Road trip to Sihanoukville!

So, all set to hear about the awesomeness that is Sihanoukville? After the little teaser I left, I would imagine you are at least a little curious.

It is quite wonderful. Visit already!

It was decided that after 3 months of living here, it was high time we got out and saw more of Cambodia. Thus vacation #1 in what I hope will be a lifetime of family trips. After all, one of my primary reasons for coming here was family.

The road trip from Phnom Penh isn't that far. By rights, you should be able to get there in a couple of hours, provided you can maintain a steady clip of 65 or 70 mph... 125 kph or so for those of you joining in from around the world.

Scenic fields of rice await you on your journey to paradise. I'm a poet and didn't... hey! No throwing things!

Alas, it is not actually possible to go that fast here... at least not for very long without hitting something or someone... or both. You are assaulted with a menagerie of slow moving vehicles, people on the wrong side of the road, and cows. What's more, you will occasionally be stopped by a semi truck that decided to park in the middle of the street... sideways, or even by the occasional horde of factory workers.

That thick line of people went back and to the left... way left.

This last phenomena, known universally as 'lunch time', makes traveling difficult.

As evidenced in these photos, unending lines of human assembly line workers flood from a nearby shoe factory, zeroing in on the vendor stalls across the street from work. Of course, the vendors care mostly 'bout the money, so they setup anywhere they can, including on the road itself.




What's interesting to note about this particular factory, New Star Shoes Ltd., is twofold. One, all workers are equipped with nearly identical umbrellas.

They really are nice looking umbrellas.

While this is harmless, and actually a little sweet if the company bought them, the next oddity is something a few of you may find disturbing.

While watching the crowds, it was interesting to note the vast amount of workers stretching from behind us all the way into the compound and beyond bore similarities. The uniforms and umbrellas, sure, but also their ages. The average worker age was probably 19 or 20.

This means a bell curve, to those of you in statistics, ranging from 37 to, you guessed it, 12. There were also a few girls even younger looking than that in the mix too.





Child labor isn't a good thing folks. 10 year olds and 12 year olds should be in school, not working 8 to 10 hours in a hot garment or shoe factory. It's wrong, and probably illegal by some international convention or another. If any of you are activists, feel free to jot down the name of the company before reading further. I'm sure you can find some interesting connections between it and some more familiar shoe companies you know. :)

Welcome to the mini-mall of sacrificial altars!

Other interesting obstacles included a nasty, worn out section of road (trucks are overloaded remember? Smashes the road into something resembling lumpy oatmeal fired in a kiln), and a bend in the path overlooking a scenic... mass of people praying for luck. Yes, there's a spot where people decided it was a prime place to pray for luck on the road and for a safe trip. Why? I don't know, but there's a bunch of mini-temples or spirit houses stretched along the curb, with tourists flocking to take photos, and locals flocking to pray they don't hit the tourists, and vice-versa.

Courtesy Eric Hanson Photography. I really need to get you guys a link. He sometimes sells these photos professionally, you know.

We eventually arrived to the beachside resort town known as Sihanoukville. Due to the expansive and photograph-filled nature of the visit, I'll be posting again about the adventures that occurred inside the city limits.

Until then, keep making those plans to visit, and I'll keep giving you more and more reason to come.

On vacation

Well, we're off on our first real vacation! We're headed out to Sihanoukville to go to the beach.

It'll be a little bit, but I'll be posting a nice little piece on what the beach is like here, and all the cool stuff we find and see. In the meantime, as is tradition, I leave you a nice picture to look over.

A defensible position...

What did you think of the teams? Pretty awesome, yeah?

Well, the awesomeness has only begun!

Singapore team (and a few others!).

Remember I mentioned the Singapore team did a self defense class? Well, as I see it, if you are ever going to visit here, you might find these teachings handy. You also might find them entertaining, which is even better.

Ancient martial artists all know that the secret to teaching great fighting skills is liberal use of the iPad.

They started the lesson by going over some basic rules - be aware of your surroundings, don't go into dark alleys alone... you know, common sense stuff. After the preliminaries were over, the real fun began.

Srey Pea's secret technique - Kung-Fu Fish Lips!

The first lesson, after keeping their guard up, had to do with being approached by someone. Here, if they are trying to take you, they may approach you and try to intimidate you into meekly following them. This works better than it should, and threat of force results in people getting kidnapped, and trafficked or worse.

Trafficking is a big problem here, as I've mentioned before and also shown you with Theavy's story. Girls and children are especially at risk. The girls were quite happy to receive this training.

Some young boys attended too, believing this was more of a Ninja class. :)





To avoid dropping your guard, always turn to face someone who approaches you. Never let them get to your side. Also, if they try talking, keep your hands up as if you were pondering a question. This leaves you a faster response time if they lunge.

That's very interesting sir. What big eyes you have...

Next up, they went over what to do if you are grabbed. If they grab your arm, thrust your arm upward at their thumbs. This will break their grip. What's next? Run away!

I don't think she really felt like running away. It wasn't just the boys who thought this was Ninja class!

If they grab your neck, again pushing straight up is your best bet, making sure you put your arms on the inside of theirs. Yes, then you run. :)

Remember, don't try this at home... unless you are Chuck Norris. Then do whatever you want. :)

Their philosophy was that the best defense is a good... defense. Yes, I know it sounds strange based on what the movies have all taught us, but remember, this is generally a gentle, peaceful people, and they are also not exactly the types to practice kickboxing aerobics or hang out at the gym working on their 'core' or whatever. Most targeted people are going to be weaker, or possibly even frail if they haven't eaten properly (America isn't the only country with self-image issues). Sure, they could attack right back, but it would be like walking up to an elephant and slapping it a few times with a wet paper towel.

