Got up early and ran a little over 2.5 miles this morning… It actually wasn’t so bad! It rained a tiny bit which actually felt great, and I found myself wishing it were more 🙂 Can’t promise I’m going to do this every day, but it was a nice way to start the day as the city started to wake up around me.
I have asked a few of the JWOC Scholarship Students to be “guest authors” for my blog and to tell you a bit about themselves, their lives, their aspirations and their experiences with JWOC. I’m truly pleased to introduce the first of those, Vanthen, who I have been sponsoring for the last couple of years. I have so enjoyed finally getting to meet and talk with him in person that I wanted to share that — but I realized that rather than me trying to tell you his story, he could do a much better job!
My name is Kim Vanthen and I am a 2nd year student at USEA University major IT (Information Technology). In the future I don’t want to work for somebody else; I want to work for my own. I want to be a web developer, designer and programmer. I like playing sports especially volleyball, not professional but only for fun and healthy. I love watching movies like education movies that can blow up my mind with critical thinking, and listening to music which can improve my English. Nowadays I work and study at university this is the only way that can improve my English.
Nowadays I involved the CLA (Community Liaison and Assistance) program with JWOC. There are many projects we do in CLA. We do:
o Home garden: we trying to change the way that people who live far away from town live. We teach them grow their plants different ways with new technique and chemical free. We teach them make dry compost and liquid compost and new technique to some sort of plant.
o Liaison: We research and try our best to find some free classes, job opportunities and short courses and we do the advertising to the villager, poverty children and jobless people. Assist them to reach out new destiny.
o Emergency Assistance: Any kind of emergency by the natural we try our best to take care of villagers. We focus on health care, using clean water and offer what JWOC can. In 2012 in Siem Reap, Cambodia had a big flood which never happened before, we tried to announce the emergency news, offer some medicine for the skin problem and some pill to clean up their drinking water and we also rebuilt road which cut by water for emergency use. We went to each villager’s house to give some advice.
o Food for Work (Road rebuilding): At the country side some road are damaged and there’s no solution for them. I mean the government doesn’t see this but we do see and we do the rebuild by gather the villagers to discuss and give back some benefit (rice) with the local market rate.
I have a friend his name is Vong Chann. He’s also a scholarship student at JWOC. He met some problem in his family. His father was away the family economic went down. This is because in Cambodia father is the one who support the whole family and mother the one who take care the whole family. This culture was followed since the Khmer Rouge, so now his parents are apart the whole family 2 little brothers and 2 sisters need support and that time he finished high school, so without JWOC he won’t be able to study in university, and now he became an outstanding student in the class. I’m so proud of him.
I was born here Siem Reap, Cambodia. My situation not so different from Vong Chann. I finished high school in 2010 and had no opportunity to support myself with the college thing and 2 years later I know JWOC helps me a lot and not just me my whole family and also affect my community. Every time I leave home for work or for school my neighbor look at me in the eyes that so proud at me.
I have 1 brother and 1 sister. I brother got married 2 years ago and he has 1 child, and my sister is studying in high school grade 10. She has 2 years more to finish and in that 2 years I believe that I will be able to support her.
I don’t have much thing to add, just want to say Big Thanks to JWOC, not just me who JWOC help many poverty students in this province had been support by JWOC, so JWOC is a Big part of developing Cambodia. JWOC built good human resource more than 200 already. I will never forget JWOC and in the future, one day I will come back to JWOC and use my knowledge, experiences to help JWOC back.
JWOC’s Microfinance program has made more than 200 loans in the last year, and has worked with well over 500 borrowers since its inception in 2006, achieving a nearly 100% repayment record. Loans in the $100-300 range are disbursed in 5 cycles each year — and a new cycle launched just last week. Borrowers came in and worked with the student volunteer loan officers to sign and thumbprint their loan contracts, get a copy of their weekly repayment schedule… and receive their funds! I had the pleasure of acting as official photographer for the day:
Sunday is collection day, so I headed out with one of the teams on their weekly run. I got to meet some of the borrowers and learn more about their small business ventures:
Sells vegetables and other goods at the Phsa Leu Market where I bought my bike:
Expanding the business at their barbershop:
On a street where everyone had some kind of business, sells fruit (papayas & pineapples) to market and local neighborhood:
Grows and sells chilis, cabbage and other vegetables:
Sells shellfish in as much of the year as possible and augments with vegetable sales in the rainy season. (Note a couple of things! The completely adorable, blissed-out baby in the hammock. The shells completely covering the ground — I cannot figure out how the little kids were running around barefoot without just shredding their feet. Ouch!!!)
