We seem to take a while to get organised over here! Maybe it’s because we feel like we’re on holidays and don’t need to get up quickly and off to school. Well, we missed our bus to Phnom Penh. We didn’t really want to leave. Thankfully our friends Jia and Me were able to hire a mini bus for our family that left at a more civilised time of 10:30am. This meant that we felt better if we had to stop off for Bek if she was feeling sick. We’d read and heard a lot about the crazy driving and got to experience it first hand. We made it safely and a lot quicker than if we went on a large bus, but our driver didn’t slow down for anyone! Let me tell you, Cambodian roads at full speed are awfully bumpy!

We arrived in Phnom Penh Sunday evening and the traffic here is pretty crazy. It will take us a while to get used to it. In fact, we haven’t really ventured out much apart from going to the local super market, which does have some familiar items, although a lot more expensive than Australia. We bought some Australian oranges and Chocolate crowns that were a comforting reminder of home.

The other place Cam and Bek have been is the International SOS clinic today. Bek is still sick and so with the help of Vana, the missionary we will be working with, they went off to see a doctor. She was put on a drip and given antibiotics after finding she has a parasite in her system. Now she is back home again with her bag of ‘goodies’ (antibiotics, gastrolite, tylanol, probiotic solution and imodium) and we feel much better knowing what’s ailing her and having the medicine to deal with it. Thank you for your prayers, but we’d still love you to keep praying as it will take a few days for her to start getting back to normal.

Our accommodation is comfortable. We are living above a family in three rooms with access to our own lounge area and kitchen. There are other rooms above ours, but no-one else is staying here at the moment. We were a little surprised to find out that there is no hot water here especially knowing that means we’ll be having cold showers for the next 9 weeks. Thankfully the weather is warm, so it is a refreshing start to the morning! Also, it seems we can’t flush toilet paper down the toilet or we’ll block the drains! This one is taking a little longer to get used to. All toilet paper goes in the bin! But, our hosts are friendly. Posda is only 16 yrs old and she lives with her family below us. Her parents don’t speak English, so she is the one we deal with. She has taken us to the supermarket and given us a phone and whenever we need anything she is there to help us. Apparently they’ve been running this guesthouse for 5 years. It seems like a great way for her to learn English and for the family to make extra money.

Tomorrow we are going to the Community Centre to meet the staff and translators. It will be good to have a look at where we’ll be working and go through the material with the translators to see what will work and what won’t. It’s good that we still have over a week till we start work so that Bek can recover, but it will also be good to start the program so the kids can make some more friends and we can get into it.