Personal update

So, it's been a while since my last update. I have been busy/ ill with fever.

A quick ramble about what I have been up to here.

I have been contacting people to interview for the documentary/ promo video I am going to be making although it is going very slow - people here seem to do things very slowly, and communication can be a problem. I have had so many irritating telephone conversations with people who can't really speak English over the past weeks. The joy of a Mass Communication internship in a foreign country where you don't speak the language.

The conditions in which I am living are still proving challenging at times. I have super infected feet, due to the mosquitoes frivolous behaviour with them in the evening. Lustful creatures they are - can't really blame them though, I do have gorgeous set of tootsies - Photo, For Example (It looks worse in real life, I just didn't want the other people in the room to worry for my mental health for taking photos of my feet, so I just took one ;)  >>>

Facilities:

Toilet and "shower"

Bed: I sleep in the middle bunk with another person. We are currently nine in the room.

I was ecstatically happy when a Spanish girl arrived last week, but alas she has left. Amaia, from Bilbao. She was another experienced gypsy trotter, although the NGO here was not for her, and to be honest it really isn't what I expected either in terms of what has been offered as an internship as you are basically left to your own devices. But, as I have some personal ventures in the pipeline and the fact that I am simply enjoying absorbing my first time in Asia, I will stick it out. For the week she was here I just talked at her in Spanish, poor girl. We also accompanied each other on a weekend chillout trip to Kampot - I will write a blog about that separately.

Amaia and I. Bless.

Today, July 30th, I met with Jesus and Ana. Two other Spanish friends. Jesus was one of my private class students who used to come to my flat in Zaragoza once a week to practise. He speaks perfect English, he just didn't want to loose it. As we all know my famous quote (with credit to my Spanish teacher Carmen Usategui) "Languages are like relationships...if you don't put the time and effort in, they will never work!"

WOW...off topic. So, yes. He and his girlfriend Ana were going to Malaysia for their summer adventure, so when he found out I was going to be in Cambodia he booked a cheap flight over to visit. I ended up meeting them in the morning and going to the killing fields (MAJOR need to seperate blog article...coming soon)

Ana and Jesus. God love 'em

LUNCH - I have never seen two people look so worried in their lives when we went into this little restaurant near the central market. Just a local place which was very basic and a bit grotty. Beef and fried noodles I ordered, IN KHMER (Cambodian language) - I was so proud of that, haha. Jesus unwillingly ate away while Ana turned it down completely and left her plate full. In the afternoon we headed to the NGO - they found it very interesting - we arrived just in time for the evening prayer where all the students/volunteers/teachers join together in the main hall outside and recite prayers from all different religions.

Anyway, that's just a quick personal up-date. Now that I am feeling better and my face isn't turning bright red every hour (that kept happening last week when I had a fever) I will get back to blogging. so make sure you read. - AND LET ME KNOW IF YOU ARE READING  ;)

>> Coming up...Kampot, Killing Fields (Choeung Ek)..and more.

Hope you are all well.

Besos,


StevieG

Some celeb encounters :p

For those of you who didn't have the privilege of ever seeing my wee interview with the stars in London for the premier of the movie Australia, here you go haha.  With Hugh Jackman, Nicole Kidman and Baz Lurhmann.


Almost 4 years ago now, wow. (Nervous Steve)


Sadly you can't see my lovely face while they are speaking, although you can imagine my eyes popping out of my head, while bouncing up and down hyper-actively (like a coke head) trying to push by all the other journalists trying to grab an interview. Was fun!

Oh, and while I'm at it, I may as well post this treat of a pic with my one and only love...SHAKIRA haha. In Dublin,  Dec 2011 - I look way to happy xD Lookin' cool Steve..NOT xD

There is also a photo existing with Simon Cowell/ Sharon Osbourne and I -  but that is horrendous!

Early Morning Market - Phnom Penh.

At 3.30am this morning I ventured out with  Dararith to a night market. He is the man in charge of cooking the meals for the NGO that I'm at here in Phnom Penh. He does this journey everyday, leaving at 3.45AM and getting back at about 7AM after buying enough food for lunch and dinner for over 330 people.

