Srae Themi & my new home

Katie Davies
Jun 14, 2019
3 min read

Today was the dreaded day where we moved out of our cozy hotel , said goodbye to our pool and got on a coach to Srae Themi, enjoying the last bit of air conditioning we would have for a long time.

Our last tuk tuk ride to the bank, to collect our surprisingly boring-looking bank cards.

The journey wasn’t too long or tiring, we stopped twice; once for food and once for a toilet. We had previously been warned that the communities were a lot hotter than where we have been (an Average of 33 degrees), but we really didn’t think it’d be this hot)! We stepped out and the humidity hit us like a tonne of bricks, it was easily 40 degrees and I couldn’t open my eyes fully without putting on my sunglasses! I had my first squatting experience in a tiny shack with a hole, it went terribly to say the least, not to mention the fact that I had a rather large Gecko staring at me the entire time.

Once we arrived at the office, my counterpart and I dragged my huge suitcase inside, waiting for our host families. We had around an hour to prepare a welcoming sign for our host families. I wrote in Khmer for the first time, which the khmer team said was pretty good!

Our office was really cute , a little small but plenty of fans to go round and a wooden swing. Our squat toilet had a massive spider in it... so I just held it in!

So... the home. Completely the opposite of what I expected. I knew that I would be in one of the nicer homes as I need to be the closest to the office due to my medical condition. However, I had no idea my home would be this nice... and clean!

This is a picture of one of the other host homes, they’re super cute and wooden, each provided with treated mozzie nets. Most have buckets of water to wash with and a little shack with a normal hole for a toilet. This is what I was expecting, although I knew my place was tiled.

This is my home:

The outside of the home is a shop, and next to it is a cafe, they open out really beautifully onto the street - however it’s closed now so it looks a tad dull. We share parents with host home 1, which means we’re alone in the evenings (a perk). The parents come up with Robyn and her counterpart for breakfast and dinner - our mum is a brilliant cook!

This is the view from the table , the right hand side is our home but we also share with Will and his family on the left hand side. My team leader (hannah), myself and Will are all sitting on the chairs chatting whilst I’m writing this. It’s incredibly clean.

This is the hallway up to our bedroom , and to the right is Hannah’s bedroom and bathroom.

Our bedroom is so cute, it’s basic mattresses on the floor with silk sheets and a mosquito net. I have a few blankets too, not that we need them. We have an electric fan which is brilliant in this heat. However, currently there is only this rail to hang our clothes... and I have no hangers.

Our room leads onto a balcony which looks down onto the “living area“. Wills house (through the arch) is exactly the same, but they’re owned by two different families!

What’s left... ahh the toilet!

This is the outside toilet, where we shower etc... yes.. a shower! They’re cold showers but that is really what you need after a sweaty day in trousers - it’s still just under 30 degrees in the night.