What do I do in Cambodia?

Many among you don't actually know what I do in Cambodia. I receive questions like "But what is this Center you are talking about?" So let's explain from the beginning.

The Audiovisual Resource Center, a.k.a . Hanuman Center will be a place where anyone can come and view audio, video and photographic material related to Cambodian history, artistic and cultural traditions. The Center will also host a school specialized in documentary film-making.

The building belongs to the Office of Cinema of the Cambodian Ministry of Culture. It dates from the 1960s and is being renovated and furnished with money from the Cultural Action Cooperation Service of the French Embassy. The building is lent by the Office of Cinema to house the Center and will be returned to them after about 8 years.

The associations supporting the Center (AADAC and ARPAA) have started and will continue collecting archives relevant to the mission of the Center from all places. The French National Audiovisual Center has given its archives on Cambodia -- together with a lot of logistical help and the software which is used to index and view the archived material.

The initiative came originally from a French-Cambodian film-maker named Rithy Panh, author of many documentaries on Cambodia.

It's an important project in Cambodia which was cut off its history by the Khmer Rouge regime : archive videos are unknown here, history is scarcely taught in school, artistic traditions are all but lost.

My role in the project is everything related to computer engineering:

1. Network infrastructure
2. Hiring of a local computer engineer
3. Buying the computer equipment
4. Setting up the software on the servers
5. Buying the audiovisual equipment needed to digitalize videos
6. Setting up the web site
7. Helping in the decision-taking process with technical information

The first task took up most of my time until know because electricity was added to my assignments and the plans needed to be completed. I will know concentrate on tasks 2, 3, 5 and 6. But task 3 requires knowing precisely what I aim to do for task 4 so I have start tackling it also. And task 7 is filling up all the holes in my schedule.

Conclusion: no holidays yet! "Il y a du pain sur la planche."