Penultimate week, a cake fight and a VERY dodgy carousel!

Our last full week in Stung Treng is almost over!
Since Pchum Ben ended a week a go things have been chaotic, you would think that considering all our events and therefore project work have been completed that this week would be quiet and relaxing. So wrong! There have been handover reports, partner presentations, budgets to clear, event reports and apparently next week a presentation to a group of donors and the UK ambassador! Definitely not quiet.

This Saturday the Stung Treng half of the team sacrificed our lie in to do promotion for our youth participation and leadership event! Then on Sunday we sacrificed our lie ins to do the event. It was brilliant fun though, the Khmer volunteers presented fantastically and we got great feedback. Though my slide moving skills aren’t great- we played a game where you had to match facts to the leader they were about, we’d forgotten how many facts there were on each slide, it kept decreasing and I kept accidentally revealing the answer! Over the two days we had over 130 participants, which was well over twice our target of 60! Considering on Friday morning we were still waiting for a call to confirm we could go ahead with the event, I think it went amazingly! I also loved the monks who attended who were so cheeky, on their phones (Sean told one off for that) and moaning about getting their lunch!

We spent our last weekend relaxing as much as possible and taking in Stung Treng which we leave on Saturday! It’s difficult to believe that our time is almost up, it doesn’t feel like two minutes have past since we got out of that bus and got hit in the face by a wall of humid air, yet at the same time memories of things like in community training and arriving in country seem like years ago! On Saturday we all went to Sam Khouy in the evening for food and dancing at Samira and Sopheak’s house, it was so much fun, a brilliant good bye to Hong who has had to return to university!

Our last five days in Stung Treng have managed to produce every emotion possible! There was frustration when some members of the MVi team didn’t come into office a few times. But eventually that was worked out, looking back every frustration I’ve had here has been trivial in the grand scheme of what we’ve achieved and what I have experienced.

The rest of the week however has been lovely, on Tuesday we had our last lunch at Red curry place, and after work Lenny and I decided to get our traditional after work treat of banana chips and a fizzy drink, I sat on the balcony listening to music -trying to drown out the funfair- people watching and taking it all in! Then our host mum surprised Lenny and I with a present! Proper Cambodian Sarongs, like the ones that she and Srey Nak wear around the house all the time. It was such a lovely gesture and it made me very emotional about leaving my little adopted family behind!

The fun fair which is literally across from our house has been both fun and annoying as the music is very loud and doesn’t stop until 9 at best, 11 at worst!

Wednesday was one of my favourite days in Cambodia, in the morning I got lots of work done, I had my last lunch out in stung Treng at guitar milk, ending as I started. And in the afternoon we relaxed in the office doing bits and bobs and eating pomelo. It was also our last day of work placement which is now officially over! We spent the evening with the whole group, having a cocktail at guitar milk beach, eating a yummy dinner at Chenda and Tasha’s mum’s restaurant and at the fun fair. I went on a carousel type thing, it looked the most dangerous thing I’ve ever seen and ate a fried cricket! It was just a lovely night with everyone together celebrating Sokhon’s birthday, including a cake fight in which I was the main target, and just making the most of our very short remaining time together!

  When we got back home, Lenny, Sreynak, Meardey, Smey and I spent the evening playing Avery aggressive game of snap,which Lenny had taught them yesterday!

Talking of danger, I have lost count of the amount of times I have cycled under the moving arm of a digger, its amazing how your personal standards of what is safe and what’s not become so different after living here for a while!

So now we enter our last seven days in Cambodia! I’m sat with Barry the kitten curled up on my lap, about to get up and get ready for a meeting, this whole experience has gone too fast!

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Pchum Ben festival

Last week we celebrated Pchum Ben festival, a Buddhist holiday in Cambodia where people give offerings at the pagoda for the ‘ghosts’ of their relatives.

We had such a brilliant few days, on Sunday night Anna and Srey Mich some fellow volunteers came to stay with us for the night. We had a movie night watching  star wars and eating sweets which felt bizarrely normal!

On Monday morning we were up early ready to go the pagoda with our host family. I cycled down because I’m a chicken and don’t like motorbikes! We went to a lovely little pagoda near the riverside which was decorated so beautifully. Our host family were dressed up very smartly especially our gorgeous host sister Srey Nak! Lenny and I had attempted smart with maxi skirts and white tops, I’m not sure we quite achieved the desired pagoda dress but it was fun to wear something that vaguely looked good for once. We did get stared at a lot and for future reference cycling in maxi skirts just does not work! It was great fun though, completely different to my 4am pagoda experience but just as lovely!

