 weeks of buckets of cocktails, swimming in fishponds, beautiful beaches, massages, kayaking, island hopping and motorbike adventures- it was time to come back to Cambodia. They say that absence makes the heart grow fonder and that is definitely how I feel about Cambodia. Thailand was beautiful and it was great being on holiday but I realised how much a missed Cambodia- which is a good thing really since Im living here for a fair while longer! I was in TOTAL culture shock in Thailand, despite being next door to Cambodia it is a different world- there are roads and shops and tescos and I cant believe how developed it is in comparison- the difference is immense and it is pretty sad to come back and see how poor Cambodia really is.

I came back in time for Khmer New Year and went straight to the beach to meet Claire in Sihanoukville, which was a lot of fun- Khmer New Year brings with it a lot of mayhem- people throw water and talcum powder at you when you’re walking past- it gets pretty messy but so so much fun! It can get pretty sore too though- as my assistant explained to me, its seen as rude to throw open water and this results in throwing bottles or bags of water- which thank god I avoided! Back in Mondulkiri I went to my friend Thon’s wedding which was very exciting- Sandra and I did as the Khmer girls do and went to the hairdressers for 2 hourse prior and got thick layers of make up and big hair- all for a bargain price of $5!

Coming back to my quiet little town has been a welcome shock to the system, bed by 8, rice every day, no parties- its nice getting back to normality! I have started playing badminton with the kids that live downstairs which is fun, but I lose pretty badly all the time, badminton is a national past-time here so I’ve got some catching up to do still! Other nights I go and play snooker with the guys I work with ( I lose at that too, theres really no excuse!). Another good way to spend a day is going to Elephant valley and having picnics and swimming and hanging out with the elephants- pretty cool life! The rainy season has started- in Mondulkiri this mean mud slides wherever you go and places being pretty inaccessible. In Phnom Penh it means practically swimming through the streets as the water level rises to mid thigh (but I am short!).We are currently trying to find hobbies for the wet season so that we don’t stay hiding in our houses for 6 months! So far I have been invited to join karaoke at an HIV NGO which will be one of my more unusual hobbies! Our brand new hobby is mountain biking- and when I say mountain, I really mean it! We hired bikes today and headed out to the waterfalls, and it was so hard! Mondulkiri is the name of the province and it literally means ‘meeting of the hills’, hmmm not sure how long this hobby will last but it was fun for the day!

My clothes have reached the height of fashion now- uber trendy wellies teamed with a bright green plastic raincoat, I’m told the ‘drenched cat’ look is very in right now which is handy since I’m in a constant state of drenched-ness, I always finish off the look with a thick layer of mud- so hot right now!

At work we are putting libraries into 8 schools in the province and I’m also starting planning holiday clubs since the schools break up (again!) pretty soon! Aside from official work, a few of us volunteers are also arranging Phnom Penh LGBT Pride 2009 to coincide with IDAHO (international day against homophobia)- which started off as a casual idea and snowballed into a huge event with amazing support from within Cambodia and the international community! It is really massive and so exciting, it will be unlike any other Pride I’ve been to since we’re aiming it at the LGBT community in the provinces who due to finance and distance have not previously had support from sexual health/LGBT services. It’s a lot of hard work but hopefully it will all come together and I’m learning so much and meeting hugely inspirational people through it.

Hair loss, sickness, 2 New Years and my 15 minutes of fame!

