Monday to Wednesday were spent working with a group trying to write a programme proposal. VSO want to support pre-school education in one of the more remote areas in the north east of the country. On Monday we were discusing what is needed so ECE staff had been invited from 3 provinces to give their opinion. We had a marvellous man translating so if you spoke English he did an instant translation to Khmer and visa versa. I have to say he was by far the best I hav...

Yesterday morning was spent watching Onno interviewing parents, teachers and POE staff sitting on pre-school chairs under a tree. Like most men, who are 6 feet tall, he didn't look that comfortable sitting on a plastic chair designed for a 4 year old. As a 5 foot 2 infant teacher I had no problem!! The interviews were conducted with an audience of pre-school children, as you can see from the picture. Today started even earlier than Monday as we had to be at a ...

Today started at 6.00am with a hasty shower and the daily hair wash - I am not sure why as by 6.30 it (my hair) was inside a helmet. By 6.45 we were at Samrong Tong DOE, it was surprisingly busy. I was expecting education to be there but all departments start at 6.45 with the flag raising ceremony. At 7.00am we left on a 20Km+ journey to a school near the mountains (the DOE's words). Once we left highway 4 it was lovely. I am really pleased that I know Bunthorn ...

Now in England I would have climbed into a car, put the postcode into Tom Tom got exact directions and off I would have driven. In Cambodia I asked Bunthorn to arrange visits to our target schools. He rang and so arranged. He got exact directions from the school director and then asked in the office to confirm. So with confidence I set off - Bunthorn was obviously never as confident as he always got back up directions. So far we have never got to a school firs...

On Friday there was no-one in the office - there's a surprise!! Bunthorn and I went to our coffee place that is near the other end of town to do some work. The owner asked did we want some Khmer noodles - of course we said yes. I thought it was just something they did every day - but I learnt this morning that they had made it specially for the staff as it was election weekend. He felt that as we were such regular customers he wanted to share. The picture if fr...