6 weeks out from Iowa and I've hit a bit of a stressed-out, tired, sore, hungry stretch. I'm finding myself a bit short of temper (the upstairs neighbour's dog isn't helping matters - I can't wait to get out of this shithole) and feeling a bit panicked. Work, train, work, train, work, train, repeat. And whoever said that exercise equates with better sleep is full of shit! It's not true.
There comes a point where training, whether it's running, cycling, doing pads, sparring or hitting the bag, becomes a chore, something that you've committed to and a job to be done, not necessarily for "fun" any longer. Yes, most of the time it IS fun! It's why anyone competes at an amateur level to begin with - fun! Certainly not the money or the prestige. But training for a fight requires a lot of time and effort and a great deal of time management to fit the rest of life into the slots in between training. Like a real job, the job that pays for the training! Although I very much love having a goal - I'm a very goal-oriented person who likes life to be scheduled... except when I'm in SE Asia... - I also become very single-minded, slightly obsessed, and have a problem focusing on something other than the goal. I feel like that right now. My schedule feels a bit all over the place. Focus at work is difficult. And I don't even have mindless, routine work that I can do right now - I'm trying to write a very long, very complicated and complex manuscript which requires creativity, intelligence and a great deal of focus. Let's just say that this isn't working out well right now! I can look at this two ways - put the manuscript down until July 1st and work on my programs and workshops for Students on Ice, or push through the ADHD moments and use this as practice in concentrating. Either way, shit has to get done!
Tuesday, May 13, 2014
Saturday, March 22, 2014
Fighting at 40
It's been 6 years since (2008) I have stepped into the ring for a fight, not counting friendly sparring at the gym. As the months are rushing by, especially the last few weeks as a crunched camp for a possible fight on April 12th, I'm learning that 6 years makes a huge difference in the way I approach training. 6 years ago, I didn't hesitate to step into the ring - I wasn't scared, I was excited, injuries didn't seem to be part of my world. But I had only been training for just over a year before my first fight in Montreal, and I took that fight on 2 weeks notice. No problem! The following summer, my first time at the TBA-SA Iowa tournament, I was still quite inexperienced - not even 2 years of training. I was in my early 30's, but that didn't phase me at all. I admit, I had control issues - I had no idea of my own strength at that point in time (and still struggle with this), my temper was no way under the control it is today, and I was more likely to bull forward in the ring than stop and think. Training to fight was still an emotional and mental challenge - the fear of failure, of letting people who have supported you down, the weight loss that requires a lot of sacrifice and often sends you into a meltdowns that are due to a lack of carbs. That part of the game never goes away. But it seems to play a bigger role.
Fast forward 6 years and I'm finding that the approach to a fight is very different. I've been training for 8 years. I'm more experienced and have trained at many different gyms in Thailand. I *think* I'm more patient (although the verdict on that is still out on that one!). I know that my temper is much more controlled and I don't have the anger issues that I used to have. I'm certainly more mature. I have more in my arsenal to pull from when in the middle of a battle. But experience is apparently a double-edged sword. For one, it means that I think more than I used to. Most of the time, thinking isn't a bad thing. But when it takes precedent over acting on instinct and muscle memory, it is a problem. I'm more likely to stop while training and think about the next move, rather than simply reacting. This has been the hardest hurdle for me to get over in the last few months.
The reality is that I'm almost 40 as well. Muay Thai is a young person's sport - I'll most likely be stepping into the ring with someone half my age. It's not a huge issue, but it is something I think of. I cannot be as fast as I was 6 years ago. But I can be smarter, use my experience, and this is what I am hoping to rely on.
There is also the perceived idea that there is more at stake - not doing my best, failing, losing, looking like an idiot, having a crappy day training, not hitting a weight goal each week - these things all play heavily on my mind. I am more conscious of the fact that I am investing a lot of time in this, sometimes with other parts of my life taking a bit of a hit, and my Ajarn is investing a lot of time in this, the close friends/training partners who are expending energy training with me are investing a lot of time in this. I do not like the idea that I may let him or myself down. As I say, perceived, in my own little pea-brain, because I know that as long as I do my best, no one is going to be disappointed in me. If I don't give my 100% and slack off, then I deserve to be talked to and told to step it up. Part of the reality is that I am training with people I am much closer to, personally, than I was 6 years ago, people whose opinion of me I value more than any other. Closer relationships means a greater fear of letting someone down, even in training. Having a crappy couple of days at work gets reflected in my training - I'm not as focused, lacking vital energy, and reach the point of frustration faster than normal. I'm getting better at leaving work at work and focus only on training at the gym, but I'm not perfect. The inability to grasp a concept immediately, to be told again and again to do something but still fail to do so is gut-wrenching at times. Having a bad day in the ring, training or fighting, is such an emotionally-draining experience. The key is to NOT have a bad day, but hey, shit happens.
So I think this is the big difference. It means more now. I think the emotional involvement is deeper. I'm not afraid of fighting. I'm not afraid of being punched in the face. I am afraid of having someone say "what the fuck are you doing? you're 40 years old! you're not up to this any more!". Part of me expects to hear "You're not going to be ready. You're not good enough.". That's the snark speaking and I push it to the back of my mind. I will be ready, I am strong, I need to be smarter in the ring than maybe I currently am, but I have the best support and coaching I could ever ask for and I take strength in the fact that if someone is willing to invest their time in me, they probably aren't crazy in doing so and believe I can do it. So I should too.
I find making the switch from professional scientist to fighter (can I really even say that? I feel like a fraud saying that) a bit strange some days. If I think about it, that is. Some days I do, some days I don't - it depends on what has gone on at work, how professionally successful I am feeling, how confident I am in my own skin as a mineralogist. The days that I feel successful, confident, and that I have contributed to my chosen research area are the ones where I tend to be a bit shocked, maybe disbelieving, at the two extremes in my day-to-day life but feel confident about my training, drawing strength in the fact that I am more multi-faceted and balanced than most academics. The days where I feel like a fraud in my professional career are likely the days I will feel like a fraud in the ring, trying to pass myself off as a fighter. Moving from work, where thinking is my job, to training, where thinking gets me into trouble, is also an interesting challenge. I think my co-workers are a mixture of curious and disturbed by my "hobby".
Fast forward 6 years and I'm finding that the approach to a fight is very different. I've been training for 8 years. I'm more experienced and have trained at many different gyms in Thailand. I *think* I'm more patient (although the verdict on that is still out on that one!). I know that my temper is much more controlled and I don't have the anger issues that I used to have. I'm certainly more mature. I have more in my arsenal to pull from when in the middle of a battle. But experience is apparently a double-edged sword. For one, it means that I think more than I used to. Most of the time, thinking isn't a bad thing. But when it takes precedent over acting on instinct and muscle memory, it is a problem. I'm more likely to stop while training and think about the next move, rather than simply reacting. This has been the hardest hurdle for me to get over in the last few months.
The reality is that I'm almost 40 as well. Muay Thai is a young person's sport - I'll most likely be stepping into the ring with someone half my age. It's not a huge issue, but it is something I think of. I cannot be as fast as I was 6 years ago. But I can be smarter, use my experience, and this is what I am hoping to rely on.
There is also the perceived idea that there is more at stake - not doing my best, failing, losing, looking like an idiot, having a crappy day training, not hitting a weight goal each week - these things all play heavily on my mind. I am more conscious of the fact that I am investing a lot of time in this, sometimes with other parts of my life taking a bit of a hit, and my Ajarn is investing a lot of time in this, the close friends/training partners who are expending energy training with me are investing a lot of time in this. I do not like the idea that I may let him or myself down. As I say, perceived, in my own little pea-brain, because I know that as long as I do my best, no one is going to be disappointed in me. If I don't give my 100% and slack off, then I deserve to be talked to and told to step it up. Part of the reality is that I am training with people I am much closer to, personally, than I was 6 years ago, people whose opinion of me I value more than any other. Closer relationships means a greater fear of letting someone down, even in training. Having a crappy couple of days at work gets reflected in my training - I'm not as focused, lacking vital energy, and reach the point of frustration faster than normal. I'm getting better at leaving work at work and focus only on training at the gym, but I'm not perfect. The inability to grasp a concept immediately, to be told again and again to do something but still fail to do so is gut-wrenching at times. Having a bad day in the ring, training or fighting, is such an emotionally-draining experience. The key is to NOT have a bad day, but hey, shit happens.
So I think this is the big difference. It means more now. I think the emotional involvement is deeper. I'm not afraid of fighting. I'm not afraid of being punched in the face. I am afraid of having someone say "what the fuck are you doing? you're 40 years old! you're not up to this any more!". Part of me expects to hear "You're not going to be ready. You're not good enough.". That's the snark speaking and I push it to the back of my mind. I will be ready, I am strong, I need to be smarter in the ring than maybe I currently am, but I have the best support and coaching I could ever ask for and I take strength in the fact that if someone is willing to invest their time in me, they probably aren't crazy in doing so and believe I can do it. So I should too.
I find making the switch from professional scientist to fighter (can I really even say that? I feel like a fraud saying that) a bit strange some days. If I think about it, that is. Some days I do, some days I don't - it depends on what has gone on at work, how professionally successful I am feeling, how confident I am in my own skin as a mineralogist. The days that I feel successful, confident, and that I have contributed to my chosen research area are the ones where I tend to be a bit shocked, maybe disbelieving, at the two extremes in my day-to-day life but feel confident about my training, drawing strength in the fact that I am more multi-faceted and balanced than most academics. The days where I feel like a fraud in my professional career are likely the days I will feel like a fraud in the ring, trying to pass myself off as a fighter. Moving from work, where thinking is my job, to training, where thinking gets me into trouble, is also an interesting challenge. I think my co-workers are a mixture of curious and disturbed by my "hobby".