An extended family of 17 living together who took out a loan to be able to sell shellfish at the market:
And back home, the team tallying up and wrapping up at the end of the day:
I just had a really cool thing happen on the way home – no pictures this time, just a really nice story. I was about a quarter of the way home when my bike chain fell off the gears and jammed… so I started walking the bike the rest of the way back to the guesthouse, figuring they could help fix it for me when I got there. As I walked, I passed a couple of moto-taxi drivers waiting for a fare. They asked me if I needed help or a ride. I smiled and said thank you, but I’d be ok. (All with their fairly limited English and my still virtually non-existent Khmer!). As I continued to walk, the older guy rode up, got me to stop, had me take my backpack out of the basket and got to work. Then the younger guy rode up and the parking lot attendant from the hotel we were in front of came over. In about 3 minutes, they had the chain back on the gears and I was on my way. Nice way to end another day in a city full of some really nice people 🙂
As I think I mentioned in an earlier post, many of my friends and my kids had taken to calling this next chapter of my life my “mud hut fantasy.” I have to confess that while I have certainly seen and now visited many such dwellings, life in the city of Siem Reap is quite a ways from that — and I feel a bit spoiled. Tonight, for instance, I pedaled up the street to a local coffee shop that advertised gelato, and was quite pleased to discover not only good gelato, but good coffee, air conditioning and free WiFi. So it is from there that I typed most of my blog entries this evening!
On top of that, when I came out, I saw that it had rained fairly hard while I was inside. The parking lot attendant had turned my bicycle around so I could head straight out, and he had wiped off the seat so it was dry for me. If it makes anyone feel better, the road home was really wet and muddy with lots of puddles, so I did get some mud splashed up on my feet and legs…..
As I’ve started to travel several kilometers outside of the city of Siem Reap in the last few days, I noticed that many of the shops had a rack of rather disreputable looking bottles full of yellow-ish liquid. Asked someone today what it was… gasoline! While there are very familiar-looking gas stations in the city itself, gas can be had by 1- and 2-liter bottles as you go farther afield!
One of the things I started to notice very early in the day was that the heads had been cut off of many of the Buddha statues. Over the centuries, they have been stolen both to sell in and of themselves and because there was gold hidden within some statues. While some of this happened earlier, the vast, vast majority were destroyed and sold by the Khmer Rouge.
Yesterday, I had the pleasure of touring several of the temples in the Angkor Wat area with Kanha Reath — and while (per below) the temples were amazing, I think the best part was getting to spend the day with Kanha. 
She is the owner and lead tour guide for Angkor Journeys (awarded a well-deserved 5 stars from TripAdvisor), and also a JWOC scholarship student graduate. As a matter of fact, she was one the original students that my friend, Jane, sponsored. Kanha not only runs her tour company and provides incredibly informative and fun tour commentary, but she also teaches in public school here. She is one of JWOC’s many tremendous success stories, as well as being another of the truly genuine, warm and engaged people I keep getting to meet from all across the JWOC family.
Don’t worry — I’m not going to even try to provide a travelogue on Cambodian temples here! If you’re looking for that, there are certainly a ton of great guidebooks, websites and pictures you can check out. And I also know that many of you have been here and seen it for yourselves. So, I’m going to just share a few impressions and photos of each of our main stops.
