Takeo province

DAY 13-19 - COWS, CHICKENS, SUGAR CANE, MONSOON RAIN AND SILK

We arrived in Srey Prassaeu village to a very warm welcome from the young leaders we had met at the leadership training. It was such a lovely surprise to see them again and they had even made us some beautiful bracelets with our names on. After a quick trip to the Day Care centre where we would be training, we headed to a nearby mountain to visit the temples at the top. After the 212 steps we were amazed by how beautiful the temples were and the stunning scenery. We figured it was a great location to do our GOLD pose and dance, before watching the sunset over the surrounding villages and rice fields. The evening ended with a rather interesting journey home in the back of a goyan - a tractor engine with a trailer on the back! VERY bumpy and Emma's bum was definitely bruised like a peach!

Our first day of teaching went well - we were greeted by 55 children, so a lot less than in the previous province, although the youngest this time was two years old! We ran through what was now familiar session plans and again our songs proved to be a big hit with all the children! Lunch was lovely, noodles and glazed pork, and as the house was similar to our previous homestay, we now felt very at home. The main difference was the number of animals in the village, so we all became chums with the cows and chickens. In the evening, we were invited to Sambath's house were we were greeted by a lot of locals keen to talk to us and ask questions about life in the UK. Sadly, her father was ill so a lot of friends had come to join a Buddhist ceremony wishing for his good health to return.

Teaching for the rest of the week continued to go well, with some highlights including homework being brought to our house over dinner, frequent chants for "Wayo wayo" (the crazy moose), splat and kung fu animals. On our last training session of the week, the heavens opened and the playground flooded. The crazy British girls ventured outside to jump in the rain, while inside the kids continued to work in the dark, as we had to close the shutters to stop rain coming in! Thankfully we had our trusty torch with us, and in true GOLD fashion we improvised, pushing tables aside so we could sing songs in the dark inside. What an end to our trainings!

The young leaders who very kindly translated for us became good friends over the week and were keen to learn more about us and practice their English. They were also very keen to show us the local village sights, so we tried our hand at a bit of silk weaving, visited the local pagoda (temple) and ventured to the nearby sugar cane fields to try some! As usual, our tuk tuk journey was eventful as we got stuck on a hill, perhaps due to the fact we had 9 people in one tuk tuk! So for the second time, we had to jump out and help push (except Emma who was rather traumatised by Nikki's yells of "GET OUT!"). During our time in Takeo, we also purchased some rather lovely team trousers, the Cambodian favourite - hammocks - and some beautiful silk and pashminas.

By the time we had to go home to Phnom Penh, we were all very sad to say goodbye as we had met such a wonderful group of girls, been so welcomed by our homestay family and had become rather attached to the brilliant children!