The Border: What a hot, sticky and exhausting exercise! Off the bus we couldn't see the border but hoped it was near. Knowing the border to be a hot spot for scam artisits, we ignored the masses of people shouting to follow them for a visa, and kept walking and asking official looking people until we found it. An immediate change was already visible here from Thailand. A group of scruffy looking children wondered around begging for money, an older girl of about 8 years was clearly the boss, she shouted at them and hit them, and they looked terrified of her. It was unclear where to go to get our visas, so we had to walk back on ourselves across the vast no mans land between the two countries. Here stood many Casinos and grand hotels, with a shifty and dark feel to their glitsy exteriors. It felt like the kind of place that you wouldn't want to get lost in at night! The Casinos suddenly came to an end and there lay Cambodia.
Sambo and Matthiew picked us up and took us to the school/house in Poipet.
Poipet: Couldn't quite believe the site outside the window. Poipet seemed to be a mud bath covered with random buildings and shacks, and a layer of uncollected, unbagged rubbish. Sambo's house (and English school) was very close but it took us ages to bump our way through the seemingly undrivable roads. His 4 story building looked like the only decent building on the road, and we were shown our room. They gave us the one air con room in the house, such a blessing. And we would be sleeping Cambodian style for the week.. on the floor!
Sambo debriefed us on our work and Emma and I began planning our lessons with the hilariously ancient English books. We were meant to be going to teach in the villages every morning but the monsoon had made the roads so bad that it was now impossible to get there, and so began our somewhat clostraphobic week of intense teaching. Everyday we taught a
varied age range of children in the morning, I had a class of around 30 and Emma had a slightly smaller group of even younger children. We taught them for 2 hours. We chose not to follow the English books but teach them with our fun games and songs that we knew from teaching at home, and incuded lots of craft activities so that they made and took home something everyday. In the afternoon we each taught a young adults group for two hours. Some of the guys 
in my group were too cool for school, so getting them to do games was harder but fun to see them getting into Simon Says! They loved it! An hour after this class we each taught two advanced adult groups for an hour each. After which was dinner time. Exhausting, but the cool part of my day was that my last two classes, when I had the least energy, were on the roof of the school as the sun went down, so I got to see Poipet from above and watch the hot sunset. We had a laugh in the evening classes, maybe my tiredness made me relaxed, and we still managed to play some games.
I absolutely loved getting to know all the student and hanging out with Sambo and his family. Sambo was clearly not his usual bubbly self, although we saw many moments of his true character and infectious laugh, he was troubled by the looming rent payments and church pressures that he simply didn't have the funds for. Sambo's work, I discovered, went far further than teaching English to people in Poipet. He believes English provides people with the tools to get better paid jobs and help themselves out of poverty, which he is passionate about. Using his own money he travels to remote villages to teach to all ages, and pays the fees for the kids in Poipet who can't afford it. He is funding a former student through University whilst also supporting his pregnant wife, two young daughters, his brother who has recently lost his wife and daughter, and his brother-in-law. Sambo was also a key leader in the church, running bible study groups and church services. When we visited the church Sambo lead the service and the accoustic worship. We later learnt about the drawback of being so influencial and important as a Cambodian in Sambo's missionary church. There was much jealousy towards him in the church because he was a popular mamber doing mission. The main church leaders came from America, strangely instead of encouraging local initiated mission they were seemingly oppressing it unless they were able to manage it. The church was trying to convince Sambo to move his school out of Poipet, where the need is, and start one up out of town next door to the church. The logic behind this seemed to point solely to a desire to oversee and mange the work from inside the church. To ensure it happened they had cut all funding for Sambo's mission. There wasn't really anyone in the same place as Sambo to journey with and pray with, he had his friends and wife who he prayed with a lot but no one to challenge or pass on advice. He felt quite issolated, and Emma and I prayed for that person of accountability to come into his life soon.At the end of our week Sambo generously took us to Angkor Wat for a little break and treat. It was stunning, especially the 'Tomb Raider Temple' where as usual I was more impressed with nature's show and attempts at reclaiming the land than man's creation. Our tuk tuk driver around the Wats was a friend of Sambo's, he was fantastic and wanted to teach us about the place at every stop. There were lots of child beggers here, who were very persistent and forceful. And I had my first up and close experience with asian monkeys. Walking through a wooded path connecting two Wats they were all hanging out along the path. Got some great close up pics. Only to discover when I looked up that a group of tourists were photographing me!! Having spotted them they decided to ask for my permission, and one by one each of the Vietnamese tourists had their picture next to me, bizzare!! Should have charged!
On one of our last meals together, which I had enjoyed eating every time, a strange looking fruit came out for dessert. Usually water melon, but today a spikey large round fruit called Durian. The two little girls were really excited by this arrival and we soon all had a piece of the fruit's soft inside in our hands. I took a bite and didn't know how I was going to swallow it! The richest, most pungeant, thick tasting fruit, similar texture to a banana except smoother and with the worst aftertaste ever!! I thought it was best to be honest for fear of future servings, only to discover that this was a real treat, a very expensive fruit just bought for the special guests, classic! I felt bad but the girls enjoyed finishing my portion.
For one last treat Sambo and friends took us to a 'waterpark'. To start with it had begun to rain but that didn't put anyone off. Smaller than a football pitch this 'complex' had 2 slides of dangerously unsafe proportions, the bumpy slide threw me several feet into the air at each bump before the harsh landing back onto the plastic slope and a drop off into the brown, algae infested pond! Whatever you do don't swa;;ow! Surrounding the pool were plastic figures like dinosaurs and tea cups for the enjoyment of kids, it was hilarious, but they LOVED it!
Our week at the school had created so many lovely friendships and I was going to miss these bubbly new friends.
Sadness: A couple of weeks after our departure from Cambodia I received a desperate email
from Sambo. His brother-in-law, who we'd not met, had just been in a horrific road accident where he was flown from his motorbike head first into a metal fence. There was bleeding in the brain which they had to drain, and he was unconscious. The man had a wife and two young sons but the rest of the family weren't around, so Sambo was left to pay the huge hospital fees. Far higher than he could afford. A few weeks after that, a second email told me they had run out of money and his brother was dying. All I could do was pray for Sambo 
and the family. It broke my heart because I was really praying for a breakthrough in finances for Sambo and then this accident which had taken everything from them right before the birth of his new baby. God please send your hand of healing and provision into that family and restore hope. They were so loving and generous to me, I pray for them every day.
