Horse back riding Januaury 30.

Jon Mieko and Rikki enjoying a movie in my apartment
A bucolic scene in the rice paddies taken on the back of a horse

Mounted up and raring to go.
I met Andrea at Journeys Within at 8 a.m to go horseback riding, Cambodian style, which turned out to be fun. We road with Western saddles with rope reins and trotted and cantered on surprisingly well mannered horses. The ranch is called Happy Ranch and is run by an American Cambodian from San Jose California. We went through rice fields and saw ducks being herded and visited a wat and a temple. And the next day I can report I was not sore!

After that I went to visit with Vathana to help her with her application to be a delegate to a Youth Congress in Turkey. She is a 22 year old student who is in her last year of High School and we think is likely to be one of our characters in our next film. So I sat with her in her room that she shares with 5-6 girls ( she sleeps in a bed with 2 other girls which is just a mat no mattress) and we literally sweated over correcting her English and getting the application in shape to be noticed. The paper was wet when I finished!! Vathana has extricated herself from no opportunity village life to having been chosen to participate in there travels, to East Timor and Japan for a week or so; and for three months to Australia. Her story does represent the future of Cambodia because she is interested in the community and changing that and in equal opportunities for woman.

On the way home I stopped at "craft show" in front of the National museum. It was interesting in that the craft show was not individual crafts people demonstrating their techniques and or wares like in the US, but tent booths of satellite stores selling an array of clothes, silks and spices.
I bought a palm leaf wall hanging and mat to brighten up my apartment and maybe find a way to take home.

Then I met Jon and Mieko Morgan and watched her play soccer. It was a team comprised of her international school kids and the French school. Later we had drinks on my roof deck and watched the sun set and their daughter Rikki took a swim in the pool and later a hot shower, all of which was a great treat. Rikki was a baby abandoned at the Ankor Hospital for Children 8 years ago, and was premature and weighed about 2 pounds. She is a miracle baby as there were no incubators there. She remains a miracle child speaking American English and Khmer fluently and also speaks Japanese. She has a way to go however in her soccer to try and keep pace with the French kids.

I got invited to a Khmer wedding by Sam my guide friend, who put in most of our initial wells. I took a rain check as I could not imagine a night of drinking and dancing and getting up early the next morning to go to our Village where the money won at LA film fest is going to build 12 wells and to educate the Village on health and hygiene.

Dinner was a ham and cheese sandwich and to bed.