In the afternoon Anna and I braved the stinky market (I had a hand over my mouth and nose for good measure) and bought some veg for the meal Anna was cooking for her host family, we then cycled all the way to Sam Khouy which in thirty plus degrees is far to far! It was weird seeing another host home especially as it was very different to ours, we got a taste of how different our experience could have been as Anna and Srey Mich’s host home  I very open plan and light compared to ours with an outside toilet and bathroom and a very big family. Such a big difference!

Cooking dinner was so much fun, though we did get some weird looks from the host family! Anna made a kind of veg/tomato type pasta thing and we did garlic bread, bruschetta, chips and mashed potato just for the fun of it! Eating it was definitely the best part!

The rest of Pchum Ben was very relaxing, code for I stayed in bed for nearly two days! I think I needed it though after last weeks stress. But also on the way back from Sam Khouy I managed to pop my tire and couldn’t fix it until Thursday because the shops were closed for the entire holiday!

On Wednesday night Lenny and I found presents waiting for us on our balcony- paintings for us done by our friend Tash. Such a lovely surprise! The picture below is of mine which is of two young monks we saw at Angkor wat.

I am so glad we were here over a big holiday like this, I feel like i’ve  managed to see a lot of different elements of Khmer culture, which has been a highlight of my trip!

Less than three weeks left!

So with less than three weeks to go until we fly home, things have both gotten very busy and very quiet in the space of a week!

On Wednesday the MVi team held our final event, a session on inclusion for our partner organisations and a few NGOs we had invited along. The event went brilliantly with more attendees than our target and we got some really good discussions going about inclusion policy and how organisations can help their community based organisations to improve their own inclusion.

On Wednesday the whole team gathered for a pre-Pchum Ben meal, which was amazing. What made it even better was that Lenny, Meardey and I had helped to prepare and cook it the night before. This did include me wielding a massive meat cleaver and trying to chop up pork ribs, until my host mum made me stop -I don’t think I was very good! I was allowed to make use of my impressive veg chopping and stirring skills, it was so nice to cook again after so long, I’ve missed it so much. Never thought I’d say I’ve missed veg prep! Lunch was a traditional Khmer red curry which is insanely good, I want to get the recipe but i’m pretty sure that it will only taste exactly this way cooked by a local and eaten with a crowd of friends. We had noodles and bread beside as well, one of the best parts was getting to eat the leftovers that evening, I think our host family must have thought we were such pigs!

We also held our second and final CAD this weekend, we went to the same school and did some gardening, tree planting and flower bed building for them. We arrived to find 3 instead of the expected twenty people to help out which was a shame, especially as we were working in well over thirty degree heat, never has the phrase the ‘sun beating down on our backs’ felt more apt! We resorted to filling our hats with water and dumping them on our heads to try and keep cool, goodness knows how but I didn’t even burn much! Victory for the sun cream and giant hat! A day of digging, brick laying and planting in that heat has left me very tired and very very achy, but it was nice to do some physical work for once! Unfortunately the planned sessions on nutrition and pesticide didn’t go ahead in the afternoon as a mix up meant the villagers were never actually invited, despite the hiccups we all had a great day. The ride home in a cramped but air conditioned car was a big relief as was the ice cold bucket wash when I got home!

We have Monday to Wednesday off this week for the festival. Our plans start tonight with our friends Anna and Srey Mich staying over ready for a pagoda visit early tomorrow! Very excited!

Work now is mostly event reports and handover documents with our last event on Sunday 28th and Monday 29th! Just two week s left in community!

Siem Reap, a festival and so many events!

Over half way through! How did that happen? We have now completed 8 of our 12 weeks in Cambodia and we are powering through our planned events!

The last few weeks have thankfully been less stressful than normal. This is perhaps thanks to an amazing weekend spent in Siem Reap for our mid phase review. This is essentially a few days of sessions and social activities designed to allow us to reflect on our time here so far, plan for the rest of the time we have left and get closer as a team.

