The clinic has been closed this week. There is some kind of administrative snag - something to do with the new NGO law and registration of the medical clinic. I'm not entirely clear at this point, but in any case, the clinic is closed until further notice. Life goes on.
On Monday, I went to the orphanage to hang out and teach the kids. A couple of families from Canada (Victoria!) were there helping to paint and build a new house behind the school. I went with Kiwi Pete behind the orphanage to check out how the fish in the pond were doing, but took a slightly different route than usual. Spotting a patch of green grass, I stepped into it and immediately heard a squishing sound. The ground suddenly swelled up and around my left foot. I quickly took another step forward hoping to get out, but then my right foot also got stuck and I started sinking. I had my mesh closed toed sandals on and so the water (at least I thought it was water) quickly rushed into my shoe. I quickly walked several more steps before I got back to solid ground. With a quick whiff of the air, a sudden realization flooded my head almost as quickly as the "water" flooded my shoes. I looked over my left shoulder and realized I was directly behind the two bathrooms/toilets. My eyes quickly scanned down at the base of the building and I saw two PVC pipes opening directly onto the ground. I'm such an idiot. I quickly ran to the water tank and flushed both of my feet. Then rinsed out my shoes. Note to self: if the grass is very green and lush, don't walk on it.
In the afternoon, I went to the school where a new home was being built behind the main building. Sylvie, Pete, and I jumped in to help the son - Alex - of the family from Victoria. Brick and mortar had been laid down earlier in the day by some of the Cambodians. However, they did not smooth the mortar so as a result, there were large gaps in the mortar and the job just didn't look very well finished. So we each grabbed a trowel and a bamboo stick and started smearing on mortar to fill in the holes and uneven surfaces. At some point, I looked over and saw Alex grabbing fistfuls of mortar and just smearing it on by hand. Well, that seemed like a good idea to me and much more efficient than this tiny bamboo spatula. So I started doing that too - using my hands. After about another hour of smearing on the mortar, Alex says, "So doc, it's probably not a good idea for me to put my hand with stitches on it in cow dung huh?" Uh...where to begin with the questions?? "What?" "The mortar. It's mixed with cow dung. You didn't know?" "Um, no. No, I did not. Why would I know that?" Kiwi Pete looked over at me and snickered in his thick NZ accent, "Ah yeeah. This cow dung helps the mortar stick really great." Fantastic. Luckily, it was the end of the day, and Alex's family happened to bring some first aid supplies. I took off his bandages and cleaned off his stitches which were only 4 days old and unsurprisingly, not healed. Did my best to clean them off and luckily, the wounds didn't appear infected yet. We applied some antibiotic ointment and I gave some pointless instructions - no more sticking his hands in dung. Cow or otherwise. Second note to self: same goes for me.
Yesterday (Tuesday), I took the day off to go visit Honour Village, the NGO which Dorothy and Gordon are working at. Honour Village was started in May of 2010 as a result of the British woman who had had a unfortunate negative experience volunteering at another NGO. Undaunted, she decided to start up a new NGO under her control with complete transparency and full accountability. I don't know all the details yet of their logistics, but at least from the surface, what they have accomplished in less than a year is commendable. I didn't get a chance yesterday, but if I go back for a return visit, I'll take some photos.
At Honour Village, I met a woman from the UK named Lyn. Lyn is starting up an English language school in an area east of Siem Reap by about two hours. This is a pretty remote location with no English classes currently available, and there are very few if any foreigners. She was given a building by the government so that she could start up this program and her organization (Today Youth Tomorrow Leader) is in the process of setting everything up. She is currently recruiting teachers to come out to help teach. If you are interested, you can find out more details by e-mailing her at: lynharvey21@gmail.com. I don't have any ties to her organization, but if you are interested in going off the beaten path and being part of a pioneer program, you should drop her a note to find out more.
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