Day 55: Friday 11 December 2009 – Rice Drop Day.

Today was rice drop day at New Hope, the second Friday of the month.  With this one came two new delights – the huge smiles of two families I’ve been able to directly help through the generation of sponsorship and other support, meaning that the pressure to feed their families has been relieved, not just this month, but hopefully until they can stand on their own feet and support themselves.


Physically getting the rice, eggs and sauce home proves challenging to many, you'll see below.  One family juggled 50kg of rice and six humans!

Also, today I handed out the clothes and toys donated by friends in Hong Kong.  Thank you everyone!

Day 54: Thursday 10 December 2009 – Fashions on the Field.

How can I leave Cambodia without sharing with you some of the stand out looks from some of the country’s style ambassadors, Korean tourists, and others?   These images include some great winter outfits, completely out of context in the searing heat.

Enjoy the collection!

Day 53: Wednesday 9 December 2009 – Last Day of Teaching.

Due to tomorrow being “International Human Rights Day”, the Cambodian Government ruled that all schools and businesses close (except those tourist-revenue earners, of course).  At first this sounded absurd to me however given consideration, I suppose a day to mark Cambodian’s rights, considering all they had been through, wasn’t such a bad thing.  If they did in fact acknowledge the cause.

Anyway, tomorrow’s public holiday meant that today was my last day of teaching at New Hope.  Mentally, I was not prepared for this.  I really needed another day to psyche myself into the goodbyes.

The farewells were heart wrenching, beginning with a cluster of girls surrounding me after the end of their 3:00 PM class, and ended with a very public farewell for both Andrea and I (another volunteer, from the UK), by the entire school.  I was completely spoiled with cards, drawings, gifts, impromptu speeches and heartwarming hugs.  And to top it off, another farewell on Friday by Kemsour.

I continue to be flawed by the generosity of these people and their willingness to completely open up their hearts to complete strangers who filter in and out of their lives.

With all their kindness and tears, I easily forgot my own struggles of the past few months and found myself promising to return to New Hope and Siem Reap.   In my heart I know I can never turn my back on these children and their families.  I will be back one day soon.