A final word and some pictures from PP

OK. So only another few days until the end of my assignment here at Meakea. I’ve been going through the records with a fine tooth comb and will write my report with recommendations for what I think they could do to improve the way in which their financial activities are organised. Most things are here, it’s just all a bit confusing. Or as they only own one filing cabinet, records don’t exist for much of the past and are slightly incomplete. Still with a bit of organisation things could be made to be a lot easier, and I think considering the language difference one of the people I am training has improved massively on Excel. Hopefully that’ll be remembered when I am gone. Because of the size of the organisation, they do not need to produce annual accounts for the authorities, so I guess that makes things more simple. And I’m always being asked how to do things differently and better. Hopefully I’ll get some of the answers right and things will continue to improve.

Here's my typical healthy breakfast, pork and rice. I do miss my cornflakes every now and then.

I’ve spent most of the last week or two in the central office in PP. It didn’t rain for about four or five days which made the temperature noticeably higher, but it has certainly made up for it on the rain front since. I got caught for the first time the other day, and even though I was in a tuk-tuk, I was soaked to the skin. As an aside, the market near to where I live contains loads of weird and wonderful things to see, eat and drink, and I’m slowly getting through some of them. I still haven’t got ‘round to the insects yet though. The fruit and veg. are probably the highlight, and dragon fruit, mangos, lychees and rambutans abound, as well as the usual bananas.

All this tastes as good as it looks. I've managed to cut out the traffic chaos. The driving has to be seen to be believed.

As you can imagine, it all tastes great and costs very little, even if you are paying a bit too much as I’m sure I am. Sadly you can’t get the smells from these pictures, but I manage to find something different everyday, even though I don’t know what most of it is.

I know what these are. They're fish!! For those of a nervous disposition, I haven't included any pictures of the 'meat section'. Let's just say as someone with an interest in Biology, they're pretty educational.....


Anyway, next week I am off to Battambang, Cambodia’s second city to start a new placement. This NGO is bigger than Meakea, and I guess more complicated. I’ll keep you posted. Later on though, I'll go here for my tea.

I've worked my way across the back two rows, and so far so good. I normally manage to establish whether it is 'pig', fish, chicken or 'cow' before I tuck in. Not bad for $1