It was a fantastic weekend, I certainly needed the break from Stung Treng, though weirdly I was missing my bike by the end of the trip! I could tell a million funny stories from the weekend but I don’t think I could do them all justice. A highlight was Sean being picked out of the crowd at a show in the cultural village and being made to dress in traditional indigenous clothing (there wasn’t very much of it) and do some dancing whilst he got ‘engaged’ to a performer. We also spent a lot of time in the market where I purchased some paintings for home. Siem Reap’s infamous pub street also featured this ugh I was more bothered by the nutella pancakes that came after a few drinks! Then on the Monday we went to Angkor wat, which was beyond amazing!

In the almost two weeks since we got back work has well and truly picked up, despite some minor issues with our partner organisation – not being allowed to provide water for events, being banned from taking breaks – we are really pushing through with our work. Last week we ran our final village based event on inclusion in Sdao which was a massive success with 30 people attending! Next week we will run our final inclusion event in Stung Treng with our partner organisations and very excitingly, Save the Children who will be sending a representative along as well!

Also on the planning list at the moment is our second CAD, at the same school but this time focusing on their school feeding programme; and our Youth Participation and Leadership event which will take place at the start of our last week in Stung Treng, planning is well underway and with any luck we will leave Stung Treng with a bang!

This week has also marked the start of Phchum Ben, a 15 day festival celebrated each year in Cambodia to celebrate the lives of those who are no longer with us and to make offerings to their ‘ghosts’, in a week or so’s time we have the last three days of the festival off work to spend with our host family! One of my strongest memories out here so far has been going to the pagoda on Wednesday at 4am to make offerings. The atmosphere was stunning, a room full of people in silence with candle and incense lit offerings in front of them, listening to monks chanting before going to walk once around the pagoda making offerings at various points. I can’t fully describe how amazing it was but it is certainly a memory I will hold on to as very special!

The last few weeks I’ve felt we’ve really got close to our host family, it is certainly going to be difficult to leave them behind in a few weeks! Its become so normal to be sat round the dinner table as a sort of family, laughing and joking across the language barrier, at my face pulling, Lenny’s inability to handle spice, at my 12 year old host brothers hyper coca cola driven antics, playing with the cats and eating good food. It is going to be very weird in less than three weeks time to just up and leave that. I predict tears…

The countdown is very much on, three weeks today we travel to Phnom Penh for the final part of our programme, debrief. No time at all to get so much done! And no time at all to work on my tan which is pitiful! I still get stroked every now and again by intrigued Cambodians wondering how it is possible to look so pale!

Air con, (no) bamboo and one beautiful library!

This blog is actually about this week! On time for once!
If last week was busy this week has been crazy in every sense!

To start with, Lenny was still feeling a little ill when we got back on Sunday due to the absurd heat, this meant she and I spent three nights in a beautifully air conditioned room in a guest house with an English movie channel, a shower and a real toilet! It was all very exciting and a lovely treat 🙂

On a more serious note this week after a number of meetings we decided not to continue with our bamboo project, though this does still need fully confirming by our programme coordinator. Its a shame to have lost both our bamboo and rattan projects but as the rattan was not available for production and there was no viable market for bamboo products, it is best we do not spend valuable money for the sake of reaching targets and following a plan. Instead we will be focusing on three inclusion events on women, youth and indigenous inclusion as well as taking the lead on the groups youth participation and leadership event. This decision which has been built up to really since we arrived in Stung Treng has been a good learning experience on the difficulties of working in development and with partner organisations but also how challenges can be overcome and resources reallocated to more viable projects!

The other crazy thing this week has been organising the library CAD at Phnom Krohom Primary School. We started last Thursday and it was this Saturday. My week has been a blur of budgets, phone calls, meetings and coordinating! We did however successfully pull off an amazing event. We had around 60 parents, children and local community members and officials attend, far more than anticipated but absolutely fantastic. The walls were very grubby so we have the first metre a coat of this beautiful bright blue paint to both smarten and brighten it up. Then we rearranged the furniture and donated some resources and books which made the space a really fun learning space. The great thing about CADs is that they involve the community, son we had the children there all day playing games and making decoration, posters, origami animals. I’m very proud of us for managing to pull this off in such a short space of time!

It’s only a week until Mid phase review now which is our official mid point, how has that happened?! I’m enjoying this experience so much, though I am now officially fed up of stupid rice! It’s weird because I am definitely a bit homesick, and I miss everyone back home but at the same time I don’t want this to ever end! Its crazy, stressful, sweaty but also hilarious, fun and nothing can beat coming home from an long day in the office to a feeling that you are making a difference! Plus the lovely view from my host homes balcony! I love it all!

