Jayson in Cambodia

Wrapping up.

noreply@blogger.com (Jayson Richardson) — Wed, 30 Aug 2006 01:11:00 +0000

Well folks, my three month internship at UNESCO in Phnom Penh, Cambodia is coming to a close. Thursday is my last day in the office. Lynn and I head to Thailand on Friday and back to the US on Monday. We will land in Minneapolis on Wednesday the 6th of September.

The whole experience has really been life affirming. Living in a developing nation, even for such a short period of time, has really made me look at people and life in a whole new light. It is all too much to put into words, but it is powerful stuff!

Thanks for reading the blog!

Road Trip to Oddar Meanchey

noreply@blogger.com (Jayson Richardson) — Wed, 23 Aug 2006 02:56:00 +0000

Here are some pics from our recent trip to the rural provinces. We spent 3 days on the Thai/Cambodian border. The roads in these provinces are really bad. The first picture shows a bridge we encountered on our way to Oddar Meanchey. After 4 hours of driving along a bumpy road at about 20 mph, we came across this bridge that we could not cross. So we drove 4 hours back to the nearest town. Keep in mind the town we wanted was just 20 minutes beyond this bridge. The following day, we took another road where we barely made it across a bridge where a huge truck decided to break down right over the only bridge. You can see our white SUV barely making it around. After all that excitement, we found some ancient ruins. These ruins were in the middle of nowhere and it is not a place where tourists normally come (there are landmines all along the Thai /Cambodia border-it is one of the most heavily mined areas in the world). Nonetheless, while we were scrambling over ruins, six kids just showed up and gladly showed us around. the girl in yellow was one of the kids. We paid them in cookies.

Trip to Angkor Wat

noreply@blogger.com (Jayson Richardson) — Mon, 14 Aug 2006 08:01:00 +0000

Lynn and I headed to Angkor Wat this weekend. The place is amazing! I was blown away. It is a huge area of temples totaling around 40. There are many still pretty well preserved.

In one temple, the jungle literally took the temple back and the trees simply grew over the walls. The one picture was made famous in "Tomb Raider."

We took in sunrise at Angkor Wat (the picture with the 3 spires). I was truly a beautiful site.

We are heading to the rural provinces Wednesday - Friday with UNESCO. We are off to see the schools. Next weekend we will lounge around on the beach in Sihanoukville!

New era

noreply@blogger.com (Jayson Richardson) — Thu, 03 Aug 2006 07:03:00 +0000

I am officially into the last month of my internship. Things are winding down in regards to UNESCO and data collection. I am finishing 3 reports for UNESCO and transcribing all of the translated comments I received on the surveys. It is quite the process on both accounts. I am lucky enough to have made a good friend in the office that actually wanted to translate the surveys for me!

Nonetheless, Lynn arrives Friday AM. So the last month is devoted to work and play. We are going to Angkor Wat next weekend for a 4 day break. The following weekend will be a trip to the beach: Sihanoukville which is on the Gulf of Thailand. Plus, all the tourist stuff around Phenom Penh that I have been putting off so I did not see too much stuff two times.

So as things wind down I have to shift into a new perspective. Imagine me, less anal! Hey, it could happen.

Street Scenes

noreply@blogger.com (Jayson Richardson) — Mon, 24 Jul 2006 04:11:00 +0000

You can see two forms of transport. The cycle is a man operated tricycle contraption. The tuk tuk is in back. It is a motorcycle (or sometimes only 1/2 of a motorcycle) attached to a carriage.
It is not uncommon to see kids running around in the park naked. Or washing themselves in the river.
Here is a picture of the open markets. There is no refrigeration so the food is sitting out for all the world to see. Of course the 2 ducks do not really need refrigeration (yet!).
Here is another shot of the market where you can buy meats, fruits, and produce.
Here is a typical street picture. Actually, it is usually much busier.

