Don't give up yet

Sorry I have been negligent is keeping up with the blog. We have been so busy every day that I just couldn't find the time. I have put up some rough drafts for now so I can start fresh from today on. Pictures coming soon. Stayed tuned.

Shanghi-ed in Saigon

While checking out this morning I discovered that my tour guide from yesterday Shanghi-ed me from another company. He had charged my hotel for the tour even though I paid for a tour elsewhere. When I showed him my receipt for the tour he took and kept it, knowing that I was not supposed to be in his tour group. My instincts told me this guy was shay and to double check with my travel agent but he insisted I didn't have to pay him anything so I let it go. Anyway, after I explained the situation to my hotel, they took it off the bill.

I spent the rest of the day visiting the remaining sites and eating along the way. My caloric intake fluctuates wildly from day to day. Some days I'm too busy to eat much at all but most days I eat constantly picking something up from various street vendors.

I swung by the art museum which is in a great French colonial building. Outside, but still on the grounds, are commercial art galleries. One that was particularly interesting was called Shades of Grey by a friendly visiting Japanese artist. He had collected tree leaves and painted over them in a solid color. There's something I always enjoy about taking an object and laying a flat coat of paint over it so you can still make out the original, but only after looking closely.

The museum itself had a great collection. It was by far my favorite place to visit in Saigon. The bottom floor was all contemporary art, and all very interesting and creative. The second floor was modern, mostly from revolutionary times and propagandist. The top floor was historical art and pretty limited. It was on that floor that I met Stephanie.

We walked together to the Presidential Palace, through the market and stopping for a delicious fruit smoothie along the way. The Palace is now known as the Reunification Palace. It is a large concrete open style architecture building typically 1960s. After snapping a couple of pictures went to a restaurant Hung had recommended which I now recommend to you as well, Quan An Ngon. It is a restaurant of street vendor food brought indoors. They have little stalls all around the perimeter of the restaurant so you can sit in comfort and watch the different foods being made in a clean environment and all combined into one convenient menu. I would have loved to keep a menu as a dictionary of Vietnamese street food. We strolled back to the post office and Cathedral where I split off to go visit Puoc Hai, the Jade Emperor Pagoda which has no jade and isn't a pagoda.

In a Cu Chi Tunnel

There were 9 of us on a big AC bus to the Cu Chi tunnels, about 30 miles North of the city on the banks of the Saigon River. They are a massive series of tunnels used by guerrilla fighters of the Viet Cong in their resistance to the Americans and the Southern Vietnamese government. If you can find your own ride there, I would recommend going yourself instead of on a tour. Motorbike rental is probably the best way to tour. It is an interesting site but you can see the whole thing yourself in 1/2 hour. The guided tour takes 5 hours and takes you through more souvenir shops than exhibits.

Our tour guide was trying his hardest to sound like a cool slang talking American but he ended up coming off as a total ass. Even after asking him to move onto the next topic and explaining that he was rude and offensive he continued on his homophobic comedy routine. He eventually started in on how much he appreciated President Clinton for lifting the economic embargo on Vietnam in 1995 and that Obama is good too, for a "Chocolate Baby." I had to inform him that President Obama was not, in fact, made of chocolate and was actually a full grown man. Our tour guide at the tunnels was talking about one of the workers there and how much sex she will provide the men on the tour and for what price. Luckily for her she didn't understand what he was saying. They were obviously trying to be personable and casual but I was completely embarrassed that people like them think this is the kind of humor that typical rough and tumble Americans enjoy.

A must see is the War Remnants Museum. It shows in graphic detail the atrocities of the American war and its aftermath. 3 million Vietnamese were killed in the war, 2 million of which were civilians. A lot of the museum is dedicated to showing the horrific birth defects caused by Agent Orange.

What I find very interesting is that the Vietnamese and Cambodians really like Americans despite our very recent past. It seems they are very focused on the present and enjoy our entertainment culture. Hollywood is the best ambassador we ever had.

