One starfish

Today was another busy divide and conquer kind of day that got off to quite a crazy start. Hilary's birthfamily traveled in from the Svey Rieng province for one final visit. Yoen was here to translate for them at 8 am and after a short visit and receiving gifts the family headed off to the bus station to return home. While it had to have been great to meet her birthfamily and realize how much her sisters really love her and miss her, I think there was some relief for her in knowing that this stressful part of the trip was ending and she can focus on enjoying Cambodia.

The Konicek family spent the day with Leanne's birthfamily out in Kompong Speu town. Deb's notes for today follow this posting so you can check out the scoop from their adventures if you just keep reading.

Yoen drove the Koniceks out to Kompong Speu so that meant that I was on my own to go to the market to buy supplies for the orphanage. Early this morning Yoen and his wife Nary took me and Kaley to the rice market to order our rice for the orphanage and then we were to go buy the refrigerator, but after that it would just be the girls.... me, Kaley, and Nary who doesn't speak a word of English.

Those of you who have donatede to our sendricesendlove project will be interested in hearing about our time at the rice market. The good rice is now selling for $38 for 50 kilos. When we were here in 2005 I think that the same bags were selling for about $15. The inflation and decrease in available rice has been very difficult for everyone in this region, especially the poor. I had originally planned to spend about $500 on food and then buy the refrigerator. At the rice market I told Yoen that I thought I should buy about 10 bags of rice. I asked him how long this amount would last at the orphanage. After doing some figuring, he told me that they need one bag of rice per day to feed the children three meals a day. I have to admit that I was shocked. The ten bags of rice that I was planning to purchase suddenly looked like a drop in a bucket. It looked like a huge pile and I was feeling pretty noble about what we were able to do, but then the realization that we were only going to feed these kids for 10 days hit me like a brick. I told him that we needed to double the number of bags to 20. "But you will not have enough for 20" was his response. I assured him that there would be enough for 20, and the rice broker woman who was about to sell $760 worth of rice looked very happy. It was interesting to watch the women in this busy market sifting through the rice to remove any small bugs or imperfections. We will pick up the rice tomorrow morning and then deliver it to the orphanage.

We then quickly ran to the store where we were to buy a refrigerator. For $400 we bought a good sized frost free refrigerator that will look like a modern wonder next to what they have there now. I'm sure they are going to be thrilled. Incidentally, the appliance store also sells motorcycles. I guess that's so you can haul your new refrigerator home on the bike. You wouldn't believe the kinds of things that you see people hauling on motorcyles.... pigs, trees, barrels of oil, families of 6....

Yoen then left the girls at the market and went to take the Koniceks. We went to a market that is primarily frequented by the Chinese and Yoen's wife Nary is of Chinese descent. From the looks we got I know that they don't get many westerners there. I don't think a soul in that market spoke a lick of english, either. First stop was at a meat stall where we bought 25 pounds of dried pork sausage which was strung in links on rope. Very yummy looking. Not. Then we walked straight through the middle of the market to get to a vendor where we could buy most of our other items.

After Kaley's "lost in the market episode" of a couple of days ago, we have agreed that we will avoid the food sections of the markets since that really seems to upset her. But since Nary doesn't speak english, and we were in a pretty crazy market, we had to trot right through the middle to keep up with Ms. Nary. Although I get frustrated with her low tolerance for smells and yucky sites, I was proud of Kaley's willingness to just get through and do what she had to do today. She's not a touchy kid, but she took my hand and let me guide her through the stalls, occasionally actually closing her eyes in order to keep going. We passed one table that contained at least 20 fresh pig heads, other bins of flopping fish and eels, areas where men were plucking feathers of chickens and chopping off the heads, I could go on and on with the descriptions, but I'll stop.

