To the Beach!

I've had so many things happening since my last blog that I was worried that I'd left it 3 weeks by mistake! I did check, and it really is only 2 weeks it's just been very busy.

On the Sunday after I did my blog I went to an Indian Bazaar with some people from church- Cambodia and especially Phnom Penh has lots of Indian influences as it's so close by and this Bazaar was the annual event of the Indian Association of Cambodia. I had a really nice afternoon; it was lovely to have some time to chat to people from church plus the food was amazing! Very delicious and lots of flavour, especially in comparison to the watery soup we often get at the home. One of the women did henna on my hand (see fb for pics!) which was cool, although now 2 weeks later there are still some smudges on my hand, so I look a little bit like I've got something wrong with me! Not that that would be anything unusual here...

That week was fairly normal, we had our usual programme of teaching, hospital and office. On Thursday I organised a Christmas craft, making and decorating Christmas baubles which went really well. Glitter went EVERYWHERE though, including all up my arms and legs, in my hair and all over my face... This was partly (completely) my own fault for getting the glitter out in the first place and then we were tidying up the big pile that had got spilt on the floor i picked up some and gave Srun Chu a very glittery face! The baubles all looked great though, they'll be going on the Christmas tree when we get it out. 

In typical Cambodian style Friday morning was a spontaneous whole-orphanage trip to have their ears cleaned, and we weren't told about it until we were about to go to the other group home for our morning classes! So all of my class planning is a bit changeable. Every week when I plan there is the possibility that I might not actually have any of those classes, or that I might suddenly be given some more! This week we've taught 1 out of 4 pre-school classes as they keep on being called off for different things. It's all good experience though- teaching a class in Britain where I knew that I was definitely going to have a class when I was scheduled to have one, and where they could all understand (any!) English would be a doddle after this.

We had a long weekend so we decided to go to Sihanoukville to catch up with Eiben and Jess, 2 other project trust volunteers. Sihanoukville is Cambodia's main seaside town, so it was very touristy but the sand and sea were gorgeous, and it was a very chilled weekend. I did get slightly burnt on the Saturday though, despite wearing suncream and sitting under an umbrella, so I was confined to trousers for the rest of the weekend. It was really good to see another area of Cambodia, and it felt like a proper holiday being there, it was very relaxing being on the beach.

While we were in Sihanoukville we went to church with Eiben and Jess to see a special christmas service that some of their students were helping to run. When we arrived we were taken straight to the front of the church and placed in the front row which was a bit embarrassing and made it much harder to pick up on cues from the Cambodians such as when to stand and sit! It was amazing to see a church in such a different culture and place, that included lots of people who lived in the supported home attached, and how similar it was in some ways to St Mungo's- despite the fact that the songs were different and all of it was in Khmer! The nativity was hilarious, especially the angel gabriel and the shepherds herding their flocks by hitting them with sticks (very gently!) as well as the very convincing King Herod. 

Monday meant back to Phnom Penh with the feeling of going home after a holiday, and it was lovely to see all the kids again- I'm going to miss them so much when I leave at the end of the year! We were supposed to be back to work on Tuesday but then they all went to the dentist in the morning so we didn't have any classes to teach and went along with them. They were all so brave about going to the dentist- a good few of them had to have teeth pulled out or work done, and none of them made any fuss about it at all, even the tiny 4 year olds. Whilst there we met an Australian dentist who helped run it (they go to a dental charity to be seen) and he invited me and Flo to a party on Christmas Eve with "10 or 12 young australian volunteer dentists"- should be fun! Not exactly what you expect to get out of a trip to the dentist.

The rest of the week has been fairly normal with a few minor disruptions (like classes being randomly cancelled at the last minute! On Friday afternoon we had a meeting with Denisa to get some information and talk to her about what we were doing in Magna- there are lots of communication problems in Magna but as the director everything goes through her so she could give us answers to our questions. We found out that in 2012 some Magna staff will be going, including the pre school teacher we work with and one of the "counsellors" at the hospital. It's called "counselling" but in reality the only bit that is actually that is the one morning a week adolescent group counselling- the rest is just colouring in, jigsaws and DVDs to keep the children occupied while they're waiting to be seen. I don't think it will make too much of a difference her going, but the pre school teacher is another story. It means that now Flo and I will be solely responsible for the education of the little kids when they're at the group home (they go to pre school for half the morning) which will definitely be a challenge! I'm looking forward to it though, challenge is what it's all about, right?

