Big Changes

Big, big changes afoot! FINALLY we have moved home and our new room is wonderful. We now each have a normal bed, complete with comfortable mattress, sheets and pillows all of which are a bit of a novelty for us. It's such a good way to have done it- now having stayed somewhere not so nice this new accommodation seems incredibly luxurious even if in comparison to what we would expect at home it's probably not even average. There are downsides to the new group home, most notably the even earlier start of 5am to help shower, dry, dress and feed the younger ones who live here. We've been on this new rising time for over 2 weeks now but it doesn't seem to be getting particularly easy, despite 8pm bedtimes; because we do so much work during the day and are kept so busy we go to bed before some of the older teenagers do which they find hilarious. 

We are helped along in not wanting to stay up by the very frequent power and water cuts, which occasionally coincide. The problem is generally not the lack of light but more the lack of fans to waft the hot air around, and we all roast until the power comes back on in a few hours. The water isn't such a problem- in each bathroom there is a big container of water with a scoop floating on it, so even without a supply we can get by without any coming out of the taps. Apparently there should be some system by which the water tanks get filled when the mains is working and then supply the rest of the house when its cut, but as with many things it's not quite functioning how it should at the moment and only supplies the outside kitchen area. I felt very uncivilized squatting outside pouring a bucket over my head, but in a choice of being hot and dignified or cool and looking a bit silly the second option wins every time. 

We're coming into the hot season at the moment and you can definitely feel it, the added bonus of which is a nice tan- it would be a bit embarrassing to be paler than my family when they come to visit at the end of March! All wounds take so much longer to heal in the heat which has caused a bit of trouble recently when combined with my inability to resist scratching bites. I ended up with an infection on my leg, but a course of antibiotics soon cleared that up. Honestly, antibiotics are amazing; I don't know what I'd do without them! I suppose it would be better to just not get ill/injured, but I've tried that and it seemed I couldn't manage that.

Valentine's Day came on the 14^th just as it would in Britain and was distinctly unexciting- I did get one card but it was from Flo, not some secret Romeo! The poem inside was very good though:

Mangoes grow in Cambodia, lychees grow here too,

But it takes a place like Edinburgh to grow a peach like you!

I made valentine's cards with the kids in the art and craft club that I run which they seemed to enjoy but was a bit more challenging due to a big lack of glue and scissors, meaning that most of them spent quite a while waiting for someone else to finish. They were cute when they finished them though.

At the end of that week came Flo's birthday which I'd been preparing for in not much secrecy. It's hard to surprise someone when you live with them and are around them almost 24 hours a day. Thankfully she went to the 'meeting' at the office (we're supposed to have a meeting every Friday morning with other Magna staff, but so far it's always been cancelled when we get there) and then spent the afternoon in Phnom Penh so I had plenty of time to wrap up some presents for her and create a masterpiece of a birthday card. It was actually a lot of fun preparing things, and nice to have some time separate for a change- I'm not sure I'll ever be in 

another living situation quite like this again.

Flo got to pick what to do for her birthday treat and chose gym followed by a buffet at a nice restaurant. We went to the cinema in the afternoon of her birthday to see Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol which was surprisingly good despite neither of us particularly wanting to see it. The meal in the evening was delicious too, with loads of different things to choose from. We both particularly appreciated the salad bar which was so tasty and difficult for us to get usually.

In these past weeks we've had a couple of visits from the children's sponsors and each time it as been slightly bizarre but nice. Both times in the hour before they arrived everyone ran around like headless chickens trying to make things look good and stop the children doing the kind of things they do. The youngest boy has a tendency to take off his trousers so we made sure we kept on eye on him so that they didn't get greeted by a half naked child! There were no major disasters though and it all went smoothly. The kids love having people come visit because they get so many cuddles and definitely adored the second group of visitors who brought them all sweets. They have been doing very well in terms of treats recently because the hotel where we take Sothy (the deaf-blind child) swimming has been collecting bits and pieces for us so twice we've returned with big bags of toys. A 'big bag' doesn't go far between 50 children but still, they enjoy it.

