Starting in Battambang

I’ve moved on from Phnom Penh now (see below for what it looks like when it rains) and I have begun work in Battambang (wow have the roads improved since I was last in Cambodia) for an organisation called Phare Ponleu Selpak (PPS). They’re famous for the circus performances that they put on at the site here, and their purpose is to help Cambodian children and other young people. 

When it rains it pours. A view from my guesthouse in Phnom Penh. Some of these drivers live in their tuk-tuks

This is done through education and training in the arts and cultural fields. These fields range from drawing, playing musical instruments, theatre and various aspects of circus performance, and plenty of other things besides.

They also provide care to children who have nowhere else to live. This can be because they have been orphaned, abandoned, are victims of trafficking, or many different types of domestic abuse. They are housed on the site here where they are looked after, and many are amongst the recipients of the above training. The site is also home to a state run school, which is also supported by PPS in a variety of ways. PPS do lots of other things as well so check out the website for more details because I’ll have definitely missed things out:

http://www.phareps.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=frontpage&Itemid=1&lang=en

It’s difficult to describe quite how pleasant the site is, set a little way outside the city, although hopefully some of the pictures will help. I stayed here on the first couple of nights, and it was really odd getting used to the sound of frogs and insects whilst falling asleep, the first wildlife of any description I have seen in Cambodia. You also get to hear early morning instrument practice as well. But as a city person, it took 48 hours for that to wear off and I am now living in Battambang and taking my $0.50 moto out here each day. Battambang is a very peaceful city, and the French influence is very noticeable both in terms of the numbers of French tourists and in some of the architecture. It’s also noticeable how everyone gets up early and everything closes early. It’s a very relaxing place.

The guesthouse where I stayed on the site. I guess I'm just not a trees person. And you need to mind the frogs on the way back at night, especially if it rains

PPS is much bigger than Meakea, and necessarily much more sophisticated. There are a number of foreign volunteers/workers, and they employ about 80 staff. They also get some money from the EU, which always makes things more complicated from a financial/management perspective. As well as doing a general assessment of the financial processes within the organisation as A F i D’s first volunteer here, I’m helping the Finance Manager, Neary, to improve the way that PPS uses its own (financial) information in its’ decision making. I think this will probably involve a load of Excel spreadsheet stuff, which is fine by me. I've already shown her a few little 'tricks' that Excel can perform, and it's really gratifying to see the response.

Another volunteer helping redecorate one of the buildings here. We haven't had rain for a couple of days and a guy at the hotel has promised it won't rain tomorrow if I go out on a tour. I asked if I could stay for free if it did rain and he agreed as long as I paid for his accommodation. My bill is bigger than his, so the odds are very tempting....

I’ve spent my first week getting my head around how everything fits together, and it seems very well organised with all of the right systems in place. Any information I’ve asked for has been given quickly, and you can’t really ask for more than that. The work I’m doing is also really interesting (all you non-accountants try not to laugh), so basically I’m really enjoying it, although of course I’m enjoying my first weekend and some nice lie-ins as work starts at 8am each morning.

The office. It's a bit different to working in an office block. If it's not obvious, it's much nicer

So there you have it, Battambang so far. Next time I’ll post some pictures of the performances. But first I need to find somewhere that’s showing the footie later. Until next time.