I am writing this from home and will try to go back as time allows and fill in the gaps for missing days and work on my pictures. We left Kampot and drove directly back to Phnom Penh. My roommate Sandy had been ill the day before and stayed in, but was doing better this morning. I was not feeling too well, just achey and sore so glad we didn't make any stops since we had already traveled that route. In Phnom Penh, we headed directly to Pour un...

After eating banana pancakes at The Little Garden Guesthouse, I joined our group on the bus, leaving to go to a village to meet some high school students sponsored by Friendship with Cambodia. At the first stop we met with a 17 year old girl and her family and a young man from nearby who is sponsored to attend the university. He wants to teach English in the local community. At age 9, he lost his foot from a landmine, but has been fortunate enough to get a ...

Sandy and I set off early (6:30) to visit the Kampot market which is only open in the morning. Each time I visit a market, I think there is nothing more to see. This market, near the see, has a big seafood section with many fish, squid, octopus, shrimp, and unusual and large yellow mollusk with black spots in addition to all the usual vegetables, fruits, ducks, chickens, meat, etc. Of note, there is lots of cauliflower, the kind that is sort of yellowish, in th...

We finished breakfast and were ready for our first visit for the day prior to leaving Phnom Penh for Kampot. We sat with Don, the leader, and waited about 45 minutes after the scheduled departure time because, presumably, the two Cambodian women to accompany us had not arrived. As it turned out, they were outside at the bus with Panith, the guide waiting for us. This situation is an example of some of my feelings about some internal communication and organizati...

After breakfast at the Frangipani Arts, we set off to visit CWCC (Cambodian Women's Crisis Center) women's shelter. We met first with the director and some of the administrative staff. The director has quite and impressive background starting with work in the mid 1990's with Oxfam, some time with other NGOs and the government. We had a formal presentation explaining the history, organization structure, business plan, and accountability and monitoring for the...