Sunday 4 May 2014

A time of change …

The dry season is over.  It’s early May and the rains have arrived. 

Each day lightning with thunderstorms heralds the rain and each day the rain last longer turning the ‘saffron’ dirt roads into streams and rivers of mud becoming treacherous to ride on …  

So now I get up at 5 a.m.  In the dark.  In a vain attempt to beat the rain, my VA and I rush to the villages to deliver workshops, but invariably return home drenched and splattered with mud … I have adopted a large bamboo stick as my travelling companion to wade through the muddy waters when I have to dismount the motorbike while Savy pushes the motorbike up and down the muddy hills.

With the rains, surrounding forest has come alive with lush green foliage;  together with deafening sounds of frogs, cicadas and other unknown ‘electrical’ insects.  Also, swarms of cream yellow butterflies drift by during the day and at night we are invaded by thousands of ‘May Pleans’.

‘May Pleans’ - Rain Insects, also known as: large 4 wing-flying ants appear at night. After a heavy rain thousands of ‘May Pleans’ dance around night-lights shedding their wings in the course of the night littering the grounds by morning.   Fried ‘May Pleans’ are a local delicacy which I’m told taste like bacon bits. 

Of course this time of the year ‘May Pleans’ are a real feast for geckos.  Every evening, around 7, our friendly gecko positions himself on the awning with his head stuck out ready to attack.  First, he lets flying insects swirl around him and then he devours them whole once they are close to his bite.

Farewell to VSO volunteers
With the changing of the season, there’s a change of VSO Volunteers.  As I speak a swarm of VSO volunteers are getting ready to leave Cambodia.  Gemma has just left.  Followed by Tracy, Karen.  Soon Yves, Zeneida, Sabrina will be leaving …

Last night we had a party for my colleague whom we met at our pre-departure training in Ottawa.   While Karen and I prepared for the party, the heavens opened, the house began to leak and Kevin began to ‘madly’ mop up the floors.  

During the downpour the power went out.  The pizza guy called to say that the pizzas were ‘ready’, but not cooked due to power failure.   So for a while we sat on the verandah with romantic lit candles, wine, beer and food until magically the power returned just as our guest arrived with the pizzas at that!   In the end, everything fell into place, despite the constant downpour that continued throughout the evening.

It’s now 2 in the afternoon.  Dark clouds are rolling in quickly.  Another burst of torrential rainfall is about to start.  Kevin and I are getting ready to meet the VSO gang at CafĂ© Pkhar for one last farewell ….


More later ...

Photos will be posted at a later date