Angkor Wat
The most famous of the temples, of course. This was one of the ones originally built for Hindu worship (5 towers, tall, fairly ornate, and all oriented upwards toward the gods). Other of the temples were originally built for Buddhist worship (typically simpler architecture and design). But since the prevailing religion shifted back and forth multiple times, in many of the temples there is a mix of both Hindu and Buddhist influences, including carvings and statuary. One example that Kanha showed me was of Buddha statues where the heads had been removed and replaced with Hindu artifacts (see separate blog post for more about Buddhas and their heads…)
Angkor Wat Construction
Angkor Wat is truly a world endeavor at this point as it is under the oversight of UNESCO, having been named a World Heritage Site in 1992. Apparently one part or another is consistently under construction as they continue with restoration efforts, and scaffolding crops up here and there as you walk through the grounds. (After 5 years in New York, that made me feel right at home and I almost didn’t notice it at first!).
The current project is being undertaken by Germany, but this has been going on for decades. India sponsored several projects in the 1980’s and 1990’s, and Kanha pointed out repairs that had been done by the French in the 1920’s — re-attaching an entire gallery/corridor, stretching the full length of the temple, that had fallen away.
Ta Prohm
Three of the other temples we visited were built by the same king, Jayavarman VII, one of the most powerful kings of the Khmer Empire (1181-1218). In addition to the temples, he also built roads, schools and hospitals across the Empire and is widely revered by the Cambodian people for his impact and compassion.
At this point, the Ta Prohm temple may almost be most famous as the “Tomb Raider” temple. It is an incredible place as the jungle has come in and overgrown the ruins, and the trees are almost more amazing than the temple itself. What was a challenge to wrap my mind around was that I was standing in a place where I was looking at and touching 300-year-old trees… which were “young” in comparison to the almost 900-year-old temple they had engulfed.
Jayavarman VII built this temple to honor his mother, and there is a room in the middle where her statue once stood. There are many holes all up and down the very high walls of the room where once upon a time jewels were put to honor her further. You could stand there and almost imagine how exquisite it would have been when the sun shone down into the room.
Preah Kahn
No pictures for this one(!), but thought it was worth mentioning as Jayavarman VII built this one to honor his father. Also had a central room for his statue with walls to hold jewels — but the holes in the walls were smaller than the ones for his mom!
Bayon
This is the main temple in Angkor Thom, the walled capital city built by Jayavaraman VII close to Angkor Wat. It is located in the exact center of the city — and is most famous for its many, many “faces”. Originally 4 each on each of 54 towers throughout the temple. Very cool… and just a bit creepy!
War & Genocide in the 20th Century
One last comment. There are so many places in conversation and in what you see almost everywhere you go that bring home the horrible and lasting impact the Khmer Rouge regime and civil war in the 2nd half of the 20th century had on this lovely country and its people. Two things of particular note during our temples tour. The bullet holes in columns at the front of Angkor Wat. And at Ta Prohm — the fact that for many years people were afraid to come near it because the Khmer Rouge had at one point used it as one of their bases and mined all of the area around it. Even once the mines were cleared, people didn’t believe it was safe, and one of the reasons that the government allowed and encouraged Tomb Raider to film there was to convince them it was safe…
This weekend I got to join the JWOC teams on their trips out to the villages. It was a terrific experience — I learned how to make compost to prepare the sandy soil for a garden, as well as how to dig a well… both of which take a tremendous amount of work!! It was inspiring to see the commitment shown both by the villagers in working to improve their lives and by our scholarship student volunteers in providing training and encouragement to support their efforts.
Home Gardens
On Saturday I went out with the Home Gardens team, and the trip was almost as interesting as the destination! As most of the team sped off on Motos, four of us headed out in a tuk-tuk with some of the supplies. 
While there was lots to see along the whole journey (I plan to do an entire blog entry later on the amazing things people are able to transport via Moto!), as we got closer to the village, the trip really got interesting! We encountered uneven road conditions…
A bit of traffic here and there…
And at one point what seemed like an impasse!!…. 
But we simply disembarked and unloaded the tuk-tuk and the driver drove it down the embankment, around the small lake, and back up again… and off we went!
When we got to the village, the training was in full swing. JWOC has brought in an instructor who has long experience with farming himself and is highly sought-after for his expertise. Last week, they covered composting and this week the topic was best practices in crop rotation to maximize yield.
