Hi Everyone - 8am, Have had a busy but intresting week, working, meeting new people and visiting local sights. It has been extremely hot every day with only a few heavy rain storms. One day the rains came early in the day but I managed to cycle to school before they came, others were not so lucky. The 15 day festival of Pchum Benh has begun, but we have not managed yet to get up at 4am to see the happenings at the pagodas - I may leave that until Meryl is here and then we can go to the one on the last day of it. It coincides with the 15 days after the full moon in Sept.

On Thurs evening Donna the Australian lady we went to visit a few weekends ago caame down to spend a few days with us, and brought with her some Cambodian teenagers she has rescued from the slums and is now giving them the wonderful opportunity of an education to degree level. They are incredibly intelligent, desperate to learn and are prepared to go to school for 16 hrs a day to learn all they can and to speak and read fluent English - it was great just talking to them and and showing them new sights and giving new experiences. She visited my and Lindy's schools and is able to offer their Khymer staff courses in Leadership which they and Cambodia desperately needs.

Yesterday was spent visiting the National Museum to see and learn more about the Angkor temples - it is something the Cambodians have done well and should feel proud of. That was followed by a visit to a Silk Farm where we were able to see the process through its complete cycle from mulberry bushes, caterpillars, pupae to the extracting of the silk from it to the making a thread, dyeing weaving etc - it was amazing and all with such basic equipment but the end result fantastic silk cloth.

That was followed by the weekly performance by Dr Beatocello - he is a Swiss doctor who has built 4 children's hospitals here and in Phnom Penh - he is an amazing person - controversial too but has saved so many lives and the statistics were both horrifying and amazing (an overused word I know but I cannot find others to use) 98% of all their financing is from donations - corruption ruins everything here. Today, if it doesn't rain, clouds look omninous some of us are going to cycle to see a temple and pagoda near my school - it is older than Angkor Wat, not in such good state of repair and not visited much by tourists, but we should see the local people at the pagoda too - some of them our families. Its getting darker by the minute, so a couple of hours delay is likely, but then some of the roads may not be passable if it is very heavy and prolonged. We try to do these things but some of the vols are leaving tomorrow, so it will be a shame if they can't do it.

I am supposed to be writing a document about lesson planning for non-teaching vols, so if it is a no go day I'll have to work on that. It is now virtually black and the winds are getting up - this will have to be disconnected if the lightning and thunder starts - the electrical supplies are dicey and I'm sure unsafe everywhere. In October, an English guy is going to start teaching electrics to 4 local boys, he intends the course to last a year and them to be as well trained and to follow all EU codes of electricity for it. I hope they will be good and stick the course out as it will be tremendous for them to then teach the next lot etc and so make it safer for everyone. However, people living out of towns still do not have that luxury. For them it is still nothing or a car battery if they have a little bit of money.

This week all the children at school have been given a plastic bag containing a blue and red biro, a pencil. rubber and sharpener ready for their new term along with a free state school uniform - a white shirt and blue skirt or shorts - if they do not wear them they have to pay a fine which of course they cannot afford so do not go. We are still unsure of when the children are going so our classes are still rather mixed up. THE RAIN HAS JUST STARTED. Some of the children are very tired because they have been working hard harvesting their sweet potatoes but they will be sold so they can buy rice. Now the water levels at the lake have risen some families just leave their children to fo fishing and then the wife sells in it in the local market. Its great cycling to work because people now recognise me and whether cycling or on their motor bike slow down and talk to me and aske what I'm doing and want to practice their English. They are so pleased and grateful for any time you spend talking to them.

We are all sitting round at the moment and describing how we would spend a wet Sunday am in their own country - ours is the most boring!

In light of the weather we have decided to get a tuk tuk into the old market and have breakfast and then wait to see what happens. Have a good day all, I'll try to download some more pics but that is very slow going. Take care and love to all, J