Anna- Day 3

2012- Day 3

Morning: After a well deserved sleep at the hotel in Phnom Penh, the early birds in our group went with Lynne to the local markets where nobody speaks English. We all met back at the hotel to walk to Bojangles for breakfast. There was a choice of either Western or Asian style breakfast. All the fruit juice was freshly squeezed and the lemon juice was absolutely amazing. After breakfast we all piled into the buses for a trip to the outskirts of Phnom Penh and the CHOICE Centre.

CHOICE Center: CHOICE is an Organisation that aims to support poor families as an entire unit instead of taking allowing parents to give up their children to orphanages. The Organisation is involved in a lot of preventative work such as contraception, regular medical and dental checkups as well as providing clean water. Our guide Richard took us to the shanty towns on the outskirts of the city. Walking through the village was a eye-opener, everyone was so friendly despite the fact we had nothing we could give them. We learned a lot about the rural way of life seeing the families working to gather the rice, drying it on mats and taking goods into market. After seeing the village we went to the Centre to meet the the children. Their English was not very good so communicating was a bit of a struggle at first but everyone were definitely eager to make the effort. We met a baby that recently had an operation to repair a cleft lip and she looks well on the way to recovery despite being extremely underweight. We were told some of the other children's stories and after some fun and games it was time to say our farewells and head back to the big city for the last time.

Afternoon: Arriving back at the hotel it was a relief to see all the luggage had already been loaded onto the buses. After quickly restocking on water we all piled back into the buses for the journey to our next destination, Takeo. By this time we were all exhausted and fell asleep fairly soon after our stop to the bakery. Despite the heat the scenery was wonderful, rice paddies and lotus fields lined with palm trees and the hills in the distance. The entire trip was about two hours and we had a warm welcome when we arrived. We rushed to find the best rooms and explore the balcony and veranda before rushing off again. Half of us went straight to the New Futures Orphanage while the rest of us went off in a Tuk Tuk to buy push bikes. They were assembled right in front of us and after fixing faulty brakes we set off to join the others at NFO.

Evening: We quickly learned the road rules, the most important being that pushbike riders are second class citizens and the best method is to just look like you know what you are doing and NEVER EVER stop pedaling. Our route to the orphanage took us through roundabouts, gravel roads and along the river before finally turning down the dirt road that led to the orphanage. We all made it in one piece and were immediately greeted by friendly smiles, questions and dozens of names. We quickly became fast friends with all the children despite having to leave after only fifteen minutes as it was dark. The boys checked all our lights (half of which were not working at this point) and we waved goodbye. After an alternatively frightening and relaxing ride back in the dark we quickly parked the bikes and sat down to dinner. Soon after we met up on the balcony for a debriefing and discussion on thoughts and feelings for the past few days. The most popular topics were the delay in Perth, the amazing food, apparent chaos of the roads and market and of course the immediate connection with the kids. We then retreated to our rooms to shower and fall into bed.

Lynne- Sent from my iPad