(Note that the blue writing on the walls is a listing of the villagers who contributed funds for the construction of the common building they are in, along with the amounts each contributed.)
While the training continued, Konthea gave me a bit of a tour through the village to see the garden plot that the team leader had created following their last training session, including a look into the wet composting pot. (She also explained what goes into wet composting, but I’ll leave that part out!).
There are about 175 families in this village. Their primary source of income is the rice that they are able to grow in the rainy season (starting soon/now). Some of the men travel to Siem Reap to do construction and other jobs, and many of the women weave baskets — they can do about 5 baskets/day which nets them about $2.50. So, the prospect of being able to grow vegetables to augment the food supply for their own families — and in many cases to be able to sell some surplus — can have a significant impact on both their nutrition and economic well-being.
Clean Water
Sunday’s trip was with the Clean Water team. This time, I too sped off on the back of a Moto… but I forgot to have anyone take pictures! (Bear with me as I’m just getting the hang of this blog thing — the pics will hopefully continue to improve as time goes on!).
As part of all of their programs and in all of the villages and schools that they work with, JWOC incorporates hygiene training. For this weekend, that was the focus of the trip as they are still in the planning stages of the wells for this particular village. The scholarship students had fabulous rapport with the audience, and even I was laughing, despite not being able to understand a word they said! In addition to a few other topics, the main focus was on proper hand washing and teeth brushing technique (I had to sheepishly admit that I only brush twice a day and not three times…). The most fun was when they brought up people to demo — it got to be quite a good-natured competition to see who could be most thorough and most entertaining at the demos.
On the way home, Seng took me on an extra stop to see one of the wells that’s underway in another village. They’ve discovered that the water table is so deep in this area that they need to install a different kind of well than usual. This one will be 7 meters deep and lined with concrete pipe. 
How does one dig down that far you ask? Pretty straightforward… one guy climbs down into the well, scoops up dirt and rocks in a bucket… 
And his buddy hauls it out… 
Over and over and over again… I’m not exactly sure how the guy gets out of the well. I’m hoping there is a rope ladder or something that they drop down there as it’s hard to believe he climbs up the rope or his buddy pulls him all the way up…. As I said at the beginning of this post, truly amazing the commitment and work the people we met are putting into improving life for their communities and families.
A couple of last sites of interest: the library, a shop, and the meeting table at the village chief’s home: 
I’ve had a great first couple of days getting introduced and settled in to JWOC! For those of you who haven’t already heard me talk about it, JWOC is a non-profit I’ve been involved with for a few years (thanks to my loooooooong-time friend, Jane Price!), and whose Board I joined last fall. JWOC’s mission is to reduce poverty levels by increasing educational and economic opportunity for recipients in Southeast Asia, with the primary focus here in Siem Reap. Through its programs, JWOC works to empower both those recipients and our supporters to drive positive and ongoing social change in their communities.
The centerpiece of the organization is the Scholarship Program, which covers the full cost of university tuition and textbooks for students who could not otherwise afford to attend. In turn, those students also serve as JWOC’s fundamental engine as they become the volunteer teachers and staff that make the other programs possible. In the process, we are able to not only assist directly with the cost of their education, but also to build on their potential and to develop their working skills, experience, teaching and leadership capabilities more broadly. Our expectation is that many of them will become future local and national leaders and the idea of giving back will be something they embrace.
Our other core programs are also education-focused, consisting of Free Classes for children, youth and adults. These classes provide critical school-readiness and job-readiness preparation for individuals who would not otherwise be able to afford or access such opportunities. In addition, the volunteer force of Scholarship Students allows JWOC to meet other high-priority needs in Siem Reap and the surrounding villages including Clean Water & Hygiene Training, Microfinance, and Emergency Disaster Relief programs.