I've been a bit ill this week with some problems with my lungs that has developed into a cough. Not very pleasant but it's got better since I started doing all the things my Mum told me to (taking the right inhaler/medicines and doing a steam bath). Unfortunately yesterday (Sunday) I fell out of bed in the morning and broke my toe! I was trying to get out of the gap where the mosquito net wasn't tucked in and ended up getting tangled up in and and falling onto the floor, breaking the mosquito net and my toe in the process! I've been doing sensible things since then though; putting it up when I can and taking regular paracetamol and ibuprofen. It feels like I've not been completely well and un injured for a long time! 

We're looking forward to Christmas here, with a party planned for Thursday for all the kids, and then probably going out for dinner with some people from church on Christmas Day! Not quite a White Christmas, but maybe a little bit closer to the weather of the first christmas? Hope you're all enjoying the season, and thank you so much to anyone who's sent things, it's so fun going to post office to get parcels!

The Beginning of Advent

For a change I haven't been on holiday or had any time off since my last blog update! We seem to be in a bit of a run of power cuts at the moment, which adds a bit of excitement to our daily schedule, like the constant risk of flooding did. Thankfully we no longer have a risk of floods as the season has just changed to the "cold season". This would have sounded ridiculous to me before I came out- after all, it stays at around 30 degrees for most of the day, and quite a bit hotter at noon- but it's actually quite accurate, I do feel cold in the tuk-tuk on the way to work in the morning. The power cuts mean that we have no fans though, so it can get fairly warm, especially at GH2 which has had the power out for most of the past 2 weeks.

We are supposed to be moving into GH2 at some point, but I have no idea when as yet. When we arrived at Magna we were told that it would be 1 or 2 weeks before the problem with the bed bugs was sorted out, but here we are almost 3 months later, still camped in the "classroom" of GH1. I think classroom makes it sound like a much bigger space than it is- we have a double bed (between the 2 of us) and it takes up about half the floor space. It's alright though, it's nice and homely with all our stuff in it, and the food at GH1 is so much nicer than GH2 that we can cope with being a bit cosy. 

We were talking to Khy, the group home manager, the other day and she commented that the Ma's really liked having us living there- the only thing they wanted us to do differently was shut the curtain when we were getting changed. To which we replied that we would love to, but we didn't have a curtain! In the typical Cambodian way she thought this was hilarious, and found us a "curtain" (it's actually a scarf, about the same size as a pashmina and only covers the middle part of one of the 2 windows, but what can you do?!). Cambodian attitudes about things can be very different to ours in Britain- last Friday we got up in the morning and had breakfast as usual, but when we went to get in the tuk-tuk to go to GH2, we discovered it was broken so we all just had a day off at GH1! we taught the half of our students that we were with, but all our lesson things were at the other group home, so a bit of improvisation was required. Much like today really. I have 2 older classes that I teach, my morning class and my afternoon class, both for 2 lessons a week and I repeat the same lessons for them. However, when I got to GH2 this morning I found all the students of my afternoon class were there-apparently they swap around at the start of each month, but nobody told us that!

So I had a quick think, and we ended up doing the verb "to have" and had a great lesson, much more fun than I had thought I would be able to make grammar! And they were all on excellent form, writing out full sentences that were almost completely correct. The younger class today was interesting too. Rather than there being 10 kids as there usually are, there was only 3 of the oldest in the class, with all the rest of them being "at the hospital". They all have to have check-ups once a month to monitor the ARV treatment that they're on so it's not unusual for one or two to be missing, but there are usually enough left to form a class! There was a hilarious moment at the end of the class when Flo went to switch on the ceiling fan and all three kids rushed to stop her, miming enthusiastically something about the ceiling fan and Somnang (one of the younger kids) and then all rolling their eyes, sticking their tongues out and drawing their fingers across their necks. It looked uncannily like a mime for "Somnang was beheaded by the ceiling fan" and certainly made me laugh! Although they reassured us that Somnang was actually fine!

