RETREAT!

This weekend has been an in-country retreat for orientation and getting to know the team. We're in the coastal town of Kep. I've never been here, so it's refreshing to be in a place in Cambodia that's new and different.

It's also beautiful. Kep is the least disturbed town I've been to in Cambodia since 2002. The absence of development and things western makes it feel like you're genuinely in the middle of nowhere. It also provides a nice perspective for Phnom Penh - as overwhelming as it may seem at times it's way more convenient than living in the jungle.

Speaking of Jungle. I've been getting to know the natives. For a full photo record of my encounters check out the MY PHOTO GALLERIES link to the right. Here is one of them. This guy to the left lived in my room for a day. We hung out for a bit, took some photos... I named him Buster.

Other roomies included a tarantula behind the toilet, a giant gecko in the thatch roof, and 8 inch long milipedes - or millipedes - however you spell it.


So our in-country orientation has been fairly productive as far as getting to know eachother and realizing where we'll be going as a team this year. Ben, Andrea and I constitute the team at the National Polytechnique Institue of Cambodia. We discussed some avenues for connecting at the school and for reaching out to our students.

Mostly, this weekend has been good as a time to relax and take a breath from city life (and smog) and just chill. I like Kep better than other parts of the coast I've visited here for the simple reason that it's remote; you don't find much of that anymore, and it's a much-appreciated quality for this Southern guy.