Sak Saum at last!

Ok, I promised, so now I aim to deliver. I hope this post does Sak Saum justice.

Thanks for waiting on this one.

Well, lets start with the basics. Sak Saum means 'dignity' in Khmai. This word was chosen carefully, as it's truly meant to fit the heart of what this ministry does. You see, Sak Saum exists to help women who have been abused, exploited, or even trafficked. Their goal is to see these women, and their dignity and value, restored.

Everyone is incredibly friendly here. I didn't even get laughed at!

How does that work? Well, remember the spinning wheel I showed you in the last post? Right. I told you I saw freedom there.

Well, that's the quick version. The full version is that Sak Saum rescues women who are at-risk, or who have already been the victims of abuse and brings them in. They teach the girls how to take care of themselves. They show them love, and God's word, and what it means to be a valued and precious person.

In short, they take the ashes that remain, and replace them with something beautiful.

Those bags, along with many others, are for sale. They are also extremely stylish.

The girls learn job skills as well, including handicrafts. This is where the business side of the ministry kicks in. The girls make handbags, scarves, and other high-grade products, and sell them. Primarily, they are sold in the States, and the money is immediately funneled back to the ministry and used for housing, food, supplies, and the other things the girls need. In other words, they use 100% of the profits to keep helping more women. No, I have the right percentage.

I've got a lovely bunch of coconut... buttons!

Remember, I was raised American. I know capitalism just as intimately as you (unless you were an economics major, in which case I will only pretend to know as much as you). I've seen the same commercials for 'save this' or 'save that' where they pledged to help people... and then the news reports that they use all of 6% of the profits to put money back into the people. This place is very different, and having gone to visit and even do some work there, I can tell you first hand just how dedicated to the girls this ministry truly is.

I can also tell you that the girls, to a tee, are all grateful, and show it in their smiles, laughter, and genuine joy. It's like they are one big family.

Ok, maayyyybe they laughed a little, but it's only because they care!

In the future, as I spend more time with them, I will tell you their names, and their stories, perhaps.

What I can tell you, is that they have all suffered in one way or another, and many are still at risk to be sucked back into a bad situation.

How bad? Ok, this one I know I've got an answer for!





You guys remember Theavy? Sokun's mom from the last post? She's the National Director here. She's a responsible, careful adult, and one of the leaders - not just someone recently rescued. As it happens, she was also kidnapped not that long ago.

Yes, I said kidnapped. Someone drugged her and tried to hijack her to Vietnam to sell her in the slave trade. That was... scary... even for me, and my heart went out to her. This was about 2 weeks before I arrived, and I hadn't even met her yet. All I knew was stories about her and the work she did with Ginny.

Do me a favor. Her full story is posted here. Go look for yourself, and see just what a miracle it was to get her back. (For those whose links don't work, you can cut and paste http://www.saksaum.com/blog/2012/4/10/the-realities-of-trafficking-an-incredible-story-of-capture.html)

L.O.O.M. - that spells freedom.

 So, what do you think? Nice yeah? I tell you, it's not easy. I see Ginny working very hard to keep things running smoothly. My wife is assisting her now, and I sometimes get to pitch in where I can. Sak Saum is a part of In His Steps International, and is only one of the ministries Eric and Ginny oversee (they both work extremely hard, if you want to be accurate about it). You've already seen Father's House. We'll get to the others eventually.

People Magazine article.

How successful is this part of the ministry? Well, the bags and such are now featured in runway shows in NYC, people magazine, and I think even one of the award shows' red carpet proceedings, but I don't remember which one right now.

More importantly, a lot of lives have been saved or vastly improved.

Well, there you have it! I hope I got the message across on this one. We'll get back to more of the typical posts soon. Who knows - I hear Aidan is itching to take over again.

Just a little bit... different.

Well, today I learned something. Granted, I knew it already, but the thought was made fresh to me.