Here are a few pictures I thought I would share. They were actually taken by a friend of mine when he visited here a few months ago (thanks Stan!). Nonetheless, the scenes are pretty common here. The pedestrian traffic is very limited. Thus to cross the street it is much like playing a real life game of Frogger without the music. Also, stop signs and stop lights are rare. If they do exist, they are only 'suggestions'. Everyone just comes full speed up to an intersection, looks both ways, and continues on. It is a very frightening system when you are on the back of a moped not sure who is going to stop...You or the SUV! However, somehow it all works. I read somewhere the main rule of the road is to maintain momentum. Thus, do what you can to avoid stopping. This means riding on the wrong side of the road 1/2 the time just to avoid stopping or going around the block. It is a beautiful system- and it works.

Data update

noreply@blogger.com (Jayson Richardson) — Wed, 19 Jul 2006 04:33:00 +0000

I know how much people like Rian love to hear about data, so here goes.

On Monday, my Ministry of Education informant gave me another set of surveys from the teacher training colleges. Now I only need surveys from one more teacher training college. As of today, my return rate is 68.06%. That is pretty good I think. I am told that most of the teacher trainers who did not complete the survey were physically not at the institution (death, maternity, left without pay, quit, or transferred). After inspecting all the surveys closely, I found surveys from only one institution appeared suspicious when I received 6 photocopies of the same completed survey! I flagged this up with the Ministry and they are looking into it. :)

Additionally, it looks like I will be able to interview some teacher trainers too. This qualitative aspect will really add to the study. I should have those arranged by next week.

Everything in Cambodia is going well. I am analyzing a survey for UNESCO on the state of technology in seven rural provinces. It is taking up much of my day and is proving to be quite the challenge. Not so much intellectually (which it is) but more logically. We hired a government agency to input the data from the surveys and to give us the raw numbers. Well, when they did this I found many logical contradictions. It has been a challenge stressing to this government agency that numbers should agree on every table in the report and that it is not a proper survey technique to simply fill in missing data!

Road trip to Kampong Chhnang to Cultural Museum of Cham People

noreply@blogger.com (Jayson Richardson) — Sat, 08 Jul 2006 01:48:00 +0000

On Friday, I was surprised with another road trip. This time, I ventured to the province of Kampong Chhnang to attend the opening ceremony of the Cham Cultural Heritage Center. The Cham people are the largest ethnic minority in Cambodia who originally came from Vietnam. I was seated up front by the podium with the other NGO representatives. Of course, the speeches were all in Khmer so I had very little idea what is being said; I only understood the general discussion. Well, once all the NGOs finished their talks, my boss suggested I should say a few words! Talk about being put on the spot! My training as an interculturalist really paid off here.

After the opening ceremonies, everyone brought out their cameras. One man, possibly the professional photographer, wanted a picture of me with him. (Keep in mind I was the only white person there). As I was standing there, an older woman got in the picture wanting her picture with me; the same happened with a younger woman. Finally, the photographer set his camera timer, ran to me, and put his arm around me for the picture. I can only imagine the future stories that will go through the village. Nonetheless, the Cham people were wonderful, hospitable (they fed us), and generous. When we left, Cham villagers gave us each a bag of cakes made from rice, eggs, and oil sprinkled with sugar. It is much the same as a funnel cake and very tasty. The picture of the tree with the woman on the left and the man on the right has these decorative cakes hanging from it. The picture of the young girls with the colorful turbines shows them giving the NGOs these cakes as gifts.

The final two pictures are from the truck on the way to this province. You can see the houses are on stilts. This entire area will flood in 2 months time. Although you cannot see it, the picture with the dirt road and the shacks on the side is actually about 15 feet above the ground. The river will rise to that level so the road is just above the flooded river!

Road trip to Kampong Cham

noreply@blogger.com (Jayson Richardson) — Wed, 05 Jul 2006 06:48:00 +0000

Yesterday I took a day trip to a school in the province of Kompong Cham. The school is the picture with the blue flag pole in front. I went there to attend the graduation of secondary school students (ages 15-17) from a technical vocational program. They were learning to repair electronic equipment. It was a very interesting project. On the way back, I snapped some pictures from the truck. The field is actually a rice field. The other picture is of a typical house I saw along the road.

3 days in the field (I hope)

noreply@blogger.com (Jayson Richardson) — Sun, 02 Jul 2006 00:31:00 +0000

It has been a rather relaxing weekend. I spent most of it indoors editing a paper!