It will certainly be emotional when I have to leave in October!

Busy busy busy!

I really may have to start dating these blogs they’re taking so long! This one is about the week beginning the 11th!
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This week has been chaotic to say the least! To start with after a long flood-ridden week we are finally back in our office! Meaning  that on Monday morning we had a really productive meeting with our partner organisation. We actually finalised our team and budget plans.

On Tuesday we got out to one of our target villages for the first time. The first we visited was a small community called Sdao. Getting there was difficult but funny. It involved a ride in a very overcrowded tuk tuk, then a wade through some really gross mud without shoes on, before a ride on the dodgiest looking ferry! It was essentially just two canoes with some planks of wood laid over them -very scary! It was great to get out and see some of the ‘real’ Cambodia I.e. rural villages with a traditional way of life. We had a very productive meeting especially as we have nine people interested in producing bamboo all of which are women and so well over our inclusion target of 50% women.

Wednesday was our rather pointless visit to Chrop, which has finally allowed us to stop our Rattan production programme by establishing there is no Rattan available! Though it is worth noting our very dramatic journey which involved a broken down motorbike then tuk tuk and finally a 2km walk in burning heat. We concluded that as we had water and jelly babies we would survive and indeed we did!

I was out in community so much this week! I organised a meeting with a project coordinator from a NGO called CRY (Care and Relief for the Young). This meant the community action day committee (CAD) myself included got to head out to Phnom Krohom village in Simbouk district to scout out the local primary school where next week we will be holding an event to refurbish and stock the library. The school is part of a really valuable project CRY run in the village. Providing a number of impoverished families the means to gain an income through chicken farming which in turn puts them in a position to send their children to school. Hopefully our new library will make a big contribution to their education, nothing is more important!

This week I also did my Global Citizenship Day on HIV/AIDs. It was great fun leading an event alongside two other volunteers. Great experience for facilitation as the session was two hours long. I think it went really well, so very happy with that.

This weekend we took a trip to Ban lung in Ratanakiri province to visit the other ICS team who are based there. They live and work near this absolutely stunning sacred lake! Which I might add you can swim in! So of course we spent the entire afternoon shrivelling up in the gorgeously refreshing water. I think that was the first time I’ve felt fully clean or a decent temperature since I arrived in Cambodia! I was so gutted when we had to leave but did pop back for a last swim on Sunday morning as well!
Unfortunately my counterpart Lenny who has been I’ll since Wednesday from a parasite got I’ll again so we all had to spring into action mode to get her back from the lake via various methods (carrying, running alongside motorbikes, speeding minibuses) and to a clinic, where I stayed overnight with her. Very dramatic and scary at the time, but she was fine in the end just a little dehydration allowing the parasite to make her ill again.

All in all a productive week though can’t believe we are officially a month in! How crazy!

Weekend fun!

It’s been a very stressful week! Friday was good, a sort of day off normal work. Team building activities and a Global citizenship day on water and sanitation which was very interesting! After work we went to a bar/restaurant we’d found to have a drink to celebrate Lenny passing her degree and the arrival finally of the last member of our team, Samira!! Although there was some cross cultural socialising issues as we quickly found out that some of the Khmer had ordered for us without asking which did cause some tension by was resolved.
The restaurant had a TV and was playing a few films which was a nice change especially as the hunger games was on.

On Saturday we got up bright and early to treat ourselves to a full English at Ponikas with real hot coffee!!!
After that Lenny and I went to be our tyres pumped up which resulted in Lenny’s front tyre exploding! Because she didn’t get hurt it was very funny although we’re not a sure what to do about it.
At half ten the entire group set off on a bike ride to the Mekong Bird Sanctuary where there is a lake and lots of birds and pedalos! We got sent on a 6km detour to avoid the flooding which was largely up hill and so tiring in the 30 + heat!

It took us and hour and a half to cycle the 12km there, we were rewarded by stunning views and a lovely cool rain shower! I sat reading a book for a few hours by the lake whilst others chatted and in Tasha’s case painted an amazing water colour painting!