One of the really cool aspects (as the name conveys!) is that JWOC was born from within the community, founded in 2005 by Andrea and Brandon Ross, owners of the Journeys Within Tour Company and Boutique Hotel based in Siem Reap. While their tour and hotel guests were struck by the beauty of Cambodia and warmth of its people, they were equally struck by the vastness of the need they saw around them and asked how they could help. Because Andrea and Brandon lived in the community, their neighbors also sought them out for support. And they continue to work in concert with the community to identify and prioritize needs and to act together to address them, in keeping with the JWOC motto of “See a Problem… Solve a Problem.” Always maintaining a focus on providing opportunities, not handouts, focusing on giving people access to the education and tools they need to make positive changes for themselves, ensuring that even if JWOC disappeared tomorrow the difference we have made will remain.
In just 2 days, I’ve been introduced to all of the staff as well as several of the Scholarship Students, participated in Conversation Class as a native English speaker, and mapped out our plans and projects for my next 6 weeks. Intros included a terrific lunch of traditional Khmer dishes yesterday with the gang (you can see me peeking out down on the right, sitting between Chhunlay, our Computer Teacher/IT Supervisor, and Konthea, our Community Liaison Program Manager) :
And today, I presented an “Erin Overview” that included a brief visual history of my life path:
Got the biggest laugh when I said I was spending my kids’ college money on myself since they both got scholarships! Got the biggest “wow” for my apartment in NYC — not for the view, but for the fact that I lived on the 29th floor. (By the way – thanks, Mom, for the cool photo collage that provided me with several of the pics — and sorry, Matt, I didn’t have a more recent good baseball shot of you so had to somehow place Univ of Tennessee in Southern California…. I don’t think anyone noticed!!)
I’m looking forward to a busy 6 weeks as we’ve identified several project areas for me to work on with the team. A few of the first ones will be to develop and facilitate a training session for the Scholarship Students on critical thinking using some JWOC-specific case studies; putting together a strategy to pursue foundation/corporate funding grants (we actually worked together and submitted one of our first to Team4Tech immediately prior to me leaving NY); and also getting the chance to attend teacher development workshops and teacher observations so I can start my “Education” education while I’m here. Lots of good stuff to come!!
While they keep telling you that not everyone here obeys traffic signals, I haven’t actually felt that it was any more dangerous than NY City streets – perhaps even less so. Gotta be vigilant both places, but people are nicer here and they drive slower!
They do have a totally cool thing with traffic signals at major intersections though… Huge countdown clocks so you never have any question about when it’ll be your turn to go: 
Or how much time you have left to get through the intersection: 
That said, weirdly enough on lesser intersections with lights, there doesn’t seem to be any “green light” at all. There’s just “red” and the absence of red….
“Markets” are big in Siem Reap. The main part of town is called Old Market — full of restaurants, bars and shops for tourists and locals alike. There are several “Night Markets”, so-called because after-hours trade was almost non-existent prior to 2007 — these are primarily targeted at visitors and feature traditional Cambodian handmade products, food and entertainment — open from 4pm to midnight. The Phsa Leu Market, where I bought my bike, is a bustling commercial center, with mostly local clientele. And then there are the ultra-modern Angkor Market and Lucky Mall. As I went to buy my bike and then pedaled around town for the afternoon, it was incredible to experience the gamut of market environments that coexist so seamlessly. Here’s a bit of a tour of two ends of the spectrum:
We’ll start with the most traditional and local, Phsa Leu Market. In addition to bicycles, you can get pretty much anything there — but do be careful to dodge the Motos that seem to drive everywhere, even into the narrow aisles between the stalls in the indoor section of the market! The range of goods available pretty much covers everything you’d find in a department store, full-on shopping mall, and a grocery store.
The toy and handbag departments:
The gold and fine jewelry section; 
Housewares…. 
Toiletries & Cleaning Supplies…
Lingerie… 
The shoe department… 
No, really, I said the SHOE DEPARTMENT! 
And there’s also a ton of food stalls and shops. I’m only including one here (the meat section!) for several reasons. 1) You’re probably getting the gist of this and I don’t want to bore you. 2) There will be an interesting comparison coming below, stay tuned! And 3) I frankly don’t know what a lot of the food was. I’m going to ask the tour guide I’m going out with (a former JWOC scholarship student) if she’ll walk me through Phsa Leu one afternoon and tell me what it all is! 
