Painting got off to a great start on Saturday. The base layer got applied by myself, volunteer Viv and a student, Lyhour. This coat, I was told, had to be a mixture of the blue paint and water to seal the plaster. The sun was beating down and I had stupidly applied sun cream to my face which streamed down my face with a mixture of sweat as I tried to paint.

Tuesday I took a trip in the big blue school truck with open sides and open back to a large wood warehouse out of town along with the builders on the farm. This trip was to buy wood for the wooden xylophones for the wall. I jumped out of the truck, onto a wood chipping ground and looked up and around at the thousands and thousands of planks of wood….where do I begin. I reached for my scrap piece of paper with rough measurements and my instrument plan. Ahead of me I noticed the perfect thickness of wood so I measured and checked the wood and asked for 17 meters of it. They chopped this up into 5 pieces to allow it to fit in the truck…$6 later and the job was done. Once back at school I had to measure various lengths and cut to the correct size…easier said than done I think. Once I was shown/ reminded how to use the saw, clamp, work bench and various other devices I was away like the wind….well as fast as I could possibly cut. By the end of the day the cutting had been done, my hands were a little raw, my eyes a little smartened by the saw dust but my smile was as big as the moon………I was nearly there with the first two instruments.

Wednesday morning I painted the second coat which gave the outcome of a light bright blue colour finish, it was amazing- I'm clearly easily impressed! By the time I had cycled home for lunch however the heavens decided to open and I started getting visions of a streaky wall….typical. Thankfully due to the humidity in Cambodia I was saved and there was no puddle of blue on the grass. In the afternoon after story time with the children I then began to sand the pieces of wood and took a trip to a paint shop called 'colour world' (apparently my new favourite place) to buy varnish. Now I knew nothing about varnish but now I can tell you that a wooden varnish also needs a thinner (ratio is 1-3). After about half an hour chat to find the right one I was on my way and off to the hardware shop to buy screws. (I think I'm turning into a builder not a teacher). I don't think the locals in the hardware store had ever seen a girl in the store let alone a barang. Their gentle stare continued to follow me around as I rummaged through screws and bolts not really knowing what I was looking for. 'With a little help from my friends, however, I managed to get exactly what I needed.

Today I managed to paint the wood, primary colours, so they are ready for the wall next week! Yay!

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