Just wanted to give everyone an update on how things were going after the fieldwork finished up! After my trip to Vietnam I actually moved to Phnom Penh and will stay here for the remainder of my grant time. I decided to move for a couple of reasons – 1) I’m still assisting SeangAun, the masters student at the Royal University of Phnom Penh, with his research and he is based in Phnom Penh; 2) I’m hoping to help the communications team with some of their advocacy efforts; and 3) I’ll primarily be writing up the results of our research and thought Phnom Penh would offer a more comfortable environment in which to do that i.e. one with air conditioning, grocery stores, restaurants etc.
Before I left Kratie both the WWF staff and my expat friends held farewell dinners for me. I was very touched and happy I had to opportunity to say “goodbye” to everyone. I’m still hoping I’ll see people before I leave, but it was nice to feel a little closure about leaving the place I’d been living for the last 7 months. While I’m happy to be living in a city with easier access to things, I am thankful for the experience to have lived in the provinces of Cambodia. A woman I spoke to before coming to Cambodia explained living in the provinces was extremely different from living in Phnom Penh. Having experienced both I can easily vouch for this statement, but despite the challenges of living in Kratie I feel as if I had a bit more of an authentic "Cambodian" experience as a result.
With that said, I’m off to order a pizza for delivery – so spoiled! I'm actually living with a student who is getting her PhD at Duke, such a small world. Ps – just to let everyone know the WWF petition against Don Sahong Dam is up to 70,000 signatures!