I met three girls on the bus who were in the middle of vacations ranging from 6 months to a year. I love how Europeans travel. No, actually I love that Europeans travel, how they travel is another story. I can't do the whole dirty backpacker heavy drinking from one cheap tourist bar to the next. We and a couple other guys who were staying at their hotel all went out to dinner and for a couple drinks on a 7th floor rooftop bar. Vietnamese building are tall and thin. They have almost no footprint and are crammed in next to each other so there are no windows except in the front.

Rain Follows Me

The rain was coming down hard as I rushed through flooded streets to catch the first bus of the morning out of town. Just as I sat down in my seat it occurred to me that I saw none of the sites of Phnom Penh, didn't buy any knick-knacks at the market and most importantly, never tried fried tarantula. I had been so busy working that I never got a chance to be a tourist. I should have gotten off the bus and spent the afternoon visiting the city as a vacationer but thought better of it for the rain. It would have been pretty uncomfortable trying to get around in the downpour. Of course, as soon as we started rolling, the sun shined through.

It was a pleasant ride through the country on the way to Ho Chi Minh City. The entire trip takes about 6 hours including a relatively smooth border crossing. The first thing I noticed when we got to HCMC is the traffic. The streets are wide like a modern planned city and are insanely congested with motorbikes. The bus takes you to the touristy Pham Ngu Lao neighborhood of District 1. I found a nice hotel about a block away called the Viet Nghi Hotel on Bui Vien Street, which is the main backpacker drag. It cost a couple bucks more than the others I saw but it is worth it for the cleanliness and comfort.

Zing from the project is accompanying me this afternoon until she has to fly to Hanoi. When we got out onto the street the rain started pouring down. As you know from yesterday's blog, I love rain walks so we made our way to the moneychanger that at 18,000 Vietnamese Dong to the dollar made me an instant multi-millionaire. We looked like two wet cats. Monsoon rains are quite different than what we have back home in the US. The raindrops seem huge and there are a lot more of them falling at once in each square foot. Every time the rain seemed to be coming down at maximum possible volume, it would come down even heavier.

I took it easy tonight. I picked up some Banh Mi, Vietnamese sandwich, and some beef and rice from a cart to take back to my hotel where I caught up on some blogging and watched Monsters Inc on the Disney Channel. I stepped out for a midnight stroll before calling it a night. The sex trade is booming over here. I kept getting propositioned by prostitutes and pimps all along my route. As soon as I got back into my room, the guy at the front desk rang me up and asked if I wanted a girlfriend for the night. I thanked him and declined but I should have explained I still wasn't interested but wanted to know how much.

Shuffle Along

We did our last workshop in the morning. We had another great audience but we planned a little more this time and the result was a somewhat staler presentation. After the workshop we moved to the school to spend the last day we all had together. Back at the apartment we hung out. Anwar discovered that the building had a rooftop that gave us a great view of the surrounding area. We didn’t know how close we were to the river and how many pagodas surrounded us. We stayed up there until the sun set. Just as night fell, the rain started up. I love going out in tropical storms. It’s a rare treat to be out in the rain and still be warm. It’s like a big outdoor shower. I offered the opportunity to go out on a rain walk to the group but Cristal was the only one to take me up on it. We ha a nice walk and conversation down to the river.
We had our final farewell party at the Scandinavia lounge. It’s usually closed on Mondays but the owner, Eric, opened the space up for us. Eric had disovered table shuffleboard at Dave and Busters and seen it in Europe and was hooked. He spent the last 8 months building the lounge. Because wood warps so easily he made his out of long solid polished granite slabs on sturdy wood tables he built himself. The metal pucks ride on silicon beads making it the smoothest game I ever plaed. It’s a lot of fun and the only place to play table shuffleboard in all of Southeast Asia.

After dinner, we meandered back upstairs. I took a few people into the library to show them his amazing temple painting from the ‘60s. We sat and talked about polotics and religon and mythology for a while. It was really great to get an honest perspective from young Cambodians on the Khmer Rouge and hear it’s history.

We played the game, ate dinner over there and did a round of saying what we were grateful for. The most common one was gratitude for having the chance to work with people who were so passionate and caring. Eric observed the round and commented that it felt like a cult. In just 2 weeks we had formed a freakishly strong bond and a deep belief in the goals of SEALNet.