On Thursday this week we had a big party at the hospital for World AIDS Day with all the kids from the group homes as well as those on the Magna home based care scheme, for them to learn about HIV/AIDS and how to look after themselves as they are all HIV+. Not as some American doctor said "it's AIDS Day so you thought you'd bring some kids to a hospital for a party"! We did a cool activity with the 6-10 year olds (with the occasional sneaky 3 year old!) to teach them how to wash their hands- we put glitter on their hands and then showed them how to wash it off with soap and water. The glitter stuck to their hands well, so they really had to try hard to get it all off, and hopefully got the message about how well you should clean. It's especially important for them as HIV weakens their immune systems, and the ARV treatment has lots of side effects like causing tooth decay, so they need to be particularly diligent. 

Last weekend we stayed in Phnom Penh to get a bit of a break from the orphanage and stayed at a guesthouse- in a twin room! So for the first time in 10 weeks, we each had a bed to ourselves! We visited the Night Market for dinner as it was near where we were staying and had Cambodian kebab things and shared a plate of fried rice. It will be so weird when I come home to just have a plate of food to myself, here we just get a bowl of everything and split it between us. The food at the group homes has been so tasty these past 2 weeks too- today we had chicken in this delicious spice mix, with chopped up omelette and sliced cucumber/carrot/ginger/Cambodian vegetable for lunch (with rice of course) and it was so delicious! It doesn't really sound like anything special but in comparison to bone in watery stock with some bizarre veg, it was very good! 

This weekend we are going to see Twilight at Sorya Mall, which is the main (one of only 2!) shopping centres in Phnom Penh, followed by dinner at Suki Soup- I'm not entirely sure, but I think it's quite similar to a steamboat in Singapore. It looks tasty and fun at least! We're going with 2 people from church who go to my home group that I joined this week. Amazing enough the woman whose flat it was at used to go to St George's and had several of the same teachers I did!! 

It was fun starting advent this week- there are advent calendars in each group home that we made by making little packages of sweets and hanging them from a ribbon with numbers on all of them. The kids are all so excited about it, within 10 minutes of us hanging them up they had all memorised what day they got to open it on! We have been planning a christmas party for them too, but no more on that for now!

I hope you can all understand this slightly chaotic blog! Chum reap li-ah! 

The Water Festival

It has been 2 weeks since my last update (much better than the 4 week gap last time!), although it feels like more than that! After I wrote the blog we had a really lovely week; it was the Water Festival which is a national holiday celebrating the end of the rainy season, so we had Wednesday, Thursday and Friday off! Magna is so good for giving us holiday when it is a national holiday, usually just a day or two tagged on to a weekend when we can visit some more of Cambodia. Because of the holiday we were only teaching on Monday and Tuesday so our lesson plans got a little bit altered (as we had forgotten we were going on holiday when we did our planning!). That week with the younger class we did Body Parts- they can now sing "Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes" very well, and know some of the body parts. The class is very mixed and it varies in composition from lesson to lesson so we can never be quite sure who we are going to get- half the class attend school and are more than able to learn basic English, whereas the other half only go to preschool and as the youngest of them is only 3 they seriously struggle to do anything that requires attention! Different kids go to school in the morning or afternoon, and some only on certain days, and sometimes they just don't go (we've not quite worked out the reasons behind these mysteries yet!), meaning that we can plan a very basic lesson, assuming that the "littlies" will be there, only to walk into the 'classroom' to find a completely different bunch of kids and have to change the lesson plan in the 30 seconds we have before they start to demand things to do! It can be a challenge, to be sure, but it's lots of fun too and great when it goes well.

The week of the Water Festival we did a pretend café with the older ones. We have a "Morning Class" and an "Afternoon Class" and conveniently it worked out that we would have a lesson with each, so we revised the food and drink vocabulary they had done, learnt "Please may I buy…" and "How much does it cost?" and then got them to act out coming to our "café" to buy things. It was pretty successful and was the first week of us splitting the classes up into a more able and less able group so that we could each teach one. There is still a bit of moving between the groups as we work out who would do best in which group, but mostly they are settled and we teach them the same topics separately. The kids seem to find it better too as before those who found it easy would get bored and those who struggled would get panicked that they couldn't keep up or were holding the class back.

