I made 14 visits to 9 different projects and met with several prospective projects for future consideration, cycled in two weekend training sessions before and after the Bike Race, took part in the Bike Race (and survived), took volunteering medic students on a tour of the less than modern Provincial Hospital, gave blood (at the slightly more impressive Angkor Childrens Hospital), cheered on a football team which is partly sponsored by HOPE playing in this year’s league final at the Provincial Stadium, a grand occasion but sadly decided by penalties (and Angkor Empire FC did not come out winners on this occasion),  met all the young adults in the three programmes HOPE now supports and finally got to visit My Grandfather House rural school project which has gone from being a dream for one local Cambodian when I left in April 2009, to more than a reality with some 300 local children receiving supplemental education.

While I loved every minute of my time back in Cambodia, there were three enormous highlights for me.

Taking part in the fifth Angkor Wat Bike Race was particularly special.  There is no other bike ride in the world quite like this one – where else would you see sunrise, paddy fields, monks, cows, water buffalo, elephants, cyclos, tandems, Japanese tourists and of course the wonderful temples of the Angkor Wat complex.   With some 400 entrants in total, HOPE entered a team 40 local Cambodian young adults and their educators from all three HOPE supported Young Adult Programmes.

The 30km race starts at 6am, just as it is beginning to get light, so we have to get there in the dark (another 8kms) and try to get organised in the dark –this is much easier for the Cambodians who are more used to early starts and lack of light, than it is for Jo and Tanya!  The backdrop for the start and finish is surely one of the most amazing temples, Angkor Wat, there is nothing more inspirational. We highly recommend a visit, with or without bicycle.   As the ride progresses you are cheered on by many of the small local children, all with the compulsory Cambodian smile.

You didn’t have to win the race to be a winner, anyone who got up at 4.30 cycled in the dark to get to the start line and then cycle for 30km around the temples has to be a winner.  Our photos speak for themselves.

Training sessions on Sunday are continuing, a great way for the young adults from different projects to mix, see more of their countryside and get some exercise (and a break from studying).  We will be back next year, I seem to remember Jo saying she would also enter the running races on the following day – I know I declined but maybe I said I would do the 100km cycle ride!

The day after the Race we were rewarded with dinner cooked by the 13 Young Adults from Sangkheum who all live together in a transition house.  Not only was dinner great (they have recently been taught how to make proper burgers by staff from a local training hotel) and I am so proud to see how well they are transforming into independent, motivated and curious young adults.  On this lovely evening they made a presentation to us, a framed acknowledgement for the $25,000 HOPE has, so far, provided to support their programme.

Finally, with my love of football I always squeeze in a visit to Sangkheum Centre to go along to the daily training session.  I usually end up playing around with some of the younger kids all too small to even kick a normal sized football.  But this time I was treated to a wonderful 10 minutes having a proper one on one kick about with Tour.  When I first met Tour, 5 years ago, he had only recently come to the Centre and could barely walk and definitely couldn’t talk.  Now he goes to school, chats away in Khmer, can ”high-five” and is starting to play football, This was probably the most priceless moment of the whole trip.  I saw a lot of positive progress during my trip but this brought the biggest smile to my face.

English is my mother tongue…..so there I was, thinking it can’t be that difficult to teach English to willing, cheerful Cambodian children. After all they’ve cycled or walked many miles just to be here.

So why was I so petrified on my first day??? Perhaps the look of expectation from 35 pairs of gorgeous brown eyes and the equally nervous smiles from their faces weighed heavy. But we soon established that their existing handful of English words were far better than my few Khmer phrases and I had them giggling as I tried to pronounce each of their names. The ice was well and truly broken and we never looked back.

I had the pleasure of teaching at three SCC schools; Sway Dong Kum; Krorsang Rolerng and Khnar. There were many wonderful days which always began with a 40 minute cycle through stunning countryside. During my time in Siem Reap I got to see the this change from lush fertile fields to a dusty brown landscape as the seasons moved on. There were always plenty of hellos along the way, on some days this might be over 50 times and on occassion I wasnt even sure where the little “hello” came from up, possibly up a tree or in a water channel!

In school

In the first few weeks I think I spent more time preparing lessons than I did in the classroom. But as time went by everything got easier and I could plan a lesson in 10 minutes. Props like maps, menus, brochures and magazines proved invaluable to make lessons interesting and interactive. And of course the internet is a wonderful thing.

One of my most memorable lessons was the day we learnt about body parts and finished with different types of hair. Now you need to consider that all Cambodian girls have beautiful long straight black hair and all the boys have short black hair and everyone has dark brown eyes. A bit limiting when ÿou want to test listening comprehension by saying stand up “if you have blue eyes” …..it doesn’t work! So with the aid of some great magazine pages I slowly revealed pictures of Gwyneth Paltrow with long blonde hair and other models with short red hair etc. The children thought these were amazing, but the greatest reaction occurred when I put up a page of a model with completely curly hair. I swear some of them had never seen anything like it and were thoroughly amused.

Every single week was so rewarding as I gradually got to widen the knowledge of these keen and eager students. Saying goodbye was always going to be difficult but we made up for that by devoting the last few lessons to playing games. In fact the last “lesson” at each of my 5 classes was a game of Snakes and Ladders. In one case I drew the board out on the floor of the classroom; it took me over an hour but the results were well worth it. Dividied into teams the children first had to get a question correct before they were allowed to throw the giant dice (a discarded and transformed motorbike helmet box). Of course we also practised counting and the words “‘up”and “down”. I have never heard so much noise from 35 children when a team landed on a snake……….possibly one of the funniest times in the classroom.

It is difficult to be brief about such an amazing and enormous experience – every day taught me new things and every smile felt like I’d won the lottery. I look back now and can’t believe how scared I was but it was the best fear I have ever faced and I would highly recommend it.