Today we traveled to Shalom Valley, a meeting center in a remote and rustic area of Kep Province, for our annual DDP all-staff meeting.
We got on the bus at 6:30 AM, starting from the DDP office in Phnom Penh. The staff from Kampong Cham came yesterday evening and stayed overnight to join us.
We a couple pregnant staff and that necessitated more stops along the way than usual. At this first stop, some of the staff collected their per diems for breakfast en route.
In the age of smartphones, every stop became a photo opportunity.
Shalom Valley is on a really remote and rough road, and our bus driver (hands on hips) got out to determine if he could safely get the bus through the last section without getting stuck.
We finally got the bus to the center and by that time it was time to eat lunch while one of the leaders explained some of the rules.
To cut down on plastic pollution, the meeting planners made a hard plastic cup–with our photo on it–for each of us. Our set of staff twins posed for a selfie with their cups.
One of the first tasks was checking the list to see which group was washing the dishes for each meal
Finally it was time to start, and Sokly, our director, spoke about DDP policy to the group.
Shalom Valley is a new and nice center but the afternoon sun presents a challenge.
By supper time, the center staff decided that each of us should wash her own dishes, a development that created a line of people waiting for the sink.
There was supposed to be an activity after supper but people were too tired and most headed to bed early.