We promised to stay in touch which never really happens, but it might this time. Over the past two weeks we really managed to form a group that genuinely cares for each other

First Seminar, Last Performance

We had over a hundred paying attendees at our seminar. After a quick poll we realized that most of them were small business owners and the rest were either in middle management or planning on starting a new business in the next few months. Even though the audience was English proficient professionals we still had a translator which is good because I have been accused in the past of talking too fast. Our translator was really impressive. He spoke perfect English and was able to translate on the fly and even change some of our answers to be more relevant to the culture.

Arthur had put a lot of work into creating a really good presentation. He did a lot of research and came up with a very cohesive interesting program. We gone over how we would tag team the delivery so one person would talk about a particular point while the other supported. We had a series of cues to communicate non-verbally to et the other know when we wanted to speak, or hurry up or clarify. Since I wasn’t all that involved with creating the material and I didn’t have a huge amount of time preparing I had to improvise a lot. Luckily I am really good at winging it. It couldn’t have gone any better.

Everyone was paying attention and the energy of the room was excellent. It was a much more interactive session than I thought we could have. People were participating, volunteering answers and asking questions. It must have been relevant to what they wanted to hear about because very single person came back after the lunch break. We added a half hour question and answer period when our original three hours were up. A bunch stayed after to talk to us and even take pictures with us.

Cambodia Television Network came in right after we finished our workshop to set up to film the dress rehearsal and stayed to film the live performance as well to be broadcast later. That night was our final Panchapor performance and it was very well attended. We had invited all of our sponsors to the first show so tonight’s show was mostly people who heard about it from word of mouth or the newspapers. What was really great to see was that such a large proportion of the audience as made up of young people, precisely who we are trying to reach. We had quickly filled up all of the seats and any available sanding room. We had to turn away people who showed up late because there just wasn’t any space. I as well as most of the project team and many of the mentees volunteered o stay outside to make space for the guests.

Trent came to dinner with us and on the way home he sang us two hauntingly beautiful Khmer chants. The first one was about offering flowers and the second was of the last words of Buddha. Back at the apartment he translated the Khmer writing on my temple paintings.

Full House and Dengue

We had our first performance. People were nervous but prepared. Before the performance there was a reception where our guests mill about in the courtyard an hear from the students about the different organizations taking part in the performance. The students were also responsible for selling t-shirts, collecting donations, and ushering people to their seats. Luckily that was all these eager students needed to feel a part of the performance but it is a serious concern of Arthur and myself that despite the excellent lessons they learned on leadership from the core tem, this is the extent of the leadership experience we can provide them. Now that doesn’t mean that they didn’t grow from the experience, even the shyest and most nervous students ended up being surprisingly confident when speaking in front of groups of strangers.

I think everyone was pleasantly surprised with how well it all went. We heard the same thing from just about everyone we had talked to that they never saw anything like it. Tickets to the performance were given out free and donations were accepted. We had filled all 400 seats and had many standing in the back. We didn’t expect to collect much money since there isn’t a strong culture of donation but we actually managed to collect about $800.

I was glad to see Trent show up tonight. He is a long time SEALNet-er with a long involvement in Cambodia. He had first come to the region right after high school to study music with his jazz group. He ended up staying for a full year as a Buddhist monk. Kind of a surprising life choice for a white kid from California of atheist parents. He and his mom came to dinner with us that night. They both just arrived from Bangkok where Trent spent the last two weeks in hospital with Dengue fever caught near Angkor Wat. The symptoms of Dengue are high fever, extreme dysentery, a rash all over your body, bone break pain and when you start bleeding from all your orifices they airlift you to Thailand. Considering the ordeal he looked very healthy an in good spirit.

The Storm

A series of events that have been building since the beginning of this project finally came to a head today. Being the day before our performance, tensions were at an all time high, all around. Appaarently there is a typical flow to group dynamics and one phase of that is storming that is when tensions flare up and the team either falls apart or reforms.

