First day of work !

Tuesday 6th of April

Well, I survived my first day at work!

I must have shaken hands with nearly 50 people and been introduced to even more. There is no why I am going to remember all of their names for a very, very, long time.
I have enough trouble remembering names that I can pronounce...

Having said that, the office is virtually dead today, most people are off at some highly important meeting between highly important people - and that is about as much information as I can get from the few that are left in the office, there English being about as good as my K’mai !

Last night Lorna, Nikki and I all went out for dinner. As Nikki is off to the far, far reaches of Stung Treng Province first thing today, it will take her 2 days to get there!

Peter and Margaret are back in Bangkok as Margaret was supposed to have the fixed sling removed from her broken shoulder yesterday, but it is not healing as quickly as they would like (well she is 61!) so she has to keep it on for another 4 weeks – that will be 10 weeks in total she has had it on and been out of commission – they are staying in Bangkok a few more days now while they think about going back home to the UK.

All of which means, my little gang is scattered all over the place. It is a slightly odd feeling, we have all lived in each other pockets for the last 8 weeks and now suddenly here I am pretty much on my own !

Having said that, it is nice to be in my own apartment, to have my own transport, to have control over the little things in my life – e.g. what to eat, when to eat, watching the news in my underwear, those sort of things.

The staff in the office presented me with a present this morning when I came in – I have not opened it yet as Cambodian custom dictates presents are opened in private, not in front of the giver - see 7 weeks of In Country Training have not been wasted :-)

My main task here at work today is to translate a report from English to English!?!
This is the report from the week we spent out in the field last month. It was written by the Project Manager; unfortunately English is his 3rd language and some of the grammar, typos and general mistakes are quite painful. Especially as this report is being sent to DFID along with a request for continued funding for this particular project. Am considering gnawing off my own fingers to avoid typing for a while.

Speaking of food, I should mention my cockroach eating experience.

They are considered quite the delicacy here in Cambodia. Deep fried and salted. They taste a little like dry roasted peanuts. However, I do not think that I will be rushing back to try that particular culinary experience anytime soon !