Luckily for me Jane Dinnison, the Fundraising Coordinator for Australia for the PLF (Ponheary Ly Foundation: http://theplf.org/wp/), was in Siem Reap at the same time as me teaching English at Khnar School for one of the local teachers who had recently had a baby. Jane has been involved with the Foundation’s work for several years and was a wealth of knowledge and wisdom, as well as being great company during our journey to and from school, and over many delicious Cambodian dinners.

 The daily two hour tuktuk ride was at times uncomfortable (depending on the number of potholes our driver managed to avoid) and always hot and dusty. But the journey was also fascinating and lovely as the road wends its way across rice paddies, through forests, past pink decaying temples or alongside villages of thatched ‘houses’ on stilts, morning shafts of sunlight hazy in the smoke from the cooking fires.

A favourite stop on the way home is a noodle shop in the village of Pradak to sample Num Banh Chok – a delicious rice noodle soup served with peanut sauce and various pickles, and topped off with a selection (your choice) of leaves and water lily stalks freshly picked from the forest that morning. Supremely tasty cuisine for less than $1 a bowl!

Access to clean water in the villages is limited, so at Khnar School Australian donors have provided a washing station. Water is pumped up from the ground and bowls, soap and scrubbing brushes are provided. The children love the opportunity to clean themselves, and in the few months that it’s been in place, the deep, infected sores on their arms and legs have almost completely disappeared.

Medical care for rural Cambodians is at best unreliable and inaccessible, at worst non-existent, and there is almost no understanding of how modern medicines work. So the PLF provides daily nursing care at the school and the children are learning to present their ‘wounds’ for treatment on a daily basis. They show so much innocent trust and are so stoic when faced with pain. How much easier it must be to learn, knowing that such things are taken care of.