Yesterday was an amazing day and another that I’ll not soon forget.  We started the day with a trip to a school where we were greeted by a huge group of students, parents and officials. And, they taught us to dance in the traditional style, or, to be more precise, they tried to teach us to dance. The result was amusing for us, and moreso for them. We got to talk to the local comittee that chooses recipients for girls’ scholarships and got to hear about how they handle the process and what their experience has been. Unfortunately there are so many needy girls that not everyone that needs one can get a scholarship, but we got to meet many girls that are attending school because of Room to Read.  The question that we got most often is “why are there no scholarships for boys?” It is a difficult question when you are looking firsthand at a boy that cannot attend school because of finances, but the statistics show very clearly that an educated girl educates others in turn, and that without a program to support girls specifically, female enrollment in secondary school would be far lower.  Many of the girls live very far from the school that they attend, and those that live reasonably close get a bicycle to take to school, while others are offered boarding near the school.  We got to visit a house where a bunch of the girls room together and were greeted very warmly.  They talked about their plans for the future (I want to be a teacher; I want to work for an NGO) but the visit was short because they had to go take an exam.  The girls gave us a book full of letters expressing what their education means to them, in Khmer and English, and drawings.  It was amazingly touching.  From there we went to lunch and then to a more remote village where we saw more girls in the scholarship program.  To get to the village we had to abandon our bus due to the condition of the roads; instead we took a ‘truck’ which was more of a mix between a tractor and a tank. All of us loaded into the back, packed like sardines and proceeded down the road that jostled and threw us around and, ultimately got stuck in the mud. So, we walked. Unfortunately there was not any water apart from the half liter bottles that we were carrying and the weather was extremely hot and humid.  It was a bit painful. When we got to the village though, we had an amazing time.  The girls invited us to their homes and talked to us about their experience in the program and their dreams for the future.  We talked to an 8th, 9th and 10 grader.  Outside we met a lot of cute little kids, again fascinated with digital cameras. I got a lot of great shots of them, but I think that they enjoyed it even more than I did.  We were thrilled to see our ‘truck’ arrive in the village about the time we were ready to leave (and it started getting dark); we were about 17 km from the bus.  Our excitement was short-lived; the truck quickly became mired in mud and stuck, and we were back to walking.  We walked for a long time and were all really tired and thirsty.  A good portion of the group were in flip-flops and they were serious troopers. Eventually we heard the rumble of our newly-freed truck approaching and the timing was good because we watched the last slivers of sun slip away as we bounced our way back to the bus. I have bruises in more places than I care to mention, but all in all it was a phenomenal day.

Today we left our hotel in Phnom Penh and traveled to Siem Reap.  On the way we visited a reading room and had a really amazing time.  As with yesterday, the kids were there to greet us when we arrived, hundreds of them, lining the path to the schoolyard.  We were greeted by lots of local officials, including the government official in charge of schools for the province, the school director, a monk involved in the community and a man in charge of communication with parents.  We then went into classrooms and got to see the kids studying and doing their lessons, and then we went to the Room to Read library.  There was a class of kids enthusiastically reading when we arrived, and we stood at the outskirts watching for a while, but soon we were all interacting with the kids, reading with them and, of course, showing them the marvels of digital photography.  They loved to pose for the camera and then come around to see themselves.  It was a really amazing experience and I feel like we really bonded with them. They all ran out and surrounded our bus as we left, cheering and waving.  I could have stayed there all day.  But, instead we took a several-hour bus ride to Siem Reap, where we will be until the end of the trip.  It was a lon bus ride but we saw a cool bridge on the way and were greeted on our arrival here with a traditional dance and some chilled tea.