Monday, March 3, 2014
Back to reality
I find it amazing how quickly one falls back into routine after being away. One day, I'm sitting on a beach in +35 deg C weather, attempting to relax, with no more worries than what to have for supper that evening - squid, fish or praws - and the next thing you know, I'm sitting in my office at work, staring at the chaos on my desk of draft manuscripts, journal articles, random bits of paper with scribbled bits of data that I will never, ever begin to understand what they were supposed to mean, coffee cups that were not empty when I left and therefore are harboring their own colony of new lifeforms, and wondering how it can be so cold inside a building. From +35 deg C one day to -25 deg C the next. It's a bit of a shock to the system, but it does amaze me at how quickly the transition happens. Aside from jet lag, a large pile of laundry, the beginnings of the post-trip sinus infection and a very nice tan, there is no transition - it's as if February ceased to exist, a dream, and I'm picking up where I left off on January 21st. I'm not sure this is a good thing.
Being back at work, I find I'm not overly eager to delve back into the social side of things - coffee breaks or lunch in the cafeteria. I'm not certain I am as of yet ready to be asked the question "how was the trip?" and be probed for information. I suspect part of this is my chosen new method of dealing with my work versus personal world - the less information shared, the better. The gossip mill here is rampant; a number of times in the last year I've had information said in confidence to someone come back to me via another source. My attempt at positive thinking also requires protecting myself from such garbage.
Being back at work, I find I'm not overly eager to delve back into the social side of things - coffee breaks or lunch in the cafeteria. I'm not certain I am as of yet ready to be asked the question "how was the trip?" and be probed for information. I suspect part of this is my chosen new method of dealing with my work versus personal world - the less information shared, the better. The gossip mill here is rampant; a number of times in the last year I've had information said in confidence to someone come back to me via another source. My attempt at positive thinking also requires protecting myself from such garbage.
Tuesday, February 18, 2014
Strength
Not many posts since I have arrived on Koh Yao Noi, but that is mainly because I have been attempting to have a vacation and relax. Not working so far, simply because I am expecting too much of myself. I have come to a Muay Thai camp with the plan of training and then doing island-type things during the rest of the day. That said, coming to any new camp is always a steep learning curve - not a bad thing because it means learning new techniques that will better me as a teacher and fighter. I've had both good and bad experiences across Thailand at various camps. So far, this hasn't been one of the good experiences, and this is weighing heavily on me. Every camp is different, has their own style, techniques, ways of doing things. Here, the routine is a warm-up, shadow boxing, and then about an hour of sparring followed by clinch, and then only 2 rounds of pads. By the time I get to the pad rounds, I am exhausted - the heat in the afternoon here, with the sun shining directly into the gym, zaps energy like you wouldn't believe. Even with 2 weeks in Cambodia, I find myself crashing in the heat and am thus pretty useless during pad rounds, and am not enjoying sparring every single day for that amount of time. I'm not enjoying myself. I try the "what doesn't kill you makes you stronger" motto, but this fails in light of "this is just not any fun" reality. Now I know that a few weeks in this, and I'd be fine, but right now, I'm exhausted 3/4 of the way through a session. Even running is brutal.
The problem is that crashing and being exhausted, coupled with being yelled at continually for not doing techniques the way the head trainer wants, makes me feel weak, physically and mentally. I don't like quitting, giving up, but feel that if I am not toughing it out every day, I'm doing exactly that - wimping out, that I'm not as strong, mentally, as I would like to think I am. Maybe that's a good self-realization to have - own up to it. Or maybe it's the snark part of the brain having its way. It's hard to tell when you feel you are letting yourself down and should be taking up basket weaving or something less mentally and physically demanding.
The problem is that crashing and being exhausted, coupled with being yelled at continually for not doing techniques the way the head trainer wants, makes me feel weak, physically and mentally. I don't like quitting, giving up, but feel that if I am not toughing it out every day, I'm doing exactly that - wimping out, that I'm not as strong, mentally, as I would like to think I am. Maybe that's a good self-realization to have - own up to it. Or maybe it's the snark part of the brain having its way. It's hard to tell when you feel you are letting yourself down and should be taking up basket weaving or something less mentally and physically demanding.
Thursday, February 13, 2014
Relaxing - more difficult than it seems
After 2 weeks of constant running around and activity, I am finding it very difficult to actually stop and relax for holidays. I know I need the break, but when I do take the time to essentially do nothing but read and chill out, I feel horribly guilty! I'm on a small island east of Phuket - Koh Yao Noi. It's a tiny island that is 95% Muslim fishermen and their families. There is nothing exciting here at all - no big resorts, no loud bars, do downtown strip with shops and restaurants and throngs of tourists. The beaches are pristine and virtually devoid of tourists of any sort - no beach umbrellas, no hawkers walking up and down the beaches trying to sell you everything from food to random trinkets. It's paradise lost - what other islands in and around Phuket were once like 10-15 years ago. It's the perfect island getaway! Except I'm having a very difficult time giving in to island life and simply stopping and relaxing. So far, my day goes like this: get up, go for a 5-8 km run, shower, breakfast, wander around the island on my motorcycle, sunbathe and read, have lunch, relax/watch movies, and then train at 5pm til 7pm, supper and then bed. YThe food here is incredible, lots of very fresh seafood, so finding an excellent meal is never an issue! Yesterday, I came into my room after lunch and started to watch a movie and promptly fell asleep at 1:30pm until almost 5pm. I suspect that the last few weeks have caught up with me, but I woke up feeling very guilty for sleeping during the day! And that I had slept through the start of training. I know that I shouldn't feel this way, but it's hard to free yourself of the idea that you should be doing something productive all the time.
Wednesday, February 5, 2014
Gem wanderings - Day 2 - Bokeo Clas and Phum Throm
I really want to apologize to anyone who has to do laundry at hotels in rural Cambodia - I have inflicted terrible pain upon them in the last few days!! Between the build and now traipsing around in lateritic soils all day, I come back to my room filthy. At least in Tbeang Meanchey it was normal dirt-coloured dirt. Here in Ban Lung, it's lateritic soils derived from basaltic rocks, and it is very, very, very orange-red. It stains everything - your hands, your feet, your clothes, your shoes, backpack, you name it. Everything turns a lovely orangey-red colour. I gave in laundry this morning prior to leaving for the field and warned them "very, very dirty! might have to wash twice!" after which I was told the washing is done by hand. Oh my. I suspect I should be leaving a very large tip before leaving...
Today our foursome split up - the mineralogists off to hunt for zircons, and the non-mineralogists off to ride elephants and see the waterfalls. I've been to the waterfalls here and I can attest that they are beautiful. Glenn, Andy and I did that trip on motorcycles a few years back and came back more filthy than I have ever been in my life.
Dermot and I headed out to see both Phum Throm and Bokeo Clas today, about 30 minutes to the east of town. We soon discovered that where there were dozens of miners 2 years ago, there was now only large piles of dirt, vacant holes, and brand new rubber trees planted in between. It was quite a shock, as when we visited Phum Throm 2 years ago, it was a thriving community of miners, all of whom sold their stones to Mr. Pross at the end of the day, the gem dealer who owned the land. However, we were told before that mining is very dependant on rubber prices - if rubber is fetching a good price, farmers will rip everything up and plant rubber trees. And thus kick out all of the miners. The rubber industry is HUGE in this part of Cambodia, and it results in massive deforestation of old growth hardwood forests. All along the highway near Ban Lung, huge tracts of land have been cleared and burned and then planted with rubber trees. It's horrific to look at and the number of rubber plantations that have sprung up all over the countryside in the last two years is almost nauseating when you contemplate how much hardwood and native species had to be removed to plant these trees. The problem with rubber is that the trees only start producing after 3 years, and then are tapped out, literally, by the time they are 20 years old. On the border with Vietnam, the problem is even worse - Vietnamese companies are crossing the border, logging all the hardwood, and hauling it back to Vietnam. Why? Because the Cambodian government is corrupt and can only see the money that is currently right there in front of them. There is no thought to long-term environmental impact or natural resource sustainability in this country. It's difficult to watch in a country which could be rich on their natural resources, including various metal deposits.
Okay, enough with the political/environmental diatribe... back to minerals!!
We wandered around the old Phum Throm site for a while, being careful not to fall into the 20 foot deep holes that were everywhere, but soon realized that there were no miners. We drove back to the main road and about 2 km further east to Bokeo Clas to ask the miners there where the Phum Throm miners had moved to. Mining is too lucrative here - they would not simply abandon the zircon deposits entirely. Sure enough, we discovered that they had moved to the other side of the highway, directly across from the old site. Happy with this information, we decided to stop in Bokeo Clas and check out what the miners here had for sale. No sooner than sitting down at a bench, we were surrounded by a hoard of villagers, miners and family and friends of miners alike. The tourists have arrived! The tourists have arrived!! And of course every single person came carrying a small grubby bag or plastic vial containing zircons of all sizes and quality.