< < I took this video by a group of children who were laboriously descaling fish 

Apparently by Dararith, the earlier you go the cheaper it is. We travelled there with two students to help carry the goods. One student also drove the motorbike on which we had a cart attached to put the goods and also for us to sit on (see above photo)

She's knackered.

The market was huge, and not for the faint hearted. There were a lot of strange sights and smells - some more pleasant than others. I saw dead pigs being carted around on the back of mopeds, chickens dangling by their necks from every spare space on the stalls and women ferociously chopping away at huge chunks of meat.

Those chicken's have had it! xD

 I didn't know where the market began or ended, it was a complete maze of streets. Seemingly there was a section for each product - i.e. one for vegetables, one for fish and another for chicken/pork/beef etc. It had rained before we arrived so the floor was completely muddy and everybody was slipping everywhere. 

Choppin' away

I didn't see another western face in sight during the 2.5 hours we were there (which was great) - I was drawing quite a lot of attention to myself with my photo taking, that's for sure. I've been to many markets in foreign countries, but this one has definitely been the most fascinating - I was exhausted after leaving, but that probably had something to do with the two hours of sleep I had before arrival.

I took this photo at about 6am just as the sun was rising - It was beautiful.

Dararith and I, on the way back.

Besos,

StevieG. x

Coffee shop conscience

Written from diary, Sunday 15^th July 2012 @ 17.10pm

For almost four hours I have been sitting and reviving myself from a heavy night out. I'm at a modern, western owned café along the riverfront in Phnom Penh drinking my iced latte and eating cheesecake.

There is a full length glass window beside me which shows the small side-street by my sofa to which I have been looking out of for the past hour as though I were at a zoo.

I say this because of what I’ve been watching. Some kind of primal scene, it seems.

I’ve just seen a barefoot woman washing her six-month-old baby on the street. I saw two 20-something-year-old girls sitting while grooming each other for head lice. I saw children the age of six, dodging past cars, trying to sell bracelets and second hand books to passers by.

A feeling of guilt has come over me as I sit here… watching. I know I came here to help, but what can I do for all those people out there? It’s very sad, and even sadder to think that some people are so ignorant to not even know about it – as I was.

Tuol Sleng – S.21 – Genocide museum

The fate of Cambodia shocked the world when the radical communist Khmer Rouge under their leader Pol Pot seized power in 1975 after years of guerrilla warfare.

An estimated 1.7 million Cambodians died during the next three years, many from exhaustion or starvation. Others were tortured and executed.

A basic summary of the aim of this communist Khmer Rouge's regime was to get rid of all educated people and modernity in Cambodia. As soon as they came to power they evacuated all the cities and sent the inhabitants to rural areas to work the land under conditions of slavery and they killed anyone who was an intellectual or anybody who could go against their regime/ beliefs. You could even be killed for wearing a pair of reading glasses.

One of the cells in the S-21 facility where prisioners would
have been chained to the bed and forced into false confessions.

In Phnom Penh there still exists a chilling memory from this time. An old secondary school that was transformed in 1975 into ‘Security Office 21’ under the orders of Pol Pot.

The facility was designed for detention, interrogation, inhuman torture and killing after forced confession from the detainees were received and documented.

The bodies of fourteen victims were discovered by the United Front when they entered Phnom Penh on January 7^th, 1979. The corpses were unidentifiable due to bad decomposition. One of the corpses was that of a woman and these were the last people to be tortured in the S-21 facility before personnel fled as a result of the Vietnamese invading the city.

A list of rules that were enforced at S-21 during interrogation.

This photo shows the barbed-wire that was put outside the
corridors of the cells to ensure that none of the desperate
 tortured prisioners could commit suicide by jumping down.

Many forms of torture were used for interrogation purposes. These methods ranged from electrocution, beating, drowning and the pulling of nails and other parts of the body.

The research into prisoner records of S-21 shows the following number of inmates from 1975 to 1978

• 1975 – 154 prisoners
• 1976 – 2, 250 prisoners
• 1977 – 2, 350 prisoners
• 1978 – 5, 765 prisoners

This photo shows some of the tortured victime of Tuol Sleng
(click to enlarge)

These figures do not include children killed by Khmer Rouge which is estimated at around 20,000.

This museum is a stark reminder of the atrocities that happened in this country, not that long ago!

