Hello to everyone from Seam Reap .

Two days ago we visited Geraldine at the Orphanage. The place has a wonderful relaxed feel to it. We again met Michael who has been there for over a year - his visa will last until next April. He is desperately trying to adopt a little Khmer boy of eighteen months, but because of the constitution of the Sunrise Children's Village, this is proving very difficult. The little boy's parents both died of AIDS and he has no other relatives, so it seems to be very much a case of a rule to be broken. The two of them have a wonderful rapport. The staff at the orphanage were so afraid of contracting the disease that when he was born they would not pick him up without masks and gloves, but Michael had no such worries, and perhaps for that reason, the two of them have such a bond. The wonderful news was that, although the baby had the AIDs antibodies, he does not have the disease.

The kitchen, to which so many people contributed so generously has been designed and will be installed early in the New Year.

Richard has taken some wonderful movies of the children, and hopefully he will find out how to put these on the blog, or send them out through the internet. All that is beyond this technophobe firmly stuck in the eighteenth century.

The orphanage has expanded since we were here, and more than twenty new children have been taken in. Although Geraldine's policy is that she does not accept disabled children, this has been bent a bit, and a little girl which a disease which renders her bones very fragile has been included. I will have to ask Richard for the technical term for this. A bone breaks, and so she has to have an operation to insert a pin or plate, and lives her life in a wheelchair.

Geraldine invited us to lunch with the children, and then later, for afternoon tea in her own home. It is a beautiful teak Khmer house, donated to her by Han Sen in recognition of her work with Cambodian orphans. It is constructed above a very shallow lake, so from the verandah which runs all the way round the house, there is a magnificent view in every direction. There are no windows or screens, - instead there are shutters. Geraldine is very much at home there, and it is decorated in true Asian style which is so effective, and in her words - "They will have to carry me out of here."

I asked about rats and mice, (nobody knows about my phobia), and she said that yes there are mice, and pulled out a Buddhist mouse trap. It is a plate with a special type of glue. The mouse runs over it and becomes stuck, then in true Buddhist style, the mouse is extracted the next morning and sent on its way back to the field.

Michael said that the only disadvantage of Buddhism in his mind is that, as they believe in reincarnation, anyone who is disabled is thought of as being punished for their sins in a previous life.

Cambodia seems to have progressed a great deal in the year since we were here. I don't know if part of this impression is because I am becoming more used to the Asian way, but I am sure there is less garbage in the streets than there was - though to our eyes there is still a lot. Seam Reap is in the middle of a land boom. More and more 5 star hotels are being built to cater for the increasing tourist numbers. Because catering is so labour intensive - particularly here, where it seems that there is at least a member of staff for every guest, there has to be a trickle down effect. English is of paramount importance, and as staff go up the scale their English has to be so much better.

Our very best wishes for Christmas and New Year, and we will write again next time from Vietnam.

Janet