If you have never experienced this type of mineralogical-circus, it's a bit overwhelming. People put a handful of rough stones in front of you and wait for their turn to name their ridiculous opening price. And prices this year were insanely higher than in past years - what I paid $2 for 2 years ago was now being asked for, at the start, at $25 or $30 for anywhere from 2 to 10 zircons. But negotiating is part of the game of course. If you don't come back with a counter-offer, they are offended. So even if you do not wish the buy the stones, or think the price is ludicrous, you name a price. And if you give in to a high price at the start, with the first or second seller, you are totally screwed in that village for the rest of the day - you are not getting fair prices from anyone! Everyone else will want the same rate that the silly foreigner just paid to their buddy!! For the most part, 75% of the asking price was about what I was aiming for.
Here's the problem. At every guesthouse in town (not that there are many of them!), they have a tourist "map" (and I use that term loosely because they are hand-drawn and certainly not to scale, and if you try and navigate with one, well, you should probably bring a GPS with you). On this map you'll find a little "X" that says "Gem Mines". Mr. and Mrs. Random Non-Mineralogist/Gemmologist Tourist come into town and are looking for what to do - elephant trekking, jungle trekking, go see the waterfalls, and oh look honey! we can go see the gem mines!! This is where the inflation is happening. Naive, uneducated tourists, and I say this in the nicest way possible and don't mean it to be demeaning, come into these gem mining camps, brought along by guides from town, and they proceed to buy rough zircons, and then later some heat-treated, cut ones. But they really don't know what they are buying, other than a souvenir from Ban Lung. And the villagers aren't stupid - they can see a naive tourist coming a mile away and up go the prices.
Why is this a problem for people who know what they are buying? Because the villagers begin to expect to be paid what the tourist just paid. What I know is worth only $1 or $2 because it useless to a gem dealer due to flaws (fractured, included, bad colour, etc) and cannot be heat-treated and cut, Mr. and Mrs. Tourist only know that it is a gem stone and will pay $25 for it, thinking they got a deal. So up go the prices. What the villagers do know is that we know what we're doing - carrying around a hand lens and an intense flashlight is a big red indicator flag. But they still try and get the tourist price. Which means that there is a lot more bartering required to bring them back down to earth! And I have to tell you, it's exhausting when you have half the village standing in a circle around you trying to sell you their samples. If you buy from only one person, they will all be mad. So you do have to share the wealth around. This was Dermot's first experience with the local zircon mafia, but he did fine, picking up a few lots for $5 each, bartering down from the ridiculous $30 some of them wanted. I managed to get a large, 2 x 2 inch crystal for about $5 and another small lot for the same. All in all not bad. We talked to one of the miners at Bokeo Clas, who let me haul up a bucket of mine material from his hole (hard work!) that he found only 2 zircons in 30 5 gallon buckets of laterite. It gives you a bit of perspective on how hard this work is. But I'm still not paying $30 for a handful of non-gem-quality zircon!!
After lunch, we headed off to the new Phum Throm site, which turned out to be in the middle of an active rubber plantation. Once we got there, we were quickly told, quite proudly, by one of the miners that he had foreigners down his hole. What the hell? We thought maybe he meant that in the past, he has let foreigners down the mine. Nope. We went over, and sure enough, we could see 3 headlamps at the bottom of the 36 foot deep hole. I called down to them and it was a young girl and her boyfriend. This is possibly the stupidest thing I have ever seen. The holes at this location are about 2.5 feet wide and 36 feet (12 m) deep. They balloon out slightly at the bottom, just wide enough for the miner to scoop out a few buckets of the laterite, but there is NOT room for 3 people down there!! Also, to add to the "fun", the water table at this locality, unlike the others, is high and the bottom of the mines are wet and very mucky - wet laterite is clay. So here are these two stupid farang, down this hole where usually only one small Khmer person fits. I called down and asked them "do you realize how many miners get killed doing this each year? you should probably come out of there right now". I must admit, I would like to go down, just to see, and we joked about it the last time we were here, but I would never do it - it's way too dangerous. These two South Africans finally emerged from the hole - the guy, a hell of a lot bigger than any Khmer miner, was a recent geology graduate. Well, that explains the slight stupidity and eagerness!! Votha found their motorcycle guide and gave him a blast of shit. The guide was clueless really - some random guy from the city trying to make some money driving tourists around so he can't really be faulted.
After leaving Phum Throm, we headed back into Ban Lung to check out a few gem dealers. I want to buy some cut stones for our collection, and Votha knew the best places to go. The first place we went to had a great selection of stones - zircons from Ratanakiri, topaz from Takeo, and amethyst from just west of Ban Lung. We checked out her prices, and then decided to go visit our good friend the heat-treater, Mr. Kruy. His prices were more than double what the first shop had quoted! Crazy. And then we asked about some rough material, and there again, his prices were outrageous. I needed some rough from BeiSrok, one of the regions which isn't in operation any longer, and he took out premium gemmy material and quoted me $3000 USD per kilogram!! I tried to explain to him I just wanted 5 or 6 crystals, preferably euhedral ones, for reserach purposes. He finally came out with a bag of poor quality rough, but when we asked for a small bag's worth, he robbed us for $10 for the bag. Ridiculous. But I need that material for some other analyses as I seem to have lost the one and only sample I had from the previous trip. This dude is making money, I can tell you that! All in the name of science. :)
Today our foursome split up - the mineralogists off to hunt for zircons, and the non-mineralogists off to ride elephants and see the waterfalls. I've been to the waterfalls here and I can attest that they are beautiful. Glenn, Andy and I did that trip on motorcycles a few years back and came back more filthy than I have ever been in my life.
Dermot and I headed out to see both Phum Throm and Bokeo Clas today, about 30 minutes to the east of town. We soon discovered that where there were dozens of miners 2 years ago, there was now only large piles of dirt, vacant holes, and brand new rubber trees planted in between. It was quite a shock, as when we visited Phum Throm 2 years ago, it was a thriving community of miners, all of whom sold their stones to Mr. Pross at the end of the day, the gem dealer who owned the land. However, we were told before that mining is very dependant on rubber prices - if rubber is fetching a good price, farmers will rip everything up and plant rubber trees. And thus kick out all of the miners. The rubber industry is HUGE in this part of Cambodia, and it results in massive deforestation of old growth hardwood forests. All along the highway near Ban Lung, huge tracts of land have been cleared and burned and then planted with rubber trees. It's horrific to look at and the number of rubber plantations that have sprung up all over the countryside in the last two years is almost nauseating when you contemplate how much hardwood and native species had to be removed to plant these trees. The problem with rubber is that the trees only start producing after 3 years, and then are tapped out, literally, by the time they are 20 years old. On the border with Vietnam, the problem is even worse - Vietnamese companies are crossing the border, logging all the hardwood, and hauling it back to Vietnam. Why? Because the Cambodian government is corrupt and can only see the money that is currently right there in front of them. There is no thought to long-term environmental impact or natural resource sustainability in this country. It's difficult to watch in a country which could be rich on their natural resources, including various metal deposits.
Okay, enough with the political/environmental diatribe... back to minerals!!
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| Dermot and I at Bokeo Clas |
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| Abandoned mine at the old Phum Throm site |
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| Old Phum Throm site, now a rubber plantation |
If you have never experienced this type of mineralogical-circus, it's a bit overwhelming. People put a handful of rough stones in front of you and wait for their turn to name their ridiculous opening price. And prices this year were insanely higher than in past years - what I paid $2 for 2 years ago was now being asked for, at the start, at $25 or $30 for anywhere from 2 to 10 zircons. But negotiating is part of the game of course. If you don't come back with a counter-offer, they are offended. So even if you do not wish the buy the stones, or think the price is ludicrous, you name a price. And if you give in to a high price at the start, with the first or second seller, you are totally screwed in that village for the rest of the day - you are not getting fair prices from anyone! Everyone else will want the same rate that the silly foreigner just paid to their buddy!! For the most part, 75% of the asking price was about what I was aiming for.
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| Dermot checking zircons being sold by villagers/miners, Bokeo Clas |
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| Votha adding his opinion on the price of some zircons, Bokeo Clas |
Why is this a problem for people who know what they are buying? Because the villagers begin to expect to be paid what the tourist just paid. What I know is worth only $1 or $2 because it useless to a gem dealer due to flaws (fractured, included, bad colour, etc) and cannot be heat-treated and cut, Mr. and Mrs. Tourist only know that it is a gem stone and will pay $25 for it, thinking they got a deal. So up go the prices. What the villagers do know is that we know what we're doing - carrying around a hand lens and an intense flashlight is a big red indicator flag. But they still try and get the tourist price. Which means that there is a lot more bartering required to bring them back down to earth! And I have to tell you, it's exhausting when you have half the village standing in a circle around you trying to sell you their samples. If you buy from only one person, they will all be mad. So you do have to share the wealth around. This was Dermot's first experience with the local zircon mafia, but he did fine, picking up a few lots for $5 each, bartering down from the ridiculous $30 some of them wanted. I managed to get a large, 2 x 2 inch crystal for about $5 and another small lot for the same. All in all not bad. We talked to one of the miners at Bokeo Clas, who let me haul up a bucket of mine material from his hole (hard work!) that he found only 2 zircons in 30 5 gallon buckets of laterite. It gives you a bit of perspective on how hard this work is. But I'm still not paying $30 for a handful of non-gem-quality zircon!!
