We made it to Cambodia!! Our flights were very long. Everything went smoothly with the exception of an hour and a half delay out of Soeul, Korea. Asiana Airlines was unbelievable. They served us two five course meals and numerous snacks. There were a number of movies for selection on your own monitors and Maddie was thrilled that Harry Potter parts 1 and 2 were among the choices.
When we landed, I began to have tears of joy for the girls to finally be able to see their homeland and for Ellen as this had been her dream to share with them. She is shining down enjoying this as much as we are.
Learned that Ana and Maddie have a permanent visa as they are Cambodians. They can stay come as often as they want and stay as long as they want. Maddie was very excited about that when she heard it. Yoen (our guide) was waiting for us as we walked out of the airport. After this long trip, we finally got settled in about 1:30 am on the 23rd which is 1:30 pm for you folks on the 22nd. That was right about the time that the girl’s classes were having their holiday parties.
As we drove up to the hotel, Maddie said “Wow, we really get to stay here?” It does seem a bit strange that there was a Santa in his sleigh in the front of the hotel since this is primarily a Buddhist country. Our room faces the Mekong river. We are able to watch boats of all sizes go up and down the river. At some point we will ride one of those boats as we go to see to floating village.
This morning we got up and toured around the city. The first order of business was to go to Watthan Artisans Cambodia, a NGO (non-governmental organization) that is a worker-run cooperative of Cambodia artisans with disabilities caused primarily from polio and landmines. We had the girls measured so that we could have Cambodian skirts made for them. The woman that waited on us had the loss of her right arm and her hand was disfigured on her left side. We had a tour of their work areas for both sewing and wood work. The items they make are beautiful.
Next up was to go to Tabitha’s. This is another NGO that we worked with in the past to help provide wells in villages. We purchased gifts of life that helped to provide a new house in a village and providing medical care for safe delivery of babies.
We went to lunch and were able to have morning glory which is a favorite of mine (Annie’s). Morning glory is a vegetable here. Sara and Ana really liked it. Maddie is loving rice at all her meals.
Yoen took us to the CCC which is an organization that keeps track of all the NGOs in the country. They were able to locate the CASC (Cambodian Acid Survivors Charity) that was just featured in the Zonta International magazine. Zonta is an organization that Annie belongs to. We have an appointment to go there on Monday. This group aids women that have been victims of acid burning which is prevalent here.
If you can’t tell by now, we believe in giving back to Cambodia through various ways. It is important to the girls also that we do this.
People are being very nice to the girls. They have had such positive interactions with people here.
We are just chilling out the rest of the day. Tomorrow we are off to the Royal Palace and the National Museum.
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