[menu wisdom]

The group of us went out to this lovely little cafe/guesthouse for lunch today [situated immediately across from the Tuol Sleng Prison, scene of some of the most horrific genocidal attrocities that took place in Cambodia during the reign of the Khmer Rouge]. Flipping through the pages listing the smoothies and lunch and dinner specials, I found this quote written on the back cover of the menu.

'Humans are tuned for relationship. The eyes, the skin, the tongue, ears and nostrils are all gates where our body receives the nourishment of otherness. This landscape of shadowed voices, these feathered bodies and antlers and tumbling streams these breathing shapes are our family, the beings with whom we struggle and suffer and celebrate.'

I couldnt help but think how eerily appropriate the timing of finding this quote was.
[This has been the summer of strange and heavily meaningful timings...haha however lame and reflective that may sound].

The name of the place was the boddhitree [www.boddhitree.com] and apparently train their staff from disadvantaged families and situations. The food was brilliant and apparently the guesthouse is popular SO for any of you planning on COMING TO CAMBODIA, preferably in the next 8 months....;)

Today was overwhelming. This morning the lot of us [8 at the moment] piled into the back of a touk touk built for 5 and went to the "Olympic Stadium" [yes, we know that Cambodia has never hosted the Olympic games, but the cleaning lady wearing the uniform with the upside-down emblem of the rings was difficult to convince otherwise]. But we played [or the three scandinavian boys played] football [soccer] with 20 other boys from a slum on the otherside of town. It was way too hot and far too muddy for the score to amount to much in the way of accuracy but one look at how covered Gerbrand and the others where with this bright orange clay has convinced me to get in there next weekend.

In the afternoon we went to CDCC, the site of the second CCH for the younger children. This centre is larger and has nearly three times as many children, many of them having been there for as short a time as 3 or4 days. The children had created an entire performance for us, their new teachers [I've already been called 'teacher', haha, its so strange to hear!] and we're using the show as both a 'hello' to the 6 of us and a goodbye to JC Morley who has been heavily involved at the centre on and off since she graduated from UWCSEA a year ago. I'm not going to go into detail but I think its safe to say that each of us were blown away by the grace and energy and enthusiasm all of the children getting on the makeshift stage had. And not just attention seeking, the energy behind each child's getting up and performing their dance or their song was obviously driven by incredible energy and support by their peers. But it was overwhelming, without a doubt and at points a little surreal. It will be interesting to see how our team 'negotiations' will turn out this morning and we finally decide who is going to teach where. Will keep you all posted.

As for now, I'm going to attempt sleep though I have a feeling the 38 degrees that seem to be filling this house at 330 a.m. are going to be keeping me a little too close a company.

Much love and grace....[and this is the final time I will post this, but PLEASE email me! haha I have to be honest and say that my list of special email receivers is growing quickly shorter by the hour that nothing enters my inbox...consider yourself warned ! ;)...even you mom, haha]