Today was an amazing day, with some amazingly happy and sad moments. It is a day that I will never forget. After breakfast at the hotel we went to the Room to Read offices in Phnom Penh and the staff there gave us an excellent overview of their programs and challenges as well as opportunities in Cambodia.  From there we went to see a reading room on the outside of Phnom Penh which gave us a chance to experience traffic here at its worst.  It took us quite a while to get there which was a shame because we didn’t have as much time at the site as we’d hoped.  We were greeted in the most amazing way.  When we pulled up, the school’s students were lined up to greet us, and they placed flowers around our necks and then led us in to one of the rooms where we were greeted by the school director. Walking in really choked me up, it was a very special experience. The school director gave us an overview of their school and asked us about ourselves and Room to Read.  They gave us each a coconut with a hole drilled in it so we could drink the juice (yum!) and some nice little sweet cakes that were delicious.  From there we went to the reading room and some of the students there were listening to a story. They put on a little show for us with a play acting out one of their books and it was adorable. They all had masks with different animals and were running around squeaking and meowing. When they were done they asked us to show them on their globe where we were all from. They would all repeat the name and luckily Colorado was an easy one. Not so “Minneapolis, Minnesota”! We had some time after to talk individually with some of the students and then we went to lunch. We ate at a place called Romdeng Restaurant, which functions as a training opportunity for disadvantaged children. I thought that was really neat, and the food was excellent as well.  We’ve been able to share a lot of dishes per table at all of the places we’ve eaten so far which was a great way to try lots of different things.

After lunch we did some tourist stops, starting with the Royal Palace (amazing!) and then the Toul Sleng genocide museum.  Toul Sleng was a secondary school until the Khmer Rouge took it over in 1975 and used it as a prision.  The former classrooms were converted into cells/torture chambers and it is, I think, the most sad and horrible thing I’ve seen in my life.  Some of the rooms have the original cots and torture implements that were found in the rooms; others have photos of the people that were arrested and imprisioned there, tortured there and died there. It was very, very gruesome, though I’m glad that I saw it because it made a big impression on me. Our guide, Kim, told us some of the personal stories of his family, and how his mother was arrested. It is so easy to take our freedom and our safety from such atrocities for granted.

For dinner we went out on a big boat to the place where the Mekong and tributaries intersect in Phnom Penh.  The dusk was really beautiful until it got a bit too dark and the lights on our boat began to serve as a beacon to every insect in a 50 mile radius.  We were litterally covered with bugs, which made eating a little difficult, but the food was nevertheless delicious, and after a while we all found the darkest section of the boat and gathered there.

I’ve been taking a lot of photos but they are taking ages to upload. Keep checking back here or watch my flickr page (http://www.flickr.com/annedirkse) to see the latest, as they get uploaded.

I arrived in Phnom Penh yesterday a little after 9:00 AM after a full 24 hours of travel.  I was immediately struck by a couple of things about the city.  First, there are almost no tall buildings and the city has a very low-key and friendly vibe.  Second, there are pedal and motor bikes everywhere here, and that really makes me wish I had my bike with me to tour around a bit.  They have us staying at a really nice hotel here and it feels quite different from the world outside, but everything at the hotel is very nice.  I went out to lunch with some of the Room to Read staff and had delicious Indian food.  I was going to do some sight-seeing but I was pretty exhausted after the flight and took a nap instead.  I woke up just in time for our welcome cocktail party and dinner, where I got to meet the rest of my fellow travelers and the local Room to Read Staff.  We had a great  dinner at a place called the “Titanic Restaurant” but in spite of the forebooding name the food was quite good and we got to try a huge variety of local foods.  I really enjoyed meeting all of the local staff and hearning about the work that they are doing.  After dinner a few of us walked down to the night market and walked around, then went for a beer with the Room to Read country director and then crammed ourselves into a tuk-tuk back to the hotel.  Today we get to visit the Room to Read offices in Phnom Penh and visit a Reading room and school, which I am very excited about. Pictures to come…

As many of you know, I made a challenge to myself a couple of years ago that has changed my life. I had been traveling through Bolivia, when what seemed like the simplest question made a huge impact on me. A man asked me: “Do you have a car?” I didn’t have to think about my reply: “Of course I have a car. You have to have a car to get around in the United States.”