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| Hauling dirt at Bokeo Clas |
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| Miner at Bokeo Clas |
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| Miners at new Phum Throm |
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| Mounds of laterite at new Phum Throm |
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| Miners at new Phum Throm |
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| Abandoned mine at new Phum Throm |
Tuesday, February 4, 2014
From house building to gem hunting - multiple personalities!
This morning it was up, once again, bright and early in order to part ways with Pon and Thora while we headed into the further wilds of northern Cambodia. We said our goodbyes to Pon, thanked her for all her help and hope to see her on next year's build or at least back at the Tabitha office in Phnom Penh. Then we packed up our new van with all our stinky build clothes, left over baguettes and water, and all our other crap, and headed northwest towards Chomng Ksant, and then onwards to the village of Tram Poung, roughly 80 km from Tbeang Meanchey. We were blessed with a good road all the way, with minor slowdowns for cow crossings, and one very abrupt swerve to avoid a dog. As much as I don't want to hit a dog, I would rather us not make that sort of violent swerve again on these roads!!
Tram Poung is a widening in the road with a couple of store fronts, a gas station, and an inordinate number of gem dealers for the size of the place! The mines here are only operational during the wet season when there is enough water to spray the soils and laterites with large hoses to dislodge the alluvial zircon and some sapphire. Looking at the geological map, there is no evidence of basalt within this area, so the zircon must be coming from basalts either to the north in Thailand, or from the basalts south of Tbeang Meanchey. The rocks around Tram Poung are all Jurassic and Triassic sediments, definitely not an original source of the zircons.
As is done in Cambodia, and I suspect anywhere else in the world where you sit down with gem or mineral dealers in remote areas, coffee and tea are provided and the selection and bargaining process begins. Votha took us to see 2 gem dealers and cutters - two brothers who own store fronts a couple of doors down from one another - Mr. Leko and Mr. Poung. Both men had glass display cases showcasing cut stones from around Cambodia and abroad, as well as a selection of random rough material - tektites, quartz from Takeo, amethyst from near Ban Lung, agates from the river beds, etc. Sometimes these random piles at the bottoms of display cases are the most interesting to us. For the regular gem buyer, they want what is on the top shelf, all the pretty cut material, but the rough is often the more unusual and scientifically-interesting. And also a hell of a lot cheaper!
Once coffee and tea were distributed, we were brought a large selection of cut and rough zircon. The rough is very obviously water-worn and has traveled following its emplacement along with the basalts from which they were later weathered. They are quite smooth, anhedral with very rare rounded bipyramidal terminations. However the colour is fantastic - dark red-orange to a lighter brown-orange and pretty much inclusion-free. Expensive rough for research but great if you wanted it for cutting and facetting. However, it's always difficult to get across the point that we don't want the material to cut into gems, that it's going to be sliced and crushed and analysed all in the name of esoteric science! I need to learn how to say "give me your garbage material" in Khmer.
Dermot and I both selected cut stones from both brothers - a couple of larger stones each for our respective collections and then smaller ones for ourselves. Prices ranged from $1.5 to $7 a carat, depending on the size of the stone. I bought a selection of 1 and 2 carat stones for myself and others at home, and the ones for the mineral collection are 10 carats. But at those prices, you can't go wrong. The stones are mined, cut and polished right there in Tram Poung by the dealers from which we bought them. Mr. Leko and his partner, Mr. Dee, process 30 stones a day. That's a lot of gems per year! Many of them get sent for sale at the gem market in Chanthaburi, Thailand, where I am very sure the prices are at least 10 times as high as we paid.
After negotiating for cut, natural zircons, Mr. Poung took one of the stones and brought it over to a gas burner to show us the colour change. In only 2 minutes, the stone, which was originally dark brown-red, was turned colourless. Fast!! This is in an oxidizing environment however, but Votha says that in a reducing environment as they do in Ban Lung, they only change to a very, very pale blue colour, not dark enough to be worth treating for the general market. As far as I'm concerned, the natural colour is more beautful.
We also went through an elaborate bartering process for a bag of rough zircon. By this time, we had an audience, and more miners had shown up to offer up their findings - some large rough zircon about 2.5 inches in length and quite gemmy, a bag with 3 lbs of rough material, and one miner with some rough, quite ugly yellow-green sapphire. Dermot and I split 400 grams of rough zircon for research, and then I bought 2 small lots of rough sapphire for research as well. It will be interesting to compare these with the ones that we found in BoLoei in Ratanakiri. As with Ratanakiri, there is no market for sapphire in Preah Vihear province - the material is too infrequent and the colours are not conducive to cut stones. Some of the material might make nice cabochons, but not facetted stones.
Before having some lunch/breakfast, we stopped at Mr. Leko's store front to take some pictures of the cutting and facetting - all done outside, by hand - and for Dermot to purchase some tektites and for me to grab a ridiculously-priced facetted smokey quartz from the Takeo granitic pegmatite, just south of Phnom Penh. A whole $5 for a stone about 25 carats. :)
At that point in time, after a quick bite to eat consisting of the leftover baguettes from the build and leftover random fixings (the pate went the way of the dodo - I opened both jars and both had white fuzzy stuff on the tops - damn!) we jumped back in the van for the long drive to Ban Lung, back the 80 to near Tbeang Meanchey and we are now on a mostly okay road headed directly west to Stung Treng. This was a difficult part of the trip to predict - everyone I talked to about this road gave me a different answer when I asked what its condition was - paved? not paved? pot-holed? tarred? Well, for anyone who ever needs or wants to know, the road between Tbeang Meanchey and Stung Treng is dirt but fairly smooth for the first 15 or 20 km, and then is roughly paved for another 50 km. We are currently about 2/3 of the way along the road and have yet to hit any major roadwork or barriers. More updates as the drive unfolds before us.
continued, 3:15pm
Arriving at the Mekhong River crossing after a dusty, long drive was pretty exciting. The Mekhong at Stung Treng is quite wide - a lazy, grey vastness stretcihng north to Laos and west aross to Stung Treng. There is no bridge - crossing the river requires a 1/2 hour ferry ride. As a ferry was just departing as we reached the landing, we had to put the van into the queue and wait for the next one. It gave us a chance to walk around the market area, and watch one of the funniest things I have seen in a long time - the perfect candidate for a Darwin Award. A brick truck had tried to drive down the (muddy) bank of the river, presumably to off-load bricks into a boat or get onto a barge. Well, a large lorry + muddy river bank = disaster. It had slipped into the river where it got stuck! There were very embarrassed Khmers standing around and directly other people who were removing the bricks from the truck and loading them elsewhere. It was too funny and they were not exactly happy with us taking photos! But how can you not?
The ferry ride across the Mekhong took 30 minutes, so Rory and I got out of the van and climbed to the captain's deck with Votha to have a bit of a "Titanic" moment! Complete with Angkor beers of course. It was a relief to get a bit of a breeze at the top of the ferry as it is quite hot and sticky here at the present. We talked with Votha about the cost of vehicles in Camboda. Specifically the plethora of large Lexus SUVs that you see around towns. In Canada, such a thing is way out of most people's budgets. As it is here too, for the most part since the disparity in economic levels here is absurd, but I was shocked at the price differnece - here, a Lexus SUV costs $12,000 USD. A Toyota Highlander about $15,000. What?! How is it that the price in Canada can be so far off? Import taxes?
Off the ferry and back on the (paved) road, high ho, high ho, it's off to Ban Lung we go.
Continued: 7pm - safe and sound at the TreeTop EcoLodge in Ban Lung!!
Tram Poung is a widening in the road with a couple of store fronts, a gas station, and an inordinate number of gem dealers for the size of the place! The mines here are only operational during the wet season when there is enough water to spray the soils and laterites with large hoses to dislodge the alluvial zircon and some sapphire. Looking at the geological map, there is no evidence of basalt within this area, so the zircon must be coming from basalts either to the north in Thailand, or from the basalts south of Tbeang Meanchey. The rocks around Tram Poung are all Jurassic and Triassic sediments, definitely not an original source of the zircons.
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| Tram Poung town, 80 km northwest of Tbeang Meanchey |
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| Dermot and I looking at cut natural zircons from Mr. Poung |
Once coffee and tea were distributed, we were brought a large selection of cut and rough zircon. The rough is very obviously water-worn and has traveled following its emplacement along with the basalts from which they were later weathered. They are quite smooth, anhedral with very rare rounded bipyramidal terminations. However the colour is fantastic - dark red-orange to a lighter brown-orange and pretty much inclusion-free. Expensive rough for research but great if you wanted it for cutting and facetting. However, it's always difficult to get across the point that we don't want the material to cut into gems, that it's going to be sliced and crushed and analysed all in the name of esoteric science! I need to learn how to say "give me your garbage material" in Khmer.
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| Raw, cut natural (red-brown) and heat-treated rough (whiteish-blue) zircons from Tram Poung |
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| Cut natural-colour zircons from Tram Poung |
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| Votha and I checking out cut natural zircons in Tram Poung |
Dermot and I both selected cut stones from both brothers - a couple of larger stones each for our respective collections and then smaller ones for ourselves. Prices ranged from $1.5 to $7 a carat, depending on the size of the stone. I bought a selection of 1 and 2 carat stones for myself and others at home, and the ones for the mineral collection are 10 carats. But at those prices, you can't go wrong. The stones are mined, cut and polished right there in Tram Poung by the dealers from which we bought them. Mr. Leko and his partner, Mr. Dee, process 30 stones a day. That's a lot of gems per year! Many of them get sent for sale at the gem market in Chanthaburi, Thailand, where I am very sure the prices are at least 10 times as high as we paid.
