The First Few Weeks of Work!

This post is for my Grandpa, who thinks I have been spending too much time writing about fun things and not about what I am doing and achieving at work.

I’ll start at the beginning, because I hear that this is a very good place to start.

My job title here at Anjali House is Management Support Officer. I am working directly with Simon Ke, an amazing lady who is Deputy Director of the organisation and also mum of David (named after David Beckham and is two and a bit years old). Indirectly I will be working with every member of staff over the next year. There are currently about 13 people that volunteer or work here full time.

In this role, there are a number of objectives that my job description outlines must be achieved within the year. The most prudent of these tasks was the human resources objectives.

Human resources objectives? – you might ask… Well a lot of the documents I am currently creating in conjunction with Simon, include all of those ‘boring’ documents that most of you receive and never look at when you start a job. Things like ‘Grievance Procedures’, ‘Disciplinary Policies’, ‘Job Descriptions’, ‘Organisational Charts’ and the like. These documents will be great as the create guidelines and some direction for the staff that work here. We have also been working on position appraisals and after these are completed the next task will be training opportunities.

There is a lot of work to be done, but everyone is very receptive to the ideas and small changes we have been looking at so far.

My work hours are a little bit different to at home. I work Monday to Friday and start between 8 and 8.15 in the morning, we have lunch from 11am til 1.30pm and then we finish between 4 and 4.30pm. On most Saturday’s I attend a staff meeting at Anjali House, however Sam the Director of the organisation is pretty cruisy if I am going away or have plans for the weekend. In addition, as I seem to chase in all of my jobs, there is after hours work as well. Of course, I am used to this and these are the moments when you usually have the most fun in your work environment. For example, last night we hosted an event at the Peace Café. This included some readings by the students of their poetry and short stories. In addition the movie that was made last year was also played. This movie is very entertaining and had some of the audience rolling around on the ground with laughter.

The students here are amazing, I really love the organisation and what is trying to be achieved at Anjali House.

The other day I got to visit the Young Adult House, a branch of the project that tries to complete the cycle, in regards to assisting the older students find meaningful employment or a pathway to higher education. This is probably my favourite part because it means that we don’t leave the kids high and dry when they finish school but ease them in to an independent and exciting future.

I am looking forward to my extracurricular activity that will begin in the next week or so. A library has just been built on our premises and I am going to start lunchtime reading sessions during the lunch breaks, three times a week.

So there is some information, to stop Grandpa worrying that my life is all just fun and games!

Cambodian Curry

My Note

I am unsure how many people this dish would serve. Simply by looking at the ingredients, I would presume that it would serve four?

Ingredients

500g Chicken Breast, cubed

1 Medium Onion, sliced into ‘petals’

1 Medium Eggplant

1 Sweet Potato

100g Cauliflower

2 Lemongrass Sticks

2-3 T Garlic

3 T Shallots

50g Galangal

1 T Tumeric Powder

3 Kaffir Limes, rind only

1 T Curry Powder

1 Chicken Stock Cube

450mL Coconut Cream

1 T Oil

½ - 1 Cup Water

Method

1. Slice the rind, lemongrass, shallots, garlic and galangal finely

2. Chop the vegetables into large irregular shapes

3. Add all the spices to the mortar, pound until a paste, set aside

4. Heat a medium sized fry pan with oil – add the spice mix and cook until fragrant – medium heat, not hot

5.  Add fish, cook thoroughly

6.  Add a little coconut milk and water to the pan

7. Add the sweet potato, cook for 5 minutes

8. Add the rest of the vegetables and cover with the remaining coconut milk and half a cup of water – adjust accoding to the volume of vegetables

9.   Add the chicken stock, salt and pepper, according to taste

10. Cook until the vegetables are tender

Serve with steamed rice and decorate with fresh basil leaves

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Curry Powder

Ingredients

5g Star Anise

5 g Curry Seeds

Method

1. Cook the curry seeds in a dry frying pan for several minutes. Take care not to burn them

2. Crush the star anise and curry seeds together in a mortar and pestle until they are a fine powder

The Trip to Work

There are so many differences, and a few similarities, between life in Cambodia and life in Australia.


One of the differences is the trip to and from work. 


I live on the outskirts of Siem Reap, in almost completely the opposite direction to work, which is also on the outskirts of town. However the trip, on by bicycle, only takes about 20 minutes.


I'll give you a quick synopsis of both trips...


