Soon September

It's been a while since the Battambang meeting. I looked back through my journal this morning and one line stood out from entries over the past couple of weeks:

Things have come together even though there were moments when I wasn't completely together!

Things have come together for Chanty to take a month out of her regular duties of cleaning, cooking and coaching ping pong to attend a course on cooking and food preparation. Chanty has a place to stay in Phnom Penh with a Cambodian family, a regular moto taxi driver to take her and from class and a work experience opportunity with an Australian who is more than happy for Chanty to try out her new recipes at her house!

Things came together last week for the futsal/ streetball tournament. It was an intense six-days but our team did a fantastic job coordinating the 28 youth & children's teams that joined. We also had some middle distance running races through the week and a Taekwondo demonstration on the final day.

Things came together for filming part of a DVD series in Phnom Penh the weekend before last. (I was being interviewed.) The crew did an amazing job working in the hot, humid early afternoon sunshine. I predict that my short quotes will be edited down to about 22 seconds total screen time. We'll find out early next year...

In a couple of hours Plunge is due to land in Phnom Penh. It's our biggest team in six years of receiving teams in Cambodia (27 people). I'm sure there will be times when it's obvious to them that I don't have it all together and I haven't mastered the Buddhist ideal of being calm and controlled no matter what. There's life in it's uncertainty, mysteriously coming together. And I'm okay with that.

School is Out

Sport is In

August 11 Forum

First for the bad news: I think I snotted on the Governors. I was worried that my Khmer language skills wouldn't be up to scratch before attending a one day forum in Battambang last week. (The topic was Enabling Environment for Development Effectiveness.) It was the least of my concerns.

My indiscretions started the moment I arrived. It seemed like a good idea to rent half of the front passenger seat for the 100km+ trip from Poipet. Why not?! It's normal around here. Five bucks for a taxi ride... who cares if you are squeezed in with another local woman in the front seat with four guys in the back? However, when we stopped in front of the large, spacious hotel, I noticed the car park was already crammed with SUVs and 4WDs with NGO and Government plates. The parking attendant politely opened the door as I uncrumpled my body from the crowded Camry. He gave me a questioning look before helping me negotiate a zig-zap route between the vehicles to the lobby. Hmmm...maybe there is a different kind of normal here?

The next morning I awoke with a killer sore throat and a cold. We were a bit out of town so it wasn't easy to stop into a pharmacy and buy some drugs. A hot coffee with sweet milk revived me somewhat and I checked the schedule. Registration from 7:30am, official start at 8am. I thought I was punctual to enter the conference room at 7:45am but the seats were already about two-thirds full. I noticed a table near the front was almost empty so I joined the two men who were already seated. My judgment was based partly on the fact that I wanted to be close to the front to give myself every opportunity to stay awake during the forum! I didn't realise that I'd sat down with two of the Provincial Governors and that our table soon filled up with the most senior government officials out of the 70 or 80 delegates that were present. Oops! I was probably the only person in the room silly enough not to recognise any of these guys and naive enough to sit down at their table, knowing that there would be group discussions about problems between NGOs and Government in enabling development. Haha! Good luck there Pippy!

But perhaps you are still wondering about my mucus faux pas? Less than an hour into the meeting, I sneezed. This was no ordinary sneeze. Out of my huge, honking, foreigner nose came a violent expulsion. There was but a millisecond of awareness that the sneeze was coming... so I lurched forward, desperate to grab a wad of tissues from inside my bag. I was only partly successful. Some of the snot was caught in the wad of tissue paper, some splatted on the outside of my bag and some splashed down the front of my shirt. I would not be surprised of some of the Governors were similarly baptised. Not good.

The day did improve after 9am! It was great to hear intelligent, articulate Cambodians put development into a global perspective. We heard that the US and Europe's focus is on Africa and that if other poor countries in the bottom billion are going to compete for the 'aid dollar' we need good project implementation and transparency in our reporting. It was also fantastic to hear a Provincial Government leader admonish his peers by saying that money given from generous sponsors for the community is for the community. "It is not money for your pocket," he said. "You must have a separate bank account and separate accounting systems for this money." It is donated by generous people for the poor. Finally, despite feeling sick, I was able to exchange some name cards and have short, interesting conversations with some of the other delegates. As a female under the age of forty, I was in the minority. As a white foreigner.... well I was the only one. I hope that if I go to similar meetings in the future, I will recognise some of the leaders and they will remember me too. I just hope they don't remember that sneeze!

CSO is the new NGO

This week I'm attending a one day regional forum between Government and NGO representatives on the topic of Good Governance. "The main objective of this forum is to enhance enabled working environment between Government and NGO for promoting effective application of Good Governance principles and development effectiveness principles."

In my study so far this morning, I've learned that the term CSO (Civil Society Organisation) seems to be quite in vogue. It's used interchangeably with NGO (Non-Government Organisation). I was also surprised when I did a bit of research to find that there are many permeations from the simple NGO starter too. For example:

ENGO: Environmental NGO
INGO: International NGO
TANGO: Technical Assistance NGO
MANGO: Marketing Advocacy NGO
BINGO: Business-friendly International NGO
QUANGO: Quasi-Autonomous NGO

Wow! This jargon might all be enough for my brain to grasp in English but I need to do extra homework preparation because the seminar is in Khmer. Okay... back to cramming NGO-speak!

language confusion continues...

I'm trying to learn some basic Thai.

The other day a fruit seller spoke to me in Thai, I replied in Thai and it wasn't until I left on my moto that my brain even registered that I was speaking Thai, not Khmer. Plus one point.

Last night a Thai staff at the gym asked me on my way out where I was going. I understood the question and replied, "To eat food". Unfortunately, I picked the wrong language. Regressing more than ten years, I responded in Chinese?! Negative one point.

Let's see if I can get some more points in August in this game of learning basic Thai.

Saturday's complaint

On Saturday I was working at the office when Chanty came in after Ping Pong. I asked, "How was it today?"

Her face looked slightly troubled and she replied, "There were nine young people. But they want to change things a bit. They want to spend less time playing and more time reading the bible lesson and talking about faith!"

What a great complaint to receive from the kids!