MONDAY, AUGUST 12

We’d prepared our lessons with enough safety guards to ensure we were prepared for anything. We didn’t know what we were going to be up against, so we thought we’d better err on the side of caution.

Getting to LRDE (Les Restaurant Des Enfants) by Tuk-tuk was hair-raising and none of us will be forgetting it in a hurry. We hung on for dear life as the morning rush-hour traffic whooshed by. One near scrape with an old lady dragging a cartload of coconuts caused me to wet myself a little … but on we zipped through the oncoming traffic. I don’t think any of us has prayed so hard before

LRDE is a charity restaurant that provides a hot meal and basic hygiene to over 200 street children. Many of these children live in cardboard boxes and hovels on top of rubbish dumps and I spotted two of them fast asleep on a hard surface in the entrance despite the bustle around them. It made me wonder what kind of night they had.

Those of you that know me are aware that I am not the most outwardly emotional of people, but I am not ashamed to admit that I had to gulp a few times.

We were greeted by Mr Yves Chiu, the restaurant director who invited us to sit down for a traditional dance treat by some of the street children. One of the dances was about a young girl whose mother forbids her to see the man she loved – a role I was unintentionally roped into. I had no idea what was going on but their teacher told me to stop smiling like a loon because it was a sad moment. This was followed by a final dance which was also beautifully sung by the Asian children. For a horrified moment I thought they were going to break into “Ma Taghmlu Xejn’ so I quickly started the final applause.

We were up next, and we were totally overwhelmed by the response we had to the games, dances and play-acting; at how they took to us and immediately understood what was going on. There were language difficulties, obviously, and I admit that some things worked better than others but it was a satisfyingly good start. It will only get better.

As the morning progressed, I got to know some of the kids: Sreymech, for example, a 12-year-old orphan who lives with her grandmother and younger sister. Sreymech goes to school – but she also has to support her family and so she works as a trash collector from 7pm to 1am; then wakes for school which starts at 7am. And she spent the last few weeks learning a dance for us in what little spare time she has. Heartbreaking and admirable at the same time.

In the afternoon we headed to the orphanage where flocks of children ran out to greet us laughing and waving and keen to get cracking.

Over here, we found the standard of English was much higher, which made things a little bit easier. It felt like Christmas for the kids and it was rather poignant to see their reaction as we gave out the t-shirts and toys we brought them. Clad in their new bright yellow t-shirts they tackled the lessons and Chiara and Anika’s dance with gusto.

Rounded off the afternoon with a game of football between us (well, Anika, Matthew, Paula and Chiara played – have you ever seen me play football?) Our side lost abysmally (4 -1), but it was worth the laughs.

Got back home just as the monsoon hit… now dinner, lesson plans for tomorrow and some well-deserved chillout time.

Until tomorrow, Choom-reab-lear! (ciao).

Alan and the team