My last day in Cambodia was Rice Drop Day and what a day it was too - a unique experience Im so glad I was part of. New Hope support 282 families and once a month they come along to the centre to receive their allowance of rice, sauces, garlic and a small amount of money. The supplies arrived and we were in at 8am to weigh out the rice and put the sauces, first aid kit and garlic into bags. That took us some time especially as the Khymers were having a laugh and generally mucking around with each other - we were all just wanting to get on with it!! Went for lunch then back at 1 when the families had already started queuing up. A marquee was erected and seats were set out for the families. At around 130pm we opened the door and the families came in one by one to register. They received an envelope and then got their picture taken with their passes on so that we could keep a check of who had received their allocation for that month. This took around an hour and when everyone was seated, Kemsour gave his usual speech - couldnt understand it but think it was reminding them of the 'rules' on their continued sponsorship ie kids have to go to school, no begging, gambling etc. He also announced new sponsors and quite a few of the volunteers have sponsored families so thats good. I had hoped to meet my family, but didnt see them in all the chaos which was a shame, but not the end of the world. After the speeches, their names were called out one by one and they came up to us and received a bag of sauces and their rice - we had to carry the rice out. The guys did most of the heavy work but as they were starting to slack off in the heat us ladies picked up the slack - pretty heavy work but I refused to even try to carry a 50kg bag of rice so managed to commandeer the one and only barrow thing - so got quite a few 50k bags safely delivered :). It was pretty heartbreaking to just dump the rice outside and see what they had to do to take it home, but its their responsibility and those are the rules. The last person I helped was an old man who couldnt even walk properly so I had to walk with him while another volunteer took his rice - the doctor stopped us and asked him where his 'walker' was - apparently it had broken so he is now on the list for another which is good. He was so grateful for our help and for his 20kg of rice. All of the families thanked us so much for so little that it really does make you feel embarrassed as we dont deserve all the thanks - its the sponsors who provide the money for the rice after all. So, that was a tiring, but rewarding last day and set us up for some well deserved half price cocktails. I found out about one of the volunteers actually buying a new house for a man whose neighbour asked him to look after their three children for a couple of weeks while they went to Thailand for work and just never came back. For three years, he has been living with only a tarpaulin for a roof and the ground for a bed. New Hope have actually bought a house for him for $400 so that the children could have somewhere decent to live - the lives of that family are now transformed. She was buzzing with excitement about it - its no wonder, what an amazing thing to do for someone. Had a good night, but we were all pretty tired so although we tried to have a few more drinks, we decided to call it a day and head back to the guesthouse. I booked a tuk tuk to the airport and the driver must have heard that I had sponsored a family and gave a really lovely thank you speech from the sponsored family which made me cry again! Not sure what the other passengers at the airport thought when they saw me crying and hugging a tuk tuk driver, but well, well :). Decided I needed to smarten myself up so treated myself to a pedicure and then I flew off into the horizon and touched down in bangkok an hour later! The difference in a country that actually borders Cambodia is a real eye opener - dont know enough about the politics, but not sure how it is such a stark contrast - shows how long it takes to recover from the ravages of war I suppose :(. So managed to find transport to Pattaya and then got a baht bus to my hotel - that was a real eye opener as we dropped off the other tourists first and went down a street which was just lined with the sort of bars that Pattaya is famous for - forgotten how bad it is here - but each to his own I suppose. My hotel was beautiful and then met my pal Shirley and her friend Kelly - they couldnt drink as they were running at 0430 in the morning - himm - again each to his own. That didnt stop me though and had a lovely dinner and chat. Shirley did a 25k race in this weather over very rough terrain while I lay around at the pool and stuffed myself with the buffet breakfast - yum yum...:). Kelly's driver picked us up so it was luxury travel all the way back to Bangkok. Kelly was too tired to go out but Shirley and I had two bottles of wine before dinner - then another two during and after - I had forgotten how bad a wine induced hangover was, but sometimes its worth it. Wine induced chat is good for the soul, I think! Off to get a manicure now, its a dirty job but someone has to do it while others are arriving at the office to start another work week.......ha ha :). Hope you are all well and enjoyed the sunny Sunday you had yesterday. xxxx