Welcome Chloe

Dear Chloe, I don't have a picture of you to put here yet but I want to welcome you to the family. You were born on May 25, 2006.

I'm sure your big brother Harry will do his best to look after you and you also have some big boy cousins, Ben, Izmaillah and Zack to help take care of you.

I don't know when I will see you. I am living a long way away at the moment. But whenever you want to find out what your Grandpa John is doing, you can come here and read what I have written for you. Until you can read for yourself, perhaps your Mum or Dad will read it for you.

love from Grandpa John in Cambodia

Fishing

There is a river that passes Kompong Chhnang, where I live in Cambodia. It is called the Tonle Sap. On the river there are many houseboats. Thousands of people live on the houseboats all of the time.

The baskets in the front of the picture are traps for catching fish. The people who own the traps put them in the river. The fish swim in the hole in one end of the trap and they can't find the way out. The people pull the traps out of the water and they catch the fish. They can sell them, or cook them and eat them.

Do you think it would be fun to live on a houseboat and catch fish every day?

love from your Grandpa in Cambodia

Meet my friend

I have many friends here in Kompong Chhnang. If you come to visit me I could introduce you to some of them. This one doesn't say much. In fact, I don't think you should shake his hand. He might try to bite you.

However, if you stay and talk to him quietly, he will sit and listen. He will think about what you have to say. Then he will go and tell his friends about the nice person he met from Australia.

Would you like to meet my friend?

love from Grandad in Cambodia

Happy birthday great-grandpa

Hi, I've been playing with my Dad. That's him in the picture. Yeah, I know he doesn't look like a Dad but that photo was taken back when he was a kid.

I wanted a nice photo to use of him because it is his birthday on Wednesday, May 10. He didn't look very happy though. So, I gave him a party hat. I gave him rosy cheeks too. He still didn't look happy because he wasn't smiling. So I made him smile.

He should be happy because he is celebrating a very special birthday. Well, he's not, because he died 31 years ago, back when Melanie was a little girl and before David and Linda were born. But if he was alive he would be 100 years old.

That's my Dad and he would be your great-grandpa. So, on Wednesday I want you to have a big cake with 100 candles and when you blow them out you can say, 'Happy birthday great-grandpa'.

Wet monk

This man's name is Sokh. He is a monk. He is wet.

Cambodian people celebrate the new year in April. One of the things they do to celebrate is to wash the Buddha images. They also throw water on each other—even the monks. That is how Sokh got wet.

Does he look upset?

Love from your Grandpa in Cambodia