I witnessed rushed tones and curt behavior, which I am used to in the (un) professional workplace but seemed so very out of character in this group. I wasn’t there at lunch but I heard the addressed it with each other and it great to hear how everyone in the group is so impressively open to feedback and willing to address their own behavior. Incredible self-awareness.

Arthur and I also had numerous concerns that we brought up repeatedly, from long before we came to Cambodia, with the way the project was being run. It is our responsibility to be advocates for SEALNet when we think that things are going off course. I had resigned myself to let it play out because I thought it was too late to change things, and give up in the face of resistance. Arthur convinced me not to give up just yet.

That night our debrief lasted for three hours and we all laid out our concerns. Confrontation is difficult for me but becaue it came from a place of genuine caring and conern to improve the situation and our relationships it was actually very comfortable and productive. It was a real growth experience for me and I learnt a lot about trust and the importance of building a relationship before diving into things and talking things out in a reasonable constructive way before they turn into major issues.

People are Perfect, Judgement is Flawed

We met with Digital Divide Data, a social entrepreneurship in Cambodia. They were very generous with their time to meet with us for a good long time, tell us all about themselves and hear what we are all about, then they showed us their operations. They recruit the top high school students from rural areas who already have English competency and as well as economic need, teaching them IT skills through a four-year program. The students are put to work while with DDD doing data entry and document discovery. They earn a good salary and the organization uses its profits to build and recruit. They find it difficult to find funding because they are so similar in their financial functioning to a traditional business.

DDD was founded by a guy visiting Cambodia as a tourist who fell in love with the country. He somehow managed to get a meeting with the King and told him that he wanted to do something but wasn’t sure what yet. The king replied that he should come back in one year and he will support him in whatever he chooses to do. That was five years ago. To me this is the typical Cambodian story. You come for a visit, get caught in its magic and want to stay, not to fix it but to help in some way. It’s the only place that I have ever seen that you can make things truly happen in just a few years. I look forward to meeting the founder back in California to hear his story first hand.

There is a lot of potential for future partnerships between DDD and SEALNet. They expressed interest in having their students get training from us and maybe have their managers go through our leadership training. They would also be an ideal partner for our future mentees to work with as the service portion of our program. They could learn a lot about how a successful social enterprise functions and be an inspiration of how quickly things can be moved. There are a lot of possibilities there and I look forward to seeing where it leads. For me this would be great practice in the softer skills of business relationship building.

I have to work on letting people be who they are. Arthur sometimes takes the blame for things that are not his fault. I then get frustrated and try to jump in. I recognize that the taking the blame thing is something I’ve inherited from my parents and I’m worried that if I see it around me I will do it myself. I’ve also inherited the arrogance that I can fix people. What I need to work on is accepting people do things differently than I would and that doesn’t mean they aren’t doing them correctly it’s the way they do things. It will be hard for me, but essential, to learn to stop seeing things in terms of flaws and correctness and accept people as inherently perfect.

Expats and Do-Gooders

One of our goals as project mentors is to be evangelists for SEALNet and use our time here to build relationships with people in the community. While the project leaders focus on their particular mission we have taken it on ourselves to try to talk about the broader goals of the SEALNet organization. We are looking for sponsors or people who may be able to assist in the future. We also want to see who is doing what here as possible partners for future projects. It's a lot of fun, we just get introduced to the most interesting people in town and talk to them about what SEALNet does, what our project is doing and hear about their organization and what it's like to work in the region.

There’s probably no more than two degrees of separation between any two foreign residents of Cambodia. As we met one person, they would offer to introduce us to someone else. Even if those two people only met one it would be enough to arrange a meeting.

Christy works for the social entrepreneur group Hagar. Their office is located in the Swiss consulate because the founder is also the Swiss Consular to Cambodia. Christy, an American, met him while working for the UN in Switzerland and she has been with the group for two months now. They take sex workers and abused women and give them employable skills. First they train them in how to be an employee with things like the importance of being on time and showing up to work regularly. They also have a number of enterprises they can work for to earn a livable wage. Their flagship program is a catering business that serves five star hotels. Their profits are funneled back into the training programs, shelters and medical care. After five years of operation they are already planning on expanding to Thailand, Afghanistan and Laos. We had a great conversation about social entrepreneurship, the different models of it out there and the difficulties in implementing an experimental model.

