Project Red Pin.

I have returned to Phnom Penh. Five plus hours from Siem Reap to the capitol city in a 15-seat van. Regardless of what happens, this trip should fun I love Phnom Penh it is a great city, very modern in so many ways that make life easier but also modern in ways that are troubling. All the amenities of a modern urban world from cell phone shops and casket stores to large malls and street food vendors. The city also exhibits the stark divide between; those who have access to materials, power, and prestige, those who serve the powerful, those who serve the servers of the powerful and those who, commonly, through no fault of their own, live on the periphery scratching out a living from what ever is left behind. These levels are part of all urban societies. Being here, I am faced with the fact that I am part of the upper level at least in how I am able to move through this world. As an outsider I am able to go just about anywhere and do just about anything as long as I’m willing to pay...

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...

With full transparency I am writing this post at home.   I have been physically home for three days, but I am still in Cambodia too. I believe I always will be. I feel more at home there than I have in most other places.  I cannot express how good it feels to be surrounded by people who look like me.  For most people on this planet, they get to grow up with people who look like them, stay with the people who look like them, or get to return to those same people even if you visit somewhere where people look different.  It is a big deal to me, and it makes Cambodia feel more like home...I don't feel noticed there...I don't feel out of place and I don't feel judged.  Except for my own personal fashion choices.   Just like my last trip home, this time I learned so much I can't possibly cover it all, but I might as well take a shot at it.  1. My skin feels amazing in the heat and humidity of Cambodia.  I thought that skin is always supposed t...