At 3 we decided to leave, Lenny, Anna and I left later than ever one else with hysterical results. As we came up to the big bridge we saw this immense cloud looming over Stung Treng, the wind picked up as we climbed the bridge which is quite a big hill, and as we got to the top we saw this wall of rain heading for us. We decided not to bother with rain coats as we felt so gross that some rain might actually be pleasant.
It wasn’t pleasant, we ended up cycling through this horrific rain soaked to the skin, yelling ‘I didn’t sign up for this’ ‘this is so painful’ as super heavy rain came down! It was very painful and so funny!!!!

Sunday was pretty horrific as the weather is scorching at the moment 🙂 so the whole day was a bit of a write off. Sleeping at midday and chilling in guitar milk.

I will write an update of this blog when I get a chance, to say this week has been busy would be a major understatement!

Floods, cramped offices and strawberry shakes

So the previously mentioned floods definitely happened. This week despite not being finished, already feels like its dragging so much.

On Sunday we found out the floods had got so bad that town is now inaccessible. As well as this all the volunteers who live in the small village of Sam Khouy just outside Stung Treng had to evacuate in somewhat dramatic fashion. Rafts were crafted out of boats tied together, motor bikes put on top, the volunteers got in and set off on a boat/raft trip over roads that were now under over a metre of thank fully slow moving flood water. At some point it started raining which all resulted in one of the Khmer volunteers having to spend the entire journey bail in out the boats to stop them from sinking!

After the great escape they, along with two other volunteers who lived to close to the rising river are now staying in a guest house at the top end of town, where it is very safe. There was talk of an evacuation to Ban long at some point but as the floods got no worse that was not necessary. To reassure anyone who’s panicking, I live inna house on ten foot tall stilts on a hill, and when I asked my host sister if we were at risk of the floods she near enough laughed in my face. I am definitely well safe! Three of our team our also stuck in Phnom Penh, including our counterpart Meardey who has temporarily been replaced by Chenda.

Despite the flood chaos we are all still working. The MVi and CRDT offices are currently only accessible by boat so we are all working out of the PyD office. It’s made this week very slow and cramped, but the upside is that there is air con in here! We are plodding through our work, though it has been difficult as partly due to the floods the already slow replies from our partner organisation have stalled. It is looking more and more likely we will be switching our focus to our inclusion work. We are all actually quite happy with that as we all have an interest in gender as so this project is perfect!

In other news we have found a pool hall to go to in the evenings, and we are planning on going to a nearby bird sanctuary soon. Pedalos anvebd a picnic for the day should the weather and floods hold out! We are also planning a trip to Ban long to see the Yakloam lake as well as the other ICS group who are based there.

It’s been a difficult week but luckily we have a really great team so pulling through it has been easier. Another cheering factor has been our discovery of the most amazing fruit shakes at Guitar milk, my favourite of which is a strawberry shake! I’ve probably had far too many but them and banana muffins (a treat while I’m not with an allergic boyfriend) are really getting me through this week.

Hopefully the floods will recede soon and everything will go back to normal. Its definitely been an eye opener, as someone very rightly pointed out to me, the locals cannot go and stay in a guest house or sort out an evacuation plan like us, they simply have to get on with their ever day lives. Very little help is available for them which is immensely unjust considering the main cause of the floods. These floods though worsened by rain are primarily caused by Laos and Vietnam opening their dams to alleviate their own flooding problems, in full knowledge that this causes major flooding in Cambodia. I was really angry when I found out, it certainly opens your eyes about the extra hardships that face a province that already faces so much poverty!

On a lighter note Meardey returns tomorrow and I have been feeding titch (the smallest kitten) milk with my finger so now he’s growing!!!!

Two weeks down!

It’s hard to believe that we’ve been here for over two weeks, and we’ve now finished our first week on placement. I won’t lie this week has not been easy.

After Tuesdays somewhat interesting meeting, Wednesday got off to a great start. I have a sort of morning routine now, I wake up to sunlight and the rooster, wash dress and go and sit and read on the balcony for half an hour or so. Then I cycle to a bakery just down the hill grab a 500 riel ($0.12) baguette and cycle to work through town. It’s a slightly longer route but it wakes me up a bit more 🙂

So on Wednesday we had a meeting with our secondary contact at MVi Mr Sithhu, we actually got most of our team plan done, organised initial visits to our target villages and got it all emailed off to our main contact Mr Lany. At which point things got complicated. A committee needs to be established in each village for communication and continuation of the project after we leave but there was a misunderstanding over how long this would take. Mr Lany’s version involved $700 of trips out to villages! Needless to say this was not possible and we turned to our project supervisor to clarify.