At the stall where we were to do most of our "business" Kaley and I were given little stools to sit on. We did OK buying the cooking oil, coffee, fish sauce, and cookies. We ran into deep trouble when we were buying the requested baby formula and sweetened condensed milk which they use in coffee and tea here. (So this item was really a treat for the nannies.) Yoen and I had agreed on 4 cans of baby formulat (the big cans) and 1 case of sweetened condensed milk which would hold about 24 cans. Nary negotatied the purchase of 4 cases of something that looked like small cans of sweetened condensed milk from the woman. The cans had pictures of a blond haired boy on the front and simply said, "Happy Boy." Using my expert sign language and zippo Khmer skills, I picked up a jar of coffee and simulated pouring the can of happy boy in a cup and then pointed to a baby bottle on the wall and said "Which one?" Trying to graphically show that I was asking if this was baby formula or sweetened condensed milk. The only answer I got from Nary and the shop woman? Cha, Cha. Which means yes, yes. I had some misgivings but we bought four cases of the Happy Boy. After buying two huge bunches of bananas, still hanging from the stalks from the trees, a couple of boys from the market loaded everything we had bought into a tuk tuk (an opened aired cart pulled by a motorcycle. We had to put our feet on top of everything to drive it to Yoen's house where it would stay for the night.

This evening we were in a restaurant and I saw a poster for "Happy Boy," the perfect accompaniment to coffee. Yep, I bought a small boatload of sweetened condensed milk. That should fatten up the nannies at least! Tonight we stopped by the Pencil Market (a strange name for a grocery/multipurpose store) and I bought some large cans of baby formula. Hopefully that will fatten up the babies, too.

By noon we were back to the hotel for a quick dip and then I had an opportunity to have lunch with Kerry and her family. Kerry is a woman I have met on a cambodian adoption internet group list. She has been living in Phnom Penh for 2.5 years trying to get US visa approval to bring home two children she has legally adopted here through the court system. Makes you proud to be an American to realize that our government can invest hundreds of man hours and lots of resources in making sure that these two little children aren't allowed to immigrate with parents who have grown to love them. Kerry and her husband (who is here for a short visit from their home in the US) are leaving tonight for Bangkok for a hearing on a humanitarian visa that would allow them and the kids to return to the U.S. They're not hopeful about the process, but please keep them in your prayers. There are actually a number of Americans living and working here who started the process to adopt kids and then got caught up in the beaurocracy of the moratorium. Rather than abandoning these kids back to orphanages, they have chosen to begin a life here in Phnom Penh for as long as it takes. And we thought six weeks here was bad back in 1991!

This afternoon Hilary, Julie, Kaley and I did some souvenier shopping in the Russian Market. There are lots of knock-off items there (lots of Hollister, Abercrombie, Coach, etc.) and lots of Khmer crafts. Beautiful things very cheap. We took a tuk tuk back to the hotel where we grabbed Marcy for dinner at Friends. This is another restaurant that is doing a great job of teaching street kids to work in the hospitality industry. We had a great dinner including a pineapple chili marguerita for me and chocolate banana spring rolls for Kaley for dessert.

Next it was down to the riverfront area where it seemed that the whole town had turned out for the typical Sunday evening walk around downtown festivities. It was packed. We checked out a nice evening carnival/market where all of the young "middle class" Khmer seemed to be spending an evening. We didn't see any other tourists so of course they were checking us out. Phom Penh is more beautiful than it was when I was here in 2005 and way nicer than in 1991. They have added fountains to the Independence Square area, more statues, and have restored more buildings. They riverfront area is being redone and restored. This truly could be the Paris of Asia, except for the fact that there is GARBAGE EVERYWHERE. It is common practice to just dump your garbage in the gutters and pee anywhere nature calls. It really is disconcerting to see and smell this all day long, but boy the parks are beautiful. Just plug your nose when you go around the corner.

Tomorrow we will make our final visit to the new Nutrition Center. As before, this leaves me feeling a little melancholy. We don't know when we'll ever be back. We don't know what will become of the nannies who took care of our children there. We can't write letters, send emails, or even call to check in on each other because we just can't communicate. So goodbye is goodbye. I was also feeling melancholy about the tiny little dent that we can make in the level of need that is present at the Nutrition Center through what we have raised through the send rice send love project. 20 days of rice. Is there really any value in that? But then Miss Deb reminded me that every little bit does make a difference, and like that story of the one starfish being thrown back into the sea that we have used in the thank you notes for our rice project, the rice and supplies that we are delivering will make a difference. Perhaps in the life of one child. Perhaps only for one day or for twenty days. But it will make a difference and for that we can be grateful.

Hugs to all -

Lisa

Photos: Yoen's wife Nary at the rice brokers with us. Ladies sifting rice at the rice broker. Kaley modeling "our refrigerator" that will be delivered to the Nutrition Center. Julie, Hilary, and Kaley in the rain at the Russian Market.