After negotiating for cut, natural zircons, Mr. Poung took one of the stones and brought it over to a gas burner to show us the colour change. In only 2 minutes, the stone, which was originally dark brown-red, was turned colourless. Fast!! This is in an oxidizing environment however, but Votha says that in a reducing environment as they do in Ban Lung, they only change to a very, very pale blue colour, not dark enough to be worth treating for the general market. As far as I'm concerned, the natural colour is more beautful.
We also went through an elaborate bartering process for a bag of rough zircon. By this time, we had an audience, and more miners had shown up to offer up their findings - some large rough zircon about 2.5 inches in length and quite gemmy, a bag with 3 lbs of rough material, and one miner with some rough, quite ugly yellow-green sapphire. Dermot and I split 400 grams of rough zircon for research, and then I bought 2 small lots of rough sapphire for research as well. It will be interesting to compare these with the ones that we found in BoLoei in Ratanakiri. As with Ratanakiri, there is no market for sapphire in Preah Vihear province - the material is too infrequent and the colours are not conducive to cut stones. Some of the material might make nice cabochons, but not facetted stones.
Before having some lunch/breakfast, we stopped at Mr. Leko's store front to take some pictures of the cutting and facetting - all done outside, by hand - and for Dermot to purchase some tektites and for me to grab a ridiculously-priced facetted smokey quartz from the Takeo granitic pegmatite, just south of Phnom Penh. A whole $5 for a stone about 25 carats. :)
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| Mr. Dee faceting Tram Proung zircons |
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| Mr. Dee faceting Tram Proung zircons |
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| Mr. Leko doing doing the first cut on a zircon on a dope stick |
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| Mr. Dee doing the first cut on a zircon on a dope stick |
continued, 3:15pm
Arriving at the Mekhong River crossing after a dusty, long drive was pretty exciting. The Mekhong at Stung Treng is quite wide - a lazy, grey vastness stretcihng north to Laos and west aross to Stung Treng. There is no bridge - crossing the river requires a 1/2 hour ferry ride. As a ferry was just departing as we reached the landing, we had to put the van into the queue and wait for the next one. It gave us a chance to walk around the market area, and watch one of the funniest things I have seen in a long time - the perfect candidate for a Darwin Award. A brick truck had tried to drive down the (muddy) bank of the river, presumably to off-load bricks into a boat or get onto a barge. Well, a large lorry + muddy river bank = disaster. It had slipped into the river where it got stuck! There were very embarrassed Khmers standing around and directly other people who were removing the bricks from the truck and loading them elsewhere. It was too funny and they were not exactly happy with us taking photos! But how can you not?
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| Brick truck stuck in the mud and water on the Mekhong River - LOL!!! |
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| Cow watching the stuck, sunk brick truck in the Mekhong - it had the same thought we did - WTF? |
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| Brick truck stuck in the Mekhong being unloaded, photo from the ferry |
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| Susan (waving) on the ferry crossing the Mekhong River |
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| On the ferry crossing the Mekhong River to Stung Treng |
Continued: 7pm - safe and sound at the TreeTop EcoLodge in Ban Lung!!
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| TreeTop EcoLodge, Ban Lung - you can find me in bungalow #16! |
Monday, February 3, 2014
Rockin4Tabitha House Build Day 2
The alarm clock woke me way too early this morning. Or what felt like way too early even though most of us were in bed by 9:30pm last night. I'm not a morning person, that's for certain!! Nope, can't hit snooze - have to get up and be functional as it's Day 2 of the build! I woke feeling a bit better than yesterday, but still not top shape, which is disconcerting. I have cipro with me. I suspect I may be using it.
Breakfast once again was omlettes and baguettes (with our own jam this time, rather than the gelatinized strawberry freezer stuff that they had at the restaurant!). There is something to be said about Cambodian coffee with a large concentration of sweetened condensed milk at the bottom of it. Or maybe it's just ANY coffee with a large dolop of sweetened condensed milk!! It certainly hits the spot though - you get both a caffeine and sugar rush at the same time.
Back on the road to the build, we did discover today that we are building in Koh Loong village, Rak Smey commune, Ro Vieng district, Preah Vihear province. Got that? What it really means is 60 km south of Tbeang Meanchey, with about 15 km of that off the main highway along a dirt "road". The traffic on the road is interesting. Since the village of Koh Loong doesn't have a market, the market comes to them. Motorcycles with a portable store come into the village on a regular basis carrying pots and pans, baskets, knives, hatchets, random bits of string and mesh, pretty much anything you might need for every day life. Today we even saw a snowcone truck come through the village! However the scariest visitor was the ice cream motorcycle. It comes through the village playing this very creepy tinned music - the type that immediately makes you think of a serial killer dressed in a clown outfit - THAT sort of creepy music. And it's so out of place in this remote, middle of nowhere village in Cambodia. But I tell you, if it had come through today, I would have chased him down the dirt path for ice cream! It was a hot one out there today. Although I suspect this was partially due to the fact that I was still not feeling all that great.
We built an additional 4 houses today to complete our 10. The second day is always a trade off of knowing the ropes which makes things easier, but being sore and tired from the day before, which slows you down. But the team did great, forged ahead and we only had one house to complete after taking a lunch break. In the morning, I discovered that everytime I got up on the top ladder in the sun, my GI tract said "No way! You're not doing this today!" and I felt like hurling and had to come down. They say the definition of insanity is repeating the same thing and expecting a different result, right? Well, that was me today. Drink some water and then try the ladder again. Nope. Do some floors, drink lots more water, and try the ladder again. Nope. You'd think I'd learn, right? I finally did smarten up after realizing I felt like crap, was bending nails left, right and centre, and went to a house on my own to chill ou, drink more water and electrolytes and nailed down the entire floor by myself. I think I need the bit of quiet and being out of the sun.
Pon surprised us at lunch by cooking lemongrass chicken, banana flower and chicken soup, and rice for us to share! It was a warm addition to our regular baguettes with random weird fillings. The local dogs were especially friendly, hanging around our feet with the same look dogs around the world give when confronted with humans eating something tasty - that wide-eyed, pitiful look that says they are starving. Although I know that when my dog gives me that look, he certainly isn't starving! The dogs here, some of them appear to be - the nursing mothers are especially skeletal. Although I think the dogs up here are beautiful - they look like wild African dogs, or likely more akin to the Thai ridgebacks. But they are gorgeous as far as I'm concerned. They aren't amenable to be petted though...
After lunch and a short break to rest, we headed to the last house to complete the floor and the walls. The walls were completed in record time, 30 min, with help from the contractors and with Rory on the top of the ladder. Go team!! After this house was done, we paused for a team photo, and then headed off to the area we had lunch at to give out the quilts to each family. 10 families and ~ 55 people total. Pon asked me to say a few words on behalf of the team, which actually threw me for a loop for a minute and I got stage fright and blanked! I finally managed to thank the villagers, wish them well in their new homes, etc. Pon added at the end "and no more babies!" which is a routine Tabitha statement from Janne. Families have 4, 5, 6 7 kids. Those are a lot of mouths to feed and Janne is trying to make them realize that having more kids is not the answer.
Since we have 5 team members, each of us got to give out 2 quilts to the families. As always, they are so happy to receive the quilt and are gung ho to move in to their new houses!! One of the small boys at the end of the line spent the entire time man-handling this poor 8-week old calico kitten! It was way too cute.
After saying our goodbyes and packing up the van, we drove a short distance to check out Koh Loong school, both the current one and the 6-room school that the Tabitha Foundation is in the process of building. The current school is open to the outside and has 3 classrooms - one for grades 1-2, one for grades 3-4 and one for grade 1. All the kids were there in their uniforms - white shirts and blue pants or skirts (white shirts in that dust? mine would be red and brown in 5 minutes!) and they were learning math and reading Khmer. The students gave us a few demonstrations by getting up at the board and reading the lesson, after which the entire class would recite it back to them. Well behaved students, that's for sure! The new school is a brick and concrete structure located about 50 yards from the old school and it will be completed in 2 months time. It currently has a concrete foundation, sunk 4 feet into the ground, and brick walls but no roof. It will be a huge improvement over the structure in which the students now learn, and will provide the opportunity for more students in the village to attend school - currently there is not enough space in the old school to accomodate all the children in the village.
Back here at the hotel, we discovered another van, which I presumed was our ride from Hanuman Travel. One of the employees managed to let us know that the person associated with the van was in a room across from ours so Pon went and banged on the door. It was Votha and our driver, Mr. Sim. There was definitely some confusion on Pon's part when we tried to explain to her that only Thora would be going back to Phnom Penh, that Dermot, Susan, Rory and I would be going with Votha across to Ban Lung to look for zircons. I *think* we got the point across but I suspect she thinks we are crazy! Votha told us that he as arranged for us to head 80 km north of here first to visit some miners and buy some rough zircon and sapphire, after which time we'll drive back south and pick up the road to Stung Treng and Ban Lung. He wants to leave early (ugh) but we can sleep in the van on the way afterwards. It's going to be another long day. When I think that I have only been in Asia for 10 days, I can't believe it - we have covered a lot of ground and have not really had any down time! I'll have to wait for Koh Yao Noi for that! The next week won't be as physically-demanding as house building, but will require the mineralogist brain to turn back on to focus on work and materials required for both the collection and research. I must say it's a bit of a hard reboot to go from house building to field work from one day to the next. I am excited to see the zircons from Preah Vihear province though - and to find out whether they are more similar to the Thai ones or the Ratanakiri ones.
