worldlyspeechie-blog

[worldlyspeechie-blog]

We were waiting at the hospital for our students to arrive on our last volunteering day, when these two lovely ladies kept looking over at us in interest and almost in awe. Next minute, the one in the white t-shirt found the courage to cheekily squeeze between us holding her camera and a massive smile. Of course we were thrilled to have a photo with them! With them speaking no English and our minimal (and in this situation rather trivial) Khmer, our exchange consisted of smiles, giggles and hugs! It's the little moments like these which make travel special ❤ #cambodia #culture #travel #onelove #oneworld #volunteer #nofilter (at Preah Kossamak Hospital)

[worldlyspeechie-blog]

Cross languages, cross cultures

Volunteering in Cambodia you expect you should learn some khmer, that ones obvious. No one told me that Latin and/or French as well as American English would also be useful! Lol

Doctors tend to write in patient notes using French, occasionally Latin and even more rarely English. This can be confusing to everyone involved! The interpreters here work very hard...

We also all know the challenges of working with interpreters - keep it short and simple, make sure they are interpreting exactly and only what is said, ensure they don't prompt or give clues, remain impartial etc etc. However, lets overlay this with the main cultural difference - saving face! You cannot (or rather should not) correct, interfere, provide suggestions or question the students whilst they are interacting with the patient unless their actions are putting patient at risk. Additionally, khmer and English don't translate easily with many more words needed in Khmer to explain a simple English concept. For example, 'milk' is translated into something like 'the liquid from the teat of a cow'. This makes it hard to monitor those initial concepts including ensure they are only providing the information you said and not prompting or giving clues!

One of the other volunteers and new found friend is American, and we are constantly joking we should have taken American/Australian English courses prior to the trip to help interactions! Different words for the same thing, same words for different things, new words, various abbreviations and acronyms - 'uni' and 'mozzie don't exist in American English whilst 'right' is used more frequently than 'yes', SNF (skilled nursing facility aka nursing home) and CF (clinical fellowship, similar to an internship for doctors), meanwhile the pronounciation of ball and bowl are a constant source of contention! Lol Throw that in with cultural differences and there are many laughs, confused faces and new learnings!

Learning parts of the language and culture for all of these areas has been one of the highlights of the trip! Then being able to use the language functionally daily and integrate into other cultures with more ease than initially has been rewarding, exciting and overall highly enjoyable!

[worldlyspeechie-blog]

First impressions: you have left the western world, Phnom Penh

(A long post but worth it, will even make you giggle!)

Everything is opposite. I can’t stress that enough. It will overwhelm your senses. This is only positive. You will see things of wonder and fascination; and things which go against everything our parents taught us. You will hear the most magical of sounds we aren’t privledged to in western society; but inevitably hear undesirable noises. You will smell amazing aromas leaving your mouth watering; and then literally the next step smell odours you couldn’t dream about to send you running for fresh air.

Let me give you an idea...

Waking up the first morning, I initially heard the incessant noise from a building construction site, but then I listened closer, walked downstairs and was blessed to hear monks chanting. What an amazing soul filling sound unlike anything we experience at home. The next days have been followed by a mix of monks singing or praying and the children across the road at school practicing their English every morning; standing out the front they altogether say the numbers 1-4 followed by ABCs and singing of nursery rhymes in both English and Khmer.

Food generally smells delicious but be careful sniffing twice if your moving along, because the next time may be the complete opposite! Markets are filled with the most amazing food, as are the many stalls and restaurants, some I know and some are completely foreign; they also enjoy fried tarantulas, which anyone who knows me could have imagined my response - significant arachnophobia over here! Can appreciate others may find a delicacy however..

Oh and in the markets, bartering is huge and you should only pay about 50% of the original starting price - just $1 has a whole new meaning to me I this country! It could buy me 4 2L waters, a beer (if I drank it!), most of my dinner or a 10 min tuk tuk to get me to my destination!

Traffic rules are more like suggestions im told and sure is that true! There are lights which are occasionally followed by 80% on main roads only, but intersections generally look like Japan’s Harajuku crossing, things going everywhere! Cars, tuk tuks, bikes, motorcycles all sharing the road (or footpaths when not covered in eateries or other stuffs), ducking and weaving, going in opposite directions. Children who look 18 months old casually sitting on the bikes barely holding on or standing holding onto their parents shoulders; helmets also optional. School aged children driving motorcycles are also a daily sight!

Pedestrians when you cross the street it’s like your own personal game of arcade frogger. And if you go splat, don’t worry frog sautéed in lemongrass and ginger is seriously delicious, we had it last night for dinner! But honestly, if you want to cross before dark, just stick your hand out and go and the traffic will just slow or avoid you (hopefully!)

