Project Red Pin.

 I  have a lot more to tell you about our first night with Tree. But have to take a pause on that. Our entire group arrived and we started the tour. We stared our first day with a visit to the King’s palace. The King is rich and his palace is amazing. The throne room is covered in gold and you are not allowed to take pictures of the inside. The is also a building called the Silver Pagoda that holds some of the riches of the King including gold Buddha statues, ruby encrusted jewelry, and just about every other form of treasure…but alas you are not allowed to take pictures. Our next stop was S21 Toul Slang genocide museum. This is in my opinion the worst place on the planet. I don’t want to relive how it feels to move through such an evil filled place. My feelings are the same about this Highschool turn into torture prison used the Khmer Rouge to torture confessions out of innocent people. An estimated 40,000 people were imprisoned, and tortured at this prison. ...

My last time in Cambodia was in 2019, which was also the last "normal" year the world has had. We have for the most part return to normal. People are back to work, people are back in school, all the hallmarks of normalcy. Unless your work is school...that will never be the same again.  The ways in which the world has changed seem to me to be minimal, people wearing masks every time they sniffle, maybe people more aware of their own wellness; I think these things are good for society. Other things like some of the changes to education have opened up possibilities for people who might not have fit in with the per-Covid system. Other changes to education might not have been so good in my opinion...I'd really like to teach on Fridays again.   My seemingly odd desires aside, I fear that we as a global population have not taken the time to mourn. We went from locked down to back to work without processing what we lost. I feel that this goes beyond t...

My morning started early, much earlier than I would have like. When I wake up early I try and stay quiet, letting my family sleep. If I’m lucky I will fall back to sleep but jet lag usually doesn’t allow for that. When my kids wake up from a jet lag stupor, it’s time for everyone to wake up. We’ve been through a lot of jet lag with the kids, due to our multiple trips to Sweden to see Madeleine’s family. We had a pretty late night, so sleep was something that I thought would last…but no it was. They were hungry and hungry kids will not be detoured, especially when there is a breakfast buffet to had. That didn’t open for two hours. Didn’t matter I was asleep it was a requirement that I knew they were hungry and that I was the key to remedying the situation. Somehow I was going to make time move faster or make the buffet open sooner. Neither of which was worth the sleep I was not getting...I wish they could just continue rotting their brains with their cell phones for another couple ...

So I'm back in Cambodia with my kids a couple of days before the tour starts. Well actually one, but its a jetlag day so it started super early and gods willing it will not be too late...I'm living with a Elsa who is 20, Vincent at 17 and Liam at 15. So no it won't be an early evening.  Flying here highlights to me how weird this planet is. We left on Thursday and basically arrived on Saturday...so we lost a day. The flights were easy. Eleven hours from Seattle to Seoul and six from Seoul to Phnom Penh. This was a day their phones would get really pushed to their limits We came in a hour later than I thought, and when we were getting the kids visas it was a little stressful. Not as bad as last time but the officers didn't really understand my story and were wondering about the kids. In the end it all worked out and the kids didn't get too frustrated with me. There seems to be a baseline of frustration, and they didn't get too high above that.  Tree met us ...