Goodness me. It feels like I have been here months and seems like the last time I wrote on my blog was far far too long ago. I feel I havent properly updated you on the cambodian bambino's at school and the roasting sun which is turning our pasty skin a tiny bit less pasty. If truth be told I am loving every minute, and have even considered taking up permanent residence abandoning the lot of you. However, Anna awaiting our arrival in Vietnam would be less than amused and Pea and I are too polite natured, so my eager plans and a cambodian matrimony shall just have to wait.

We have had the best first week teaching and have met so many quirky and friendly people. The collection of staff we work with are to say the least a varied bunch. Leading the show is English born and bred Bridget. A rather stumpy and sweaty sight in the heat, she has proved to be v good with the children and appreciative of our work and lets us do more or less as we please. Alongside her is her toothless and incomprehensible husband Allan ressembling a flinstone, who occasionally is seen on site and due to his murmuring and lack of enthusiasm isnt quite a firm favourite. But fret not, we work with the sweetest most welcoming and warm smiley bunch of cambodian teachers. They range from 20 to 40 yrs old and could not be more fun. They have worked so so so hard to work there, earning a salary of $150 a month and therefore teach like troopers, enthusing their keen students daily and have so much time for Pea and I and have taken us immediatly under their wing. We couldnt be luckier.

Now a quick sum up of my daily schedule. I work for four hours a day. One hour with the kindergarten group, which includes endless sing songs and shaking our hips to me screeching versions of 'head shoulders knees and toes' and various arts and crafts. Teaching is bliss, instead of the enclosed basement at The Minors I am adoring the opportunity to work outdoors in the sunshine under something similar to a large bungalow beach hut. The resources are plentiful and we can do whatever we wish to abate the childrens quite wild characters. Its been heaven.

I then spend an hour with the most advanced students who are around our age. Their English is quite amazing and I am there to assist with pronounciation and certain concepts they are oblivious to. I have had to bite my lip at times listening to them discuss certain topics. One the other day was shopping and one boy said 'when Im rich I will go to the supermarket', they have nothing but food to survive and learning English is their only means of attempting to get out of the poverty. They all want to be doctors, nurses, tour guides etc and yearn to break the mold of their parents slaving working patterns. But not for a moment are they glum, the lessons are hilarious as they chat away in English and laugh at the smallest of things, proving they are still extremely content!I then do the same 2 hours again in the afternoon after a long lunch break sat lying in a hammock or chatting to the children who are always on site whether or not they need to be. This is because it is a space they can freely play in, something which their cluttered villages cannot accomodate for.We finish at 4 and then have routinely been biking back to shower, change and then head to town for cheap but exquisite mojitos and caprinias over a joyous game of cards.

One day however the day took an unusual turn, as a marquee popped up directly opposite a classroom, and endless people were rushing by, bizarrely carrying huge piles of furniture towards it. Following this, a large music speaker was installed and a painful shreek was heard for miles around us. Some huge birthday celebration we assumed. Until we were informed that a grandmother in the village had just passed away and this was the Cambodian way of mourning. The whole village congregates for music and food to wish them a joyously rich life in heaven. The only thing I thought though was, poor old woman. Who before her corpse has even been budged has the rest of the village jostling their hips and stuffing their faces around her. This may take some getting used to. However it is definitly more appealing than the black, depressing funerals we at home are accustomed to.

Yesterday we headed to the temples on tuk tuk and were just astounded by the beauty of Ankor Wat, Tomb Raider, and a most spectacular temple with heads carved into huge headstones. Only ruined at one point by a swarm of camera clad chinese tourists who yapped to one another in every direction forcing me to ask them to ssssssssh and shake my head in their direction. They are quite outrageous at times and Pea and I had to censor our emotions. But apart from them the day could not have gone better, we had a tour guide and ended sitting watching the sunset at another stunning temple. It was B E A utiful and I now completley understand why everybody raves about them.

Today however we surrendered ourselves to the sun and lay by the most glamorous of pools at a nearby hotel. Costing $5 for the day, it was a bargain and Pea and I were heard frequently saying 'This is the life!'. Fingers crossed I have built up a good bronzed base, as the photos portraying a rather stumpy white hobbit infront of the temples yesterday are humiliating.

I havent stopped thinking of you all and this trip could only be better if you were all here to share it with us.

BIGGUS KISSUS AND SO MUCH LOVE FROM SIEM REAP.

x x x