Last week Mickey (the director of RDI) and I drove to the provincial rural development office to try to set up a meeting. We arrived to find only a couple of women working. Apparently it was a holiday that we had forgotten about…for good reason. The holiday was International Women’s Day and it was on the previous Saturday (this was Monday). But because the holiday fell on a weekend they thought they should take Monday off. So let me get this straight- the women were at work on International Women’s Day and the men were off celebrating a day devoted to the advancement of women’s rights. Hmmmm, very interesting.

Corruption in the government is rampant in Cambodia. I realize some degree of government corruption happens everywhere. It just seems worse here because it is so much more blatant and the people are powerless. The average Cambodian makes about $1 a day yet Land Rovers and Mercedes are some of the most common vehicles. I’m not talking about the white NGO SUVs, because the ones owned by the government officials are much nicer. The drivers are usually going really fast, honking for everyone to get out of their way…I’m sure they have somewhere very important to go to. So it is up to the pedestrians that are already playing a game of frogger, the motos balancing everything imaginable on their bikes, the tuktuks, the cyclos slowly peddling along, and the venders pushing their carts, to get out of the way of the speeding SUV. I’ve asked a few Cambodians how they feel about the corruption in the government…and the common answer, after a short chuckle, is that they can’t do anything about it. They don’t know what they could do that would result in anything positive…so they just don’t do anything, and accept it for what it is. So this has made me think, and I have no idea what the answer is. How does a stable country develop from this deep corruption? It’s such a far reaching problem, with so many powerful people involved that I understand the Cambodians’ feelings of powerlessness. And yet I hate that the amazing people here have to deal with it, that they just accept that money rolls into their country and no trace of it ever reaches them. A recent survey came out stating that around 65% of Cambodians had paid a bribe in the past year…from my experience already, I’m surprised it’s not higher. I can watch a round about for a few minutes and see money being handed out of windows to police officers. The other day on the way to a kickboxing match in Phnom Penh, the moto that a friend and I were riding on was waved to the side of the road because he had run a red light and didn’t have plates on his moto. After a few short minutes of discussion, the guy I was with gave the cop 5000 riel, and we were on our way again. 5000 riel is $1.25. There are so many things wrong with this situation.

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Here's a copy of the email I sent out:

I just want to give you all an update on where I am and what I’m up to these days. I graduated from UNC in December with my MSPH in environmental sciences and engineering. I was then given the opportunity by my advisor to stay on with UNC and lead a research project. Although this had been in the works for a while, I found out in early November that in 2 months, I’d be leaving the country for about a year. As many of you know, the pace of my life isn’t the quickest…but here is the exception. In that time, I wrote my thesis, defended it, packed for the trip, moved from Chapel Hill and did a million other little things to try to prepare for the move. Oh yeah, and it was the holidays, so I did manage to spend a few days with my family!

So I’m currently living in Cambodia- I’ve actually been here for a little over 2 months now (wow, can’t believe it’s been that long already…) and will be here about a year. Some of you have been very active in this transition, some of you are aware that I moved somewhere for some reason and some of you probably have no idea (thanks to me!)! I’m working on a project that evaluates the health impact and water quality effectiveness of a certain household water treatment filter, called the biosand filter. My focus at UNC was largely on drinking water quality in developing countries, so I’m excited to get into the field and work on something that I’m passionate about. I won’t go into many more details about the project but if anyone wants to know more, I’d love to talk about it. We are partnered with RDI-C (Resource Development International-Cambodia, www.rdic.org), which is an NGO doing some excellent development work for Cambodia. RDI is set up in a way that allows for researchers and volunteer groups from all over the world to stay here and has the accommodations to support that. Currently there are people living here from Australia, Canada, England, Holland, and the US of course. So I’m living in a bungalow at RDI…it’s quite adequate for my needs, although I haven’t been here for long, so we’ll see how I feel in a couple months. Phnom Penh is about a 20-30 minute drive from here which makes for a nice weekend getaway, but not a commute I’d want to do everyday on the back of a moto.

Life has been pretty intense, exciting, and challenging with trying to get this project up and running, while at the same time adjusting to a culture and a country unlike anywhere I’ve ever been…and realizing I’ll be here longer than I’ve ever been gone. I’m not sure if that’s truly hit me yet. But this is an experience that I’ve wanted to do for many reasons, and so far, I love it. Cambodia is a beautiful, diverse country that, despite its tumultuous recent history, seems to be so full of hope. The people that I’ve met are amazingly friendly and gracious. It is, of course, still a developing country, and so I have moments and days when I talk to someone or see something that I have trouble taking in and knowing what to do with the emotion….but that’s all part of it.