Tuk tuks are one of the most fun things you could experience in Cambodia. Make sure you hold your bags tight as the number of bag snatches are on the rise with unsuspecting tourists caught daily. Also don’t stick your phone out to take pictures unless you don’t care for it anymore! When considering your travel insurance, do not overlook accidental death and body dismemberment as you can literally reach out and touch someone - warning please keep your limbs inside the tuk tuk at all times! Oh and the number of people/animals/things (eg doors, shopping, coconuts, dead animal carcasses) on or in any vehicle is purely dependent upon your ability to play Tetris!

And lastly you will sweat. You will be hot and covered in bug repellant. You will  go through multiple outfit changes. Tip? Dont bring more clothes. Buy washing powder.. or visit the laundromat! Or buy the clothes here - much more suited to this climate than ours! Also don’t forget deodorant! But in the end, this country is worth every minute of being uncomfortable! And it’s not all the time..! ;) :)

[worldlyspeechie-blog]

Today was spent exploring a floating village! Incredibly a large population of Cambodians live their life on the water, with an array of boats for transportation, floating shops, schools, places of worship and clever ways to store items away from the lapping water! We also took a tour through the mangroves before handing out books to the children I bought for their schooling - they were so ecstatic! I just couldn't believe how many children were around, as far as the eye could see! A couple of young girls wouldn't leave our side, holding our hands and looking sad we were leaving already - so we took some snaps which they loved! 😊❤ #cambodia #culture #amazing #volunteer #giveback #worldyspeech2017

[worldlyspeechie-blog]

You see at least three new things everyday! Today was someone laying concrete with a broom, a kid riding a bicycle with two massive collection bins and a super happy pupper driving a tuk tuk - his feet were on the floor! #cambodia #culture #amazing #worldyspeechie2017 (at Phnom Penh)

[worldlyspeechie-blog]

Travel is all about the unexpected finds. A monestry on the way to the supermarket! Even got a high five from a beautiful little Cambodian girl after she followed us around waving and saying 'hello' 😊 #monks #detail #gold #carvings #culture #cambodia #worldyspeechie2017 (at Phnom Penh)

[worldlyspeechie-blog]

Traditional cambodian dancing - fantastic show!! #cambodia #culture #shadowandlight #cambodianlivingarts (at Phnom Penh)

[worldlyspeechie-blog]

When your non-english speaking Cambodian tuk tuk driver is having trouble reading the map and needs you to help provide directions half way across their home city, and you achieve it using the few khmer directional and confirming words you've learnt in only 3 days AND you do it only getting lost once with lots of laughs and cheering along the way!! 🙌🙏 He was then super stoked when we asked for a picture to remember our so far favourite tuk tuk ride and driver!! 😁🤗 #cambodia #volunteer #culture #people #newexperiences #newvocab #immerseyourself #worldyspeechie2017 (at Phnom Penh)

[worldlyspeechie-blog]

Volunteer Day 1: Culture Shock

Can’t believe I’ve only been here 48 hours! Such an amazing place - the culture and the people especially!

A fantastic start to the volunteering week; a quick orientation then straight into providing clinical supervision! We worked in pairs today but then will have our own student the rest of the week. Things that really stood out between service provision between Phnom Penh (Cambodia) and Adelaide (South Australia):

- No health care system. Patients stay as long as they can afford to which is generally not long, thus length of stay is determined by money as opposed to being medically ready for discharge.

- Specific diagnosis are uncommon: more commonly see a general diagnosis or individuals informed ‘they have a problem’.

- Patient identification extends to a room number filled with 8-10 beds and deductive reasoning, then politely confirming a name

- No privacy with large shared rooms without curtains or dividers in the rooms I visited; some hospitals have smaller or single bay rooms; these are more expensive and thus reserved for the few who can afford them

-Infection control is more stringent in Australia; a family of cats live in one of the hospitals ICU!

- Family provide all personal care, food/drink and transfers: positively our supervisors say they haven’t seen a bed sore in the near 12 months they have been here across multiple hospitals!!

- Nurses have two main roles; medication and wound management.

Patients and families love when you attempt to assimilate into their culture including speaking greetings and accompanying signs! Love their giggles and smiles!

The main skills needed as clinical educator here is multi tasking, followed closely by quick integration and decision making skills - imagine trying to concurrently assess the patient and student for different information, ensure appropriate translation is occurring, account for cultural considerations and document results whilst ensuring patient safety - talk about cognitively demanding!

But most importantly, what an amazing experience! Can’t wait to do it all again tomorrow!

I also feel incredibly blessed to have been chosen for this amazing experience! Thank you Speech Therapy Cambodia!