Hello

Welcome to Mike and my travel blog, I thought I would bring you up to speed with where Mike currently is and to reassure you he is alive and well!!

Mike has spent the past week and a half teaching at NFC http://newfutureforchildren.com/ an orphanage that hires volunteers to teach English in Phnom Penh in Cambodia. He has been teaching kids in classes of 2 aged between 7 and 12. On top of this he has also been in charge of running some revision classes for the older (15) boys who had exams at their high schools last week. Good news is they all passed!

From what I can tell from Mike's emails the lessons he runs for young kids tends to be numbers and basic maths i.e. 3+2, and spelling. He told me that unfortunately the volunteers who have visited previously taught them the alphabet in capitals rather than phonetics and at times this has made things difficult for Mike and the other volunteers to teach. They have had to go back over the alphabet teaching it to them phonetically. Still, I think he has relished the challenge and taken to it like a duck to water (that English Lit degree really did pay off!)

Along with providing housing, three meals a day, clothing and medical care, NFC provides school uniforms and transports students to local schools as well as offering several in-house educational programs. These include classes in English, computer skills, crafts, and traditional Khmer music and dance.

Mike has managed to meet up with his school mate Alex who is currently living and working in Cambodia and the two of them have enjoyed a few memorable evenings, one with a large bottle of Whiskey, I believe!

Mike was spending this weekend looking at the Killing Fields and a prison museum before taking a few days off from NFC to visit Shanoukville, where he should be staying now. Shanoukville is a colourful booming port with golden beaches. It is also home to the first Angkor Beer brewery and the modernist seven-story Independence Hotel which, locals claim, even played host to Jacqueline Kennedy on her whirlwind tour of Cambodia in 1967.

After visiting Shanoukville for a few days I believe Mike will probably return to Phnom Penh for Thursday and Friday to finish off his teaching at NFC. On Friday or Saturday he will go to Siam Reap until Monday and then get a flight to Bangkok to arriving that evening to meet me.

I have missed Mike allot and not being able to talk regularly has been tough at times. But thankfully the weeks have passed by quickly and I am now very excited about going out to meet him on 15th Feb.

I managed to get out almost all of the clothes and bits and bobs I will need for my travels, I loosely packed my backpack and when trying it on in front of the mirror (to see if I could possibly look cool with a backpack bigger than me!) I fell backwards. I think this is a sure sign that I need to halve the contents of my backpack. Dam I won't be able to take 10 pairs of shoes after all! Lol.

Anyway I hope this helped to give you some idea of Mike's travels so far. I have merely given you a brief outline of Mike's whereabouts for the past few weeks , I am sure there are many wonderful stories he will want to share with you about his visit to Vietnam. I think the one about the snake wine with a birds head and scorpions in might top the list!

Till next time (hopefully from a hot tropical island!)

Liza and Mike x