Hello and happy end of January! I ended 2008 by braving my first Cambodian hairdressing experience whilst visiting Claire in Kampot. At $3 for a full head of highlights it seemed like a bargain! After negotiations in khmengilsh about where the highlights would be placed- I sat back and relaxed with my hair in foils. The first sign that $3 highlights will not make you happy was that my head started to burn after about 10 minutes- I touched the foil and they were crazy hot… but what can you do? They washed them out shortly after and my hair was white blond- successful. And falling out in clumps- not successful! I tried not to cry and kept smiling and saying thank you since it wasn’t her fault my hair is different to Khmer hair. Hollie Claire and I cycled back to Claires house as quick as we could and I got them to pull all of my hair as hard as they could… luckily I still have a lots left so alls well that ends well and I have learnt my lesson :o)
We then headed on to shianoukville (the beach) to see the new year in, we met lots of other volunteers who came to Cambodia on our intake and so we had a big reunion. We had a great night- beach parties all long the sea front … may have had a few too many buckets of cocktails though and I missed new year with my friends cuz I was a’wanderin- we had a great night though and all swam in the sea and lost our flip flops and had lots of fun although January 1st was officially the worst day of my year! The beaches are beautiful and a couple of days later we went on a boat trip where we went snorkling around in the clear waters around some amazing islands. This month I have spent some time staying with friends- Hollie and I went to stay in Kratie with Claire Bennet. Kratie is lovely- ive been told.. I spent the entire weekend on Claires balconey feeling as though I was dying! On the Friday night we all went out for a bite to eat andd we got back home and we all stayed in Claires bed- I got up about 10 times with the worst sickness/tummy ever- but I wont go into details but it felt like the devil was trying to get out of me! I still cant believe Claire and Hollie didn’t wake up once! So yeah- all I saw of Kratie was Claires balcony whilst I drank cake and crackers,




I am still adjusting to a massive change in lifestyle- I cant describe how rural life is in mondkulkiri and in order to be happy, Ive had to adjust all the things that make me happy in a way… like enjoying nature, or learning how to play a game with some of the kids, just generally watching life go by and not feeling like I should be rushing around. Work is going so well- I am building great relationships with the teachers. I have just started working closely with a grade 1 teacher. Although the curriculum is in Khmer, she is bunong and does not understand Khmer well, so it’s a huge challenge to try and teach in Khmer- but I think she really appreciates the help. One of the main things im doing is trying to show the teachers that learning can be fun and so we try to play lots of games- because that is really lacking in the schools. I am so grateful at the moment about the thing that are happening in my life and how normal it seems- I don’t double take when I see an elephant walk past me on the way to work… I have the most amazing drives to the schools, through jungles, past waterfalls over mountains… breathtaking. Im also learning so much about life from the people I meet here, communities and families working together and taking care of each other. People taking time to do things- just to talk, to watch to laugh and be happy with such simple things in life that are sometimes easy to miss… Its really making me think about whats important- about how if you’re constantly looking for improvements and bigger and better things and things that will make you happier - you forget to be happy now…. I have started volunteering at English lessons at the boarding school so that the teenagers can practice speaking and hearing English. They are great and so sweet and friendly and curious about life outside of Cambodia- they are all very poor kids who live far from town and have to board to go to high school. Really inspirational- one boy walks home every month to see his family - it takes him a day each way, it’s a very long way to Memong.
Anyway, very excitingly, I may now be a big Khmer movie star! Well maybe that’s a slight over-exaggeration… VSO have done a documentary about the end of our ‘mainstreaming inclusive education’ project. One of the schools in the district I work in was in the film, (pu loung- great school) anyway they were filming for two days and our section is only 5 minutes (crazy!) but I might be in it… never know and then I can be famous- well within VSO!
A couple of weeks ago- after I had truly recovered from new year- we had another ney year- chienese new year! My landlords family cooked a feast and they bought some up to my house which was sweet, when I took the bowl back they insisted that I stay for a beer- or 6! It was really good fun, the men were so so drunk though- but in a funny way! Khmer women don’t generally drink so we normally end up drinking with the men and then going to chat with the women- parties are fairly bizarrely segregated like that- but everyone seems happy so cest la vie! Everyone here loves parties and any excuse will do!

Right now im in Phnom Penh for two weeks on extended language training- so we’re back with Dara talking about songsaas, panyahas and coach chetts and receiving life advice from the wiseness that is the essence of Dara! All enjoyable but I miss my home in the mountains and am looking forward to getting back!
Wow these blogs are getting longer and longer- I must be waffling more!
Muchos love till next time xxxx
P.s. Here are some crazy little price facts for those of you who are bored enough to still be reading… Beer is cheaper than water, hash browns are more expensive than hash (so we’ve been told!) and cheese is more expensive than caviar- crazy! Needless to say it is the cheese that’s most upsetting…

Jungle bells, jungle bells... (yep, i know is cringeworthy!)

