And so the work begins...

I meet with my host organisation on Friday. They are fantastic! Three of the staff came to meet me and took me over to the office. My desk was set up and already decked out with stationary and the like. I was even given a huge stack of business cards which is a first. KYSD is a small local NGO who have never had a foreign volunteer before which is pretty exciting. Everyone is so friendly and the work seems really interesting with a lot of travel to the provinces which is fantastic. There seems to be a lot of work to be done and not enough staff to carry it out. They are working on a number of projects at any one time, most of which are based on capacity building between youth in Phnom Penh and those in rural or remote regions with a focus on education, empowerment and advocacy. I’m already set to go out to Kampong Chhnang, about 90 km north-west of Phnom Penh, for 5 days next Sunday. The Khmer people are amazingly friendly and within the first few days I’ve been here I’ve been invited to a wedding and enough dinners to fill my schedule for the next month.