update

Finally I’ve got to blog.  However, not much happening on the painting front.  I did buy some mangosteens yesterday and settled down only to find that my paints did not like the atmosphere at all.  I have been trying to track down some linseed oil in Phnom Penh but since nobody seems to paint here – it’s a tricky one.  I’m going to try and improve it tomorrow but don’t hold out much hope.

So this is going to be a travelblog until I get back on 15th April.  Here’s the lowdown.  We poured off the plane last Tuesday and straight onto our favourite island for some downtime.  It’s changed a lot!  The tacky bits are tackier and the more upmarket bits are more upmarket.  Lovely to chill out though and swim in a sea that is warm and eat somtam (papaya salad) and BBQ chicken on the beach followed by a massage.  Moved on to Phnom Penh on Sunday and checked into a lovely hotel which is a small colonial house in a lush tropical garden – heaven!    We went straight to PSE to find Thida who is the reason we have come here.  Long story short, we have been helping to support her for the past five years or so – she is a 17-year-old orphan and is HIVpos.  Bob met her by chance when he was delivering a present to another child at the orphanage from a friend in Bangkok.  Since coming back to the UK we have kept in touch but it’s difficult from so far away.  We knew that she had moved on from school and is  studying hair and beauty at PSE (a wonderful organisation which educates children living in poverty) so thought we would find her there – wrong!  However, we did have a guided tour of the place and got ourselves coiffed and our toes painted a rather garish sparkly gold!!  We’re on the trail of Thida and off to National Borey (the orphanage where she lives) to track her down now.  I will let you know what happens tomorrow.  The reason I’m telling you all this is to ask you to look at the PSE website and I’d like to tell you a bit more about NBIC (National Borey for Infants and Children) which I will tomorrow – two fantastic places that help kids who have absolutely nothing  More tomorrow.  Please don’t unsubscribe,  if the travelog doesn’t interest you, paintings will be back on April 15th (unless I find some linseed oil tomorrow!).