One thing that really struck me funny as I walked by one of the stalls was a guy and his two sons riveted to WWF (in English) on the TV as they waited for customers. Since I refrained on making a comment about women and shoes above, I’ll refrain from saying guys are pretty much the same everywhere… Ooops, did I say that out loud? ;^) 
So, after about 10 minutes of bike riding, I’ll take you into the Angkor Market and Lucky Mall. No, this isn’t the neighborhood Safeway, though I can see how you might think it was! (Note the meat section at the end!)
It’s fascinating how these two places — and a full range of businesses in between — seem to so comfortably co-exist as the hundreds of Motos, bicycles, tuk-tuks, cars and trucks purposefully criss-cross the city full of people getting stuff done… I think I’m going to like hanging out here!
Well, the very existence of this blog posting is testament to the return of the prodigal suitcase: 
As promised, it came on the next flight and was promptly delivered to the guesthouse, including the electric current transformers which allowed me to revive my dead Macbook, iPhone and iPad by morning!
As it was being delivered, I was out finally having the chance to spend some time in-person with the JWOC crew rather than coping with Skype conversations! Sarah Crowley (Education & Volunteer Programs), Tom McLean (Fundraising & Communications), Alex Plummer (Executive Director) and Brandon Ross (Co-Founder): 
We ate at a terrific restaurant called Haven that’s a training restaurant for at-risk young adults from orphanages, safe shelters, and poor rural areas. At Haven they learn quality work skills and life skills, getting support in their transition from institution to real world as well as giving them a chance to step out of the poverty cycle. 
After a great night’s sleep, I got up and set off on my day’s mission to acquire a bicycle. I’m not sure if I just wasn’t paying attention on the tuk-tuk rides yesterday, but from my seat in the back, I watched and learned today how to merge into traffic… 
This came in very handy later when I was on the bike by myself… just kidding!!
We reached the Phsa Leu Market intact and my driver kindly dropped me off right in front of one of the many used bike emporia. 
Prior to leaving, I had gotten great guidance from Voleak, my hostess at the guesthouse, as to my criteria (including axle type, automatic light, bell, basket, lock, handlebar and seat style). After a bit of searching and discussion with the shop owner, the winning cycle was culled from the herd 
And then it was assembled. Kind of cool actually. They have shelves full of pedals, baskets, locks, lights, bells, etc. and put all the pieces on after you pick. 
It took a little while, but that was ok. The shop is a full-on family affair and I spent the time chatting with the owners’ wife (who thankfully spoke pretty good English since I haven’t gotten past “thank you” and “can I have my bill please” in Khmer so far). I also got to meet their two adorable kids — a 2-1/2 year old boy (Chiang) and an 11-month old girl (Miriel). It was bath time, so they were in silly kid moods and once they were (partially!) dressed, they were deposited in a couple of hammocks that hang in the workshop area for some serious spinning and tickling. I think that was supposed to become nap time next, but they were pretty chipper and wound up when I left! 
If I have enough energy left (both mine and the juice in my MacBook) before bedtime, I’ll add another couple of posts on fun things from the day. Hopefully that’ll give me some room to slack off a bit on the blog as JWOC is open again tomorrow and I’ll be heading over there to start learning and working on the (many!) projects we’ve mapped out for the coming weeks. Really looking forward to it!
I’m here! The actual travel, though long, was pretty uneventful (excluding the suitcase incident described below!). I’m not really sure whether to count this as Day 1, 2 or 3 since I left New York on Sunday, traveled for a bit over 25 hours, “lost” a bunch of time on the way as we flew against the sun — and now it’s Tuesday afternoon in Siem Reap. Anyway, I’m here!
My sleep strategy on the flights seemed to work ok, and I was reasonably coherent when Alex and Sarah from JWOC picked me up from the airport for a ride to the V&A Villa guesthouse in the most common form of transportation, the tuk-tuk (photo below of the very one in which we rode!): 
Now, about the suitcase! It really made me smile the other day when I left my now-empty NY apartment with what would be my life for the next 6 weeks in just 2 suitcases and a backpack: 
So, fast forward to now… see anything missing? 
