Advice for Future VSO-ICS Volunteers (What is Not in the Handbook)

I was quite frustrated by the lack of practical information available to me, before I departed to Cambodia with VSO-ICS. It all felt a bit drip-fed and vague – particularly regarding the actual content of the work. I understand more now about the reasons for this: the situation is quite fluid and objectives are constantly evolving, staff members change all the time, and everything has to be approved by departments of multiple countries.

However, I still think that having more experiential knowledge would reduce worrying anticipation, and make future volunteers feel a little more in-control of their lives over the course of the imminent three months.

Our Relaunch! And a Very Nice Compliment

Sunday afternoon (mere hours ago) saw the relaunch of the Yeak Loam Cultural Heritage Centre. A big part of the work of the CIYA team I’m part of, and aided (and abetted) greatly by the VSO-ICS Yeak Loam team too.

We’ve been working all week to refurbish and redesign the centre to showcase indigenous culture, and hopeful grow the potential for eventual income generation, and we wanted to celebrate it with the community, re-instilling some pride in the site and its contents.

Cultural Centre Changing Rooms

**Warning: This post contains lots and lots of pictures**

This week has been very busy, very stressful, and very satisfying. It has marked the culmination of three months of cultural investigation and documentation, and the last of our CIYA Team objectives before we return back to the UK.

The Yeak Loam Cultural Heritage Centre lies around a third of the way around Yeak Loam lake – it’s a wooden building consisting of a central space, one back room, and one almost-permanently-locked office. Theoretically, it showcases the indigenous culture of the Yeak Loam indigenous communities, and the wider indigenous communities of Ratanakiri. However, when we went to see it, it was quite a disappointment. Although there was lots there, there was no way to tell what anything was, or even if it was broken or just appeared that way.

A Somewhat Haphazard Village Meeting

This week we held a meeting in Lapo for the village elders, and other important members of the community. We wanted to talk about preserving architectural heritage, and gauge the views of the community about creating a sign at the entrance of the village that would highlight to visitors the indicators of traditional indigenous homes. At points it looked likely to be a complete failure, but in the end we got answers to everything we asked, extra information that we’ve been unable to source anywhere else, and ultimate permission to continue with our work here.

Arranging a meeting in Cambodia is an acquired skill. And working with indigenous communities, who are much less formally inclined (in comparison to UK expectations), increases this challenge. But I’ve often found the results more satisfying. Here are some top tips:

Fruit Tree Fruition

This past Thursday saw the completion of another aspect of our CIYA team work (see the Finance Event for Stage One). This time led by Phan and Scott, we had the ambitious task of planting 24 trees in four different villages in one day – and we had the threat of a ICS moderator interview being thrown in at some indeterminate point in time…