I left Melbourne Saturday 19th and arrived to a very hot Siem Reap that night. A reasonable flight, the time passed quickly and learnt the lesson that if you are given a seat near the toilets, refuse to sit down!!! The constant people up and down and the constant unpleasant odors were not the best!
I received a very warm welcome at the hotel, had a quick check in, a nice cool fruit punch and shown to my room where the hotel had supplied me with a big platter of fresh fruit.
I slept like a baby and woke bright and early Sunday morning to the sun streaming in on my face and me being totally confused as to where I was.
I met Bridget and Alan at Central cafe for lunch and a few glasses of bubbly, caught up on the last 6 weeks of news and retreated to the hotel and pool as it was so hot and I was so sleepy. A short swim and a 2 hour sleep. Dinner was at my favorite "beaches" with Nak, Fernando and Rose. So nice to see them all again.
I have started off the week with my habits from my last visit. I get up early to beat the pool cleaner, have a good swim, a brekkie loaded with fresh fruit and a 30 minute cycle to work. The first day I looked like I had ridden through the river, I was so hot and wet and have learnt very quickly to take it easy and take my time. It seems like I missed the rains of last week which apparently bought a welcome relief to the intense heat suffered by all during the previous week with temperatures at midday of around 40 - 46 C. It is around 36 during the day at the moment but SOOOOO....... Humid.
Grace House is different but the same, the difference is in the volunteer group and the number of volunteers that is now on its seasonal decline. A nice young group of 4 students from Redlands University in California who seem to work very hard, a very interesting woman from Belgium called Annette who has years of experience working with disabled children and so is wonderful in the disability programme and another woman from Australia called Kate, she too is a return volunteer. Nice because I have some diverse company.
This week I am working as the volunteer coordinator which means I answer email enquiries, show visitors around the place, help Bridget where I can. I am also assisting in the promotion and marketing of the weaving project. Tomorrow I am meeting with the G.M. Of the Victoria hotel to try to convince him to support the project by displaying and selling a selection of goods in the hotel. This will test my selling skills!
I have just had to beat a very hasty retreat from poolside to my room as within seconds of the breeze coming up the heavens have opened and it is bucketing down with rain. It is funny watching the staff racing around trying to close windows, put down umbrellas and rescue the outdoor dining settings. I like swimming in the rain but the staff freak out if you do!!!!
For my next 4 weeks I will be back working with the pre-school kids who are so gorgeous. They are currently making decorations for their classrooms and learning new songs to sing on the open day at Grace House on the 1st June. This is international children's day and we will celebrate with them by entertaining their families and giving them a few party treats.
June the 2nd is election day here. I am a little confused as I was told by somebody that it is not compulsory to vote. My second source of information advises that the election takes on biblical proportion as everybody has to return to their homeland and vote there. Some of the staff find this very difficult because of the cost of the travel. Some are anxious as they also have the added burden that those in their poorer communities have the expectation of a financial gift that the staff can't afford. What a dilemma for them. Anyway, the election means that we are bombarded with electioneering through megaphones attached to the the back of tuk tuks driving around. It can be quite deafening.
I have decided at the moment to ride the main road route to school which is a little less peaceful but is also a little less dusty as the dust provokes my cough. I am better cough wise than I expected to be, still taking my anti biotics but the humidity makes my nose run constantly which is a bit of a nuisance!!! The other reason that I am taking the main road route is that there is still a lot of activity river side following the relocation of the previous river side dwellers. There is some very heavy machinery which is digging the banks and widening the river but for every bucket they drag out, 3/4 of a bucket slides back in so to me it looks wider but shallower!!! Plus all the rubbish that was on the river bank is falling into the water and making an even bigger mess!
After 2 days here I feel like I never left and to get such a warm welcome from the children and the people from the village, the Grace House community and the hotel is heart warming.
So until next time
Good luck for you, good dreams for me.
