* In September 2010 we have a BTP volunteer from Australia who will be visiting our projects and simply meeting and chatting with the teachers and children. In January 2011, a group of BTP volunteers will conduct a more formal visit where we will be having consultations with all our participants, including the children, parents villagers and the village and commune chief to discuss what quality education means to them and also to outline our next steps in bringing hope and opportunity to the children of big hole village. We will keep you updated of course ;)

The photos below are from a recent visit from some of our BTP volunteers to the school. The children are doing very well.

Recent Photos from the school

The finished school!

* This is the completed school! More photos are coming and updates on the progress of the school will come soon too. Thank you for following us!

The school so far!

* Well the school is not finished yet. It is scheduled to be completed at the end of February. We will show you the progress for sure. The volunteers have all gone home. If you get the chance to meet a volunteer on this trip ask them how they felt about it. I'm sure you will enjoy their story.

more photos

* Walking to the school on the day of the school blessing and ceremony.



* mel walks through the school as the children line the road welcoming the volunteers.



* Kent, Dean and Mitch patiently watch proceedings.



* I give a speech during the school blessing to the entire village. It was a very special moment for me and I will always remember it.



* Volunteers make some more offerings the traditional way.



* Josh makes an offering during the school blessing.



* Our new toilet doors are painted BabyTree green!



* Mitch, Claire and Lucy teaches the kids a dance.



* Josh shows the kids a magic trick.



* Jucy has a go at coconut baseball.



* The boys in the class take a turn in mosaic work.

more photos

* Mel conducts a mosaic workshop.



* Cleaning out the inside of our new school room, actually, we are preparing the the floor for the cementing.



* Grace and Dean relax during lunch. Volunteers generally work from 7am to 11am. Break for lunch and then work again from 1pm to 5pm.

more photos

* Kelly and Grace help fix up our new office in Siem Reap.



* We swam under the most glorious waterfall in the world.



* Mitch and Claire tell ghosts stories.



*Its Josh's turn to cook dinner.



* See Mitch is teaching them the letter 'y'.



* The students are learning English, believe or not.

More Photos

* Dean trying to brick lay.



* Claire Brick laying.




*Mitch getting ready to fill up buckets with cement.



* We all proudly wore our BabyTree Projects T-shirts.

Some Photos from the project

* In this photo Claire and Mitch and Dean sit patiently during a ceremony that marked the Victory on Genocide Day, January 7th.



* Kent and Toly carry large rocks on make-shift stretchers. The rocks will be used to fill up the floor before it is smashed down and smoothed out with cement.



*Working on the construction site can be extremely tiring, especially when the temperature reaches 35degrees and more! Here some volunteers lay on a pile of gravel for a well earned rest.



* Lucy and Pete sit in the back of a ute as they travel to the village.



* During the project volunteers have the opportunity to explore Cambodia. Here two volunteers watch a sunrise along the lakes near the Angkor ruins. Its pretty spectacular.

The school update...

Hello all!

Sorry for the lack of photos it seems I can't find a place that will allow me to upload pictures onto the computer. Also, I havent been able to access the internet much anyway which means no blog updates. Anyway, I am happy to report that the school building project has been going very well. All the walls have gone up and all the brick laying has been completed. The roofing has just begun and next week the walls will be rendered and we will begin painting!

We also just had the school blessing ceremony and it was absolutely amazing! It went over two days. Cambodians like to prolong a good thing if they can ;) The monks came and along with village elders blessed the school. After we had dinner we danced under the stars with what seemed like the entire village.

Imagine, a rural cambodian village. Five massive speakers and a megaphone sitting on a pole. The best of Cambodian music. A small half built school building in a rectangle piece of land. In one corner is a vegetable garden, opposite is a grove of koky trees, and in the middle of it all is a sea of big hole villagers. Mums and dads, boys and girls builders and volunteers all dancing and drinking under a crescent moon and a sky full of stars.

Pictures coming as soon as i can upload.

The village mornings are beautiful

I'm watching boys who can't be much more than 10 leading a small herd of cows down the 'road'in front of our hut. Naked little babies run past. Little girls dink eachother on bikes that are too big for them. A woman is boiling water and cooking a breakfast of rice porridge. Her hut, which is front of ours is silhouetted by an orange morning light by a sun that is yet to rise. Behind me two volunteers are cooking, four others are watching them cook and chatting, while another is doing Yoga. The rest are sleeping or so I think. I am awake, I feel at peace, the sun is rising, its 5.30am and did I mention, I am awake.