The pace of life in Mesang is growing on me
more and more every day. The days slip by and I realize that I haven’t posted
the blog that I wrote a week ago. Here is a brief look at my most recent vacation
to Mondulkiri and MCC’s staff retreat. I’ll give an update on how things are
going in Mesang and at ODOV in my next post!
What a wonderful 10 days of vacation I had
this past month! The 12th to the 15th was a holiday for
the King’s birthday (why we get three days off for that is beyond me, but I’m
sure not complaining!). My friend Galuh and I went to Mondulkiri for 3 days; a
beautiful hilly and forested province in the north east of the country. We
stayed at a quiet guesthouse just outside of town that was recommended to us by
other MCCers. I went birding every day, and saw several “lifers” every day
(seeing a species for the first time). I even got Galuh interested in bird-watching;
she sounded almost as excited as I did whenever she spotted something new in
the trees around our bungalow. Or maybe she was just enthusiastic about birding
because there wasn’t a whole lot else to do out there. We did, however, take a
motorcycle tour of some waterfalls, hill-top lookouts where you could see a
“forest sea”, coffee plantations, and indigenous minority villages. As
beautiful and refreshing as Mondulkiri was, it was sad to see large swaths of
forest disappearing before our very eyes. The “forest sea” is rapidly turning
into “forest puddles”.
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| Galuh and I at one of the famous waterfalls in Mondulkiri. This shot doesn't give you full appreciation for the number of Cambodians visiting here on the holiday, picnicing and dressing up in traditional minority tribe clothes (complete with fake weapons and wreaths of flowers). |
The following day we supported the budding
eco-tourism industry and went on an elephant riding daytrip; through the cow
pastures, past the still-smouldering slash and burn sites, down into the steep
valley, to a lovely river. The elephants are still used for occasional work by
the locals: hauling wood or rubber from the forest. After taking us down to the
river, they went away and did their thing for a few hours while we relaxed and
swam in the cool shade. Then the elephants and their mahouts (keepers) came
back, had a refreshing swim in the river. We got to “help” scrub down the
elephants and swim with them in the water. At one point there must have been
4-5 of them flopping around or gingerly feeling for solid footing in the turbid
water, but not once did I feel the least bit scared. In awe, yes, but not
scared. They were so huge and powerful and strangely graceful, and never once
did I fear that they would squish me. As I sat bare-back on the neck of one as
she rose out of the water and climbed up the bank, I knew she would never drop
me.
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| Me on an elephant!!! |
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| During the longer trip to and from the river we sat in little baskets on top of the elephant. It was rather hard to get a picture of us and the elephant from where we sat, so we had the brilliant idea to take a picture of our shadow! |
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| That couple's elephant kept stopping to eat. |
After the elephant adventures, Galuh and I went
back to Phnom Penh for a couple of days and joined up with the rest of the MCC
staff (and their families) for a staff retreat. We drove a couple of hours
away, but this time we went south-west towards the coast to the province of
Kampot. We stayed at another lovely “resort” just outside of town that had
bungalows and rooms enough for us all. The food was delicious- last month some
ODOV staff were commenting that I was getting too skinny (not a compliment here),
but I’m sure I just gained back in one week all that I had lost! And yes, in
Cambodia it is perfectly acceptable to comment on weight and health issues with
your colleagues.
During the retreat we had some excellent
and very useful sessions on stress, cleverly followed by a look at different personality
types. Always helpful to be aware of how to best work with different
personality types and know what stresses them out. But the thing I liked best
about the retreat was just getting to hang out with everyone. I see everyone in
Phnom Penh every month or two for team meetings, but then our conversation is
almost always the same: “How are you? how is Mesang? how are things going with
your partner organization?” It was great to have so much time to be together:
kayaking, biking, swimming, eating, passing babies around, singing, playing
games, visiting a non-existent waterfall…. Funny story, that. We decided to
stop at this waterfall for a picnic lunch on the way home (and by picnic I mean
you order rice and a few dishes from a restaurant across the road and they
bring it over to the picnic shelter). Cambodians love their waterfall picnics.
Only, there wasn’t a waterfall, just some rapids on a narrow river. We were
told to go upstream a bit and there would be a bridge and a waterfall. So, we
started walking. But as the restaurants thinned, we knew something wasn’t
right. Finally, a hydro dam came into view. Realizing there would be no falls above
the dam, we gave up and turned around. Maybe there used to be a waterfall, or
maybe they were referring to the stream all along, who knows? Regardless, we
had a nice lunch, and a fun time playing at the water’s edge. This region is
also apparently the durian capital of Cambodia. Now, if you’ve never heard of
durian before, that’s likely because you can smell it before you see it. I’ve
actually never tried this pungent fruit myself and have little desire to do so,
though some people here love it. Enough to buy over 10kg of it to take home,
anyway. Thankfully all of the durian was confined to one of the vans, and not
the one I was sitting on.
It’s hard now not to think of the end of my
stay in Cambodia. Not a day goes by when I don’t think of something to add to
my August to-do list, ODOV staff ask me questions about when I leave or how
many people can fly in one airplane, or I correspond with MCCers in Mozambique.
I’ve even started dedicating a bit of time each day to learning Portuguese,
using a fantastic, free online program. My sister Janet thought it would be fun
to learn Portuguese as well, and is already at least 5 lessons ahead of me! Not
that this is a competition or anything… However, this is the time I need to be
most present in Cambodia. There is so much I still want to do with ODOV to
finish up what I’ve been working on and prepare the way for the next SALTer who
is to arrive; still more festivals and holidays to look forward to; still more
people to visit and soon say goodbye to.
All the best,
Rebecca
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