somesaypip

Life for an Aussie chick in North West Cambodia. Local work in sports, education and development.

Tuesday, January 31, 2012

Is Apple Dangerous?

Yesterday's Cambodia Daily ran two articles about Apple products.

On page 18, an article by Paul Harris (The Observer) was titled, 'Apple Hit by Calls for Boycott Over Worker Abuses in China'. To summarise, the New York Times' has published allegations of poor working conditions in some of its networks of Chinese suppliers. Conditions are compared to bonded labour, with staff working obscenely long shifts in unhealthy conditions with few labour rights. The article refers to explosions at iPad factories (that killed four people) and a separate incident in which 137 workers were injured after cleaning iPhone screens with a poisonous chemical.

On page 26, the Daily published another story, 'Police General Beats Bank Staffer with iPhone'. Huh?! The Poipet branch of Canadia Bank filed a complaint, alleging that Major General Sok Lihhouth's wife tried to cash a cheque for $14 559.28. The cheque was in her husband's name. When the bank attendant declined, Sok Lihhouth entered the bank about 10 minutes later. The major general yelled, 'Don you know who I am?' while unleashing blows on the teller with his iPhone. Branch director said that beating was captured on security cameras.

Two stories in one paper in one day: Apple is hit by call for boycott and a Poipet man is hit by an Apple iPhone. Weird.

Friday, January 27, 2012

7:30am Classes

This year I've started teaching the bible in English on Thursday and Friday mornings. One of our staff wanted to improve his English to read bible commentaries and access other theological tools that aren't in Khmer. So I told him (& the rest of our staff) that if they gave 30 minutes of their free time, they could take 30 minutes of work time twice a week to study the bible in easy English. Class starts at 7:30am sharp.

Before we began I told our whole team, "Please remember that this is for a specific purpose. It is to help you read books about God that are in English only. You don't have to know English to know God. You can pray in Khmer. God understands. You don't have to learn English to read the bible. Anyway, it was written in Hebrew and Greek so both English and Khmer are translations. You don't have to sing in English to worship God. You are not more spiritual than your friends if you know religious words in a foreign language. If that's all clear, we start tomorrow."

It's been so far, so good. I've been reading the chapters in Khmer. (Being jealous of their learning opportunities is good motivation for me to study!) We talk about the lesson in both English and Khmer. And on Fridays there's a group run at 6am so I'm up at around 5:30am anyway!

Wednesday, January 25, 2012

restless

'I wonder what Piglet is doing,' thought Pooh. 'I wish I were there to be doing it, too.'

Friday, January 20, 2012

The Castle Pics





The Castle

I've already written this up for my newsletter but decided to post it here too because a) some people who read this blog don't receive the emails and b) I finished it after midnight last night and there were several obvious typos/ mistakes today. (Lesson learned. Draft at midnight but edit in the morning. Or go back to preaching where nobody cares about spelling!)

Today I went to see Chean Run's new house. Here's how it happened:

A couple of months ago Mr Run's family asked for help with their children's education. we gave school uniforms, backpacks, books and stationery supplies. in those visits it was obvious that the family was struggling to meet their basic needs. Their house, for example, was falling apart; missing walls, holes in the bamboo floor and natural 'skylights' in the thatched roof. But we don't do houses.

Mr Chean Run, 44, is married with six children. He rides a bicycle eight kilometers every morning to get to work and pulls a cart back and forth across the Thai-Cambodia border for a daily profit of about $2.50. What makes his labour even more impressive is that his left leg was amputated above the knee after a landmine injury in 1988. (Chean uses a prosthetic leg.) He takes pride in working for his family. When a large NGO asked if they could 'help' by taking some of his kids in their orphanage, Chean and his wife refused. I didn't want to try to 'fix' everything. And anyway, we don't do houses.

At the same time as we were getting to know Run's family, I received an email offering $100 for flood relief. Unfortunately, we'd already responded to some local needs in October and by November the flood crisis has disappeared with the rain clouds. I asked if the money could be used to help rebuild a house of a flood-affected family?

I thought about it for some days and then we went back. 'Excuse me, Mr Run, were you affected by the floods?' Run's wife looked like she was going to burst into laughter! She answered, 'Yeah, the water came up to about here [pointing to mid-thigh]. We were wet, cold, sometimes sick... all the poor in the low-lying areas were affected by the floods.' She was probably thinking, 'Why do the foreigners ask such stupid questions?' Err.. coz it leads me to another question. 'Could you use a hundred bucks to do some reno?'

Chean was delighted! He couldn't stop saying, 'Thank You!' Over the next few days he called our staff several times with detailed updates of his building project. We let him know that we could give some labour if he needed it, but Chean did it all by himself!

It was pretty cool to see their new digs today. Chean replaced the thatched roof with corrugated iron, his wife chose the colour for the rubber walls and he put in the bamboo floor. Before, the holes in the floor were so large that Chean was forced to sleep on a plastic bag straight on the group underneath the house. Tonight there's enough room for all eight of them inside the room. We admired the house. We took fruit to celebrate. I talked with 13-year-old Chenna about her Grade 4 classes and she read me a story from her Khmer textbook. We invited 9-year-old Sophoan to join in a football tournament. We also invited Mr Run and his wife to stop in our new office for lunch one day next week, conveniently located a couple of meters from the border where he works pulling carts. I hope they will come because we don't really do houses... but stuff lunch is a daily event.