On Monday afternoon between classes it was suddenly announced to us that there was to be a leaving party for Sorn leaving. This came as a bit of a surprise to us, both because we didn't know about the party, and because we hadn't known until Friday that Sorn was leaving! He was the "OVC Co-ordinator" and one of our 3 main go-to people for when things go wrong and up until that point had been our major contact at Magna. So naturally we weren't expecting to hear that he had come to the end of his contract and was finishing with 2 working days left, mentioned just by-the-by! The party on Tuesday was nice though, we had tasty skewer things with rice and vegetables and some curry, with fizzy juice and ice. It was lovely for the kids, they all seemed to really enjoy being able to stay out late and have a treat.

On Wednesday, after our very short week of teaching we were off on holiday to Siem Reap! Our plan was to eat breakfast at Group Home 1, then get a moto into Phnom Penh, visit the bank, buy bus tickets for the 10.30 bus, pick up some snacks for the 7-hour bus journey and go. As it was it didn't quite happen like that! We got to the bank and then to the bus station to buy tickets without too much hassle, but when we got there we were told that the first bus with seats available on it was the 1pm bus! We had a quick rethink of our plans, and as we were really close by we decided to go to Sorya Mall (one of the very few shopping malls in Cambodia). It was actually a really nice morning- we went to see "Real Steel" at the cinema (half price because it was a Wednesday!) then had lunch in the food hall, popped into Lucky Supermarket for snacks and made our way to the bus station. When we got there, we were greeted by pandemonium. There were people and bags everywhere, and a worrying number of people sitting on their bags and eating food with the look of marooned travelers. After talking to a few people, we learnt that there had been a "bit of a problem" with the buses and none had turned up that morning. So when the first bus to Siem Reap arrived at the bus station at 1.20, it was the "10.30 Bus"! We were very glad that we hadn't managed to get tickets as we would have been stuck waiting for 3 hours rather than being able to get things done. The next bus which came was the "11.30 Bus" but had some spaces on it so they let us on which was great.

The bus journey itself wasn't too bad, I had expected it to be worse given how long it was, but we had 2 stops on the way and despite it being a bit hot the bus was fairly comfortable. The road was a bit of a surprise- it was the main road from Phnom Penh to Siem Reap, was roughly the same as a badly repaired country lane in Britain and went along a not-very-big pile of earth in the middle of a LOT of water. To complicate things, there were plenty of cows too so we had to pause a few times while they cleared a way through, and in some places they just hadn't bothered to tarmac the road, so it was very bouncy in the bus! We arrived in Siem Reap at about 9 and went to the guesthouse that Katie and Gabby had organized for us- it is linked to their project so they gave us a special discount as volunteers and the price included a very yummy breakfast! It was a really lovely place to stay; our room had hot water (an incredible luxury to me!), a TV (likewise), and the breakfast, but they gave it to us for the same price as just a standard room at a guesthouse in Phnom Penh. A "standard room" in Phnom Penh would be a room, with a bed in it, attached to a wet room with no hot water, so it was a massive treat for us to stay somewhere so nice.

Siem Reap itself is lovely too. It's far more French and pretty than Phnom Penh is and much smaller too, with lots of interesting shops and restaurants. Because of the size we could walk to the centre of Siem Reap, along the riverside which was especially nice for the Water Festival. Normally there would have been boat races for the Festival but all the celebrations were canceled this year so that the money could be used to provide relief for the victims of the flooding.

We spent most of our 3 days there relaxing and not doing a huge amount although we did do a cooking course one morning and went swimming in a lake (with slightly dubious contents!) with the kids from Honour Village (the PT project in Siem Reap) another day too. It was really nice to catch up with Katie and Gabby (and the REAL, British Dairy Milk Chocolate they gave us was amazing!) and we met some of the other volunteers at their project (Noa and Vivi) too.

