4
This family took us in, hungry, tired, near hypothermia at nearly 15,000 feet elevation in Tibetan Sichuan, China. We are still thankful.
Monthly Archives: November 2010
So sad to hear of the crowd disaster and all the deaths in Cambodia. In our three weeks or so in the country we found the people to be hard working, cheerful and generally happy despite sometimes difficult living conditions. Like most Southeast Asians, they love their festivals, and the Water Festival is most beloved. This is an unusual occurrence and should not deter anyone from visiting this wonderful country. We’d go back in a minute. เทศกาลน้ำ
I do have an ear wax removal method you can do yourself. Before you shower, fill one ear with vegetable oil and let it soak by lying on your side for five minutes, or more if you can stand it. Absorb the oil with a paper towel when you stand. Shower with a moderately strong stream of warm water into that ear. After a couple of minutes, turn your ear to the bottom of the shower, jump on your right leg and bang your head on the opposite side, gently.
The family on this, approximately 25 long by four feet wide boat, are fishing the Mekong river in Cambodia. They fish from early morning to dark daily. They will find a, hopefully safe, place to tie up for the night. The boat is their home, their only home. The eat, sleep, cook, make love, give birth and die there. The only time they touch land is to sell their fish. In some places buyers come to the river. There are many such boats on the Mekong, in Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam. Sometimes a government tries to take them from the river, but they return.
This is a very old speech. A speech by one of our founding fathers. We hear a lot about these men in recent years. Few of the people evoke their greatness have ever read their writings, know their opinions. The short excerpt from Thomas Jefferson’s inaugural address is just a sample. Follow the link to read the entire address, and please, before you invoke these brave, intelligent men, read their words, don’t use them to divide us.
Oh, did I mention, they were both women of color? These women would not have been running their own businesses a few decades ago, more recently in the South, maybe even now. But here in the West, land of opportunity, they were making a go of it, and enjoying the process. And they felt comfortable, seemed to enjoy, sharing with a White man. I know this doesn’t seem remarkable to many of you, but I can remember seeing water fountains signed, “Whites Only”, and not so many years ago, “Employees Only” signs in Virginia, that were open to us, because we were White.