Our day began by unloading the delivery of medicine and clinic provisions that the big bosses had ordered the day before and taking them to the designated drug room to be sorted.


The team then split up, one group leaving to go collect the all-important scabies soap. The 2 hour round trip for soaps involved a rather bumpy ride over highway 1 out of Phnom Penh. This road is being resurfaced and most of the team certainly felt life’s ups and downs on the journey.  The road was particularly dusty and good old Mr Rith ( Number 1 tuk tuk driver in Cambodia) stopped to buy us all a protective face mask to keep out the dirt.   Elise and the Doc contributed by cutting blister packs and supervising the proceedings and the team soon had the medicine supplies in order for our first clinic.

The remaining members of the team stayed to make some head way into divvying up tablets. The possibility that this scene could be misconstrued as an underground drug den left our team nervous of a police raid. Whilst these tasks may appear mundane, they have given the team a sense of purpose for their trip. Jess (J10) earned this honorary title for the having the uncanny knack of always being able to scoop precisely 10 tablets, on the other hand, Not so quick Mick – struggled with his hand to eye coordination and most of his efforts ended up across the floor instead.


In the afternoon we went to say hi to some friends who we have known for a few years with the Doc to return tomorrow and offer some medical advice and information around medication and health care management. 

We decided to venture out of our comfort zone in the evening and headed to the tourist area in Phnom Penh. It is noticeable to see the difference not only in the cleanliness on the streets but in the number of restaurants and souvenir shops touting their ways.  Always keen to support a worthy cause we ventured into the White Linen Boutique. This shop is aimed at helping women predominantly escape from situations of abuse, trafficking etc and all their wares are had made. The great thing to see in this shop was that there was also an area for young men -Sons of Cambodia – recognising that it is not only women who are in difficult situations in life.

After we had some retail therapy, the team headed into a local restaurant (as recommended by our tuk tuk driver) and on sitting down at the table we all took in a sharp breath of horror as we realised we had made an unforgivable error – we had left a man behind…….

Rachael ran down the stairs to find our stray team member stood at the entrance to the shop.  Knowing that she had always taught her children to stay at the place where they had become separated, she practiced this technique and soon she was safely back in the fold.  The whole team felt thoroughly ashamed that we had left a man behind and had to offer repeated apologies blagh blah blah.


The restaurant provided colouring for the children and Alex didn’t disappoint with his rendition of the Connect with Cambodia logo which was signed by all and placed on the wall for all to see.  The team headed back with full bellies and an early night was had by all.

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