By the end of our holiday I was missing the kids back at Magna, so after a slightly more organized bus trip on Sunday it was lovely to see them all again. This week has been good- we have finally sorted out our proper timetable (yay!) so that we don't have any double-booking of activities, and when we went to the office on Tuesday we were paid, finally given the newly fixed volunteers laptop and given a little bit of post that had arrived, 3 things we very much appreciated! In our lessons this week we did food with the younger ones and tested the older ones on what they knew so far, with a few minor events along the way, just to keep things interesting. On Wednesday afternoon we had a grand total of 4 in our older class because the tuk-tuk from GH1 had broken down, and we had no electricity at all in GH2 from Tuesday until Thursday- we got good at teaching in semi-darkness!

This weekend we are able to start getting some things sorted for Christmas here- we are making an advent calendar for the kids to share (one at each home) and we are starting a Crafts and Activities Club, beginning with Christmas decorations so we need to get all the things for that. We have a few other exciting things to do this weekend too, as we bought some oats on Sunday and we're going to make some proper porridge! No more of this rice stuff!

There are so many things here that are totally different from back home that I can't even write them all down, despite the massive length of these updates! There are some new photos of Cambodia on Facebook, but not very many as it takes an age to upload things- enjoy!

Teaching and Dengue Fever

It's been a long time since I did my last blog (4 weeks!) so I thought I'd better do another one. I did try to do it 2 weeks ago, and last week but I was ill both times and ended up just going to sleep!

Since my last update we have started teaching English at Magna, and we are both really enjoying it! We are teaching 3 classes- one is of very little kids (age 2-6) and the other two classes are of mixed ages, anywhere from 8 up to 14 years old! Our first lesson with the really little ones was interesting- as you would expect they have a very short attention span, and they were more than a little bit excited at the prospect of new teachers so they ran around for the whole "lesson" and definitely didn't learn any English! And when I say "ran" I mean that literally, at one point 3 of them were running in circles around the room, and none of them sat still for a minute, unless it was to do something they weren't supposed to!

After the first attempt at teaching them we got much better at containing them and their excitement, and have been doing lots of making things and colouring in since then. We make colouring sheets up ourselves with pictures and then teach them how to say the thing they're colouring in English, which seems to work well.

The other classes have slightly more discipline but are still lots of fun to teach. It is just as much of a challenge but in a different way- we don't speak that much Khmer and most of them definitely don't speak much English, so we have plenty of miming and pictures. Another interesting element to our teaching is the fact that we have no curriculum so we have to decide what we think the most important words are for them to know and then work out how to teach them it. It's good though, I like it.

However. Over the past couple of weeks I haven't been teaching at all really, as I went down with dengue fever! It's a tropical illness that you get from a certain type of mosquito bite (during the day) and is a bit like bad flu, with a very high temperature, painful eyes and joints, nausea, headache, the list goes on. After 5 days of it I spoke to the Magna doctor and was sent to bed for the rest of the week, on the condition that if I wasn't better in 2 days time I would go see the doctors in the clinic in Phnom Penh. 3 days later I went to the clinic (because I'm a disobedient patient like that!) and they did a blood test and discovered that I had dengue fever, and said that it should be going soon as by that stage I had had it for 8 days. Unfortunately, things don't always do what they are supposed to, and when I went back for a blood test the next day my white blood cell and platelet counts had dropped further (an indication of dengue) meaning that I wasn't getting better yet. Bernie (our country representative for Cambodia) had made the first appointment for me at the clinic and came along to look after me, and said then that I could come stay with her for a few days until I was feeling better, which was great! Just staying with her made me feel so much better- to be cool in air conditioning, not having to sleep on the floor, eating delicious western food and having access to a tv and internet was amazing! I felt better than I had been just because I was staying there! 

One of the good things to come out of having dengue (there aren't many!) was that everyone here was so lovely and so many people did things to look after me when I was ill- from the Magna doctors who did a free blood test and put it through as urgent, to Bernie who looked after me amazingly, to the Ma's in the Group Home who would bring me hot, sweet milk to drink when I was feeling too sick to eat! It was lovely to know that I have so many people looking out for me, and the same with messages from home. 

While I was staying at Bernie's flat it was King Sihanouk's (the previous king) birthday and a national holiday in Cambodia. Each evening of the long weekend there was a firework display over the river in celebration of this, and we could see it from her flat, so even though we weren't around for 5th November we still did very well on the fireworks front!

