Mozzeenet

Busy week with the new youth ambassadors arriving this week. It was fun meeting them and helping them out wih the same questions we had 6 months ago - about bargaining, moto drivers, language, food etc

We had informal drinks on Wednesday night at an Irish pub then went for Indian dinner with some of them.

On Thursday night, we were invited to a reception for the Aust. Minister for Trade (Mark Vale) at the Australian embassy. He is here for the ASEAN economic ministers meeting.

We had to arrive at 4:50pm so we were there before the minister arrived for security reasons, maybe also to impress him.

So we rocked up and went through the security procedures - metal detector etc It was an enjoyable night - got to meet lots of other aust volunteers from the two other programs, Australian Volunteers International and AESOP. We also met the new ambassador to Cambodia who seems like a very nice lady. She is interested in the AYA program which is encouraging and has said that AYA should be able to use the pool and medical service attached to the embassy. She has only just arrived so I suppose she also has some PR work in mind.

I met another man from DFAT who is working on trade negotiations in Thailand who was interesting. I didn’t actually meet the minister - he wasn’t there for long but he gave a short talk about what he is doing here for the summit.

Friday night was the official welcome dinner for the new AYAs held at the Khmer kitchen which has a buffet meal and low tables and cushions to sit on. It was enjoyable as well. The managers from the host organisations come along so we met a few of those too.

We went out afterwards to a new bar in town and then to another bar which we went to the other day, Teukai. It was fun, pretty late though.

Work was relatively quiet, mainly doing documentation.

Last night Sonia made a yummy Vietnamese salad with noodles, coriander, chilli, peanuts and cucumber then we went out to the fantastic French restaurant near us for dessert! Sonia had profiteroles and they were magnificent with a very rich dark chocolate sauce. My ice-cream with caramel, meringue and nuts in the middle was also delicious.

Ruth e xx
Miss Phnomer in Cambodia