Just to clarify

All of the pictures were taken by me :) Let me know what you think!

Noticings.

Rachel and I had a short discussion the other day about the eastern and western views on poverty after I had been noticing the line between the poor and the rich is so strange.

In America there is a clear line between the upper/middle classes and the poor. We push our poor communities together and out of sight. Why? Because in America, when we see poverty, we feel like we have some moral obligation to help. And when we don’t, we feel guilty. So the image of poverty is hidden within its own communities so that it can be more easily ignored. If we don’t see it, we don’t have to worry about it. But in Cambodia, there is such a paradoxical division of the immensely poor masses and the excessively rich classes. Parked next to a motodope driver who literally sleeps on his bike at night, is a Lexus. A train, that runs through the poorest slums (where the children’s pics were taken) ran last week hosting a party for Cambodian's elite, sipping champagne as the ride not 6 yards away from hundreds of homes lining the train tracks. All of which are being evicted so that the government can build new property, sending families of seven or eight if not more to unimaginably even smaller homes.

Its strange for instance how in one day you go from this:

Rachel and I visiting some outskirts of Phnom Penh

Rows and rows of these single room "apartments" where we visited a worker for a great business Baskets of Cambodia who is pregnant and recovering from an accident where a gas container exploded in her room, killing the person next to her.

To this:

Elements, a night club in the middle of nowhere

We went for a party and fashion show. One of Rachel's dresses was in the show.

Wait. New York? LA? Cambodia...? Cambodia.

Children.

Today I went with a photographer friend of Rachel's, Nick, for a long walk in the slums along the train tracks of Phnom Penh. Here are some pictures of the children. Full blog and updates to come!!

two children playing with ribbon on a wall.

a proud mother and beautiful son

The most beautiful little girl I have ever seen. Her mother, Khmi, who spoke some english told us her father is Indian.

This little girl's adult teeth are rotting before they even have the chance to grow in.

Notice how well she accessorizes...

oh yeah... and these are fried crickets. And I ate one.... salty.

In transit.

So as you read, the plan: leave Siem Reap last Saturday to come to Phnom Penh for Rachel’s friends wedding. So we bought our bus tickets on Friday night and headed back to Smiley’s (the guest house.) Not too long after we had been down in the garden checking our e-mails (getting eaten alive by bugs…not so good) that I wasn’t feeling too too great to I went up to go to bed. Long night short. I got really really sick and spent the whole night with my head in the toilet. Good fun. So after a night of no sleep at all, Rachel and I decided that since catching the bus was fairly simple and she really needed to be at the wedding, that I would spend another day resting and head back on Sunday. But while Rachel was packing, she suddenly fell sick with what seemed to be the same thing!! Oh no!! So we both spent the entire day in bed. sad face. I actually did not leave the room for over 24 hours. Saaaad face!! We are still not exactly sure what it was, could have been food, but unlikely because we can only eaten at places where we knew the food was clean... So I’m guessing it was an accumulation of different things? Anyways, SUNDAY we finally got on the bus and headed to Phnom Penh. The bus is a really funny experience. Pretty standard used coach-type bus, much like the fung wah, 6 bumpy hours. BUT the really special part, is that they play these aaaaaamazing Khmer music videos…. The entire. Time. All super cheesy, emo khmer music, always with a story video of this prince who falls in love with a poor Cambodian peasant and he saves her from poverty. It’s quality stuff. They were only interrupted for about an hour an a half, when we were lucky enough to get a really terrible Chinese kung fu zombie movie!!! It was awesome… I’m going to try and track down some music vids to bring home… I think VoCals will especially enjoy ;) Finally got to Phnom Penh. Hot hot hot. More to come…