Last week we took 24 of the younger children to a big play park in Phnom Penh for the morning. The whole expedition was very exciting for them- before we left we had all the older kids trying to persuade us that they were actually 'tuik' (small) enough to go on the trip, but we assured them that they would get to go on a different trip for older children. We took a snack with us which was probably not the healthiest thing ever, but it was delicious- baguettes filled with banana and condensed milk! They had them halfway through the morning when they were flagging a bit after all the hard work of playing so intently. The play area was amazing- the area it covered was really big and the equipment was all really cool unique stuff. I'd say it was definitely one of the best I've ever been to; I only wish I was small enough to use it properly! I had to 'help' the kids play on some of it for which it was essential that I have a go on the roundabout and seesaw (both very cool) with them. I have some very cute pictures of the day as they were all having such a good time. The real testament to their enjoyment was the fact that every single child fell asleep on the tuk-tuk ride home, occasionally falling off the benches or onto each other, much to our amusement.

On Friday I had another excuse for a trip to Raffles for Happy 'Hour' cocktails as Andrea Wigglesworth from St Mungo's was visiting Phnom Penh for YWAM work. It was so nice to see her and be able to chat about Scotland for a little while as well as compare travelling stories of illnesses and fun. They had been doing some work in some of the very difficult situations that are unfortunately all too common in Cambodia, and we had experienced similar things so it was good to be able to talk about. There are elections coming up which is totally different to how an election would take place in Britain. Bribes are commonplace and the lack of education is truly appalling. If a teacher encourages students to think for themselves and challenge the way things are at the moment (not in a revolutionist way, just saying perhaps we shouldn't vote the same people back in) then they will lose their government provided job and their family won't be able to afford food. As it is they're expecting to work for 2 years after they qualify without any pay. This is only one of the many things that I wish were different in Cambodia, but we do what we can and hope that other people are doing the same. Westerners have a certain amount of freedom from the government- at least, their jobs aren't provided by them so they have no fear of not being able to buy food, and most have a foreign embassy to help them out should something go terribly wrong.

On Sunday we had an event that we've been looking forward to since we knew about it- our first Khmer Wedding! The morning was spent getting ready- having our hair and make-up done in 'Cambodian style' which would roughly translate into English as 'very OTT'! It was fun though and felt a bit like going to a fancy dress party, something I am always pleased to do! It was the wedding of the other Magna teacher's brother, who I've never met and I still don't know the name of, but this didn't seem to matter. Weddings here are definitely not a private or small affair- everyone who has even a vague connection is invited, and people have weddings as big as they can afford. In this case that meant that there were 85 tables, each of which sat 10 and some were used more than once! If we were surprised by the scale it certainly wasn't the only thing we were going to be surprised by. Having been driven the 2 hours to the location of the reception we met some of the other staff from Magna and all sat down to the delicious wedding food. 45 minutes later, having nicely polished off the food, the majority of the staff announced that they didn't want to stay any longer, got up and left! After spending so long getting ready and getting there it seemed crazy and to our British minds distinctly rude, but it seemed that whilst perhaps it wasn't what the wedding hosts want you to do, they didn't mind. We stayed however- having had these Cambodian wedding outfits made as we'd been told we must we weren't about to waste it by only staying such a short time.

After piles and piles of food we sat around for a bit and chatted before dancing in the evening- altogether a very fun event. People were amazed to see westerners there and we attracted many stares but after you got past the fact that that was how it would be, the wedding was a success for me. I think due to the difference in design of our outfits my outfit was a lot cooler and more comfortable than Flo's so I was freer to have a good time- poor Flo was boiling away in hers for the whole night!

A couple of days ago the last of the older children moved into the group home and today is supposed to be Phearun's (the Cambodian teacher at the group home) last day of work after he resigned at the beginning of Febuary. We are currently in the process of getting a new teacher and sorted out all the minor domestic tasks in the group home, but very soon I hope that it will all settle down a little bit and I might have no news for a while!