Happy New Year!!

So I'm sorry it's been quite a while since I updated... Let's see how I go filling you in:

Christmas was spent in a luxury hotel in the deluxe suite, and we paid three times the price of any other hotel we'd stayed in ($15 each!!!) and we were all still pretty sick from memory, although Kate's norfloxacin trumped my azithromycin because she was well by Christmas Day and I wasn't. Hye Jin and I went to Midnight Mass at the Sacred Heart (Catholic) Cathedral where the Carols started at 11pm, led by a choir of amateurs, most of whom didn't know the words. It was really nice to hear Christmas carols, since the only other one we'd heard was "Here comes Santa Claus" from a dancing Santa doll in a shop in the central circle of Connaught Place, New Delhi. A power outage temporarily put a halt to things and the guy sitting next to me asked us out for coffee, an invitation that we politely declined. It restarted and the guy bailed. Then chiming bells and everyone stood up, looking really excited: in came the pope-looking guys and altar boys with smoking incense and silly outfits. The sing-songing ("Iiiin the naaame of the Faaather and the Son and the Holy Spiriiiiiit, aaaaaaaa-meeeeeeeeeeen") was a bit unexpected and the poor altar boy nearly passed out from smoke inhalation, but the mass overall was really nice, and the sermon even made me cry because it was talking all the injustices here on earth, and it pretty much reflected what we'd seen on the streets of Delhi. It assured us of the hope that we have that there's more to life than our time on earth, which was a very comforting reminder.

About 2am, when Hye Jin and I assumed the mass was coming to an end because they invited their fellow Cathoilics up for communion, we decided to go home and get some sleep. I had a skype chat with mum and then went to bed.

A sleep-in on Christmas was a nice change, Kate and I got up about 10am, after Hye Jin had left for a Korean church service she found. I was feeling a little off but did not want that to ruin Christmas, so we had a lovely breakfast of breadsticks, croissants, strawberries, grapes, chocolate (and Kate had vegemite)...

Then an unplanned skype-to-phone chat with dad was lovely, before we decided to head out and not waste the day sitting in the hotel. When Hye Jin was back, we took Kate to the manicure place that Hye Jin and I had gone to while Kate was having an afternoon nap, and then the three of us had 'coffee' in a chainstore called "Cafe Coffee Day." I had a chocolate brownie with ice-cream too. *guilty face*

Feeling exhausted, we headed back to the hotel, as by this time it was dinner time. We had pasta (I had spaghetti bolognese) for Christmas dinner and it was amazing. I had a sneaky skype chat with Anna before dinner, and it was lovely to talk to her.

Boxing Day, Hye Jin left us and it was just down to Kate and I. I unfortunately couldn't give Hye Jin a hug goodbye because I was in the shower... so I poked my head out and awkwardly waved - clearly Hye Jin didn't want a slimy wet hug from a soapy just-in-a-towel me!

Kate and I went to the Gandhi museum, but on the way when we were stopped at a traffic light, our driver pointed out a man who was crippled and walking on his hands and feet. The driver proceeded to explain to us about the Indian Mafia, and how someone had done that to him so he'd get more money, and that he'd only get about 20%, the police and officials get 20% as a bribe to let them stay there and the mafia keep the rest. It was really interesting hearing it from an Indian... he was muslim and he praised his god that he was lucky enough to not be in that man's place. I silently thanked Mine too.

Gandhi was a pretty amazing man... did you know he was a lawyer?

After a thali (rice, curry, curry, dal, bread) we got a taxi to the airport and in our lat ditched efforts, we refused to get ripped off by the pre-paid driver who asked for more money. We didn't even tip him. Sorry India, we were sick of being ripped off.

At the airport, I discovered that there was no post-box inside the departures terminal so a nice (?) guy at a newsagent agreed to post my pre-stamped postcards, taking my email address to tell me if anything whent wrong. If you get the postcards, nothing when wrong and he was a nice guy :P

Feeling very ill in transit in KL, with Kate as fit as a fiddle, we watched some random movies, including one called "Witless Protection" about a country hick in America, and another about Charlie Bart-something. Interesting adolescent delinquent.

