Okay, so things have been moving fast - I'm not sure where I last left off. I ended up finding some neat volunteer opportunities here in Kampot (which has proven to be a great place to slow down and kick my feet up). I hooked up with some great people who volunteer at a language school and I've been able to help out with the English lessons in the evenings there. The kids are patient and very excited about the whole thing so it's been a lot of fun. In the mornings I've been helping to paint a cafe that employs people with hearing impairments and also does a lot with a local school for physically disabled kids. I'll put some photos up when Tim and I finish it in a week or two. There's also an orphanage near by and my friend Sumi and I have been spending time with the kids there during the afternoon. There are 55 orphans living there and another 75 that are HIV positive who live around the community (though I'm not clear where or how). Of course the kids are a lot of fun and I'll be sure to put up some photos soon. The past three days have been Chinese New Years and that means fireworks starting at 5:30 in the morning and lots of celebration when it cools down at night. One of the Cambodian teachers from the language school invited Sumi and I to her parent’s house to partake in the first day of festivities. They made all kinds of delicious traditional food and tried to get us to drink some beer with breakfast . . . instead I just ate way too much. When I got back to my Guesthouse in the afternoon, very full and sleepy, the owner had me sit down with his friends and family (along with many of the people staying there) to do the whole thing over again, but this time the beer was flowing even more freely. All in all, it was a really neat experience that offered a lot of cultural insight. Yesterday was a free day so Sumi and I did a tour to Bokor Hill Station, which is an abandoned 1950’s hotel, casino, and small village. It’s on top of the second highest mountain in Cambodia, I think around 1,500 meters, and has some incredible views (I’ll post photos). The whole place was sacked during the Khmer Rouge and now it’s basically a very spooky gutted building. The weather is also eerie, it can be completely sunny, then in two minutes there are clouds blowing in around everything creating a thick wispy fog. The drive up was also an adventure. The road was completed in the 1920’s and probably hasn’t been worked on since. It’s about 43 kilometers but takes maybe 2 hours to drive – which is way too fast. Parts of the road are basically riverbed and a good portion of it is simply dirt and rocks featuring two foot drops, foot high boulders, and deep ruts. Needless to say, the back of a pick-up may not have been the most comfortable way to go, but I’d probably do it again just the same. That’s it for now. - tanner
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