Thecommunication has not been easy. I am ashamed to be Australian around here there are many aussies swilling beer and alcohol and then visiting the "massage parlours' (all so called dicrete) but all single middle aged men travellling in pairs and small groups. It disgusts us. Gross. That is just a cultural embarrassment and a shame.

Yes Cambodia is dirty but its the same as most Asian big cities. I can cope with it now I am over the first few days and look past it and see really beautiful people. Once you get over the heat, noise and traffic its got a nice feel to it. We've seen how the GIA team live... simply in classic Asian houses with big tiled floors and just enough rooms to get by they all have showers and flushing toilets so that's good! They all rent. Many NGOs are living in mansions which makes talented locals want to work for an NGO becasue they get paid $40 per month working for governement. Its a catch 22.
We've just Tuk tuk'ed from the other side of town where we went to a school for poor kids... oh my gosh they have nothing... no play equipment, no books just a few bits and pieces. Their teachers are locals with no education training at all. A girl from Switzerland actually runs the school and she volunteers with OMF the locals are paid. She speaks fluent Khmai which is not easy and writes it too!

I will have another crack at the blog so you can keep in touch. Thankfully the hotel has an internet but its slow... You can rech us on antoniamvl@yahoo.com I don't have anyone's email address with me so you need to make contact if you want communication.

The falling US dollar and the high cost of fuel is killing these people because they only earn $2.50 per day so the poor just get poorer. Its not as bad as I thought I don't feel unsafe but at night its risky so we are in our rooms by 8.30pm
Tomorrow we are off to visit Hagar International. and Friday the Peace bridges programme.

We arrived in Ho Chi Minh City late Thursday night after having a delay. On board the plane a woman got altitude sickness and lost consciousness so I had to help her she because there was no doctor on board eventually it turned out there was one who cam forward which was good because I thought she had a seizure but it turned out to be altitude illness so we flew lower down and that add 2 hours to the trip The upshot was we were upgraded to first class so she could lay in our seats!! Poor woman landing like that ina foreign country.

First day in HCM we got bearings and did the tourist bits the Cu Chi tunnels etc. Big noisy and inhospitable city with traffic which is one never ending merging of lanes which are for guidance only!! Same in PP. You have to be brave and then take your life in your hand crossing over. We had to laugh because it was scary!! Then that afternoon it rained ad we were up to our axles in the car with water. Its VERY hot but once it rains its bearable.

The bus ride to PP was good once we got on the right bus!They loaded our bags and us on to a different bus so we had to be assertive and say "No- wrong bus" because we paid for the Mekong Express and the bus they wanted to pop us on stopped 100 times on the way to PP and took 12 hours instead of 6! They offloaded us and left us standing in the middle of a busy main road with suitcases... I kid you not!!

Cambodia is friendlier than Vietnam. It's difficult to locate our brearings as the streets are poorly signed. Everyone wants to sell us tuk tuk rides but we smile and say "no walking" Today we braved the whole city in one and laughed our way through the language barriers with our driver. Its good. I am getting accustomed to the "culture ". I find the poverty difficult.

Yesterday we met a teacher from St Ignatius (Sydney) College. They have their high school boys teaching children in a village They are a Jesuit college and they do this to get the boys aware of poverty and sharing wealth and developing cultural competence. Nice idea. The kids teach Cambodian kids English and they have to prepare their lessons.

This afternoon we went to the team from Christian partners in Cambodia which our church sponsors workers to see their work and we talked about the transition model which he was most interested in I have it on my flash drive so we are going to shwo them more on Friday! Our RDNS work may be used here. How cool is that?!

It's elections soon so life is a bit strained for most here. Hun Sen will get in again for sure there is no real 'competetion' but I cannot talk about that now.


I am having trouble with the blog so I will persevere but it may be a problem.
Regards to everyone. We are safe if not hot but enjoying the people the land and the experience. I'll let you know how it all goes. So far so good.

Love Anne & Hugo XX