Directly from Hagar we went over to the Scan Hotel, which is where I had stayed last year. On that previous visit I had briefly met with the owner Eric, who seems to know a lot of the interesting people of Phnom Penh. He’s also the one who introduced me to temple painting. His hotel is really cool with art all over the place and cool professional clientele. He seemed genuinely interested in what we are trying to accomplish and eager to help however he can. He will try to get us meetings with potential resources, I am hoping he will hook us up with a killer deal on next ear’s project.

What Wat is Which

I visited quite a few wats around Phnom Penh. They generally have a similar layout. Most have been built since the end of Khmer Rouge and they are in a constant state of expansion. On the grounds is one central hall, which is raised and higher than the rest of the structures. This hall is where the monks have their morning prayers and is open to the public for special functions such as holidays and weddings. This building usually has guardian Garudas on the roof. There is a slightly less ornate building that is ground level where the monks take their meals and the lay people can pray. Both of these buildings will contain statues of the Buddha. Cambodian temples have scenes from the Buddha’s life on the walls and often ceilings. On the grounds are numerous stupas of various sizes, which house the ashes of deceased patrons, like Christian crypts. Temple grounds can have a variety of auxiliary buildings as well. There can be administrative offices, workshops for construction, kitchens, even lay houses and businesses that ret out space.

As the founding legend of Phnom Penh goes, in the 14the C, Lady Penh fished a log out of a lake and in that log were three Buddha statues. She had a hill built over the site, phnom is Khmer for hill, and a temple, wat, built on the top. The town eventually grew up around the temple. The actual temple on the site was rebuilt in the beginning of the 20h V. It’s just one of the many temple all over the city. 95% of the population is Buddhist and you will see monks in saffron robes, and matching orange umbrellas, all over the city, especially in the mornings as they go on their alms collection rounds. This wooden temple is quite active but y no means the most ornate in the city. There is an elephant at the base that tourists can ride on a quick round of the hill, it looks pretty lame. Also at the base is a very odd huge ground clock with a sweeping second hand. It’s very Disney, especially at night when it glows with neon.
There’s a troop of obese monkeys that hang out around Wat Phnom that live off all the tourist scraps. But the most interesting wildlife are the huge bats that hang off the trees. They must have a three-foot wingspan.

The Beach

Sihanoukville is Cambodia's seaside resort town, about 4 hours south of Phnom Penh. The road to it was in excellent shape, 1 lane in each direction but even and new. Apparently, it was a much more dangerous road just a year ago, with huge craters, no barriers on steep drop-offs and bandits. Now the biggest danger is the drivers. Lanes mean nothing here and the only rule is that smaller vehicles must make way for larger, even if they are coming at you on the wrong side of the road because they are passing someone else. After a courtesy honk from the person wanting to pass, you are expected to pull off the road into the dirt shoulder as the passing vehicle skims by, even if you are on a motor bike with your wife, mother in-law and chickens precarious balanced on the back.

The beach is a popular destination for middle class families, according to the students. But even though it was a Saturday, it was very unpopulated. It is the main sea town with Kampot a new up and comer. Almost all of the tourists were white. The water here is crystal clear and perfectly warm. I would have loved to get a snorkel and goggles so if any of you are planning on opening a business in Cambodia, a sea sport rental or dive shop could do great here, if tourism takes off.

On the beach Arthur had rented a catamaran and taught a few of us how to sail. We sailed off to a nearby island with a small hut on it and one person. None of us could imagine what that person was doing there all alone. We ran the boat up onto the beach and took a nice swim. We had to head back fast because a lighting storm was rolling in and it probably wouldn't be such a good idea to be out in the flat ocean with a big metal mast jutting up above us.