Breakfast once again was omlettes and baguettes (with our own jam this time, rather than the gelatinized strawberry freezer stuff that they had at the restaurant!). There is something to be said about Cambodian coffee with a large concentration of sweetened condensed milk at the bottom of it. Or maybe it's just ANY coffee with a large dolop of sweetened condensed milk!! It certainly hits the spot though - you get both a caffeine and sugar rush at the same time.
Back on the road to the build, we did discover today that we are building in Koh Loong village, Rak Smey commune, Ro Vieng district, Preah Vihear province. Got that? What it really means is 60 km south of Tbeang Meanchey, with about 15 km of that off the main highway along a dirt "road". The traffic on the road is interesting. Since the village of Koh Loong doesn't have a market, the market comes to them. Motorcycles with a portable store come into the village on a regular basis carrying pots and pans, baskets, knives, hatchets, random bits of string and mesh, pretty much anything you might need for every day life. Today we even saw a snowcone truck come through the village! However the scariest visitor was the ice cream motorcycle. It comes through the village playing this very creepy tinned music - the type that immediately makes you think of a serial killer dressed in a clown outfit - THAT sort of creepy music. And it's so out of place in this remote, middle of nowhere village in Cambodia. But I tell you, if it had come through today, I would have chased him down the dirt path for ice cream! It was a hot one out there today. Although I suspect this was partially due to the fact that I was still not feeling all that great.
We built an additional 4 houses today to complete our 10. The second day is always a trade off of knowing the ropes which makes things easier, but being sore and tired from the day before, which slows you down. But the team did great, forged ahead and we only had one house to complete after taking a lunch break. In the morning, I discovered that everytime I got up on the top ladder in the sun, my GI tract said "No way! You're not doing this today!" and I felt like hurling and had to come down. They say the definition of insanity is repeating the same thing and expecting a different result, right? Well, that was me today. Drink some water and then try the ladder again. Nope. Do some floors, drink lots more water, and try the ladder again. Nope. You'd think I'd learn, right? I finally did smarten up after realizing I felt like crap, was bending nails left, right and centre, and went to a house on my own to chill ou, drink more water and electrolytes and nailed down the entire floor by myself. I think I need the bit of quiet and being out of the sun.
Pon surprised us at lunch by cooking lemongrass chicken, banana flower and chicken soup, and rice for us to share! It was a warm addition to our regular baguettes with random weird fillings. The local dogs were especially friendly, hanging around our feet with the same look dogs around the world give when confronted with humans eating something tasty - that wide-eyed, pitiful look that says they are starving. Although I know that when my dog gives me that look, he certainly isn't starving! The dogs here, some of them appear to be - the nursing mothers are especially skeletal. Although I think the dogs up here are beautiful - they look like wild African dogs, or likely more akin to the Thai ridgebacks. But they are gorgeous as far as I'm concerned. They aren't amenable to be petted though...
After lunch and a short break to rest, we headed to the last house to complete the floor and the walls. The walls were completed in record time, 30 min, with help from the contractors and with Rory on the top of the ladder. Go team!! After this house was done, we paused for a team photo, and then headed off to the area we had lunch at to give out the quilts to each family. 10 families and ~ 55 people total. Pon asked me to say a few words on behalf of the team, which actually threw me for a loop for a minute and I got stage fright and blanked! I finally managed to thank the villagers, wish them well in their new homes, etc. Pon added at the end "and no more babies!" which is a routine Tabitha statement from Janne. Families have 4, 5, 6 7 kids. Those are a lot of mouths to feed and Janne is trying to make them realize that having more kids is not the answer.
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| 10 families and the R4T build team |
Since we have 5 team members, each of us got to give out 2 quilts to the families. As always, they are so happy to receive the quilt and are gung ho to move in to their new houses!! One of the small boys at the end of the line spent the entire time man-handling this poor 8-week old calico kitten! It was way too cute.
After saying our goodbyes and packing up the van, we drove a short distance to check out Koh Loong school, both the current one and the 6-room school that the Tabitha Foundation is in the process of building. The current school is open to the outside and has 3 classrooms - one for grades 1-2, one for grades 3-4 and one for grade 1. All the kids were there in their uniforms - white shirts and blue pants or skirts (white shirts in that dust? mine would be red and brown in 5 minutes!) and they were learning math and reading Khmer. The students gave us a few demonstrations by getting up at the board and reading the lesson, after which the entire class would recite it back to them. Well behaved students, that's for sure! The new school is a brick and concrete structure located about 50 yards from the old school and it will be completed in 2 months time. It currently has a concrete foundation, sunk 4 feet into the ground, and brick walls but no roof. It will be a huge improvement over the structure in which the students now learn, and will provide the opportunity for more students in the village to attend school - currently there is not enough space in the old school to accomodate all the children in the village.
Back here at the hotel, we discovered another van, which I presumed was our ride from Hanuman Travel. One of the employees managed to let us know that the person associated with the van was in a room across from ours so Pon went and banged on the door. It was Votha and our driver, Mr. Sim. There was definitely some confusion on Pon's part when we tried to explain to her that only Thora would be going back to Phnom Penh, that Dermot, Susan, Rory and I would be going with Votha across to Ban Lung to look for zircons. I *think* we got the point across but I suspect she thinks we are crazy! Votha told us that he as arranged for us to head 80 km north of here first to visit some miners and buy some rough zircon and sapphire, after which time we'll drive back south and pick up the road to Stung Treng and Ban Lung. He wants to leave early (ugh) but we can sleep in the van on the way afterwards. It's going to be another long day. When I think that I have only been in Asia for 10 days, I can't believe it - we have covered a lot of ground and have not really had any down time! I'll have to wait for Koh Yao Noi for that! The next week won't be as physically-demanding as house building, but will require the mineralogist brain to turn back on to focus on work and materials required for both the collection and research. I must say it's a bit of a hard reboot to go from house building to field work from one day to the next. I am excited to see the zircons from Preah Vihear province though - and to find out whether they are more similar to the Thai ones or the Ratanakiri ones.
Sunday, February 2, 2014
Rockin4Tabitha build - Day 1
Yesterday, we packed up into a van for the ride north to Preah Vihear province. For most, Preah Vihear brings to mind the dispute over a temple which sits about 50 km north the capital, Tbeang Meanchey, along the Thai-Cambodian border. Both Thais and Khmers claim ownership of the temple and over which there has been some violent military exchanges in the past. Currently, you are more likely to find both the Thais and Khmers sitting around sharing their lunch and playing cards than lobbing grenades and exchanging fire with each other. It's a political chess-match within an area that has, at times in history, swamped hands multiple times between the two countries.
The drive to Tbeang Meanchey tookabout 7 hours along a highway strewn with pot holes and bridge work until the town of Khampong Thom. After lunch at a large Khmer-Chinese restaurant, we headed north again, another 2.5 hours until the small town of Tbeang Meachchey. I must admit, I missed most of the drive. I had woken up feeling not entirely 100%, slightly off and queasy a bit weak. So sitting in a van for 6 hours was a struggle. I didn't eat much at lunch and the bumpy road was not helping with the unease in my head and stomach. I wound up taking a Gravol and sleeping a good 2 hours of the last leg of the trip. I don't usually get affected by travel, but yesterday was an exception.
We arrived in Tbeang Meanchey, essentially 4 streets in a grid pattern, and are staying at the Malop Trosek Guesthouse. Being Chinese New Year, we immediately recognized a problem - NOTHING is open in town. The restaurant at our hotel, which apparently has excellent food, is closed until tomorrow. The majority of the shops are closed. The major question - what about breakfast? Skipping breakfast on a build day is not an option. We had picked up baguettes and had fillings for them prior to arriving. It was looking more and more like baguettes were going to be breakfast and lunch. We did an emergency run to the Tela gas station down the road and stocked up on Nescafe canned cold coffee and additional snack-type items. Luckily, Pon, the Tabitha staff member who is charged with caring for all these silly foreigners who think breakfast and coffee is important, managed to convince the restaurant down the road to open for breakfast. Woo hoo!!
We had a 2 hour break after the drive and before supper so I tried to rest. During this time, I managed to come up feverish - chills, shakes, aches, nausea and all. It is a very odd sensation to be cold and have goose bumps when it is 32 deg C outside!! I very, very rarely get fevers so you can imagine the creative, and mostly fatal, thoughts that crossed my mind - Dengue Fever, malaria, appendicitis, etc., any of which are actually a possibility! That said, this team leader was NOT a happy camper for the day. I did go for supper, just to get some soup into my body, and was not the most social of people while I considered my impending death in a local hospital of some foreign, incurable disease. I wound up coming back to the hotel at 8:30pm, dosed myself with aspirin, Gravol, lots of electrolytes and got into bed. It was a very long, sweaty night as my body decided to sweat itself out. I woke feeling a bit better, at least free of the fever, only still achy and feeling slightly nauseated. But the show must go on, right? Houses to build!! I think I will name this disease after our regular team leader and call it the Bob Syndrome. :)
We had breakfast at 6:30am (hard for a non-morning person!) at Tbeang Phnom, the same restaurant in which we ate supper last night - omlettes, awesome coffee with condensed milk, and baguettes. Then it was back into the van and back south for a 1 hour drive to the village where we would be building, with a stop along the way for more water. It's always better to have more water than too little and I definitely had concerns about the quota that Pon had put into the back of the van. It's amazing how much water you consume in a day of house building, and how little of that actually leaves your body!!
