It’s beginning to feel like home.

The last few days have been very different and I feel like I’m beginning to climatise a little - although I don’t want to jinx it.

I haven’t really written in the last couple of days, just because we’re still training all day which isn’t interesting to read about.

So, last time I wrote, I wasn’t feeling like I was saying in a home and felt like I was staying in some sort of museum. It’s safe to say, that’s all changed.

Even though my host mum is only here for dinner, I’m slowly bonding with her and Will’s mum also.

From home, I bought my host family some English Breakfast tea and some coffee. I was reluctant to give it to them as I didn’t think they’d understand/want it as we hadn’t really spoken. However, I plucked up the courage and presented it to the family- they were over the moon. They started opening up the coffee and smelling it, making “mmm” sounds and then proceeded to make everyone else (customers and Will’s family smell it too)! The host Dad had translated (about the tea) “Im scared I’ll get addicted and can’t buy any more here” to which I replied “I’ll keep sending them”. Since then, she’s made such an effort to talk to us and I feel welcomed now.

I’ve still been a little ill every day of this trip barring one, and really needed some proper food. We had the word ”bread” translated to our host mum yesterday and she went down to the market this morning and bought 5 loafs! Everything is sweet down here, so of course it wasn’t like English bread but it tasted and looked similar to brioche bread. I didn’t take a picture as my phone was upstairs, however, I’ll take one tomorrow as she’s making us an omelette sandwich every morning we would like one! It’s close enough to an egg sandwich to feel a little like home. Consider this an I.O.U for a picture.

I was over the moon how much appreciation was shown for two really small gifts!

On the topic of homely food and drink, after my delicious veggie dinner and a really nice translated chat with our mum, Will’s mum bought us some chillie toasties which we adored! To top that off, Will’s mum had managed to heat up some water for a nice cup of earl grey which we had been waiting to drink since we arrived here!

It’s been such a homely night and everything is feeling a little more comfortable. I’m now getting a good nights sleep and not a single mozzie bite during the night! Hannah (TL) also shares a house with me and she can’t sleep with the net as its too hot, her leg has been eaten alive! She has 28 on her legs.

At work, we’ve finally been put into our sub-teams (teams of 6 that work on specific issues for the next 9 weeks). Those teams are: Volunteering, employment and entrepreneurship. We had to write down our preference and I’m really thankful I got entrepreneurship! When we start work, we will learn more about what that means in terms of the next 9 weeks, but I’ll be working with all sorts of companies and people helping them gain the skills they need to have a good quality of life and to start their own business and make it sustainable. I’m also really excited to be working with some musicians and helping them build their music career!

Meet the entrepreneurship team! We. Have a fab team and of course I drew all the music stuff! As you can see, I’ve tanned a load but it’s hard to get any good pictures when you’re covered in sweat and dirt. A lot of us are also losing weight , not that you can tell through our baggy clothing!

Everyone in the household is bonding really well, and everyone comes to chill out at our house at work as it’s closer - they all come over for breakfast too- sometimes before we wake up! Most evenings are spent writing this blog, learning Khmer, playing cards or just pure chatting. It’s really nice. My counterpart is an absolute angel, I‘m in the process of writing a blog post about her but I want it to be perfect, so you’ll have to wait a little while for that!

Some stuff is really hard to adapt to, e.g the shower. Yesterday I got full on attacked by a huge bug and then a frog decided to join me for a shower too. I ran out screaming 3 times and had Keean come and clear them out for me! Tonight, I killed 3 bugs with my shoe and have learned to live with a couple of the bugs who can’t fly. I just want a peaceful and undisturbed shower, but I think it’s making me a little braver...

In our house, the evenings are just fun and chilled , we have no parents at night so we just stay downstairs and scare each other with the bugs we find. We pretended to Will that there was one coming into his shower, then slammed on the door and he screamed, we laughed for ages. All night we’ve been running from this cricket because it jumped onto Will’s chest... poor Will.

The cows are always so skinny here as poverty affects more than the people, but next door we have 3 healthy cows which are really well looked after. The parents light them a fire every night for them to warm up after it rains. They also walk their cows and calf’s on the road and it’s the cutest thing to see!

Things are really settling down down and the work is getting a little more complicated now, the days are very long but it’s all worth it; and my Khmer is getting really good! That’s all for now,

Lea hi!