Tuesday, August 29, 2006

 

Wrapping up.

Well folks, my three month internship at UNESCO in Phnom Penh, Cambodia is coming to a close. Thursday is my last day in the office. Lynn and I head to Thailand on Friday and back to the US on Monday. We will land in Minneapolis on Wednesday the 6th of September.

The whole experience has really been life affirming. Living in a developing nation, even for such a short period of time, has really made me look at people and life in a whole new light. It is all too much to put into words, but it is powerful stuff!

Thanks for reading the blog!

Tuesday, August 22, 2006

 

Road Trip to Oddar Meanchey




Here are some pics from our recent trip to the rural provinces. We spent 3 days on the Thai/Cambodian border. The roads in these provinces are really bad. The first picture shows a bridge we encountered on our way to Oddar Meanchey. After 4 hours of driving along a bumpy road at about 20 mph, we came across this bridge that we could not cross. So we drove 4 hours back to the nearest town. Keep in mind the town we wanted was just 20 minutes beyond this bridge. The following day, we took another road where we barely made it across a bridge where a huge truck decided to break down right over the only bridge. You can see our white SUV barely making it around. After all that excitement, we found some ancient ruins. These ruins were in the middle of nowhere and it is not a place where tourists normally come (there are landmines all along the Thai /Cambodia border-it is one of the most heavily mined areas in the world). Nonetheless, while we were scrambling over ruins, six kids just showed up and gladly showed us around. the girl in yellow was one of the kids. We paid them in cookies.

Monday, August 14, 2006

 

Trip to Angkor Wat





Lynn and I headed to Angkor Wat this weekend. The place is amazing! I was blown away. It is a huge area of temples totaling around 40. There are many still pretty well preserved.

In one temple, the jungle literally took the temple back and the trees simply grew over the walls. The one picture was made famous in "Tomb Raider."

We took in sunrise at Angkor Wat (the picture with the 3 spires). I was truly a beautiful site.

We are heading to the rural provinces Wednesday - Friday with UNESCO. We are off to see the schools. Next weekend we will lounge around on the beach in Sihanoukville!

Thursday, August 03, 2006

 

New era

I am officially into the last month of my internship. Things are winding down in regards to UNESCO and data collection. I am finishing 3 reports for UNESCO and transcribing all of the translated comments I received on the surveys. It is quite the process on both accounts. I am lucky enough to have made a good friend in the office that actually wanted to translate the surveys for me!

Nonetheless, Lynn arrives Friday AM. So the last month is devoted to work and play. We are going to Angkor Wat next weekend for a 4 day break. The following weekend will be a trip to the beach: Sihanoukville which is on the Gulf of Thailand. Plus, all the tourist stuff around Phenom Penh that I have been putting off so I did not see too much stuff two times.

So as things wind down I have to shift into a new perspective. Imagine me, less anal! Hey, it could happen.

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