Key to Cambodian development? Google.

By the end of this blog, I bet 6 beers you that you will be able to read and write Khmer script.

This is the Khmer alphabet and the sounds of each letter.

VSO is all about sustainable development. Volunteers are meant to go to a developing country, share their skills and build the capacity of people living there, so that when the volunteer leaves, the volunteer is no longer needed anyway. Teach a man to fish rather than give him a fish type philosophy.

When I first arrived, one of the first things to hit me was that the NGO I work at (NEP) could not produce reports in English to a high enough standard for big, international organisations like UNICEF and the World Bank to respect them. Avid fans of this blog may remember a post about how important English is in Cambodia.

My winning 'sustainable' idea is to arrange for a pool of volunteers based anywhere in the world who could do some serious editing to reports. This could be ex-VSO volunteers, UN volunteers or even just folk who want to do a little good.

I shared this idea with somebody else who was a bit sceptical of it as it was not aimed directly at up-skilling Cambodians here and the ongoing need for volunteers was unsustainable. Her suggestion was intensive training for one or two key members of staff. The flaw is of course that when the staff leave, the NGO is back at square one.

After being pushed, I declared that the only truly sustainable way possible within the near future would be to get Google to have Khmer-English translation available on Google Translate.

Now Google Translate is obviously not perfect but I had already thought that if people could translate things into Khmer, then a whole world of knowledge could be opened up. One of the things that I have realised is that you cannot expect people to become knowledgeable when they cannot read the books or websites that hold the knowledge. As an English speaker, every book in the world is translated into my language. For Khmer speakers, there has probably been a handful. English is king on the internet too.

I began to think how I could get to Google, and then one of my friends began working for them. It was surely a sign. But a bigger one was an article a few months ago that said Google would include Khmer in it's Google Translate service  in 2013. Then on April 18th 2013, I sent this message to a colleague: ខ្ញុំស្រឡាញ់ Google.

You too can now understand what my message said. Simply copy and paste the message that I sent into Google Translate choosing Khmer into English.

Expect the next blog to be written in Khmer...

Gordon

PS, because Google Translate is not perfect, NEP will still need editors for maybe 2 reports a year so not much work at all. I want to trial this before I go in April 2014 as I think it could make a huge difference to shaping education policy in Cambodia. Email me: gordonconochie@yahoo.co.uk if you think you could help.

A happy coincidence and a library that's getting me excited!

Today is the last day of our In Country Training (ICT) and as of Monday, we're on our own! Since we arrived we have been looked after by the Programme Office staff here who have organised our timetable for what we're doing every day. From Monday nothing is organised for us anymore. Gordon goes off to work and I properly start the job hunt (although in the meantime I'm going to be doing some work at the VSO Office, helping with a new communications strategy which I'm really looking forward to).

This morning, the volunteers had meetings with the their Head of Sector (all volunteers work either under Education, Health or Livelihoods) and I had some free time on my hands. I've spoken to some agents who are helping us look for a house (we've seen lots but none that are right. Possibly we (ie me) are just being fussy, but I have hope we can find somewhere we love). I had great plans to write lots of emails and catch up on lots of things but the lure of Google proved too much and I found myself reading the blog of a certain Danny Murphy...

For anyone who went to Crieff High with me the name will be familiar - our 'headie' for a few years the name had come up in conversation a few times when we arrived here (mostly because he had a lovely apartment!) but it was only one night after a comment about a past Scottish VSOer who worked in education that it finally clicked who it was. This morning I've spent a lovely hour or so browsing through his blog and reading about his first few weeks here in Cambodia. For those that are interested I can highly recommend it:  http://dannymurphyvso.wordpress.com/

I've also spent quite some time looking at the books in the Programme Office library. I've not read a thing since I came here which is really strange for me - I normally get through a book or two per week and had expected to have finished all the books that we brought with us both in traditional form and on our fab Kindle.There is nothing I like more than lbrowsing books and the fact that these have all been left here by previous volunteers just adds a certain something to them. I've recommended a few to some of the other volunteers who are heading off into the sticks and are stocking up on reading material (another thing I love doing although more fraught with panic as I have no idea what they like!).

I'm really quite excited about reading some of the books as there are many that I've been meaning to read for years, or feel that I "should" read. I think I'm going to start with Iain Crichton Smith's Consider the Lilies. I've not read anything by Crichton Smith and it will be a nice reminder from home. There's also a novel by Robin Jenkins that I have my eye on - I read The Cone Gatherers in SYS English and loved it and am looking forward to reading more by him. Straying away from Scotland Jack Kerouac's On the Road has been earmarked for a perusal at a later date and there are loads of other interesting books that I can't wait to get started on. 

Anyway. Enough ramblings. Gordon should be finished in a few minutes and we're off out for a 'working lunch' as we evaluate our ICT and language training.