Cambodia: A Day At The Races

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Upon reflection, I think I will replace the DD breast implant idea with a plan for silicone cushions to be placed in my arse instead. Many more of these journeys and I'll have no skin anywhere on my backside and even the 'Brothel Pillow' no longer offers any protection whatsoever. I can't even practice pressure relief in my shrinking portion of the bike seat because I swear Sophat is gaining the weight I'm losing!

It took us three and a half hours to reach the dry dusty red town of Ban Lung. With both knees up by my chest, I felt like I was in for a long check up with the OB-GYN. The pillow raised me up a little but I was quickly forced to adopt the jockey stance to survive the regularly spaced plank bridges often set far below the road surface. This is great for toning the legs but hell on the knees.

As to the BL or Ratanakiri agenda, not much has gone according to plan. Flexibility is a necessary virtue, and one I struggle with here. The Accardo Highland Tour "office" (read 'shack') has been waterproofed with putty shoved in the tin roof holes and meters of tarp type plastic sheeting bought to line the inside walls (planks with missing sections and huge gaps between). Scheduling boards and colourful pictures of Cambodian scenes decorate some walls while others have wicker artifacts woven by local tribes people hanging in places. Two of the five computers are set out on one side of the room and have attractive bamboo screens for privacy. Three others have been dismantled, cleaned of as much dust as possible and wrapped in plastic covers bought by me but too late to save them I fear. They will be stored in a lock up box when it has been finished by the local metal worker...perhaps by tomorrow...perhaps by next year!

This extra space means that the lost boys have an area to sleep on the floor if they prefer that over swinging in a hammock because before this, they were happy if someone was absent on one or two night trecks with a tourist, allowing more room and more food between them.

Task two has been started but will likely need regular reinforcement, which is likely not to occur. I refer to this as Basic Business 101 and a group meeting was held yesterday to show everyone this strange artifact known as an account book, instill in them the importance of writiing down EVERY riel of income in the front pages and EVERY riel of expenditure in the back. Sophat is to be held responsible for having each of them practice entering the accounts and that to pocket the money is to steal from this Band of Brothers. They verbalized an understanding that investors must be paid back (friend of Sophat in PP), that rent and bills must be paid, that there must be money for petrol and food and then savings placed in a bank account to be signed out by the two most senior members of the group together. If this concern fails to meet it's costs it cannot survive. Like a child without care it will die meaning no shelter for anyone, no food and no family. The wet season is coming and everyone must pool their income when working as motorbike taxi drivers, then be willing to train with Sophat to become better guides in the wilderness and in the understanding of the tourist way ready for the next dry season. Hopefully they will realize that a business must at best break even and eventually work towards making a profit. In this case this may never happen, especially when they see all incoming money as immediate profit that must be traded for a celebratory drink!

Not having the original land documents for the two local pieces of land means that the aquisition of actual Land Titles cannot go ahead, but Sophat will have a meeting with the head of the Department of Urbanization and Construction at 4pm today. The copies in our possession will travel to PP with me to show to the Lawyer there and see how far towards the creation of a corporation we can achieve during this visit to Cambodia. The Stung Treng Family have not obtained the papers they need for me to collect. They have no concept of getting this done quickly here, have no concept that my time is limited by my visa, have no concept about helping themselves. Very frustrating as I hang about waiting and waiting only to be constantly disappointed by their lack of understanding of urgency. How western of me, and this expectation of things to be done the way we are used to is referred to by Ex-Pats as having "lost the plot". Usually I can follow along, but now I really am in danger of becoming perplexed at the entire story line.

My final task is to visit the Children's Center here. A Christian NGO that states that they do not insist upon conversion of the orphans and abandoned children they care for (although this would be somewhat unusual if true, according the tales from many graduates from similar institutions). Three of Sophat's boys lived there until they reached the age of having to find alternative housing. If this little business survives the lack of management. The Accardo family are obliged to come up with a plan to build a center to house and train lads, and lasses, like this to work with tourists in, for example, the guest house and in-home tour guide trade. This is the direction our non-profit organization has started to move in. Plans for healthcare education and training are fraught with local suspicion and lack of Government support and the primary needs are somewhere to live, something to eat and a trade if they are to support themselves and survive. Without these basics their health can never be ensured and improved.

I hope to encourage the visitng packpackers here to help the Khmer rather than expect somthing for very little. Too many expect to recieve a discount from some of the poorest people on this planet and I'm not religious, but this is unconscionable (fuck the spelling..I'm on rant)! If they wll use these lost boys for their tours they will be helping them feed themselves and meeting the rent for dry shelter. One of the trips on offer here is to the Children's Center so that they may see the breeding ground for the next wave of homeless youth, provide items of use rather than money (corruption is everywhere) and donate their time to these hopeless beings.

I implore any who may read this site to offer suggestions that may help us proceed with this plan.

Now I am hot, sticky and have donated enough of my blood to the mosquitos here. Also, the boys are burning more rubbish outside the shack and I'm being smoked out. Strange that the mozzies are'nt?!

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