Preah Vihear province reminds me of Ratanakiri - the same elevation, similar terrain, same vegetation, but more real outcrop (having 2 geologists in the van does mean that geology will be spoken and rocks will be looked at and picked up! more on that later). The main crops appear to be cassava (taro) and bananas. We saw a lot of cassava plantations in and around Ban Lung as well, along with cashew and rubber.
The Tabitha Foundation is a newcomer to Preah Vihear - we are only the 2nd group to have built in this province, the first being Bob and Wendy with Rockin4Tabitha last year when they built 15 houses. It's a province that desperately needs the help and this is apparent when driving along the dirt road to the village - the poverty is evident: the lack of obvious crops, the shacks and random tarps used for shelter.
As per usual, we were greeted when we stopped and exited the van by all the villagers, who always appear a mix of nervous and excited but who are always very welcoming. We put our gear down on our assigned table and organized all our building supplies - gloves, hats on, sunscreen on, find the hammers and choose your favorite (all new hammers!) and then load up your pockets, apron, or in my case I have learned that the best tool is a climber's chalk bag, with nails and away we go! Given that everyone on our team is new except me, we used the first house as a way of getting to know what works and what doesn't work - does the tin go over or under the sheet next to it? what's the best angle for the ladder for each person? how hard is that hard wood really? can you really put a nail straight into the hardwood without bending it? do you get vertigo when you get to the top? are the contractors going to help us out and, since yes they always do, how much do you allow them to do the harder work? The first house is always the ice-breaker - everyone finds their rhythm, finds a way to work with the contractors without them going to fast to ensure no one gets their hands sliced open, and everyone gets to try each "position" on the wall. Since we do have one builder with a broken wrist (luckily her left one so she can still, bravely, bang away with a hammer!) we had a designated floor person and the remaining 4 of us rotated through the various positions - top of the ladder for the top 2 rows of nails, lower ladder for the bottom 2 rows of nails, and then into the house to help with floors with Thora and the Tabitha staff, Pon and Pip, if required for a break.
I am usually a top of the ladder wall person - I have no problems being up high, monkeying around on the joists to bang in nails, and generally am not too affected by the sun and heat. That said, yesterday was not a good day for me, and I certainly wasn't at 100% today - 70% at best in the morning especially. I wound up spending my time half on the top of the ladder, and the other half inside the houses putting in floor nails. It was a recognition that if I was stupid and stubborn and spent all day on a ladder, I was going to either (1) pass out (2) puke or (3) both and be sick tonight and tomorrow. It was the smartest move. Tomorrow is another day and more walls can be nailed! Dermot, Susan and Rory were going awesome on the walls, with Rory taking the high nails and Dermot and Susan working the lower levels with Pon and the contractors on tin duty. All was fine!
We completed 3 houses prior to stopping for a lunch break, although in reality no one was truly hungry. The heat and work beat the stuffing out of you and the last thing you really feel like doing is eating. But you can't do manual labour on an empty stomach, so lunch it was. It's always interesting to watchc peoples' choices of baguette fillings on a build day - all sense of culinary taste goes out the window! Personally, I'm a big fan of a mixture of boar or pork pate (country pate) with cherry jam and Laughing Cow cheese, or the traditional peanut butter and jam and bananas. It's an odd mix, but the combination sweet and salt and protein works great. I watched Susan make a canned ham (like Spam), mayonnaise and banana sandwich and the boys eat mackerel in some weird red sauce. Not something you would see on a menu in any sane restaurant, but there ya go! It if tastes good and will replenish you for the afternoon it's all good no matter how disgusting it may look to those in the outside world.
While having dessert (bananas and chips), I started to pick up random rock fragments near the table. This area is so highly weathered that finding solid, unweathered rock is a bit surprising, so when I picked perfectly happy monzonite/diorite/monzogranite, it was a bit shocking. I threw it to Dermot and a discussion on its composition ensued (something about putting 2 geologists together and getting 10 different answers for one rock?). One of the villagers must have seen us looking at these chunks of rock and came over and handed me a shiny, silver-grey, very lightweight piece of "rock". Before I held it, it looked from a few paces off like a piece of "specularite" hematite. But no way in hell could that survive up here. Even so, when he handed the hand-sized sample to me, I realized what it was - some sort of slag or sinter from processing!! Apparently there is a Chinese company not far away who is doing some sort of ore processing and producing slag! I don't know what they might be mining to produce such a bi-product but we did see a few quarries and what looked like aggregate plants along the road. He seemed very happy that we were excited to see the slag and we explained to Pon what it was, who translated as best as she could for the villager. Nothing like doing a bit of specimen ID in the middle of a house build!
After lunch, we completed another 3 houses. The houses after the first one always go faster as everyone finds their own rhythm. I think they were all happy that we stopped at a total of 6 houses today though - everyone looked hot, tired and in need of a shower and a cold Angkor beer. But they did great, these no-longer-newbie builders - everyone came away unscathed without cuts or even banged-up thumbs!
The ride back to the hotel required a stop at the Tela gas station, detouring around the family of 5 cows who were in the middle of the round-about obviously headed home for supper, for cold beer. We decided that showers could wait and had happy hour on the steps in front of our rooms. However the griminess got to be too much after a while and a serious amount of scrubbing was required in the shower. I'm always amazed at how much dirt, grit and sweat comes off you after only a day of building houses!! It's quite incredible and could make for a great soap commercial. However, I do feel bad for the hotel who insists on giving us white towels...
Supper is in 1/2 an hour and I'm hoping that we will be able to convince the WiFi at the restaurant to cooperate so I can post this blog. Stay tuned for news of Day 2 and 4 more houses!!
The drive to Tbeang Meanchey tookabout 7 hours along a highway strewn with pot holes and bridge work until the town of Khampong Thom. After lunch at a large Khmer-Chinese restaurant, we headed north again, another 2.5 hours until the small town of Tbeang Meachchey. I must admit, I missed most of the drive. I had woken up feeling not entirely 100%, slightly off and queasy a bit weak. So sitting in a van for 6 hours was a struggle. I didn't eat much at lunch and the bumpy road was not helping with the unease in my head and stomach. I wound up taking a Gravol and sleeping a good 2 hours of the last leg of the trip. I don't usually get affected by travel, but yesterday was an exception.
We arrived in Tbeang Meanchey, essentially 4 streets in a grid pattern, and are staying at the Malop Trosek Guesthouse. Being Chinese New Year, we immediately recognized a problem - NOTHING is open in town. The restaurant at our hotel, which apparently has excellent food, is closed until tomorrow. The majority of the shops are closed. The major question - what about breakfast? Skipping breakfast on a build day is not an option. We had picked up baguettes and had fillings for them prior to arriving. It was looking more and more like baguettes were going to be breakfast and lunch. We did an emergency run to the Tela gas station down the road and stocked up on Nescafe canned cold coffee and additional snack-type items. Luckily, Pon, the Tabitha staff member who is charged with caring for all these silly foreigners who think breakfast and coffee is important, managed to convince the restaurant down the road to open for breakfast. Woo hoo!!
We had a 2 hour break after the drive and before supper so I tried to rest. During this time, I managed to come up feverish - chills, shakes, aches, nausea and all. It is a very odd sensation to be cold and have goose bumps when it is 32 deg C outside!! I very, very rarely get fevers so you can imagine the creative, and mostly fatal, thoughts that crossed my mind - Dengue Fever, malaria, appendicitis, etc., any of which are actually a possibility! That said, this team leader was NOT a happy camper for the day. I did go for supper, just to get some soup into my body, and was not the most social of people while I considered my impending death in a local hospital of some foreign, incurable disease. I wound up coming back to the hotel at 8:30pm, dosed myself with aspirin, Gravol, lots of electrolytes and got into bed. It was a very long, sweaty night as my body decided to sweat itself out. I woke feeling a bit better, at least free of the fever, only still achy and feeling slightly nauseated. But the show must go on, right? Houses to build!! I think I will name this disease after our regular team leader and call it the Bob Syndrome. :)
We had breakfast at 6:30am (hard for a non-morning person!) at Tbeang Phnom, the same restaurant in which we ate supper last night - omlettes, awesome coffee with condensed milk, and baguettes. Then it was back into the van and back south for a 1 hour drive to the village where we would be building, with a stop along the way for more water. It's always better to have more water than too little and I definitely had concerns about the quota that Pon had put into the back of the van. It's amazing how much water you consume in a day of house building, and how little of that actually leaves your body!!
Preah Vihear province reminds me of Ratanakiri - the same elevation, similar terrain, same vegetation, but more real outcrop (having 2 geologists in the van does mean that geology will be spoken and rocks will be looked at and picked up! more on that later). The main crops appear to be cassava (taro) and bananas. We saw a lot of cassava plantations in and around Ban Lung as well, along with cashew and rubber.
The Tabitha Foundation is a newcomer to Preah Vihear - we are only the 2nd group to have built in this province, the first being Bob and Wendy with Rockin4Tabitha last year when they built 15 houses. It's a province that desperately needs the help and this is apparent when driving along the dirt road to the village - the poverty is evident: the lack of obvious crops, the shacks and random tarps used for shelter.
