Today was a great day due to the fact that we were able to go to the Buddhist temple. We were able to participate with the villagers and provide food to the monks there. After this, we were then blessed by the monks. They got a bucket of water and splashed us  all as a…

Today’s our last day of work. We wake up at four or five. The monsoon season twists the usual crowing into white noise, and the wind calls to us from the other sides of our doors. There is no way to separate the darkness of our closed eyes from the darkness around us. By seven,…

              Yesterday, most of our time was spent making and pouring 15 individual piles of concrete. We had some small breaks between mixing, and it was great to be able to play with the children. We were standing in the field area between the two school buildings. The children…

Today our groups had the chance to visit two amazing NGOs: Tiny Toones and PSE. At Tiny Toones, we spoke with Short, the General Manager of the school. He was born in Thailand in a refugee camp after his parents fled from Cambodia and the Khmer Rouge. They were able to resettle in the United…

Today was a travel day from Phnom Penh to Kratie.  Thankfully, the bus ride was split up by a stop at Spider Village, a market place distinguished by venders selling cooked insects: scorpions, spiders, crickets, and others. We all had the courage to try them.  Not only did we have the chance to eat the…

Today our SSTS group visited two very emotional areas, the S-21 torture camp and the Killing Fields. Our trip to s21 invoked numerous emotions in the first building of the abandoned school screamed pain. (editor’s note:  the photo is of a contemplative SStS student on the grounds of S21) The building had the beds of…