365 days, weeks #44-46.

How is it mid-November?  Someone please tell me.  For the past 3 weeks, the pace of life has been go,go, go. I'm almost at a loss for words, but in my attempt to document, here are a few thoughts today, disjointed just like the images above:

1. It's the early morning of day 3 of a crazy week, filled with: me kicking unethical journalists out of meetings, who I then chided for endangering already threatened community members; me and others just completely frustrated by the lack of progress by key stakeholders, by an apparent absence of due diligence (wish I could say more here, but I cannot); me writing frantically, harkening back to the late nights I often pulled working as a lawyer at a firm, except this time the subject matter is so emotionally taxing, the mechanisms unpredictable, inaccessible.

2. Last week, craving urban space, Ethan and I took a circuitous route through Koh Kong, Cambodia, with its verdant mountains, crossed the border into Thailand, and headed into Bangkok.  Again!  It was like many of our journeys: one of movement.  I've been fortunate to travel as much as I have this year, while working as much as I have - this would not have been possible except for the crazy Cambo holidays that riddle certain parts of the calendar.  In Bangkok this time, we observed the flooding preparations (sandbags, new concrete mini-walls in front of shops), and I probably had the best bowl of ramen since my last trip to Japan two years ago. I also scored a pair of yellow Worishofer-esque clog/sandals.

3. I started taking cyclos around the city, when I can find them.  They are much slower on movement, but I don't know how these men, usually much older, compete with the ubiquitous motor bike operators. I associate cyclos with Yangon, Burma.  One memory I have is of riding around one in the city after sunset, pitch black because of the common black-outs, the high-pitched cyclo bell ringing, cutting through the dark.

4. I really hate farewell parties.  

5.  I picked up my SFS Circle Top at the post office. It arrived in Cambodia from San Francisco in less than 1 week, although it took the Cambo post system some time to inform me.  Score 1 for the US Post.  The top is airy, the print is lovely.  

6. In one month, I travel home.  Wow.

365 days, week #41

A week in Thailand. Visiting and talking with contract farmers. Learning from Thai and Laotian sugar farmers, academics, NGOs, and other international and local lawyers working on environmental and human rights issues. A crucial exchange of stories.  Meals in a sacred shine, which once served as a communist base.  So much sticky rice, som tam (papaya salad), and Thai iced tea!  Long car rides in the dark.  Avoiding the floods.  A press conference in Bangkok. An afternoon wandering off the Siam exit on BTS. 

365 days, weeks #26-27

I finally have some time to catch up on blogging and to read my favorite blogs. The past two weeks have been an intense, stressful, wonderful blur. Nearly a week in Kuala Lumpur, I managed to get my Kazakhstan visa after 4 visits to the embassy and 5 phone calls to the consulate.

While in Kuala Lumpur, I made a final stop at Topshop and waved farewell (for now) to Ethan before jumping on a plane to Phnom Penh, where I then packed up for a research trip to Sihanoukville, the community that, in many ways, spurred my work on this project nearly a year ago. This trip, despite the abundance of post-work evenings spent eating barbequed seafood on the beach, despite the bright orange sunsets, was the toughest yet. There were disagreements among the team, and my role shifted quickly and repeatedly from leader to diplomat, and back.

The morning after we completed the field research we were on a minibus to Kep and Chamcar Bei for a wedding in the country. We followed a bumpy dirt road into the rural countryside for 30+ minutes until we reached a small house tucked away in the middle of nowhere. The entire scene was surreal, the green backdrop and wooden home reminiscent of the Italian countryside, except there was a giant elephant there and lots of Cambodian dancing. The whole wedding, a veritable Who's Who of human and land rights academics and lawyers in the region, lasted until the evening.

And the next morning, I left for Koh Kong to celebrate my friend Dom's birthday. More on that later.

365 days, week #18.

Poipet. I spent Thanksgiving last year in this seedy border town. I usually can find some pleasure in most places I visit, but this city may be one of the few exceptions.

The day after I arrived back from Koh Kong, I was back on a bus to this town. Our team spent the week there. These were long, tiring days. We baked under the unforgiving May heat, finding temporary relief in the occasional short showers that cooled temperatures, but also exacerbated some of the unsanitary conditions in these villages. This was a week of talking -- talking to affected households to learn about the impacts of the ADB-funded Railway Rehabilitation Project, talking to widows, talking to a mother of ten children, who fears her family will not have a home to move to, talking to people dismantling their homes.

Again, I'm afraid this local grievance mechanism appears to be broken. Deeply impoverished, people in these communities are generally afraid to complain. That's just Cambodia. Overt coercion and, in the absence of that, a general culture of fear of complaining against "the powerful" abounds. And again, as in other communities, many people cannot read or write, let alone draft complaints and access mechanisms created for recourse.

An impromptu legal aid clinic/training took a few of our evenings. We worked not in the villages, but in our hotel rooms, where those brave enough to lodge dissent shuffled in and out of air-conditioned carpeted rooms, in the hopes that they could pore over their words on paper with the help of a friend, a father, or a daughter who could write.

But, there were other good moments. The children. They run barefoot on the ground in these slums, amongst a trickle of dogs, motorbikes and bicycling children. One stole cookies from my bag. But that's fine -- I eat too many Bonne Maman treats anyway. Their laughs and smiles are infectious.

365 days, week #17.

Chances are you've never heard of the Cardamom Mountains, or of Koh Kong province. Until recently, I had never registered these places, even though I live in Cambodia. Even though the Cardamom Mountain rain forests, situated in the southwest region of the country, near the Cambodian-Thailand border, are considered to be one of the most species-rich natural habitats in the entire Southeast Asian region, home to Asian elephants -- and, unsurprisingly, the subject of several land disputes involving encroaching mining companies and sugar plantations.

Ethan and I visited the region for the extended weekend. (Note: In April and May, the calendar is riddled with Cambodian holidays.) What unfolded before our eyes on the bus ride was mountainous scenery, dense and green, as far out as the eye could see. (Note: Must spend more time in this region.)

Some pictures:

1. We visited a mangrove forest and allowed ourselves to get lost.

2. The bathroom in the mangrove forest.

3. Ants, more mangrove forest.

4. Fishing boats

5. Another Cambodian sunset

365 days, week #15.

Not very good at capturing my week. Very few pictures.

1. Sapa, Vietnam. North of Hanoi, accessible via an overnight train to Lao Cai, a town near the Chinese border, and then a winding bus ride up, up, up the hills. Misty mornings, green rice terraces, and colder climates.

2. My daily drink: Sapa tea, a mix of ginger, cinnamon, and honey.

365 days, week #13.

1. It's hot and humid in Phnom Penh. Khmer New Year, marked by a week of holiday, is just around the corner. I am looking forward to leaving the city for a few days, hopefully to cooler climates.

2. While grocery shopping at Natural Garden on Friday afternoon, I placed my basket, full of red bell peppers and radishes, on the floor, and this little guy jumped out, from under the fruit stalls, towards my basket.

3. We entertained at our home on Friday evening, a mix of friends from Cambodia, Australia, New Zealand, Vanuatu, France, Kenya, etc. We even found a grill!! My contribution: I tossed cherry tomatoes, zucchini, bell peppers, and onion in white balsamic vinegar and olive oil, placed them on skewers and sprinkled pepper and sea salt on them. Simple.

What I didn't capture: the crazy week of meetings and trainings, and more talk about the Asian Development Bank Railway Project. There was also a Khmer wedding. And Rachel. Too much. I am exhausted.

365 days, week #12.

Images from my week, so far. To remember.