update

We waited for a couple of hours at the orphanage yesterday evening for Thida to come home from school.  It’s really frustrating as nobody there speaks English and I don’t know any Khmer.  One of the carers got on his motorbike to go and look for her walking home but couldn’t find her.  Eventually we gave up and decided to come back this morning.  Eureka!  We found her.  She’d been given the day off school to see us so it was lovely to find her……………big hugs all round.  She looks great, all grown up yet still tiny.  The first thing we did was go to a bicycle shop and find her a bike to make her journey home from school faster!  She chose the brightest, pinkest one in the shop.  Our taxi driver did a sterling job on the bartering front.  Then we went back to NBIC to see the director, whilst Thida gave “backsteps” to her friends around the orphanage grounds.  We found someone who spoke both Khmer and English (a visitor who we hijacked) to interpret for us.  We got lots of info we had been desperate for e.g. that she is well and that her HIV medicine will be available to her for the rest of her life and that she is secure in her hairdressing and beauty course.  We brought her out some hairdressing stuff from UK such as scissors, brushes etc.  There was much hilarity amongst the girls over this!  Next we took her and her friend Sreyka to a shop to buy party dresses for the school party on Friday.  More pinkness, many frills plus some rather pungent cheap perfume which seemed to be a hit and a pair of hair crimpers – can’t wait to see the finished product! 

Flora’s art teacher had kindly donated some boxes of watercolours and we gave them to the volunteers who are working with the disabled children at NBIC.  They are occupational therapists and they said they would be really useful.  We got them out immediately and they seemed a big hit.  We had intended doing some art with the children but the physically able ones are at school all day so we left them with the OT specialists after trying to help out in the most inept manner.  This little girl was beaming when she was painting and the boy at the back is really talented even though they are both seriously handicapped by cerebal paulsy.  There are some seriously disabled children at the orphanage and its a sad sight but we watched them splashing in a large paddling pool which seems to be their favourite activity.  Mrs.P, the director, gets some money from the government but it’s never enough and she relies on donations.  She is busy trying to set up a bank account for donations as she realises that people can be reluctant to hand over cash.  A fellow blogger tells me that my link yesterday didnt work which is hardly surprising as I am a self-confessed techno-neanderthal.  Worth googling.  Pour une sourir d’enfant (PSE) and National Borey of Infants and Children, Cambodia (dreadful website – any talented webdesigners in search of a challenge??).