No sign of Gertie Ghecko today but I am fairly sure she is under the notice board.  I am certainly not going to attempt to move it to have a look.

What an amazing, rewarding and very busy  week it has been.  Now I have a rapport with the children and know which ones need discipline and those with whom I need to be more gentle.

.
 Yesterday was such a special day at Grace House.  It started with a blessing of the new building.

 This is to be a residential centre for disadvantaged children in the village and will be in interim home for them before they are integrated back in to the community.  There was much chanting from the  Monks who  came to perform the blessing.  This is done behind fans to prevent them getting distracted whilst meditating.   The volunteers were  asked to wear long skirts and a white top as a mark of respect.  We then celebrated with  the local community and ate traditional dishes wrapped in palm leaves.

A day at Grace House is divided in to two sessions.  The morning session finishes at 11am and we start again teaching the same thing to another group of children in the afternoon.  Both morning and afternoon classes performed for their parents and although my Buffalos and Crocodiles sang well known songs - The Wheels on the Bus, and Head and Shoulders - they were word perfect and in time with each other!

Today we played games and went to the library and there was much laughter.



 I am so happy to have had the opportunity to be here with these wonderful people.

In Nepal I shared my room with Boris, my pet spider who lived behind the mirror in my room.   Here I have Gertrude Ghekko - but perhaps she is some sort of lizard?

 She is very very shy and disappears behind an old notice board every time I come in the room and put on the light, so she is difficult to identify.  Gertrude moves VERY quickly and I keep dreaming of her falling on my face whilst the lights are off and I am asleep.  

My post on Facebook this afternoon....


Just arrived home hot, tired, happy but hungry.  Should I have no 9, the spicy fried frog?

The children told me that this innocent looking frog   I found in the classroom this morning was poisonous and they were all very wary of it.

 One brave girl got a long stick and tried to get it out of the room but the petrified amphibean jumped up about 5 feet in the air -and  we all jumped up on the table!  

Back to school tomorrow and the real reason I am in Cambodia.  There are plenty of opportunities for fun and sight seeing on the weekends however.

The waterfalls in the Kuhlen Mountains.  Last year an archaelogical team discovered and mapped the ruins of another ancient city, possibly even bigger than Angkor Thom, on the slopes of this mountain.

 

This is the face of the  largest 
reclining statue of Buddha in the country.The statue is carved into a huge sandstone boulder.  The 16th century monastery also has many smaller Buddhist statues made at the same time

Today a group of us went  to the Khulen mountains.  An amazing place that was the original mining site for many of Siem Reap's famous temples and is a sacred site for Cambodians.  We paddled in the waterfall

and found the river with 1000  lingas, sandstone  carvings dating back to the 11th century.

.

On the way to the waterfall many of the stall holders were selling traditional medicines, mainly made of roots and tree bark.  


 This stall holder obviously sizes up her customers carefully.


 She is indicating  that  the large root on her left  is good for forgetfulness in the elderly

On my way to this evening's staff party to celebrate 6 years - before the Angkor beer

 

It has been cloudy  today but no rain and the humidity is high.   It was team games on the football pitch  for the little ones and a coach came to teach the lesson.

I nearly sat on this centipede, which was still very much alive even though it has somehow got completely tangled up in tape.  It must have been over six inches long and it gave me quite a shock.  A tasty dinner full of protein for someone no doubt.