Day off and settling in

So our first day has officially begun! We‘ve been given a day off to explore and settle down. Wake up time is 6am and breakfast is around 7am. It can get quite boring, sitting around on a day off, so Will and I decided to do some of our get washing and Indulge in the culture.

We washed our clothes with detergent in cold water and hung them to dry. We have to dry our underwear inside our other clothes so that they aren’t on display or seen.

I’m trying to stay away from meat this trip as it’s not settling in my stomach So I had rice, omelette, vegetables and veggie soup. It was the best meal I’ve had since I’ve been in Cambodia.

The whole group surprised Will and I at our houses and we all walked down the shops, bought some well deserved fans and made our way to host home 8.

Here, we helped peel some sour fruit (of course I cut my finger) and both teams are having some karaoke fun.

Host home 8’s brother took us all to see the rice fields which was absolutely beautiful but sweltering hot!

We can only seem to go on 10 minute walks before we all melt into the floor; but rural Cambodia is absolutely beautiful. We all miss the pool and it’s only been day one!

UK team group photo : the Khmer team were still singing karaoke when we got back!

The Khmer team cooked us a wonderful lunch, and in return we washed all the dishes and helped pay.

My veggie lunch was pretty tasty, although it’s hard to eat so much hot food in 40 degree heat.

When I came here, I thought my hair was going to be so shiny and healthy but it’s the complete opposite ; my hair has never been so dry and broken, I had to take a shower at host home 8 to temporarily fix it and let it dry out straight.

Although I haven’t been bitten much, one of the UK team has had a very bad experience and reaction towards the bites, she first had a few on her face, which swelled quite a lot by her eye. She had a bacterial infection in her face, which went down after the doctor had given her antibiotics. Now, she has woken up like this:

She said that this picture was a lot better than earlier, but this just shows how bad bites can really get.

After coming back, the UK played a game of “never have I ever” which really showed the difference between the cultures... it’s safe to say the UK has done a little more of the non-PG questions.

We have to buy all drinks except water from our host family, we chose sugar cane juice which tastes of mango mixed with sugar. The iced coffees and every other drink I’ve had is so sweet, and pretty sickly so we’ve been on water quite a bit.

This is the outside of our shops which I couldn’t show yesterday, Wills shop sells food and coffee, and our shop sells meat, groceries and random bits like superglue and chopsticks. It’s quite busy all the time.

After seeing a few others host homes today, although I’m grateful that we have this open space and that it’s so clean, it doesn’t feel like a home and I don’t really have a family. It gets quite lonely and boring as there’s no kids, the parents aren’t really around and when they are they don’t talk to us and there‘s no Family photos or anything. It feels like I’m sleeping in a museum and I’m really jealous of the ones who are playing with the children or teaching them English and staying up late with their families.

Its so quiet here, except the geckos and birds on the walls, talking. I think I’m just going to shower, FaceTime my family and then head to bed.

Aroun sou sodey🌎