I’ve set up a blog that is still very much in the development phase, but if you’re interested in what I’m up to this year, check it out: erinprinty.blogspot.com. The consistency of the internet and power is a large determinant of how often I can post! Anyway, I hope that you are all well, and if you feel like visiting the other side of the world, I’m sure you’d have an amazing trip and I’d love to have visitors. J

I was finally able to do some travelling last weekend...a few of us from RDI went to Kep and Rabbit Island. They are little seaside/beach towns on the southern coast. Kep was beautiful- it used to be the most popular beach spot in Cambodia, before the Khmer Rouge destroyed most of the french villas, etc. so you can see the ruins of what looked like beautiful homes. And it's located on the side of a mountain so there are some great views. We then took a boat over to Rabbit Island, which is pretty much the picturesque tropical island, almost a little too so. I kept having to remind myself that this was reality when I was there...we arrived to white sand beaches, perfectly lined with palm trees, straw bungalows, a couple open air "restaurants", hammocks...it was amazing. For lunch I had crab curry on the beach with a crab that they pulled out of the water to make the dish! mmmmm!

UNC and RDI Staff

So my main task here in Cambodia is to manage a project that evaluates the effectiveness of the HydrAid (plastic biosand filter) water filter. Largely, we will do this by looking at the health impact and microbiological water quality due to filter usage. UNC is funded by International Aid (www.internationalaid.org) to do this trial in three study locations: Honduras, Ghana and Cambodia. The purpose of geographically different sites is to reduce the effect of location and cultural bias in the study in order to make the results generalizable to many areas. In each location, we'll be including about 200 households...so that means collecting and analyzing water samples, as well as interviewing each household biweekly...for about 6-8 months. At this point, I've hired and trained (hopefully) 10 Cambodians to assist on the project, in the lab and field. Much of the initial project setup is complete, thanks to the help of many people(!), so I'm excited to really get started very soon. I'm warned that life will really get crazy soon. So now all I have to do is make sure everything runs smoothly...

The picture above is the UNC project staff. I took them out for lunch...this included snails, a whole fish, some kind of "soup", fried chicken, and rice of course. I definitely wasn't a strict vegetarian when I left, but I grew to often prefer to not have meat. And really, when you live in Carrboro, NC, it is the norm to be a vegetarian so it's very accomodating to that lifestyle. Cambodia, not so much. I learned that on day one when my "vegetarian" plane meals were repulsive, and again when I began living in the village and meat is served 3 times a day. Anyway, I think that my staff are misinformed into thinking that I really like this restaurant because they always invite me to go with them. But I am honored that they invite me, and so I go, realizing, maybe, that there is more to life than good food. :)

(Check out those lovely UNC shirts in the picture.)



Some of the wonderful RDI staff.

The much awaited abode picture

Here is my bungalow, or as I like to call it, the penthouse. I have a nice view of the land, a front row seat to evening volleyball games, a 1 minute walk to work, what more could you want? Hot water is what I really want right now! You know how we say sometimes that we're having a "bad hair day", well here we say we have a "bad hair life." It's true, a constant state of dirty hair that feels like straw, but if that's all there is to complain about, we're not doing so bad. I've started showering in the afternoon to take advantage of the warmer water then and it seems to help. And there is definitely time for that because the lunch break is around 1.5 to 2 hours. They've just accepted in Cambodia what we all fight in the U.S...an after lunch nap is totally normal. How will I explain that to my next boss?

Happy Birthday!!!

Hi Nan,
I hope you have a great birthday! Here's my birthday wish to you from the other side of the world...where I've already been celebrating. It's an extra long birthday for you this year. :) It was great to talk (and see!) to you the other day. I wish I could have been home last weekend, but soon enough...until then, remember I'm thinking of you and love you!

A random addition

So this is obviously a bit out of order, but I wanted to post some recent family pictures. Our family rented a house on the Outer Banks (Nags Head) of North Carolina over New Years. It was my final family time before heading out. So, needless to say, it was a great trip, with a pretty tough ending. After first seeing Ashton and Ethan at a day old, it's hard to imagine that they will have just had their first birthday the next time I see them...