February 11 and 12th and Zachary arrives

Nak receiving the english teaching books and a dictionary, all a gift from Lauren and me.
I presented this scout with her kerchief and her hat.
Se and his brother in their home with yours truly.
The head table at Se's assembly
One of the things I have had to get used to being on the other side of the world is the 12 hour time difference to the East Coast. Some of you have experienced the amazing instant communication of skype where one can talk and see video for free, so certainly except for the time difference I can stay in touch and even have conference calls. However, I do feel pretty remote in experiencing being a grandfather for the fourth time with the arrival of an 8lb boy Zachary Elias Carey at 12:38 pm February 11. I learned in an email from Greta when I woke up on the morning of the 12th. I am excited but for the first time feel alone. Not a big deal just something I am observing in myself.
The last two days I have spent in two different village schools at ceremonies, sitting through two hours of speeches in Khmer. Yesterday I was with Se whom we are sponsoring to graduate school at an assembly of his school of 350 students hearing about career possibilities. A NGO worker, a translator, an accountant, a doctor, and a teacher all spoke giving inspiration to the Village student that it is possible to advance. The translator and the NGO worker were the most interesting to the students. Meanwhile the long thank yous and formalities are quite tedious when you do not understand anything, except my mere presence to support Se in this program which he structured and by the way which he spoke at was important to him. There was also a group of Australian volunteers who had worked building a life skills center and they were leaving after a month and there were lots of tears and goodbyes from the Villagers and dancing when the formalities were all over.
Today on the way to visiting the remote village of Sras on the back of a moto, we went to another village to participate in the installation of an international boy scout troop. We distributed kerchiefs and berets and as a westerner they had me even making presentations.
Sras was great and I think we do have a story to tell there about Nak a young woman who is now trained as a beautician but has no customers ( woman in the village heading to Thailand to work) and is trying to teach English to make a living and is threatening to leave the Village. Just wish we had a film crew there today as a reenactment may not have the same punch.