February 17 and 18th

I had a queasy stomach the night before which by morning I was OK. My " cast iron" stomach continues to serve me well. I think I ate a salad that was not good the day before at the local pastry ice cream restaurant where all of the westerners hang out called the Blue Pumpkin. The local advice is to stay away from the food on Pub street as this is the westerner ( barang) hang out; and that the local khmer food is more sanitary and better prepared and I tend to agree.

All day I spent at Phare Ponleu Selpak seeing their school, visual aids, animation studio ( told them about my star niece Danielle at Pixar) and watched the circus kids practice. I had an interview again with Det and met Phnom, who is to be one of our primary characters. Later in the day visited her home in the village and met her Mother and interviewed her. She is 18 and was a street kid rubbish collector. Her father died of aids and was a gambler and drinker and her brother died in a traffic accident. Her MOther has AIDS and she now is an international circus performer. She will make a great personality for us.
I had a chinese Khmer driver Mister Khor, who I pushed hard to get him to agree to drive me back the 2.5 hours to Siem Reap that night at 8 Pm. He told me he usually is asleep by 9 but does get up at 4:30 a.m to exercise by running around the gardens in front of the Grand Hotel where Lauren and I first stayed what seems like a very long time ago when we were just tourists, hesitant to venture out of our 5 star cocoon. My driver had to stop for a cold can of red bull to be able to deliver me home safely.
Spoke to Lauren on skype and got to bed way too late. I got up at 6 as I needed to bike to meet the Trailblazer van heading to the dedication of a school they built with rotary help in Ta Trav village. The school cost $51,000 to build and with double sessions serves over 400 students. Fortunately the speeches were short and the dignitary was in a hurry. The ribbon was cut and we dined at 10 a.m in the morning on rice noodles, fish sauce, green papaya salad and a wonderful green curry sauce.
Met an interesting woman from Canada who spends six months a year here giving out bicycles in poor rural areas so kids can travel to school. The bike with lamp, bell, lock, basket and kickstand, ( all the bells and whistles) oh a pun!)costs $31. She told me about refugee camps where the Burmese are escaping persecution on the Thai border. There are 5 camps and over 200,000 people there and " would make a wonderful documentary". Our next project, maybe. She also told me of a democratic movement in the country side lead by a former member of parliament who quit and is now going into the villages to talk to young villagers to tell them that they do have choices in the world. A week ago this is a lead I would have followed up on but now it is all about getting our filming schedule nailed down.
Had dinner at home after meeting Noung to plan a trip to Kulan mountain on Saturday and my vacation to Mondulkiri. I got up at 4:30 a.m. to be a witness to my fourth grandchild's ritual circumcision that was happening in Austin Texas; but Greta was I am sure too busy to remember to turn skype on. Understand it went well and Zachary age 8 days is now clipped.