Blog Post #10: Introducing Cambodia

It is December 29^th, 2010 and as some of you know, my adventures in Europe ended October 30, 2010 and my new unprecedented excursion began in Cambodia (an impoverished country in Southeast Asia). 

The last city I blogged about in Europe was Prague, Czech Republic.  I have found myself strapped on time as of late so what I will do is simply post links to my photo albums from the next cities I visited after Prague.  I provide comments to most of the pictures so essentially it works out to be similar to my blog posts--just not as in depth obviously (simply click on the city to see the public Facebook albums of each destination): Berlin, Germany; Munich, Germany (there are actually 4 albums of Munich); Salzburg, Austria; Venice, Italy; Florence, Italy; San Gimignano, Siena-Tuscany, Italy

 

Cambodia is a country where over 30% of the population lives on $1.25/day—or less.  The country experienced mass genocide during the late 70’s and the effects of this inhumane act are still evident today (as I will explain in another post).  I stayed in Cambodia from October 30, 2010 till December 15, 2010, not leaving the country during that time.   I lived in Phnom Penh and volunteered with an organization known as Banteay Srei.  This is a NGO (non-government organization) that specializes in human rights, community development and community empowerment.  I didn’t keep up with my blog during my stay in Cambodia due to being bombarded by enough activities and events to keep me busy most of the day.  I did however keep notes about what I considered to be important, interesting, intriguing, inspiring and sad; these notes will ultimately help me articulate the experience I received and hopefully give you an idea as to how other cultures live in a world so different from our own. I mentioned that I left Cambodia December 15, 2010 and headed to Malaysia for 5 days before departing to Ushuaia, Argentina—my home now until April 1, 2011.  Before getting into this though, I will explain through a series of posts what can only be described as a life changing experience.