Day 19: 1st-6th Feb

Sua s'dei (Hello!) from sunny Cambodia where it is currently a mild 33C - it is getting hotter by the day!
We have continued to teach English at the safe Haven, and are getting to know these adorable kids really well; we've noticed they've become more affectionate and from the moment we arrive until we leave, we have children hugging and clinging on to us. We enjoy teaching them and of course playing the many games! This week we have tried to teach them rounders, which was interesting! A cricket bat does not lend itself to the game, and our lack of Khmer resulted in a bizarre match, but none the less was enjoyed by all. Stuck in the mud on the other hand went down a treat, and the times we have played it have been chaotic with kids bumping to each other left right and center! The kids at the safe haven have a kamikaze approach to sport and games.

This week we have started teaching some of the CHO staff English in the evenings. Paul is teaching the top set, Calum the middle and Alex the bottom. Teaching the CHO staff is a different experience to teaching at the safe haven, but makes a nice contrast. This week instead of having Khmer lessons in the afternoon, we have worked at some of the CHO projects. On Monday and Tuesday we worked at the safe haven moving bricks, and digging holes to help with the construction of the furniture workshop. The YWAM team were doing hair cuts at the safe haven, so Calum jumped at the chance to be liberated from his mop of hair, into a stylish new do. We visited two school on a mat classes on Wednesday and Thursday, and taught them some songs and games. The song 'Hallelu-Hallelu-Hallelu-Hallelujah, Praise ye the Lord', never goes down well until you introduced sitting down and standing up to the different parts, it then becomes the best song in the world! We were struck by how simple and appropriate the school on a mat project is for the communities, and how it reaches right into the heart of these villages.

On Thursday we were reacquainted with the familiar taste of western food, enjoying the novelty of burgers and chips.
Calum led his devotion on Friday morning on weakness, and in the afternoon we led the weekly prayer meeting. We are scheduled to plan these meetings every other week, and have many ideas for the future. We did have to be gently reminded that we were doing it this afternoon, as it had slipped our minds(!) so we quickly put something together, and the result was received well. After this we went to a park in the casino district and played some baseball and football with Dara and Moses. As we have found, when you start playing sport anywhere, kids appear and join in. We had so little in common with these children, so dirty and unwashed, unloved, yet we were all equals and could appreciate the simplest of games, the international language of football.

We were able to have our first lie in on Saturday, and had a casual morning relaxing and catching up on sleep. We played football with the safe haven children in the afternoon - absolutely exhausting in the mid day sun, running around with energetic kids. On our way back we stopped at a local village where we had an impromptu volley ball match with some twenty kids. It amazes us how poor these areas are, practically living on a rubbish tip - this seems to be the case in so many areas of Poipet, as they literally deposit their waste outside their house. But despite this they are full of joy and with an everlasting smile on their face. On our return home Chomno greeted us and invited us out to dinner with the whole family, and the restaurant staff who we have spent a lot of time with. We enjoyed a pleasant evening with some good food, and some mystery meat balls in the soup which Chomno claimed to be 'sausages', though this failed to convince us! They are such fun to be with and despite the language barrier we love our time with them.

Thank you so much for reading this blog and keeping in touch with us, we love reading your comments, and given the limited internet use, we are sorry we can't always reply. You are in our prayers and thoughts we are looking forward to another busy week in Cambodia-Poipet.