Nov 30th

Christmas Spirits

It is time to start getting into the Christmas spirit and for a couple of days I’ve had the volunteers working on Christmas decorations and crafts with the kids. So, today I cancelled all classes in the afternoon, brought out the big speakers and put on christmas music for the whole village. We went to all the clusters and decorated all the christmas trees with the children. They are so excited for Christmas and loved making all the decorations.

Nov 28th

The weekend

There were days when my weekend fun would usually include a nice dinner with friends, partying, a movie, shopping or just sleeping in and relaxing by the pool...Now my weekend fun are these beautiful children.

Rachel hanging out with the boys

Chamrouen and the boxing bag

Jacqui and the kids

Nimol and Khim...two trouble makers

The kids working in their gardens

Our Piggies

Biking around the village with Rith and Samut

Snail Mail

I got mail today...real mail that is, and not the kind that can't be held in your hand and requires internet...so much fun and such a surprise! Thank you Keriann, loved it!

Thanksgiving

Today is American thanksgiving and we (the volunteer core group) were so spoiled getting a wonderful traditional thanksgiving dinner. It's amazing how much you can appreciate mashed potatoes, turkey, and homemade buns when you otherwise get fed rice and chicken 3 times a day. I put the danish volunteers to work and we got to have a relaxing afternoon enjoying some good food and great company. The children were around in the morning watching the turkey getting stuffed and prepared.

John cutting the turkey

We picked flowers and made a thanks you card for John and Kathy...you gotta use what you have, it's not like we can just go to the store and buy something.

Babysitting

So, I have over 250 children in the village, but not until I was faced with 21 danish volunteers did I feel like I had to babysit. Some of them are really great and enthusiastic, taking some initiative...while some of them have to be told everything. It feels like it has been a long week of organizing, even though monday and tuesday were holidays. I feel like I have a system down now though and will be ready to face next week when I have another 8 people coming on top of the danish groups. We are starting to get into Christmas mood a little bit and the volunteers are making fun crafts with the children. Next week I am gonna cancel classes for an afternoon and the volunteers are going into the clusters to play some christmas music and to do some christmas decorating and get into the spirit. That's gonna be so much fun!

Rachel and Nadja, my two wonderful volunteers from Australia doing some crafts with the children. I love how we can always just pull some paint and paper out and just hang out with the kids, they love it. I am gonna be missing this so much in a month.

Waterfest

Cambodia has more holidays than any other country I know of. I think they have about 23 days a year, and everytime it falls on a Saturday or Sunday they take the Monday off…and most commonly they also take the Friday off and make it into a four-day weekend, what can I say... smart people. This week waterfest is going on, celebrating the end of rainy season and the change of course of the river. It’s a big party going on in Phnom Penh and we are taking turns to bring the children in to see it during sat, sun and mon.

I am sure you have all heard about the terrible stampede that happened here yesterday. Panic broke out as people thought the bridge was breaking and at this point from what I've heard 400 people have died. Cambodia does not have the capacity to take care of that many people unfortunately and it's a huge tragedy here. I am ok and so are all our kids. We are lucky to have had no children around at that time and so far we don't know of any friends or relatives that have been hurt either.

Kelsey and I went with them on the sunday and it was so nice. It feels strange now that this is what I wrote in my notes, but it's nice to just get into town and experience the atmosphere with so much people and music playing everywhere...and best of all is the excitement of the kids who loves these little changes to their everyday life in the village. They have a boat race going on, so we went to the river to watch for a bit, but the kids were more interested in getting to the big playground that they have in town and we went off to play with 40 very happy children. However, bring them around in the city and crossing the streets is a moment of terror though. It's not like at home where we go to the crosswalk and the cars stop for you, here you're bringing yourself and the children across the street while cars are swishing by both behind and in front of you...a little bit scary!

Volunteers overload

It’s been a week full of volunteers, but it’s been really good. We have gotten two more girls from Australia and a group of 8 Danish girls. Everyone seems to get along really well and it’s fun with all the people around to talk to. I hold a meeting every night to make sure everyone knows what they are doing in the morning. Although it’s hard to make sure everyone always has something to do, I am so happy to have so many people during English classes as I can pull out a lot of kids and have them do one on one with a volunteer, cause I sure do have a lot of kids that need it. The Danish group that are here only stay for the weeks and it’s kind of nice that we are sort of gonna have the weekends to ourselves. Next week we get another group of 17 Danish people coming as well, so it’s gonna be crazy here for a while. I’m gonna have to make sure we have a lot of painting projects and gardening projects getting started, cause in the mornings when the children are in public school the volunteers need to be “entertained.”

Internet haven't been working for a while now...the downfall of living out in the bush...but hopefully I can put up this update tonight

Amebas

So, annoying little ameba parasites have decided they liked my stomach as a home and have crashed there for the past week which is why on top of having the flu I had to visit the toilet quite frequently. After having to poop in a tiny little cup...which is not fun when you have the runs and is worried about missing it...the doctor could finally decide on a cure for me. So, he gives me one kind of medicine that I have to take for 3 days to kill this thing living in me, not so bad i thought...but then he goes on and tells me that I have to take another medicine for 3 weeks to kill the EGGS! WHAT!!...EGGS!? I have eggs in me? Just the thought of it made me wanna barf. Anyways, I am finally back in the village and is overwhelmed as 2 new volunteers have arrived together with a group of 7 danish girls. It's hard to make sure everyone has something to do and feel included, but they seem to be alright. Meanwhile, I'm taking it slow and trying to recover fully before I go out and play full on with the kids again.