On Monday of this week, my blood test showed that my platelets and WBC were back to normal, and I was declaring to be "in recovery" by the SOS Clinic's doctors, but warned that I would feel very tired and worn out for a while and should make sure I got plenty of rest. Naturally I took this to mean that it was time to get back to work! I started back at some of the things we've been doing on Wednesday, with filing at the hospital, and went to work on Thursday and Friday too, but only a half day of each day. I'm glad to say though, this weekend I am feeling much better and I'm looking forward to being back full time from Monday! 

Today we went to church in the morning and returned to find the playground (more like a lake at the moment!) very full of water, and a very large puddle in the middle of our bedroom floor!! With a distinctly soggy mattress in the middle of the puddle. So now, for the first time in 4 weeks of being at Magna, we have a bed! Yay! But unfortunately we don't have a mattress currently as it's a bit waterlogged.... well, you can't have everything! It was pretty good timing for our room to flood actually- yesterday I had a big tidy up and took everything out of my suitcase and put it on the shelves, so everything was off the floor.

This week is the Water Festival in Cambodia, a national holiday which we get Wednesday, Thursday and Friday off to celebrate it! We were planning on staying in Phnom Penh for the celebrations but due to the flooding in the provinces the government have cancelled the PP celebrations and used the money to provide aid for the people affected by the floods. So instead we are intend to go on holiday to Siem Reap for 4 days, to catch up with Katie and Gabby and to see a different part of the country- I'm looking forward to it, even if it's not very organised at the moment!

This week we've had a bit more of a taste of Cambodian snacks- we've had deep fried banana (seriously yummy!) and BBQ Corn on the Cob to add to the delicious coconut dumplings that we'd tried before. And now we need to go buy some fruit (hopefully some bananas) so I'll finish this update here! Hope you are all sok sabye!

Frogs, Eels And Lots Of Rice...

This has been a very busy 2 weeks! We finished the language course with Nim on Saturday, so I now have 320 cards (yes, I counted!) of Khmer vocabularly that I supposedly know! We ended the course with a Cambodian BBQ with Nim, her sister and her friend, and Bernie, PT's Cambodian Country Rep. It was in a big Cambodian restaurant, so we were the only '''barang''s there, and they didn't speak any english so we had to practice our Khmer. The food was totally delicious; beef (sai-koh), pork (sai-ch'rook), prawns (bong-kia), mango salad (nuom s'wai), fried rice (bai) and vegetables (bon-lae) to eat, as well as a corn dish that we don't have a word for in English, it's was a bit like sweetcorn (but looked nothing like it!) and very yummy! Nim showed us how to make a dip for the meat, it's pepper (marik), sugar (s'kor) and lime juice (I have no idea what that is in Khmer!) and mixed up- I was a bit nervous at first but it's delicious!!

On Sunday morning the other PT girls left for their projects- Eiben and Jess to Sianoukville and Katie and Gabby back to Siem Reap- and we had the day in Phnom Penh before we were picked up on Monday morning. We went to ICF (International Christian Fellowship) in Phnom Penh on Sunday morning, which I really enjoyed, all of the songs but one were ones we do at St Mungo's and it was nice to do something I was familiar with! Most of the people at the church are charity workers in Cambodia and everyone spoke English, so we got to chat to a few people about what it was like living as a foreigner in Cambodia. In the middle of the service we had to introduce ourselves as the newcomers- scary!

At 8.30am on Monday morning (a time I have now come to think of as mid-morning!) we were picked up by Sorn and the Magna guard from Okay Guesthouse. I was excited to meet the kids and a little bit nervous as well, but looking forward to being rid of the bed bugs that had plagued us in Okay. Unfortunately it was not to be so. On the journey to Takh Mao Sorn told us that we wouldn't be staying at Group Home 2 immediately as was planned, but instead we would be staying at Group Home 1 for a few weeks because Group Home 2 has a bed bug infestation! We went to Group Home 1 first to put our suitcases there (whilst they moved the books out of the schoolroom and put our mattress in) and met 2 of the kids, one of whom is deaf and partially blind, but very lovely.

