I have now done half of my time away and must admit that the past few weeks have flown, which is nice in some respects as I have many lovely  things to come home to and sad in others because there will never be a trip like this again.  I am beginning to wrap up my time at placement and set dates to deliver some of the training which I will be facilitating before I go.  This should be an interesting experience given that I only speak English and most of the course attendees speak mainly Khmer with a little English intertwined!  I am sure it will be fine but the role play will certainly be interesting’…..

I have continued to spend time out in the communities visiting people and observing the social workers provide support and assistance.  I have got used to hopping on and off Mr Chea’s moto and making our way through busy little town areas.   One visit we went on the other day was very saddening.  The families were boat people who had moored down a quiet part of the river.  There was a mother, father and two children age apprx 8 and 10.  When we arrived, I could see that their boat was upturned and on the river bank.  It had broken and would take about 3 weeks to fix.  The family was living on a wooden platform of no more than 6 foot square, sheltering under the makeshift roof of their boat, which again, could be no more than 6 foot long and two foot wide.  They were exposed to all the elements, no privacy, their belongings stacked up under the makeshift shelter.  The little girls was poorly with a fever and resting on the platform out of the sun.  She was asleep and did not look well.  The flies kept landing on her face and once again, I had another moment of thinking how well indulged and cared for most of us are when we get sick.  What a different life……

I am looking forward to this week as we have a community dental programme taking place over two days. Basically an international organization of student dentitions comes over every year offering dental checks to the children registered within Riverkids school programmes and also to children resident within the slum communities who do not access our programmes. This has been taking place for several years.  The dental hygiene of most children ion Cambodia is pretty poor. Many never clean their teeth and dental care isn’t really encouraged. As a result, I have seen many children of just a few year s old with completely rotted blackened teeth.  It is a sad sight when they have such beautiful little faces but little or no teeth!  I have been told that the dentist visits are always a little frantic, with children escaping when they hear tales or cries of other children having extractions.  I guess I should brace myself for some ‘crowd control’ over the next couple of days.  I am going armed with some stickers and toys to encourage brave behaviour!  I was told that children have been known to bite the dentist or escape out of the building so cameras at the ready!!!!!

So moving on from work and my next favourite subject of food.  I must admit that but I am finding myself officially bored of rice (it has taken six weeks)!  My tum continues to ache every few days and my longing for a hot water bottle remains.  Rath,our cook, is lovely but she is appears to struggle with understanding the true concept of vegetarianism.  Every vege meal is infiltrated by some random piece of meat and whilst she does really try to make effort in catering for our preferences there is only so much variety you can achieve using a wok and two rings!!!  This is part of the reason we look forward to weekends so much, when one can shove a bit of western cuisine down one’s palate! Life in the apartment continues to be good.  Quite a few of us are getting ready to move on in the next few weeks and we have already had to say bye bye to others. One girlfriend Alex left on Friday and she is missed already.  You really do build quite intense friendships over here, living in such close proximity.  The other day I did a whole load of washing up on the roof (which I love!).  I left it all out to dry which takes no time at all.  However, silly me made the mistake of leaving it on the line overnight, on the first night we have had a real rain storm in Phnom Penh.  My clothes were soaked and had to be hung out (again to dry). The reason I am telling you about the rain is because, the next day when I left the apartment, I noticed that the whole place was crawling in baby frogs. For those of you who do not know, I am absolutely petrified of frogs and so an invasion of tiny ones was really quite traumatic for me.  They still haven’t left completely, as I almost stepped on another one when I left out this morning.  This has got to be the one down side to being here so far…… (oh and missing my friends and family too).