So its very nearly Christmas and it feels like time is just flying by at the moment! Its all very busy here at work since it is the dry season, so we’re going full steam ahead to make sure we have maximum productivity since during the wet season a lot of the schools we work in are totally unreachable- and even the closer ones are extremely difficult to get to…
So this month has been lots of fun- started off by going to Phnom Penh and partying hard with Hollie and Claire- which was totally guilt free as partying hard only happens once a month now! We did lots of getting tipsy :o), lots of feeling hungover :o(, swimming, pedicures (which is not so extravagant at $1) shopping in supermarkets as opposed to markets and most importantly… eating lots of yummy cheese!
Back in the sticks, I’ve also been sightseeing and went to Bou Sra waterfall which is about an hour away on the bikes with Jan and Keith (my adoptive Cambodian parents). We took a picnic and watched the swimming Cambodian stylee (whole families together, fully clothed for modesty). The waterfalls were amazing… two tiers and absolutely beautiful. It was nice to do some sightseeing since there’s barely been time! In the last few days we’ve had two Christmas parties…. Which seems ludicrous as it does not feel like Christmas all! Nonetheless we had loads of fun- pressies from Santa, pin the nose on the Rudolph, charades, mince pies (!), mulled wine and pass the parcel- we even managed to find some fake snow! Keith got Jan the best present in the world- the only bath in the province! He had it made by the local ironmonger especially for her. It really was the sweetest present~ will take a super long time to boil enough kettles to fill it though!

On the work front, like I said we’re all very busy and its really starting to come together! I’ve been working with Pu Loung school (which has such an inspirational school director) to put together ‘learning corners’ which are tables in each corner of the room with learning activities that can help children to learn- it might sound like a simple idea- but it is so difficult to implement as teaching methods here are all very much ‘chalk and talk.’ Its very hard trying to encourage teachers to be creative and try new things- as this is not in the culture at all. But it is all going in the right direction and this particular school is so keen to get new ideas which makes it so lovely to work with them.
Last week I went to Koh Nheak, which is the district that Sandra is working in. It is the furthest district in the province and we had to travel for 4 hours on a path through the jungle to get there. Our translator called in sick on the day which meant a) we had to drive ourselves and b) communication would be severely compromised! The drive was so difficult- it was an extremely dusty track, with potholes, gravel and very steep hills- but four and a half hours, one fall (me :o( ) we arrived- covered in thick red dust and very tired! Sandra has done great work in the schools there- and they are so difficult to reach! We had to wade across a river to get to one, and so our trousers were soaked when we got there! One school in particular had an excellent teacher who had started a girls football team- Sandra and I somehow found ourselves playing a football match with them, they were very good and didn’t go easy on us! Our lack of translator meant we didn’t know whose team we were on till halfway through but I think we played superbly ;o) It was great seeing the girls playing confidently and strongly since many of the women here tack a backseat and there are huge disparities in gender equality.

So that about it for now, but yes, feeling a lot more settled into life and work here, which is great! I’m looking forward to Christmas at Jan and Keiths with Claire, Dr Saresh (who is Hindu from India), our Khmer assistants Veasna and Vorthera (one Buddhist and one atheist) So we are going to have a multi-cultural, multi- religious mixture of a Christmas! Fab! And then on Saturday I am off to the beach for a holiday over new year- and I expect a lot of jealousy for that since England must be pretty freezing right now ;o)

If you’re still reading this loooooong blog…. Well done! And I hope you have a ~

VERY MERRY CHRISTMAS AND A VERY HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!

Life in the Mountains & Jungle…..