After that, we went to GH2, which has just moved to a brand new house! It's lovely, there is a big yard out the front where the kids can play football and a row of swing seats, there is plenty of space for the kids to run around and play, and the school that some of them go to is right next door. Basically, it would be perfect if not for the bugs!

We met all the kids and most of the staff on Monday, and had LOTS of cuddles and played with them (the kids, not the staff!). They are all so lovely, friendly and sweet, it feels like a family. This week has been mostly playing with the kids, meeting people and having a few meetings about what the role of Magna is and what we will be doing this year- Magna staff who will be in contact with the kids have a bit of time when they start working where they don't have many jobs to do, but just play with the kids and get to know them, which is helpful.

Our typical daily routine is interesting, a bit different from what I would do in Scotland! The kids at Group Home 1 get up at 5am (give or take a few minutes) and as there is only floorboards between their room and our room, it's a bit like they're walking on the skin of a drum and we're trying to sleep inside it. Suffice to say, you don't need an alarm clock! So we get up just after them, usually at about 5.30 and head to the bathroom (wetroom- they don't have shower cubicles here) for a nice cold shower, which is much nicer when the weather is really hot than in the morning, when it's still a bit chilly (maybe 25 degrees). Then we have breakfast on the patio with the kids, always rice with some meat or fish and sometimes some egg (mmm!), it's more or less the most inocuous meal of the day- you're never quite sure what the meat is but it's always delicious and easy to eat, not too many bones. The older children go to school for about 7 and then the younger kids leave from GH1 to go to GH2 for the morning. We go with them, in one of the Magna tuk-tuks, probably between 10 and 15 of us in one, so there isn't much chance of you falling out, especially if you are wedged in the middle!

The morning is then spent playing with the kids, doing games and reading books to them- there are 2 teachers that Magna employ so there are sometimes activities for them to do with them, and when we start our actual job we will be helping to organise things for them to do. Lunch is at 11.30, back at GH1 usually and can be anything. Lunch and dinner are usually pretty similar and we've had frogs, eels, chicken, vegetables and lots of rice. A meal like this tends to be a bowl of rice with a bowl of soup of some description with chunks of things in it- you put the soup into the rice bowl and eat it, and usually it's tasty.

Following lunch everyone sleeps for an hour and so do we- by that time you really need a break! The afternoon is then pretty similar to the morning, only much shorter, sometimes we stay at the GH1, sometimes GH2, either way we play with the kids. Dinner is anytime between 4 and 6 and then all the kids have showers. The little ones just eat their dinner then strip off and get hosed down outside (a system that works very well!) and we help with this- drying them off, brushing their hair, helping them get dressed afterwards.

Some of the older ones go to extra English in the evening, and tend to get back when all the showering is done, so we chat to them in Khmer-English for a bit, then crash into bed at 8pm (if we're lucky!).

On Friday we had a meeting with Denisa about what we will be doing from now on, so from Monday we started our proper job and all of this will change (apart from the food and waking up times). I'm really enjoying the project so far, even if ít's hard work, and it's fun doing all these new things! We've started riding motos, which is lots of fun (especially riding motos in a thunderstorm!) and the other night we were each given a coconut to drink/eat. The people are so lovely, and I'm looking forward to this week and the rest fo the year, I can't believe 3 weeks have gone by already! I've had my first post, which was lovely, and thank you to everyone who's sent me messages! :)

Jum-reap-lei! (Goodbye in Khmer) I'm off to Central Market now, and then to a French party this evening, it's looking like a fun day!

How To Cross The Road Cambodia-Style!

It's Monday today so I arrived in Cambodia 9 days ago, although it feels both much longer and much shorter than that!

I think that the first thing I learnt when I got here- before learning any Khmer even- was how to cross the road in Cambodia! It's much harder than it sounds, there's so much traffic all the time and the roads are so wide that you never get a gap big enough to get all the way across. Your best bet is to try and set off in a big enough gap that you're not going to get hit the moment you step off the pavement, then just walk through the traffic and hope that everything moves out of your way. Cars are good to avoid too, if you can. And so long as you bear in mind that driving on the right hand side is more of a loose guideline than a law it's fine! you get used to it pretty quickly, and all the Cambodians find it hilarious when you get freaked out, particularly if you're halfway across the road!

