Today has just been great as Ann and I had a cookery lesson. The day started with a swim and a lazy breakfast. We were then picked up at 10am by a Tuk-tuk and taken deep into the Kampot countryside. You would not believe what we saw when we finally arrived at our destination - a secret lake. Take a look at the album to see just how beautiful it was. That was the view we had from our open air kitchen during our lesson. We had the choice from about 8 dishes to co...

Wine tasting is just one of the things you can do in Battambang. Yesterday Ann and I went on a full day tour of the surrounding area which included the vine yard. It also included several things that I have done before but because I was with someone who hadn't I saw a completely different side of them. It was great to go back on the bamboo train as they have cleared a lot of the bushes and you can see for miles. They are also building a road across the track, so...

Just had two days down in Sihanoukville for the AVC. It was great to see all staff and volunteers together discussing the future. I worked with 9 others on a session about communication between different cultures. It was well received but I am still amazed at just a few peoples attitude. Mind you I expect they are amazed at mine. Our session: 1. Role play - I was the well meaning volunteer who was going to do so much - in fact I was going to change the world!!...

This week I started to get familiar with Kampot and Kep. From October 8th I will be supervising 3 provinces with the help of 2 EPAs. Bunthorn will continue in Kampong Speu and Sitha will be in Kampot and Kep. The photo was just after I arrived and I just could not resist going down to the river front for a drink. It was just beautiful.

This week we have trained 111 school directors and about 18 DOE staff on how to write a School Development Plan - SDP. MoEYS has introduced a new format for them to use which involves a tighter time frame and linking activities to goals. Bunthorn as usual did all the talking for our part, which was about how to monitor a plan. I just do not see any point in standing up saying something for him to translate. If he doesn't understand it he will translate it badly....