Happy 9^th Birthday Amy Barker! We celebrated with a party at our place, as it is bigger than the Barkers. It was sweets, sugar and frankfurters galore.

After her party it rained solid for about ½ hr, which is all it took for the Klong (the contaminated river the slum is built on) to bubble over and offer up its goodies for all to see.

Poo, shoes and thongs were floating everywhere. Our place has escaped the rising waters thus far, but the Barkers had it flowing up through their squat toilet and into their bathroom (which is about 1½ sq. metres). We waded over but they had managed to clean most of it up. Lucky it was dark; I didn’t want to see what we were wading through.

What an adventure for me, a fact of life for the residents of the slum.