On the first Sunday here we had a tour of Phnom Penh, starting with Toul Sleng S21. Genocide Museum, the site of Security Prison 21 during the Khmer Rouge years. Over 20,000 people were tortured and executed there so it was a very difficult place to visit. In Block A, the "VIP" block (specifically for Cambodians who had worked for CIA, FBI or other foreign governments) there were still the iron bedframes that people had been on when they were tortured, with a picture of each room as it had been when the Vietnamese invaded, with bodies on the beds. In each of the other three blocks the first room had been left with the tiny 0.8mx1m cells there, and then all the other rooms were filled with "evidence". There were rooms and rooms full of photos of people who were killed there, and the last room had their clothes and some skulls that had been found there. One of the seven survivors did paintings of things he caught glimpses of while he was there and they were hung throughout. It was really hard to see, especially when we were all so tired but I think we needed to see it before starting our projects. The Khmer Rouge was toppled in 1979, so everyone over 35 has memories of it, and most of the younger people remember the aftermath too.

The rest of the day was less intense- we visited the National Museum and one of the local temples which was interesting, and it was good to go with a guide who could answer our questions.

The next day we started the language course! It's been 4 hours a day Monday-Sunday, plus homework for lunchtime and evening. Nim (our teacher) pushes us really hard but it will be good to know a bit of Khmer at least when we get to our projects. Each lesson we wrote out the vocab on little cards and practised with them until we knew everything by heart. We usually have between 1 and 3 words/phrases on each cards and I would guess I have way over 200 cards by now!! But it's nice, we can speak a little bit of Khmer with the people who work at the Guest House now.

The Guesthouse, is interesting... the food is very nice and pretty cheap, which is good, and all the rooms have fans and bathrooms. You do have to hold the bathroom door shut or it spontaneously opens, and hot water is a luxury we can manage without but you get over that quite quickly. There is a suspicion that we have bed bugs too, adding to the mosquito and ant bites, but at the end of the day it doesn't make that much difference to me which insect is making my legs itch!

At the moment we're in a 3 day mini holiday from the language course so we had a nice long lie in this morning. It's helping me get over my cold which is useful!! It's currently the Festival of the Dead in Cambodia so everyone (including Nim) has gone back to their home towns, making it very spookily quiet in Phnom Penh. All the shops are shut and the markets are empty, the only places that open are the very touristy or western places, so we can get meals but no snacks...

So far, I'm really enjoying being here! The people here are lovely- always smiling and laughing, especially the people in the guesthouse laughing at our Khmer! The only thing now is we all want to get to our projects and get settled in and start doing something useful!

Slowly but surely?

In March, the estimate was that I had around £1400 left, and now, 2 months later I still need to fundraise £1244.  Since then I have confirmed Aberdeen for 2012 entry to medicine on an unconditional offer, and finished school! Currently I'm in the middle of exams; when I've done my final 2 exams and leavers week I'll be completely done with school, forever!

I'm hoping to arrange a cycle ride (possibly a TANDEM cycle ride) to help raise the last £1244 so watch this space!

Fundraising so far...

It's March (already!), and so far we've raised about £3576! That means I've got around £1400 left to raise to get to the total, which seems like a very small amount in comparison to the £5000 I started off at!

In February we had a big party at our house, with a silent auction, a raffle and lots of games which is where most of the money has come from so thank you to everyone who came and donated or helped. :) I really enjoyed the evening, and I hope everyone who came did too, even if you didn't win the bidding!

By now I've heard back from all my university choices (to do medicine)- I got an unconditional for Aberdeen, an offer of AAB for Nottingham, and rejections for Dundee and Newcastle- so all I have to do is choose between Aberdeen and Nottingham to put as my firm and insurance. All my applications were for deferred entry so it's great that I know that I've got a place to do medicine when I get back from Cambodia, no matter what happens with my exams this year.

Thanks again to everyone who's helped with the fundraising, I really appreciate your help (and thank you to everyone who's let me off the hook for not doing things I should have done... like thank you letters from my birthday!) I wouldn't have been able to do nearly so much on my own! :)