A day at the lake

With many of the children visiting family for the Khmer New Year, we wanted to do something exciting for the kids who are stuck with us!  Caroline, a French nurse expat working in northern Cambodia, is a committed member of the Wat Opot family.  She visits frequently and the children love her so much.  She came for a visit with her daughter, Alice, and Alice's friend, Chiara who were on holiday from London.  Caroline had the wonderful idea to take the kids still around to Tonle Bati (Bati lake) for the day to get out of the April heat and have a little fun!  With the Anders family having recently donated money for occasions just like this, they and Caroline treated the children (and us volunteers!) to a great time.  There were 38 children, along with myself, Melinda, Caroline, Alice, Chiara, and Monica and Claire from Australia.

The ride to the lake was only about 20 minutes, but the children never ride in cars or buses so for some of them who discovered car sickness it was a LONG drive.

The bus didn't leave until 9, but everyone was up super early SO excited to go! 

The kids put on their best clothes for the trip.  Some of the boys who have 2 nice shirts wore both,  and the two of the little girls wore a nice skirt over a dress.  When they dress up, they go all out.  Of course they ALL wore their new TOMS!!!  What fancy outfit is complete without them?!

When we arrived, we rented 2 huts on the water and inner tubes.  I've never seen kids strip down and jump into water so fast!  We had just given out new pairs of underwear so everyone had something to swim in.

Baby Ratana wasn't too sure at first, but eventually got in and had so much fun

As soon as a child would get out of the water to take a break, they would put their TOMS back on.  It's so sweet how much they love them.

Srey Nith, 4, decided from the first minute she was NOT getting in that water!  Always the lady, she most likely didn't want to get her plastic pearls dirty or mess up a new coat of nail polish.  She made herself busy though, folding and refolding towels, arranging and rearranging bags and water bottles, and doing and redoing my hair.  In this photo, I caught her with a few pairs of underwear/swimmers as she was dipping them in the water to wring out and hang up.  Once she had finished the row, she would dip and wring them again.  She must have done each pair 10 times.

The Cambodian speedboat

Lunch time.. we brought our own rice and purchased fish, beef, and soup there.  I'm always amazed at how much these little bodies can consume.

Srey Nith ready to go home after she ran out of busy work on the huts.  

Socheat

Chanthol

Sister and brother, Kunthy and Touris

Srey Nak and Vinat

Chaney

Lan Krome, brother of Kunty and Touris, had a wonderful time.  He had been very sick with tuberculosis and had a terrible reaction to the medication.  He lost a lot of weight but is bouncing back nicely.  Being in the water and moving around was so great for him. 

Srey Lec

Phanya

Nak and Somnang

Chai takes a nap on his tube

Virak gets some coconut water from Melinda

Me and Srey Lec

The boys negotiating a boat ride.  They got to ride it to the other side of the lake for about 25 cents each.

Kimseck

Rong

Monica and Chaney

We got Kunthea a tube so she could take a nap.  Her hip was hurting her a lot and she wasn't very happy :(

They convinced me to get in after lunch.  It was very refreshing!

Packing up to go home.  Everyone was exhausted.

Srey Nith

Somnang put on an impromptu dance and rap performance on the way home.  I have no idea what he was saying but everyone was clapping and laughing.  It was so funny, he is such a character :)

We got back shortly before dinner and then everyone PASSED OUT.  Thank you Caroline and the Anders family for our amazing day!  The Anders have donated enough that we'll be able to do another trip sometime in the near future... Cora, we'll wait for you to get here so you can go too :)