Weekend over and work starts

My first post of the trip and I think the first one since Evelyn and I arrived. We've now settled in and things are getting moving. Nothing happens on the weekends here so we had a chance to

explore Poipet and get to know the city a little.

Whilst exploring the city, we ran into a school hall which looked like a temple, to avoid the rain. A sudden downpour saw all the school children run inside screaming and we sat down in the cool temple for the afternoon. A couple of monks came over for a chat and we struggled through a long chat, learning khmer

and the symbolism of khmer Buddhism. The younger monk was very excited by our cameras and insisted on a lot of photos.

On Sunday we tried out CHO's cycles. All cycles are designed with a big seat on the back for an extra person, great for the tarmacked main road but a challenge on the dirt road back streets, and very worrying an sore for the person on the back when passing over the huge ditches in the road.

Monday morning was an early start with a trip top see CHOs school on a mat project. We went around 3 incredibly poor villages around Poipet where the children obediently sat under the shade of a tree surrounded by the tiny shacks of the village and worryingly close to a lot of landmine warning signs. We watched them being taught some very tricky maths that I couldn't do in my head and at one got invited to play some games. An attempt to teach them "heads, shoulders, knees and toes", ended with us forgetting the words but they loved a game running around the mat, all the girls sticking close behind alison.