Well the water is going down (slowly) and things are returning to normal in Siem Reap. We hope to get back into the Orphanage by the end of the week, but we are still currently in one of the worst effected areas in town.

As our volunteers have their leave day on Sunday I helped with the children on and was promptly run ragged by them in 35C plus temperatures. We took them for a walk, quite a crocodile we made, heading through the village which is currently hosting them, dodging puddles and oncoming traffic, which of course here can arrive on either side of the road at any time.

My best contribution was finding a football and trying to teach the kids to launch it through a spare type at the bottom of the garden. My colleagues were of course far more creative with puzzles, masks and cards. Their patience never ending. The girls favourite is hoopla, skipping and proving they can count to 100 in English. They are happy and seem to think it’s all a bit of a holiday. We did hope to treat them to a BBQ in the evening but our regular place ($2 for the kids) was closed due to the floods, and the next one wanted $6 a child. (The adult rate.) Well thanks from 35 disappointed customers.

I finally got around to hauling myself out of bed at 4.30am yesterday for a sunrise trip to the temples. This was of course celebrated with a power cut, and an early morning deluge. However by the time I got to my first Angkor site at Srah Srang (an ornate landing stage by a lake,) the storm had finished and I had the site pretty much to myself, other than the local children who arrive out of the mist of the jungle at 5am sharp, huge bags on their shoulders to set up their souvenir stalls, with the rest of the family in tow to drag in the customers.

One girl was amazingly fluent in English she had learned from the tourists over the years. She wanted to go onto university but her family could not afford for her to do so. Thus she sits by the roadside each day selling t-shirts. If she could find herself a job in town she would be able to save the funds she needs. As my boss says, out here it is breaking the cycle of poverty which is so important to these amazing people living here around the ruins of the temples.

Crocodile is a popular meat here and it is also farmed for leather. During the storm some of these farms appear to have mislaid their contents. Just another thing to bear in mind when you are wading though water two foot deep. The villagers are thrilled and fishing expeditions are in full swing. www,palfreystuff.com