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 Sourire d'Enfant (For the Smile of a Child), officially established in Phnom Penh-Kingdom of Cambodia by a very great kind a couples of Mr. Christian and Mrs. Christian Mary whom have been known well as PAPY and Mammy of PSE. PSE has been nationally recognized as an NGO that aims to rescue Cambodian children who are forced to scavenge through the rubbish dumps to survive, especially around Stung Mean Chey garbage dump in Phnom Penh. Originally, this couple who still reside in Phnom Penh except when they return to France for fund raising took food to the dump.This is an amazing and very large organization. For elementary school aged children, education is provided and because they are generally behind in school, they must complete two years of school in one year; the older students work at the normal pace. There are residential facilities for children who cannot live with their families (orphans, abused). When children complete their high school education, they are either given a scholarship to attend the university or may attend on of the on-site vocational training programs - hotel and a restaurant, hairdresser and spa facilities, a mechanical shop, created gardens, and set up the fictive company "Khyol" for secretarial and business training. Today, more than 4000 children from PSE go to school and 1500 youngsters follow vocational training. Career counseling and internship/externship and job placement services are provided. Over 2000 students have finished training and are integrated into the Cambodian workforce. Hygiene is taught and healthcare is provided. There are at least three trucks that are mobile health clinics. There is also a program for children with disabilities. I was able to talk 1:1 with one of the physical therapists. She told me PTs in Camboida have 3 years training. The center has no OTs or speech therapists, but do periodically have foreign visitors in these fields and child neurology from France. I saw the PT area, equipment, small supply of orthotics and wheelchairs and adaptive mobility devices. The PT seemed very knowledgeable and told me they work with children with varying disabilities including cerebral palsy and Down Syndrome. She showed me the chart on the wall with the developmental milestones written in Khmer. I offered to share with the group what I had learned about the services to children with disabilities and was told maybe I could have some time at lunch, but no one seemed to have any interest in this.

Outreach is provided to the families; some mothers come to the center to learn sewing and work there up to several years and some fathers may also work there doing repairs, etc. Families are given a significant amount of free rice in exchange for allowing their child(ren) to participate in the program. Our guide was a 21 year old woman who had been a child of the dump. She said she had been injured there by digging in the garbage and being cut on sharp objects. She entered the program at age 8 and said she heard about the program from other children and sought it out. She is now a university student completely fluent in English studying psychology with the hopes of being a counselor. Just to look at so many happy productive young people and know where they had come from and that they have a real chance in this world was heartwarming and, at the same time, chilling because it is so horrible that there has to be such poverty and hardships for so many people in this world. We ate lunch at Lotus Blanc, the onsite training restaurant which was quite nice and has a Friday buffet. I didn't eat much though. I took a peek in the kitchen, another training kitchen, and was invited to step inside for a quick photo.

We drove to our hotel for the last night, Frangipani 90s and checked in. The hotel is one of three related to the first hotel we stayed at in Phnom Penh in, I believe, a restored 60's villa. It was nice with a large room, but not the same spa feel as the first. Of course, that meant no loose rocks to navigate over when getting out of the tub. After siesta time, we went to the National Museum which has a collection of stone artifacts from various eras in Cambodian history. Then back to the hotel for some rest before the final dinner at Romdeng, a Cambodian food training restaurant from the Friends-International organization set in a beautiful colonial building. There is a swimming pool adjacent to the dining area and we were told guests to the restaurant could (and do) use it during the day. Our order was taken by the teacher (so identified on his T-shirt). This time we were free to order what we wanted and could share (although no one seemed interested in that). I ordered two half orders, one a shrimp salad and the other chicken with lotus root. The menu had a dish with red ants on it (no one ordered) and has in the past served tarantulas. We shared ice cream for dessert (ginger and coconut.) The dinner and ambience were quite nice.

At the hotel I tried to use the hotel computer and printer to print out my boarding passes. There were great challenges in doing this (I was able to check in) and after an hour, I was really frustrated. The guy at the front desk offered to help, so I put them on his flash drive, but what he was able to print wasn't really readable. While I was at the computer, a man came by and asked me to let him know when I was finished. I went up and knocked and his door and ended up talking with him for almost an hour. He was American, roughly my age, currently works as a COO (hospital administrator) in Daly City, but came from the San Fernando Valley and worked his way up from being a neonatal respiratory therapist. It sounded like he has traveled more extensively in SE Asia, but we had a nice time talking about traveling, the US healthcare system, California, etc. I offered to give him some names of guides, etc. but he had already checked out the next morning when I came down for breakfast.

I ate the Frangipani hotel breakfast - egg, toast, coffee. I was the first scheduled to leave the next morning at 10 AM. I went for a short walk after breakfast to buy a pen and stopped at the "chocolate" café at the corner and had a latte as my final Cambodia memory. I talked for a while with the young woman who served me and the manager who would really like to come to the U.S. to study. The reality of this is so remote for so many who want this opportunity. The bus driver and bus from the tour provided transportation. I sat next to a woman psychologist from Santa Barbara on the Phnom Penh to Taipei stretch of the flight where there was a 1 ½ hour layover. While waiting to board the second flight, a man started talking to me and I realized it was the same dentist I had met seven weeks earlier in the airport while changing flights; he had finished this stint of volunteer work in Cambodia in the NE near Mondulkiri and treated 480 patients. He was going home to see his new granddaughter and then will return in May. I told him I had seen briefly the children's dental clinic in Siem Reap and that there is also a new children's hospital in Kampot that hopefully will provide dental care. He told me access to dental anesthesia in the capital, Phnom Penh, for children is non-existent unless one can pay $150 which is a huge amount of money for Cambodia.

I boarded the plane. Except for some intermittent turbulence, the flight was unremarkable. I was sitting next to a young man of Chinese descent from N. Hollywood, but really didn't speak with him. I wasn't feeling great and didn't eat much on the flight. Arrival in LA took an hour to clear immigration and customs, a slow process. Jeanne was so kind to pick me up at the airport and it was so good to be home. There is much to ponder and reflect on for this trip and all that I experienced. Maybe if ever I get caught up, I will end with my reflections as I sort them out. Unfortunately, my illness progressed and I pretty much lost my one catch up day before going back to work. I feel better now and want to get this done, having spent most of the day in bed.