THIS ARTICLE WAS WRITTEN PRIOR TO THE STORM ON TUESDAY NIGHT 29TH SEPTEMBER

Cambodian (Khmer) folk are excessively friendly. Most in the tourist service towns speak English or would love the opportunity to learn to do so. French is now all but disappeared. As a consequence of this you are stopped very regularly in the street by someone wanting to practice their English - How old are you? Where you from? It is never a dull moment here.

My rather small little room still has Air Con and a fan, ESPN, a hot shower and an occasional internet link. Located just a five minute walk from the centre of town it is a good find. The owners are onto my request to put a hammock into the tropical garden and I think I am set to stay long term. So now a matter of remembering staff names Sopheap is easy, I just call her Bo Peep, easy really.

The school is a 10 minute tuc tuc ride over the other side of town, a mere $1 charge. It is a feeling of great satisfaction hearing their laughter chiming out from their classroom. They seem such a happy lot. The staff are full of hugs for them and they reciprocate in kind.

Once a week we take six of our charges to a 5 star hotel in town which is a great supporter of our work. The kids use it as an exercise in using their English and it gives the guests a chance to interact with our programme. The kids are rewarded with real fruit juice and a tray of fruit which they sit around and divide with great precision and devour.

This week as we came to leave we counted five children back out and were soon in a search for our missing charge. There she was aged six, sitting at the bar with a Mocktail in her hand and the bar staff doubled over in laughter. She was looking very pleased with herself. Girl clearly has a future.

It is the rainy season here, and after few days of tropical sun to greet my arrival it is overcast and raining heavily most days. The stream outside our school has become a river. I wonder if I will get into work tomorrow. Hope so we have 10 new volunteers starting and have a lot of work to finish on our new site in Treak village where we are building another school facility and are investigating the possibility of raising the rice paddy at the back to provide a sports pitch. It’s not nine to five here.