Leah and Jed in Cambodia

Ever since our first trip to Cambodia during our first year in Asia, Leah has been moved to help out the people of this tragic, but warm country. I found a charitable organization called Journeys Within Our Community quite randomly by looking on-line. It seemed like a small grassroots organization and we took the opportunity to buy a well for a village. Leah immediately took to this group and she and her good friend, Claire Miller went to work raising money to buy more wells and help meet other needs of this fine organization. Many of you have helped Claire and Leah - Thank you!

At the same time, there is another organization called Caring for Cambodia that was started by a couple who are part of the Singapore American School community. Many of the students, including Leah, are involved in the Caring for Cambodia Club at SAS. They, also, do great work in Cambodia.

Well, Leah and I took part in a Caring for Cambodia weekend trip to a school that the organization built and sponsors. They needed a fence built, so a group of (mostly) fathers and their student children traveled to Cambodia to build this fence. The work was hard as we had to dig about 100 post holes in sun-baked, very hard dirt with a tool that only remotely resembled a shovel or post hole digger. Needless to say, it was quite hot as well. However, working in the group and seeing all the village children running around was inspirational and we completed the task. Many of the students helped, but they also had a good time playing with the children. The next morning the students returned to the school where they have a "food for thought" program and the local students are given breakfast. It was a nice experience with a good group of people.

When we realized we were going on this trip, Leah reached out to the "Journeys Within Our Community" people to see if we coud meet them. They had profiled Leah and Claire on their website and Leah had been in communication with them. So, on Saturday, we were picked up at our hotel by Andrea Ross, who along with her husband Brandon were the two who started this organization. As a young couple, they came to SE Asia and started a tour business call "Journeys Within". This business has grown and they run tours in Cambodia, Laos, Vietnam and Myranmar. After living and working in Cambodia, they realized they wanted to give something back to the community. Thus they started Journeys Within Our Community. They now are unpaid members of the Board and have a paid Director (currently a husband and wife team). We met Andrew, who is one half of this tandem (see the picture of Leah with the three of them below). In the morning, we saw the headquarters and the new school building they have just built. We were taken by some of their sponsored University students (they pay for University (USD500 per year) for some students and part of the deal is the students have to work some time with JWOC) to some of the villages where they do their water work. They build and maintain wells and also teach the villagers about the importance of clean water, etc. After returning to the headquarters, we walked through another village just behind their building. There we met this family of 6 who lived in this very small hut. Hopefully one of their children will be starting at the JWOC school soon. There is a picture of me with one of their children - this adorable little girl was so sweet. She just jumped into my arms. We had a lunch with the JWOC folks and Leah presented them with the lastest money she had raised (thanks to many of you) with which they are going to buy a GPS in order to keep track of all their wells and other wells built by prior groups that JWOC is now maintaining. It was an impressive group of people and a great day for Leah and I. You can see info about their tour business at www.journeyswithin.com and information about the charity at www.journeyswithinourcommunity.org

Looking forward to seeing many of you soon.

Jed and Leah

More Cambodia Pictures

Cambodia Pictures

"Pearl of the South"

Phuket is Thailand's largest, wealthiest and most visited island. As you know, we have favored adventure and culture holidays over island resort vacations these past two years. However, we had a long weekend and some frequent flyer miles to spend so Evan, Jane and I took a 90 minute flight to this tropical paradise. There is a lot to do, and spend money on, in Phuket, but we decided to stay on the beautiful, long, crescent of white sand Bang Thoa Beach and simply relax.

Jane and I spent a full day exploring the natural beauty of Phang-Nga Bay via a speed boat. The limestone mountains and rock formations were stunning. We visited 'James Bond Island.' We explored active and inactive caves on foot. We went in and around these limestone formations in sea canoes. We ate lunch (and got out of the rain) on Koh Panyi Island, a 200 year old Muslim fishing village build almost entirely on stilts and nestled against a limestone cliff. About 2000 people live in this floating village. There is a mosque, a health clinic and a school, while pigs, dogs and alcohol are forbidden. We ended our day in sunshine on the white sandy beach of Pearl Island.

Evan was sleeping when we left, as he had no interest in sight seeing. No worries though. He slept in, took himself to breakfast, then crawled back into bed with the television on. For lunch he strolled along the beach, light breeze blowing in his face, and found a little shack selling thai curry. Back to the television for "Cops" and a rest before heading to the gym for a work out. He was showered and back in the same bed when we got in at 5:30. Jane and I cleaned up and we headed into town for dinner.

It was a fun, quick getaway with my two teenagers. We all got too much sun, a lot of delicious thai food and a change of scenery from our little island home in Singapore.

Love to you all~
Lauren

Phang-Nga Bay and Phuket

Dumpling Fest!

Last weekend, we were invited over to a dumpling making party. Rosemary Schwartz, who Lauren met on the AWA Sapa trip, and her husband Dave hosted the party. Dave is fluent in Mandarin and has befriended a young chinese man who is in Singapore learning english and studying hotel and restaurant management. He told Dave that he would love to teach him how to make dumplings and it turned into a party! All the stuffings (vegetable, shrimp, and pork) were prepared ahead of time. The dough was all made from scratch as well. We were taught how to stuff and fold the dumplings and they were cooked up in one of two ways - either steamed or pan-fried. The night was good fun and the six couples must have made (and eaten) over 200 dumplings. Yum!

Love,
Lauren and Jed