Teaching “English”. Most of the children love to dance, in fact they wrote it as their favourite sport. They also love it when there teachers dance for them and they get to stand their and laugh.

Ridin’ dirty down the streets of Pursat (snapped up again by Emma)

My room mate (Emma from Melbourne) managed to snap up the following photos.

Here is the outdoor deck area and my new friend that was playing here this morning. She saw my iPad and was fascinated when I took a photo of here that she climbed up, sat on my lap and took the iPad off me and proceeded to try to take photos of her self cause she was so intrigued about pressing the button that takes a picture. There are now literally 200 pictures of her and mainly celling cause she couldn’t understand me trying to teach her how to use it. The photos with me and her is about 1 of 5 she would let me be in. And that is the view from upstairs of our house.

This is my room (astonishingly I made my bed this morning) and the view from the window above my bed.

Initially I was really secretly a little bummed about my placement but I thought it might have been me being apprehensive about it all and nervous. I’d also made really good friends with a lot of the people staying at the volunteer house and going to Siem Reap and after seeing the almost uni-like nature of living with a huge bunch of people, the thought of going to a far away province in the north with a much smaller group was a bit off putting (and nerve racking to have to teach English when we all know English has never been my strongest point-but at least I’ll be the first to admit that).

After saying our goodbyes with hopes of weekend adventures together again we all left of a very small mini bus (really it was more a van) down the first concreted road I’d seen since arriving in Cambodia. No seat belts and at an incredible speed we flew past the most amazing landscapes of rural Cambodia (do not be deterred by it being “the wet season” yes it’s horrible humid, but the landscape is so luscious you’d be silly to miss it, and it’s rained for probably 15 minutes in the 6 days I’ve been in Asia). Past rice fields and cute little Cambodia hut houses, kids riding bicycles and ladies cooking up tonight’s dinner with game motor cyclists riding along side (I’m describing this all vividly because we were driving at a pace in which it were impossible to snap up photos of anything more than a blur).

Stepping out of the bus and into a tuk tuk the first thing we all noticed was how seemingly peaceful it is in Pursat compared to Phenom Penh. As we drove up to our house my eyes was almost outside of their sockets…this house is ginormous and home of Mr and Mrs Leng (our parents for the next month)! Quickly I might add… I didn’t elect a home stay, this too I was at first disheartened about, immediately now I take that back! Down stairs live two volunteers each to their own room and the rest of the family whom of which the father is a doctor and runs a clinic from the downs stairs too (this is super handy!), the mother sews clothes for the monks and the daughter is studying to be a nurse, their grandma also lives with them too. Mr Leng and his daughter are the only ones that can speak English so I’m going to have to brush up on my Khmer. I am living upstairs (photos to come) sharing a room, though I swear the beds we each have are almost big enough to be doubles. And another two volunteers are next door. We have huge outdoor eating area and two bathrooms upstairs and another big communal area which seems to be where the Leng’s would pray. I’m buying a bike tomorrow (i couldn’t resist for $40) to get myself to and from my orphanage and around the town (it’s small enough that this is all i’ll need) and then I’m going to donate it to the orphanage when I leave. All my disappointment has transformed and turned into a huge rush of excitement to be here.

Rooftop sunsets and welcome dinner

Beers are 50 cents here, the lychee drink was, as imagined sugary and absolutely delicious and was 25cents, I went to the pharmacy this morning and bought medication for $1.50 which is usually 20 dollars at home.

Walking around here is a frightening experience, here is a glimpse of the traffic driving literally inches from where you step.

Pictured below are the graves of the 14 unidentifiable bodies found once the prison was abandoned. They had already begun to decompose which is why they are in unmarked graves. And above, and most notably one of I actually can’t remember the exact number, but definitely less than 10 and possibly one of the few still alive today. What I found really hard to comprehend is that this poor man who spent the most horrific years of his life inside these walls, was back here today selling his story (this is the only way this poor man can get any money at his age). I hadn’t changed my money over at this point so when I come back to extend my visa I’m going to purchase his book.