It is good to be back on the road, with nothing planned and an open mind to the future. The only problem is that getting out of one’s comfort zone can get pretty uncomfortable. Living a carefree comfortable life for three months in the States convinced me that I was not ready for retirement, however,…
It seemed like a good idea at first, but only time will tell if bringing the kids back together at Wat Opot for the holiday break was the right thing to do… or not. We had a good time together rediscovering our old home. The staff were on holiday leave so we had the place…
Although the residential care of vulnerable children at the Wat Opot Children’s Community has been terminated, the follow-up work with the children continues… but it is no longer under the umbrella of Partners in Compassion-Cambodia. A new Organization has been formed to take over the administration and funding of ongoing programs that assist those children…
With the closing of Wat Opot, some children could not be returned to their families and were therefore placed by Social Services into the care of another orphanage. It is a much smaller operation than we were and the conditions, although not the same as Wat Opot, are satisfactory. We have been putting off our…
Phnom Penh has grown so much in the past couple of years that I now get lost in a city that I once could walk around with confidence, easily identifying my location by looking for one of only a few five-story structures that made up its skyline. Today, however, the buildings below sit on a…
On Monday we were on the road again, crossing the Mekong River at Neak Loeung for the second time in just a few days. I wasn’t sure the girls would remember me after four years… but they did, and we were pleased with the progress they are making. One of the nice things about visiting…
I haven’t gotten out of the house much lately because of the extreme heat, but was given the opportunity to attend a meeting with Social Services and two of the Wat Opot Children who were being placed in another children’s center, because they were not doing well with the previous placement. It was also my…
Years ago, when I first arrived in Cambodia, I would ride a ferry across the mighty Mekong River, to Vietnamese fishing villages on the other side. There were no tall buildings at the time in Phnom Penh, yet the differences between the two sides were drastic. The fishing villages had no electricity, or running water,…
Nightly visits at my flat are becoming more frequent as the kids in Phnom Penh learn that I have returned. Today Mr. Dara and I started the follow-up home visits with the children who have been returned to their families. We spent the whole day on the road but the results were encouraging. Everyone we…
This was the final group picture of the children living at Wat Opot. A few days later Mr. Dara and the reintegration team would begin taking children back to their homeland to live with their families or relatives. For some, the change will be good, for they will have the opportunity to use, what they…