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Chumriep sua. My name is Stuart Pidgeon and I have recently returned to Auckland after living and working in Cambodia for a little over three years. I worked on a project funded by the Australian Government and was employed as a planning advisor to the Mine Action Planning Unit (MAPU) in Preah Vihear Province. MAPUs are made up of government staff at provincial level working to coordinate between local communities, demining agencies, development agencies and government departments in the process of identifying priority areas for clearance of mines and unexploded ordnance (UXO). Important aims are to promote clearance of high-risk areas while also highlighting the need for productive use of cleared land so that poor communities benefit. My main job was to provide training and technical assistance to improve the skills and practices of MAPU staff, in a range of areas such as data collection, information management, use of Global Positioning Systems (GPS) and Geographic Information Systems (GIS), reporting and facilitation, amongst others. At the end of 2007 there were MAPUs in five of most mine-affected provinces in the country: Battambang, Pailin, Banteay Meanchey, Otdar Meanchey and Preah Vihear, and the project I worked with sent advisors to assist in each of these provinces.

My life in Preah Vihear was very different from what I had previously known in Auckland, as the province is in a fairly remote part of what is still a very poor country. I lived in a raised wooden house with no television, an outdoor toilet and a pump-well as the main source of water. I often woke before 5am with the sound of dogs, roosters or the nearby pagoda, and the lack of nightlife meant I was usually in bed before 9pm. I traveled most places by motorbike, and many of the roads in the province went from being incredibly dusty in dry-season to pools of mud in wet-season. None of the staff I worked with had very good English, so I had to do my best to learn the Khmer language. Communication was extremely difficult at first but after three years my speaking and listening were good enough that the staff and I could mostly understand each other. I also learnt how to read Khmer script (although not quickly enough to sing karaoke), but writing is still beyond me.

While Cambodia has many wonderful elements (temples, scenery, culture), along with many that are not so great (poverty, corruption, conflict), the thing that impressed me most was almost certainly the people I met. The staff I worked with may have had low levels of education, worked for a low salary, and been mostly much older than me, but they all welcomed me very warmly and became my friends. Similarly others I worked with or came into contact with socially were almost uniformly warm, friendly and positive in a way that sadly is often absent in New Zealand cities. Language difficulties and cultural confusion never went away completely, but I feel fortunate to have learnt a lot about a different culture and to have met many wonderful people. Since returning to New Zealand I've also been very impressed by how warmly Cambodians living in this country have also greeted me. Whether I remain here in Auckland or return to Cambodia one day I hope that I will always retain a link to Khmer people.