He looked at me, wide-eyed, and I understood from his look how much I was taking for granted. That response, which I’d uttered so nonchalantly, became something I focused on increasingly in the coming months. I wondered how I would get to work, how I would buy groceries, without a car. One day I decided to ride my bike the 10 and a half miles home from work, mostly to see if I could do it. I did, and more, I enjoyed it. I started riding both ways, and to the grocery store as well. I decided to see how long I could go without driving, and I still haven’t found the answer.

That simple act of learning to live without something I’d taken for a necessity has given me so much; I am healthier and happier and I see so much more of the lovely detail in the world around me. I’d often lamented that I travel to such interesting places and live in a place that lacks such memorable detail, but the truth was that I was always just rushing through it.

We face, as a world and as a culture, so many major problems at the moment. Our world is increasingly polluted, our health diminished and our financial systems in turmoil. We consume huge quantities of the world’s precious resources: oil, food, and power. And even with relatively tremendous wealth, much of America is in debt; we mistake our wants for needs. The problems that we face seem perhaps overwhelming, but their solution is not in more government policy, nor in any outside fix. We have, and have always had, the power to change the world around us in dramatic ways. We can each take simple action that will cumulatively result in a better world for all of us.

I challenge all of you, my friends, my family, acquaintances and strangers alike, to think about what you really need. Can you walk to the store rather than drive? Take the bus to work? Put up a clothesline? Plant a garden? If, like so many Americans, you are facing financial difficulty, the money you save will help you afford life’s real necessities. And if, like me, you are blessed to have a good job and more than you need, you can use that savings for some good.

This year, my New Year’s resolution is specific. As I write this, I am sitting in a café in Chiapas, México. The café is filled with people like me, people with laptops, sipping coffee, and also with children, circulating among us, selling gum and cigarettes, little ceramic turtles and woven bracelets. I find it heartbreaking, and yet, I think that buying from them out of sympathy only encourages their parents to put them to work. They tug at the heartstrings and that, unfortunately, is the point. I think of my own childhood, by comparison, with a mother that taught me to read before I set foot in school, with a father that taught me that I am absolutely as capable, and deserving of respect, as any man.

This year I am going to donate the money I save by not driving to Room to Read, an outstanding organization that funds the education of children in the developing world by building libraries, schools and by funding scholarships for girls, with remarkably little overhead.

AAA calculates the average cost of driving a mid-sized sedan 15,000 miles at an astounding $9,369 (excluding car payments). That’s the cost of one person to drive; or the total cost for educating 37 women for a full year if donated, instead, to Room to Read.

I ask you all to consider doing the same; not necessarily to give up driving altogether, but to eliminate some of the waste in your own life, to carpool once a week, or take a bus, put up a clothesline, and use the money you save to pay down your debts or, if you can, to help others. Room to Read is the organization I have chosen to contribute to because I believe that education solves so many other problems and because I know that they use the money donated to them wisely, with respect for the local cultures where they work. It is my way of supporting the little girl that is trying desperately to sell me a pack of cigarettes, my way of repaying the kindness of a man who, poor though he was, would not let me pay him for a banana.

If you would like to join me in my effort, you can make a donation to Room to Read at http://www.roomtoread.org/donate?source=PS-AnneDirkse. This URL will let me track donations and I will make regular updates to my blog to let you all know how much money we’ve been able to raise. You can also go directly to the Room to Read website and include the comment PS-AnneDirkse with your donation.

I am going to donate my car to another responsible organization that is very important to me, the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation. My sister has had Type 1 Diabetes since she was 11 and it is a disease that desperately needs a cure. The JDRF is an outstanding organization and I believe that they hold the key to preventing and curing Type 1 Diabetes.

I am so thankful for another year of good fortune, for my wonderful friends and family that love and support me. I am thankful for my job, for my health and for the opportunities I’ve had throughout my life. I am especially thankful for the opportunity to travel, to see other cultures and, in them, to have a mirror to reflect on all that I am so lucky to have.