As per usual, we were greeted when we stopped and exited the van by all the villagers, who always appear a mix of nervous and excited but who are always very welcoming. We put our gear down on our assigned table and organized all our building supplies - gloves, hats on, sunscreen on, find the hammers and choose your favorite (all new hammers!) and then load up your pockets, apron, or in my case I have learned that the best tool is a climber's chalk bag, with nails and away we go! Given that everyone on our team is new except me, we used the first house as a way of getting to know what works and what doesn't work - does the tin go over or under the sheet next to it? what's the best angle for the ladder for each person? how hard is that hard wood really? can you really put a nail straight into the hardwood without bending it? do you get vertigo when you get to the top? are the contractors going to help us out and, since yes they always do, how much do you allow them to do the harder work? The first house is always the ice-breaker - everyone finds their rhythm, finds a way to work with the contractors without them going to fast to ensure no one gets their hands sliced open, and everyone gets to try each "position" on the wall. Since we do have one builder with a broken wrist (luckily her left one so she can still, bravely, bang away with a hammer!) we had a designated floor person and the remaining 4 of us rotated through the various positions - top of the ladder for the top 2 rows of nails, lower ladder for the bottom 2 rows of nails, and then into the house to help with floors with Thora and the Tabitha staff, Pon and Pip, if required for a break.
I am usually a top of the ladder wall person - I have no problems being up high, monkeying around on the joists to bang in nails, and generally am not too affected by the sun and heat. That said, yesterday was not a good day for me, and I certainly wasn't at 100% today - 70% at best in the morning especially. I wound up spending my time half on the top of the ladder, and the other half inside the houses putting in floor nails. It was a recognition that if I was stupid and stubborn and spent all day on a ladder, I was going to either (1) pass out (2) puke or (3) both and be sick tonight and tomorrow. It was the smartest move. Tomorrow is another day and more walls can be nailed! Dermot, Susan and Rory were going awesome on the walls, with Rory taking the high nails and Dermot and Susan working the lower levels with Pon and the contractors on tin duty. All was fine!
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| R4T 2014 build team - Rory, Dermot, Thora, Susan, Me |
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| Rockin4Tabitha House #3 |
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| Rockin4Tabitha House Build Day 1 |
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| Building houses in Preah Vihear province |
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| Cassava drying in the field |
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| Pon and a family through the papaya tree |
Supper is in 1/2 an hour and I'm hoping that we will be able to convince the WiFi at the restaurant to cooperate so I can post this blog. Stay tuned for news of Day 2 and 4 more houses!!
Friday, January 31, 2014
Headed into the wild, wild north
This morning we are leaving the relative luxury of the Billabong Hotel and are headed north to our house build are in Preah Vihear province. A 6-7 hour drive along roads which have suffered dearly during the last rainy season will bring us to the provincial capital, Tbeang Meanchey, our home base for the next 3 nights. Tomorrow morning we will be up bright and early for our 1+ hour drive to the village where we will build 10 houses - hopefully 6 the first day and then another 4 on the second. We want to extend all our sponsors and supporters, past and present, a big thank you for allowing the Rockin4Tabitha team to continue to help Khmers who truly need and deserve the opportunity for a better life.
We may not have internet access while in Tbeang Meanchey, but you can be assured that I will post pictures and a summary as soon as I can! After the build, we are headed into the wild, wild east of Cambodia, to Ratanakiri province, for the field work part of the trip - to hunt for more zircons!
Let the adventure begin!
We may not have internet access while in Tbeang Meanchey, but you can be assured that I will post pictures and a summary as soon as I can! After the build, we are headed into the wild, wild east of Cambodia, to Ratanakiri province, for the field work part of the trip - to hunt for more zircons!
Let the adventure begin!
Wednesday, January 29, 2014
Bangkok to Phnom Penh - gearing up for the build
On Tuesday, we made our way from Bangkok to Phnom Penh. With traffic held up all over town as a result of protestors and marches, it took us abbout 45 min to go 3 km from our hotel to the intersection near the UN. Our cab driver (as well as myself) was obviously getting slightly impatient and perturbed by the situation, but the gridlock was impossible to reroute through. He did take the option of crossing the Chao Phraya river to attempt traffic on the west side, but no sooner did we exit the bridge then we hit gridlock once more. Ah politics, wreaking havoc with traffic in big cities the world over. We finally made it to Don Mueang about 90 min later. Thankfully, as always, I had budgeted extra time prior to flying out, and we were able to check in, clear immigration and security in plenty of time to have lunch at S&P before boarding.
The short 1 hour flight to Phnom Penh was uneventful and we arrived on time. A relatively quick taxi ride took us downtown to The Billabong Hotel, our home-away-from-home in Phnom Penh for the last 6 years or so. First stop, after saying hi to Thora and performing introductions, was the pool! Time to wash off the sweat and dirt and grime from travel and polluted streets. After everyone was settled in, we had a beer by the pool where we met a large international school group from Singapore who had just returned from a house build. It was good for our newbie builders to meet these teenagers and to hear how much they enjoyed the experience.
We have 3 full days in Phnom Penh, during which time the team have to visit the Killing Fields and Tuolsleng, mandatory tours which are not enjoyable but do help our builders understand the cultural and political history of Cambodia. These aren't places which you would ever repeat visiting - once is enough. But it is a very humbling, and disturbing, look at the evil side of human nature, how power and ego can corrupt. I first visited both places in 2008, my first build, and the memory of those trips is fresh in my mind even now. Tuolsleng especially affected me, but others say that the Killing Fields were worse for them.
In the evenings, we have been checking out different restaurants near Sisowath Quay. Last night we went to have a Happy Hour drink at the famous FCC (Foreign Correspondents Club) and wound up staying for supper. Not the cheapest nor tastiest meal in the city, but the view from the 3rd floor patio overlooking the Tonle Sap is worth the expense.
I have been taking care of the business side of our trip while the others are off being tourists - a meeting with the CEO at Manulife to discuss potential sponsorship of R4T, off to the Tabitha office yesterday to meet Janne and pay for our van, and today we have to settle up on our van for the zircon hunting part of the trip, following the build itself. I'm beginning to feel like a travel agent!
This morning, following a very reluctant run during which I got very lost returning to The Billabong (resulting in a much longer run than originally planned!), I headed out to the walk along the river and check out the selection at Citadel Knives. Very nice window shopping, but I think I'll save my $$ for the trip up north. I then headed into the local produce market, something that I always enjoying doing - checking out all the strange and exotic fruits, vegetables and both living and dead creatures destined for peoples' supper tables. I feel bad for the chickens, tied up by their legs and lying peacefully on the ground, when above them on the table, their freshly dead, plucked friends are ready to be sold. Although I suspect chickens are way too stupid to recognize their fate.
Tomorrow is our orientation at the Tabitha office with Janne. There will be another large group from Autralia being "oriented" with us. After this, we are lucky to be able to head out for lunch with Janne, Nancy and Wolf (who are here from Ottawa visiting Janne), and our full team. Then, it will be last minute shopping for lunch fixings to put into the baguettes during the build days. I went and completed my grocery shopping this morning, purchasing my now regular odd mix of baguette fillings - pate and cherry jam, along with some Laughing Cow cheese (which does not need refrigeration) and peanut butter. Pringles are also a staple on the build - the salt and carbs are a perfect mix - as well as some ridiculously expensive Nature Valley granola bars. All set to go!
The short 1 hour flight to Phnom Penh was uneventful and we arrived on time. A relatively quick taxi ride took us downtown to The Billabong Hotel, our home-away-from-home in Phnom Penh for the last 6 years or so. First stop, after saying hi to Thora and performing introductions, was the pool! Time to wash off the sweat and dirt and grime from travel and polluted streets. After everyone was settled in, we had a beer by the pool where we met a large international school group from Singapore who had just returned from a house build. It was good for our newbie builders to meet these teenagers and to hear how much they enjoyed the experience.
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| Rockin4Tabitha 8 build team - Me, Thora, Dermot, Susan & Rory |
We have 3 full days in Phnom Penh, during which time the team have to visit the Killing Fields and Tuolsleng, mandatory tours which are not enjoyable but do help our builders understand the cultural and political history of Cambodia. These aren't places which you would ever repeat visiting - once is enough. But it is a very humbling, and disturbing, look at the evil side of human nature, how power and ego can corrupt. I first visited both places in 2008, my first build, and the memory of those trips is fresh in my mind even now. Tuolsleng especially affected me, but others say that the Killing Fields were worse for them.
In the evenings, we have been checking out different restaurants near Sisowath Quay. Last night we went to have a Happy Hour drink at the famous FCC (Foreign Correspondents Club) and wound up staying for supper. Not the cheapest nor tastiest meal in the city, but the view from the 3rd floor patio overlooking the Tonle Sap is worth the expense.
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| View of Sisowath Quay and Tonle Sap from the 3rd floor patio at FCC |
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| Central Market, Phnom Penh |
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| Vegetables at the local market in Phnom Penh |
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| Fruit at the local market, Phnom Penh |
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| Live chickens awaiting the same fate as their nekkid sisters above on the table |
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| Muslim woman butchering meat in the local market, Phnom Penh |
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| Small (3-6 inch) fish for sale in the market - not much meat on these |
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