I started the day helping Sak Saum move a whole bunch of heavy boxes full of handbags to their new center. Yes, I'll get you a Sak Saum post! Next one is the one I am planning for that, ok? Anyway, after lifting just enough to feel kind of manly and strong, I traveled with Jacob to the local grocery store to grab a snack.

Hey! Stop laughing at my spaghetti arms!

The label says something to the effect of 'If you can't read this, why are you buying it?!?'

My wife wanted me to try to get a bottle of her favorite pomegranate green tea (tastes like a melted popsicle. mmmm.). We went to Psat Bayon - Bayon Market if you want English - and I had a look around. That's when I discovered they did not carry said tea (markets carry things at random sometimes, but apparently not the tea today). I didn't want to come back empty handed, so I grabbed an orange-colored bottle, thinking it would be orange or mandarin or something.

Yeah. No. It apparently is buttered corn flavored green tea (note: the manufacturer swears it's roasted brown rice flavored - like that helps or something).

This led me to remember that as much as this feels like home, it's still just a little different than I am used to. ;)

Here, let me give you some examples.

This innocent looking storm cloud is capable of flooding entire fields in a matter of minutes.

Here, we have storms. In Florida, we had storms too, but not like this. During the rainy season, we get weather that is reminiscent of Noah and the Ark. Fields flood... then disappear entirely. Cows swim for high ground, and certain roads require you to caulk the wagon and float across.

What? Oh, sorry. You're right - this isn't the Oregon Trail. Truly, people use big trucks with snorkels on the engines to get across, if they are brave enough to even try.

Siiiinging in the rain....

What else is different? When the rains come, people go out and play. You don't stop a soccer match here due to rain, you start one! It's fun to see such enthusiasm, especially from the relatively dry safety of my living room window.

This ain't your grand pappy's minute market!

Shopping is different too. Here, you haggle, or expect to overpay because you aren't Khmer. The old 'corner store' is quite literally the entire corner... and most of the block as your neighbors all seem to own some sort of business. Just be cautious where you shop. I was careful today to buy a potato snack that wasn't prawn flavored. However, I didn't notice the snack expired some time during World War 2. Pungent, and slightly chewy... don't waste food now. Eat up!

...yep.

Which brings us to Cambodian Cuisine. I think the book says it all, don't you? ;) You'll find a KFC and a movie theater on one street, and the next one down has vendors selling things that were pulled out of the river this morning. They might have even cooked it too!

Overloading is a way of life.

Traffic is... traffic. From live chickens, to the guy carrying combustible fuel on a motorcycle in large quantities, it's never a dull moment out there. Sure, there's stop lights (usually ignored), traffic police (ditto), and nice cars, but as with everything else, what a geeky American thinks of as normal is mixed with the undeniable "what?!?".

Some things don't change though. People are people. Aidan is Aidan. You smile and wave, and they smile back. In fact, they smile brighter, because you just made them feel liked and appreciated (nice one!).

Make a child smile. Nothing unusual about that, my friends.

Ahh, but there are some things that are different in a slightly better way. How so?

What do you see?

Yes, that's a bicycle tire. What else? Yes, that's a loom.

Want to know what I see?

Freedom. Freedom from a life of hard labor, or misery, or being enslaved or abused. How so? Well, my next post will be about Sak Saum, and I'm going to answer those questions for you.

Friends, Romans, countrymen... ok, just some friends.

This is John. Another one of Aidan's friends!

Yes, it is true. Good things come in threes. In this case, three hundred. What am I talking about?

I'm referring to the amount of people that seem to pop up in our lives on a daily basis. :) Ok, I am exaggerating a little, but it does seem the longer we are here, the larger the cast of core players becomes. Let me introduce you to some more VIPs.

Vun - you may remember him from the 'let's run over daddy!' biking incident.

This is Mr. Vun (pronounced voon). He's been working with Eric and Ginny a very long time. He is an honest, friendly man who also happens to adore Aidan to the point of teaching him to ride a bike. Score! I may be Aidan's teacher, but he really does need more than one. Especially since I am his motivation for learning to ride (see caption).

Sokra - like Okra, but not fried.

