February 15

Feb. 15. Went to TB and gave them pix of boy scout and Sras trip, that I had downloaded on my thumb drive. I need to have Steve do a picture of Nak and me and bring it to her.. Initiated Rattana to set up visit to Sras on March 9-10, as March 8 is Women’s Independence Holiday. It seems that the number of three day weekends rivals that of the USA. Nuong, my unsuccessful house broker who also touts herself as a fixer and nature tour guide, broke her lunch meeting with me and rescheduled for later in the day at 5:30 pm. So I did some errands. I needed to extend my visa as I was not able to get a business visa at the airport and ended up with a 20 day visa which expired on February 17th. Guess that means I have been in Cambodia for a month without Lauren, as I re-entered the day Lauren left for home on the 17th of January. I will be fined $5 a day upon leaving the Country if I do not extend. The strange part of it is to get an extension, other than paying the fee of $45, I needed to surrender my passport so it could be sent to Phnom Penh for processing which takes a week when the 3 day holiday for the Chinese New Year is accounted for. I am trusting this process !!! I have a copy of it so that when I travel to Battambang I can use the copy when checking into the hotel, which always wants to copy it. You go to a travel agent to do the extension, so while I was there I bought all of the tickets that Lyman and I need to return to Siem Reap from Phnom Penh after a week of filming there and the tickets for all three of us to leave on March 19th, with Lyman catching his flight home from Phnom Penh and us from Bangkok. I met Nuong for a beer and to hire her as a fixer to arrange for us to be able to film a traditional dance ( Aspara dance)., a shadow puppet performance and a trip to Phnom Kulan ( Mount Kulan) where there is a waterfall and a pagoda to arrange for a blessing by Monks to be filmed at the waterfall. We shall go the waterfall on Saturday and I need to figure out if we should try and film it now with Steve and save a day from our shooting schedule with L and L. I had dinner at home and ate a home made dish of pasta and Bolognese sauce that I had cooked earlier in the day. This is the first real dinner I had made for myself and I froze most of it for another night.

Tuesday, January 5, 2010

January 4, 2010


A 72k motor bike trip to Sras:

We began at 8 am our journey to the first village that Trailblazers.org worked with 5 years ago. It is very remote and during the rainy season impossible to reach. We herded out with 3 bike, Paul and I on the back needless to say. Each way was 1.5 hr.(total 72 k) over terrain that was not passable by car. We arrived in Sras and greeted by smiling faces and many hugs from villagers who have formed a deep bond with Chris and Scott Coats: founders of Trailblazers. This village began with wells and filters from Trailblazers and then evolved to micro loans, farming, and self sufficiency. When Chris and Scott talk about the village, tears come to their eyes and we saw the testimony to that at lunch on the floor of the chief of the village's house. We had a delicious lunch of fried frogs, cooked morning glory, chicken, and rice. There were a dozen men eating with us and drinking rice wine which Paul and I figured was too strong for us. We saw first hand the result of a village that has been empowered and transforming through their own will and initiative that began with the work of Trailblazers. After a memorable ride home, we sat around at JWOC drinking beers with Chris, Scott, Vaughn, and Rattana and talking about our day. Paul and I collapsed at 8:30 and slept 10 hours.
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