After a short bus journey and dodging scammers at the Cambodian border we have arrived in Poipet. Poipet consits of a very wide and long main street, filled mainly with motorbikes, and a network of dirt roads branching off, I have no idea where to. Lonely Planet describes it as the "ärmpit of Cambodia" so I was prepared for the worst, perhaps this is why it isn't as bad as I had expected.
We met the CHO team: they are really nice and speak adequate English. There are also 3 other volunteers already here from Tearfund: Calum, Alex and Paul and they have been showing us around, which is brilliant.
The big surprise was when we went to CHO's Safe Haven site we found that through a combination of rainwater harvesting, a well and filtering water from the duck ponds they have enough clean (probably) water to supply the site all year round. Another surprise was that the biogas generator which the team last year put in was lying disused and in a bad state of repair.
This, of course, has called for a bit of a rethink. It's still early days but we are aware that CHO works with many communities nearby and many of them lack safe drinking water, particularly in the dry season. We still see an opportunity to do good there. The Safe Haven's school is very good and the education side of the project, project DIEM, looks like it can go ahead in good shape.
We are currently staying in a nice hotel but will move into our house on Monday. When we saw it on Friday it was completely unfurnished but will hopefully have some beds by the time we move in.
It's very hot here and it's monsoon season, although it's not nearly as rainy as I'd expected. It has only rained twice, so far. Each time it has rained very heavily but for only a short period of time.
I will upload photos as soon as possible, but I can't do this on the computer I am currently writing on. [Update: now uploaded!]
Angus
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