Svay Rieng visit

Kia Ora all this is Svay Rieng where I will be living and working for the next 8 months, it is located 3 hours (120kms) from Phnom Penh and 1 hour (60kms) from Ho Chi Minh City in Vietnam. It is a very rural town and REDA (Rural Economic Development Agency) where I'm working is based on sustainable development and sustainable communities, they run an orphanage and help womens groups in neighbouring villages. They also cultivate rice and operate fish and frog farms for sustinance.

Me in front of the kitchen donated by NZAID, the kitchen is very nice however it seems a break down in communication has meant that really REDA didn't want a kitchen but a meeting room so cooking still happens outside and the kitchen is a meeting room soon to be turned into a part library - one of my projects!

Frog anyone? REDA staff put on an impressive lunch of duck stew, whole boiled catfish and deep fried frog. This is Tony anothe VSA volunteer taking a chomp of a frog - tastes like chicken!

These are all the staff I will be working with minus Tony all males except for one, and all very nice people, some can even speak good English which is such a bonus! The area as you can see is very dry and hot, a few trees mainly banana and cashew nut trees - did you know the cashew fruit is an anasthetic if you eat it your whole mouth and tongue goes tingly and numb!

On the drive down we saw some crazy sights, how much can you really fit on one moto!? This guy was rather optimistic I felt! Imagine you dad on your motorbike! hehe
Also people cram into and onto the roof of vans around 30 people in and on one van is not uncommon!

On the way back the dirt road turned to mud! It had been raining very unusual for this time of the year, plus there was an electric storm! Anyway all the tuk tuk dfrivers got stuck on the road! and had to be pushed out made a 3 hour trip 5! gah imagine what will happen in the rainy season!
If you stop anywhere, there are numerous amounts of beggars that inundate your car, this is one lady, just so hopeful it makes you feel so sorry for them. I think we actually gave this woman some money, its hard here because there's no social security networks for these people, sometimes dependancy on begging is a sad fact but thats what it is dependancy! So help them out I will.

Again more night time road action! Crazy traffic jams and people on all sides of the road! Hehe I've picked up a saying "Only in Cambodia" this much applies here!