Visiting the prison was a very intense experience. Although most of the rooms are very bare and haven’t got any information to read, you can use your imagination to see what went on there. A very chilling experience, especially the last room which has cabinets filled with skulls and bones of victims that were found around the grounds of the facility. 

 (All photos taken by me)


Besos,

Stevieg

CLIMATE CHANGE: a week of extreme weather

This map shows some recent weather activity that's been happening around the world.

These incidents happened in the space of only five days, on every continent. Things are changing, and its worrying.

Source: GREENPEACE

To see bigger picture click on link below
GREENPEACE - A week of extreme weather

Besos,

Stevieg x

Cambodia update - Tuk-tuk's, blessings and Ladyboys

So, I have been in Cambodia for about two and a half weeks now. It’s been pretty eventful.

To be honest, I found it hard settling in to my new sleeping habits, that is, sharing a room with six others, and a bed with another person. Also eating rice three times a day was a bit of a shock to the old taste buds..OHH, and showering with a tap and pan. Although, now it’s fine. Still not used to the heat and mosquitoes at night though – sneaky little buggers they are!


Actually, I think the thing now that is most difficult is not having time alone or being able to be in silence. This is because there is always someone wanting to talk to you and practise their English, never an empty space to do what you want and always someone, in awe, looking over your shoulder while you are on your laptop, which is happening right now ;) However, I am sure I will get used to that too.

I didn’t leave the vicinity of the charity (NGO) I am working for until last week. This is because I spent a lot of time getting to know the students and teachers and so fourth. That did kill me a bit inside though - not leaving to explore the city upon arrival. I did manage to get in a few times to Phnom Penh during the week. It’s only a 25 minute drive by motorbike which costs me $3 (it costs locals 2$), which is always an argument with the scamming driver at the end of the journey – but I always win ;) I visited the Russian Market and met up with the guy who is going to help me make a short video for the charity.

The first time I went to Phnom Penh we had an accident on the way back on a crossroad. Another motorbike came flying into the side of ours (my drivers fault...I think), while about 10 cars swerved out of the way. This is all without a helmet too, of course - third world style. Sure enough, for the luck of my driver, the police happened to be across the other side of the crossroad and saw this happening. They pulled him over to fine him and a couple of dollars bribery later, there was a smug policeman with a few extra notes in his back pocket and we were on our way. Corruption. I was later told that police here are many, and they earn a very low salary, something in the range of $50 (£35) a month. I have never seen traffic like it is here in my life. It is so dangerous. You literally do put your life at risk everytime you go out, hence why life insurance is pretty much non-existent here.

 

Another interesting journey home was by tuk-tuk (see photo) – at night. We were happily driving along the national motorway when the motorbikes light went out, so we spent the rest of the journey shitting ourselves that a lorry was going to come up behind us and not be able to see us. Not fun. Make it back safe and sound though, and the driver tried to charge me $5 extra because of what happened, obviously he wasn’t successful.

We had a couple of visitors from Laos last week at the centre. I spent sometime with them and ended up one morning at a Buddhist temple being blessed (see photo below) Cultural experience, indeed.

On Saturday last week (the 14^th) I went to stay overnight in the capital. Had a crazy night. It is a really happening city with lots to do and see. Unbelievably I bumped into someone I knew from England in a little bar where  we saw some Ladyboys performing (you seriously wouldn't know any different haha). I mean, I’m in Phnom Penh…not Costa del Sol, so it was quite a coincidence to see them there.

Today I started teaching English. It’s a lot harder teaching it to people here as their language is completely different and they don’t have anything in common. Plus, I don’t speak their language (Khmer). In Spain, if I couldn’t explain something in English then I could do so in Spanish, but here it’s much more of a challenge.

The people are so friendly and hardworking though. They appreciate education and know that if they learn English they will have a lot of future possibilities.

So, half of the day I teach and the rest of the time I am emailing companies, support groups and charities to help with funding.  Also I am trying to organise ways to promote the organisation and let people know about us as what we are doing is on a wide scale, but because of lack of PR they are very unknown. Science of Life 24/7 is the name of the organisation, by the way.

I will update more about some of the things I have seen and done in later blogs – this is just a short up-date.

Hope you’re all well and happy.

Besos,

Stevieg