I have now been living in Sen Monorom in Mondulkiri for nearly three weeks. It takes 8 hours in a scary pick up truck up sliding muddy ‘roads’ to get to this isolated little haven in the middle of nowhere. It is an incredibly pretty province surrounded by jungle, rivers, waterfalls and mountains that remind me of the Drakensberg in South Africa- so immediately felt quite at home! I am living in a pretty wooden house on the edge of a lake, which means I have stunning views from all my windows and am getting used to living alone ( with the mouse, 2 small ghekos and a big gheko which reminds me of a crocodile!). When we arrived the weather was very hot, but a lot cooler than the rest of Cambodia but now the weather has taken an unexpected (for me) turn and although it can still get pretty hot in the day, the nights are freezing, and since I didn’t think Cambodia had a winter I was very ill prepared! Still, I have begged, stolen and borrowed some jumpers, 3 blankets and a hot water bottle and now I can just about bear it! The fact that my house is wooden means some of the cold wind rushes in in gaps through the planks- but im told the winter is short! In the mornings I am woken up by the landlords roosters, ducks and chickens at 5am. In Cambodia , most of the houses do not have hot water, so its cold showers all round- if you have a shower- which I don’t! So showering consists of throwing buckets of icy water on your head, which can be improved by boiling some water first. But in my case….. the bathroom walls and ceiling aren’t attached which means when its windy, the wind gushes through making it the worst shower experience ever! …. so all in all I am eagerly awaiting the return of summer! But I cant complain, Sen monorom only got electricity a week before we arrived, so I think I timed it just right! There are no grocery shops etc… here so everything is bought at the market, but there is not a huge amount there, so most VSOs save up to trek back to Phnom Penh once every 6 weeks to stock up on necessities! One thing about living here is that everyday activities take a lot longer…. going to the market to buy ice for the icebox every two days because we don’t have fridges, handwashing all our clothes etc…. but I think we’re all getting used to it! We also have a pretty good social life here though, not by Brighton standards, but by Cambodian standards! There are quite a few NGOs working in the district which means there are about 25 europeans based here and from what I can tell there is at least one party a week to go to, there is also a great bamboo bar called the greenhouse which is very pretty and a few good restaurants and retreat-type places. Its great!

I will be working with schools in the Senmonorom district of Mondulkiri. The work I do in each schools will be different. The first school I am working in is PuLoung, which has an amazing enthusiastic school director who has built a playground, managed to get water filters for each classroom, has toilets that are clean and work! It is an amazing school and very advanced compared to many others, so we will be working on recycling initiatives, a vegetable patch (so that kids can sell the produce) as well as learning games and teaching methodology. In other schools, hygiene may be the most important issue, since many don’t even have toilets or running water, or have very badly maintained toilets. And in other schools it will mainly be teaching methodologies and working towards child-friendly schools. I do think the schools here are amazing for what they are given. Most teachers only get paid $30 per month and one school in my district only has the school director as a teacher- this means he is teaching all grades, all day, alone. Others have multi-grade classes whereby grade 3 sits facing one wall, grade 4 faces the other way and the teacher somehow manages to teach them all. The kids are incredibly well behaved- I really don’t see multi-grade teaching working in the UK ! The majority of kids here are from the minority tribe, Pnong, but instruction is in Khmer, a language many of them don’t speak…. so there are plenty of barriers to education here and I think I have my work cut out for me!

One, Two, do the Kung Fu….

Well Tai Kwan Do actually but theres no song about that! Well we’ve been back in the sleepy ‘city’ of Kampong Cham, where there is not much to do apart from go to Khmer classes in the mornings, practise Khmer in the afternoons and look at the river in the evenings. Apart from the fabulous company of the fellow volunteers, this all gets a bit samey and I can imagine that if we were here for much longer we would all go more than a little crazy and start talking to the coconuts for a bit of different company! But this stint in Kampong Cham has been a little more interesting since Claire and I found a Tai Kwan Do class, so now we are not only sharing skills and changing lives, we are also learning Khmer and now we are learning tai kwan do- in Khmer. Yes I think we are pretty amazing, haha. Its very challenging trying to learn a martial art in our broken Khmer, we can pick up words here and there, and we try to make up the rest of them. Our teacher only knows two English words, which he says in a distressed frustrated way… ‘Noooooooooooooooooooooo! Wrooooooooooooong!’ And I think we might upset him a lots with our lack of ability, despite the fact that we are the only ones in the class above the age of 5! The kids are pretty amazing, especially compared to us, doing the splits and stuff, our teacher doesn’t appreciate that we are not quite as bendy and when we are stretching he will often come and kick out feet further apart, which induces tears in our eyes and silent wincing…. But the pain will be worth it, I have full faith in us gaining our black belts by the time we leave Kampong Cham next Friday!

Apart from that our days are filled with washing clothes the old fashioned way - in a tub with a lot of stamping! Lots of cycling and getting food at the market. The heat can be unbearable at times, especially since we are all being culturally sensitive by covering up at all times in the baking heat, no vest tops and shorts :o(. As soon as we get in our hotel rooms though all the sweaty clothes come off immediately and we are all much happier in sarongs and kroma’s (the traditional Cambodian scarves).