Good luck with that. :)

They did teach a few offensive maneuvers just in case. One was to use your hands and arms to meet a lunging attacker. Essentially, if they start to attack lean into it and shove hard. Often this will unbalance the attacker leaving you freedom to run.

Crouching Catbeast, Hidden Gecko.

In many instances, this proved very effective even in practice, resulting in flying hair, and, occasionally, flying people (See my comment about Ninjas).



After a healthy round of pushing and shoving, they moved on to the devastating Rhino Horn attack.


What's a Rhino Horn? Well, as easy as it would be to insert a Kung-fu Panda reference right here, it really is a good move to have in your awesome arsenal of awesome justice (there's your Panda reference folks).

Warning: Failure to think happy thoughts when attempting to fly may result in unexpected outcomes... such as landing flat on Tinkerbell.

The Rhino Horn involves placing both arms over your head and face while sticking your elbow farther out and well, charging.

Everybody was Kung-fu fight-ing.... what? You knew the song would come up eventually.

If assaulted by a group, aim for the leader. Once they are down, the other attackers will flee and leave you to run away without further interference.

Srey Peah's other ultra-effective secret move - the no-holds-barred flying tackle. Um... don't get on her bad side, K?

That ended the session, for the most part. There were thank-you's and congrats passed around, and pillows - or people - picked up off the floor.

Ahh, but you didn't think it would really end there, did you? I always seem to catch a good scoop or angle on these posts, and I happened to pick up one more secret technique from the group that no one else got to learn.

iPhone-fu!

Yes! They taught me the great art of falling asleep while pretending to check email! This maneuver was so convincing, that it took me a full minute and much inner debate before I was convinced the person wasn't really just reading slowly. Amazing... and useful if you want to appear alert even when you sleep!

Well, that's it for now. I hope you never find yourself in a position to need these teachings. Really, I hope the girls and guys from the class don't either. Until next time, whether you are here reading this, or back in your home country, always take time to find a way to 'fight' trafficking.

You should probably leave the puns to me though. ;)

Teamwork!

Never let it be said that living here is a one-person show. For those of you who actually think about moving to Cambodia, keep in mind that I have support teams helping me transition. Eric and Ginny have been there every step of the way for acclimation. My wife and son provide inspiration. You fine folks who read this blog - especially those of you who comment - help provide emotional edification, and of course, the ever-loving hot blazing sun provides perspiration.

That said, the same philosophy holds true when it comes to working with and helping the Khmer. Specifically, I am speaking of the ministry's short-term missions program.

http://www.ihsionline.org/get-started/

You've seen in a couple of my posts that we have teams come occasionally and work with the people here as part of In His Steps' ministry. I'd like to show you some of the things they do.

Denver United team.

Since I've been here, we've had 3 teams come in. Denver United, a team from Hong Kong, and a team from Singapore.

The Denver United team I covered in a previous post. They came and worked with the children - both in Saang and in some other areas. They were a great group, and I look forward to seeing them again.

The team from Hong Kong.

The next team I had the chance to meet came from Hong Kong. They brought with them a very cheerful, open disposition, and a nice camera, which they bravely let Aidan use.

Brave. Really really brave. :)

They came and also worked with the children, teaching them about Noah's arc and having fun. They attended and served in the service the next morning, performing music and one choreographed musical number.

Children's service. They had to freeze like this. :)

As with the other teams, I was very impressed with them. They had hearts to serve, and some of them were quite geeky, which always gets a thumbs-up from me. Aidan in particular enjoyed them, as he was constantly hanging around, trying to take their picture, and admiring the anime t-shirts and chatting up a storm.

I think they made him an honorary team member...

While they were here, they also traveled to one of the villages with Sak Saum to do an anti-trafficking seminar. They were joined by one of the girls from Father's House too. They taught on trafficking, on some common techniques that people use to trap or capture others, and on the dangers of this happening.

It was an honor to meet them, and I wish I'd had more opportunity to spend time with their team. Hopefully, they'll be back again soon.

Noah's arc. If you look close, you can see someone on the ground being covered by the flood waters (blanket)! :)

The most recent team came from Singapore. Their focus was on teaching. They attended Sunday service with us, and then shortly after taught on self-defense. The focus of this class was on teaching women how to safely escape attackers or people trying to capture them. I'll post more on this later.

Breaking a choke hold. The gentleman assisting was also brave... and probably bruised later.

I had the pleasure of dining out with this particular team. We traveled to a local cafe' here that serves breakfast and fusion food.

Cafe Yejj (pronounced "edge"). Pretty good food, but don't make the mistake I did - there's an upstairs that has air conditioning.

I led them on a walk from Sak Saum to here, only getting a little bit lost in the process. We got to talk a lot during the lunch, and while I attended a silk screening class they were teaching. They are amazing and friendly people, and they truly loved coming to teach and meet us. I just wish they could have stayed longer (they left yesterday). They even invited me to come visit one day!

Silk screening class - they taught me a new skill! So awesome.

So, as you can see, it gets exciting around here meeting new people. Follow the link under the logo picture up above if you are interested in bringing a group to Cambodia.

Singapore team. They were posing after the self defense class, in case any of you were wondering why a couple of them are shaking their elbows at the camera. :)

We have more teams coming, which I am sure I'll get to fill you in on. In the mean time, there was one more team that showed up I haven't mentioned...

The dog days of summer...

Team puppy! What? Everyone likes cute puppies. Don't look at me like that. :) In truth, this lil guy actually did show up during the self defense class. He wound up finding a home with Theavy and Sokun. Just remember, if you come here, it's still not a good idea to play with the animals regardless of how cute they are.

I also recommend not letting Aidan hold your camera. ;) But who am I to stop you from being brave and courageous?