My third and fourth weekend already!

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Hello, so much more to tell you!

Last weekend, so the 29th, Lyn, Bob, Paula and I went out for the night to a bar called the Angkor What?! after having a lovely meal in town. The evening consisted of many cocktails and buckets of alcohol!! In the end Bob had to be taken home as he was far too pissed- Lyn was not as amused as Paula and I, who thought it was wonderful! In the morning however none of us were feeling too fresh so Lyn, Bob and I spent aaaaaaaaall day by a very luxurious pool, only $5 😊

Then the next day (Sunday) was one of the best I have had so far. We went into the really remote countryside to one of the poorest areas in Siem Reap to hold an art day for a local school another charity helped set up. We were taken there in a very small lorry all squashed in feeling like tuna! As we arrived down the VERY bumpy lane all of a sudden children appeared from out of the bushes running after the lorry screaming and shouting with GLEE!!!!! They were jumping up and riding down with us or running behind for bloody ages until we got there, was so amazing! Once we were there we were split off into classes and helped them make arty crafty things- my group made frogs with those party blowers in and honestly the noise at one point was deafening! But these children were so appreciative and quiet as they listened to the instructions as they are not used to seeing western faces or being given fun opportunities like this, we were honestly speechless at times. I really didn't realise how poor some of these families were but they were so friendly and polite we just had the best day, I will never forget it.

Then that evening two of the boys who work in the Globalteer guest house as security (one of whom I will tell you about later) took us on a khmer night out- a funfair on the side of the road but HUGE!! It was such fun and we were almost the only westerners there as not many people know about it even though it is so big! We ate crickets and went on some rides, was great!

This week I have been moved to another school as I was just not getting on well in the other. Even though the children were nice I just found it lacking in any support, very unorganised and I was not getting what I wanted from this experience so very luckily the ladies who work for globalteer moved me to another school called Grace House and it is just BRILLIANT!! I have been helping Lyn teach the Pre-School and honestly I have been in stitches teaching them with her. Some of them don't have a clue- for a whole week we have been trying to do the days of the week with them- still no idea!!! And when we play hang man they just shout out random words that are clearly wrong but my god do they YELL!! And aaaaahahaha there is a little baby here, and babies hate western faces so it is aaaaaalways crying(V annoying) so the other day Lyn just went up to it and said "HELLO BABY".....waaaaaaaaaaaaaaa. God I nearly wet myself so now every time we walk past we wave and say hello, but now she is getting used to us- rubbish! And actually just today Bridget asked if I would like to move and help do some work in the office to gain as much experience of how a charity is run as possible which is so nice of her. Will miss the little class but I'm sure I'll have time to pop my head in all the time!

This weekend my friend Mark and I went to Battenbang, stayed in a quite nice hotel, and went for a trip on the bamboo train, weirdest thing ever! Its basically a bamboo carpet on wheels driving through jungle and rice paddies!!! When we arrived back in Siem Reap though we came back to some really bad news. Basically one of the security boys Meouth, who I mentioned earlier, was in a very serious bike accident on Friday evening. He was left at the side of the road for hours until someone came across him. He wasn't accepted into hospital until Jim the director of Globalteer, arrived at the hospital and showed them $800. He is in a coma still, has very bad facial injuries and has lost all his teeth. The bike is a right off, which was shared with him and his brother Miers. Meirs works the night shift here and in the day uses that bike to drive Khmers around to earn more money to send to their family, so obviously now he cant. Their family have already sold their car for 1 million riel (250 pounds) but this just wont be enough. They are still not sure if Meouth will have to be taken to Vietnam as the hospital in Phnom Penh may not be good enough for his injuries. So far the volunteers here, who have been emailing past volunteers and family and friends have managed to raise $960 to help put towards his recovery and to help try and support the family. I know none of you know him, but since being here he has been so friendly to everyone who arrives, he helps us with our bikes in the morning, he always makes conversation and asks us to help him with his english, he took us for that khmer evening, he is just such a nice boy and it is so sad that this has happened, so if anyone would like to make a donation it would be greatly appreciated. You can make the donations at www.virginmoneygiving.com/meouth where you can add gift aid; I would be very grateful. I will keep you updated with that situation, everyone has their fingers crossed that he will wake up. Its a very odd atmosphere here at the moment.

So apart from that I have had another few amazing weeks, but things like this just show how difficult this country is. Meouth is incredibly lucky he knows western people; so many others who have accidents have no chance of getting into hospital and recovering.

Im going out for Lyn and Bobs anniversary tomorrow which should be great fun! Then the rest of the week, who knows!

Hope England is not too cold, god its boiling here just BOILING!! And only getting hotter 😊 lots of love xxxxxx

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Comments

[Jeanette]

Hi Holls, Really nice to read your blog. You've obviously thrown yourself into the whole experience - I knew you'd make the most of ALL the opportunities! Can't wait for the next installment. Take care, enjoy every moment, but stop traumatizing those poor babies! (your exclamation marks are catching!)!!! Lots of love, Jeanette X

[puck]

Good read
Another good read Holly. Always enjoy seeing what you have been doing. You will have loads to say at your next interview and lots of experiences to fall back on. Nic is back home now with photos of Steve who does have a Thai name but Nic can't remember it! I also noticed that he has a T shirt with Angkor Wat on it. I think he went there on his last trip to Thailand when he had to keep crossing the border to renew his visa. Jack's latest is that the house he is staying in in Martinique caught fire last week. So he's experienced a hurricane, plagues of mosquitoes (on-going), a difficult house mate (on-going) and now a fire. Hey ho! So sorry to hear about Meouth. How dare we complain about our lot in life. Do hope he pulls through. Keep us informed. Lots of love - Lois and Paul