On the 5th of December, Holli, Delia, Helen and me made our way from Phnom Penh up to Siem Riep by bus. We stayed in the very familiar Smiley’s guesthouse and were looking forward with great anticipation to the next day of the Ankor Wat marathon. Meanwhile, three of the new health volunteers travelled to their placement with all their belongings up to the far Banteay Meanchey in the North West of Cambodia after the last ICT day and just about made their way back about 7 pm for their registration. At that time Helen from Stung Treng was enjoying the best Spaghetti Carbonara in the Temple bar together with a few drinks and fellow volunteers. That night, Holli did a magic recovery from her illness and at 5:30 the next morning on the 6th of December, the Tuk Tuks were waiting outside to bring us in the dark and a rather chilli breeze to Ankor Wat.
When we arrived, we saw the sun rising over the Temples.
Our cheerers and photographers Paul, Perry, Emily, Tim, Leoni and Lucky gave us great support.
At around 10am it was all over.
The next day, our travel started early again and 12 hours, a bus-, minivan- and taxi ride later, we made it back from Siem Riep to Stung Treng.
For some of us it was the last time of being together in this formation. Tim has left the country by now after finishing his 2 year placement, so has Trisha. Delia will fly back on Friday. You are all greatly missed and it was an honour to know you all.
Marry marry Christmas and a happy New Year 2010! From Katja
Aricle for Nek-Smek-Jet newsletter
Apart from running and partying ( we had our new-volunteer-welcome-party in the name of VolCom on the last day of our ICT before we went to SR, and Oli and me did a bit of DJ-ing and animated the crowd to play musical chairs…), I kept an eye on funding agencies for the new student accommodation building in Stung Treng. The civil engineer from Stung Treng made a great building plan and we have now the sum of the overall cost. The proposal is written, everything is ready to go, but no money found yet…
Being back in Stung Treng after all that time (was away for 2 month) felt like a relief. It feels so familiar now and like home. My lovely house, my own bed, my own space. The girls waited for me at home and they had a big meal for me prepared. They had moved back into the RTC accommodation, but waited for me all day long. It was so lovely to see them again, and they are my good friends now and I miss them when I haven’t seen them for a while. Finally, they are in their 3rd year of nursing, they passed their second exam and are more motivated then ever. They have now English lessons every morning from 6 to 7, then school. Also they asked me to show them how to type on the computer, they call it: play computer. So I have them around and let them type English texts into my laptop from a nursing book.
After the drinking, the dancing starts. But this time, the bride and groom started to dance first around the table which was loaded with fruit. It was so funny, because the music that played to that was Happy Birthday. Then they even had a cake they were cutting while posing to the photographers. The bride changed her dresses 4 times that evening. Around 9 pm, Channa gave me and Carol a lift back home. On the way, his back wheel went flat and we had to walk through the clear night with the sky full of stars…
It wasn’t the first time that weekend, that the tyre of a moto gave up. The day before, on Saturday, Maria, Ferdi, Carol and me decided to have a little moto trip around Stung Treng and also to O’Russey Kandall. Ferdi had Maria on his moto and I had Carol on Delia’s Moto.We first went again to ‘Mekong Blue’, the Silk and Weaving Centre’ from Stung Treng. Makara gave us again a great tour and I was able to give them two of my stained clothes to dye. It was cotton, so they couldn’t use the silk dye. They only had black furniture dye, which was ok.Then we drove to the old airport and on the way to the main road, the back wheel made: puff and went flat. We managed to get it repaired by a local, whom I picked up from the nearest ‘garage’. The tyre was completely burst.Then we toured to O’Russey Kandal and had a nice picnic with the feet in the cool water. It is also a Butterfly sanctuary there. It was lovely.
Yesterday we had Delia’s Goodbye dinner at Mr.T’s. She left a lot of her things here and gave me also a few. It felt like my birthday. Oh I will miss her so much. Carol lives now in her house and Maria is taking over her position at work. We are all replaceable in a way. I hope I stay in touch with her. We want to meet one day in Berlin. She did an awful lot for the nutrition programme and saved many lives because of that. Now she is going back and her ‘husband to be’ is waiting for her. Isn’t that lovely?
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