The good news is I should be heading to the field Monday afternoon for 3 days. I am not sure what provinces UNESCO is planning to visit, but just to have the chance to see the countryside will be exciting. If the plan goes through, I should have interesting tales to tell.

UPDATE- no field trip. UGH!

I did however find a wonderful oasis in the middle of downtown last night. It is a place called Elsewhere. It is set inside huge corrugated steel walls that look quite imposing. But once you are inside, it is a paradise. It is a French colonial style building in the middle of a lush garden. There are no tables to sit at per se, but rather little couches tucked away in trees here and there. It is very much like a person's backyard. Well, not my backyard...But someone's! Very cool. I will have to get pics next time and post them for you!

Paranoia

noreply@blogger.com (Jayson Richardson) — Sat, 24 Jun 2006 08:09:00 +0000

Ok, I read in the Lonely Plant travel book that the moto drivers will soon learn your routines and wait for you outside your hotel. A moto is the form of public transportation in Cambodia that is actually a man on a moped. You know a man on a moped is a moto driver because he will be wearing a baseball cap; non-moto drivers avoid wearing a hat so they are not mistaken for moto drivers. Anyway, I expected this and was not surprised when this happened outside my apartment. However, now I do not even tell any moto drivers where I want to go. I come out of the apartment in gym shorts, they take me to the gym without a word between us. This seems pretty cool, but keep in mind these are different drivers every day! Now that is some communication system.

I have gotten many queries on data collection...so here is the scoop. During a national technology curriculum improvement workshop, I gave my survey to 26 master teacher trainers. These folks in turn will give the survey to 526 teacher trainers they personally trained on ICT skills. I am supposed to get the completed results back July 7th-ish. Since the postal service is so unreliable, the surveys will come back to me via a taxi! So, all in all the data collection is in full swing!

Weekend outing

noreply@blogger.com (Jayson Richardson) — Tue, 20 Jun 2006 03:22:00 +0000

This weekend I went to the National Museum. The first picture is of me with a statue in of a monkey god in the garden. I was thinking the museum would fill my entire afternoon. I soon found out it only took about 45 minutes to go through. I guess most of the good cultural artifacts were destroyed during the Khmer Rouge. The second picture is of the UNESCO building. It is a very fine French colonial style building.

On Sunday, it rained for 3 hours. This means the roads around me were completely flooded. I waited a few hours for the water to go down, but to no avail. Going 1/2 block north, south, east, or west, I was up to a foot of water. This sounds like no big deal, but keep in mind there are often holes in the street large enough for a grown man to fall into. I thought would skirt the water but hugging the sidewalks but soon realized that with the rains, came an overflow of the sewers! I turned around, showered, and ate at home. I learned to keep food on hand just for these monsoon emergencies! Good thing I just did a big shop!

Change of plans

noreply@blogger.com (Jayson Richardson) — Wed, 14 Jun 2006 02:33:00 +0000

I received a phone call at 6:45 am this morning from my boss. He told me the trip to the rural provinces has been postponed! Keep in mind the driver was to pick me up at 7:30 am. Needless to say, I was a little disappointed. This trip was to be the jump start to my data collection as well as give me a new perspective of Cambodian life. As I was explaining my data collection frustration to my co-worker, he arranged to have my survey sent to 400 teacher trainers in the morning. I will pick up the surveys next week at a training I am facilitating. This is awesome news (if it all comes together). It means my quantitative data collection will be huge and done. I am keeping my fingers crossed.

The new barrio

noreply@blogger.com (Jayson Richardson) — Tue, 13 Jun 2006 01:43:00 +0000

View from my balcony.

Sunday I was finally able to move into the new apartment. I thought I would share what the apartment looks like. The top picture is from the balcony. The bottom two are the apartment itself. The wooden walls with white cloth are actually movable. The apartment is set up a little odd in that to get to the kitchen, I have to walk through a shared hallway into my private kitchen. I guess all these old houses were made like that so the smells from the cooking would not be in the same area as the living quarters.