Tuesday, January 17, 2012

Petrol: One litre or two?

Silliest triathlon 'info' ever!

A couple of weeks ago I got an email from a website that gives free training tips, as well as promo for their paid stuff. The email starts:

Are you 'Skinny-Fat?'
You are probably asking yourself right now, 'What is Skinny-Fat?'
Unfortunately, it is probably the typical triathlete body that you are walking around with now. Have you seen it? Tiny arms, a thin and weak neck and a stick-like midsection, with a little bit of fat in the belly and waist.
It's the "skinny-fat" look.
If that doesn't describe you, perhaps you're the opposite: you look like you should be playing rugby instead of riding a bicycle and running- meaning you have relatively dense muscle, covered with evenly distributed fat in the back, stomach, hips and thighs.
The "fit but fat" look.

Are you kidding me?! The article gives two possible body types and both include the word "fat"! I'm sure not "skinny-fat" but I'm not about to ditch triathlon and take up rugby or weightlifting any time soon.

Having the 'right' body type is no guarantee of sporting success. I could compare two local guys in our run club. One has an ideal body shape for distance running, natural athletic ability and a great stride. He also has zero free time to train. Another guy has a very different body shape. He's shorter with solid, muscular legs. However, he has prioritised running into his weekly schedule. He runs whether he feels great or whether he feels tired. He is determined. And his times are rapidly improving.

It's not that having a slim, strong, can't body part of the motivation to exercise. But I'm not buying into the negativity or being driven by a certain 'look'. Far more important are other goals such as: enjoying life by exercising regularly, training for a specific race, traveling to different cities & countries to race, setting myself the challenge of completing a new long-distance event or trying to break a previous PB for that distance and, finally, meeting people who also like a healthy, active lifestyle (and the post-race beer).

"Skinny-fat" or "fit-but-fat" talk is irrelevant. To quote another source I respect much more highly than this triathlon trash: 'A heart at peace gives life to the body, but envy rots the bones.' (Proverbs 14:30.)

Thursday, January 12, 2012

January 7 Tourni

Last Saturday we ran a Boys Under 11s and Girls Under 15s soccer tournament. The combination of practicing skills followed friendly matches with some snacks thrown in worked well. This is only the second time we've done a one-day event for Under 11s so there were a good number of new faces on the field. Our staff and volunteers worked cooperatively. We talked with the kids a bit about the benefits of sports and why we, as a Christian NGO, spend our time and energy encouraging youth to play football. Another positive is that I now know which local seller can do 100 cakes for $20, pre-ordered the day before. Bonus!

Pics from Jan 7





Pics from Jan 7





Wednesday, January 11, 2012

Ours Sincerely

We've employed a new staff member for 2012. Don't be concerned. The reason we're hiring isn't because staff are leaving but because our project activities are expanding so we need more help! During the selection process, one cover letter impressed me. The grammar isn't great but I like the heart... and I'm sincerely happy that Mr Rung has joined our team!

Dear Sir or Madam,
Greetings from me!
This cover letter has been written to response to you to apply for the position as employee... It has been extremely impressed me to try the best opportunity to be part of your organisation in purpose international development.
My resume is enclosed with your consideration and given more detail of my qualification. I really want to work bringing your organisation with good results achievement. I am sociable, friendly, high responsible, broadminded, good health, honest, courage, integrity, good communicate, high committed person, please see my CV.
Would you please offer me this chance.. as the mean of sharing me new work experience and communicate with people, participate to help people to reduce of Cambodian poverty. I am looking forward to hearing information from you and I am available to com for an interview at any time conveniently to you. You can be contacted at the phone number above.
Thank you in advance for your value time and consideration.

Tuesday, January 10, 2012

The 'race of the year' in 2011






Thanks Naomi for sending these photos of Laguna Phuket. Great memories!

Monday, January 09, 2012

Old and New

Looking back I counted 11 races in 2011! This included:

1 x full marathon. With poor training and okay health, I finished in the Khon Kaen marathon in 3:59.
1 x 100km bike race. My first attempted at a bike race and I needed to pull out at 75km after two punctures. A little disappointing...
1 x triathlon. I did the amazing Laguna Phuket tri: 1.8km/ 55km/12km. I'd say this was my most challenging event of the year and I was stoked to finish in just over 4 hours.
3 x half marathons. Including one trail half. A highlight was taking a few seconds off my personal best for a new PB in October of 1:40:15.
5 x short races. I also did four 10km races and an 8km race. My best result was coming first in the 8km in Phnom Penh in June. However, my best time was in Pursat when I ran the 10km in 46 minutes and picked up third.

Now I should really try for 12 races in 2012?! I'm hoping to do 2-3 triathlons, at least one marathon and a bunch of shorter races. Here's to a year of good health, good training and good fun!