Hello again……………this month is total chaos and my writing is also, so bear with me. New Hope is inundated with visitors from various places and I’m tearing my hair out. It’s all good for the project but we could have done with them being spread out a bit instead of all arriving en masse and needing attention. We have a group of 7 from Barclays in the UK who have been fund raising for us after one of their group came last year. We have 4 Rotarians from Australia, one of whom has donated money to buy a shelter home in the name of his late wife. On top of this we have our usual 9 volunteers, local dignitaries and the usual drop ins. Trying to keep everyone happy and busy with worthwhile tasks is proving challenging. To top it all, once they all leave, Kerry goes back to Australia for 2 weeks, leaving me in charge of New Hope and the lazy Khmer staff!!! Can’t wait.

Some good news on the accomodation front is that having viewed several rooms/apartments and not liking what I saw, I decided to go to the Globalteer House manager cap in hand and managed to get a pretty good discount on my room as a long termer. I’m still a bit short of money every month, but I’d rather be going home to a cheerful place where I feel safe and know all the people. I really didn’t fancy being stuck in a dingy room every evening all on my own.

Last Thursday we went to quiz night and Rosanne and I have taken over as the fundraisers for this when it’s for New Hope. Not only did we win the quiz, but we also raised the most money ever by begging, groveling and selling answers to some questions!!!

On Saturday afternoon we had a party to thank Barclays, the Rotarians and Tony Munroe (fish/egg farm guy) and all the children were invited. It was superb fun and all the kids got food and coke, as well as presents. Photos to follow soon.

Rosanne and I are still taking our lives into our hands and cycling when it’s not too hot. We left school one day last week and as we were heading through the village we heard a shout of char (short for teacher) and one of my favourite kids was on his bike coming up behind us. He ended up between the 2 of us and I asked him a few times where he was going, to which he replied……..home. This seemed feasible as we were still in the countryside, but once we hit the busy roads I started to have my doubts. In the end we had to stop and get a tuk tuk driver to translate and it turns out that he wanted to come home with us……………….we turned him round and got him safely back to the small roads, much as I would have loved him to come home. His name is Piet (nickname mental boy as he is like a one man cabaret show) and he did a typical kid trick and asked me to pull his finger the other day…………………yes, you guessed it, he farted and fell about laughing. Kids will be kids!!!