By Thursday afternoon and after a meeting wit our PS  we think that this issue is resolved , its definitely been a lesson in trying not to get stressed but I’m glad we managed to pull together and over come our first challenge!

I have definitely settled into my host home now, they are all so lovely and even with the language barrier we manage to communicate most things. The knew trick is pointing at something being told the Khmer word for it, quickly followed by ‘Ang-Lah’ and we give the English word, through this we are learning lots but very slowly. It’s been a weird few days for Lenny and I as our counterpart Meardey has had to go Phnom Penh for 6 days! We seem to be managing okay translation wise, but it definitely feels like we’ve lost one of our team!

Yesterday (Friday) was the first of our Friday team days on which we discuss global development topics, so team building work and discuss the challenges of our week. Yesterday was a half day so we were able to relax a little in the afternoon. For a few of us this meant an expensive but much needed treat of Spag bol and garlic bread. The Khmer food we get usually is lovely but it certainly put a smile on my face to have something from home.

We’ve been told that we have a severe flood and rain warning for the next five days, which ruined our plans to cycle to Sam Kouy today! Instead Lenny and I did our first proper wash which took forever and was very tiring!  Then a few of us cycled into town, along a road that was being built and beside a digger that was in use! Through some lovely flood water and then went and played volleyball. Though when I say we, I do mean I watched everyone else play as we quickly found out my arm wasn’t really up to it. I’m not sat near the river with an ice cold sprite waiting to grab some lunch and Skype home, hopefully the weather will hold so that we don’t have to cycle home in fear of a drenching!

Oh and happily the kittens are all still with us- yay!

Finally getting started!

So after what has felt like one of the longest week and a bits in my life, yesterday (Monday) morning  we finally met our partner organisations. I was up early, our family have chickens and so I also now have an rooster as an alarm clock!  We also have gaps in our wall which mean the light comes in to wake us up. I had a wash in our bathroom, which literally involved tipping a bucket of  freezing cold water over my head. Strangely pleasant though in this heat and humidity!

We had to walk down the road to meet Sarah and a few of the others as she was showing us the way to one of our workplaces which all of us would be based at for the day. Luckily we were at MVi were I will normally work so it helped to know the route from home.

The morning consisted of listening to the three partner organisations presentations on what they do and how they work with VSO ICS, we also got a chance to discuss our team plan with MVi. We had most of the afternoon off so a few of us headed down into the main town to scout out a source of WiFi (and a pineapple smoothie) we sat around in town until half four when we decided the skies looked far too ominous!

The thunder  and wind was already going when we arrived home and it only took about ten minutes before the rain absolutely bucketed down! Very happy we didn’t get caught in that downpour. Half of our team who have to get a tuk tuk back to the village they live in did get caught and got soaked! 

I went to bed very early last night as I was feeling very ill. It was touching to see how worried both my counterpart and host family were about me, Mani says we are her new daughters! Luckily after a nap and some tablets i was feeling a bit better soon was able to stomach some food before I went to bed.

Today (Tuesday) we officially started work. I was up early as we start at half seven. I don’t even know what to say about today. You never truly know what boredom is though, until you have sat through five hours of meetings in a language you don’t know without any translation. This meeting we were sat in for so long also happened to be completely irrelevant to our work. So we have got off to a rather slow start…

Lunch was nice though, over here you always get two hour lunch breaks. We cycled up to Guitar Milk, the restaurant owned by one of the UK volunteers host families, and had a toasty for 2000 riel ($0.5) so cheap! Its also good because it means we can save our allowance for other more important things like social activities!

When we finally started a meeting about our project at half 3, it was actually quite difficult because MVi were just talking round answers, but with some firm persuasion we have started to get somewhere.

This evening Kheang one of our project supervisors came to our host home to see our host home. This is because Meardey our Khmer counterpart is off to Phnom Penh until Tuesday and so Lenny and I are now living in a house where no one speaks English without any means for translation

After dinner we learnt a few more Khmer phrases and Sreynak our host sister also learnt some English phrases, hopefully we should get by.

One last piece of news, is that my host families kitten’s mum died so hopefully the kitten’s will survive. I’d be upset if they didn’t! There’s nothing better to cheer you up than playing with kittens!