That afternoon a red soupy mix, about a foot wide down the length of the shore, rolled in. It looked like seaweed or plankton but when you scoop some up you see it's actually masses of tiny clear shrimp twitching and jumping, the red coming from the color of their eyes. I don't know if it was because of the storm or if it just happens every afternoon. If you stand amongst them you feel their tiny hard bodies bumping up against your feet and ankles like little tapioca balls. People were scooping them up in buckets and collecting them in scarves. On the way back to town we saw them being crushed in huge vats with wooden mallets. I think they were making the fermented shrimp sauce I so enjoyed last year.

When Giants Fight

We visited Toul Sleng, the most notorious detention Center of the Pol Pot regime. I had been there last year but familiarity does not reduce the impact this place has. The ghosts of the suffering that took place here are palpable. There's a chilling matter of factness to the place. Here are the quarters, the instruments of torture, and photos of the faces of the prisoners. It's left to you to imagine what it would be like for those in it, and what it would be like if your were there. It's solemnity makes it hard to talk or interact with people. I saw members of my team overcome and had every urge to go over to them to comfort them but the intensity of what you see all around you makes you want to retract into your shell and close everything off.

It is amazing how the ramifications of the stronger nations' foreign policies, past or present, in this region have made a huge impact. I'll post a quick synopsis. We fought a war in Vietnam against socialists sponsored by Russia. The king was neutral so the Americans sponsored a coup. The corrupt new leaders raped and terrorized, as they allowed the Americans to bomb the countryside. That led people to join the communist Khmer Rouge which eventually drove out the American backed government and decimated the country in five years. The Vietnamese came in and ousted the Khmer Rouge and fought against them for the next ten years. During that time, China and America refused to recognize the Vietnamese backed government and instead forced the UN to only acknowledge the Pol Pot regime as the rightful rulers of Cambodia.

American actions create ripples that continue for years. With such great power and reach should come great responsibility and awareness. We are all too comfortable to remain ignorant of the effect of our choices. Just because we have not personally chosen them does not absolve us from the guilt of actions taken in our name. It is our responsibility to educate ourselves on our history and our current policies. We must keep our government accountable to our human ideals.

Business

Today was the day of the first workshops between the mentors and mentees. Arthur and I were unable to watch the workshops as we had other SEALNet business to attend to but it apparently went very well.

The Cambodia Japan Cultural Center is giving us our performance space for 2 nights for the performance and 3 days for rehearsals which usually costs $500/ day at a greatly reduced cost, $300 total in exchange for 2 seminars presented by Arthur and myself. Arthur and I will discuss Marketing for the Small and Medium Enterprise, something we know little about yet, but will pull on whatever resources we can to get enough material to make a kick ass presentation. They expect anywhere from 100-400 people per seminar with advertisements in the local English language newspapers. The CJCC is a governmental organization affiliated with the Royal University of Phnom Penh and funded by an NGO based out of Japan, JICA, that has development programs throughout the developing world.

While I met with CJCC, Arthur went out and got a cell phone for $18, it comes in very handy to have a Khmer speaker talk to your driver to explain and address. There's a strange business model here. Every shop on a block will sell the same thing. There must have been 20 shops in a row selling cell phones, after 20 shops selling flowers, across the street from 20 shops selling stuffed animals near 20 pharmacies. I just don't get how you can make money selling the exact same thing as your neighbor.
That night was our first debrief of the events of the day. We discussed pluses, the things that went well, and deltas, things that we can improve the next time. There was some obvious tension in the group. It was a rough start as very capable people have very strong opinions. We had a second debrief after dinner in which the leaders laid out safe space ground rules. The second discussion was much more productive.

Enter the Show

This is the morning we meet the high school students. We have selected students from the top two high schools in the city who are fluent in English and have an interest in learning about the arts. Over 50% of the population of Cambodia is under 21. Most don't have access to arts. I had asked a group of students what Khmer arts they have been exposed to and one said her mother took her to some shows and another had gone to museums but the rest had cited television as their only access.

The central event of our project is two performances of Khmer arts. The performance will tell a story in various disciplines all woven together to fully use the breadth of Cambodian artists. It will include traditional Khmer, fusion, modern and hip-hop dance with master musical accompaniment.

This will be arts performed by Cambodians for Cambodians from various backgrounds. The arrangements for the show have been worked on since 2007 by Zoe and Hok. The students will attend workshops to explore leadership skills and participate in the promotion of the show.

