And we’ve had SO much rain the past 48 hours! It was really torrential – the wet season has come early leaving us Australians agog at the sheer amount of rain received here (3 inches in 15 minutes) We were out on the building site and had to keep stopping for 20min-30min yesterday and the day before. In spite of the weather, in between showers we painted the murals, shoveled sand and dirt by hand, built an incinerator from two concrete rings and entertained more boys at the learning centre with sewing tasks.

So now Alan has recovered, unfortunately Mark is down! Six of us Picassos descended on the site today minus one who due to serious internal complications was unable to attend. Lola, Dan, Kate, Nerida, Hannah Alan and myself focused on the task of painting the toilet cubicles, the doors and the finishing colours for the air vents in preparation for the mural later in the week.

Following the dynamic tradition of the Sheehan family in breaking or injuring ankle joints – I have joined the walking wounded on this trip (along with Lola and Alan) with a severely bruised ankle. Maybe it should be called ‘Ankle Wat’ due to the large amount of uneven steps. The town nearby this amazing structure - Siem Reap – is the Cambodian version of the Gold Coast and we spent three severely tourist-heavy nights there late last week.

Two days in and the excitement has begun. The first day was the official welcome, meeting with teachers and the head of police in the district and the exchange happened with some planning and preparation for building in the afternoon. Afterwards the team (Mark Horton, Evelyn Barber, James Deitrich, Stuart Webster, Lola Horton, Vicki Gainsford, Nerrida Barber plus Allan Dodson and Jenni Seton to arrive tomorrow).