So someone asked me the other day if I was going to talk about landmines while here in Cambodia. I didn't want to say too much until I knew if a meeting I was trying to arrange yesterday took place but it did, so now I can talk all day and all night about landmines!

I mentioned earlier that on the day we visited the second temple at Angkor Wat, there was a group playing music. It took me a while to realise that they were all missing limbs and were victims of landmines. I wanted to learn more, as much as possible and explore any opportunities for volunteering or helping in some way.

On Tuesday we went to visit the Apopo rats. I wouldn't be a big fan of rats, in fact the opposite is true. My daughter once had 2 white pet rats and I couldn't look at them or bear the idea that they slept in the same house as me. The idea that I would visit a rat house to look, never mind touch them was something way off my list. But there was a connection between rats and landmines, so I felt obliged to go see.

So why the rats? What are landmines? Surely they're all gone now and no-one would be that barbaric in this day and age to plant bombs that blow your legs off if you step on them, step over them or walk through a trip wire.

Slowly I was learning that landmines are still a massive international issue. They've been laid during the Ukraine war, likely laid in Palestine and the estimate is that globally there are anything up to 110 million landmines buried in over 60 countries in the world. That's stunning information.

The Apopo centre shares 8 not-so-fun facts about landmines:

They never expire, there are enough landmines laid to circle the earth twice, they're cheap to make but expensive to remove, they are small in size but have an enormous impact, they are mainly designed to maim not kill, they injure around 6,000 people every year, they restrict economic growth in huge swathes of land around the world and they 'turn every step into a gamble'.

So back to Apopo. As mentioned above it costs a huge amount of money to remove landmines. Despite the best efforts of Princess Diana, people aren't the best placed to detect them, dogs can be too heavy and age very quickly doing the work. Enter a Belgian man called Bart Weetjens in 1997 who was exploring methods for clearing landmines, read that gerbils had an acute sense of smell and wondered if his pet rat could learn to detect landmines.

Our visit to Apopo covered all of this, including a demonstration of how the rats use a grid method to sniff out landmines. They are fairly easily trained, too light to set off the landmines and work for about 2-3 years before retiring. I've challenged myself a lot over the past few weeks but holding a rat in my arms was a whole new level of challenge. But they are soft and cuddly and just sniff or lick your hand. I hate to admit it, but I really enjoyed meeting the rats at Apopo and they are called Hero Rats for very good reason.

I mentioned my fascination with the rats and larger landmine issue to Dork Silong who promptly told me that I could meet Tun Channareth, known simply as Reth at the Jesuit Refugee Service (JRS) in Siem Reap along with Sister Denise. That's a whole other story and worth having a google if you have any interest in this area of refugee work and displaced people.

So anyway, yesterday I had the enormous privilege and honour of meeting Reth and Sr Denise at the JRS. I knew as she walked over to me that Sr Denise was something special, she looks just like my late beloved great-Aunt Sister Mary Dorothea and had the exact same manner. She's a Mercy nun whereas I was a Sisters of Charity kind of girl, but she didn't hold it against me. JRS is an oasis of beauty and calm that works with the ugliness and horror of war. In the middle of the garden is a pond which was formerly a crater caused by a bomb dropped by Americans during one of the many wars that have scarred South East Asia.

Reth lost both his legs to a landmine and his story makes your heart do somersaults. He has suffered in unimaginable ways and he is open about the number of times he didn't want to continue to live. But he has taken his tragedy and turned it into a life of goodness, kindness and purpose. He really is a legend.

Reth and Sr Denise are part of an international campaign group that called for and drew up a treaty to stop the use of landmines. In 1997 Reth accepted the Nobel Peace Prize on behalf of the groups that were working to stop landmines. The work is by no means done- landmines are still being laid and only 160 countries have signed the Treaty. There's a big list up on the wall of countries who have signed the Treaty on landmines, the Treaty against the use of nuclear weapons and pledge to support a sustainable future and I was very glad to see Ireland was up there and signed the Treaty but has not signed the ban on nuclear weapons.

There's a table filled with landmines and other ordanance including a cluster bomb filled with little bombs that kids think are balls and pick up getting blown to pieces.

I don't really get emotional during my visits, but there is something off the scale special about Sr Denise, Reth and the JRS. The rats are definitely heroes, but the past and present members of this organisation who have literally given the lives to help others during times of war and displacement are heroes of an entirely different order. No Peace Prize or award would ever be enough to reward them for their sacrifice and dedication.

It goes without saying we will be visiting JRS next year if there's a tour to Cambodia. We discussed what we might be able to do, so bringing a wheelchair to a victim of a landmine might be suitable as well as bringing rice to the families of victims.

So that is nearly the end of my visit to Cambodia. I knew the bare bones of the history before I got here but nothing prepared me for the kindness of the people, the dedication of those making changes, the food, the Temples, the wildlife- well just about everything. Even if we don't get enough people to join a tour next year, this is a country I have only just gotten to know and I will return. There's work to be done!