Floods

A normal day. I wake up at 7am, just in time to get dressed, have breakfast (muesli, banana + honey yoghurt), wash my face and brush my teeth before it's time to leave. Then it's the regular tuk-tuk ride to Lakeside, to drop off Max and Victor, and then forward to Youth School for Will and I. Once we arrived, the topics for the morning classes would be the letter "V" and "Days of the week."

Ah, but someone had other plans.

I should probably have mentioned this previously, but yesterday was approximately one of the lengthiest rainstorms of my existence - when we woke it was raining, when we slept it was raining - with not even a sense of a pause in between. I suppose we didn't really consider the effect this would have, that by this morning, the whole of the area around Lakeside was completely flooded, the people's houses and all. Due to the controversial filling of the lake that is currently happening at Boeung Kak (at which lie the Youth School and Lakeside schools), the after-effects of a day of rainfall have been catastrophic.

One of the houses nearby Youth School

As Will said, the water they are replacing with sand in the lake has to go somewhere. And where has it gone? Into the houses of the residents nearby - the ones living on so little a day, the ones who could never afford to repair the damage done. They just have to wait for the water to go down.

The pathway up to Lakeside School

Due to the floods, both schools were locked and so all four of us - Will, Max, Victor and I - were at a bit of a loss what to do. Of course, the kids always save us. Hanging around outside waiting for their lesson that would never happen, I was immediately brought a "seo pulng"(book) and asked to "an" (read) out the words so they could repeat them. So we spent awhile identifying the difference between an ostrich and an owl. After some intense grueling of this, I'm pretty sure that they still didn't understand, probably thinking that both just meant "bird". Oh well, I tried.

We were also treated to many presents - this time, from the natural world. Yes, flowers in our hair and bracelets made out of leaves and grass, we were treated like royalty. Although at one point they did try and (quite forcefully) drag us into the volleyball-court-turned-lake that lay only 5 or 6 metres from the classroom entrance.

I should clarify that this area is usually dirt and mud.

It's all the cliched phrases and promises arriving at an absolute climax, a complete truth. That we really do take our world for granted. Our indulgences for granted. Our life for granted. And that when you are really there, in the midst of it all - that's when you know what it's really like.

More blogging later.

Juliet

PS: I found a really good blog that updates regularly on the situation at Boeung Kak Lake. To read more about the pumping, CLICK HERE.