Week three in Cambodia: Lemons, monkeys and pasta
Thursday, August 4, 2011
Week three in Cambodia: Lemons, monkeys and pasta
The weekend in and around Siem Reap with visits to the temples of Angkor and the fishing village marked the middle of our stay in Cambodia, and if time was already running fast before now it’s running even faster.
Week three in Phnom Penh was filled with office meetings, website development work and training sessions. Wednesday was by far the busiest day for me, with a two hour class on web design, usability and SEO in the morning, immediately followed by a management roundtable with the whole leadership team for more than five hours in the afternoon. We had good discussions and great fun with exercises on teamwork, collaboration, leadership styles and coaching, and the feedback from the session was very positive. Hats off to the team for staying energized and focused on the workshop all afternoon!
For those of you who know: lemons and monkeys.
The work on the Cambodia Retirement Village website progressed as well, although we ran some organizational issues which slowed down the project considerably. Rather than designing and implementing the Website we spent a good amount of time researching Cambodian and other countries’ laws for incorporating not-for-profit organizations and charities.
Evening activities were much slower this week, with everyone working hard on the projects and returning home late. Only on Friday the whole #ibmcsc team had a very special dinner: Gilberto, a cook of Italian origin who lives in Switzerland and was on a one month volunteer assignment to Boddhi Tree, created a delicious meal with pasta of all sorts for us. “Le chef” Betrand selected the wines at The Warehouse on 240 streets and arranged the dessert, bananes flambées. Everyone enjoyed the nicely set dinner. Thank you Gilberto, Betrand and the Boddhi Tree staff for pampering us so nicely!
Stuffed with noodles, dessert and wine, it was time for a walk over to Howie’s Bar and some exercise on the dance floor at Pontoon (USD 3 entrance fee, which is rather unusual here) and briefly at the sardine-tight packed Heart of Darkness, which Tripadvisor rightly calls the most overhyped bar in Phnom Penh.
Boom, boom, boom, bang bang, boom boom boom!
Week three in Phnom Penh was filled with office meetings, website development work and training sessions. Wednesday was by far the busiest day for me, with a two hour class on web design, usability and SEO in the morning, immediately followed by a management roundtable with the whole leadership team for more than five hours in the afternoon. We had good discussions and great fun with exercises on teamwork, collaboration, leadership styles and coaching, and the feedback from the session was very positive. Hats off to the team for staying energized and focused on the workshop all afternoon!
For those of you who know: lemons and monkeys.
The work on the Cambodia Retirement Village website progressed as well, although we ran some organizational issues which slowed down the project considerably. Rather than designing and implementing the Website we spent a good amount of time researching Cambodian and other countries’ laws for incorporating not-for-profit organizations and charities.
Evening activities were much slower this week, with everyone working hard on the projects and returning home late. Only on Friday the whole #ibmcsc team had a very special dinner: Gilberto, a cook of Italian origin who lives in Switzerland and was on a one month volunteer assignment to Boddhi Tree, created a delicious meal with pasta of all sorts for us. “Le chef” Betrand selected the wines at The Warehouse on 240 streets and arranged the dessert, bananes flambées. Everyone enjoyed the nicely set dinner. Thank you Gilberto, Betrand and the Boddhi Tree staff for pampering us so nicely!
Stuffed with noodles, dessert and wine, it was time for a walk over to Howie’s Bar and some exercise on the dance floor at Pontoon (USD 3 entrance fee, which is rather unusual here) and briefly at the sardine-tight packed Heart of Darkness, which Tripadvisor rightly calls the most overhyped bar in Phnom Penh.
Boom, boom, boom, bang bang, boom boom boom!