With a few bits and pieces left to finish on the house, we checked out of our hotel, and headed back to Gunty’s to complete the house.

We were finished by lunch and had an amazing meal waiting for us as usual.
After lunch we setup a hair washing station and washed some of the children’s hair and de-nit where we could.
In the afternoon we had the privilege of attending Gunty’s church where we listened to a couple of items sung in Khmer as well as leading a song of our own in English.
It was a unique experience which most of us would only do once in a lifetime like this and we listened as Chub took the service which Gunty translated into Khmer at the same time.

After the church service, the team had some time to just play with the local children, where the laughter and smiles showed that not speaking the same language doesn’t matter.

The team was split into several groups for sleeping, and each house was given around $5 to go to the market and buy food to feed their host family and themselves for dinner and breakfast. There was some excellent bartering done and some culinary geniuses amongst the group which were able to make a dish that would give Jaime Oliver a run for his money.

Off to market

After dinner, most of the girls and guys, at their respective well, ventured out to have their evening shower outside in the dark. This involved pumping water from the well and then using a bucket to wash yourself while for boys, wearing underwear, and for girls, wearing a sarong.

The well where the boys had a shower

Each person was given a thin bamboo mat, a towel, a mosquito net and a blanket. That was our bed for the night, sleeping on the wooden floorboards of our respective houses.

We were up early to pack up our mosquito nets and mats before making our family breakfast. We said our goodbyes and loaded up our vans and caught the barge back across the Mekong river for the last time. We stopped in at Brown’s cafe in Phnom Penh and RAWimpact bought the team a drink each before we made our way through the dusty roads of Cambodia up to Kratie.

One for the road

After 5 or so hours on the road, we arrived at our hotel. Our hotel is situated on the Mekong and from out the front of the hotel we met as a group and had a chat as the big orange sun set over the river.

It was a refreshing change to sleep in a comfy bed with aircon, compared to our accommodation the night before in the village.