It has been a struggle for the project leaders to find ways to include the team and students in a meaningful way that allows them to feel real ownership in the program. A huge amount of work and thought has gone into the preparations which leaves little room for people joining for just two weeks. It will be a challenge for the project leaders to open it up and make space for others. I have a lot of confidence in the team already to come up with creative ways to leave their mark.

What a Difference a Year Makes

We arrived in Phnom Penh in the late afternoon. We were picked up by Annemieke, Zoe, Jean-Louise, Ilana and Sammy. We took tuk-tuks back to the apartments we are renting for the trip, near Wat Phenom. It is amazing how much things change here every year. The change from when I was here just 1 year ago is drastic. The roads are cleaner and smoother. There are many more traffic lights and there are now even a few pedestrian crossings. The last time I was here, I only saw one gas station, petrol was bought by the liter in soda bottles, this time I found a few new gas stations complete with mini-marts. The biggest surprise was that all of a sudden people are wearing helmets.

We arrived at the apartment, which is beautiful. The guard rolled back the gate and we walked into a gorgeous courtyard with tall new buildings. We walked past the gym, sauna and pool to get to our two floor apartment. It is serviced which means it is cleaned every other day and comes fully furnished. This is a huge change from last year's accommodations. We have two 3-bedroom apartments with large kitchen, dining room, living room and two bathrooms. What is really great about this place is that it they managed to get it for $9 per night.

I met the rest of the team today. This year we have a much smaller group than usual. The people in this group are amazing. They are already very accomplished and well traveled. They will be an interesting group to work with.

Eating My Way Through

I wanted to eat 12 times today, I only managed 9.

Dosa, tea and fruit smoothies at my aunt's place.
Carrot/ guava juice on the sky-train.
Orange juice on the way to the river boat.
Meat on a stick strolling through the fish market.
Coconut at Wat Pho which houses a huge reclining Buddha on splendid grounds. We wanted to get massages at their famous massage school but didn't have the time.
Stewed pork and rice and mango and sticky rice at the 5 floor mall.
Thai iced tea at the weekend market where I bought dishes.
A Thai feast with the family at a restaurant with a bottle of Ridge brought from Cali.

Touristing Like a Local

After planning out our day we headed into the city to meet with my uncle's tailor. My family lives in Banga, the first suburb east of Bangkok. Luckily we are here on the weekend and traffic to and from the city is light. As we zipped down the road you see concrete everywhere. The main highway, Sukhimvit, runs all the way through the city and people refer to their location by the exit number. Ribbons of raised roads supported by concrete pillars cross and follow the highway. The building are also all concrete which is an unfortunate choice for a humid town with so much air pollution because everything is quickly covered in soot.

I want to have a bunch of linen clothes made to wear on my trip so I don't have to wear short pants and jeans would be unbearably hot. For those of you who have ever tried to shop with me you know that I hate choice and give up very easily. It was near impossible for me to look at rolls of fabric and try to decide what I want made and how it should look but we'll see.

My uncle stayed behind to catch up with some office work and Arthur split off to do the temple and palace circuit. While I love tourisiting as much as anyone, there are just so manny buddhas and pointy gold roofs I can see and I saw more than enough last time I was here.

I walked to the nearest sky-train station which wasn't actually ver near but I was able to partake in delicous Thai street food and drink along the way. I was headed to meet up with Pooja who took me to a discussion on the 21st anniversary of the 8/8/88 uprising and subsequent massacre in Burma. Oh, swine flu fear is rampant here so many people are wearing paper masks. One of the fundraising items being sold outside the event were "Free Burma" face masks.

Enough of political discourse we net went to Khao San Road where all the backpackers stay. I felt at least a decade older, six inches shorter, a few shades darker and a whole lot cleaner than everyone there. The point of the visit was to see tourists as a tourist attraction.

I was really looking forward to going out that night with Pooja and her friends. She is super cool and political as I imagine her very international friends are as well. But after a delicious Gujrati dinner that my aunt made for me, I went upstairs to change and somehow fell asleep. I was too tired to make it out when they came for me. The same thing happened the first night I was going to go out last year, and just about any time I plan to go out at home.