I am off on a 3 day adventure to the rural areas in the morning. I will post pics soon.

noreply@blogger.com (Jayson Richardson) — Wed, 07 Jun 2006 03:20:00 +0000

By request I have included a picture of a monkey at the local Wat. Better ones will come later. The left picture is of the rules posted at Toul Sleng the genocide prison used during the Khmer Rouge. It is now a museum. I know, the pics do not really go together, but I thought I would share! Thanks to Rian and John I downloaded a resizing program so the pics should be smaller and easier for me to upload. P.S. The pics are small, but if you double click on them they should open bigger in a new window.

First real walk about the city

noreply@blogger.com (Jayson Richardson) — Sat, 03 Jun 2006 13:50:00 +0000

Today I took a 4 hour walk around the town and have realized no one walks. Everyone takes a moto (a motorcycle taxi). I visited Wat Phnom which sits on a hill overlooking the whole city. There is even a resident elephant named Sam Bo who walks along the rivers' (there are actually two merging into a third) promenade every evening. Sam Bo was not chained up, just sitting under the tree looking at folks looking at him. I guess you can feed him bananas but I did not try this. The second pic of the wat itself (a wat is a temple). There were monkeys all around the wat. They were not too friendly. I saw one bite the hand of a small boy. I kept my distance from the critters after that. Tonight, I took in a full dance recital that developed around dancers with disabilities. It was quite remarkable. Sunday I will head out to two other wats and maybe take in the museum.

First week at UNESCO

noreply@blogger.com (Jayson Richardson) — Fri, 02 Jun 2006 12:35:00 +0000

I just finished the first week of my internship at UNESCO. So far, so good. It turns out the job will be pretty intense, however there does seem to be some perks. June 12-13-14 I will be going to the rural provinces to help assess the ICT in education program.I am excited to see how the rural Cambodians live.I will write more this weekend when I have more time (and post some local pics).

I am here in Cambodia!

noreply@blogger.com (Jayson Richardson) — Tue, 30 May 2006 04:07:00 +0000

I am finally here in Phnom Penh, Cambodia. It is hotter than I actually imagined. So far I have only checked into the hotel. However I wanted everyone to know all is well! I will say more once I explore the city. The first thing on the docket is to find an apartment. So, the next post should have more details.

Contrast between capitalism and Buddhism

noreply@blogger.com (Jayson Richardson) — Mon, 29 May 2006 12:37:00 +0000

Ronald McDonald doing the traditional Thai Wai (greeting).

Erawin Shrine built to ward off the evil spirits of capitalism.

Hello all,
On my walkabout in Bangkok today, I ran into two really interesting scenes. The bottom one is Erawan Shrine which was constructed to ward off evil spirts brought on by capitialim. Speaking of evil spirts, the top picture may be one of those spirits the shrine is meant to ward off! Ronny is almost culturally responsive (he is actually bowing to the patrons).

Trying to get my land feet again

noreply@blogger.com (Jayson Richardson) — Sun, 28 May 2006 08:18:00 +0000

I finally arrived in Bangkok. I knew it was Bangkok when the heat and humidity about killed me just waiting for a cab!

The hotel I found is called the Atlanta. It is so out of another time it is awesome. Check it out: http://www.theatlantahotel.bizland.com

The only drawback is it is in the middle of all the chaos. For a few days, I can embrace that high energy atmosphere...on the return trip I think I will opt for more tranquil digs.

I am off looking for an honest Thai massage. I just read that experts recommend at least 2 hours at a time! At about $5 and hour I think I can handle that.

P.S. Thanks John for setting up the comments function!

Enhancement to blog functionality

noreply@blogger.com (Jayson Richardson) — Fri, 26 May 2006 23:22:00 +0000

From John --

Haloscan commenting and trackback have been added to this blog.

Sorry to the three folks who submitted comments earlier today. (They got deleted.) The good news is you don't need to create a Blogger user account anymore!!!

Heading out

noreply@blogger.com (Jayson Richardson) — Wed, 24 May 2006 17:38:00 +0000

On Friday, May 26th, 2006, I will begin a 3 month internship at UNESCO in Phenom Pehn, Cambodia. Stay tuned to details of my life in Cambodia.