PERTH


Say good bye to Mum, and Dad if he happened to be home.
Mum's last words would always be 'drive safe'.
Hop in the car, my little Suzie Swift, switch the channel to Nathan, Nat & Shaun (Nova is good in the morning, but I loved listening to Hamish & Andy in the afternoon, ahhhhh..... Hamish!).
Drive along, giggling to the funny stories, and catching up with the light news of the day.
Spend 40 or so minutes in a bit of a mindless daze, stopping and starting with the flow of the traffic (AND of course the stop signs and traffic lights).
Arrive in Fremantle, decide whether it is worth spending $8 on parking, meaning a shorter walk or $5 on parking. Usually it would depend on how late I was running.
Grab a coffee (and a muffin if I had snoozed too long and missed breakfast).
And finally, I arrive at my destination, ready to begin my work day.


SIEM REAP


Drag my bike out of the house (my land lord doesn't want people trying to get into the property because I have left my vehicle on my verandah).
Say sua si dai (hello) to the lovely girl that spends her mornings sweeping our driveway.
Hop on my bike, get my balance and head towards the gate.
Say sua si dai to my land lord and/or the kids, dependent on who is already out and about.
Start peddling the rocky track, until I reach the bitumen.
Dodge the street carts selling snails, pancakes and a variety of noodles.
Head to town and grab breakfast (If I haven't already eaten), Soup Dragon is the favourite for an Asian breakfast and maybe Jo-to-Go or Central Cafe for Western style.
Start the second half of the trip to work, this part usually includes lots of dogs wandering around, sleeping after a night protecting their property, cows munching on grass, rubbish will be burning outside people's properties, people sawing wood or damming a river and a number of other activities, most of which always blow me away.
Some days you'll hear the faint sound of music, and you'll know that someone had passed away or is getting married, depending on the tune.
I continue peddling.
The bitumen stops and I hit the muddy slush, if it has been raining the night before.
I concentrate really hard on following the secure parts of the route and not slipping into the mud, or worse, the open sewer (I am not looking forward to the first flood - when the sewer meets my road...).
And finally, I arrive at my destination, ready to begin my work day.

An Assembly on Steroids!

During the last few weeks I have been informed about an activities that will be occurring on International Children’s Day.

Cambodia celebrates many international observance days, including this day and it is formally a public holiday in the country.

The activity that I refer to is an concert/propaganda machine that I would rather refer to as an assembly on steroids.

The day began with me having breakfast (obviously this isn’t actually where my day began but this is where I will begin my story) at Soup Dragon, a Vietnamese restaurant on Pub Street that does an awesome Asian breakfast! After devouring a pork and rice I approached the nearest tuk tuk driver for a ride to Sama Pheap II. I mentioned that it was near BBU (the landmark that I was given and he said ‘Ahhh yes the wedding venue’. This gave me some confidence and we started our journey.

We drove past BBU, it was on the left hand side of the rode, and we kept driving and driving…. and driving… I started thinking that perhaps I should ask the driver how much further, but he hadn’t hesitated at all, so I thought ‘I’ll let this go on for another minute or so’. We were well into the countryside by now (which only takes about five minutes, in any direction, from the middle of Siem Reap) and I asked the question ‘how much further do you think it will be’. With this, the driver turns around in a huff and says ‘you said to keep going straight’. Funny this, because I hadn’t spoken for the duration of the trip and nor did I know where I was going. He must have had little Elysse voices in his head – poor love. Anyway, he asks me again where we are going and I politely say ‘Sama Pheap II’ and he begins again with ‘you told me no, keep going straight last time we were there’. Eventually I end up outside the entrance to the function centre and make may way inside. I had left the driver, who was chucking a strop because he was upset that I had only paid 2USD for the trip, he expected me to pay more because he had made a mistake. I think he was trying to scam me by driving past the destination.

The event consisted on children singing, dancing, playing instruments and eating free ice cream. My personal favourite was 'if you are happy and you know it'. Simply because I knew the words.

Below is Voleak, our lovely book keeper, who wouldn't take no for an answer and dragged me to the front, where all the barang were sitting.

The 'little drummer boy', who didn't look at all enthused about being involved in the event.

This is Sovann, the Kindergarten Teacher, escaping for a while to hang out with Voleak and myself. They are cousins.

This is the MC, who is the news presenter on Angkor CTV. They organised the event, and appeared to have co-sponsored it with the government, or maybe they are a branch of the government?

The famous pop group from Phnom Penh, who visited Siem Reap for the event. I feel privileged to have seen them 'play' live?!

This is the tree that people were dancing around, in a circle, it is a compulsory item... to have a dancing tree... wherever dancing may occur!