Yesterday I went for my longest bike ride yet. Still only 1hour and 10 minutes but not bad for someone who really hasn't sat on a bike for 45years!! Its true - you don't forget how to ride a bike. Well back to my bike ride. I was just going to do my normal circuit when I noticed it had been blocked on the other side by people building a pump house. This surprised me as it showed an awareness of health and safety that I didn't think existed in Cambodia. Usually y...

Today we went deep into the countryside past more lakes and lily lakes. We were going towards the Kiriron National Park so it was getting hillier and very green. As usual the road got worse but never too bad and I arrived without having to dust myself off. The school was lovely, built into the hillside with views of hills, water and rice fields. For the first time the children were really shy of me and just stared and stared. I don't think they had seen many wes...

I started yesterday thinking I would write an account of a day in the life of a VSO volunteer in the provinces (wanted for the website to help new volunteers). I actually wanted to make it clear that you have to accept you are alone and that some days you will speak to no-one and that you have to be content with your own company. Early in the morning I went for a bike ride through the rice fields taking photos as I went along - see album. It was great the temper...

Well here I am back in the Royal Hotel in Battambang. It is, to me, where I started this adventure and is, in my opinion, a very special place. For the first time I am here for work. I am at a three day workshop about ECE (Early Childhood Education). Monday - Really interesting as they all said the right things - that is young children should be playing as they learn, they should have practical activities, the environment should allow them to move around etc e...

Tuesday - Today has been good. We were invited by Beata to support her when she introduced VSO to Koh Kong, where she is working as an EMA. As I said the journey here was long and very very wet. This morning was even wetter with thunder - however Beata said it was nothing I should have been here a couple of weeks ago!! Yet again I sat and watched Bunthorn presenting this time about mentoring and coaching - I was very pleased with the session as it just said exa...