Yes, apparently, I really only needed 1 suitcase and a backpack — at least for the next few hours! Fortunately, it’s the one with the clothes and the chocolate in it. I’m keeping my fingers crossed that the rest of my toiletries, hair dryer, and particularly my electric current transformers get here as promised by later this evening so I don’t run out of juice to finish the blog post!! (Now that I’ve felt the heat and humidity a bit, it’s ok if they keep the running shoes…) And those of you who travel in the U.S. are SO not going to believe this, but SilkAir actually insisted on compensating me for my trouble and handed me a fresh, crisp $100 bill as I left the luggage office — and, boy, does $100 go a long way in Siem Reap! I’m fervently hoping that wasn’t just their nice way of saying I’m never going to see my stuff again. Will keep ya posted 🙂
Speaking of how much value you get for your money here, my new digs at V&A Villa are pretty darn nice! The webpage pictures are a bit glossier than reality, but not much. For those of you new to my plans, the boys and others and taken to calling this next chapter my “mud hut fantasy”… Clearly, (despite being ridiculously reasonable at just $15/night), this is many steps above that, including air conditioning, private bath and breakfast. But have faith, I promise to have a future chapter where I get closer to the mud hut!!
Next order of business was to get a local phone for calls while I’m here. Wherever there’s WiFi, I’ll still have my iPhone and iPad so I’ll get iMessages, email, Skype, WhatsApp, etc. So I got a “not-smart” phone to be able to call and text with folks locally without ringing up crazy data charges with AT&T. For those of you over the age of 15, this should bring back memories:
I have no idea if I even remember HOW to answer a phone call on this, let alone text!!
I’ll be meeting up with a few of the folks from JWOC for my dinner tonight, which should be fun. Everyone says there are great restaurants in town and I’m looking forward to lots of dining adventures while I’m here.
Tomorrow is the regular weekly day off for JWOC since many of the classes are taught on the weekends. My first order of business will be to head into town to buy a bike at the Phsa Leu Market. There are a ton of different Markets in town, a lot of which are focused on tourists. But apparently, this is one the locals frequent, so it should be a fun place to start. Then I can pedal down into the central areas and check out some of the others….
For now, while I’m waiting to head out for dinner, I’m going to study my Khmer phrase book which is making me feel like perhaps I’m jet-lagged after all! Even when it’s written in Roman letters, I’m having a heck of a time at this point figuring out the pronunciations just from reading… I will do my very best not to insult anyone and I hope I don’t order anything too weird by accident!!!
His dad (David), brother (Matt), sister (Brook) and I had the honor of pinning on his Infantry bars — and his wife (Bow) was also honored with special recognition for her support in getting him this far. 
A host of other friends and supporters who helped kick Kyle in the butt along the way and make this all happen were on hand as well, including his high school counselor, his CrossFit gym boss and his ROTC Master Sergeant — who almost made good on his long-standing threat to zap Kyle with a Taser if he actually made it to commissioning! But seriously… you could just feel everyone’s tremendous pride and admiration for what Kyle has accomplished as he co-led the ROTC battalion for all of Southern California this year, had a GPA that warranted Distinguished Military Graduate status (top 10%), and was invited to participate with only ~20 other cadets from across the country in a strategy summit at VMI earlier in the spring. A few days later, he also officially graduated from Cal State Long Beach with a BA in Political Science — looking just slightly less spiffy(!) but exuding his own special style and charisma all the same!!
Once Kyle’s done at Ft Benning, he’ll be headed to Alaska for his first duty station, and Matt’ll be spending the summer playing ball in SoCal and working the UC Irvine summer baseball camps. 
Erin's adventures in Cambodia, Cambridge & beyond!
Covering the goings-on of the Minor Leagues' top prospects.
the Story within the Story
Think outside the classroom at HGSE
Erin's adventures in Cambodia, Cambridge & beyond!
The Next Chapter 