We also have Sokra. I see him a lot in the church worship band. He's also quite handy around the house, as demonstrated when he came to help me put together a wardrobe. Sadly, I turned him away. It's sad because 1. He's a good guy, and 2. Because when I went to put together wardrobe #2, things went very wrong (think 'Why did someone use a hammer on this thing? Oh, make it work? Sure!). I could have used the help... or at least had a laugh about it together. I also could have used duct tape, of which this country appears to have no knowledge... probably because there aren't many ducts.

Ducks? No, we have those. A guy across the street is raising about 20 Mallards. I'll get a pic for you some day.

Sopheak - A genuinely curious man.

Next up is Sopheak (So-pay-ick). This guy here is one of my favorite people. Why? Well, he's curious!

What? No, curiosity doesn't kill the cat here. I won't really go into the whole cat thing, but suffice to say that a thirst for knowledge is admirable in a country where 40 years ago people were shot for wearing glasses - Yes, just for looking like they were smart. Of course, curiously wandering into a field is not so good, but I covered that in a post that not many of you stopped to read (Cambodian survival guide - use the archives over on the right!).

As I said, curious - about many things. So far, he's had me helping him with his English and we've talked about economics of Cambodia vs. America, and what American produce looks like vs. Cambodian.

What's the difference? Well, American's fruit is huge, but has less taste. Granted, this also refers to imports like Papaya, but really, it's probably better to eat a Papaya the size of your hand that tastes like heaven, than one the size of a small watermelon and have it be a little bland. 'Genetic Engineering' was also brought up in this discussion.

Sorry. I talk about food a lot. I can't help it - the food tastes better here. Cereal - the same brands from the States - even taste good. This, I think, is because you don't see the words 'corn syrup' anywhere on the label. Just natural sugar, and lots of it. Hey, it's still junk food either way, so I haven't gone total health nut on you. Why, just the other day, I had extremely dense and delicious chocolate coffee cake!

Mmmm... cake.

Ok, moving on.

Theavy - mother of Sokun from the last post.

This one's Theavy (Tee-Vee). She's one of the directors at Sak Saum (It takes time! That post needs more than one source! I'm getting there.) and is the mother of Sokun, whom you met from the last post about pizza.

She's a very quiet woman with a grateful heart. She's been through quite a bit, and uses her time to help others and work with Ginny. Jess knows her a little better than I do, but she still seems like family to me.

Rhiannon. Canadian. Canadians are awesome.

Gabby. American. Americans are awesome.

These two are the now-embarrassed interns here. Gabby, on the right, hails from somewhere I haven't asked about yet, and will be with us for several months. Rhiannon, on the left, is a Canadian native. I like Canada, personally. Many cool things come from there, such as maple candy, neat accents, and Wolverine from the X-Men.

What do they do?

Well, so far, they are getting settled in (remember, jet lag... gravel in your head... etc.) and as of right this moment, probably reading about themselves on this blog.

Teaching about hygiene...

...and clipping nails.

Outside of that, I've seen them a lot at Father's House helping with the children's program, and the youth one too as I understand it.

Aidan helped too - by being an example.

What? You want to come intern here too? Sorry, not my department. You'll have to ask Eric and Ginny.  I already have my own intern...

Que? No hablo ingles! Yo quiero Taco Bell...

He's only the size of a quarter, and doesn't listen too well. I'm beginning to think he's not from around here.

Stay off the grass!

Don't walk on the grass! What? No, there's no landmines! It's just common courtesy in a land where there's no other grass.

Well, like I mentioned, I'd hoped to get some shots and wander around a new area. I got to do that just yesterday thanks to Jacob and Noelle (see previous  post 'Who are all these people?'). We traveled down to the river front area to have a nice walk and some pizza.

The name says it all!

So we set out on our little journey with the hopes of some good food, and good company.

Did I mention we were taking 3 very active boys with us?

Whaaaat did I get myself into this time?