The last two weekends have been pretty good.  I travelled to Siem Reap on Friday just gone.  We took the overnight sleeper bus and I loved it. Forget about seats, you get a whole little bed to yourself!  It was fab, even though I didn’t sleep for any of the journey (maybe too excited….) We stayed in a lovely guesthouse called the Golden Banana and enjoyed spending time wandering the markets in town and sleeping  in a room with A/C woohoo!!!.  We also went sunset Quad Biking through the Paddy fields which was just amazing. The instructors take you out on a little mock driving test before we set off; I passed ok but was gas happy as ever!  Anyway, the dirt tracks we rode on were amazing, the sights I saw on route were fab too.  Little old women tending to their rice fields, young children rounding up water buffalo at sunset and bringing them back home.  It was just brilliant. 

I got up at 4.30am on Sunday morning to watch the sunrise over Angkor Wat.  That was pretty special too, although my camera will never do justice to the lights and silhouettes….. However, by about 11am Sacha and I were flagging so we decided to quit  the temples at noon. We did get to visit the one where tomb raider was filmed and we were also lucky enough to see some monkey’s on route back to our guesthouse.  Ok, I did get a little scared when they came right up to the tuk tuk and thoughts of contracting rabies whilst trying to get a pic of a cute little chimp crossed my mind!  Had my usual pedi and mani in town and am now wondering how my nails will survive when I get back to England cos I definitely wont be able to finance this little luxury long term!!!

We have birthday celebrations next weekend for Michelle’s 26^th .  We will be toasting her celebrations on a private boat which we have hired to sail along the Tonle Sap for four hours!  It has a sun deck to boot so I think it’s gonna fab…… my tan could do with a little topping up!

So, I think that’s just about all for now but a few little shout outs to end

-          Happy Anniversary mum and dad (another year of wedded bliss you two are doing very well)

-          Hello to all at work, I do think of you all

-          Ju, I love you, Paulie and Leo and cant wait to see you all. 

-          Clare, happy belated birthday, has baby made an appearance yet?

-          My girlies, look forward to seeing you all at Kat’s birthday bash once I’m back!

-          Lucie Grace – Happy second birthday my darling, sorry Auntie Cal could not come to your party on          Saturday but will give you lots of kisses when I am back!

-          Chloe Mae – miss you too lots of kisses for my big girl also (mummy and daddy can have some too)

-          Nan, make sure you and granddad take care and get rid of that nasty cough.

-          Si – Easy on the curries and cheer up

So I have been in Cambodia since the 31st of January. I spent my first two days in Phnom Penh awaiting another volunteer so that I wouldn't have to make the trek to the island alone. My trip from Japan to the island included.. a 2 hour flight back to Tokyo, a 7 hour flight to Bangkok, 10 hours in the Bangkok airport and a 1 hour flight to Phnom Penh. Then I took a 5 hour bus ride to the south of Cambodia and took a 2 hour boat ride to the island. - It was a long couple of days.

Once I arrived at the island I was greeted by Elyse who has already been there for a month. It was very nice to see a familiar face after a few weeks on my own. I was given the low-down on what the project is all about and a tour of my new home for the next month.

The island has a local population of about 200 people. The project was created to help sustain the food sources for the village. Prior to the project, over fishing was a very large threat in depleting their main food source. The project has taught local people the skills for sustainable fishing and also focuses on the tracking of fish species and of course sea horses. Since the project started they have seen many species of fish return keeping their food supply plentiful.

The project also focuses on waste managemnet and english education for the locals. Also.. all the data collected about the protected sea horses and fish species living in their waters and on the reefs are being used for a student writing his masters thesis in America.

A typical day on the island includes 2 1 hour dives and 1 clean up and/or jungle trek. There is also a lot of hammock, sun tanning and nap time :) We are fed on the island by local women hired to cook for us. The food is good, but very repetitive. There is some relief though if needed.. there is a guest house that serves western food or you can go into the village for some noodles.

I am now an open water certified Diver.. I dove 7 times last week and saw many new fishies and plants. There are 4 reef spots where we dive that are within a 10 minute boat ride from the island. I am starting my Advanced course on Monday. So I will be an advanced open water diver by the end of next week. In the next 3 weeks I should dive about 30 times!

