BBQ

We went into the office for our last youth club meeting this morning, before we begin sessions. We had a miscommunication which meant that we thought it started at 10, and suddenly realised it started at 9, so we were half an hour late. But it was a good meeting anyway. We got a good level of information from the members we met and they seem very eager to learn.
 This is the Youth Centre in Prey Moul, where we went today - it's the most rural of our groups
And this is some buffalo on the way back

Unfortunately Olivia has been ill, so she and the team leaders have been in the clinic most of the day.

When we got back from our meeting we did some work for our sessions next week and waited to see if our TLs would get back. We're supposed to have one official team meeting a week, lead by one pair of counterparts, as well as an ACD (Active Citizenship Day) with activities based on one of the UN's SDGs, lead by another pair. This week the TLs were supposed to do it, but as they were at the clinic, we all headed to Zaynab and Sokmeng's for a barbecue.

The bbq had been planned for Friday, and then our days off changed. Zaynab's host family are very chill and they have a lot of space. They bought us all the meat and veg in a good market and then we paid them back.

Here are some photos of the day:

 Veg prep
 Meat prep. The chicken here comes a bit less prepared than it does back home, so Alex and I took the job of 'butchering' the chicken. Very hands on!


 Heng and Alex
 Connor looking happy about the beef and veg skewers we were about to cook
 I'm pretty sure this is a bbq made from a Khmer rouge age weapon
 Zaynab, her host sisters, Boray, Channa (just behind Sokmeng), Sokmeng, and Chealy
 Zaynab and her host mum cooking
 Connor, Alex, Tim and Cheyenne
 Alex, loving the BBQ-ing life
 Zaynab's host dad, Alex and Connor
 Alex and Tim doing something they do on Tiktok 
 The spread
 The host family
 Connor and Heng playing badminton 


We were pretty pleased with our efforts! BBQ food is just good - it's a fact. Tim brought fajitas seasoning, paprika and some other things, and we had limes, so the meat tasted pretty good. And I got my Chipotle Tabasco out. It was nice to eat meat and veg without any form of starch/carb! And then we had a lot of mango. So good. A relaxing time.

After that, at around 4.30, Channa and I went home a bit early. She washed her clothes so I got some time to myself to read for a bit, and because of the very cheap data, I managed to get the live video!
It did make me the most home sick I've been, but it was so good to be able to hear Uncle Dewi. 

Tomorrow we start our proper work - running sessions with all these youth groups. Daunting, but it will be so good to get started. 

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