Can’t put my head around it

September eleventh. 911. Twenty-three years ago. So long ago. So tragic. Hard to believe that there are young people out there today who weren’t alive on that day.

I won’t be flying today, but I will be flying on Friday the 13^th. I’m not superstitious. And at least there won’t be a full moon.

There are a lot of thoughts and images running through my mind. I watched the movie “The Killing Fields” yesterday and have been reading all I can about that time in Cambodian history.

I just can’t put my head around it. Sure, I was only twelve years old when the Khmer Rouge overran Cambodia and instituted its brutal form of communism. But all I remember hearing about in the 1970s was Vietnam. Shoot, I even wrote a novel about the Vietnam War. So, I was aware of at least some news when I was entering my teens. But it sounds like the Cambodian genocide was swept under the rug at the time. 

Here I am, about to fly halfway around the world to learn, firsthand, about the plight of the Cambodian people fifty years ago. I think of meeting someone my age, who was also twelve years old at that time, and instead of worrying about what they were going to wear to school on picture day, they were just trying to stay alive.

As I posted the end of August, there have been many genocides over the decades. When will the madness end?

Questions Answered

         This is going to be long, but you’ve asked me lots of questions, so hopefully this answers them all.

What am I actually going to be doing on this trip to Cambodia? Is it another volunteer trip? Or just vacation? When am I going and when will I be back? And why Cambodia of all places?

This is a cultural immersion trip for adults over age 50. (We’ll see how it goes, and maybe the next crazy trip I take should be for adults with bodies that feel over 70 years old.)

So, what does “cultural immersion” mean? Instead of just seeing the sites, we will learn more about them and in between, learn about the culture, history, and religion of the country. One day, we’re even having a cooking class.

Our itinerary looks something like this:

Day 1: Orientation and acclimation to our surroundings, a short tour of the capital city of Phnom Penh, which will be our base for the trip

Day 2: More orientation, visit a local market, visit our first Buddhist temple Wat Phnom, watch the movie “The Killing Fields”

Day 3: Visit the Killing Fields and S-21 Prison Museum (this will be our most heart-wrenching day, but a necessary day to understand the culture)

Day 4: Visit a pepper farm, salt farm, and durian farm (yes, the world’s most stinky food), visit the beach on the Gulf of Thailand

Day 5: Bokor Mountain, waterfalls, sunset cruise for dinner and to see fireflies

Day 6 and 7: Travel back to Phnom Penh, rest up, then travel to Siem Reap the next day

Day 8 and 9: Explore the vast Angkor Wat temple complex (the whole reason I wanted to take this trip in the first place)

Day 10: Visit floating village and the Landmine Museum, dance show during dinner

Day 11: Travel to Battambang, ride the bamboo train

Day 12: Visit grape farm, a couple more temples, a cave and watch bats leave the cave at sunset

Day 13: Travel back to Phnom Penh, rest

Day 14: Visit a silk farm, pack to leave the next day

         Sounds exhausting, doesn’t it? But so worth it!

We fly out of Chicago this Friday morning at 12:30! And arrive in Phnom Penh, Cambodia at 11:15 Saturday morning (that’s 11:15 Friday night for you at home, I think). We leave Phnom Penh on Sunday afternoon on September 29 and get back home to Chicago Sunday night. It’s time travel. I can never put my brain around it.

One more question you may have – what organization are you going with? Projects Abroad is the world’s largest provider of international volunteering, internships, and meaningful travel experiences. They’ve been running for over 30 years and have been trusted by over 130,000 participants who’ve joined their award-winning trips.

They run projects on four continents, including countries ranging from Botswana, South Africa, Mongolia, Philippines, Romania, Argentina, Galapagos Islands, and Fiji. If I were younger, I’d love to try some of their other trips, but most of them sound even more strenuous than this one to Cambodia. Please click this link to their website, though, to read more.

Click this link to find out more about the specific trip we will be taking. Oh, and when I say “we”, I mean me and my travel partner Denise. She is a fellow retired CMA from the eastern part of our state and has been to Kenya with me a few times. There is another woman who will be joining us, also, but I don’t know anything about her yet except that she’s from Great Britian.

How did I find out about Projects Abroad? As you may remember, I’ve wanted to go to Cambodia to see Angkor Wat since I was in 6^th grade. Feeling that I’m getting too old for many more long trips, back in January of 2020, I did a Google search of volunteer trips to Cambodia and this one came up first. After doing more research, I asked Denise if she was game to join me. She said, “yes”, and we signed up. Then a few weeks later, COVID-19 bowled us all over and grounded us for the next two years. Last year, my back pain and immobility caused me to cancel a third trip. But here we are, finally doing it.

Hope that answers all of your questions. 😊

Me and Denise in Kenya in 2015

Less than a week to go

Oh, boy. In one week, I will be starting my lifelong dream of visiting Cambodia. We land in Phnom Penh at 11:15 Saturday morning, which will be 11:15 Friday night Wisconsin time. It’s a fifteen-hour flight from Chicago to Taiwan and, after a three-and-a-half-hour layover, it’s another three and a half hours fly time from Taipei to Phnom Penh.

I can’t think about that long flight too much, though. It freaks me out. How can a plane stay airborne that long? How is that possible?

On all the other long-haul flights I’ve been on, after six hours or so, I’m nearly having a panic attack, just wanting to get off that plane. Instead of sleeping, I pace up and down the aisle, looking with jealousy at all the other sleeping passengers.

Why am I doing this again? Oh, yes, the temples at Angkor Wat.

Oh, but now that I’ve researched the country at length, there is so much else to see and experience. The beach at Kampot. Bokor Mountain. The bamboo railroad. Waterfalls, caves, and a sunset river cruise!

Sorry, no pictures yet! But go ahead and Google all that I’ve talked about and then wait patiently for me to post pictures on Facebook.

But maybe not any pictures of airplanes or airports, huh? 

A Really Quick Trip to Calumet

Last Wednesday, I shared a short two-day trip I had made with a friend in July. Today, I’ll tell you really quick about a trip Hubby and I took last month to Michigan’s UP. Our favorite place. But unfortunately, only for overnight.

 

After checking into our Airbnb in Calumet, our first stop was the Cooper Country Firefighters Museum.

Next was the Calumet Theater right across the street.

After we hit The Hut restaurant for dinner, I took a walk around town. This is the old depot. 

What a shame it has fallen into such disrepair. From what I could see through the windows, it’s still filled with character. 

Next morning, I took an early morning walk. Hate seeing a “do not enter” sign on a church, even if it is for the adjacent one-way street.

Such beautiful old buildings in and around downtown Calumet. 

But this was what we really went up north for – the jams and cookies at The Jampot.

And also, this, my favorite park. Esrey Park. It still takes me back to the many trips I made to the UP as a kid.

Of course, no trip to upper Michigan would be complete without a trip to this park. The sign might say that this is Calumet Waterworks Park, but for Hubby and I, it will always be Dino’s Park. 

I'm sure he's still playing fetch and swimming in Lake Superior, without ever getting tired, living his best life in doggie heaven. 

Prayer for Peace

 Lord, make us instruments of your peace.

Where there is hatred, let us sow love;

where there is injury, pardon;

where there is doubt, faith;

where there is despair, hope;

where there is darkness, light;

where there is sadness, joy.

O Divine Master,

grant that we may not so much seek to be consoled as to console,

to be understood as to understand;

to be loved as to love.

For it is in giving that we receive,

it is in pardoning that we are pardoned

and it is in dying that we are born to eternal life. Amen

 

There is nothing more I can add to that.