My living accomodations are quite different than what I am used to, but I am happy. I sleep in a bungelow with 2 bunk beds and a washroom. Our bathroom consists of a toilet and a large bucket of water. We use the bucket as a shower also.. (It has a smaller bucket to dump water on yourself with). It is kind of chilly at times but surprisingly refreshing. Each bungelow has a porch and every person has their own hammock to relax in. No one wears shoes really.. ever. There is no power, no mirrors and definitely no internet. My front yard is the beach and my backyard is the jungle. I am afraid to go into my back yard though...

THE SPIDERS... I have only seen 2 since I have been there and they weren't in my bungelow and only about the size of a daddy long leg. I have yet to find any creepy crawlies in my clothes or bed.. (although I am a nazi about keeping my bug net tucked in at all times!) Each bungelow houses a few geckos.. which may seem creepy but they keep to themselves and eat all the bugs so.. I'm a fan :) It is pretty fun watching the geckos do their thing (please refer to fb video).. haha.. its surprising how entertaining a gecko hunting actually is.

Right now I am on the mainland for the weekend.. so I could get some different food and the internet. I doubt I will come back in the next three weeks though.. there isn't a lot to see in the small town I am in so it isn't really worth coming back to. I will update again once I return to civilization! 

Projects Abroad was set up in Cambodia in 2006 and since its inception the number of volunteers has increased dramatically. Projects Abroad brings help and hope to children and has the potential to reach many more. With the participation of our volunteers from around the world, we have seen some positive changes at most of the placements.

Cambodia is still a developing country which requires a great deal of external assistance therefore; Projects Abroad has successfully cooperated with numerous placements in Phnom Penh to provide more support. Given the success of Phnom Penh placements, Projects Abroad would like to expand, by beginning to offer some placements of Care and Teaching in Siem Reap, beginning in 2012. So far we has managed to be a partner with six different care and teaching placements in Siem Reap. One of the advantages of working in Siem Reap is its proximity to the temples of Angkor and allows volunteers the chance to soak up a great deal of Cambodian history.

The arrangements in Siem Reap are very similar to those in Phnom Penh. The volunteers will stay at an apartment, where they will sleep and eat both lunch and dinner together. Like in Phnom Pehn volunteers meals will be provided by a cook and they will be transported to and from work by projects abroad drivers. Safety continues to be a major concern of Projects Abroad and all measures are taken to assure the same standards in Siem Reap.

As of January 2012, there are approximately about ten volunteers working in Siem Reap. Current volunteers are enjoying the Siem Reap placements. At this juncture there is only one permanent Projects Abroad staff in Siem Reap. This is Roeun Bunrouen, whose job it is to pick volunteers up from the bus station, orient them and solve any problems which might arise. With any luck the program will continue to expand.

It turns out that three weeks go very quickly. Unfortunately I have not had much time to blog or upload photos; I have been too busy enjoying myself and too busy watching a terrible series of events unfold at my orphanage. The situation at my placement is probably not something I should tell to the World Wide Web. Just trust me in saying that I've witnessed a lot of evil, corruption and inconsideration.

The other parts of my trip have been hilarious and fun- the best experiences of my life. I owe this to the volunteers in my apartment. "Apartment 6, we don't give a shit!"

Louis de Bernieres writes in Captain Corelli's Mandolin:

You come to know every nuance of each other's moods; you know exactly what the other is going to say; you know exactly who will laugh and for how long over which particular type of joke; you acquaint yourself intimately with the smell of each man's feet and perspiration; you can put your hand on someone's face in the dark, and know who it is; you recognize someone's equipment hanging on the back of the chair, even though his is the same as everyone else's; you can tell whose stubble it is in the washing bowl; you know precisely who will swap you a carrot for your potato, a packet of cigarettes for your spare pair of socks, a postcard of Sienna for a pencil. You become accustomed to seeing each other frankly, and nothing is hidden.

and I feel it is all too similar to apartment life. I will miss them all so much.

That is all from me. Until the next time I visit, hopefully very soon,

Elena