Yep! This is Aidan (of course), Aaron (tongue), and Sokun (spelling? not sure yet. I haven't asked anyone). Sokun is a new face to this blog. He's the son of Theavy, which is another person I'll be introducing you to at a later date (yeah, I know, promises, promises... hush!).

Sokun is Aidan's other best friend here. He's a mostly quiet boy... at least, as quiet as you can be around this group. ;)

I had the opportunity to sit in the back seat with them. This was quickly followed by a game of 'I'm a mosquito; try to smack me!' by the boys.

Have I mentioned I love my iPhone? YouTube + iPhone + Disney = no more smacking each other. It also meant I could briefly chat with Jacob and Noelle without having to wait for them to catch their breath.

See? Another best friend. Aidan loves these guys.

We parked in front of the King's Palace. To my delight, I got to see something and smell something I haven't smelled in over 3 weeks... a manicured lawn!

Yes! Freshly mowed and edged grass! What? You think that's kind of boring? Well, consider that the only other patch of lawn I have even heard of here has a high wall around it - a very small, but very high wall. Think like a couple of squares of sod and you get the picture.

Needless to say, we couldn't walk on it. Security doesn't like that, and I don't feel like being told I have to 'pay a fine' (basically a bribe).

Hmm? Bribes are bad? Well, yes, this is true. Consider though that bribes are actually a part of the commercial infrastructure. Almost all vehicles are overloaded to the point of collapse. If there were no bribes, people would have to use 2 trucks instead of one. People can't afford this here, and what's left of the economy would be drastically impacted. Instead, police walk casually to the middle of the road, and people hand them money as they drive past. Simple, effective, and also corrupt. It's not so good for the roads themselves either. Still, don't judge. People don't always know better, even if they should.

Looks like America, huh?

Anyway, onward and upward. We went inside and I ordered a cheese stuffed crust pizza and a couple of sodas for me and Aidan. Jacob and crew went with Hawaiian style, which includes bacon and ham with pineapple, apparently. The breadsticks were served with cocktail sauce.

What? Yes, you read that right. You think it strange? Well, check this out:

There were about 3 pages of seafood related pizzas.

Along with this cornucopia of fishiness, there were also special crusts, such as the ever-famous 'who stuck a polish sausage in there?!?' and 'cheesy sausage bits'. Yes, it's pizza, but it's also Asian. Trust me, I'll never fail to show you the unusual stuff. :)

Who needs YouTube when you have Jacob?

 After the yumminess of the pizza, we took a walk. It was nearly dark out, so we just did a brief stroll, but here the night time is especially pretty.

Can you see the lit mini-cruise boat on the river? Apparently, it's safer to take those cruises than it used to be...

We walked along the Mekong for a bit. The businesses open at night range from ice cream shops to hotels to places you shouldn't go. Gambling, alcoholism, and certain other vices I won't mention (Karaoke bars aren't usually there for singing) are prevalent, but there's still some nice areas to visit at night.

The king's palace at night. It's a small world after all... What? Ok, you tell me you don't see some similarities between this and the Magic Kingdom.

Crossing the street was interesting. I only nearly got ran over 2 or 3 times. Poor Noelle had the stroller, so she had the high score for near misses. Remember rule 1 - I'm bigger, so move? Yeah. I'm not bigger than a moto, so they just keep coming.

MMMMMMMMM!

On the way back, they were kind enough to stop and let me grab a quick souvenir of our journey - chocolate! Yes, it's as good as it looks. I should have gotten some photos of the flavors. I didn't try the ones made from various peppercorns, but Jess had the lime-basil flavored one after I got home and said it was good.
 

He was happy!

Ok, so 'Ryan', you ask, 'where's the human interest part of the story?'.

Tonight's random act of kindness was brought to you by Noelle, who spotted a little boy playing by the river (way down slope... no river rats out tonight though, so no worries.), decided to give him a balloon from the pizza place. He and his mom both were touched by this, and smiled at us big (Tom [tome, like rome] in Khmai).

Well, thus ends this little adventure. Laughter, smiles, and a lack of river rats I wish to you all. See you next time.

