Geo: 11.6724, 105.425 This is my tenth day at Wat Opot Children's Community. I have learned many of the 59 children's names, learned how to bathe in one pot of cold water, learned how to sleep through Cambodian wedding (or funeral) music beginning at 4AM, learned how to encourage frogs to leave the room so they don't nest in my clothing (scratch that; the frogs are back), learned how to blow large spiders out of the sink, but the most impressive thing I have witnessed so far is how happy children can be without toys, clean clothes, or material things. We don't need much to be happy if we have people who care about us and warm human connections, good food, and fine weather; I have known this in theory, of course, but here at Wat ... read more

Geo: 11.6724, 105.425 Because I miss working with young children, on Friday, January 13, 2012 two friends and I traveled to an orphanage about one and one-half hours from Phnom Penh by tuk-tuk. I plan to volunteer here for one month. This decision was not reached at all lightly. My daughter, Laila, and I had spent ten wonderful days traveling in southeast Asia, exploring Bangkok, VietNam, and Cambodia, and since I was already in Cambodia, I thought it would be good to do something useful, to find a way to help others since I wasn't teaching in Thailand. My friend, Gail, has volunteered at Wat Opot for several years, and has frequently talked about the orphanage, so I seriously considered volunteering here myself, and signed on. Roads in Cambodia are very dusty, especially when riding in ... read more

Geo: 11.5588, 104.917 One of the reasons my daughter, Laila, and I wanted to go to Cambodia was to see the killing fields. History has always been one of her main interests, but I also wanted to go. There are several in Cambodia, but we decided on visiting the fields in Phnom Penh. We hired a tuk-tuk driver for the day; he would wait for us and then take us to the next place we wanted to visit. Some of the roads in Phnom Penh are beautiful and clean, but the roads our tuk-tuk drove on to reach the Killing Fields were dusty and dirty; the dirt flew up from the road and stung our faces, our eyes. These fields are not far out of the main part of the city; it did not take us ... read more

Geo: 10.7592, 106.662 Laila and I flew into Hi Chi Minh City in VietNam from Bangkok, Thailand. On this trip we were only going to have a couple days to explore Saigon before we traveled into Cambodia. But we typically cram a lot of activities into each day, and the pace of this trip had not hit us yet, so we entered VietNam feeling optimistic about our short stay. Unfortunately, immigration took an unpleasant two hours, and, understanding that we did not yet understand their money, the taxi driver stole the equivalent of $40 right out of Laila's hands, even though the ride to our guesthouse should have been about $8. In Ho Chi Minh City there are more scooters (or motos) than I have ever seen in my life; hundreds of them, seemingly thousands of ... read more

Geo: 14.0167, 100.533 It is Christmas Day. I love Christmas! I love Christmas Eve best of all, since anticipation is usually even more exciting than the actual event, whatever that event is. I am not Christian, but I do believe that Jesus was one of the great spiritual leaders born into this world, and I believe in something over and above us, some energy, some something, and hope that there will be a great meeting of souls after this life; agnostic would probably be the best way to define my beliefs. But I do love Christmas, for so many reasons: for the story of the baby Jesus, for all the excitement of preparation and gift giving, for the lights and decorations, for the wonderful smell of live Christmas trees, for the early darkness of the days ... read more