Coming Soon...

Well, it's been awhile since I posted. It's also been a while since I arrived in Cambodia! Coming soon, for your viewing enjoyment, I'll be doing a year wrap-up post. Stay tuned for more. :)

Aidan will play some music for you while you wait. :)

The King's (?!?) Birthday

Yup, you guessed it! He's not the King of Cambodia, but he sure thinks he is.

What? You were expecting the real king? Considering how many people stop, stare, and try to touch and fawn over him, I think Aidan makes a fine substitute. :)

Ahh, but the adulation of the masses is not the only similarity this lil guy shares with royalty. You see, Mr. Aidan has turned a whopping 8 years old recently. In true royal tradition, we celebrated his birthday much like they do for the king here - with multiple parties.

Look! Aidan in 3d!

We started off with some low-key stuff - taking just him to Pizza Company for lunch (that's 1), taking him and his friends to lunch there too (2), and of course, taking him there with the whole family and a small team (3!). We also had minor celebrations at home with Jess and I giving him tons of gifts. (4) Ginny and Eric had a turn as well, with more gifts following (5).

Why is this important? Well, prior to moving here, we were not 'party' people. In fact, it was enough to simply survive all the things life had in store for us without trying to organize massive parties and get-togethers. With the bullying he was receiving, he also didn't exactly have a lot of friends we would want to consider inviting over. So, for parties, we'd stick to the three of us and a nice solid trip to Disney. This of course made birthdays awesome for everyone. I even went on a few rides - and you've seen my bio. I'm not an adventurous person by nature. :)

Still, Aidan has never had what you might consider a traditional party, with banners, and decorated cake, and tons of screaming friends. This year that all changed!




When asked how he wanted to celebrate his birthday, he rattled off a very long list of activities. Some of these weren't feasible (Hong Kong Disney is a little far to walk, and a 9 course meal of all his favorites in one sitting wasn't very healthy), but aside from the small celebrations I mentioned, one stood out. He wanted to go to the water park.





With his friends.

All of them.

Small sample

All 70+ of them.

More. :)

To recap, that's Aaron, Sokun, Father's House (all), Sak Saum Phnom Penh, Sak Saum Sa'ang, and two visiting team members, Kendall and Shannon... Oh, and the fam of course. :)

Moses leading the captives out of.. no, wait, that's just Aidan.

To say that Aidan was making up for lost time is an understatement. Let it be noted that the idea for a gigantic party is credited to my wife. She is an awesome mother, and she wanted Aidan to have everything that time and mean children had taken from him. She organized this with her mom and a few other key people.

What did Aidan think about all this?

Father's House all made cards for him by hand. :)

I'm pretty sure at some point he cried because he was so happy. We got to bless a lot of people with his birthday, but nobody moreso than Aidan.

A bus full of peeps! No, not those marshmallow things...

Aidan kidnapped Kendall and Rhiannon at alternating times.

Presents from Sak Saum. He uses that thing as a massive pillow.

After the water park, we headed home to some cupcakes and blowing out of candles. Aidan only wanted a couple of people there, so it was just the family and Kendall and Shannon.

Whoosh!

At the end of the day (and the end of the 8th or 9th party), Aidan was happy, full, and content. What's more, another piece of his heart was healed, and the damage caused by the difficulties of making friends, bullying, and issues with schools that just didn't understand him were wiped away. All because someone loved him so much that they couldn't stand to see anything taken from their son.

In Aidan's words (he was with me for writing this part), "Thank you for being kind and generous to me on my birthday! ...and thanks for the good presents! You are always an awesome mommy!"

"When am I gonna get more cupcakes?!?"

A last look behind the veil.

Malaysia...

I've told you about the shopping... the food... the shopping. By now, you may be wondering where the rest of it is. Where is the insightful truths that we're used to seeing from the Cambodia posts?

You are correct. I have been saving those for last. I've shown you the glitz and glamor of a nation whose economy is doing fairly well, but I haven't mentioned anything about what lies beneath the mask. Allow me to expound.

Just as water reflects a person's face, so does too does the people reflect a Nation.

What I've shown you thus far has been more of the touristy side of Malay. This is the part "they" want you to see... bright lights, happy faces, welcoming smiles. There's nothing wrong with that in and of itself. Indeed, we enjoyed spending time in that world and will likely go back and do so again if we are able. I just didn't want to sign off without giving you at least a glimpse of what lies beneath the surface.

It's not always super-shiny :)

Working with Sak Saum has opened my eyes to a great many things, including and especially the suffering of others. You see, a good portion of the girls that are rescued by Sak Saum come from here. They were coerced in one form or another into traveling to Malaysia to find 'work' and then, of course, were exploited or abused in some way.

One thing I observed while there was that this Nation does not place a very high value on women. Men get respect, sure, but women are forced to take a back seat. Jess journeyed into one of the smaller areas of Kuala Lumpur - Little India - and found this out the hard way. Random strange men would often give dirty looks, or make insulting comments about her and Ginny.

