Emotional Life

Today was good – and bad.(and by today I mean yesterday) It is hard to say that a day spent reading and writing stories of sex trafficking is good. But today was good, because today I know that what I produced was good. I know the fruits of my labor just might save a child from being the next victim of child and sex trafficking. And nothing compares with that feeling.

I'm working at an NGO with an eye focused solely on stopping child and sex trafficking. My job is two-fold: help find new micro-business opportunities for the women in the morning, and in the afternoon I help with the fund-raising and marketing efforts of the overall program. Being privy to the inner operations of this organization is overwhelming and heartwarming. I get to see how hard people work to make this program come together, and I get to see the funds raised and how it is put to work. And I can tell you this- not one cent is wasted.

And now, some completely unrelated pictures of our day to day life here to keep you entertained-

I did my first "load" of laundry this week. See that teeny tiny little stool? I was supposed to sit on it. However, I find Cambodian bums to be much smaller than mine. I fell off of it. The water comes out of the tap on the wall. And the rest you do by hand!

While doing my laundry I discovered we have an amazing terrace/rooftop. Nobody had mentioned it to me before. I predict some nice nights with a good book up here soon.

Dinner! Our meals generally look like this. A huge pot of rice. (I'm so sick of rice. So very very sick of rice.) Vegetables with meat (in this case it looks like seaweed, celery, unidentified thick green veggie, and some beef, a plate of fish that was amazing, and my much despised celery and chicken seasoned with pepper dish. We get that with almost every meal. I hate it. After dinner our house mum always gives us a nice big plate of chilled fruit. i love the pineapple here. It is very different from what we get in the US. And I LOVE jackfruit, which I've never seen Stateside either. We get watermelon regularly too. Interesting fact- I always spit out the seeds. But I've noticed my counterparts (from Australia, Denmark, and Japan) never do. They swallow them.

My Denmark and Japanese dinner companions and friends. They are standing in the kitchen to model for you just how low the counters and sinks are.

The helmet corner.

Looks like we will be getting lemon grass with dinner tonight. (A most tasteless and chewy veggie that I am not so fond of. I blame it for locking up my insides.)

This will only be of interest to my family. I HATE BANANAS. I NEVER EVER eat bananas. Just the taste and texture is enough to make me gag. I just can't eat them. However, the bananas here look very different and even smell different. I have been eating bananas! Warning- the world just may end tomorrow!

Kara and I on our way to work in our tuk-tuk. This picture just made me realize why the back of my neck is so sunburned.