All posts filed under: Diary

just published

20 October 2008
by Arnaldo Pellini
Diary

The Complexity of Decentralisation Reforms (Paperback) by Arnaldo Pellini This book analyses the characteristics of community participation in Cambodian rural schools. It looks at the spaces for participation created by the decentralisation reforms that the government of Cambodia has undertaken in the education sector through two main policies: school clustering and Priority Action Programme. While institutionalised spaces of participation created by these policies are relatively new, Cambodian communities, despite twenty five years of political turmoil, […]

Singapore 6:59am

5 September 2008
by Arnaldo Pellini
Diary

Landed one hour ago from Johannesburg. The trip started in Dar es Salaam at 7:25 am local time. From Tanzania to Singapore is like a time journey. From the dark streets of Dar to the lights of Singapore. From the Dar airport to Singapore world’s hub. This was my first trip to Sub Sahara Africa and I have to get my thoughts together. I saw just a tiny tiny part of it, though I did […]

Into the loop

18 July 2008
by Arnaldo Pellini
Diary

I have given up after three unsuccesfull attempts ot open a bank account at a NatWest branch down the road from the office of ODI where I work here in London. On Wednesday I give it a try with HSBC near the Parliament and Westminster. HSBC is called ‘ global bank’, meaning they have subsidiaries all over the world, they deal with customers from many countries, and I had heard that they provide the possibility […]

Lost words, words found

7 July 2008
by Arnaldo Pellini
Diary

I recently found, in the bookshelves of friends’ house, a book I had forgotten. I actually thought it was in my old room in Italy. I found it in Switzerland. It travelled, now I remember, from Italy, to Spain, to Germany, to Switzerland and it is now with me here in London. The book title, in Italian, is ‘La Donna di Porto Pym’. The author is Antonio Tabucchi. A writer I used to love a […]

Pictures on the wall

22 June 2008
by Arnaldo Pellini
Diary

I am sitting in one of the most beautiful flats I have ever been. I look out of the window behind this laptop screen: the cool wind of this ‘blueskysunnydaywinds’, the branches of a small tree moving softly, the green field where hay is waiting to be cut and stored for the winter time, the large trees of the forest one km from here (much larger pine trees than in Finland), the valley of Lausanne […]

Ming Yort Norng

11 May 2008
by Arnaldo Pellini
Diary

We enter the pagoda compound with the car and stop in front of the sala (or dining hall). It is typical Khmer wooden building on stilts. I step out of the car and see Madame Yort Norng standing at the entrance of the sala at the top of the short but steep stairs that lead to the entrance. She see me great me with the typical smile that can be found only in the rural […]

The little child in Pursat

3 May 2008
by Arnaldo Pellini
Diary

In never left a meeting with villagers with tears in my eyes. But today it happened. I am in the province of Pursat, on the west side of the Tonle Sap lake. In the afternoon I went with two other members of the team to a pagoda at 30 km from the national road to Phnom Penh. We thought he meeting was for ten to twelve people. We arrived in the pagoda ten minutes early. […]

Battambang – Cambodia

30 April 2008
by Arnaldo Pellini
Diary

Battambang province. North West Cambodia. I am near the border of Thailand, in the commune of Samlot. The meeting just started. A young man who is 22 years old and three young women in their twenties joined the meeting. We are under a wodden house built on stilts. It hot. We are sitting on one of those large wodden beds that almost every Cambodia house has. Around us, bushes, no fields, the forest that is […]

Co Anh

27 February 2008
by Arnaldo Pellini
Diary

Co Anh (teacher Anh) is my Vietnamese language teacher. She is a very patient lady. She usually comes to my office. Twice a week for an hour. I have made good progresses under her supervision, though I do not put enough time and effort in my homeworks. But, as I said, she is patient and every time we have a lesson she does not ask me whether I did my homeworks or not. As I […]