Leaving for Cambodia Again



Leaving for Cambodia for my longest stay…in a while.

I must admit that I am scared. 

I am returning to Cambodia to do some work with Reconnecting Cambodia/DNA Cambodia.  Our mission is to collect DNA samples from as many people as possible from Cambodian population, to help families find each other.  Many have been separated for over 50 years, don’t know if their lost relatives are even still alive or if they were among the millions killed during the genocide.  Others, like me don’t know if there are family members out there…or even who they might be. 

The work is important; to a forgotten group of people and to all the individuals who just don’t know. I know how important it is and am super happy to help in any way that I can. 

I’m also going alone this time…for six weeks.  I haven’t been away from home on my own for a little more than a week at a time for thirty years.  That was when I was adventurous and full of life.  Now I’m a person who isn’t that stuff.  High adventure for me is more along the lines of seeing a late movie by myself and getting extra butter(ish) on my popcorn.  True adventure starts if I get one of those kernel husks…the sort of yellow see-through ones…caught between my tooth and gum. 

I guess I’m most scared about being on my own for much of the time.  I will be working with several different people and will be hopefully interacting with locals as well.  I say hopefully because I tend to be more on the quite side.  I don’t easily put myself out there and I don’t do small talk well…I don’t really to big talk well either.

But I’ve committed to this trip.  I applied for and was granted sabbatical, so I can stay longer and get more work done.  I’ve reserved a room with a homestay family and have begun the process of registering for Khmer language lessons. 

I also have my plane ticket, which I was waiting in line to check in for.  The system didn’t let me check in online so I had to come to the airport early to make sure I got to the plane on time.

Surprise! I didn’t. Or some reason…oh yeah I’m Tony Tessandori, I failed to apply for a Visa.  I didn’t know I needed one.  I’ve never needed one before being in country before. I guess the inconsiderate Cambodian government didn’t inform we.  More likely I did not read the message.

So I would leave as expected.  But I have to say the service of the desk crew at Singapore airlines were awesome.  They must pay hazard pay to them for dealing with goofballs like me. 

I was able to get onto the next flight two days later. And this time I made it.  All my papers were on order and so, I am off on the greatest adventure of my life…

Actually having kids is an adventure, and you know me going to Florida to work with Diving with a Purpose… that’s pretty cool. So was going to Kenya that was pretty awesome too. 

Ok so here I go off on an adventure that is probably in the top 10 or 15 of my life… Next stop Singapore… it’s Singapore or a watery, fiery death. 



 

Comments

  1. Maddie Van HornSeptember 24, 2026 at 12:25 PM

    Have so much fun Tony, you will do amazing! I’m also not much of a small talker either and tend to be a bit more introverted.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Finding Tevy

Image
In my book “The Love of My Mothers’ “, I follow the life of a woman named Tevy. From the early days of her life in Kampot Cambodia, to her starting a family with her husband Sok near Phnom Penh. We see her live through the horrors of the Khmer Rouge and see glimpses of her rebuilt life after freedom.  Tevy is my fixtional mother, made up of bits and pieces of my imagination, from my current vision of what life could have been, some historically based conditions and lastly scenes from my childhood as I would lay in bed, sometimes crying myself to sleep, imagining what she would have been like.  Tevy is the mother I created for myself, based largely on my wife.   I wasn’t trying to make Tevy perfect, but I also had no reason to not make her ideal.  The hardest part of creating her was giving her a reason to lose me with out placing the blame on her.  For those gymnastics you’ll have to read the book. I know that Tevy isn’t real and what she experienced isn’t ei...
Read more

16 + 16 = Suck and 32

Image
​ What’s worse than a 16-hours flight?  For me it’s a 16-hour flight followed by a 15-hour layover.   The fifteen wouldn’t be so bad, except of two facts.  One I did not sleep a wink on the plane, which is pretty normal for me.  Partly because when I fly I suffer from un-yielding leg pain which is only relieved through constant shaking and movement of my legs.  Secondly, if I do start to drift off any unexpected sound, bump or shift in my position causes me to jolt into sudden state of full awareness filled with adrenaline and freezing fear…and I mean every time. Luckily for me, a 400 plus ton flying metal tub full of human shaped meat sacks never experiences unexpected sounds or bumps.   We were also chasing the sun, so behind the window blind was a bright, actually blinding sun. And of course my window blind had a small crack in it that shined sunlight directly into my face.  But the fifteen on the ground…that seems like a good amount of time to...
Read more