Sorry for the break in communications! It's now Thursday afternoon (15:10 to be precise) and this is the first opportunity we have had since arriving here to catch up on our blog! We arrived in Cambodia on Monday evening and spent our first night in a very comfortable hotel in Siem Reap. Breakfast consisted of sweet bananas, rolls, omelette, tea and coffee etc., with a rabbit, three dogs, three turkeys a cat, a cockerel, chickens and a few geckos roaming around us! Then we piled into our bus, which arrived and was being carefully swept clean by Kyanta (duff spelling) our driver. Then off to Poipet. I did warn them about the road, but I don't think the rest of the group had taken me seriously...! At first it was a bit bumpy, then a bit lurchy, and then all out, shock-absorber-wrecking, drive-wherever-you-can-find-space anarchy. Kosal, the CHO worker who had come to Poipet to meet us said it would probably take about three hours to get there. It took five. Five hours of sheer unadulterated motoring pleasure. Not.
We arrived in Poipet and after lunch at the (newly relcoated) restaurant, it was lovely to meet some familiar faces. Three of the girls in the restaurant, Chomno, Kim and then, the next day, also Vuthy and Sophar, all of whom were clearly very pleased to see me and meet the rest of the team.
Haven't got time or space here to describe everything we have done so far, cos Christine is waiting to get onto this machine and Chomno will be coming back for us soon, but here is a brief summary:
visited a new school for children from HIV families, motorbike workshop, sewing school, animal husbandry projects (goats, pigs, chickens), new water well provided by CHO, 'school on the mat''. That was yesterday. Phew!
Today - remote village in the forest where we helped put up a new school building (I say helped, perhaps hindered would be more accurate...!), had lunch in the headmaster's home (bit of a culture shock, but the same wonderful Cambodian generosity), then an hour doing Bible stories and other stuff with the school children. It was great - and the four hours in the van bumping through the forest tracks to get there was good fun in itself.
This afternoon we're off to give out football strips to another project some 50km away, so we need to leave soon.
Oh, and then there was the Cambodian wedding - Kim's neice was getting married and we were invited to go along. So, on with the kilts, out with the bagpipes and Davie graced the proceedings with an unforgettable rendition of Highland Cathedral! We've got it all on video, so you'll see it soon enough.
OK, need to go. Please keep praying - especially for health and safety and that our input will be an encouragement.
My cold virus is still a nuisance, so please pray that it will go completely SOON!
2 comments:
Glad to hear you made it safe & sound & you are getting to do stuff as well as see stuff.
I'm at work, listening to Thievery Corporation (not skiving - much) & thinking of you all. I would even put up with the ultimate road trip to be there! Hope your next few days in Poipet are excellent.
See you soon,
Vicki
Glad to hear from you all - it sounds so amazing, and great to be able to keep up with you on a (potentially) daily basis. This video of the wedding had better survive the journey home! Hope the football strips are popular; don't like the sound of the roads, but the heat sounds enviable. We've had gales all day, but the trampoline is firmly tied to the nearest tree - one of the apples, so hopefully that will keep its feet on the ground, (if less helpful for this season's crop of apples.) Tim should have taken a photo of Garelochhead in the driving rain just so Cambodians get the true picture.... Hope to hear from you again soon,
Love Ruth
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