City Experiences Phnom Penh is transitioning. Rain is more unpredictable, falling with a fierce clip-clop on rooftops in mid morning bursts. The sun is beginning to set behind dumpling clouds backlit by a peetering brightness. We are having a break post work. There is a cafe near to the CSC, situated on the far side of the river which looks back at the capital. It is a tilted blue stilt house as close to a boat as can be. It's creaky hull insides are hung with h...

Patients and patients and patients! Things are very busy at the CSC. This week we have seen 20 patients. We now give out dental care advice and toothbrushes and paste, as well as advice about cleft,operations,feeding and speech and langauge development. We have also had great success taking patients to the All Ears Clinic - one patient who has made large gains in therapy (improving his articulation of t/k/s) will now be treated for the ear infection causing his ...

Work Yes, we are doing some-sadly our week long holiday escape is already feeling far away. This week we have been busy exploring other organisations who may be able to help us in our work, or who we may be able to offer services to in the future. Firstly we went to visit the All Ears Cambodia Clinic, (http://www.allearscambodia.org) founded by Glyn Vaughn. He and his highly trained Khmer staff offer audiology services to some of Cambodia's most deprived people...

Settling In It has sunk in now that we are here to work. The weeks have slid by and there is a comfortable routine at the Children's Surgical Centre (CSC). Lunches are spent in their staff canteen where brave Kieran and Sheila get stuck into Cambodian eels and fish paste dishes. A plate of vegetables is brought to Kathryn and I - we can't always crush unidentifiable meat strips into our squeamish cheeks. There are playful kittens at lunchtime too. The tiny black...

Siam Reap The boat from Battambang was a strange experience. We sat on the roof and felt pretty confident that we knew what to expect from a river trip. The boat set off, carving muddy eddies into river water swollen with rain water. Rivers, as far as I am concerned, are longer than they are wide. Our little boat channel did not stay this way for the duration of our trip however. Great expanses of water soon opened up on either side with tree tops prickling thro...