Motorbike Trials

I’m not sure which I find more difficult: riding my motorbike on dry sandy roads or on wet slippery roads. The dry season will be here for another few weeks, and the dry sand seems to be getting deeper, meaning that I have trouble getting a grip on my tyres . On a recent ride with me, Rachel kept having to bale the sand out of her shoes. Last week, however, we had an unseasonable 12 hour rain storm, and the road got quickly churned up. After this it was like trying to ride through chocolate.

Lily of the Alley

Lovely Lily lives in a small house in an alley! She has been doing my laundry (by hand, of course) every week since I arrived, and she has just started cleaning my house twice a week. Why oh why didn't I get a cleaner before?? It makes such a difference to me to come back to shiny floors, rather than floors piled high with dust. I know it's incongruous for a volunteer to have a "servant", but I can justify it by saying that I'm investing in the local economy!!

Trip to Stung Treng

International Womens Day was a national holiday, so I took advantage of the long weekend by visiting far flung Stung Treng province with two fellow VSO volunteers. Stung Treng is home to five other volunteers and we three visitors were made very welcome by them, with invitations to parties, to staying in their houses and to borrowing their motorbikes. We were shown around their workplaces – a hospital (grim!), community health offices and an NGO office. In the photo, Meng is presenting some of the work of her NGO. The three of us had a glorious day trip up the Mekong river and into Laos, going through beautiful scenery and swimming in the river only 100m from some rare Irriwaddy freshwater dolphins.

Rubbing shoulders with the Prime Minister

Last week I attended a meeting at the plush Intercontinental Hotel in Phnom Penh where Hun Sen, Cambodia’s Prime Minister, gave the opening speech. He told the audience that he planned to stamp out corruption and land grabbing by senior government officials. If he manages to do that, then hoorah!

I was there to represent VSO at its information stand. Here I am with some other VSO volunteers and staff. I helped to produce the large plastic-coated poster, which was an interesting experience in working with a printing company.