Dress code for women - no skin, and cover your head!

I myself could see the attitude as well, even in the malls. Women were forced to cover their heads, both as a cultural rule and as a dress code to work. No, this doesn't seem all that horrible, but think about it. I was in the most anti-antiquated part of the entire country, and these things bled through. Imagine what it's like in the 'real' world.

Better yet, let me give you an example. One day, a young girl is told by her family that she has to go to Malaysia to make money to help pay off the family (read: parents') debt. She travels across the border with promises of good money and easy work. At this point, one of several things happens:

1. She's forced into hard labor working in construction hauling bricks in a wheelbarrow all day long.

2. She's tricked and sold into "slavery" and forced to take on 10-15 "clients" a night.

3. She's forced to work as a housekeeper (read: slave) at a pitiful wage and the owner of the home (read: slavemaster) is allowed to beat her. Hard. This typically results in scars or permanent injuries, making it hard to function in society even if the girl manages to get away (read: ouch!).

Little India. The architecture is always welcoming, even if the people aren't.

What do we do about it? Well, Sak Saum is dedicated to rescuing girls like these. The story examples I'm giving you are real, and are taken in part (sometimes in whole) from the guys and girls of Sak Saum.

The real question is, what can YOU do about it? Head over to http://www.saksaum.org/ and see for yourself. Be sure to check out the To(get)her and blog sections (wait for the banner to scroll to see the link to the blog).

It's worth noting that it was refreshing to see signs written in a language that you can actually sound out the words!

Thus ends our little trip to Malaysia. We'll eventually go back, and I am sure I will bring you all along with me.

If you go to Kuala Lumpur to relax and take in some shopping, enjoy the trip, and remember....

Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain. :)

Malaysia - land of... shopping?

Well, as I mentioned, our hotel was in a mall, which was in a mall, in a larger set of malls. Confused yet?

Stay away from the light!!

Shopping is undeniably fun - as is Air Conditioning, fried food, and not getting stared at 24-7 - but it was time for a break. We decided to travel outside the touristy hotel-mall and head over to see the Twin Towers.

The eye of Sauron... whoops... no, that's Aidan.

No, not the Two Towers from The Lord of the Rings, the Petronas Twin Towers! Interestingly, to get there, you travel mostly underground through a large tunnel system, complete with exits for Taxis to drop you off so you can climb back to the surface. I wonder if they were built by dwarves.... Hmm.

Bright shiny!

Moving on - the Towers themselves are a marvel of engineering, not to mention a tourist trap. 88 stories high, the towers offer the best view in the city. Also, being composed mostly of shiny metal, the towers themselves are ironically the best thing to look at in the city. No, don't climb to the top and crane your head over the ledge to look at them. You can't fly, and I'm not going to catch you.



Here you can come early and get a ticket to cross the Sky Bridge (the thingy in the middle there) or pay 40 Ringitt to go all the way up. You can only stay 10 minutes on the observation decks though - people have offices and businesses up there you know. How would you like a bunch of gawky tourists roaming through your cubicle every day? Right.






In the middle and slightly before the towers themselves sits - you guessed it - another mall! Now, you would think endless shopping malls would get tedious after awhile. Honestly, it doesn't. The shops inside are all unique in their own way, and still very distinctly Asian. In Malay, you have the added benefit of a heavy Indian influence. This means colorful clothing, and great snack foods in the food court! Have some Naan bread and rich coffee while you rest your feet from all the walking. Awesomeness.

No, no... no.

Of course, there are some things I could've done without... ;)

It's like futureworld at Disney in these malls. Really!

Outside the towers, you'll find a nice park with dancing fountains, and scenic photo-ops of all kinds.  Most notably, there's a blond-haired child who is willing to take pictures with you if you smile enough.

Celebrity dude.

We aren't sure why, but the Malaysians and tourists all seemed to think Aidan was a celebrity. The patterns were similar - a group would approach slowly, stop and take pictures of something else, then scoot closer to him. Eventually, they'd muster the courage to ask him to join them in photo taking. This happened multiple times on our journey, but Aidan didn't really seem to care. Maybe he was born for this sort of thing...?

Aidan is way cooler than a fountain. Just sayin'.

The dancing fountains are a nice attraction. Bring a friend, date, or spouse to one of the seating areas, grab a bite from a local cafe, and enjoy the show. There's even picnic-perfect grassy knolls and plenty of birds singing. You'd almost forget you were in the middle of a metropolis...





...well, if it wasn't for the massive skyscrapers and oddly-shaped buildings anyway. Hey, it's still quaint, and would make a great spot to relax!







As adventurous as I am, I found the process of walking through malls to be more cathartic than anything else Malaysia had to offer. It was so relaxing that Aidan and I decided to stay back at the hotel-mall while the others went to a place called Little India - a section of town supposedly known for quaint shops and good Indian food. I'll go into that on the next post. For now, enjoy the thought of visiting here and being able to after-Christmas-sale shop without having to find parking!

 

Merry (late) Christmas!