We arrived in Phnom Penh about 10am, after some dried fish (spicy instant fish!!) curry and prawns for breakfast on the plane. Supheap, Kate's supervisor, picked us up and took us to the apartment. And what an apartment! HUGE!! We both got our our bathrooms and toilets (and a spare toilet!) and double beds... amazing!!

We took Monday to settle in, then Tuesday afternoon I went in to meet one of my supervisors. Great guy, chatted about lots of stuff and told me that if I even feel unsafe in Phnom Penh, I should call him straight away. Great :)
Wednesday I started orientation with Mith Samlanh, the local Cambodian 'version' of the Friends International organisation I'll be working with for my research. On the back of a motorbike with no helmet for the first two days, visiting street kids and families around different areas of Phnom Penh. On Thursday I got really sunburnt and bought a long sleeve top, and in the evening bought a motorbike helmet... because it's also cheaper to catch a motorbike than a tuk-tuk. Friday we spent the morning visiting people who inject drugs to provide them with safe injecting equipment and some foods. One of the workers asked me if I wanted to watch someone inject drugs, and took me over to a lady who was just squatting down pumping the blood into the syringe and then out into her arm again to make sure she got all of the heroin out of the needle. Pretty confronting. As we were leaving, I watched a man inject into a woman's femoral vein. The drug team also had to do clean ups and at one stage we were walking across a sandy area to talk to some people and had to watch where we were stepping because there were used syringes in random places.

Living on the streets is just a way of life for these people... one lady handed me her baby while she spoke to the outreach workers. Another, when we were in the mobile drug drop in centre, gave me her baby to hold, then made me a friendship bracelet and painted my fingernails black. I wish I could have communicated but she didn't speak English and I don't speak Khmer. But she looked so young! (She told the outreach worker she was 24)


Kate and I went out in the touristy area to make friends for new years eve. we met some Finnish guys but decided to change venues because it was too noisy in the place we were at. Then we met a guy called Alex in the US army and a lady called Rachel from the UK. We went with them to watch the fireworks (both the official ones and the random ones fired off into the street by partymakers) outside the royal palace and the walked halfway home with them. Kate and I gave up and caught a tuk-tuk the rest of the way home.

We met up with Rachel and Alex on New Years Day to go to the Genocide Museum (S.21) which was very tragic and not a pleasant way to start the new year. As the others headed to the Killing Fields, I pulled the pin and Kate and I went home. I went back to bed because I was tired and coulf feel a cold settling in. I got up around 1pm to get lunch and then went back to bed. Kate woke me up and about 7pm, but I didn't feel like getting up so she wnet and got dinner alone. I slept until 11pm, got a drink of water, then slept through until 6am this morning.

This morning I went to Bethany Baptist Church which is just up the road from here. The 9am session was nice, but I preferred the 5pm one. One lady asked to speak to me after the service and asked me about how I became a Christian and whether I remember the exact day that I was saved. (I know it was a Thursday at the end of September) Then she prayed for me and said how grateful she was that I found the church in the yellow pages. To tell you the truth, I'm pretty happy too: it seems like a nice place to be.

Between services, I joined Kate on a trip to the Russian market where we bought toilet paper and a saucepan and Kate bought the Mahjong titans game. We spent the arvo figuring that out.

Went out for dinner as usual, then came back... Kate's not feeling well, maybe dehydrated. I can feel a sickness coming on... hopefully I'll be ok by tomorrow but I think I've caught a gastro bug again. Damn. I don't want to lost any more weight this way... i ca already see my ribs from last time I was sick.

Much love. It's 10pm and much past my bedtime. It's 30 degrees before 10am here so I gotta be up early to function. We have plenty of room on the floor if anyone is visiting Cambodia between now and February!!

Send me some news. Happy New Year xx