Dylan & Helen’s Weblog

CHRISTMAS DAY
We spent the morning with a lie in and slobbed about most of the day and had noodles from a stall down the road as our Christmas Lunch (knowing that tomorrow we would be having a roast dinner cooked by Rob and Kayleigh this was perfectly acceptable).

We helped to pack some of the donated presents into carrier bags and label them for the kids whilst the tables etc. were set up for the party of some 50-60 people. The music was organised and the speakers from the Foo Fighters concert seemed to have been flown in and wired up in the yard whilst Anou’s mum worked with a team of locals preparing dinner in the back – I tried to help but once he realised the big cubes in the curry were congealed blood his enthusiasm for stirring was somewhat reduced!

Volunteers getting ready for the party

Anous mum and team preparing for the big cook!

Dylan tries his hand

Foo Fighter style speakers for the party!

The kids started to arrive in the afternoon after the later session of school. They were all quite excited straight away seeing the speakers, decorations and tables and in the spirit of Christmas almost all of them insisted on at least one picture posing by the Christmas tree! The music started and despite our ealier fears the windows held out against the bass! The kids where quick to congragate on the yard and loved dancing whilst Andre and the others had a little fun with some water baloons from the balcony!

Mamma Jo Jo organised a few games of pass the parcel and also musical chairs – despite the cheating (hovering around chairs and delay on passing) the winners always shared their booty with the younger kids! Everytime the music started the atmoshphere was electric with the excitement and anticipation and I (Dylan) was quite annoyed I was considered too old to play!

Later on dinner was served and it was really so nice to see all the kids sat with each other chatting excitedly and enjoy a proper meal together! With each plate was a little bag of goodies for all the kids – these included toothbrushes, fruit and other little presents and it was almost upsetting to see just how much these were truly appreciated! It really was quite amazing to see how these kids all share everything and it was fantastic to be part of such a big treat for them all – a special thanks must go out to the contributors and sponsors that had put in for all these treats!

More dancing was had and when it had gotten dark (after 5:30 here) everyone was called to take a seat – at this point the kids weren’t sure what was going on and we soon realised they had thought the little bag of goodies was the present they had been looking forward to and talking about all week. As they were called out one by one to collect their bag of presents most of us volunteers actually got quite emotional at just how excited and appreciative they all were – and most shed a tear when the kids went round and thanked each mummy and daddy for their presents!

The kids danced and played until later (about 10ish) whilst I (Dylan) pussied out and snook off to bed around the same time). H and a few others stayed up for a few hours chatting about the day and sharing a few beers and maybe one or two vodkas!

BOXING DAY
Another late morning (we’re sure it’s just the heat) and we were up and at it. Helen went across to the orphanage to complete the second mural on the wall (Angkor Wat) as the kids had been helping and really wanted to get it finished. Myself and Greg stayed around and decided to complete the BBQ – we needed a tray to hold the charcoal and the rods to support it and the cooking trays. We tried a few local places but the communication barrier of trying to draw, describe, point etc. what exactly we required was just too much – we called on Anou and her interpretation skills and a little later we had the rods!

Neville came up with an old metal table that we decided to use as the tray and unbelievably it was the perfect size for the BBQ base! All we needed now was charcoal. I got Anou to write Charcoal in Kmer so we could simply show this at the market and be pointed in the right direction – Greg and I took a bike and off we went.

RESULT – the first vendor we showed the Kmer writing to pointed us to the charcoal stall – we got a bag each and set off on our way home.

HIT AND RUN
As some people have probably heard there was an incident on the way home…

We came off the main road and onto the side street near the house and Greg and I cycled, chatting side by side on the correct side of the road. A short way down the road we realised there were two Motos coming the opposite direction; one on the correct side and the other seemingly swerving about on our side. I don’t remember a great deal other than realising the Moto was coming on pretty damn fast and at the last second swerved head on into me. Fortunately Greg managed to throw himself out of the way but my bycicle stopped dead (and was pretty much bent about) and I basically shot back, horizontally in the opposite direction. I bounced a couple of times and was out for only a few seconds.

When I came around I recall Greg screaming obsenities at the driver and his blood soaked passenger as they scarpered on a somewhat battered moto (accidents here are settled on a ‘cash – there and then principle’ and the scarpering is not uncommon). Once we realised I was coherent and concious Greg ran back to the house to get help. Meanwhile I sat and was observered by a circle of locals all unsure quite what to do – I took off my t-shirt and used it to cover my eye and assessed the damage; broken glasses, wrecked camera, ruined bike, ripped clothes, broken flip-flop and the sodding charcoal was everywhere!. After a short while Greg had returned with Neville, Anou and H (and most importantly a car!) and I was taken to the hospital – we left the charcoal behind.

Takeo only has a referral hospital and unfortunately this is a hospital with very limited resources. I sat outside the one emergency ‘room’ for a few minutes when a little girl who had been involved in another road incident was carried out with a drip in, placed in a taxi to be taken to Phnom Penh (@2 hours away) – by now I was feeling a little guilty being sure it was just a couple of cuts.

My wounds were doused in iodine and manually scrubbed of the gravel etc. that had embedded and H was asked to leave whilst they ’sorted’ me out. Sorting me out then consisted of mocking me whilst I shouted profanities at the poor doctors and nurses as they set my nose and applied stitches to my eyebrow and eyelid. I do recall being told “no pain, no pain” which I started to recite with the odd expletive interjected!

Back to the house – $10 short for the privelage – where I then missed out on a splendid looking roast dinner . Everyone was great but we decided not to indulge in the alcohol and had a fairly early night!

THE DAY AFTER
Now the bruising was coming out and the aching had set in. Today we didn’t go to the orphanage and I lounged about the house whilst Helen kept a worrying eye on me (to be honest I had the easy part just aching and being a little miffed – H had the worrying side and I’m not sure I would have traded).

In the afternoon Mamma Jo Jo returned from the orphanage with a couple of the chaps and a little pile of hand made get well cards from the kids! This really cheered me up and although Jo had put simple phrases like “get well soon” on the board they had all ad-libbed with really touching messages – I think it may have been the medication but it was really emotional reading through them! The kids that had come to visit were all, as I’ve found even people here in another province, really apologetic that this should happen in Cambodia – I’ve been sure to keep my perspective during this episode and not label all from the actions of a couple of (allegedly drunken) tosspots!

In the evening my eye had closed (not surprising really) but I had developed a real bad and constant headache and also my teeth had all gone numb on one side. We contacted the insurance (can’t recommend this enough now!!!!) and they agreed that a visit to Pnom Penh was advisable. We organised a taxi and made our way there. To cut a long story short 12 xrays, redressing the 5 worst areas, a couple of injections, a few blood tests and $175 of medication later I was told they would prefer me to stay in for 3 days – we discussed and agreed that if I stayed near the hospital this would suffice (I didn’t want H stuck in some hotel on her own – if I was suffering she should suffer too >;o) lol)

We left the hospital at about 3am and made our way to the hotel – at this point I became a little depressed – I had been prescribed at least one week of anti-biotics so I would have to return to Takeo and be mocked for drinking water on our now religious evening chillout drink time!