Chasing Dreams

How many people can honestly say they have chased a life-long dream. Although I wish that the answer is 100%, it likely isn’t. Unfortunately, most people are faced with real life and situations beyond their control. Dreams take a back seat to needs. It is tough to live in a world where most people are living one bad event away from ruin.

I have lived a truly fortunate life; no question.  I have been given, by good fortune, the ability to chase dreams that were until very recently impossibilities.

This time in Cambodia is a one in a million chance for me and I am again through a fair degree of luck able to get out there.

The first and primary being looking for my family. I have already talked about that and although I have not made any major progress on this, the small wheels in my head have been spinning. At time getting traction and other just a wobbly spin.

My dribs and drabs of smart are starting to develop into a plan for my return visit in the spring.

Finding my family is likely to occur two places based on where the DNA is leading me. Kampong Cham where I visited Sambath my second cousin and in Kandal Province where another second cousin once removed is thought to be from. Both are closer to the southern part of the country.

Unfortunately, I may not be spending much time as I’d like in Siem Reap next time. I will be in Siem Reap because I will still be working with Reconnecting Cambodia and that is where the main office is, but the level of my involvement is yet to be decided.

My own personal journey will be finding people who may be able to lead me to my family. For this I “fear” I’m going to have to learn to ride a motorcycle or scooter.  I was going to do that this time, but I was lucky enough to hire a driver that was already working with the team. Next time I don’t think I will be so lucky.

Most the the areas I will be exploring are small villages and towns on dirt roads and paths. Sure, cars can get there but, some places might be tough on cars. And it’s easier to get around on a bike too. Don’t worry, I won’t go fast and I will always wear a helmet…and cape. 

So beyond looking for and finding my family, spending a good amount of time in my homeland, having a strong and supportive wife, having four kids who I can be proud of; there isn’t much more on my dreams list. Maybe being a published and successful author, I guess that’s there. But that will take time and proofreading. 

The remaining things on my list, for some reason involve rodents.

1.        Eat a rat.

2.        Get some one on one time with a capybara. (I know everyone is obsessed with Capybaras now…dog please…I’ve been on the capybara train long before the internet. I wanted one when I was in second grade back in ’82 when the majority planet’s population hadn’t been born yet. I used to have a stuffed animal, I don’t remember what it was, but I would take it in the pool and pretend it was a capy.  I did that for a while and only stopped because lifeguard at the YMCA made me stop…claiming I was not paying enough attention to my kids. What ever capy-lovers gotta be capy’in.).

3.        Meet a rat that has saved the lives of thousands of people.

I check off #1 when I was in Kenya, but also on my first trip home. Both Madeleine and I eat some rat.

If they are seasoned well, the meat is amazing, if not they taste like rabbit, so also good.

Without knowing it #2 got check off on this trip.

A couple of days ago was out riding my bike around the city intensionally  getting lost, which is one of my favorite things to do in a city I don’t know.

After multiple turns, backtracks and some random skedaddling, I was nice and lost. After a time, I turned to Google Maps for a way to get back to somewhere I knew. While seeking the directions, the word Capybara Café jump out at me. I’ve never ridden so fast and followed a map so closely…and tada! I was there.

Now, I could have played it cool, just gone into the café and sat down with a drink to check out the scene…but on someone got over excited and chose the deluxe package. Which includes: a drink, a souvenir post card, access to a swimming pool, a towel, a free gift and…a one-on-one visit with two of the resident capybaras. Oh, I squealed, not like a young schoolgirl (which is a saying I think we should review at some point…who made them the authority on squealing).

Going inside I was delighted to see that the place was decorated in all sorts of Capybara paraphernalia and themed items.

Wanting a lay of the land, I ordered my drink (a red milk tea with sugar, aka: a Thai iced tea, but we don’t say that word because of the war that is still going on).

There wasn’t much to notice other than the fact that I was the only adult male present who was not accompanied by children or some form of a female companion. Must be because it was too early for man rush.

I also wanted to cool off. Bike riding in the heat and humidity of Cambodia makes me sweat like a capybara at a Capybara Petting Convention hosted by me.

I also had to wait because there were some ‘rude’ people before me in line to meet the capys. Rude because they were there before me not because they did anything.

My time did come and oh was it excellent.

What magical animals. I love love love them…dreams do come true.

Number three was not as accidental. I have been wanting to go to the APOPO center for a long time and on this trip, I have the time and the means to do so.

What is APOPO you might be asking. It is an organization that trains rats and dog to detect land mines and unexploded ordnance (UXOs).

The animals go through a two-year training program and if they are successful, they are put to work. These hero rats and hero dogs can clear a field of mines and UXOs much faster and a human team using metal detectors.

The rats are especially useful for this. They are not your run of the mill street rats or French chef rats; they are highly trained African pouch rats. They are too light to trigger the mines (which weigh 2 or so kilos and the mines require 5 kilos to be triggered. They also have highly sensitive senses of smell.

For comparison, a rat and its two human handlers can clear an area the size of a tennis court in 40 minutes, where it would take a human with a metal detector four days. The rats are trained to recognize the smell of TNT so they only scratch at bombs and mines. As opposed to the metal detectors that react to any metal object.

Using the rats, only mines and bombs are blown up saving huge amounts of time; without the rats every metal object needs to be blown up, increasing the time and cost as well as decreasing the safety.

Every piece of land that is cleared can be used to grow food or as a safe place for kids to play.

Even though a lot of land has been cleared there is still a lot more work to be done. There are millions mines still to be removed and an unknown number of UXOs. People are still dying and being injured every year.

Another thing I found at APOPO was a soapbox that needed to be stood on. So here I go. We (the United States) should be paying for this work. We should be involved in this work. A large proportion of the UXOs are leftovers from the secret bombing the U.S. inflicted on the Cambodian people in the 60s and 70s.

We are directly responsible for the bombs. We are also responsible for the mines and the genocide. Yet we have not fixed what we’ve fucked up.

It is estimated that after the war at a minimum 40,000 people have been killed by these weapons and hundreds or thousands have been injured, the majority of these being children.

We own the Cambodian people this.

Stepping down from my box, I got to hold one of the heroes 

And I saw this guy and I imagined I might look like in a couple of years. 

If only dreams could come true