Flying in

Wow, that was a whole lot of traveling. I let my house at 11AM Thursday morning and after 18 hours of flying, 2 hours layover in Tokyo, 2 hours on each end getting to and from airports, and a 14 hour time difference I finally arrived at my destination at 12:15 AM on Saturday.

Being the kind of guy that likes to wait until the day he's traveling to start packing, it'll be fun to see what I've left behind. One thing I know I forgot was my electric toothbrush charger. Now I'll have to move my own damn hand up and down like a shmo.

Since my flight was pretty uneventful, I'll just share with you my brilliant jet lag avoidance technique. Through the miracles of modern pharmacology I have adjusted myself to destination time from before even getting on the plane. Alternating sleeping and stay awake pills had me living on SE Asia time right away.

I made my way by taxi to Happyland Villa where I will be staying for the next few days at my Aunt and Uncle's place. It's a beautiful house in a suburb between Bangkok and the airport. My uncle Jayesh is an instructor at a the Asia Gemology Institute. My Aunt Deepa works with developmentally delayed kids at a local school. My cousin Pooja works for an NGO that promotes awareness of indigenous people's and human rights. My other cousin Dev just recently graduated high school and is shipping off to the University of British Columbia. Also at the house are Dadi, the grandmother, and a woman who looks after the house who has been with the family for 27 years.

I'm so excited about being here. I fell in love with the warm humid night that greeted me. I can't wait until I can start exploring in the morning.

Welcome to SEALNet

Here are some questions I've asked myself about the organization I am working with.
What is SEALNet?
SEALNet's mission is to bring service to Southeast Asia and to promote the spirit of service leadership in the region. We strive to accomplish this by building and nurturing a community of service leaders who are passionate about social development in Southeast Asia.

Where can I learn more about the Cambodia Arts project?
http://cambodia09arts.ning.com/
Read this, there is a lot of great information about what we intend to do in Cambodia and why we are doing it. You can also participate with us virtually by reading our blog.

How does SEALNet work?
http://www.sealnetonline.org/about_us/sealnet_model

Where can I find out more about the organization and the other projects?
http://www.sealnetonline.org/

What will Ninad do there?
Arthur and I are the co-mentors for Project Cambodia Arts ’09. We have been acting as mentors to the two project leaders in the previous months as they plan for the project. On the ground we will be responsible for helping them to observe their own leadership choices and options. Another goal of ours is to identify candidates from the core team that may be interested in being project leaders for their own project. The Cambodia-Japan Cooperation Center has generously offered up their facilities as a venue for our two final performances this year in return for two 2-hour business seminars which Arthur and I will prepare and present.

How is SEALNet structured?
Board of Directors – sets the direction of the organization and chooses co-presidents
Co-Presidents – Chosen from the pool of the last year’s PLs to organize and facilitate all of the administrative functions of the current year’s projects
Project Leaders – Propose a project, then organize the logistics of bringing in a team to implement it
Project Mentor – Guide the project leaders and help them grow through their successes and failures
Partner Organization – Each project engages a local non-profit service organization to assist them while on the ground
Core Team – A group of about 20-25 college students from leading universities around the world that create and deliver curriculum and exercises that promote leadership and service dedication.
Local Students – High school students that are open to developing their skills and have an interest in volunteerism
Sponsors – These projects would not be possible without the generous support of individuals and organizations that provide money, time and skills

Where does the money go?
SEALNet is run on a shoestring budget. There are no paid staff, there is no headquarters rent, we don’t throw lavish fundraising parties. All participants pay for their own airfare. Each project usualy costs between $10-20k. Which covers the lodging, matierials and venues for the project. Administrative cost, promotional material, and shortfall funding for projects that did not manage to raise enough to meet their budget are all supported by the SEALNet general fund.

When do I see the results?
SEALNet doesn't go somewhere to dig wells. They don't go there to even teach people how to build wells. They go to a place and teach the next group or leaders how to organize their community to build wells.

Why am I doing it?