Homesick

Been sick for a week straight now and it really makes you feel a bit lonely and homesick. I am in a hotel room in Phnom Penh and although it's nice to have aircon and tv, it's no fun to be here on your own feeling like this. Today I have a doctors appointment and I'm hoping to be able to go out to the village after that.

vietnam...and the flu

So, one might have thought that being around 200 children everyday would at some point get me sick…little did I know that it was meeting up with my Singaporean friends this past weekend that was gonna knock me out. Don’t wanna point any finger, but I’m fully blaming you Ali.

Somewhat of a bad timing as well since I had to leave the country to renew my visa. My cheapest option was a $10 bus ride to Ho Chi Minh City, which seemed like a really good deal for me as I have never been to Ho Chi Minh…but as the fever shivers, cough, stuffiness and worst of all diarrhea symptoms got worse and worse I slowly started regretting my decision. Luckily the bus wasn’t even half full and I was able to lie down across the seats in the back and sleep for parts of the 6½ hour ride. Once we got here and found a hotel I gladly tucked myself into bed for what I thought was gonna be an hour nap…one hour turned into three and I only got up to join the others for dinner (which consisted of a cup of tea and a piece of toast for me).

After a good nights sleep, a package of flu meds, and plenty of fluids I felt somewhat ok and was ready to go on the tunnel and war museum tour that we had planned. So I packed my bag full of meds, water, crackers, toilet paper and a pair of clean underwear (after recently being told about a diarrhea horror story taking place in a cave I didn’t wanna take any chances with going to the tunnels). Despite a few sweat attacks, fever shivers and stops at every toilet on the way it turned out to be a pretty good day and I really enjoyed the sights. Amazing to see that piece of history so close up.

Back in Phnom Penh now and still no better, hardly left bed for two days with the exception of my toilet visits. Can’t remember the last time I was this sick. It is so not fun.

Pinks

The lovely bride to be in one of our many a great tuk tuk rides...what a great weekend! Miss all of you.

Cambodian ways

So, let try and drive the truck through the ditch on a muddy day...and when you're stuck in the mud lets spin the wheels as much as you can and get stuck even more. Oh, yes, you just gotta love the Cambodian ways some times.

Lice

Back home from a great weekend in Phnom Penh with the girls and Rob celebrating Keriann's bachelorette weekend. So much fun and always hard to say goodbye, but luckily it's not too long until the wedding and I get to see them again. Now I have two days to get a lot of work and preparation done, and then I have to go to Vietnam so that my visa can be renewed.

Tonight I had to wash my hair with the lice shampoo as one of the kids in the village has it and we don't want it spread to the rest of the 200 children. Funny how as soon as you hear that someone around you has lice your head instantly starts to itch...

Nov. 4th

We have puppies

Two new cute little puppies are now living in the village. While one of them is well taken care of in the green cluster, the other one is living with the wild little kids in the lavender cluster. We can’t help but from time to time fear for this poor little puppy’s life, as he gets to endure things such as being thrown down the slide on the playground, being tossed from one kid to the next, being held up side down and much more…but he seems to be a touch cookie J

Busy times!

Just finished a meeting with the volunteers. Have lots to plan now as we have many people and groups coming in november and december, and they all need to be given different jobs and responsibilities...busy busy, but tomorrow I'm off to Phnom Penh for a bachelorette weekend! So much fun, can't wait to see everyone and celebrate Keriann :)

Nov. 3rd

Just had a little try of snake for dinner today...not bad, but not good either...one time will be enough for me.

Hugs!

One of my favourite things are all the great hugs I get to enjoy everyday!

Oct 31st

Sunday dance

What a great night! At six o’clock all the kids had gathered on the basketball court and the music equipment was set up. A mix of English and Cambodian music blasting from the speakers had us dancing all kinds of different styles. The kids were showing me their traditional dancing, with very little successes, but it sure was fun J

Oct 30th

Haven't had internet working for a few days now, but finally got it back and it's time for some updates.

A cold and playful Saturday

Not sure what happened, but from one day to the next the temperature dropped from a high of 36 degrees to a high of 25 degrees…which makes it feel like winter here. The evenings always cool down as well and I wasn’t thrilled over having to take a cold shower tonight, although it does feel nice to actually be able to enjoy a hot cup of tea and to cuddle up with a blanket on my bed. Wondering if I’ll be able to sleep tonight without the sound of my battery run fan, funny how quickly you get used to things. Apparently this is their cold season and we’ll get this weather for about 5 days, so I’m gonna try to enjoy it as much as I can and fill up on hot tea while I can.

A day on the playground with the kids still kept me pretty warm though.