Volunteer Life in Pictures #25: What the hell are these people doing, you ask? That little four wall thing they are brick-laying is going to be the tiniest school ever, you say? Well, it's actually a flowerbed! We did five of these, and for most of the volunteers it was their first time mixing cement and brick-laying. Good practice for the real deal, when they started building the walls of the actual school. See, we know what we are doing.

Volunteer Life in Pictures #22: These volunteers did a naughty thing. We are supposed to cook our own meals while living in the village. But sometimes, things get in the way, like being really tired, no charcoal to start a fire, no oil etc etc. You wouldn't believe this but there are restaurants in small, isolated villages in Cambodia. We usually call them the only restaurant in the village. So if we get desperate we will go to one of these 'restaurants' and buy our meal. They only have one item on the menu and it's usually noodles for 75cents.

Volunteer Life in Pictures #21: Because our volunteers are rigorously tested before being accepted into our prestigious volunteer program we get some very athletic people. This leads to some fairly physical sports classes with the students. You can tell we are telling the truth by looking at our volunteers demonstrating a variation to the game Tunnel Ball. The students look on in amazement and wonder.

Volunteer Life in Pictures #19: It is a tradition in Cambodia that a school must be blessed before it opens. At all our projects we have a blessing ceremony with the local monks. It also a little festive and gifts and stuff are offered and accepted. Here, donated shoes are given to some lucky kids through a raffle/lottery like system. We didn't have enough to give everyone a pair. But still, it was amazing.

Volunteer Life in Pictures #18: Yes, working on a construction worksite in extreme Cambodian heat is physically demanding. During breaks you sleep wherever and whenever you can. But beware, some volunteers, have energy to burn and will play a prank or two on those that sleep 🙂 Photo, courtesy of Kenny Chy.

Volunteer Life in Pictures #15: A Ute. In the back of one. This is how we travel in Cambodia into and out of the village. It makes us all get very close. Which we like.

Volunteer Life in Pictures #14: We sometimes have jungle parties. The whole village will come out and dance all night to music blasting from massive speakers that is transported via cow and cart. Sometimes they use a megaphone on a tall stick. This gives volunteers the chance to show off their incredible dance moves. Mitchell and Cha are synchronise dancing. It really takes our breath away.

Volunteer Life in Pictures #11: T-shirt painting workshops. Sophia and some boys show off their creative and artistic skills. We discovered some kids have amazing drawing and painting skills.

Volunteer Life in Pictures #9: You might be wondering what the hell we are doing. It's karaoke. Yes, even in far away places, where there is no electricity or running water in very remote areas, there is karaoke. We have forgotten what these volunteers were singing, but the locals said they liked it.

Volunteer Life in Pictures #8: There's lots of things to do when building a school. One of them is moving rocks around a building site. We use old cement sacks stapled to sticks. Place different sized rocks on this 'stretcher' and with a partner you like, you carry it somewhere else. Mitch and Cha demonstrate how to bend your knees when picking this heavy load up and thus adhering to our strict OHS policy. Oh and there is Pete and Valerie doing nothing. Again.