Lunch with Sophal and Sophek

Workshop in Khoe Nhiek Village

Workshop at POE

As predicted, the last two months  had indeed past quickly.   In two months we magically squeezed in many activities and events …  we conducted many training workshops and follow ups in town , at the education complex in Sen Monorom, and in the villages.  We tied loose ends with my two assistants’ in closing their contracts, arranged to return my motorbike to  Phnom Penh and organized more of this and that before our leave ….  Over the month of April, we had some major celebrations with friends and neighbours and sorted things out that we wanted to give away, mainly to POE staffs and to friends.   In the end, our major packing took 5 days …  to give our things away that we had accumulated over a period of 3 years -furniture, kitchen utensils, hoards of clothes and more.. .

Lunch with POE Colleagues 

April was a month with many farewell parties to send us off to new adventures.  Sukhon and Savy, our landlord/lady made a large chicken coconut casserole currie with banana fritters for us to share with neighbours, ICS youths who lived down below us and Biju, VSO volunteer. Oh, and before we left Mondolkiri, Sukhon insited that we take a batch of avocados, (freshly snagged from his avocado trees) South with us :)  OuDom and his wife, owners of Mondolkiri Pizza, made a special Khmer New Year’s dinner for us and even made us  a large pizza for us to take home that we ended up sharing it with our little community down below.   We also caught up with Hans and his VA for an evening drink before he returned to Phnom Penh from his intensive 3 day Science Training Workshop that he had for teachers and school directors.  As for the POE side of things, my female colleagues at work took us out for lunch at the Khmer Kitchen restaurant in town, and my male colleagues,  together with my VA, Heng Voleak took us out for breakfast. 

Lunch with Sophal and Sophek 

Sophal and Sophek, whom we met at the beginning of our journey in Cambodia and who we worked with off and on throughout our time here, had a farewell lunch for us.  They just had a baby boy and Leida, now 6 years old, was in charge of looking after his baby brother whilst Sophek and I prepared lunch – see post: A morning with Sophek - Saturday, February 14, 2015. 

Mid April, after we left Sen Monorom, we spent a few days South for the Khmer New Year where Cambodian flags gently swayed in the wind,  stood smart and tall lining every corner of every street that we passed.   Whilst in transit, my exit pass took place at the country office with Onno in Phnom Penh, and, at the same time took the opportunity of spending an afternoon with Dararoth and his beautiful family before we were off for a two week spell in Cambodia’s neighbouring country, Laos.  UK will be our next stop before we fly home to Canada ….

POE colleagues 

Breakfast with POE colleauges

It’s hard to believe that an exodus of VSO volunteers have now left their placements in Cambodia and this time we were part of the mob!  

More later ... :)