A walk through the village...

Don't let their size fool you. They're part of a motorcycle gang. Their 3 year old brother already has a handlebar 'stache...

Ahh, I bet you're beginning to wonder, when, exactly, does Ryan go anywhere on foot?

You did read my bio, yeah? You know... gamer... indoors... kind of precludes using the ol' footsies much.

You can have your blog back daddy... for now!

Alright, alright... so I do actually walk around. Quite a bit, actually. Today though, I had the pleasure of taking a stroll through Saang.

Where my mom thought I was going to live.

We rode down to administer some tests for a computer class Jacob is leading for the children in Father's House. I believe some non-Father's-House residents come too, but i'm not an expert on who's who yet.

The 'what do you mean a test?!?' look is universal, it seems.

This was a lot of fun - especially when we got to test the other teachers. I got to listen to them chide each other and egg each other on, all without needed to know what they were actually saying.

Once that was done, we tested the children. They scored high marks, which is quite promising. What's interesting is that the test called for drawing lines from the English word to the computer image, and the truly dedicated ones were using graphing rulers! I'm going to enjoy teaching here a great deal.




We were briefly interrupted by a small, blonde boy who walked through the middle of the class to stare into the fish tank.

I should mention, everyone here loves Aidan. When we first arrived, I got out of Jacob's truck to a couple of 'Hello Ry-ann's. Aidan got out and was met by shouts and cheers.

It's good to see him happy. :)

I wandered through a construction site... and didn't get hurt! ...much.

Jacob and I also stopped in at the Kairos Center (new building) to check out the computer classroom. It was awesome to see. You do have to be careful to dodge the occasional steel rebar sticking up out of nowhere in the floor, or avoid falling objects or people. I managed to get my occasionally clumsy self through mostly unscathed. There was an incident with the scaffolding, but we really don't need to go into detail on that.

What? Ok, fine. I ran flat out into a thick wooden pole. Why didn't I duck? Sadly, I already was...

One of the nicer homes.

A gentleman named Mr. Vun (sounds like voon) took me and Aidan for the aforementioned stroll. I'll cover Vun in a future post of people, but for now, I get to show you around a bit.

We headed along a nice dirt path through some homes. There weren't any landmines, other than the cow variety I warned you about. We got to meet a couple of people, and picked up some sugarcane juice.





There was an abundance of chickens and cows, as well as the occasional farmer. Vun picked some fruit off one of the trees to show Aidan, but warned us not to eat it due to possible worm infestation.

Life here is always interesting. ;)

Waved to him - got a smile in return.

As we headed back, we of course made sure to dodge the occasional moto, or at one point a large unidentifiable tractor thing.

Affectionately dubbed the 'cowbutt' photo by my wife. I could soooo take pictures for National Geographic!

It was a nice little walk, and as always, I got to meet some interesting people.

Too bad we couldn't snack along the way...

Just hack one down, shave it, and throw it in the fridge!

As for the rest of the day, I spent it doing odd jobs and teaching Aidan school. In all, a good day. I'm hoping to show you some new areas soon, and I still owe you a post or two about this Sak Saum place I keep mentioning.

Oh, right... almost forgot. You remember I mentioned that Aidan hanging out with Mara might actually inspire him to do chores?

Hah!

Looks like I may just be less crazy than you thought!

Then again, I think walking across an island with a metal detector sounds like fun. I'll let you know when I finally get to pull that one off!

...are you ever going to stop looking at me like that?

I learned a lesson!

I took over my dads blog today. Well, it's me, Aidan.

Look! I'm in charge!

I saw a new gecko. It was in my Tah's helmet today.

I put on the helmet and the gecko fell out.

My Tah once had ants in his helmet.

Lesson learned! Look before wearing.

The baby gecko was nice.

I'm cute!

It was veeerrry cute.

It's hot on my balcony!

My daddy is handsome.

My daddy is weird too!













My daddy is nice.

Hard at work.

My daddy did not pay me to say that!