Having fun in Phnom Penh

Hello All,

Just a few photos to keep you interested.  I keep forgetting to take pictures when we're doing something that is really interesting, like when we went to this amazingly hot and steamy, busy, delicious noodle restaurant which looked like it could be somewhat less than sanitary but so worth the risk. It seems the traffic continues to be a marvel considering the potential for disaster, yet the chaos does function.

This is me with fellow volunteer in a tuktuk to VSO office in the morning.

This is the view out the back of the tuktuk.

Look closely at the direction each of the vehicles is going...on coming motorcycles whilst one is turning, people sitting on the back side-saddle, not to mention there are cyclists and cars to look out for.  SUV's always have right-of-way as they tend to just drive over anything that gets in front of them.

Saw this at the market this morning.  Looks familiar!
I will have to send you a picture of all the fantastic fruits and vegetables that are in the market daily.  Some I can't say as I recognize.

A little peace and tranquillity in the midst of it all.

Saturday morning in Phnom Penh.









The VSO training sessions have been very good and interesting.  The session on "child protection" touched on some interesting topics.  One was volunteer tourism which is not very effective at finding solutions.  Another was the short-term volunteers in orphanages which is traumatic for children already suffering from abandonment.  Apparently tourists also go to orphanages, which in itself is disturbing, but the money they bring in rarely reaches the children. Besides our sessions, we got a chance to learn some bits about our placement goals and I was very excited after my meeting with the Education Program Manager who outlined my work in Sisophon.

Tomorrow we head off by bus, the local non-tourist variety, for Kampong Cham to start our Khmer language training.  Kampong Cham is a smaller city on the Mekong which is supposed to be lovely.  We each get our own bikes and I get training on riding a motorcycle.  Yikes, riding in all this mess on a motorcycle...they come at each other head on!  Luckily I will be riding mostly in Sisophon and hopefully without all the traffic of Phnom Penh. (I hear they drive faster in the provinces though!)

I'll try to remember to take some pictures of the really good stuff at some point.  Street food is great, rice and banana wrapped in banana leaf and cooked on a fire, m-m-m-m good.  Speaking of food, must away to test out more delights.

Oh yes, yesterday we had a torrential down pour.  It would be the day I decided to walk to the VSO office.  The sky opened up.  However, it isn't bad in the warmth of Cambodian
.
Hope you are all well.  Catch you next time.

Lots of love and thoughts,
Andrea