My first post!

Chum reap sooa everyone!

Firstly, sorry for taking so long to post - it has been a busy few days since arriving in Phnom Penh! Luckily, I've finally managed to find some spare time before lunch to let you all know that I'm alive! I'll try to post as often as I can and be as detailed as I can for you :)

I'll start from after we landed! We arrived at the airport at about 6o'clock and we met our rep Bernadette who is a really lovely Belgian woman who has lived in Phom Penh for about a year and a half now with her husband.We sorted out our visas quite quickly as there was no queue and then jumped into a taxi! The drive to Phnom Penh was really amazing, we were all really tired from a lack of sleep on the plane but as soon as we were on the road we were all awake, looking out the window at our first glance of the mad traffic system there! There were motos and tuk tuks all over the place, weaving in and out of the cars, beeping at each other - I was surprised though at how organised it looked, the drivers were really alert and quick to move! We were drawing attention even from within a ten seater taxi - as we stared out of the window, Khmer people would stare back and wave, laughing when we waved back! Cambodians have so far been the most friendly, wlecoming people I've met - walking down the street it's almost as though we are famous, with people trying to practice their English as much as possible, coming up to chat with us.
The contrast in wealth across Phnom Penh is incredible. Just driving into the capital to start with we would drive past lavish mansions with tall, gated and barbed walls around them, and then just a few hundred metres later see the slums which are basically massive, windowless, doorless, shambolic looking flats which seem to have their own mini community, washing hanging everywhere, and the walls seemingly falling apart. It really is quite shocking to see, Bernadette, our host, has said not to go near them, especially not at night, because it is meant to be really dodgy, as you'd expect, and children are apparently picked up there for selling into prostitution etc.
After we arrived at our guesthouse, we unloaded our things, showered and changed before heading off for dinner at a Khmer restaurant. It was a really lovely place with the friendliest waiters in the world! I tried my first Khmer dish, fish amok; a sort of coconut, curry type thing, with red sticky rice which was so delicious, especially after plane food! We were able to speak to Bernadette about our projects and found out that our projects won't actually start until the beginning of October, due to the ancestors holiday, where Cambodian buddhists will flock to pagodas to make offerings to their ancestors, and so Claire and I will have about a week in Sihanoukville to explore and prepare for our lessons before we are put in front of our classes! After dinner we headed home and crashed out in our beds :)

Next day we met Bernadette at 10 and hopped in a tuk tuk to go to the Russian Market! The Russian Market is a fantastic, colourful place, with so many different smells in the space of 10 metres! It was swelteringly hot in there aswell, because it is roofed and all the stalls are very close together! There would be the smells of incense, shoes, fish, raw meat, fruit, bread and more all in the same row - really confusing to adjust to! Anyway, we only had a quick look round and, after buying a $5 watch from a stall, we left because it was so hot! We then headed to a cafe for a quick Cambodian lunch! Ahh I need to rush this last bit, before the battery runs out, but I'll elaborate on things later. All my days seem to be merging into one, so I'm sorry if I jump around from day to day a lot! I can't believe it's the 12th already!
Also, when we first wandered around Phom Penh we walked through the park where, after 5 o'clock every day, dance/ aerobic classes go on! They are the funniest thing, with atleast 5 in the same area of the park, all dancing to different music! The music ranges from western pop to Khmer music. We were able to join in a khmer dance class with Chonthol, at the Olympic Stadium, with people all around - it was so embarrassing, but really funny :D Bernadette introduced us to Chonthol on the 10th. After leaving for the city from a small village after disobeying her parents, Chonthol worked to pay for her studies and now has a degree in financing and english literature and works for a company which trains unemployed young people in English speaking and gets them jobs as tuk tuk drivers. She left her village 5 years ago and is now the business manager and has plans to buy the company from the owners once she has enough money - and she's only 24! She took us around the city and we visited the Royal Palace and Silver Pagoda, and Wat Phnom, as well as a Cambodian buffet! Wat Phnom was brilliant, a fantastic area, full of people and wildlife too! The day before the 8 of us had got a tuk tuk along the river front and AN ELEPHANT was just strolling down the middle of the road with its owner. It was completely surreal and happened so quickly that I couldn't get a photo! The Khmer people didn't even blink an eye! I hadn't expected to see an elephant in Phom Penh so I was really surprised when we arrived at Wat Phnom and there was ANOTHER elephant! You had to buy a bunch of bananas from a street vendor for a dollar and then you could go up and feed the elephant (I'll upload a photo at some point!) which was so incredible!! Ahh I have to post this before the battery dies but I'll try and write the rest later on! Lots of love, miss you all :) xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx