CIH: See my Rage

In actuality it's not Cambodia to blame
It's not their fault that I've all this rage
It's CIH that deserves my anger's flame
It's their second-rate program in which I'm engaged

KEP, CAMBODIA

June 9 - 12, 2008

So I guess it wouldn't be me (or my blog) without a little anger to go along with it. I bet you've all missed my ranted. And even if you haven't, well, I have, and now's the time to let loose, I feel. To be fair...I'm not always angry. There are just certain things here that trigger it, and luckily, it's not Cambodia's fault that I'm pissed off Monday through Friday.

I tried to get my research started this week (since that's why I'm here, of course), and having finally received ethics approval from the Cambodian ethics committee on Monday (YAY!) and from U of T on Tuesday (double YAY!), I was actually kind of excited to start. Only now I'm waiting for translators, which is a whole other nightmare on its own, because CIH didn't think it was important to coordinate this ahead of time despite their knowing that we would only be here for a limited amount of time. Now we're stuck without a translator, trying to figure out how to just skip having CIH "help" us and just find them on our own.

Ridonk.

Not to mention
the $600 program fee I was forced to pay for the "support" that CIH would be giving me over the summer -- the fruits of which I have yet to experience. "Transportation to Kep included" indeed. Paid for by me, of course, without any direction as to how to get there. And then there's the $150 bill which was, and I quote, "presented" to me yesterday to cover the cost of translation and photocopying my proposal to Cambodian ethics -- costs which I think should have been born by the Program itself as an operating cost of running the program, since its precisely this research that they are mandated to carry out.

Just think, there are about 20 of us students here, paying, on average, $500 for the summer, each. The math makes $10 000. Did you know that the entire operating budget of Kep District for health care is $5 000? What is being done with our $10 000?? Who are we helping?? And why am I still being forced to pay for things when CIH obviously has the money to do SOMETHING? We are all funding our own research, so I'm not sure in the least what is happening with this 10K.

Plus, the lazing around has really gotten tiresome. There's nothing to do here, other than sit in bed and read, because it's raining all the time. It's now changed from hot and humid to monsooning and humid. The dining hall here has no walls, so when it rains, everything is wet, and you have to wear a raincoat while eating. The only thing I can do is try to get some work done, but I've even hit a standstill with this because I have no translator.

(Frick...as I type this, the rain just started pouring again. Yesterday I left my window open because I had done laundry and wanted some circulation. It was sunny in the morning and I was all excited, figuring that I'd go into town and have fun and let my laundry dry; then I went for breakfast. And then, in a matter of 10 seconds, it went from sunny to torrential downpour and I had to run back to my room to close the window. Hadn't brought a raincoat because I am an idiot. My laundry got wet.)

Sometimes there is a bit of warning though. When you feel the wind pick up and start to see waves crashing against the edge of the see (as below), you know to run for cover.


Because if you don't, you'll get stuck in this (I realize the resolution is poor, but take a look at the trees in the background. The wind is super strong and the rain falls sideways here, as a result).


So bored. Life consists of just getting through the time between meals because at least eating is something to do.

Sick of reading.

There was, at least, some amount of progress on the translator front as of Thursday. Buntheoun helped us to interview two potential candidates for the job (who would have to be shared between TH's project and my own). Unfortunately, one couldn't speak or understand English (where's the screen?!) and the other, whose English was really quite decent, plus he's a health care worker, could only work two days a week -- Saturday and Sunday. So that ended up being a bust, because for my own project alone, I had wanted two translators. A whole mess.

And then there's the Peon. Peon No. 1 arrives next week, but I've got Peon No. 2 helping me right now. Peon 2 is a nice enough kid but tends to blurt things out in meetings in a very unprofessional manner, and is a little bit (read: a lot) childish. When we were interviewing translators and I asked how early they could start each morning, and they answered 7:30 am (which I already thought was a little late, since the Cambodian day starts around 5 am), and Peon 2 actually screamed. "What?! That's like, so fricking early. Yo, I get up at 10." I replied that he'd have to do things early for project, and that we'd talk about it later, after the interview. "Yo man, that's crazy. Crazy. That's so early, man. Whoa."

Hours of endless fun with the peons.

I did, however, get some phone calls from John and my parents, which was really nice. But I'm really ready to get up off my bum and do something.