Worth the wait in 42C sweltering heat to see sunset at Angkor Wat today

Rural village

Khmer friends

Slightly different road to work compared with M25

Happiness is her first balloon animal

Hugh adding his touch of magic to rural village life!

So the last day of volunteering today... Spent the day at a very remote village doing health checks and teaching hand washing to people who I understand have never seen a Westerner before... Not that you would know it given how warm and friendly they were towards us. Feel we have achieved some good during our time here, if only that some people now know about hand washing! You realise how difficult it is to advise people what to do re their health when they have such limited access to healthcare owing to distance and cost.. Eg diagnosed what was most likely angina in a lady at this village today.. But she has no real access to treatment of any kind owing to the aforementioned health intervention barriers. It would be lovely to be able to set up a mobile health clinic of some kind but there is no possibility of this owing to the "politics" here.
Hugh made balloon animals for some of the kids... Their reaction was just wonderful to see.. They have obviously never seen anything like this before and will probably never do so again so for a few minutes they were transported to that wonderful world of entertainment/magic. These are the memories that will stay with me for many months.  Neither had they have seen a bar of soap before so teaching hand washing with this new found wonder was equally entertaining.. Creating bubbles by washing your hands (and yes, we have left supplies to be used in the future!) was greeted with squeals of laughter.
The remote villages are truly lovely places... So peaceful and unlike anything I had come across before. We met a lady who had lived through those terrible Khmer Rouge years... Whilst the village is now peaceful, at the back of your mind is what kind of hell it must have been 30 odd years ago.
So tomorrow we're off to do the Temple tour (no doubt we will be in the company of a zillion Japanese who seem to make up the largest proportion of the tourist population here along with their inevitable cameras... What DO they do with all the photos they take?????)
On Sunday we plan to head off on bicycles down river.. Believe me, riding a bike in Siem Reap is enough to scare the living daylights out of you.. There do not appear to be any road rules ... All the traffic just merges into one continuum and you just follow.. Very nerve wracking.
Well, the sun is over the horizon so time to sign off and watch the geckos playing their territory game along the wall and dodge the resident rat whilst we down a much needed COLD beer!

It rained yesterday! It was like manna from heaven as it had been stiflingly hot in the early morning... The rain is so gentle though....it kisses your skin as opposed to the battering you get in an English downpour.

In the morning I was in one of the villages mentoring my "pupil" during his health education lesson... So proud of him! After the session, I held an open clinic for anyone with any health concerns... Cases included an old lady who was convinced she had been poisoned by some traditional medicinal treatment (taken from tree bark) by one of the village "healers"... Don't think we covered poisoning in the DTN course did we ?? But given she had taken the medicine 3 weeks ago and was not getting worse and in truth, she appeared as fit as a fiddle, I did my best to reassure her after doing some basic obs/physical assessments. They LOVE the stethescope bit!!! One of the main problems in the villages is mental health... Most likely stemming from the aftermath of Pol Pot...there is also a big issue with domestic violence . The Buddhist monks (who are the most highly respected of anyone in society) do occasionally deliver talks on the subject in these rural villages, but there is clearly much work which needs to be done for the psychological well being of these people. There is deep rooted mistrust of other people in these communities owing to the past, and women do not seek or give each other emotional support. The families are fractured with most people living with a cousin or brother/sister rather than their parents; there are hardly any old people... At least 50% of the population was annihilated during the Khmer Rouge era. Consequently life skills we are so used to picking up from our parents and grandparents, are an unknown quantity for rural Cambodians. They have hardly any idea about food/personal/domestic hygiene because no older person was around to teach by example. 

The little girl who is due to have her heart op this week was very withdrawn when I saw her yesterday and one can only but imagine what must be going through her mind at the moment. The good news is the Singapore team doing the op are also going to arrange for her to stay in an apartment after her op for several months (with her family)... At least there is now a chance she will make a good recovery compared to the high risks associated with her going back to live in a palm leaf hut surrounded by animals etc. What other things have I seen on the medical front? Baby with pneumonia who was pretty sick (the lecture on wood fires in the home is hugely pertinent for this country), all the expected skin & nutrional complaints associated with extreme poverty and worms. Nothing challenging (dare I speak too soon???). On the way to BFT this morning, we got caught up in a funeral cortege for one of the children from the school nearby. To see first hand the lighting of a funeral pyre is quite thought provoking. There are so many funerals here. Strange to think in a week we will be returning to England. Best not to think about that at the moment actually!